Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
0:00 I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America,
0:17 and to the republic for
0:18 which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty
0:24 and justice for all.
0:26 The first topic is a human resources budget presentation.
0:30 The floor is all yours.
0:33 How long have you been officially on the job?
0:36 This is day seven.
0:37 Day seven.
0:38 And you’re presenting the entire budget ready to go.
0:40 All right.
0:41 Here we go.
0:42 I wouldn’t have done it without my right hand, Dr. Green.
0:43 So thank you, Dr. Green.
0:44 She’s here with me in case we come up with any obstacles I can
0:45 have an answer to.
0:45 So, Mr. Dufresne, I’m going to interrupt the room.
0:46 Roger.
0:47 So, for those watching on TV that don’t necessarily know who
0:47 this is, this is Mr. Ryan Dufresne.
0:48 He’s our new president.
0:49 He’s the superintendent for human resources, and as Tara
0:54 mentioned, he’s been on the job
0:56 for like a week, and already doing a budget presentation, a lot
1:03 of which was prepared
1:06 before you got here, so go down here without the help of my team,
1:11 so I appreciate it.
1:13 So let’s get started.
1:14 We always want to start with our why, so this is a great tool
1:20 that teaches in every classroom
1:23 and carries with every student every day, learns and grows and
1:26 feels like a human being.
1:28 Now, while I started as a teacher, my wife’s a teacher, I’m also
1:31 aware that there’s more
1:32 opportunities for us as a school district to touch students, so
1:35 we included our bus
1:37 drivers and our instructional assistants and our secretaries,
1:39 and they keep going and going,
1:41 right?
1:42 So it’s an opportunity to make a positive impact on our students.
1:52 This is a 10,000 overview of my team.
1:55 Includes everything from employment management, who does
1:58 everything from hire to retire, professional
2:01 learning and development, professional standards, and HR
2:07 management.
2:09 Some of the things we use our budget for.
2:12 Staffing, of course, district drug-free policies, the BPS
2:17 surveys, the annual feedback.
2:20 We even use the salaries that are paid for our employees by BPS,
2:24 but reimbursed back
2:25 by district FDA on the staff survey contract with TNTP, but at
2:31 this time we haven’t renewed
2:35 that policy.
2:36 We’re looking for a better platform that can encompass all three
2:40 parent surveys, student
2:42 surveys, and staff surveys, which do it all under one platform,
2:49 make it make sense.
2:51 I can give this to you.
2:52 I don’t know if it’s too small there to read, but I can give it
2:54 to you if you need it.
2:56 Just going to kind of touch on the big numbers.
2:58 The 1,000 for professional and technical consultants, that
3:02 includes a contract for shredding bins
3:04 and administrative advertisements.
3:07 Any travel that’s done is going to be for meetings directed by
3:12 the superintendent for
3:14 any HR executives across the region.
3:19 We also do drug and alcohol testing.
3:22 We just engaged a new platform.
3:24 It’s called Edge Information Management.
3:27 It’s got a chain of custody form, has a bar code.
3:31 We used to use those carbon copy papers where if you didn’t
3:35 press hard enough, the final
3:37 one you couldn’t even read it.
3:39 This is just an upgrade.
3:41 We’ve also moved to the substitute management system.
3:46 It’s called Red Rover.
3:47 We’ve got some great feedback on that as well.
3:50 Again, we’re trying to move away from a lot of paper-based items,
3:54 bring us back into the
3:55 21st century.
3:58 This slide is going to show the TNTP Inside Survey, which I
4:01 mentioned earlier.
4:03 It has not been renewed.
4:04 Again, the intent is to move it under one platform that handles
4:10 all three of the surveys.
4:13 For professional standards and labor relations, this is Dr.
4:15 Green’s department.
4:16 This is all the people who work under Dr. Green.
4:21 They include everything from compensation to position
4:25 allocations, leaves, retirements,
4:28 things of this nature.
4:31 These are our general fund uses, again with labor relations,
4:36 professional standards, retirement
4:38 leaves.
4:44 This is our budget, which I kind of focus on compensation
4:47 services and is a new department
4:49 this year.
4:51 It’s a new department, but the work’s not new, right?
4:53 The people aren’t new.
4:55 What they do isn’t new.
4:56 We just put it on a new cost center, a position of six people.
5:03 A lot of computer money is up for upgrading and refreshing
5:06 computers because right now
5:07 the ones we have, they just can’t handle the load, so that’s
5:12 what that’s for.
5:13 This is our millage cost center.
5:15 Obviously, it’s under construction.
5:17 We’re still trying to … We’ve just recently hired people for
5:21 this.
5:22 The work will begin there in July.
5:25 The budget is under construction.
5:26 We’re going to provide things like salaries, supplies, computers,
5:29 but of course, we’ll
5:31 be making cost-conscious decisions when we fund that.
5:37 This is the 9420 labor relations.
5:40 The travel budget is going to include our FEN that we go to, the
5:43 Florida Education and
5:45 Gift Negotiators.
5:46 They meet about four times a year.
5:47 We’re really lucky.
5:48 Two of those are local enough where we can just go there and
5:51 back.
5:52 We don’t have to stay overnight, so that’s a bonus.
5:56 Any sort of professional dues for FEN, labor law arbitrators, SHRM,
6:02 these types of things
6:04 are under this budget.
6:14 We also do tuition reimbursement.
6:15 It’s negotiated with the BFT.
6:19 It stays the same whether we use it or not.
6:21 Every year, it’s a negotiated item, so this number’s going to
6:24 stay the same.
6:25 That’s why sometimes you’ll see the numbers will stay the same,
6:29 but the actual usage changes.
6:31 Questions?
6:33 Good.
6:34 All right, so the additional budget request for professional …
6:41 Excuse me.
6:44 For Dr. Green, we’re going to request some funds to deploy a non-bargaining
6:50 salary adjustment.
6:52 The proposal has been submitted to Ms. Lizinski and Dr. Rendell
6:56 for review and possible implementation.
6:58 We can either do it as a phase-in, or we can do it as a one-time
7:02 let’s knock it out, but
7:04 that proposal is in.
7:05 It’s submitted, and we’ll see what happens.
7:11 On professional learning and development, this is Mr. Mike Alba’s
7:16 team.
7:16 Mike is enjoying some well-needed vacation this week.
7:19 I think he’s celebrating his 20th anniversary three years later.
7:24 Oh.
7:25 His 20th was during, I’m saying this right, was during 2020, and
7:30 got delayed, and then
7:31 2021’s still not traveling too much.
7:35 He’s celebrating his 20th anniversary, so I’m glad he’s out
7:38 having the time to relax
7:40 with his beautiful bride.
7:43 They cover leadership training, aspiring leaders training, any
7:47 of the recruitment and retention
7:48 certifications, things that are state mandated.
7:53 Again, what their general fund uses, it’s all supporting
7:58 teachers.
7:59 It’s all supporting teachers, help them train, mentor.
8:05 They also pay for substitutes when they have PD at the schools,
8:12 will pay for substitutes
8:15 for the schools, so we can get their teachers training.
8:21 These are recruiting and retention budget.
8:28 The salaries for these recruiting, we have two district recruiters,
8:32 and that’s 6% of
8:33 one of the recruiters’ position is paid through Title II funds,
8:36 so again, we’re even trying
8:38 to be budget conscious when we fund these things.
8:41 The rest of the budget on this page is just supporting
8:44 recruitment events, advertisements,
8:48 any sort of platforms we use like Ed Week and CERCA, register
8:54 for various affairs, create
8:56 banners, things like this.
9:00 Again, the salaries budget here for professional learning staff
9:06 and peer mentors.
9:07 We provide mentor trainings for principals as well.
9:12 Again, like I said earlier, professional learning and
9:17 development support schools and training
9:21 initiatives.
9:22 With that, we have money provided to schools for subs, like I
9:26 said earlier.
9:27 We use different screening tools, like Humex, it’s a profiler,
9:32 kind of sets up leadership.
9:34 There’s a big ticket cost item here I’m going to draw your
9:40 attention to.
9:42 I’m sure everybody sees the $180,000.
9:46 That’s the evaluation platform called Frontline.
9:49 We were changing out of that.
9:51 This was a contract board approved on March 28th.
9:57 We knew about it.
9:58 It’s an evaluation system.
10:00 It’s a PD system.
10:02 If I’m a teacher and I’m curious of how many ESC points I need,
10:07 I can go on this system.
10:09 Look, it’ll tell me exactly how many points I need, how many
10:11 points I’m short, when the
10:12 next trainings are.
10:14 If I want to sign up for a training, I can do it right there by
10:17 myself.
10:17 I don’t need to contact HR.
10:20 It’s a great system.
10:22 Thank you for funding that.
10:27 Again, this is profiler for leadership at Humex, Oasis, all the
10:37 same budget.
10:40 The big asks for Mike’s group, they tried to talk me into asking
10:46 me for 10, but I talked
10:49 them into four.
10:52 We have peer mentor teachers.
10:54 What these peer mentor teachers do, they go into classrooms and
10:57 help brand new teachers
10:58 teach.
11:02 We had about 900 last year, first and second year teachers, 900
11:08 across our district.
11:10 Of that, about 480 of them, so more than half, never went
11:16 through a certification at a school
11:19 to see an internship in a classroom.
11:24 Some of these, I’ll take my own experience.
11:27 When I started teaching, I had not been in the classroom for 20
11:30 years.
11:30 I graduated high school and that’s all I knew.
11:33 When it’s time for me to teach, I’m standing in front of the
11:36 classroom, and I’m doing like
11:37 they did 20 years ago.
11:39 We’re going to be running into that a lot.
11:43 I think our teachers deserve to be mentored, to have our peer
11:49 mentor teachers with them
11:52 side by side.
11:53 We currently have three to cover our entire district.
11:57 The request is four more.
12:00 You can see the base salary and the total request for that there.
12:06 I told them if we do this and I get it approved, we have to show
12:11 that it was worth it.
12:14 We’re going to try to move more to a retention based instead of
12:18 recruiting based.
12:20 Right now we’re pretty heavy recruiting based, trying to get 900
12:23 teachers every year is a
12:23 big ask.
12:25 Everyone knows not a lot of people are going into education
12:28 these days.
12:29 That’s just a fact that everybody’s got to realize.
12:32 The ones that the 900 we do get, let’s keep them, let’s put them
12:36 in a position to be successful.
12:39 That’s the ask.
12:40 The last budget slide is everything here that was in my budget
12:46 that’s over $500.
12:48 If you have any questions, I can absolutely answer them, and if
12:52 I can, hopefully Dr. Green
12:54 can.
12:55 That’s kind of summarized.
12:56 That’s the last of my presentation.
12:58 I’m here for any questions.
13:03 I’m going to ask this of Dr. Green, just because I think that I’m
13:06 not sure if this is you or
13:08 her.
13:09 This presentation was done through 12/31/22 is what the dates
13:14 are on a lot of these.
13:16 I guess my ask would be just why, because most of the
13:18 presentations that came before
13:19 us were through the end of May or wherever they were delivering
13:22 that presentation.
13:23 Has it been looked at or updated since then, because obviously
13:27 some of the numbers are
13:28 going to be drastically different, which I don’t know where Dr.
13:30 Green is, right there.
13:31 I’m looking in the back.
13:32 This was the information that was provided to us from budgeting
13:33 when we went through
13:33 our budget process.
13:34 We did not get updated.
13:35 We haven’t received our updated budget yet.
13:36 That’s why everything is in draft form.
13:37 The only thing you’re seeing are the expenditures through 12/31,
13:38 but the asks are, yeah, the
13:38 asks are different.
13:39 Okay, and then one of the things I’m hearing, and this just
13:57 could be timing, and so I’m
13:58 not sure.
13:59 On page seven for the employee physical, that’s reduced by
14:02 almost $40,000.
14:04 I’m just curious as to what we’ve spent in the past and what we’ve
14:08 spent now.
14:08 Is that because most of the physicals don’t happen until the
14:11 summer, or is it timing-wise,
14:13 on page seven is where it’s at?
14:15 Are we stopping doing that?
14:16 I can tell you what we use physicals for.
14:17 Since that comes out of the May HR budget, I can’t exactly tell
14:18 you where the timing
14:18 is, but our budget physicals are for, like our pre-employment or
14:19 bus drivers, custodians,
14:19 and things like that.
14:20 I know they were trying to, I don’t know.
14:21 Provide a budget that was commensurate with what we have used
14:41 over the years.
14:47 Okay.
14:48 It looks like, as of that date, that we’ve used $27,000 of it,
14:52 but we’ve allocated $65,000.
14:54 Oops, my mic’s off again.
14:58 Just curious on why the change there, and I know one of the
15:00 things that I had heard
15:01 from, I guess, risk management is now our staff is going to be
15:04 asked to do physicals
15:05 on an ongoing basis, I believe.
15:07 Was my understanding from one of the meetings that took place,
15:10 and so I thought, is this
15:12 –
15:13 No, that’s different.
15:14 The insurance –
15:15 Okay.
15:16 The insurance trust, but not –
15:17 It’s just for new hire physicals, and so that number could be
15:19 reduced because we haven’t
15:20 hired as many people.
15:21 Is that why you think –
15:22 It could be, or it could be because it’s summer.
15:23 Are you looking at expenditures?
15:24 I’m really not sure which one.
15:25 Yeah.
15:26 It’s page seven of this slide.
15:27 Can we get you on mic?
15:28 Yeah, it’s expenditures.
15:29 If it’s expenditures, you’re only looking at the first half of
15:30 the year because it’s
15:30 only through 12/31.
15:31 Yeah, and so that’s why –
15:32 What you’re seeing is that in the past years, the actuals for
15:33 employee physicals under the
15:33 drug and alcohol testing was budgeted at 68, or actuals, and
15:45 then this year it was only
15:50 budgeted 27.
15:51 Got it.
15:52 I know exactly what you’re talking about.
15:53 Okay.
15:54 It’s drug and alcohol.
15:55 Okay.
15:56 So we used ESSER funding for the drug and alcohol testing, and
15:56 that ESSER funding is
15:57 going away, so we have to recoup that back into our budget.
15:58 Okay.
16:00 But we’ll have it for another year, so that’s why it’s still low?
16:07 I don’t know that we have it for the whole year coming up.
16:14 We can find that out for you.
16:15 So it’s kind of reversed.
16:16 What it looks like is in the past years we’ve spent more, and
16:18 then when you get to 2023,
16:19 what we’ve adopted was that 27,000 versus 65,000 last year, so
16:24 that’s the only reason
16:25 I was just asking why is it so different, and is it because we’re
16:28 not doing them or
16:28 is it because –
16:29 I haven’t changed.
16:30 I’m sure it has to do with the ESSER funding, but I’ll have to
16:31 check.
16:31 Okay.
16:32 All right.
16:33 Thank you.
16:34 Anybody else?
16:35 Yeah.
16:36 Mr. McBray, I apologize that you can’t answer this question.
16:37 I know.
16:38 I’ll do my best.
16:39 I’m not going to judge you.
16:40 I promise.
16:41 But before I ask my question, actually, I want to say the number
16:42 one priority for this
16:42 school district is and should be retention, right?
16:43 So I hear you on that.
16:44 I’m excited that they’re asking for peer mentors, but I’m with
17:01 Mr. Alba.
17:05 I think we need more.
17:07 Sure.
17:08 I think that should be a priority going forward for this board.
17:11 I appreciate you putting the ask down, but I think this board
17:16 should consider that to
17:18 be a top priority because our new teachers really, really,
17:21 really need that support,
17:22 and if we want to keep them around and we don’t have to keep
17:24 looking for new ones, we
17:25 should make that a priority.
17:27 So my question is about the tuition reimbursement for BFT.
17:32 So can you just kind of explain to us what exactly is that used
17:35 for?
17:35 Is that for our current teachers who are looking for advancing
17:38 their certifications or their
17:40 qualifications or is this for the IA to teacher track?
17:43 It could be for any of that because we have it for all three.
17:47 We have it for BFT, 1010, and non-bargaining people, and if they’re
17:51 working on certifications
17:52 or improvement in their job, they can apply for tuition
17:56 reimbursement and they have to,
17:57 you know, put forth what they’ve taken the classes for, final
18:03 transcripts, bills in order
18:05 to get reimbursed, and it’s first come, first served.
18:08 So we almost always get close to that BFT top line.
18:13 We have not always reached the top lines of 1010 and non-bargaining,
18:17 but again there are
18:18 amounts that have been set for years and years and years, so we
18:21 still budget for those amounts
18:23 and then it’s remaining if they don’t use it all.
18:27 That’s a bargain amount as well.
18:28 So I have an ask, because I know we’ve talked about this behind
18:32 closed doors a lot too,
18:33 about really trying to dig deep within the people and personnel
18:37 that we have here at
18:38 BPS to advance them to fill the voids that we have.
18:42 So if we can, again, kind of put a focus and a priority on maybe
18:46 relaying that information
18:48 to our staff a little bit, because our staff is constantly
18:51 changing and there’s so many
18:52 new, just so that they’re aware that that opportunity exists for
18:55 them, because again
18:56 we have amazing IAs in our classroom, and don’t get me wrong, I
18:59 know we still need so
19:00 many more of them, but it would be really great to tap some of
19:03 those incredible resources
19:04 that we have in that classroom to provide them an opportunity to
19:07 potentially become
19:08 classroom teachers as well.
19:09 Thanks.
19:10 I think that’s an awesome initiative that we can also work with
19:13 the BFT to communicate
19:15 with.
19:16 Yes?
19:17 Anybody else?
19:18 Yeah, I’ve got just a few things I want to talk about.
19:19 So first of all, thank you guys for getting this ready for us
19:25 and being willing to spearhead
19:28 it on day seven.
19:29 So Red Rover was a huge deal, and I would love to see in the
19:35 future some, it’s been
19:37 a while since we’ve had a substitute fill presentation, and Red
19:41 Rover, this type thing,
19:43 was one of the ones that was discussed.
19:45 So it’ll always be impossible to know, because I feel like this
19:49 year our fill rates were
19:50 better.
19:51 I feel like this feeling, because in the past we’ve had people
19:54 come and talk about the sub-situation
19:56 in crisis for about three years.
19:58 Correct.
19:59 So no, was it going up to $15 an hour, or was it the Red Rover?
20:04 But I would like some data in the future, if you could give us a
20:06 presentation, I’d be
20:08 on a workshop sometime, Dr. Rindell, of just where were we this
20:11 past year with our substitute
20:13 fill rates and with the schools that were more in crisis before,
20:17 are we seeing improvement
20:18 there so we kind of know how to move forward in the future?
20:21 So the Red Rover is more of an ease of use.
20:24 Right.
20:26 Okay.
20:27 And just because you’re kind of taking that where anybody can go
20:30 on and see them.
20:30 Sure.
20:31 I mean, still people have to put it in there.
20:32 Sure.
20:33 But you don’t have to rely on the phone calls and whatever.
20:35 And I know I even put it on, because I was helping with some subbing
20:38 at the beginning
20:38 of the school year.
20:39 It was so easy to use, and I could go in and say, “Oh, hey, I
20:42 really just want a half-day
20:43 job,” and I could go anywhere in the district and look for a
20:45 half-day job.
20:46 Right.
20:48 It was great.
20:49 That’s the goal of the system, right?
20:50 Right.
20:51 Is just to get ease of use and try to get more subs to do that
20:52 type of thing.
20:53 Right.
20:54 I have a half day, this day, let’s do this Tuesday.
20:55 Exactly.
20:56 Here’s an opportunity.
20:57 Right.
20:58 So if anything that we can do to make it easier, that’s helpful.
21:01 So I appreciate the looking at the survey platforms, trying to
21:05 put that all in one.
21:06 I think that will be helpful.
21:07 Correct.
21:08 And again, easier.
21:09 I wanted to go back to a slide.
21:10 There was a slide that we talked about.
21:11 It was an ask.
21:12 It was the first ask page.
21:13 What page was that?
21:14 Oh, slide 16 about the non-bargaining salary adjustments to
21:24 resolve equity gaps.
21:27 Yes.
21:28 So I was a little confused, because then it starts talking about
21:31 BFT 1010, the adjustments,
21:34 unintended consequences, and the compression.
21:36 So this is really, this is just non-bargaining, right?
21:42 We’re asking for, so that we can make some adjustments to the
21:47 non-bargaining, whether
21:49 it’s the administrators, or –
21:50 Correct.
21:51 But I’m going to let Dr. Green speak to that, because that’s –
21:55 Okay.
21:56 I mean, I know this is a big problem.
21:57 It’s her baby, so I don’t want to –
21:58 I’m just trying to figure out exactly.
21:59 So non-bargaining compensation hasn’t been addressed in the same
22:02 way that 1010 and BFT
22:04 compensation has been addressed.
22:06 They also went through the – and when we talk about non-bargaining,
22:09 you’re talking
22:10 about anybody from the cabinet-level positions to all the way
22:14 through to admin assistants,
22:16 cafeteria managers, BAS coordinators.
22:20 There are 850 non-bargaining personnel, and they also went
22:24 through four years of compression
22:26 with no raises.
22:28 Every time we address BFT and 1010, we adjust their salary
22:32 schedule.
22:33 The non-bargaining salary schedule has not been adjusted through
22:37 – since 2016.
22:38 So –
22:39 Okay.
22:40 Just like the place –
22:41 Speaking specifically about the placement schedule, right?
22:44 It’s everything included.
22:46 There’s several different points of interest throughout the
22:52 entire study, and it looks
22:55 at each salary grade, and it does an assessment at each salary
22:58 pay grade and where the outliers
23:00 lie.
23:01 We’ve done leapfrogging for BFT on two different occasions.
23:06 So part of it’s placement, but part of it is also the schedule
23:09 itself and the fact that
23:10 it’s not keeping up with its counterparts across the state, as
23:13 well as what’s happening
23:15 in 1010 – I’m sorry, BFT and 1010.
23:18 So here’s one perfect example.
23:20 We have two really main points of problem within – like big –
23:25 the most outlier, if
23:27 you look at a statistical review of it.
23:29 One of them is the 10-month AP.
23:32 So we have people leaving the classroom, coming into the 10-month
23:35 AP position and losing money.
23:38 Because again, we’ve raised to BFT every time – you know, we
23:41 adjust their salary schedule.
23:43 Every time they get a raise, we never adjust the salary schedule
23:46 for non-barg.
23:47 So there’s a floor, and there’s a daily rate, and we try and fix
23:51 those sorts of things.
23:53 So you will hear people in the hourly groups of non-bargaining
23:58 say to you that if they
24:00 came in from the outside as opposed to get promotions from
24:03 inside, they’d make so much
24:05 more because we do treat people differently inside and coming
24:09 from the outside.
24:10 So there’s many steps throughout the whole process, and we’ve
24:14 been working on it slowly
24:16 over the last several years.
24:17 I think we made one adjustment to a director level back in 2020
24:22 maybe, and we haven’t made
24:24 any adjustments since then.
24:26 So we – that’s one of our assets.
24:28 »Well, I very much appreciate that, and I figured it was
24:30 related to those conversations
24:31 that we’ve had before, and it’s a huge job to tackle, and I’m
24:34 glad you guys are tackling
24:35 it.
24:36 So thank you.
24:37 And then I appreciate also just the last point really of the
24:41 comment.
24:42 I understand the four mentor – I also think every time we pull
24:44 a mentor teacher out of
24:45 the classroom, that’s one more spot we have to fill.
24:47 So I appreciate the four and trying to kind of find a middle
24:50 road which will bring us
24:52 to seven, which is not going to be ever enough, right, but it
24:56 will help.
24:57 But I appreciate your comment about having to show that it’s
25:00 worth it, because if we’re
25:02 going to pull teachers out of the classroom to be mentor
25:04 teachers, there’s definitely
25:06 a need, but we want to be able to show the public and the
25:09 teachers and anywhere in the
25:11 district that that sacrifice was worth it.
25:15 And so I appreciate that.
25:18 And it can be very subjective, but I appreciate that you guys
25:21 are going to do that, because
25:23 I think that will be important for us to be able to explain why
25:29 we do what we do.
25:32 Mr. Trev.
25:33 Welcome.
25:34 Thank you, sir.
25:35 And, you know, that’s quite good for being here a week, you know.
25:39 I’m sure there’s help behind.
25:41 So we just look forward to having you here and try to get some,
25:47 you know, summer in,
25:50 but I know you’re working lots, and we just look forward to all
25:53 we have to see from the
25:54 whole HR.
25:55 So thank you.
25:56 Sure.
25:57 Thank you.
25:58 Ms. Wright, you good?
25:59 Yeah, I’m good.
26:00 I already asked mine.
26:01 Yeah.
26:02 Thank you.
26:03 Thanks.
26:04 So I just had some things that I just wanted to go through that
26:06 we’ve had discussions with
26:06 and just kind of bring it up.
26:09 One of the things that we found, and there was a presentation by
26:11 a couple of superintendents
26:13 about a year and a half, two years ago, that talked about
26:15 homegrown talent and people who
26:17 are from here, right?
26:18 And it talks about the dividends that are there.
26:21 So like people who are from here that went to school here also,
26:25 if they’re employed here,
26:27 stay here longer.
26:28 Sure.
26:29 So there’s a longevity there.
26:30 So when we’re talking about recruitment and some of those things,
26:33 we had just discussed
26:34 earlier about going after people who had previous educational
26:39 certificates and a lot of those
26:41 other components that we can target.
26:44 My wife’s in a mom’s group where there are a lot of former
26:46 educators that could definitely
26:48 come back.
26:49 They’re at that place where they’re ready, right?
26:51 One of the things that they were fearful about was the
26:53 discipline issues and some of the
26:54 stuff that we’re correcting.
26:55 So I wanted to work on those things.
26:59 When I talk about these next couple of things, what I think is
27:02 we can give you a consensus
27:04 from the board that these are the highest level topics and
27:10 issues.
27:10 If you need the funding, you get it, right, because we don’t
27:13 want teachers that are not
27:15 inside the classrooms.
27:16 We don’t need recruit.
27:17 You know what I mean?
27:18 Does that make sense to you?
27:19 So it’s not a matter, when I talk to some of the people about
27:22 the four or the 10, it’s
27:23 not so much a matter of like having the 10.
27:27 The issue is that you can’t hire 10 people because there’s just
27:30 not enough people to
27:31 fill those positions.
27:32 So I’m okay going up to the 10 knowing that they may not get
27:36 filled, but that’s one thing.
27:38 But I did want to say, Dr. Rendell and I talked about this
27:41 extensively, and he had talked
27:42 about he has some ideas inside this space that we can utilize
27:46 people at different places.
27:48 So Dr. Rendell, I guess in that respect, whatever your plan is
27:52 for that moving forward, I think
27:54 we as a board would say whatever that funding needs are to get
27:58 those, we’re there to support
28:00 that.
28:01 Can I kind of give them that thumbs up, you guys?
28:04 I understand, but consensus-wise, I think we have a very big
28:09 need for that.
28:10 The other thing is, is that Dr. Rendell, you had talked about
28:13 traveling to other states
28:14 and sending messages out to people.
28:16 Can you kind of give that a little bit real quick?
28:20 In other districts there’s an aggressive recruiting practice of
28:39 visiting states up north, especially
28:42 in the middle part of the year, the winter, to go to Michigan,
28:45 to New York, to Wisconsin,
28:47 and try to lure teachers to either retire or just leave the
28:51 teaching profession up there
28:53 to come down to Florida.
28:54 So we’re looking at some of those practices to see if we can
28:57 join in on that in the future.
28:59 We want to talk to some districts who are doing that to make
29:02 sure, again, that there’s
29:03 a return on the investment.
29:04 You know, if you’re sending a recruiting team up there, how many
29:07 teachers are you really
29:08 gathering?
29:09 Is it really worth the investment?
29:10 So what we want to go ahead and start to recruit outside the
29:13 state of Florida to try to see
29:15 if we can bring some quality teachers into Brevard.
29:19 Yeah.
29:20 And so that everybody understands that includes the retiring
29:24 military, it includes kids coming
29:26 out of college, it includes the ones that are already in
29:30 existence in teaching in different
29:33 educational environments.
29:34 The other piece to it is, is that us going and saying, hey, come
29:37 to Brevard is one thing,
29:39 but EDC, I think you had mentioned it before, I’ve been talking
29:42 to them about their image
29:43 and attraction for like the Space Coast in general.
29:46 Some of those videos that we put together through the EDC from
29:49 years ago are targeted
29:51 at just our Space Coast, right?
29:52 Like I think they called it launches and loggers, where like for
29:56 launch dates, people would
29:57 go and go to the local breweries, you know what I mean?
30:00 And those kinds of things start to attract people to say, hey,
30:03 there is a cool culture.
30:04 It’s not mail boring, right?
30:05 It is a good place to go to.
30:07 So I think that those, like combining all of our efforts
30:11 together with the Economic
30:13 Development Council and everybody else, because they have a
30:16 definite need in us succeeding,
30:18 I think is amazing.
30:19 And I want to say thank you, Dr. Rendell, for thinking outside
30:22 the box and talking about
30:24 that with me.
30:25 The other thing is, is that we should be able to work with our
30:28 communications department,
30:30 and I don’t know if there needs to be funding for that, but to
30:33 tell the story about who
30:34 we are.
30:35 Because we’re unique.
30:36 When I was over in the Florida School Board Association
30:39 Conference, a lot of the school
30:41 board members tell me, they’re like, you guys have such a gem,
30:44 such a unique school district
30:45 in the fact that you’re launching, you have all these
30:47 capabilities, you have space, you
30:48 have all that stuff.
30:50 And so if there’s a way for us to tell that story, not only to
30:53 attract them from around
30:54 our area and around the state, but then also the story about us,
30:57 like we’ve gone through
30:59 and reworked our discipline, we’ve given raises to certain
31:02 individuals, we care about our
31:04 people, and telling that story would attract the locals back.
31:07 So I think that those are just some of the points that I wanted
31:10 to bring up.
31:11 And are we looking at like experience bonuses, like sign-on,
31:14 like if a teacher has five or
31:15 ten years in a different district and we would like them, would
31:18 we be willing to, Dr. Rendell,
31:20 have you ever heard about signing bonuses for that kind of stuff,
31:23 are you working on
31:24 that?
31:25 It’s not on the table right now.
31:26 We can add it to the list, I think.
31:29 We’ve done a good job of placing them, you know, granting years
31:32 of experience, years
31:34 ago we did not, and so we’ve kind of moved to where we can be
31:37 more competitive, so when
31:39 you come in you can get some of that years of experience.
31:42 I don’t know if Dr. Green wants to speak to that, but we haven’t
31:45 thought about signing
31:46 bonuses.
31:47 Again, we don’t want to create any inequities with the staff
31:51 that we are at.
31:53 Here’s my thing.
31:54 We’re targeting a 15 to 20 year veteran that has great
31:56 experience in another school district.
31:58 We’re not saying that we have the equal pay, and we do
32:00 discipline is one thing, but if
32:02 there’s a way to recruit in another outside the box, maybe not
32:05 even that, then I don’t
32:07 know.
32:08 I’m just thinking about it, that’s all.
32:09 Just as a quick reminder on that topic, though, we negotiated
32:12 the millage increase for EFT,
32:14 they are going to be able to include all their experience of
32:17 teaching from anywhere they
32:19 may have it to determine what their millage supplement will be,
32:23 so that’s a positive.
32:24 Yeah, I think that’s great.
32:25 I’m just saying to attract them to come, there’s always that
32:28 extra, you know what I mean?
32:29 That’s all.
32:30 Just a thought.
32:31 Then one of the issues I wanted to bring up, now that we have
32:34 the opportunity, is the substitutes
32:36 that have less than 30 or 40 hours of service get kicked off the
32:39 system.
32:40 I’ve had a couple of them reach out to me and say, “Hey, I didn’t
32:44 make my 30 because
32:45 I was sick,” or whatever it is.
32:47 Are we able to give a variance to that, or are we just kicking
32:50 them off?
32:50 Okay, so anybody who-
32:51 They need to contact us.
32:52 Yeah, just make the phone call to us, and we can make that
32:54 happen.
32:54 Okay, good.
32:55 All right, and then one of the things you were talking about
32:58 with discipline that I
33:00 found, I just wanted to talk to it is, or one of the things you
33:02 were talking about substitutes
33:04 and what was successful and what wasn’t successful, and a lot of
33:06 the people that were substitutes
33:08 were choosing schools based upon if they felt like they were
33:11 secure in their discipline,
33:12 so I think that might be one of the things that you find is that
33:14 some of the substitutes
33:15 didn’t want to, they didn’t want to take a chance on their
33:18 careers by going into a school
33:20 that they didn’t feel safe in, so that was one.
33:23 And then the other thing that I noticed with the report that I
33:25 was reading is location
33:26 availability.
33:27 A lot of times we sit there and people are saying, “Manatee
33:31 Elementary has so many substitutes.”
33:34 One of the reasons is there’s a lot of people that live in the
33:37 local area that are stay
33:39 at homes and they have a, you know what I mean, they’re not
33:41 working at the time.
33:43 So many of your blue collar, hardworking areas, which is like
33:46 the O’Gally corridor area, they
33:48 struggle, some of them, for substitutes because their families
33:50 are all working, like the moms
33:51 and dads and everybody are working.
33:53 So and even the grandparents are working into later years.
33:55 So there’s an opportunity for us to take some of those subs from
33:58 other locations, having
33:59 to meet the principals, then we might be able to fill some of
34:01 that stuff.
34:02 So I just wanted to follow up the conversation with you when you
34:04 were talking.
34:05 And that’s it, man.
34:06 It’s just an area that I really care about, so thank you.
34:08 »Thank you.
34:09 »Just one more thing that I forgot to talk about.
34:12 Again, we’ve talked about this a lot behind closed doors,
34:14 especially when we’re having
34:16 bargaining conversations.
34:18 And I know that we did make specific updates to job descriptions
34:21 to talk about job sharing
34:23 options for some of our teachers, especially our elementary
34:26 classrooms.
34:27 So I’m just requesting again that we kind of bring that to the
34:30 forefront of our minds
34:32 to possibly make an intentional effort to advertise that, even
34:38 on Facebook and things
34:40 of that nature with GCR, because I really think we can fill some
34:43 of our elementary positions
34:45 if we’re just putting that out there.
34:47 I know obviously we would prefer a full-time teacher, but we
34:49 know the reality of a lot
34:51 of our schools that have been vacant for a long time.
34:53 It might be more palatable to some of our teachers who have left
34:56 to raise their kids
34:58 to just step back in for a part-time position who may not need
35:00 those benefits or willing
35:02 to share, vice versa.
35:03 So if we could just bring it to the forefront and push that more
35:06 intentionally, not just
35:08 on the job description and on the application itself on Deacon,
35:10 I would really appreciate
35:11 that.
35:12 I think we would see some benefits.
35:13 »That’s a great point, Ms. Jenkins.
35:14 I think the other thing is not many people know that there are
35:17 some good statistics that
35:19 show that actually having the two teachers working gives the
35:21 students actually a different
35:23 look at different parts of curriculum, gives them a refresh.
35:26 So that’s awesome.
35:27 So thank you for bringing that up.
35:28 Anybody else have any topics?
35:29 Good?
35:30 Do you have anything that you want to talk to us about?
35:34 Gene’s having some issues over here.
35:36 »Yeah, sure.
35:37 »He’s got some things.
35:38 You good?
35:39 »I’m good.
35:40 »Thank you, sir, for that update.
35:43 Next topic’s educational plant survey, please.
35:45 Ms. Suhan and Ms. Black, you guys coming up to the front?
35:57 Gene, do you want my chair?
36:00 »It’s broken, obviously.
36:01 »Sorry.
36:02 I’ve got to put this one down.
36:03 They had me leaning right.
36:04 »Mine are way high, too.
36:05 »I always put them below.
36:06 »Yeah, thanks, guys.
36:07 »I’ve got, like, gorilla arms and stuff just hanging up there.
36:14 Ms. Black.
36:15 »Hello.
36:16 »How are we doing today?
36:17 »Good.
36:18 How are you?
36:19 »I just wanted to say thank you again for your dedication to
36:21 the Viera redistricting.
36:21 You did an amazing job.
36:22 »Oh, my God.
36:23 »And thank you for all your work in that space.
36:24 »I love what I did.
36:25 So good morning.
36:26 My name is Karen Black.
36:27 I’m the manager of facilities planning.
36:28 I have a brief overview of the educational plant survey to go
36:38 over with you this morning.
36:42 The educational plant survey is a mandatory document the
36:47 district must submit to the Florida
36:50 Department of Education to comply with Florida statutes.
36:54 Once the survey is approved by the board and the Florida
36:57 Department of Education, it remains
36:59 in effect for five years.
37:01 The purpose of the survey is to comply with Florida statute
37:05 having the Department of Education
37:07 review and validate planned and potential facility needs on a
37:12 school by school basis
37:14 which may be initiated with state funding.
37:21 The survey includes an existing inventory of facilities,
37:25 recommendations for each facility
37:27 existing in new facilities which may be state funded, projected
37:31 COFTI, the capital outlay
37:33 full-time equivalent student enrollment prepared by DOE, and in
37:38 association with the survey,
37:40 the district also is required to submit a CTE and adult
37:45 education program facility needs
37:48 list for five years.
37:50 That form has already been submitted and is previously approved
37:58 with the DOE.
38:00 In the past when the district received a much higher amount of
38:03 state funding, the survey
38:04 may have been more comprehensive including a better overview of
38:07 the district’s long-range
38:09 plan.
38:10 However, since much of the district’s funding now comes from
38:13 local sources, the survey may
38:15 not reflect the full scope of work planned at each school.
38:20 A survey recommendation is not required when the district uses
38:25 local funding sources.
38:27 For example, sales tax or impact fees.
38:37 The bottom of this slide shows an example of the recommendation
38:41 report table as it’s
38:42 printed in the Ed Plant Survey.
38:45 The first three categories are primarily used for new
38:48 construction and most of the district’s
38:51 recommendations will be categorized under site improvement,
38:55 remodeling cost, and renovation
38:57 cost for existing facilities.
38:59 I’ve included some screenshots of the DOE system to help explain
39:04 what may be included
39:06 in each category.
39:09 Site development.
39:11 In this category, you’ll see in this example, it’s a new
39:16 construction for sidewalk replacement.
39:19 But this category is cost associated with developing a new site
39:26 for use.
39:28 The site improvement category includes a combination of district
39:33 recommendations including cost
39:36 for additional covered walkways, additional parking spaces,
39:41 changes to traffic circulation
39:43 for parent pick-up and drop-off, correcting drainage issues.
39:49 This category also includes other expenditures not defined in
39:53 any of these given categories
39:55 such as roofing repair and security.
40:02 Remodeling cost is used when you’re changing existing spaces
40:07 that are in FISH.
40:09 So in this example, changing like room 151 into two spaces.
40:16 So remodeling is used when you’re changing or adding walls to
40:20 physically change the existing
40:22 rooms in FISH, changing use codes and/or the number of student
40:26 stations associated with
40:28 that space.
40:30 So in this example, the result is you’re changing room 151,
40:34 which is currently coded as senior
40:38 high open plan from 50 student stations to two ESC spaces for a
40:48 total of 32 student stations.
40:53 Renovation cost.
40:55 Renovation costs are provided for each facility based on
40:58 facility renewal and educational
40:59 technology projected cost.
41:02 At each facility, renovation costs, including painting, floor
41:06 cover, electrical, plumbing,
41:08 windows, lighting, restroom renewal, HVAC systems, fire alarms,
41:16 bell systems, and educational
41:20 technology projected costs are all covered in this category.
41:29 Before I go onto this slide, I want to add that in addition to
41:32 the list of recommendations
41:34 for each facility, Florida statute includes some district-wide
41:38 recommendations for each
41:40 facility, which include repairs relating to safety, health,
41:45 sanitation, and accessibility,
41:47 to name a few that are not required to be listed individually
41:51 for each facility.
41:52 Cost estimates for these district-wide recommendations are not
41:57 included, but are made on a district-wide
41:59 basis at each facility.
42:02 The complete list of these items is found on page 261 of the
42:09 survey.
42:10 Student membership.
42:13 The Department of Education sets projected coffee by grade level.
42:18 So you’ll see PK through 3 is 18,654 students projected for year
42:24 2027-28.
42:26 Grades 4 through 8 is 23,203, and grades 9 through 12 is 18,365,
42:33 for a total of 60,222
42:36 projected students.
42:40 The district sets these projected coffee by grade level, which
42:44 we distribute by school
42:45 based on our district projections in the student membership
42:49 section of the survey, holding
42:51 the DOE totals for each column by grade level and the overall
43:00 total.
43:02 This is a brief overview of the air plant survey, and this is
43:06 all I have to present
43:08 to you this morning, but I’m happy to answer any questions.
43:13 » Are there any board members that wish to ask Ms. Black any
43:15 questions?
43:15 » Ms. Black, I just want to thank you.
43:16 So I think you spent – we might have spent, what, an hour, an
43:20 hour and a half I sat down
43:21 with her because I wanted to really understand what this is, and
43:24 there’s a line flying around,
43:25 sorry.
43:26 But I really appreciate you taking an in-depth look.
43:29 I zoned in on a couple different areas, and you were so
43:31 knowledgeable, and I’m just so
43:32 thankful for the insight and the information you gave me, so I
43:35 appreciate the presentation
43:37 and the very detailed report of all of our facilities.
43:40 So thank you.
43:41 » Thank you.
43:42 I’m good.
43:43 » Good.
43:44 Ms. Jenkins, good?
43:45 » I’m good.
43:46 Thanks.
43:47 » Thank you, Ms. Black.
43:48 We appreciate the opportunity.
43:49 Ms. Hand, did you have anything to say?
43:50 Are you good?
43:51 All right.
43:52 Thank you.
43:53 I’m going to move on to the Board of Trustees and the Center’s
43:58 Drug Diversion Program presentation.
44:10 Please move forward.
44:11 » Board members and the public, I just wanted to share that
44:11 this next presentation is one
44:12 of the tools that we are looking at in our response to our
44:12 discipline issues that we’ve
44:13 experienced this year.
44:14 So if we decide to move forward, this will bring us back to you
44:23 on the Board agenda and
44:26 that kind of thing.
44:27 This is information sharing today.
44:28 » Okay.
44:29 » Thank you.
44:30 Good afternoon.
44:31 My name is Misty Bland, and I’m the Director of the Alternative
44:38 Sites for Student Services.
44:41 First, I’d like to say thank you to the – » Put your
44:44 microphone really close to there.
44:46 » Oh.
44:47 Can you hear me now?
44:48 » Yes.
44:49 » Okay.
44:50 I’d like to say thank you to the Board and Dr. Rendell for
44:52 allowing me to speak to you
44:53 today regarding a possible drug diversion program for Brevard
44:57 County schools.
44:59 So the first thing before we start actually talking about it, I
45:01 think it’s important that
45:02 we discuss, you know, where are we?
45:09 So currently for the ‘22-‘23 school year, we had 1,059 students
45:15 placed on a two-to-ten-day
45:17 suspension pending investigation.
45:19 Out of those amount of students, 853 of those students attended
45:25 the ALC, which is 81%.
45:27 Now some of those students, the other students that didn’t
45:29 attend could have went back to
45:30 their home school, maybe home education, Brevard virtual.
45:36 Out of those 853 students, 467 students attended the ALC for
45:43 drug possession, use, or alcohol,
45:46 which is 55% of those students.
45:49 And I think it’s important to add that 11 of those students were
45:53 elementary students.
45:55 Out of those students that were sent to the ALC for drugs, 86%
45:59 of those students are first-time
46:01 offenders.
46:03 There you go.
46:14 Sorry about that.
46:20 So I think it’s important that we look at the alternative
46:35 learning center.
46:36 So I talked about what the data looked like in ‘22-‘23.
46:40 So now let’s talk about the actual ALC numbers.
46:44 So in ‘21-‘22, there were a total of 311 students sent to the ALC
46:50 for drugs and alcohol.
46:52 This year, 41 with alcohol and 426 were for drugs, so that’s a
46:59 total of 467.
47:01 And I think it’s important to notice that that’s a 50% increase
47:05 from last year to this
47:06 year.
47:07 - Can I ask a quick question?
47:08 - Yes.
47:09 - In regards to the drug part of this, is the majority of this
47:11 coming in the form of
47:11 vaping?
47:12 Is that what you’re seeing most of these?
47:13 I don’t know if you broke down the data on what type of drugs we’re
47:16 seeing.
47:17 - When you run the discipline report, it shows you what the
47:21 student was caught for.
47:23 So was it THC?
47:25 Was it a different type of substance?
47:28 And I don’t have the exact data.
47:29 I can find out exactly.
47:30 But when I looked at it, it was definitely in the 90-something
47:34 percent is just THC.
47:36 - And vaping like THC, is that?
47:38 - Correct.
47:39 - Okay.
47:40 - So not tobacco.
47:41 It’s not THC, but then when they actually test it, it’s THC.
47:46 - Okay.
47:47 Thank you.
47:48 - Okay.
47:49 - Ms. Bland, real quick.
47:55 Those THC vapes, those are preloaded, right?
47:58 Or are we talking about when those kids get busted that there’s
48:01 a, they’re actually loading
48:03 it?
48:04 Does that make sense to you?
48:05 - It absolutely does make sense to me.
48:09 I mean, we do have kids that are snazzy enough to do it.
48:13 So we’ve caught vapes where kids have made their own, put it in,
48:17 but it’s very difficult.
48:18 You know, there is some chemistry involved in that.
48:22 The majority that we catch are bought and they look exactly like
48:27 a tobacco vape pen.
48:29 You just have to know what you’re looking for, but you can take
48:32 it apart and test it
48:33 and see that it’s.
48:34 - Well, the reason I was asking is, so these students are
48:37 getting a hold of preloaded vape
48:39 vapes from either, from where, where do they get those from,
48:45 like the local, not drug dealer
48:47 because it’s being built, like it’s not a drug dealer or they
48:50 grab drug dealers or purchasing
48:51 them.
48:52 This is where I’m.
48:53 - I can answer that from going to drug court because I go to
48:57 drug court on Mondays and
48:59 talking to these kids that have been caught numerous times for,
49:04 you know, any type of
49:06 substance.
49:07 There’s a lot of obviously medical marijuana, so that’s out
49:10 there.
49:11 So their friend is 18, they have a license.
49:15 That’s where most, when you ask all the kids, ‘cause that’s part
49:17 of the questionnaire that
49:18 we ask students and that’s the majority of where they’re getting
49:23 it from and the majority
49:24 is vape, vaping.
49:25 - Okay, that makes sense.
49:26 I just wanted everybody to understand because those are preloaded
49:29 vapes that are medical
49:30 marijuana or something like that.
49:31 It’s not like the old school where they’re, the majority of the
49:33 kids aren’t rolling up
49:34 marijuana and stuff like that and smoking these vapes.
49:37 And that is something that we may be able to get some help with
49:40 outside of our school
49:42 district is the regulation of those things, so thank you.
49:45 - Because you really can’t smell that, so that makes the other
49:48 part.
49:49 You know, a long time ago you could absolutely smell it and now
49:52 it’s blueberry and strawberry
49:53 and all different types of flavors.
49:57 And so if a kid, you know, takes a hit up a vape and blows it in
50:02 their backpack, you
50:04 would have a hard time.
50:05 You might just say, I smell a blueberry smell, but it would take
50:10 a second.
50:11 - Thank you for that, Mr. Chair, I just wanted some
50:24 clarification.
50:28 - Okay, I’m just gonna go ahead and start the link.
50:56 - Sorry about that.
51:01 So I knew that you were gonna ask me what other counties do.
51:07 So I investigated five counties to see exactly what’s going on
51:12 in those schools.
51:13 So currently Seminole and Volusia County, they suspend students
51:18 and put them in an alternative
51:20 center or another approved site.
51:22 Pasco County, Polk, and Osceola County, they suspend students
51:28 and put them in a diversion
51:30 program.
51:31 And they all have different types.
51:32 They have the Tools, the Phoenix, and an AWARE program.
51:37 So what would this drug diversion program consist of?
51:41 So it consists of four components.
51:43 One would be an eight-week diversion program through Bavara
51:46 Prevention Coalition, and we’re
51:48 gonna talk about that in just a minute, it’s called Better
51:50 Without It.
51:51 Group counseling, which is extremely important, it would be four
51:54 sessions, one and a half
51:56 hours, family counseling, one session at one and a half hours,
52:00 and then obviously a drug
52:01 and alcohol test, which they would have to be negative.
52:05 And I think it’s important to add that one of the reasons that I
52:08 wanted this program
52:09 to be eight weeks is that depending on the amount of THC a
52:15 student is doing every day,
52:18 it could possibly take six weeks.
52:21 So we want to ensure that when we do this test, there would have
52:25 to be new use.
52:26 So that’s why we have it eight weeks.
52:31 So group counseling.
52:33 The sessions are gonna be face-to-face, and max eight to 10, if
52:36 you put too many kids
52:37 together, you’re really not having group therapy.
52:42 Upon enrollment, what would happen is the students would stay
52:45 with that group and build
52:46 that relationship, ‘cause sometimes that’s the most important
52:49 part is just building that
52:50 relationship and having someone to talk to if you want to use.
52:55 And reasons they talk to each other, this is the reason why we
53:00 don’t want to do this.
53:02 And also the sessions will be six to 730 p.m., so it’s important
53:07 that we’re not disturbing
53:08 the actual school.
53:10 So the learning, this will take place after school.
53:15 So what’s gonna happen?
53:17 This is just like we would normally do.
53:20 A student gets in trouble, gets caught with something
53:22 inappropriate, drug, you know, possession
53:25 or use or alcohol, they’re gonna be suspended two to 10 days,
53:29 and administrative hearings
53:31 held.
53:32 The minimum that a student would be suspended for would be five
53:36 days, because that would
53:38 be their discipline for getting caught with something
53:43 inappropriate.
53:44 The administrative hearing’s going to be held at that time.
53:47 This diversion program will be presented to the parent, and if
53:50 the parent decides this
53:51 is something they would want to do, during that time a Google
53:54 Doc is gonna be filled
53:55 out by the administrator and sent to the drug prevention
53:59 counselor, and that person is who’s
54:02 going to start it all.
54:04 The goal of this is not to give the administrators one more
54:08 thing to do, not to give the guidance
54:12 counselors one more thing to do, because they just can’t do
54:17 anymore.
54:18 So once they fill out that Google Doc, that will be the last
54:24 part that they have to do.
54:26 Obviously there’ll be other steps that they can choose to do.
54:31 There’ll be a school stipulation conduct agreement signed that
54:35 we are going to complete, that
54:37 I’m going to put together, and this will be things like a
54:40 backpack can be searched, and
54:42 they can’t say no to it.
54:44 Those type of things.
54:45 If the student does not complete this program, or doesn’t allow
54:48 this to happen, like their
54:49 backpack to be searched, then they will be suspended and put up
54:57 for a full expulsion.
54:59 So completion, what does this look like?
55:02 Completion.
55:03 The student’s going to complete the Better Without It program.
55:06 They’re going to complete one family counseling session, and
55:10 four group counseling sessions.
55:12 At that last session with the parent, they’re going to complete
55:15 the drug screening, which
55:17 is around eight weeks, and that will be their final test.
55:21 If they pass it, they’ll get a signed paper, I’ll get it back,
55:25 it’ll go to everybody so
55:26 that they understand the student has completed everything that
55:30 they need.
55:31 If they don’t pass it, they will be put up for suspension and a
55:35 full expulsion, because
55:36 they didn’t complete the program.
55:39 Let’s say if they refuse the program, so we’re going to go back
55:43 to just what we currently
55:45 do now.
55:46 The student will be suspended two to ten days, and at that they’re
55:49 going to hold a meeting
55:50 after the investigation.
55:51 If they decided the investigation, the student was, in fact,
55:56 they had possession of alcohol
55:58 or drugs, they’re going to be recommended for an expulsion, and
56:04 they will, per the code
56:06 of conduct, they will have a change of placement.
56:09 That will be approved based on what the parent decides, whether
56:14 it’s the ALC, home, but that
56:16 will be a parental choice.
56:18 At that time, earned return will not be offered.
56:24 Let’s say after August 2023, if the student gets caught again
56:29 after they do this program,
56:31 they will no longer be able to do this program.
56:33 This is for first time, you made a mistake.
56:38 Everybody makes mistakes in life, so this is your bump in the
56:42 road.
56:42 If they have a second offense, they wouldn’t be allowed to do
56:46 this program and they would
56:48 go to the ALC or another approved place, and no earned return
56:54 would be given.
56:56 This is the question of the day.
56:58 How much is this program going to cost?
57:01 For this drug diversion program, it’s approximately $150,000.
57:08 We have to pay for the actual program, and we need two drug
57:13 diversion prevention counselors.
57:16 It’s very important that we actually have a drug prevention
57:20 counselor because that’s
57:22 what they do, right?
57:25 It’s a niche.
57:26 They only get four sessions, so it’s important that we get in
57:29 there and we’re able to really
57:31 let them see that this is not what they wanted to do.
57:38 At this time, currently, we would have to figure out how to
57:42 budget for this because
57:43 we don’t have the funds for it right now, but hopefully we’ll be
57:46 able to find a grant
57:47 when this program gets started that we will be able to.
57:52 To start the program, we’re not going to be able to do that.
57:57 Aftercare.
57:59 It’s important that we’re following up with these kids because
58:01 the goal is not just to
58:02 let them fly free and say, “Oh, you did eight weeks and that’s
58:05 great.”
58:06 The goal is to have scheduled visits with these students just to
58:10 ensure do they need
58:12 something because the program that they’re getting ready to
58:16 present to you, mentoring,
58:18 there’s other pieces in it because the goal is for students not
58:26 to use for that day forward.
58:30 What are the benefits?
58:32 I believe there’s many benefits than what I wrote down, but
58:36 obviously right now the
58:37 ALCs, they’re full and if our students went back to school five
58:41 days a week, we would
58:42 have 38 kids in a class.
58:46 I too believe that kids should be in front of a teacher five
58:50 days a week.
58:51 I think that I’ve talked to all of you and we all believe that.
58:54 That’s what’s good for kids.
58:59 If the students that were … We had a drug diversion program,
59:03 we’d have less students
59:05 there and we’d be able to focus on violent behaviors and this is
59:09 going to produce academic
59:11 continuity.
59:12 They’re going to be able to stay with their school, stay with
59:16 their friends and hopefully
59:18 keep achieving success because when they leave there and they go
59:22 to the ALC, there is some
59:24 disconnect.
59:25 There’s some classes they can’t get, they leave their friends
59:31 and it’s a big deal.
59:33 At this time, I would like to introduce Stanley Britz.
59:36 He’s the executive director at the Bar Prevention Coalition to
59:39 speak with the program, Better
59:41 Without It, a school-based diversion program.
59:43 He’s going to talk about the actual piece that they’re going to
59:47 do besides the counseling
59:48 and the drug test.
59:53 I will come back up if you have any more questions once he’s
59:54 finished.
59:55 Thank you.
59:56 Thank you, Misty.
59:57 I’m Stanley Britz, executive director of Bar Prevention
1:00:02 Coalition, I know a few of you.
1:00:04 I’ve been doing school-based prevention in the county for about
1:00:08 15 years at different
1:00:09 positions and different agencies and so I’m excited about
1:00:12 bringing this before you.
1:00:13 I’ve been doing the coalition actually concurrently with a lot
1:00:16 of that.
1:00:17 What I have with me today is CTS agency, we actually went out
1:00:20 and got a marketing firm
1:00:21 to help us do some research to understand, make sure we weren’t
1:00:24 missing key ways of reaching
1:00:25 the new generation of youth that we are working with today
1:00:29 across all the socio strata.
1:00:32 I want to bring up Carolyn Capern and Greg Trujillo with CTS
1:00:35 agency and we’re going to
1:00:36 walk through the Better Without It piece that Misty just
1:00:39 presented to you as a component
1:00:41 of this diversion program.
1:00:43 In general, we’re going to be implementing, obviously in
1:00:46 addition to the group counseling
1:00:48 and family counseling, a skill-based component as well as an
1:00:51 experiential educational component
1:00:53 to understand and make sure that the youth, the students, are
1:00:58 actually absorbing why using
1:01:00 drugs and alcohol are dangerous to them, but hopefully creating
1:01:03 some cognitive dissonance
1:01:05 as well so the next time they’re approached with that choice in
1:01:07 life, they’ve now worked
1:01:08 on this eight-week program and have this experiential component
1:01:12 that helps them make the better
1:01:14 choice.
1:01:15 I’ll be here to kind of quarterback this with them, but I’m
1:01:18 going to have Greg and Carolyn
1:01:19 come on up and get started with the slides on this.
1:01:24 Thank you, Stanley.
1:01:25 Thank you very much.
1:01:26 Good morning or good afternoon, Dr. Rendell and board members.
1:01:28 It’s a pleasure to be here with you.
1:01:30 As Stanley said, my name is Carolyn Capern and this is my
1:01:34 partner, Greg Trujillo.
1:01:35 We run CTS agency in Orlando and we’ve had the pleasure of
1:01:39 administering the Better Without
1:01:41 It campaign for the past almost three years now and so we are
1:01:46 happy to walk you through
1:01:48 it.
1:01:49 As Stanley said, we start with research and making sure that the
1:01:53 messages that we put
1:01:55 out are going to resonate with our target audience, in this case
1:01:59 Gen Z, more specifically
1:02:01 13 through 24 is our audience for this messaging.
1:02:07 And we started this campaign in the height of the COVID lockdowns,
1:02:11 right?
1:02:11 So we had to take a bit of a different approach to traditional
1:02:14 school-based prevention programs.
1:02:16 You think of programs like DARE where the kids are in the
1:02:19 classroom talking to the officer,
1:02:21 talking to each other, doing these exercises.
1:02:24 Well with everyone at home when we started this, we had to think
1:02:27 how can we reach this
1:02:28 generation that is already in these digital places even more so?
1:02:36 So just breaking down real quick what we learned about Gen Z is
1:02:39 they’re generally watching
1:02:41 different types of streaming video, eSports is very popular
1:02:46 amongst Gen Z, not just watching
1:02:48 but also participating in.
1:02:50 A lot of what they’re listening to is EDM and K-pop, K-pop has
1:02:57 taken Gen Z by storm
1:02:59 and the most popular platforms right now are Instagram and
1:03:04 YouTube that they’re participating
1:03:07 in.
1:03:09 But we wanted to go deeper than that because I think most people
1:03:12 almost intuitively know
1:03:13 those things that we just said or many of them anyway.
1:03:17 So what really characterizes Gen Z?
1:03:18 What are their actual values?
1:03:20 number one their sense of personal identity stood out they are
1:03:25 enthusiastic
1:03:26 about brands that reflect that sense of identity but more than
1:03:29 that they are
1:03:29 looking for authenticity and personalized approaches that reach
1:03:33 them
1:03:34 they have a very inclusive attitude they dismiss paradigms that
1:03:40 institutions that
1:03:42 don’t meet their perceptions of how things should be they
1:03:46 surprisingly have
1:03:47 a lot of them have a co-pilot kind of relationship with their
1:03:51 parents as to
1:03:52 where previous generations were kind of you know ready to leave
1:03:58 the leave the
1:03:58 henhouse resenting their helicopter parents yes they also
1:04:03 prioritize a
1:04:04 teamwork in collaboration and they believe in D stigmatize D
1:04:08 stigmatization
1:04:09 of mental wellness conversations they have a strong sense of
1:04:14 social
1:04:14 responsibility this is not news to most people who know agenda
1:04:18 but social media
1:04:18 has increased their sense of social activism even if it’s armchair
1:04:22 activism
1:04:23 as we like to call it they have this sense of a responsibility
1:04:26 for improving
1:04:27 the world and a very entrepreneurial spirit most of them and
1:04:31 they’re very
1:04:32 active participants in the marketing ecosystem they’re one of
1:04:36 the first
1:04:36 generations that have been directly marketed to via their mobile
1:04:41 devices as
1:04:43 to where most other generations previously got it through
1:04:46 television
1:04:46 billboards radio where they’re still getting it through there
1:04:50 but also very
1:04:50 direct advertising and a lot of this advertising isn’t just one
1:04:54 way
1:04:54 broadcasting anymore it’s a two-way conversation so they
1:04:57 understand a lot of
1:04:59 advanced marketing techniques they’re aware of their ability to
1:05:02 not only be
1:05:03 influenced but influence others and they desire that and of
1:05:07 course they are
1:05:08 constantly changing as fast as memes change as fast as video
1:05:13 trends change
1:05:14 they are changing so we have to figure out a way to keep up with
1:05:18 that and
1:05:19 figure out how we talk to this generation about drugs in a way
1:05:23 that
1:05:23 actually connects with them so one specific challenge about
1:05:26 trying to talk
1:05:27 to Gen Z about drugs on a digital platform is hardly any of them
1:05:33 are
1:05:33 actually looking online for information about drugs they’re not
1:05:37 looking for the
1:05:38 dangers of drugs they’re not trying to find this information but
1:05:42 what they at
1:05:44 least not on social yeah but what they are looking for is
1:05:48 different types of
1:05:49 entertainment some education about what they’re interested in
1:05:54 whether it’s
1:05:55 physical or mental wellness learning how to love themselves
1:05:59 trust other people or
1:06:01 communicate their feelings effectively so we try to drive those
1:06:05 principles we
1:06:06 try to look for ways to entertain while educating look for ways
1:06:11 to be empathetic
1:06:11 and be real with them on a level that we think that they are
1:06:16 relating very well
1:06:18 to and most importantly we are looking for opportunities to
1:06:21 engage them
1:06:21 directly as part of this because this really is a very participatory
1:06:25 generation ultimately our mission is to empower Gen Z to choose
1:06:31 a substance-free
1:06:32 life they already believe that they’re in the driver’s seat what
1:06:35 we want to do
1:06:36 is help them make good choices in that driver’s seat we try to
1:06:41 take that sort
1:06:42 of mentality of all right you’re in charge what are you doing
1:06:45 with your life
1:06:45 then how can you make these how can you make these positive
1:06:49 choices and go
1:06:50 beyond just say no so we designed a prevention campaign to
1:06:56 encourage young
1:06:57 people to make those positive choices to shine a light on their
1:07:01 strengths this is
1:07:03 about finding ways to build on the principles of a theory called
1:07:08 positive
1:07:09 youth development that really is about nurturing competence
1:07:14 confidence
1:07:15 connection character and compassion these are the five C’s of a
1:07:21 positive
1:07:21 youth development and really it’s about building positive
1:07:24 relationships
1:07:25 supporting activities and opportunities that develop their
1:07:29 external assets and
1:07:30 their internal assets in other words their family friends and
1:07:33 school
1:07:33 relationships and their sense of honesty responsibility self-esteem
1:07:39 and
1:07:40 ultimately these are shown in various studies to lead to better
1:07:44 academic
1:07:44 performance fewer missed classes and fewer direct negative
1:07:49 substance
1:07:49 misused related activities our message ultimately is that young
1:07:57 people need to
1:07:58 know that their future will be better without substance use and
1:08:02 we are in this
1:08:04 campaign taking an approach of helping them understand not only
1:08:08 that they are
1:08:09 better without it but what better looks like what it means to be
1:08:13 my best self
1:08:14 these six icons on the screen are kind of our six pillars right
1:08:19 now talking
1:08:20 about self-love resilience kindness presence commitment and
1:08:26 purpose as core
1:08:26 attributes that help our young people be their best selves and
1:08:30 we put each of
1:08:31 those pillars inside of one of four messaging themes which is
1:08:35 your mind is
1:08:36 better without it your body is better without it relationships
1:08:40 and your future
1:08:41 are better without it and using those six pillars will tell how
1:08:46 your body is
1:08:48 better without it for people that are looking for tips on how to
1:08:51 better
1:08:52 maintain their body how to feel more energized and not sleep in
1:08:57 so much and
1:08:58 how to how to regulate some of these things that they’re going
1:09:02 through in
1:09:03 their in their mind how to build better self-confidence and how
1:09:06 to interact with
1:09:07 with others better not just relationships with their peers but
1:09:11 also
1:09:12 with their teachers with their parents even with finances and
1:09:16 what their future
1:09:18 is going to look like if they decide that they’re better without
1:09:23 it so the
1:09:24 first phases of this as we said were heavily if not exclusively
1:09:27 digital we
1:09:28 were on Spotify who Roku we were on Bally Sports during magic
1:09:32 games podcast
1:09:34 network cut off called audiology YouTube we have gotten a large
1:09:40 number of
1:09:41 impressions a large amount of visibility our following on social
1:09:45 media is growing
1:09:46 and which something we care perhaps most about they are
1:09:52 responding they are
1:09:53 leaving comments they are sending us messages they are saving
1:09:56 our posts they
1:09:58 are signing up for our content teams and our focus groups they’re
1:10:01 responding to
1:10:02 surveys so we know that the kids are paying attention now to
1:10:05 what we’re
1:10:05 saying even though we had to put it in front of them a little
1:10:08 bit in order to
1:10:09 get to that point and that is what in fact brings us here now
1:10:14 for another
1:10:16 opportunity to put this in front of students in a different way
1:10:20 so the
1:10:22 diversion program that misty and Stanley were talking about will
1:10:25 go into the two
1:10:27 specific program ideas that we would place before parents as
1:10:32 choices for how
1:10:34 to engage their students in this diversion program the first is
1:10:38 a content
1:10:39 creation challenge so many young people already see themselves
1:10:42 as content
1:10:43 creators as influencers there’s a reason they all have their
1:10:46 phones and cameras
1:10:47 up in front of their faces they’re trying to create something on
1:10:50 their own
1:10:51 so what we would do is provide opportunities for students to
1:10:55 meaningfully engage with prevention education via this content
1:10:58 creation
1:10:59 process so we would work with Brevard Prevention Coalition and
1:11:02 their
1:11:03 counselors to provide a creative prompt an evaluation rubric and
1:11:07 possibly
1:11:08 incentives in order to get the students to produce a concept
1:11:12 that creatively
1:11:13 illustrates one of our key prevention messages facilitators like
1:11:17 creative
1:11:17 professionals like ourselves would be available to provide
1:11:21 guidance to
1:11:22 students throughout that process so they actually get some some
1:11:25 learning and some
1:11:26 growth from that and of course content would be expected to meet
1:11:30 the guidance
1:11:31 of the rubric that we gave and if they provided us with
1:11:35 something that met all
1:11:37 the standards of the rubric we would actually publish it on the
1:11:40 campaign
1:11:41 platforms with permission of course
1:11:45 that’s kind of the broad idea we would give them examples of
1:11:49 course they would
1:11:50 be expected to have a process so they have to show us a storyboard
1:11:53 which would
1:11:54 get evaluated or a script alternately then we would have to
1:11:59 review it they
1:11:59 produce videos show a draft get feedback on the draft before it
1:12:04 actually got
1:12:04 released out into the wild very like it’s it actually is working
1:12:08 in a real
1:12:09 sort of content creating environment professionally which is
1:12:12 something that
1:12:13 we know a lot of them are interested in and then at the end they
1:12:15 would be
1:12:16 expected to present those videos as part of the assignment
1:12:22 another idea is a
1:12:23 level up your skills program so the idea is to teach substance
1:12:29 prevention
1:12:29 principles in a way that also reinforces the benefits of
1:12:33 focusing on a skill so
1:12:35 and the idea is taking game of fate gamification principles like
1:12:40 the start
1:12:40 like RPG role-playing style games and in some of the teaching
1:12:46 techniques and
1:12:47 being able to provide a positive focus on alternatives to
1:12:51 substance misuse so
1:12:53 facilitators would facilitators would provide a type of quest if
1:13:02 you will so
1:13:04 an example would be something in woodworking or auto shop or
1:13:10 music or dance
1:13:11 or visual arts and they would have weekly milestones within this
1:13:17 project
1:13:17 that they are to accomplish which would unlock small incentives
1:13:22 as they move
1:13:23 along and accomplish this this project and once they’ve finished
1:13:28 the project
1:13:29 they would also present to their class what they learned and
1:13:34 what they were
1:13:35 able to create or do so really the whole principle behind this
1:13:41 is almost in how
1:13:42 you’re framing this professional essentially professional
1:13:45 development
1:13:46 activity skills development activity where you turn it into
1:13:50 something that
1:13:51 they are seeking some sort of quest that they are looking toward
1:13:54 and if if a
1:13:55 student is particularly gaming oriented looking at that as a way
1:14:00 to help them
1:14:02 achieve wins as a sense along the lines of avoiding substance
1:14:06 misuse so that is
1:14:08 a brief overview of the program we’re happy to take any
1:14:11 questions about better
1:14:13 without it Stanley and misty can take any other questions
1:14:19 mr. Jenkins seems like you’re grabbing your mic so my question
1:14:41 well first and
1:14:42 first and foremost mr. bridge I’m excited to see you here I
1:14:46 recognize you
1:14:47 and have heard about you throughout the years and you know
1:14:50 personally I know
1:14:51 somebody as well that worked very closely with you I appreciate
1:14:54 all that
1:14:54 you do for our students here in Brevard and I’m glad that you’re
1:14:57 a part of this
1:14:57 conversation it makes me feel very trusting in this process so
1:15:02 thank you
1:15:03 very much so I think my question might be for Miss Bland but it
1:15:07 might be for
1:15:08 mr. bridge as well but I just need a little bit of clarification
1:15:12 so we were
1:15:13 talking about this would be an alternative for a student to not
1:15:18 get
1:15:18 directly placed into an ALC which is fantastic that’s what we’ve
1:15:21 been talking
1:15:21 about for a while here so you had said if they get to the end of
1:15:26 the eight
1:15:26 weeks and they do a drug test and they fail that they would move
1:15:30 to expulsion
1:15:31 and so my my hesitation there and my I need a little
1:15:35 clarification is if it
1:15:38 isn’t that they were necessarily on campus and and tested and
1:15:41 they were
1:15:41 using it on campus it feels a little extreme to me because if we’re
1:15:47 talking
1:15:47 about a drug addiction here right like we don’t necessarily
1:15:51 expect an adult
1:15:53 sometimes in eight weeks to to make the right choices and we’re
1:15:56 talking about
1:15:56 children I kind of would hope that maybe we would consider like
1:16:00 continuing the
1:16:01 program for them or some kind of alternative to just directly an
1:16:05 expulsion just eight weeks later so I just want to throw that
1:16:11 out there and
1:16:15 well I guess if you could talk to that first before I move on if
1:16:19 you can
1:16:20 clarify that if I’m misunderstanding you haven’t misunderstood
1:16:24 so normally if a
1:16:28 kid gets caught with inappropriate substance right we do the
1:16:32 hearing they
1:16:33 go to the ALC at if it’s their first offense they get earn
1:16:37 return during that
1:16:38 time they get tested and if it is positive then they remain the
1:16:43 earn
1:16:44 returns taken away and they stay at the ALC for the end of that
1:16:48 stipulation
1:16:48 conduct agreement which is usually when school is out depending
1:16:53 on when they
1:16:53 start so it’s not that we can’t do that but that is the
1:17:01 consensus that I
1:17:02 received talking to other people talking to principals talking
1:17:08 to assistant
1:17:10 superintendents talking to parents talking to other people about
1:17:14 it it’s
1:17:15 not that we we can’t change that but I guess the well I’ll just
1:17:20 tell you the
1:17:21 feeling behind the majority of the people’s feeling behind that
1:17:28 is we’re
1:17:29 getting students a chance to stay in their school environment
1:17:34 not be sent out
1:17:37 that if they don’t do that and they get in trouble just like we
1:17:43 would do
1:17:44 anything else we would use this like instead of going to the ALC
1:17:47 this is like
1:17:48 the ALC you did receive punishment correct you were this
1:17:52 happened and if
1:17:53 you were at the ALC and you got caught with drugs you would be a
1:17:57 full expulsion
1:17:58 so this is the same exact thing except they’re just not going to
1:18:02 the ALC
1:18:02 they’re going to be at school it’s just as serious that if they
1:18:06 do not follow
1:18:07 that school stipulation conduct agreement there will be it’s
1:18:13 just not
1:18:14 going to be just you know it’s fine and now you can go to the ALC
1:18:18 because they
1:18:21 had a choice they could go to the ALC but if not I think we’re
1:18:27 so I guess so
1:18:28 I guess where I’m struggling where I’m struggling is I
1:18:34 understand that but if a
1:18:37 student chooses to go to the ALC or their family chooses for
1:18:41 them to go to
1:18:42 the ALC even if they continue to mess up they get to stay in an
1:18:48 educational
1:18:49 setting but if a student a family chooses a behavior
1:18:55 modification tool
1:18:56 which is the most appropriate thing for a drug addiction or a
1:18:59 drug offense and
1:19:01 they don’t clean up in eight weeks then that educational
1:19:05 environment option is
1:19:06 removed from them and so I kind of it just to me that’s a little
1:19:10 bit on
1:19:11 balance and it’s kind of like a risk almost for a family to make
1:19:14 that choice
1:19:15 I don’t know it just it feels like there’s like a gap there for
1:19:21 me and I’m
1:19:21 not saying that the student doesn’t deserve some kind of
1:19:25 consequence right
1:19:26 but I guess the consequence to me would then be an ALC placement
1:19:31 I don’t know it
1:19:32 just it feels like there’s a hole there and an imbalance for a
1:19:34 family to make a
1:19:35 choice and we want them to choose the big behavior modification
1:19:39 program
1:19:40 because we think that’s the right option for them I don’t know
1:19:43 it just seems it
1:19:44 seems risky for a family and I absolutely understand that the
1:19:49 the only
1:19:50 piece of that that if they were at the ALC and they did not
1:19:52 there was an issue
1:19:53 with the stipulation conduct agreement the same thing that if
1:19:56 they’re at their
1:19:57 school they would be placed up for an expulsion so if they there’s
1:20:01 drugs or
1:20:02 they don’t allow people to search them there’s a you know the
1:20:06 stipulation
1:20:06 conduct there’s you know like 13 different items that they have
1:20:12 to do
1:20:12 they’re gonna attend counseling they don’t do these things they
1:20:15 are placed up
1:20:16 for an expulsion so I guess the the reason behind that is doing
1:20:21 this
1:20:21 diversion program is just as serious as it is if you were to go
1:20:26 to the ALC so if
1:20:29 you don’t follow the stipulation conduct agreement while you are
1:20:34 able to stay at
1:20:35 your school you would have the same discipline as if you chose
1:20:40 to go to the
1:20:41 ALC because there that would be the same so discipline and
1:20:46 obviously the if you
1:20:48 were it would still be for the the stipulation date would still
1:20:52 be the same
1:20:53 it wouldn’t get longer okay so I I definitely am like ignorant
1:20:57 when it
1:20:57 comes to this area so help me out here for a second so if a like
1:21:01 I know nothing
1:21:01 about this so bear with me so a student gets placed into the ALC
1:21:06 and it was for
1:21:08 a drug offense do those students typically have a timeline of
1:21:12 eight weeks
1:21:12 to be retested I guess the point where I’m confused is if the
1:21:17 student is being
1:21:18 tested in eight weeks because they’re in this program versus
1:21:21 because you’re
1:21:22 suspicious that they’re using it on campus that’s where I’m a
1:21:25 little
1:21:25 confused so how does that work if you were to choose the ALC
1:21:29 route as a drug
1:21:31 offender when would you get tested is it randomized is that part
1:21:36 of your contract
1:21:36 is there a date on there or is it if you’re being suspected as
1:21:40 using it it is
1:21:42 random but 86% of those students are being tested within the
1:21:49 five to seven
1:21:50 week window when they go there because first time offenders
1:21:53 receiving a return
1:21:54 so those kids are actually being tested earlier than our kids in
1:21:58 this program is
1:22:00 to be tested and then if that is positive they are then expelled
1:22:03 from the
1:22:04 ALC then they that contract that earned return they don’t get to
1:22:09 go back to
1:22:09 their home school and they stay until the very end unless they
1:22:14 complete
1:22:14 something else right so that’s where the gap is for me is they
1:22:18 don’t have earned
1:22:19 return so that’s the consequence but then they get to stay in an
1:22:23 educational
1:22:23 setting and so I’m concerned that children who choose the drug
1:22:29 diversion
1:22:32 program don’t have that same opportunity they have a higher
1:22:37 threshold so I
1:22:38 understand that they’re they’re able to stay in their school and
1:22:42 then but to me
1:22:43 I don’t know I it seems like the consequences is stricter for
1:22:45 them when
1:22:46 they’re choosing the better and right more appropriate option
1:22:48 for them do you
1:22:49 I don’t I don’t know if anyone kind of gets where I was going to
1:22:52 talk to them
1:22:52 yeah I guess I would so I missed someone there had to go back
1:22:55 and look at it so
1:22:56 it’s when I first we were going through I was thinking okay they
1:22:59 don’t pass their
1:23:00 drugs test or they don’t finish their program then then they’re
1:23:02 going to the
1:23:02 ALC but we’re not talking about them going to the ALC then they’re
1:23:05 like
1:23:05 expelled expelled so and I’m go ahead because I have other
1:23:10 questions but all
1:23:13 right so kind of the same disconnect that I like consistency and
1:23:18 I’m a math
1:23:19 guy so it’s a flow chart here so and I did notice that of the if
1:23:26 you choose
1:23:26 program you fail the drug test you’re expelled okay you choose
1:23:34 you choose the
1:23:35 ALC you fail the drug test you’re not expelled correct correct
1:23:42 you’re just
1:23:43 sent till the end of your stipulation conduct agreement unless
1:23:46 you do right so
1:23:47 that’s my that’s my disconnect is I know consistency consistencies
1:23:52 where because
1:23:54 you basically committed another expelable offense when you fail
1:23:58 a drug
1:23:58 test so a question would be is how many times can a student
1:24:02 commit an expelable
1:24:03 offense before they’re expelled and it as is explained it just
1:24:08 depends what
1:24:09 program you choose if you choose the drug program one time and
1:24:13 the second
1:24:15 time you’re out if you choose the ALC it seems like you can fail
1:24:20 multiple times
1:24:21 and you don’t get expelled true I know the answer but the
1:24:27 difference though
1:24:28 mr. Trent is that at the ALC they fail the drug test they don’t
1:24:32 get the earned
1:24:33 return but that doesn’t necessarily mean they got something that
1:24:36 kicked him out
1:24:36 of ALC well we kick him out of the ALC to be expelled expelled
1:24:39 from an ALC is
1:24:39 if they had it on them when our kids are ALCs and then they get
1:24:42 expelled
1:24:43 expelled us because they came on campus and they had it on them
1:24:46 or they present
1:24:47 it as under the influence right if they dispel the drug test it
1:24:50 could be they
1:24:51 could be completely at the moment sober and not have anything on
1:24:56 them they just
1:24:57 don’t get a stipulation agreement you know I’m letting you
1:25:00 finish because I I
1:25:01 know that okay exactly however that that’s the questions that we’re
1:25:07 gonna be
1:25:07 asked and kids will find the loopholes and they’ll find it they’ll
1:25:11 find so if
1:25:13 you pass the tests and you go back to your school and you get
1:25:19 caught for a
1:25:20 second time are both students treated the same if they had gone
1:25:25 through the
1:25:25 program have gone through the ALC the student wouldn’t receive
1:25:29 earn return
1:25:30 just like they wouldn’t normally so they would not be able to do
1:25:35 the drug
1:25:36 diversion program but neither one will receive earn return just
1:25:39 like normal if
1:25:40 they were caught the second time and they will placed at the ALC
1:25:44 until
1:25:44 basically the end of the school year it all depends on when you
1:25:47 get in trouble
1:25:47 so how many times can we a student visit the ALC I thought there
1:25:56 I was always
1:25:57 told there is no cutoff there’s no limit at this time so every
1:26:01 time they commit
1:26:01 an expellable offense they can just go to the ALC so they’re not
1:26:04 really being
1:26:05 expelled for an expellable offense I’m just asking well there’s
1:26:10 correct they’re
1:26:11 sent to the ALC and then if they complete an expellable offense
1:26:15 there
1:26:15 then they’re fully expelled but at this time we don’t have a
1:26:21 limit I mean there
1:26:22 are some cases that depending on what it is the sesser violation
1:26:26 that a student
1:26:28 could be fully expelled automatically those are very very few
1:26:32 and very few so
1:26:33 I mean we have many times a here’s little Johnny again at the ALC
1:26:38 seventh
1:26:39 grade eighth grade ninth grade I don’t think the public realizes
1:26:43 that you know
1:26:45 many times is hey there’s a good stop here here’s a chance that
1:26:49 we want to
1:26:50 realize hope you and your family realize that education is
1:26:53 valuable and instead
1:26:55 of just kicking you out and expelling you here’s an alternative
1:26:58 that’s what
1:26:58 the alternative Learning Center but I’m not sure if we’re aware
1:27:01 that it means
1:27:02 your alternative method is every single year depending on what
1:27:07 you get caught
1:27:08 doing which is again I don’t think it’s a good lesson some
1:27:11 people would say it’s
1:27:12 probably not a good deterrent I’ve witnessed teaching there
1:27:16 there are kids
1:27:18 that have actually talked about failing the drug test because
1:27:21 they did not want
1:27:21 to go back to their home school so regardless of the program I
1:27:27 really do
1:27:28 believe we need to end of the road at some point for our parents
1:27:31 and our
1:27:31 students otherwise this is going to keep going so that that’s
1:27:38 that’s my concern
1:27:39 regardless of the program is it one and done two and done three
1:27:43 and done four I
1:27:44 mean how many times are we going to send a student I don’t
1:27:47 believe I I failed if
1:27:49 I don’t want to believe that a first-time offender I’m going to
1:27:52 treat
1:27:52 as a drug addict many of these kids have no idea what they’ve
1:27:55 just done and they
1:27:56 just grabbed the pen and they did it and you know so you know a
1:27:59 deterrent may be
1:28:00 enough that program may be enough but if they can if they’re
1:28:03 going to game the
1:28:04 system they’re going to game the system most kids don’t want to
1:28:07 be in those
1:28:07 students did not want to be in traditional schools and they
1:28:10 chose to
1:28:11 act in a certain way to make sure they stayed at the ALC I know
1:28:16 students have
1:28:16 talked about fighting and creating an issue at ALC so they could
1:28:19 stay at the
1:28:20 ALC because they were knew they were at the drug test was coming
1:28:22 up because then
1:28:23 they might be able to go back to their school so these are
1:28:25 issues that have to
1:28:26 be handled I do believe students need to know if I do this again
1:28:31 I’m out and it
1:28:33 just wasn’t the case there so I’m glad you’re up here and I know
1:28:37 you you feel
1:28:37 some of the same frustration but I hope we can handle that sorry
1:28:41 if I confused
1:28:42 some people I guess I have a different perspective of that and
1:28:46 part of that is
1:28:46 informed by my last visit to the South ALC and with and they
1:28:52 told the stories
1:28:52 about the students intentionally doing whatever to have to stay
1:28:58 but the
1:28:58 perspective was not because let’s just let’s just check on
1:29:02 reality if this kids
1:29:04 didn’t want to be in an educational environment they would not
1:29:06 take the ALC
1:29:07 they would just take the expulsion and they would be not in an
1:29:10 educational
1:29:11 environment period but what I what I am hearing from the staff
1:29:14 of our ALC is is
1:29:16 that this is many of the students who do that it’s because at
1:29:19 the ALC they are in
1:29:20 that second chance environment where people encouraging in them
1:29:23 believing in
1:29:24 them trying whereas when they go back to their home campuses
1:29:27 they’re seen as the
1:29:29 bad kid and that when they come back home it there is a stigma
1:29:34 attached and
1:29:35 so yeah hey over at the ALC I’m getting group counseling I’m
1:29:40 getting whatever
1:29:40 back it back at my home campus I’m just the trouble kid that and
1:29:44 there is that
1:29:44 stigma and we we all have that tendency you know to do that and
1:29:48 but whereas the
1:29:49 ALC teachers are caught they have a room full of trouble kids
1:29:52 and they’re really
1:29:53 focused on trying to do that and and all of the some of the not
1:29:57 all but many of
1:29:58 the distractions that are on their home campuses are gone
1:30:01 because they have to
1:30:02 lock their phones and the lockers on the wall and all of that
1:30:05 and so some of the
1:30:06 kids thrive better in the structure that is at the ALC it’s
1:30:10 heartbreaking that
1:30:11 they think that the best thing for them would be to get in
1:30:13 trouble again so they
1:30:14 stay there but to me that that perspective is a little different
1:30:19 so you
1:30:20 know we can put a I don’t know what the legalities of it I don’t
1:30:23 know if the
1:30:24 board decided we want to have a final you can only go the ALC is
1:30:26 X number of
1:30:26 times but then what we’re doing is there’s they’re not gonna be
1:30:29 placed in
1:30:30 the educational environment ALC it’s not not camp right so but
1:30:34 there are some I
1:30:35 think we need to look closer at what are the reasons why kids do
1:30:38 that and how can
1:30:39 we make their return home better but back on the drug program I
1:30:46 I’m tell you
1:30:46 what I’m fired up I’m ready to I’m ready to get something
1:30:49 rolling because the you
1:30:53 know four years ago we were talking about the vaping issue when
1:30:56 we entered
1:30:56 into the jewel litigation all of that and vaping but then just
1:31:00 the THC in the
1:31:01 vapes that has just taken over and this is a huge issue we’ve
1:31:06 got to do
1:31:07 something about it to me the the main goal of this yes we’re
1:31:10 going to get their
1:31:11 numbers down at areas ALC will give kids more consistent you
1:31:16 know continuity
1:31:16 academic continuity but you know I sometimes as a board read
1:31:22 like we need
1:31:23 to back up and stay in our Lane what was our goal are we’re an
1:31:25 educational
1:31:26 institution but we have to do with this because it’s on our
1:31:28 doorstep it’s
1:31:28 filling our ALCs it’s making our educational environments more
1:31:32 difficult
1:31:32 to manage and so we have to tackle this and I very much
1:31:36 appreciate you bringing
1:31:37 this to us because in order for our kids to do better and to get
1:31:40 it ultimately
1:31:41 I’m gonna just put up be an optimist to get it out of our
1:31:44 schools it’s going to
1:31:46 require support of our students and this kind of support I
1:31:50 believe is absolutely
1:31:53 necessary I had a couple of questions just a group counseling
1:31:57 always have to
1:31:58 be held at the ALC or if we have the numbers because they’re
1:32:02 going to be in
1:32:02 groups of it could we do it occasionally if we had it that eight
1:32:05 to ten number
1:32:06 could we do it closer to home for some students is that a
1:32:11 possibility anything
1:32:14 is a possibility the reason why we said to have it there because
1:32:19 it’s it’s going
1:32:20 to be a distance for some student right it’s going to be
1:32:23 difficult for some
1:32:24 students so we’re just trying to you know try to keep it kind of
1:32:29 what we have
1:32:30 now so if you are from here to here you’re going to go to the
1:32:34 south area and
1:32:35 that’s where you’re gonna receive your counseling and over there
1:32:38 north you know
1:32:39 in the beginning our numbers are not going to be large which is
1:32:43 going to be
1:32:44 important because this is the first time doing this diversion
1:32:48 program and it’s
1:32:49 it’s gonna be a lot of work so which is why I called mr. Brits
1:32:54 here because he’s
1:32:55 absolutely an amazing human so I was just adding to that it’s
1:33:00 obviously when
1:33:01 you’re dealing with use it’s not gonna be a one-size-fits-all so
1:33:04 just having the
1:33:05 options if the student needs to go to the ALC then that might be
1:33:09 the
1:33:09 appropriate move for that student and that family if they need
1:33:12 to do this
1:33:12 director version program that would be the appropriate path for
1:33:16 them and as
1:33:17 misty is explaining right now it is the first time we’re doing
1:33:20 this so we’re
1:33:21 going to continue to build and and try to fill in those gaps and
1:33:25 I got where
1:33:26 miss Jenkins was coming from as well because those are things
1:33:28 that the school
1:33:29 district would have to decide it’s not necessarily part of our
1:33:32 programmatic
1:33:32 piece of it as well as location low-hanging fruit right now is
1:33:37 the ALC
1:33:38 because you have control over those spaces but if something
1:33:41 becomes more
1:33:42 appropriate and available and that’s approved then by all means
1:33:46 whatever
1:33:47 works best for the students so thank you and I realize they’re
1:33:54 gonna stay with
1:33:55 their core cohort so I guess you know it’s not like if we’re
1:33:57 gonna have a
1:33:58 group of the last eight that came on or five you know whatever
1:34:01 they’ll have to
1:34:01 stay so it makes sense to maybe not be able to do them regionally
1:34:04 I because
1:34:05 we’ll have to keep them the kids that start together finished
1:34:08 together I
1:34:10 appreciate the idea of looking for a grant I think we need to
1:34:13 continue to do
1:34:14 that but board I’m just gonna put out the option even though I
1:34:17 had other ideas
1:34:18 for our jewel litigation money this is something that we could
1:34:23 consider to do
1:34:24 the it’s a one-time funding but it would fund it for a couple of
1:34:27 years to get us
1:34:28 started that’s an option I still I I think it might be good to
1:34:32 talk to dr.
1:34:32 Rundell about possibly maybe even stalling little bathroom
1:34:36 things but go
1:34:38 back to the content if I could ask you guys I’m sorry I did not
1:34:43 write down your
1:34:43 names what was it again Carolyn and Greg thank you so much so I
1:34:52 the idea when
1:34:53 you’re talking about students creating contact content was that
1:34:55 actually the
1:34:56 lesson or is that like what you did to prepare the curriculum
1:35:01 their
1:35:04 inclination to already be content creators in a guided way right
1:35:09 all right
1:35:09 when I was listening to that I always kept thinking about was
1:35:12 you know there’s
1:35:13 a graphic that shows about how you learn right and if you hear
1:35:17 you will retain
1:35:18 about 5% and if you write it down maybe 10 take notes whatever
1:35:22 but the highest
1:35:23 is if you teach it to someone else there’s like a 90% retention
1:35:27 of the
1:35:28 things that you learn that’s what you’re doing is having the
1:35:31 students teach
1:35:32 create something that teaches someone else’s so man how powerful
1:35:36 is that and
1:35:37 they can use it to teach potentially thousands or millions of
1:35:41 other kids if
1:35:41 it’s something that we you know that meets all the rubric right
1:35:45 and then
1:35:45 you’re constantly fresh you’re constantly fresh and so if
1:35:49 whatever is
1:35:50 in style if you’re playing a video from five years ago okay
1:35:54 three years ago and
1:35:56 that’s a term that I probably have overused and talking to many
1:35:59 people in
1:35:59 presenting but that cognitive dissonance really does mean
1:36:02 something so if you’re
1:36:04 teaching something and you’re being rated on this and you
1:36:06 created this
1:36:07 imagine something that we’re out of the student we’re talking
1:36:10 about played an
1:36:10 active part in creating this is such a big part of their lives
1:36:13 at this moment
1:36:13 the hope would be that when they’re faced with those negative
1:36:16 choices again
1:36:17 something it’s gonna go off here yes they’re teaching others but
1:36:20 they’re not
1:36:21 an active participant in creating that lesson so to speak it
1:36:24 means more to them
1:36:25 we have to have new approaches that what we call chalk and talk
1:36:28 doesn’t work as
1:36:29 much certain students so I have to tell you guys a story
1:36:46 and I’m trying to keep this these short because I’ve got a
1:36:51 couple of things I
1:36:51 want to mention to you I would let when I went to the LC’s I
1:36:55 guess I say this we
1:36:57 need in addition to this we need prevention programs because we
1:37:00 need
1:37:01 things that are like this that are going to stop our kids from
1:37:03 getting there to
1:37:04 begin with it’s got to be hand-in-hand and student-led when we’re
1:37:10 talking about
1:37:10 the vaping initiative we took students up to Tallahassee we had
1:37:14 students SGA
1:37:15 presidents go back to their campus and they were tasked with
1:37:18 find a way to
1:37:18 communicate to your school about vaping like regular vaping all
1:37:22 right this needs
1:37:24 to be student love I love that this is going to use their
1:37:27 students and infect
1:37:28 them I the story I wanted to tell is when I went to LC that told
1:37:31 me the
1:37:32 story about a girl who came in and they did some time it was
1:37:34 time for her to do
1:37:35 her reading test like the I think high schoolers do reading 180
1:37:38 or whatever and
1:37:38 she was 11th grader and tested a fourth grade reading level and
1:37:43 mr. CJEC said
1:37:44 hey someone does this could have an IEP did we miss it and you
1:37:48 know how did she
1:37:48 get to 11th grade and we didn’t know and then turns out they
1:37:51 tested her again
1:37:52 later and she was back on grade level and they realized she
1:37:55 realized that when
1:37:56 she took the test the first time she was under the influence and
1:38:00 that was the big
1:38:01 eye-opening moment for her was realizing oh my goodness when I’m
1:38:05 doing this look
1:38:07 what’s happening you know to my brain I’m better without it
1:38:10 absolutely so I
1:38:12 love this message and the final challenge I would have to the
1:38:14 board is
1:38:15 you know we just talked about where they’re getting it right
1:38:17 where they’re
1:38:17 getting it from people frequently from people who have a license
1:38:20 who they can
1:38:21 legally use it I don’t I try to stay out of the political world
1:38:26 but the truth is
1:38:26 there we are potentially going to face a vote statewide on
1:38:30 recreational marijuana
1:38:32 I don’t know where your personal stance is my personal stance is
1:38:35 against medical
1:38:36 recreational marijuana use and I think we have a strong case to
1:38:41 consider
1:38:42 because if that passes we are just going to make it more
1:38:45 available for everybody
1:38:46 in the state which is going to affect our students they’re
1:38:49 getting it now it
1:38:50 will be even though it won’t be available for under 18 it let’s
1:38:53 make it
1:38:53 easier because there will be more people that they can ask to
1:38:56 pass it on their
1:38:57 parents their friends it will be so easy for the kids to get it
1:39:01 so bored as as
1:39:03 people who have influence with other people in the state I for
1:39:06 one think that
1:39:07 we need and I’m just the last time I preached a sermon maybe I
1:39:10 think we need
1:39:11 to use our influence to communicate with people in the community
1:39:14 the effect of
1:39:16 THC on our schools on our kids and see if we can help
1:39:20 communicate that this is
1:39:21 not going to be a positive thing for the youth in our state and
1:39:24 it’s not going to
1:39:25 be a positive thing for our schools I think it will be a very
1:39:28 negative thing
1:39:29 because we’re having to deal with this already with it not being
1:39:32 legal and like
1:39:33 I said that’s out of our realm of our a school board but we are
1:39:36 influencers on
1:39:37 our own right and I would encourage us to use that influence to
1:39:41 when that comes
1:39:42 next year great points we have Brevard Prevention Coalition and
1:39:52 then we have
1:39:52 better without it and so I’m just trying to understand what does
1:39:55 this look like a
1:39:56 kid chooses the prevention method they’re gonna go or the
1:39:59 diversion
1:40:00 program and so at that point is the coalition providing drug
1:40:06 counselors or
1:40:07 are you guys I’m just trying to understand the whole pieces
1:40:10 because
1:40:10 there’s a couple moving parts here oh yeah so the school
1:40:14 district would be
1:40:15 contracting or mo you or whatever using using our organization
1:40:19 to provide that
1:40:20 structure for the counselors and for the program facilitation
1:40:23 using the vendors
1:40:24 that we have attached to that initiative better without it okay
1:40:27 and then with the
1:40:28 better without it you spoke about the fact that this is a three-year
1:40:31 program I
1:40:32 guess it’s been in existence for three years correct you created
1:40:34 the campaign
1:40:35 piece of it okay the campaign piece of it are you working with
1:40:38 any other school
1:40:38 districts around the state for the campaign piece not for the
1:40:42 not for a
1:40:43 diversion program but through the campaign pieces we have
1:40:46 presented it to
1:40:47 different school districts okay tell a lot we’ve gone to Tallahassee
1:40:50 as well to
1:40:50 present it to the state okay and then for the social media
1:40:53 content part of it
1:40:54 when they’re creating these things is that is that being pushed
1:40:58 out through
1:40:58 their social media your social media where where does that
1:41:01 information go
1:41:02 once they create so if the parents permit it and if the school
1:41:06 district
1:41:06 permits it it would go on the better without it social media
1:41:09 okay can’t yeah
1:41:11 we’ll go on those social meetings to get the message out broader
1:41:14 if the children
1:41:15 choose to post it on their own that’s between them and their
1:41:17 families okay so
1:41:20 I’m a hundred percent in favor of obviously having some type of
1:41:23 diversion program we
1:41:24 need that that needs to exist within our county just seeing the
1:41:28 number the 426
1:41:30 students that that ended up in the ALC due to drugs obviously is
1:41:34 an indicator
1:41:34 that that’s the largest population of offenders is drug
1:41:37 offenders so I do
1:41:40 believe that we need to do something here I again I I’m probably
1:41:43 a little
1:41:44 old-school in my mentality because I would be what you would
1:41:46 consider one of
1:41:47 those helicopter parents who’s raising two Gen Z kids and
1:41:50 fortunately I you
1:41:51 know I’m grateful that they are they have chosen the path of
1:41:53 staying clean
1:41:54 and not doing drugs and I hope that they continue that path for
1:41:57 their duration of
1:41:58 their life but I think the pro I love the counseling I love the
1:42:04 idea of
1:42:04 getting him in and having the counseling I love the idea of
1:42:06 bringing the family
1:42:07 and I think it’s an important for the entire family structure to
1:42:10 be a part of
1:42:11 that the discipline needs to be consistent though because it
1:42:14 doesn’t it
1:42:14 doesn’t need to be I choose this and my discipline is different
1:42:17 versus I choose
1:42:18 the ALC and now at the ALC I can reoffend reoffend reoffend and
1:42:21 there’s
1:42:22 nothing there so I think those two need to fall in line to some
1:42:25 degree we need
1:42:25 to have consistency there I would like this to be this is the
1:42:31 option but it is
1:42:32 this or nothing I mean I would like them to be mandated to go
1:42:36 through a drug
1:42:37 prevention if they are testing positive I don’t think we should
1:42:40 say to them you
1:42:41 can go to the ALC or you can do this I think it should be you
1:42:44 you’re doing this
1:42:45 and then if that doesn’t work then you’ll go to the ALC kind of
1:42:48 thing
1:42:48 that’s not me that would be yeah obviously that would be a board
1:42:53 decision
1:42:54 but again we would be taking that out of a parent’s hand and
1:42:57 saying this is what
1:42:59 you’re going to choose for your kid so we would have parents
1:43:02 that say I choose
1:43:03 not to do that and I would I want to homeschool my kid and if
1:43:06 that’s what the
1:43:08 board decides then you know that’s what the board decides and I
1:43:11 would be we
1:43:12 would be fine with it this is a resource that our district be
1:43:19 making available to
1:43:20 help a child who potentially is going to go down a path of drug
1:43:23 addiction and so
1:43:24 I would like to believe that our parents obviously have the best
1:43:26 interest of the
1:43:27 child and and that’s where that’s where my heart is with this I’m
1:43:29 sure it’s
1:43:29 where everyone else’s heart is with this on the board but and I’m
1:43:32 only one
1:43:33 obviously a five so I just think I think the either/or I think
1:43:36 we should say this
1:43:37 is what needs to be done and then go from there as far as the
1:43:42 how we
1:43:42 implement this but that would be my suggestion I can stay at my
1:43:51 school this
1:43:52 is the only way I can stay at my school right if you want to
1:43:54 stay at your school
1:43:56 this is what you have to do if you want to have to ride a bus
1:44:00 get up super early
1:44:01 go have your phone locked away and all that kind of stuff for
1:44:04 the next semester
1:44:05 then yeah you can pick the LC so there’s still quite an enticement
1:44:09 and motivation
1:44:10 to you know to do this beyond you know because I mean that that’s
1:44:15 to me that’s
1:44:16 the biggest thing is I can stay in my current classes I don’t
1:44:19 because you
1:44:20 think she talked earlier about some things are not available if
1:44:22 you’re in
1:44:22 specialized classes like CTE classes music the only I think the
1:44:27 only fine
1:44:28 arts classes they have they have art right but you’re you’re not
1:44:30 gonna be in
1:44:31 band you’re not gonna be in choir you’re not gonna be an
1:44:33 automotive all those
1:44:34 things if you want that continuity then you’re gonna I had a
1:44:39 couple more
1:44:40 questions sorry I had a couple more questions just as far as the
1:44:42 counseling
1:44:43 goes is that in-person counseling that is not online counseling
1:44:46 correct that’s
1:44:47 in person it’s in-person counseling so it’s face to face with a
1:44:50 certified drug
1:44:51 prevention counselor and it’s an hour and a half long and you
1:44:55 know some of the
1:44:56 when they go to counseling obviously it may be a little bit
1:44:59 longer because they
1:45:00 have to explain this program they’re gonna be helping the kids
1:45:03 it’s not just
1:45:04 here’s the program fly so there’s a lot more you know a bigger
1:45:07 piece to it that
1:45:08 we didn’t go in depth but the kids are going to be supported you
1:45:11 know
1:45:11 throughout the time and the hour and a half is just the
1:45:15 counseling piece this
1:45:17 is gonna take a lot of their time yeah complete this so it’s not
1:45:21 just a oh yeah
1:45:23 I get to do this and it’s easy I mean it is something that they’re
1:45:25 gonna have to
1:45:26 think about and work at to make changes to be better without it
1:45:31 okay and and
1:45:32 just to and I mean I’m assuming this but I shouldn’t assume
1:45:35 anything but your
1:45:36 recommendation is that we partner with the Brevard Prevention
1:45:39 Coalition in order
1:45:40 to bring this diversion program alongside our ALCs is what is
1:45:44 that
1:45:45 correct absolutely okay 100% okay thank you I mean I’ve done a
1:45:51 lot with mr.
1:45:53 Brits and you know everything’s always done a hundred percent
1:45:57 and he’ll do the
1:46:00 same thing with this as well okay thank you an active
1:46:05 participant in helping to
1:46:07 create better without it you can see by the logos on the screen
1:46:09 but so it took a
1:46:11 few years to really get the information put together as a
1:46:15 foundation for why
1:46:16 this approach has been effective with young people so we stand
1:46:19 behind it as a
1:46:21 messaging and to add to what you’re mentioning earlier there is
1:46:24 also the
1:46:24 skill building component that is on the slide presentation that
1:46:28 I think would
1:46:28 also be key because some students respond to that as well so we’re
1:46:32 trying
1:46:32 our best to have those options there and there’s an incentive to
1:46:35 doing this as
1:46:35 was brought out earlier by Miss Campbell you know for those
1:46:38 students that want to
1:46:39 stay at their home school and participate in those other
1:46:42 programs so
1:46:42 the stakes are gonna be a little higher obviously to make sure
1:46:44 they’re
1:46:45 successful in this program so it’s an eight-week program and yes
1:46:49 for you want
1:46:49 to be tested at the end and the consequences after that may be a
1:46:53 little
1:46:54 stricter but this is an incentive this is an option for you to
1:46:57 have that benefit
1:46:58 of being at your home school for all the things that come with
1:47:02 that you value so
1:47:08 again I heard you didn’t expect the numbers to be large I expect
1:47:14 the numbers
1:47:15 to be huge because of just exactly that I don’t know too many
1:47:19 students that
1:47:20 would elect to go to the ALC versus staying in their home school
1:47:26 no so I
1:47:28 believe you’re gonna get all of those first-time offenders which
1:47:32 also could
1:47:33 lead to cohort cohorts might be difficult if you say you’re
1:47:37 gonna keep
1:47:38 those together because you’re going to be getting onesies and twosies
1:47:42 added
1:47:42 daily weekly right correct but they can start on this program
1:47:50 the drug counselor
1:47:50 is going to be you know having a conversation with them and they
1:47:53 can set
1:47:53 it up and say you’re not starting this week you’re starting the
1:47:56 following week
1:47:57 and your day is going to be Tuesday right so you can’t and but
1:48:02 obviously
1:48:02 we’re gonna work around families and parents because this is you
1:48:07 know this is
1:48:08 what we do right because it’s I think it’s important that we
1:48:11 have a
1:48:12 partnership with the parents because it’s more than just in the
1:48:15 school
1:48:15 they’re obviously doing it outside of school so it’s important
1:48:18 that we build
1:48:18 that partnership and I did see the the one family counseling
1:48:24 session and I
1:48:25 would really hope to see a one in the beginning and one in the
1:48:29 end instead of
1:48:30 just the wherever that one is you know the more we can get them
1:48:34 to get I’m
1:48:34 assuming that you’d want to bring them all in at the beginning
1:48:37 anyway maybe
1:48:37 that’s not even call the meeting but there will be an intake so
1:48:42 they are
1:48:42 going to have a conversation with the parent explain it and I
1:48:49 would love for
1:48:51 there to be eight counseling sessions and eight family
1:48:54 counseling sessions but
1:48:56 I think this is a big job to start out with and I think we need
1:48:59 to make sure we
1:49:00 don’t do more than possibly human you know humanly possible to
1:49:07 do but yes
1:49:08 absolutely I think family involvement and having as much of
1:49:11 family counseling
1:49:12 as possible is where we need to start moving towards and I do
1:49:16 appreciate the
1:49:18 when I heard that there’s a consequence maybe it’s different
1:49:22 consequence of not
1:49:23 choosing or when you choose the program if you can put a lot of
1:49:26 effort money and
1:49:27 resources into it but I do agree with the consistency because I
1:49:32 think there
1:49:32 should be a consequence for not choosing the program and it
1:49:37 probably needs to be
1:49:38 equal in my eyes so that hopefully that’s where we can get again
1:49:42 as you can
1:49:43 kind of see where I’m going the old school of you we gave you
1:49:47 the
1:49:47 opportunity it just can’t be here forever and and and the
1:49:51 program it I’m
1:49:53 trying to fight to not I know I’m oversimplifying but it seems
1:49:57 like you
1:49:58 get into a program you get caught with drugs and you get to do a
1:50:02 project so I’m
1:50:03 hope I know there’s more than that but I’m just saying I also I
1:50:09 didn’t go into
1:50:12 you know detail but the school stipulation conduct agreement
1:50:16 there’s
1:50:17 going to be things that this student can’t do while they’re
1:50:20 under the school
1:50:21 stipulation conduct agreement you can’t call get caught with
1:50:24 drugs and then go
1:50:24 out and represent our school while you’re doing this because
1:50:27 again your
1:50:29 representation of the district and the school so there will be a
1:50:33 few things
1:50:34 that the student will not be able to do but they’ll still be
1:50:38 with their classes
1:50:39 their teachers their friends but it wouldn’t be fair to the
1:50:43 students that
1:50:44 are not being caught with drugs to just say we’re just gonna
1:50:49 have you go for
1:50:50 counseling sessions and do a presentation so that’s also why I
1:50:57 think
1:50:57 the stakes are a little higher but again that decision is going
1:51:01 to be a board
1:51:01 decision overall thank you so much you know we we we we
1:51:07 understand we need
1:51:09 help in those areas and we’re here for you so I appreciate it
1:51:12 all of you so can
1:51:13 I I just I need to circle back to where I’m struggling because
1:51:18 it seemed like at
1:51:20 first mr. cat was kind on the same pathway and then took a major
1:51:24 diversion
1:51:25 so and I don’t mean that offensively I just mean your opinion is
1:51:29 going a
1:51:29 different way you hear what I’m saying it’s just going a
1:51:31 different direction
1:51:32 and I personally don’t want the end of the road for our students
1:51:36 I want to pave
1:51:37 a road to success for them and so I’m struggling here because we
1:51:44 have us we
1:51:46 agree that the majority of drug offenders are going to choose
1:51:49 this
1:51:50 program because they get to say in their school right but if
1:51:54 they fail a drug
1:51:55 test for using outside of school off campus not having it on
1:52:01 them possession
1:52:01 of them they then are expelled and they are removed from the
1:52:05 educational
1:52:05 environment but if we have so essentially we’re going to see not
1:52:12 only
1:52:12 a reduction in ALC students but we’re gonna see an increase of
1:52:16 expulsions
1:52:17 because let’s be real a lot of these kids are gonna fail that
1:52:21 drug test on
1:52:22 the eighth week because it’s not a foolproof thing and to me the
1:52:27 solution
1:52:27 would be to continue to offer support in some way with another
1:52:31 consequence a more
1:52:32 stricter consequence to follow that because if you have a
1:52:38 student B who can
1:52:39 choose the ALC which isn’t delightful by any means but then get
1:52:44 tested for using
1:52:45 off-campus again no possession on campus and still stay in an
1:52:49 educational
1:52:50 environment it seems as though that student has an opportunity
1:52:54 to continue
1:52:55 to be educated while the one who went through the drug diversion
1:52:58 program
1:52:58 doesn’t and I’m not comfortable with that that doesn’t make
1:53:02 sense to me again
1:53:04 not talking about a student who’s caught using it on campus has
1:53:07 it on possession
1:53:08 I just think it’s unrealistic for us as adults to sit here and
1:53:11 say this 14 year
1:53:13 old who’s smoking pot and vaping and outside of school is just
1:53:17 magically
1:53:17 going to stop because they went through this program for eight
1:53:20 weeks we want it
1:53:21 we want to capture them all we want to divert all of it but we
1:53:23 know we’re not
1:53:24 going to and so I feel like we’re setting those kids up to fail
1:53:27 and be
1:53:27 expelled and I don’t think that that is what we should be doing
1:53:31 as an
1:53:31 educational system I think there should be some kind of catch
1:53:34 for those kind of
1:53:35 kids that we expect that to happen and have some kind of
1:53:38 consequence for them
1:53:40 whether it is to go to the ALC then at that point but it just
1:53:44 doesn’t make
1:53:45 sense to me how we’re gonna penalize a student for doing
1:53:47 something off campus I
1:53:49 don’t know it feels really really harsh and strict and I feel
1:53:53 like we’re not
1:53:53 doing right by those kids I absolutely understand what you’re
1:53:58 saying one thing
1:53:59 I would like to say is that when the kids are tested at the ALC
1:54:03 for earn
1:54:04 return between five and seven weeks I think right now we’re at a
1:54:10 94% pass rate
1:54:11 maybe 95 so the kids are actually passing and then you know in a
1:54:16 much
1:54:16 shorter amount of time so instead of eight weeks maybe five
1:54:19 weeks but I do
1:54:22 understand what you’re saying and again it will be a board
1:54:26 decision and that’s
1:54:29 great and I’m happy to hear that but that’s six percent of kids
1:54:33 who are using
1:54:35 THC outside of school I just don’t think it’s right that we are
1:54:40 ending their
1:54:41 educational career if it’s not happening on our campus it just
1:54:46 doesn’t seem right
1:54:47 to me and I think we need to figure out how to deal with that
1:54:53 that disconnect
1:54:54 there if we’re going to then be offering this alternative
1:54:57 program as well as just
1:54:59 the conversation about the choice for a parent to choose this
1:55:02 program or the ALC
1:55:03 I think that there should be the right to the parent to make
1:55:06 that choice
1:55:06 because some parents might believe that that that’s true they
1:55:09 know what their
1:55:10 kids doing at home let’s be real right and some of those parents
1:55:13 might go this
1:55:14 program ain’t gonna help them in eight weeks I don’t I don’t
1:55:16 want them to get
1:55:17 kicked out of school I think they need a stricter consequence to
1:55:20 go to this ALC or
1:55:21 whatever we need to leave that option up to that parent because
1:55:24 they know they
1:55:24 know what’s going on at home because again I’m concerned about
1:55:26 the fact that
1:55:27 these kids are gonna get punished for things that they’re doing
1:55:29 outside of
1:55:30 school I’m sorry this is like ping-pong but when we’re talking
1:55:38 about failing
1:55:38 that drug test after eight eight weeks for example pick pick a
1:55:43 date I know Miss
1:55:45 Jenkins you say outside of school we all know many of those kids
1:55:48 just because
1:55:49 they’re not caught in school they’re vaping in school so I
1:55:52 honestly don’t
1:55:53 care where they’re doing it at the end of that eight weeks and
1:55:55 you say you get
1:55:56 94 95 percent pass rate that’s fine and I don’t believe we’re
1:56:02 saying you can
1:56:02 never learn again maybe this system and this structure is just
1:56:06 not benefiting
1:56:07 you because we still have other people to think about which are
1:56:09 other students
1:56:10 and other parents I mean they’re allowed to do Florida virtual
1:56:13 right if they’re
1:56:14 outside of BPS right we’re not saying yes we’ve gotten in the
1:56:20 workforce and if
1:56:22 we’re talking four five six percent of the the small the
1:56:25 percentage that we’re
1:56:26 talking about to begin with out of our 70 some thousand students
1:56:29 I think we’re
1:56:30 going to service those those children so I appreciate that I
1:56:34 hope you have
1:56:35 extreme confidence in your ability to rehabilitate or show you
1:56:40 know they’re
1:56:40 better without it and we’re giving them a lot of options to
1:56:44 continue their
1:56:45 education and you know sometimes just because we say this isn’t
1:56:49 working that
1:56:50 doesn’t mean you’re not going to be successful in education and
1:56:55 it’s not a
1:56:55 matter of if it’s just when maybe a few years later they’re
1:56:58 gonna be like you
1:56:59 know what you’re right I didn’t appreciate the structure of in
1:57:02 school
1:57:03 you know they in within the brick and mortar and you know maybe
1:57:08 I’ll come back
1:57:08 in or you know or go to a different district or do something but
1:57:12 you know we
1:57:13 can’t be all things that you know to all students at all times
1:57:17 and we do need to
1:57:18 show them that road but it just can’t be a racetrack where it’s
1:57:21 just the same
1:57:21 thing over and over again at some point we have to show our
1:57:25 students and our
1:57:26 children an example that you know at some point your
1:57:30 consequences are going
1:57:31 to lead to a dead end that doesn’t mean it’s over you’re gonna
1:57:33 go somewhere else
1:57:34 so you get we’re giving them that option multiple options so I
1:57:37 appreciate what
1:57:38 you’re doing so I mean it’s clear we we have two different
1:57:44 viewpoints on this
1:57:46 but where we do agree is and it’s two different two different
1:57:50 end results that
1:57:51 we agree on but we do agree that they don’t match right they don’t
1:57:54 match each
1:57:54 other because what I’m here right you you want the other end you
1:57:59 want the
1:57:59 other option but I want this option but we agree they don’t
1:58:01 match and that’s a
1:58:02 problem for me that they don’t match I don’t I don’t agree I don’t
1:58:05 I don’t
1:58:06 want them to have an end and get kicked out but we agree they
1:58:09 don’t match and
1:58:09 that doesn’t make any sense to me that’s inconsistent I think we’re
1:58:11 gonna have
1:58:12 issues with families and and mediation and all that stuff I just
1:58:17 it doesn’t
1:58:17 make any sense to me right because where it could goes after
1:58:20 they go through the
1:58:20 whole ALC thing they could say hey I heard there was a program
1:58:23 right and then
1:58:24 they’ll say you know this family got this choice and then their
1:58:26 kid got
1:58:26 kicked out or you know vice versa and so I think there needs to
1:58:29 be a consistency
1:58:30 again I I’m not advocating for the for ending the road for the
1:58:34 kids but and
1:58:35 that’s fine we have different opinions there but clearly there
1:58:37 needs to be some
1:58:38 kind of consistent consequence but I am going to say just one
1:58:43 final time I’m
1:58:44 concerned that I personally believe that this will result in
1:58:48 either doing it this
1:58:49 way or what mr. Trent is suggesting in an increase of expulsions
1:58:53 of drug
1:58:54 offenders for THC and that’s that’s concerning to me because
1:58:58 that’s not what
1:58:59 we wanted to do in the long run miss Campbell and so I which is
1:59:05 why we need
1:59:06 to have the prevention campaign going alongside it so kids are
1:59:10 hearing from
1:59:11 each other what about ideas to use THC but I thank you for
1:59:17 providing the that
1:59:18 data on the kids who are doing the direct testing for in return
1:59:22 because
1:59:22 that’s that’s that’s a positive sign to me I just feel like we
1:59:26 this is a second
1:59:28 chance I mean it’s the pre second chance I guess you know not
1:59:31 pretty second
1:59:32 chance it’s a just an altar it’s a better alternative to keep
1:59:35 them in but
1:59:35 to me it does it it doesn’t matter whether it’s something they
1:59:39 did at home
1:59:40 or off campus because the goal of the program is to get them to
1:59:42 stop and to
1:59:43 stop you know that it you know yes we don’t want them to have to
1:59:47 go to the ALC
1:59:48 or get expelled but the goal is to get them to choose from now
1:59:53 and all
1:59:53 eternity and they may they may revert at some point to choose a
1:59:57 drug-free lifestyle
1:59:58 because they are I love that I mean it is simple you know better
2:00:02 without it
2:00:03 that that’s the goal and so if the expectation is clear just
2:00:06 like it is
2:00:06 for the kids who are trying to get on return expectation is
2:00:09 clear you are
2:00:10 going to get a drug test at such and such a point they know what
2:00:12 the
2:00:13 expectation is they’re going to be getting as many tools and
2:00:16 their tool
2:00:16 belt to try to to get you know to get past it to get beyond it
2:00:21 to make better
2:00:22 choices then they know it’s coming to me that’s that is fair and
2:00:27 I appreciate
2:00:28 that you taking the time to really get input from all the
2:00:30 stakeholders and from
2:00:32 these other districts because you know you’re out of mind I’m
2:00:34 like I want to
2:00:34 know what everybody else is doing so I appreciate the data
2:00:46 because we have a session after this as well you guys like I
2:00:57 haven’t had a
2:00:59 chance to go through what I was doing so I don’t want to recess
2:01:01 so if you guys
2:01:02 want to just I mean miss Campbell went and got her food if you
2:01:05 guys want to go
2:01:06 it’s not you know it’s what dr. Rendell is gonna bring this kind
2:01:09 of stuff back
2:01:10 to us anyway I just wanted to get to my points so one of the
2:01:14 things I was
2:01:15 looking at is and I want to say thank you mr. Trent you’re
2:01:18 actually the only
2:01:19 person on this board that’s actually taught at the ALCs and
2:01:22 understands the
2:01:23 rhythm of some of these students and understands inside and out
2:01:26 what the way
2:01:27 they are and the way they behave and stuff like that and I
2:01:29 appreciate that
2:01:30 perspective you and I were talking before the board meeting
2:01:33 today and I
2:01:34 said how much I appreciate you because you’re coming right out
2:01:37 of the classroom
2:01:37 and that from a former educator that stopped in 2014 I thought I
2:01:43 had a really
2:01:43 good rhythm with the schools but I go back inside the classrooms
2:01:46 when I
2:01:46 substitute and it’s like you’re so you’re just almost
2:01:49 disconnected because
2:01:50 you try to do the old school thing so I just want to say thank
2:01:52 you for your
2:01:53 perspective one of the questions I wanted to know is we have to
2:01:58 make
2:01:58 decisions prior to the next school year opening right and like
2:02:02 this is what I’m
2:02:04 what I’m my question is in regards to this program how our
2:02:10 discipline is done
2:02:11 all of those things I’m guessing in my head that we’re gonna try
2:02:15 to do
2:02:15 something prior to the beginning of school is that kind of the
2:02:19 target date
2:02:41 on site so you’re in school but you know like this plan was
2:02:48 talking about
2:02:49 there are conditions you know already in place and a student
2:02:53 might violate one of
2:02:55 those conditions and violate their conduct stipulation agreement
2:02:57 and then
2:02:57 suffer whatever the penalty is now at ALC or if we do something
2:03:02 like this at
2:03:03 the home school yeah so we’ll need a few more details to be
2:03:06 worked at about what
2:03:07 those off-site conduct with on-site conduct situation agreements
2:03:10 mean what they look
2:03:11 like if his family does choose this option it’s a higher risk
2:03:17 because it
2:03:19 looks like they could be facing full expulsion if they fail but
2:03:21 it’s a higher
2:03:22 reward because they get to stay in their home school now they
2:03:25 may not be able to
2:03:26 access all the programs like they may not be able to participate
2:03:29 in extra
2:03:29 curriculars but they’d be able to take all those courses you
2:03:32 know so you know
2:03:35 that’s something that you know it’s a high risk but it’s it’s
2:03:38 also a high
2:03:38 reward you get to stay and access your curriculum and maintain
2:03:41 your academic
2:03:42 progress and you’ll still see all your friends and all that kind
2:03:45 of stuff but
2:03:46 the risk is if you violate yeah no I appreciate that so thank
2:03:53 you so I just
2:03:54 wanted to make sure of that and this is not this plan is not
2:03:58 implemented in any
2:04:00 other school districts what they have not as of now so we don’t
2:04:04 have any
2:04:05 metrics on its success or anything like that I’m not saying that
2:04:07 it wouldn’t be
2:04:08 because I love what you guys are doing I was just trying to get
2:04:10 through my notes
2:04:10 and miss bland how many students with the drug offenses will
2:04:17 roll to ALC at
2:04:18 the beginning of next year is there a percentage so we have like
2:04:22 we finished
2:04:23 the year with 150 say for instance and we have a hundred coming
2:04:26 back I mean
2:04:27 what does that look like I would have to get back to you on that
2:04:30 I don’t have
2:04:31 that data however the goal would be to start August 2023 so the
2:04:36 students that
2:04:36 are currently there would not be able to be in this program it
2:04:42 would start August
2:04:43 so our goal is is to take all of the offenses that were before
2:04:48 find a way to
2:04:48 not have them return to the ALC but have some sort of a path or
2:04:54 return they’re
2:04:56 currently under a stipulation conduct agreement so they would
2:04:59 still be under
2:05:00 that stipulation conduct agreement we would not go back unless
2:05:04 that’s a board
2:05:05 decision but we would continue because we’d have to hold these
2:05:07 meetings again
2:05:08 a hearing was held with parents IEPs you know I’m not saying it
2:05:16 can’t be done if
2:05:17 that’s what the board chooses however they are under a stipulation
2:05:22 conduct
2:05:22 agreement and the goal I believe they should finish that contest
2:05:29 stipulation
2:05:29 kind of agreement yeah so I think part of I think part of what
2:05:34 we’re looking at
2:05:35 is creating a program moving forward but the other issue we have
2:05:39 is we have an
2:05:39 emergency need to for capacity and all these other things right
2:05:44 now because if
2:05:45 these kids come back which we’re automatically gonna be already
2:05:48 almost at
2:05:48 capacity and if we were looking at creating it to where they
2:05:51 come back off
2:05:52 of being online over out there there needs to be more here so
2:05:56 that’s all I
2:05:57 just wanted to kind of get through that well and miss plan would
2:06:02 agree with that
2:06:03 August is a wonderful time to be teaching the ALCs as far as
2:06:10 numbers many
2:06:11 of their stipulations run out at the end of the school year so
2:06:14 it’s very small so
2:06:16 we would it would not have an overcrowd am I misspeaking miss
2:06:20 plan the numbers
2:06:21 have increased but I think in the past when I first started this
2:06:24 position we
2:06:25 were starting with 30 now we’re in 60 but it’s but it’s
2:06:30 absolutely doable
2:06:31 because those kids you know they’re not going to be in the ALC
2:06:35 that long in the
2:06:36 alternate learning center and they’ll be going back to their
2:06:39 home school