2023-06-27 - School Board Meeting

15:02 Good morning. The June 27, 2023 board meeting is now in order. I’m happy to welcome my fellow board members and the public. I would like to remind everybody and take this opportunity that the appropriate place for your public public participation in the meeting is during your individual public comment opportunity as identified in the agenda outside your individual public comment opportunity.

15:20 Your role in the meeting is as an observer. Paul, roll call, please. Mister Susan.

15:27 Here. Miss Wright. Here.

15:29 Mister Tripp. Here. Miss Kimmel.

15:31 Here. Miss Jenkins. Here.

15:35 The board will now hold a moment of silent reflection and invite the audience to join. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

16:28 At this time, I’d like to offer my fellow board members and Mister Rendell, Doctor Rendell, an opportunity to recognize students, staff, or members of the community. Who wants to go first? Anybody here? I’m all good. I’m good.

16:43 I like your shirt today. Thank you, sir. Your shirt looks good, man.

16:45 Very patriotic. Month early, but we’re good. A couple days early.

16:48 It’s okay. I’ll go ahead and. Got it.

16:52 All right, Miss Wright. Great. So we’re in a weird time right now where obviously, you know, it’s summer, so our schools aren’t open.

16:56 We don’t get the opportunity to go and visit those sites and see our students, our leaders there. So right now, our attention. My attention has been community based.

17:04 And so I just want to give a shout out to Brevard Schools foundation. So they had a meeting that happened last week, and really it was gathering of the community, of business leaders, of individuals in the school. I think the union was there just to take a deep dive into mental health and what our students, the condition of our students right now.

17:23 So let’s face it, the pandemic, we thought our kids are resilient, they’re bouncing back. But we’re seeing some things that are a little different right now in our kids. And I will say that I had a student in the north end that took their own life.

17:32 And I think that’s something that I just want to say to these kids, if they’re watching this to parents, like, please talk to your kids about these tough things, have those hard conversations. We never want our children to make a permanent decision to a temporary problem. And so for me, I just want to say, hey, kudos to brevard school foundation on really taking a deep dive into this and bringing the community as a whole together.

17:52 To figure out how do we make things better for our kids. So it was a privilege to be there and honored to be there. Thank you to Mister Colucci.

17:58 He was there alongside me as well. So very good. And I expect some great things are going to come out of there.

18:05 Okay, who’s up next? Mister Trent. This will be quick. Yes.

18:10 Being summer, the day after the last board meeting, flew out of town to spend time with my older children, and flew in last night to attend the meeting today. So I will take this time, though, to say to parents and teachers, your students, your children have this time off. Please take the time to do some special things with them.

18:34 Teachers, regroup, recharge, learn some extra things this summer. We appreciate you, but we want you to come back in August smiling and recharge for our children. So that’s it.

18:51 Miss Jenkins, I just want to say a shout out to brevard public libraries. They have a really cute program they’re doing this year for our youngest readers, where if you go to the library with your child, they’ll give you a necklace with some starter beads on it, and they’ll give you a QR code to sign up for an app where you can document the books that your child has been reading. And every time they come back to the library to return their books and pick out new books, they get some more beads to collect on their necklace.

19:20 And at the end of summer, those beads can get cashed in for a raffle, for prizes, for books, for movies, for games, and things of that nature. So thank you to Brevard public libraries for making reading fun and engaging for our students, but also giving an outing for some of our parents who need somewhere to go, quite frankly. I also want to thank the ACLU for coming.

19:43 Last week, I had an opportunity to attend. I found out last minute from a community member that they were coming here. It was a pretty well attended event, talking about censorship in public education.

19:53 I appreciate them for coming, for answering the community’s questions, and I appreciate the community community for being engaged and being concerned and having their voices heard. Thank you for that. I also had an opportunity to meet with the NAACP, the incredible opportunity to meet the president of the state of Florida, as well as the north, central and South Brevard NAACP and other organizations that are very, very active here in Brevard for equity and equality and justice.

20:21 And one of the most compelling moments was something that was actually surprising, which came from the president of the state NAACP, which was basically a scolding to Brevard county in the honor and the name of Harry and Harriet Moore, that we are a county in which two leaders in civil rights who stood for justice and equity, especially in the area of public education, were here in Brevard. And they fought in Brevard and they stayed in Brevard, and their power and their mission expelled and expounded upon Brevard and outside of Brevard and across the state of Florida. And she left with a call to action that we, as members of a community of Brevard county, should be concerned about equity and justice for everyone in Brevard county.

21:11 And I thank her for that message. It was a harsh message. It was a tone nobody expected.

21:17 People thought it was going to be a positive rally of some nature. But I appreciate her so, so, so very much. And I appreciate the community members who were there and the families who shared their stories, some really difficult, difficult, heartbreaking stories.

21:33 I appreciate you. I appreciate that for that. And I just want to give one more shout out to our staff members who took challenge of equity gaps, who took a challenge of the learning deficits from COVID who took a challenge for lack of affordable childcare for our families in the summer and created our enrichment programs for free for our students across Brevard County.

21:59 I have heard they are absolutely incredible, engaging, enriching. Thank you for everyone who is participating in working those seminars for our students, as well as our before and after care. There has been some incredible opportunities.

22:13 I know that the school right behind my home where my child attends serveside had NASA come and attend. I know the students are going to Kennedy Space center. They’re going on field trips, learning about different sports and activities.

22:23 So thank you to all of our staff members who continue to work across the summer and enrich our students. Miss Campbell, thank you for mentioning those summer opportunities. Our schools have been busy and not every school is full of students.

22:37 Some of them are getting new roofs. But we’ve had lots of activities going on. I just want to highlight one in particular that is culminating this week with performances.

22:47 Our summer fine Arts theater workshop will be presenting their musicals this weekend, on Thursday night, Friday night and Saturday afternoon. Board. It’s not too late to get your tickets.

22:57 I did just check on the website, so Mister Brun, if we can, you know, kind of start pushing that on social media and on the website banner so it’s easy to get tickets. The North End will be performing Matilda at Merritt Island High School Thursday, Friday night and Saturday afternoon matinee show. And then the south end will be performing Pippin at Satellite High School with a fantastic bass player in the orchestra.

23:21 So I hope you get a chance to get those tickets there. It’s always a great, great show, and we’d love, love for as many of the community members to come. And we have packed to houses for every performance.

23:30 Thank you. Thank you. I think everybody’s gone so far, right? We’re good.

23:36 I want to say thank you for everybody coming. When we have a lot of people inside the room, we really enjoy hearing, because from a perspective as far as the school board, this is your avenue to advocate for the different causes that you have. And I really, really appreciate both the new incoming leadership inside of Brevard and also some of the individuals that are coming and advocating for their causes, because that’s what’s needed inside, and that’s what our democracy is about.

24:00 I wanted to say thank you to the home builders and contractors for coming forward today with a check for our Coco career and technical education center. I think that that’s a great opportunity for one of the programs that we have that’s at need. Many people know that Coco is one of our career and technical centers that’s in most need, because if anybody’s ever driven through the industrial center centers of Coco, it’s one of the backbones for our county.

24:22 As far as producing a lot of the things that we do, as far as construction, as far as brick masonry, as far as everything inside of there, it’s pretty incredible. So that’s a great opportunity. And I want to say thank you to the home builders and contractors.

24:34 Also on the agenda today, we also have some of the trades people that I spoke to ahead of time. I wanted to say thank you. I grew up in the construction and trades life.

24:45 My dad was a electrical contractor who was a part of the Ibew electrical union in Detroit. And I grew up since I was eight years old, running pipe, pulling wire, and doing everything on commercial construction. And I appreciate what you guys do every day.

25:00 And if anybody ever has any question as to how much work these individuals do, take a look at every one of our schools that has construction going on right now. Misses Campbell referred to it that many of our schools are under construction and were unable to have some of these programs. I will tell you right now, the backbone of our school district to be able to run runs through many of our 1010 people.

25:20 And we appreciate you being here today, and we appreciate who you are. Thank you for talking to me ahead of time. I also wanted to take a second.

25:26 Miss Sarah Robinson is inside the crowd here, and she’s the former principal to Viera High school I want to wish you the best of luck moving forward on your family. I personally know what it takes to have somebody inside your family move towards making that commitment. And I truly support you.

25:43 And I want to say thank you for all of your work. Many people don’t know, but the things that Miss Sarah Robinson has done at Viera have been absolutely incredible. It is the largest school that we have.

25:53 It is huge in responsibility and you’ve done a superb job. So I wanted to say thank you for all of your work. Thank you for everything that you did.

26:00 And we look forward to having those kids grow and then you come back as soon as possible so that we can have you again. So thank you very much. I also wanted to talk about thank Doctor Sullivan and others who put together those summer opportunities that we were speaking to earlier.

26:12 They’re amazing. We have kids that are doing stuff that we’ve never done before and that is direct representation of this district and the leadership that has happened. And I really want to say, if you have not had an opportunity to see what’s going on in our district, many of the other things get more, more press than what actually is going on.

26:29 And I wish that more was going on with what we’re doing because that’s, that is incredible. The things that go on inside of our schools this summer for summer school opportunities, for summer school programs, it’s incredible. We would have dreamed to have some of those things happening.

26:43 And if you get an opportunity, reach out or look out for our communications to see how those things are going. I also wanted to say thank you to Kevin Robinson, head of athletics. Now, he just took over, what, ten days ago and I met with him and talked to him on the phone about different things.

26:58 And one of the issues that we have is that we are expanding athletics because many people know that one of the issues we have inside of our schools is discipline. And if you expand the athletics into the middle school, you give those kids opportunities that they are willing to work towards for those discipline issues. Many of the kids that I coached as a football coach, or a baseball coach, or a track coach, or lacrosse or wrestling were right on the edge and they were difficult kids.

27:22 But when they had the mentor inside there, when they had an idea of hey, if I stay in here and I work hard, I’ll be able to not only do well in school, but I have something that I can compete against. It gave those kids an extra up and that is what we’re working on. And I wanted to say a big shout out to Kevin because he came on and I was waiting for doctor Rendell.

27:40 I said, doctor Rendell, can I talk to him? Can I talk to him? He finally said yes. So Kevin got a big holy cow. This is what we’re really doing as far as expansion all the way down to elementary schools, to middle schools, to high schools.

27:50 It’s just going to be an incredible opportunity for our kids. I also wanted to say, absolutely misses Jenkins. As far as Harry T.

27:58 Moore, many people don’t know, but I was a dual major in history and political science and my history major was civil rights. And one of the individuals not knowing before I even moved, moved to Brevard, was I wrote my senior thesis on Harry Tim Moore and the person that wrote the book, Harry Green. Mister Green is an amazing author and we keep in touch all the time.

28:21 Many people don’t know that what we did with the Harry T. Moore center was we two years ago put the Harry T. Moore story and all of the other pieces in curriculum into our actual curriculum and made sure that his story was a part of ours.

28:32 Because it’s a dynamic, absolutely amazing story. Story that should never be forgotten. We also rescinded the fact that his teaching certificate and his wife’s were taken away back in the day for the activities that they did.

28:48 And I just wanted to say thank you for Miss Jenkins, for bringing that up. I wanted to talk about the commitment that we actually have to the Harry T. Moore and the civil rights inside of our area.

28:55 And I wanted to say thank you for that. With that, we can move on, mister chair. To Mister Brenda.

29:01 We can jump in if I can jump in. No, no, no. I always give it to you.

29:04 Okay. All right. We’re getting new at this.

29:06 Are we ready? Yeah. Go for it, doctor Rendell. Thank you Mister chair.

29:09 We have two presentations today. One, Mister Susan, referenced that earlier. We are very fortunate here in Brevard to have strong partnerships with our local businesses and other organizations.

29:21 So at this time, I’d like to ask Christina Slayton of the Space Coast Home Builders association. Association to come up to the podium. She has a special presentation for the Cocoa High School construction trades program.

29:35 So I’m going to turn the mic over to her. Thank you. Good morning, mister chairman and members of the school board.

29:43 My name is Christina Slate and I’m the past president of the Space Coast Home Builders and Contractors association. And with me today, we have some representatives from our board of directors. Directors.

29:53 As well as our golf tournament committee. With us we have our secretary Kerry Kundi from Joyell Homes. We also have board member Bruce Moyer from MBV Engineering.

30:06 And from our golf tournament committee we have Mason Howe from Whitecap and Virginia Sierra from Regents bank. Unfortunately, our president, Bob DeBella couldn’t be with us today, nor could our golf committee chair, Mike Jaffe. But I’d also like to recognize the professional team from our association with us today, John Thomas, our CEO and Tory Johnson, our membership coordinator the Space Coast HBCA.

30:36 For those of you that aren’t familiar with us, we represent 340 home building companies, general contractors, trades and other corporations that are associated with the building industry such as banks, supply companies, engineering firms, attorneys, insurance companies and those other of the like. Our association focuses on three primary government advocacy, education and business development. Each year we host an incredibly popular golf tournament that not only benefits our association, but also our tournament committee also selects a charity each year to provide a monetary gift.

31:17 Past recipients have included sorry if you couldn’t hear me really well. Past recipients have included promise and Brevard, wings of Grace ministries and Nana’s house. This year the committee selected Cocoa High School building and construction technology program.

31:33 The Space Coast HBCA appreciates all the board this board has done for supporting CTE in our schools and we hope that our relationship will only strengthen in the future. At this time, I’d like to invite up those from our association that are with us so that we can present our donation on behalf of the 340 members of $2,000 to the building and construction technology program at Cocoa High School. In addition, Joy Al Homes, one of our member contractors, is contributing an additional 300 $5350 towards the same program.

32:22 So we if the board members could come up and accept a check on behalf of Cocoa High School. Coco High School’s administration is attending a conference so they couldn’t be here today. But the board members can certainly accept the check, at least the ceremonial check, and we can get a picture.

32:35 Thank you. I just did want to say that during that golf tournament that you had forgotten to say how great the school board members played that came out to play with you guys. You know, there was a bright shining golf pro that was out there, Mister Trent.

34:04 And I think that the numbers that we didn’t win by may be able to be called in question because we legit put our stuff down. Some of your other players may not have. So we want to call a course judge to follow those other teams because I think we played pretty good together.

34:18 So I did just want to say thank you guys means a lot to us and we appreciate any of the time that our trades programs get an opportunity. I know many of you guys personally, and I just wanted to say thanks and we look forward to hearing and having another check next year. We have a lot of career and technical programs that are in many different areas and we’d love that support.

34:36 So thank you so much. Appreciate it. Doctor Rendell, you have somebody else? Yes, sir.

34:39 So I’d like to ask Cindy Laszynski, our CFO, to come up to the front while I talk about her and her department. And so any members of our department that she’d like to bring up as well. So we’re very fortunate to have a strong finance department.

34:53 And we were recognized by the association of School Business Officials for our work. So I’m going to read this verbatim so I make sure I don’t miss anything. The association of School Business Officials International honored the School board of Brevard county with their certificate of excellence in financial reporting for the annual comprehensive financial report for the fiscal year ending 2022.

35:20 This award represents a significant achievement and reflects your commitment to transparency and high quality financial reporting. So congratulations to our finance department, led by CFO Cindy Laszynski, for achieving this award and providing much transparency to our community on our finances. Congratulations.

35:44 Good job, guys. Good job. Good job.

35:49 They got to keep scooting. There’s a lot going to get double row here. Do you want me to go down there and help them out? No, I think she’s directing traffic.

35:57 Good enough. Yeah. Have some of you stand up on the back.

36:05 Yeah. Good job. I’m gonna roll this on a regular basis.

36:23 Every angle there is. I want to take a few back. Yeah, my shoulders, right.

37:00 You guys gotta all look at me. Here we go. I just want everyone to know that this award is really, really a big deal.

37:44 So we not only get a clean audit, but we’re identified as actually just going beyond. So I’m so incredibly proud of our folks. They do really, really amazing work.

37:59 And, you know, this is our team, but it’s also the entire district. Anybody that touches a PO or a pee card or anything, all the things that we purchase is very clear. It’s very transparent.

38:14 And it shows what we believe, believe in as a school district. And that’s making sure that every child, every student gets an excellent education. And I just.

38:27 I can’t be more proud. And one of the things that rich Miller and his team are leading to become more automated. And the hope is that we can put out this report quicker, you know, with less corrections because of, you know, less hand touches.

38:49 And things like that, just to make sure that we can automate and we’re moving. It’s. They’re a great team, they’re super smart and they’re doing a lot of great things.

39:00 Thank you. Congratulations again. Congratulations.

39:04 Doctor Indell, could I. If I just jump in. You know, I was, I was serious about what I told him second ago, which is. It makes me nervous when all these people are in here because I think what is falling apart when the entire finance team, budget team are in here.

39:15 So they do such a great job. These are people, some of whom I’ve actually never seen before, because they are heads down, working hard, making everything run. And so we’re so thankful for all of you and glad you, even though you’re not the kind of people who like the spotlight we got, glad you got your moment in the spotlight today.

39:36 Congratulations again to the department, Mister Susan. That’s it. Good? Yep, I’m good.

39:40 All right. That brings us to the adoption of the agenda. Doctor Rendell.

39:45 On this morning’s agenda, we have administrative staff recommendations, 29 consent items, one public hearing item, two action items and one information item. Changes made to the agenda since release to the public include the addition of f 17 job description, early childhood registrar data specialist and f 22 renew the school board’s casualty insurance policies. Also, the deletion of award of bid 23 913 B hd freedom seven elementary school and revisions to a seven administrative staff recommendations, f 32, which is the 2023 educational Plant survey and f 38 outside legal counsel contract 23 104.

40:29 Two A. Kr. Wagstaff and Cartmel ll and co counsel regarding social media litigation. Do I hear a motion move to approve? Second, is there any discussion? All in favor, signify by saying aye.

40:46 Aye. All opposed? We are now at the administrative staff recommendations. Do I hear a motion? Second, is there any discussion? All right.

41:01 All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay.

41:06 Okay, doctor Rendell. Thank you, mister chair. This is a great moment for a lot of people in the room today.

41:10 It’s a great moment for brevard public schools with some people taking on new leadership roles. This is the time where we celebrate their journey into administration or their journey up the ladder in administration. So the first person we want to recognize as Deanna Smith, who is moving from the position of assistant principal at Enterprise elementary to the school, to the position of principal at Meadowlane Primary Elementary School, Deanna Smith.

41:38 Thank you so much. I would like to thank the board, Doctor Rendell, and misses Klein for this opportunity. It has been an honor and a privilege to.

41:47 To serve the Port St. John community. These past four years as assistant principal at Enterprise, I have built some incredible relationships with my staff, my students and my families there and I’m going to miss seeing them each and every day. Throughout my career here in Brevard, I’ve had the opportunity to work with many great leaders.

42:07 But I have to give a special thank you to Misses Dufresne. I have learned and grown so much under your leadership and I truly don’t believe I’d be where I am today without your guidance and support. So thank you for everything.

42:07 I have to thank my family. I’m fortunate to have my husband Brian, my son Landon and my daughter Sophia here with me today and many family members watching from home. I’m just so thankful for their belief in me and the support that they provide me.

42:37 And it’s because of you that motivates me and inspires me to reach my goals. So thank you for that. And lastly, I am super excited to be joining the team at Meadow Lane and serving the west Melbourne community.

42:50 And I cannot wait to meet the staff, students and families there very, very soon. So thank you all so much. Congratulations.

43:02 So next we’d like to recognize Christine Makalavaj who is going from the position of teacher on assignment at Gardendale separate day school to the position of assistant principal at Cape View Elementary School. I’m Kristen Mikolovich. That’s pretty good, doctor Randell.

43:18 Thank you, doctor Rendell and the board. I am super excited to be coming to Cape View. Melissa Long, thank you for having me.

43:26 When I walked in here today, the first friendly face I saw was Mister Rashad Wilson over there and he gave me some beginning leadership opportunities at Coco. I’m very grateful for that. I used some of your initiatives examples in my interviews.

43:41 I had a lot to draw from. So I really appreciate you for that and how that changed me as a teacher. Thank you to Misty Bland, Kelly Grogan for hiring me at Gardendale last year.

43:50 That was probably the highlight of my career so far and I’m really looking forward to moving on at Cape View. I feel like I’m coming home to Cape View because my son was a 6th grade graduate there many years ago. He’s at Viera now.

44:06 Lastly, I want to thank my husband of almost 30 years. He has certainly endured and you know, I’m really excited. Proud to be a rocket.

44:16 Thank you. Congratulations. Next we have Lisa McGowan, who’s going from the position of EsE support specialist to the position of assistant principal at Freedom seven elementary School good morning.

44:35 Thank you everyone. First, I would like to thank the board, Doctor Rendell, Jane Klein in elementary leading and learning for providing this opportunity. I’m sincerely grateful for Alexis van Duren, art teacher and Jennifer no, IB coordinator and especially Catherine Lott of freedom seven for taking your time to interview me and believing in me.

44:37 I would like to thank Doctor Patricia Fontan for hiring me as a support specialist new to Brevard county nine years ago and her leadership the past nine years. I’m sincerely thankful for Doctor Laurie Braga, Christine Carver, Stephanie White and Christine Rosado, my Gemini and indie Atlantic elementary work family, for spending the past years with me and believing in me as a leader. And I’d also like to thank Jennifer Julian, principal at Columbia, for her mentorship, both support, personal and professional.

45:28 And finally, last but certainly not least, I’d like to thank my husband, Jeffrey McGowan for his love, patience and support. And my daughter Zoe for reminding me that play and laughter are just as important as hard work. Thank you all and I look forward to this new chapter.

45:47 Congratulations. So next we’d like to recognize Erica Lucarotti, who is the new assistant principal at Lochmar elementary school. Erica, good morning.

46:05 Thank you mister chair, board members and doctor Rendell for this opportunity. And also thank you Misses Klein for welcoming me back to Brevard Public schools. I am so excited to be joining this awesome team of teachers and administrators once again, prior to stepping into leadership for the first time, I’ve had some fantastic role models and administrators to learn from.

46:32 And I would like to thank Elaine Pasanisi, Darlene Rogers for believing in me and pushing me out the door to become an administrator. And then miss Stephanie hall for taking a chance on me several years ago. She has taught me so much.

46:47 And then once again misses Campione for her, you know, belief in me that I can come back and do a good job leading Brevard public schools. A few other people I’d like to recognize Miss Kelly Gunter and her leadership over the past two years. And also Doctor Roberts and doctor Ivory for their guidance through my leadership journey.

47:13 I unfortunately do not have my husband here, but he has been my rock without him and my two little boys keeping me going and on my toes all the time. I don’t know how I have the energy for this job, but I love and truly believe in the work that we do for our kids and I am so excited to be back. So thank you so much.

47:41 So next up we have Patrick Harrigan, who’s going from the position of teacher at Stevenson Elementary School to the position of assistant principal at Stevenson Elementary School. Mister Harrigan. Oh good, you’re recording it.

47:58 Thank you to the board. Doctor Rendell misses Klein for this opportunity. It’s been nine years for me at Stevenson.

48:11 Tiffany Flieger has been instrumental in my growth and development as a leader. So I cannot imagine I’d be standing here giving this poorly prepared speech without our assistance. I like to thank my parents because also it would be really hard if you guys were not here for me not to be here, and for having raised me and to give me the tools I needed.

48:42 Jennifer is my wife, she’s a kindergarten teacher. She helps with our two boys and they are a handful and I love them. And we decided that they could watch us later.

48:56 Thank you all very much. Congratulations. So next up we have Prashonda Leonard, who is going from teacher at Jackson Middle School to assistant principal at Space Coast Junior Senior High School, Prasonda.

49:17 Good morning. I would just like to thank the board. Thank you Doctor Rendell, Doctor Sullivan, Miss Wyll, Doctor Ivory, thank you so much for believing in me.

49:28 Mister Flora, thank you for believing in me. I also like to thank my family that’s here with me today and my friends. My husband Richard, my son Richie came all the way down from Gainesville to bless us with his presence.

49:39 Go gators. My cousins that came all the way over from Orlando, one of them worked all night long for the medical examiner’s office and she came on over this morning, she hasn’t even been asleep yet. My friend Ann.

49:53 All my family that’s watching online, my daughter Ashley, she couldn’t be here because she is in Louisiana. She’s graduated from law school, she’s studying for the bar. Hey, to all my family that’s watching online, I just want to say thank you guys for being there for me and your unwavering support.

50:07 I’m so excited to be a space coast viper. I can’t wait to get to work. Thank you.

50:19 So last we have Christopher Higginbotham, who’s going from assistant principal at Gardendale Separate Day school, to the position of assistant principal at Viera High School. Congratulations. Thank you.

50:31 I just wanted to thank doctor O’Brien, Misty bland and Kelly Grugen for getting me here. I wanted to thank Miss Robinson, the AP’s at Viera High school. Miss Vega, I don’t know where she’s at, but she’s back there.

50:51 Also, thank you to the board. I’ve met each and every one of you at the campus of Gardendale and of course. Doctor Rendell, thank you for this opportunity.

51:01 And last but not least, my beautiful wife. The number one supporter for all these people is honestly the family. So I don’t think we could do it without them.

51:11 But thank you. Thank you, mister chair. I think we’re done.

51:20 Thank you. We’re now on to the public comments. Port does.

51:22 I’m sorry, does anybody wish to say anything? Miss Jenkins, we have two significant resignations. And these two incredible women asked me not to say anything. And I told them I don’t.

51:35 Promise, promise I’ll do that. So I’m not reneging. But it would be an absolute disgrace and disservice to not recognize them today.

51:46 And so I’m going to take the opportunity to do that. Doctor McKinnon, you are a queen. I have appreciated your friendship, your honesty, your kindness from the day that I’ve met you.

52:01 The second that I met you. You live, breathe, die for what you do for a living. And I only could hope to achieve, to be the career professional that you are.

52:15 I am grateful to have shared time with you. I am grateful to have learned with you, and to commiserate with you. There is so much that this woman has done for this organization that has not been highlighted.

52:29 She was given little to. No resources, no staff. She had mitigated an intense, disturbing racial injustice in one of our middle schools that was continuing for almost a year.

52:50 She mitigated it save the face of brevard public schools to support the administration, and the teachers, and the families and the students, and to provide a learning opportunity for our students who were making significantly wrong choices. And I appreciate you for that. And that goes unrecognized, because it isn’t talked about.

53:05 And I appreciate you for that. She was tasked with hosting our first historically black colleges and universities night here in Brevard Public School with again, zero staff, zero resources, and barely any time. She came together with our community, with those colleges and universities.

53:31 And the first one she held here was a packed house with over 500 people in attendance. And at that point, that was one of our highest attended parent engagement events we’ve ever had here at Brevard public schools. But then that wasn’t enough for her.

53:44 And the following year, she doubled down and had over a thousand people at the historically back college and university night at Viera High School. And I guarantee if she was to stick around, there’d be 1500 the following year. You are an incredible human being.

54:01 You deserve nothing but acknowledgement, respect. And I am so proud of you for where you’re going. I’m excited for you and I am so glad that you get to leave with a badge of honor and integrity and continue to do what you do, love and affect change to kids who need it the most.

54:17 And I guess they’re technically adults now, but whatever. I am so proud of you. Thank you.

54:23 Thank you for all that you do. And I’m sorry if you. I know you didn’t want to shout out but you deserve it.

54:28 And I’m not going to be quiet about it. I’m sorry doctor Sullivan. I’m going to try not to repeat myself with words but it’s hard.

55:05 You have given over 25 years of service. Service to brevard public schools. I have received letters of love, shock, awe, support, consideration and concern.

55:19 From the second that people heard that you had made this decision. You are an incredible professional. It will literally be impossible to replace your position.

55:37 You, just like many of our staff members, wore 25 hats and did 25 jobs. And you did them spectacularly. You gave 60 to 70 hours of your life during COVID You answered phone calls at 203:00 in the morning to help our families who were struggling.

55:57 You supported our administrators who were new through challenges. You pushed them to go to schools that they may not have felt comfortable with. To find out that that was the perfect fit for them and for some of our most difficult schools, communities and students who needed it the most.

56:15 You have held this organization to a standard of integrity and accountability and transparency every single financial step of the way, which shouldn’t even be your job. You took on our cares act funding, you took on our Esser funding and you demanded that we put that out to the public as transparently as possible. Every single time there was the tiniest little change, the board was updated about it and so was the public.

56:41 That is so critical. You have remained a constant, neutral voice in the most divisive political time in education possible, the most neutral voice navigating one of the most hot topics that we have right now, again, demanding transparency. You as well deserve nothing but accolade and respect.

57:13 And I respect your integrity and your conviction. I am so happy for you to move on to something else in your life. I hate that you’re leaving us.

57:26 You know that. I told you that. But I appreciate you so much.

57:31 And I hope you know, I hope you know that this message left rippling effects in this. In this organization. Rippling effects.

57:39 I shared some with you, but I absolutely didn’t share them all. Rippling effects. And I’m sorry.

57:45 Again, I know you told me not to acknowledge you here, but I’m absolutely not going to ignore that. Over 25 years of service to brevard public schools and a husband who is an educator as well. I hope that my husband and I can continue in public education as long as you two did with the integrity and conviction that you have.

58:07 And I appreciate you and I wish you nothing but success and the best in the future. Thank you. Miss Campbell, you wanted to say something? So the last three years in education have been very difficult.

58:42 You know, it was not easy before then, but I very much appreciate Doctor McKinnon’s, the attitude and the smile, the joy that she brought to her job. I don’t think I ever walked into a room that I wasn’t greeted with just, you know, just a face full of sunshine. And so I appreciate, and it was a tough, it’s just the title of your job being a point of controversy, but I appreciate that you jumped in wherever needed and really were part of a team and surrounded yourself with the team so that everybody was engaged because the work that you were doing is something that we all need to be a part of.

59:02 And so I appreciate much the work that you’ve done it for the people who only started paying attention to our meetings in the last couple of years. Some of you missed the extensive responsibilities that were laid on the shoulders of Doctor Sullivan, who led our reopening task force and those record breaking eleven and a half hour meetings that we had in the summer of 2020. She was the point person and I don’t think she thought it was going to be eleven and a half hour meetings.

59:54 I think the staff thought it was coming and present it to us and we’d be over in four or 5 hours. And the board, you know, took that plan that they had so carefully crafted and kind of just, I won’t say tore it all apart, but, you know, just wanted to get into every bit because it was so crucial and just answer those questions. There is, you know, and I’m going to add in there, Miss Klein, who, you know, they, they are quite a team.

1:00:16 And through those years and then beyond, there are when we get angry emails, just to give you a little insight into how the board operates, sometimes we get angry emails from parents. You know, our first responsibility is, hey, go back to the teacher, did you go back to the principal? You know, follow the chain of command, but then at certain points you send them straight on up, right? And the straight on up is to these two ladies, Miss Klein and Doctor Sullivan. And I have to tell you, I have so many I could just tell you, except for most of these stories, I can’t tell you, but because of, you know, student right, privacy rights, but story after story after story after story of these two ladies handling those conflict situations with so much grace and tact and compassion with students, when students would reach out with parents, with you guys, you principals and assistant principals who know they had to take, you take a lot of heat, but then the heat sometimes goes over your head and then they, they take it for you.

1:01:15 And so just, just finding solutions and I’m so thankful for the solutions that you found because me as a board member, I don’t have the power and it’s not my responsibility to find those solutions for people. They come to me and they want, I want a solution. I want a solution now.

1:01:31 And I knew that you, you two ladies would take those problems and turn them into solutions and you did that so, so many times. You worked so well with these teams and with our community. And I know you’re not gone.

1:01:41 I’m glad you’re going to be here for another month to help with the transition, but you are very much appreciated and I wish you all the best. And you two ladies have been on my prayer list for the pressure that you’ve been under, certainly for the, for the last several years. But also just wanted to add my appreciation and admiration to this, the work that you both have done.

1:02:04 I know that you have great support networks at home and look forward to hearing where you are used in the future. Thank you Mister Trump. Sure.

1:02:20 Being new to the board, I didn’t have years and years of experience working with the two ladies that we’re talking about here, but the. Doctor McKinnon, congratulations. Your new position, it’s got to be exciting.

1:02:33 That’s one thing here at BPS is we should and we will be priding ourselves on the advancement of our employees. And we wish you the best. And to Doctor Sullivan, I truly wish you the best in whatever life brings you next.

1:02:49 I know dedicating 25 years to any organization is worth mentioning. So thank you for what you’ve given us here at BPS and wish you the best in the future. Thank you very much.

1:03:03 I would agree with a lot of your comments, Miss Jenkins, 100% appreciative of the work that these three individuals have given us. Doctor McKinnon, thank you for the time that you’ve been here. Thank you for the work that you’ve done.

1:03:15 You worked with me on many issues that I was able to call you, you answered them, you got them done, and we got them completely taken care of in an effective time and I appreciate that. You also made made me a part of the organization where you called me in it to speak to a lot of the different groups that are inside of our community to make sure that we advocate correctly with them. And I appreciate your work.

1:03:32 Just like what Miss Jenkins said, putting together some of those events were some of the most prolific for many of our students. And I truly appreciate your work here in Brevard and I wish you the best of luck on your next step. Let us know how we can help you in that regards.

1:03:45 There might be some connectivity there, something like that. So thank you so much for that. Doctor Sullivan.

1:03:50 I truly appreciate all your work. There has never been anybody that I feel tackles an attempt or any time like we had a situation. Many of the things that were spoken to were taking over CARES act, taking over all of these other issues that you’ve done.

1:04:05 And then we had a situation where student services had no leader for a little bit and you took that over too. So I want to just say from a perspective of taking over and doing a great job in your work here at the district, your work as far as 25 plus years inside the district is greatly appreciated. Not many people know the prolific work that she did as a coco principal and some of the things that go on at Coco and she’s truly appreciated back there.

1:04:30 And I just wanted to say thank you. As I was sitting here talking about the programs that are available over the summer and there’s just so many pieces that you’ve done. I started getting emails from videos and stuff like that of some of those programs or texts on my phone from them.

1:04:30 And I just wanted to say thank you for all of your work. Wish you the best of luck. If there’s anything I can do to help you from my perspective, I’m always there for you.

1:04:54 Thank you. I also wanted to say that her husband, not only being a great BPS person employee, is arguably the greatest basketball coach we’ve ever had in Brevard. And I think that that goes without saying.

1:05:06 Saying there have been other people that have brought great things, but overall wins, program development, everything else, so what a great family we’ve had. And I thank you for both of your services. The other person, Miss Klein, I wanted to say thank you from the bottom of my heart.

1:05:21 You know, there’s a lot of battles that we were in in the beginning of me being a school board member prior to anybody being on this board. And I appreciate some of the opportunities that she made for individuals, individuals who were wrongfully attacked or wrongfully accused of things, and she came through for them. I also wanted to say, just like Miss Campbell said, we get emails all the time from parents who are very concerned with a lot of the things that they do as far as our schools.

1:05:52 And it is not even a question how fast that was taken care of. And I just wanted to say, you know, we have three people who have dedicated, arguably, over 70 years to brevard public schools, or between 60 and 70 years, and that never should go unheard or congratulated inside of our system. And I just wanted to say thank you to all three of you for your dedication and look forward to seeing you do great things in other places, and I will support you in doing that.

1:06:19 And with that, Mister Trent? Yeah, I forgot I had it here. I forgot to continue reading when I gave it. But same thing with Miss Klein.

1:06:29 Thank you so much for the time here. Retirement is something that we all dream about at some point. So hopefully, a year from now, you’re not sitting in a meeting at the end of June, but you’re sitting somewhere with a nice cold beverage and somewhere around your family.

1:06:48 I would hope so. Thank you very much for your time here. Hang on, Miss Jenkins.

1:06:57 Okay. I just want to thank the three individuals that we are losing, because I do believe that that is a loss for Brevard county public schools. There’s a wealth of knowledge.

1:07:04 I don’t have the extensive history with these three women that a lot of my fellow board members do have, but I can tell you that every interaction has been professional. And we appreciate the service that you’ve given to Brevard county. You are an asset that we are going to lose.

1:07:17 So we are very. I’m sad about it. I am, honestly.

1:07:20 But I wish you the very best in whatever it is that you do. And I am certain that every one of you will do something amazing with the remaining career that you have left. So thank you for your service to Brevard County.

1:07:30 Miss Jenkins. Yeah. Miss Klein, I apologize, because I didn’t know that that was public yet, and I have no access right now.

1:07:43 So I apologize. I’m not going to forget about you. Sorry.

1:07:54 It was no surprise to me that you two, as a team, if one of you was not going to be here, the other one might not be as either. I don’t know how you would continue to turn the cogs without one another again. I believe you’ve given 29 years of service.

1:08:19 28 30. You’re at 30. On 2932-3232 years of service to brevard public schools.

1:08:29 We don’t hear that anymore. You just like, just like the other two women. I acknowledge your integrity, your conviction.

1:08:40 You have supported so many administrators throughout your years of experience here. It is unimaginable. I don’t think people are aware yet, quite frankly.

1:08:56 I found out from the public, from all of this. I know people look forward to retirement. I know you weren’t, and I’m happy you will take time for you.

1:09:17 But your loss to brevard Public schools is significant. The fact that we will have two major vacancies at the top of our organization is significant. Significant.

1:09:28 And I know that wasn’t an easy decision for either of you. Nevermind the last six months that we just went through. I appreciate you for sticking it out.

1:09:36 I appreciate you for dealing with challenging very unprofessional times and keeping your head high for the staff beneath you from shielding them from some of the things that were happening, because that was critical, critical for the stability of this organization. Thank you. Thank you for your years of service.

1:10:03 Thank you for all that you do. I appreciate you. And again, like Miss Campbell said, I know you guys aren’t leaving tomorrow by any means, but I’m gonna savor the last 30 days or, you know, when you start your, your vacation time.

1:10:19 Thank you. Thank you, Jane. And I’m really, really sorry you guys are going to be missed.

1:10:28 Thank you. We are now on to the public comments portion of the meeting. We have 17 number of speakers and each will receive three minutes.

1:10:51 I will call up three speakers at a time. Remember speakers, not to mention anyone else by name except for the board members. The first three speakers are Gregory Welch, Tracy Arzola and Dawn Swinger.

1:11:07 Please come to the front. And if you are called. What’s that? We almost had the front office.

1:11:07 Please come to the front. First speaker up and then individuals who are speaking next, please take the front seats. In the event that we’re waiting on somebody, I may just go to the next speaker if they’re available.

1:11:22 So. Thank you. Mister Gregory Welch.

1:11:25 Hang on just a second, let me get this thing started here. All right, Mister Welch, we’re ready. Good morning everybody.

1:11:41 My name is Gregory Welch and I’ve been a maintenance employee with BPS for the past 16 years. Most of the board members up here weren’t even here when I came here. So some of the problems I’m going to talk about right now existed before you were here.

1:11:59 In 2007, we had a freeze. There was no promotions, no raises, no nothing. We had to stay Pat.

1:12:06 And they told us it was going to be for two years. Stick with us, it’s going to get better. It went for three.

1:12:13 Okay. At the end of that, we had a thing called a step program where every employee gets moved up a step, if they get a good evaluation, can do their job. The step program got taken from HR and hidden with the, the union.

1:12:30 And everybody in supervision told all of us the step program is no more. We had a director by the name of Dennis Bonney. Dennis Bonney.

1:12:40 And I got into an argument about it because it’s on your website and it’s on local ten. Ten’s website. Two months after Dennis died and we, him and I had had that argument, I got a two step increase.

1:12:54 I was lied to just like a lot of us are. We’re tired of being lied to here in maintenance. Now, everybody here is important.

1:13:03 Your teachers are important, your custodial staff, your kitchen staff, your bus drivers, and they all deserve the raises that they’ve got. But you guys forgot about maintenance. When you have supervision, that tells you they don’t know what’s going to happen.

1:13:25 And you have to find out through the media what’s going on. That’s not good communication skills. It needs to change.

1:13:35 We need to make some changes here. We can’t attract people to come into maintenance here because we don’t pay enough. If I was working at one of the school systems around us, I could be making more money.

1:13:53 In Deer river, for example, I could be making $32 an hour. I make 20 here after 16 years. So I understand it’s a problem of money.

1:14:06 However, when you look at all the building that’s been going on in this county for the last four years, and an average house is $249,000, those taxes are a lot better than what we used to get. Okay, so I’ve always heard the whole time I’ve been here that we have no money. We have no money.

1:14:28 Not accurate. We have money. It’s how we spend the money.

1:14:34 So we need to come up with something for the maintenance people because we can’t attract the newer people to come in at the same time, salaries that we pay. Keeping the people appreciate you keeping the people that we have is going to be. Thank you very much, Mister Welch, we appreciate your time.

1:14:52 Tracy Arzola. Don Swinger. Bernard Bryan.

1:14:59 Good morning everyone. My name is Tracy Arizola. I am an employee at Brevard Public Schools.

1:15:04 I’m an H Vac three mechanic and I work in building automation systems. My job used to have three people in the office. It’s been one for over a year.

1:15:13 That’s me. I also handle all the filters in the county. I’d like to thank the board and doctor Rundell for the opportunity to speak today.

1:15:23 Also, we’re appalled by the movement made for the bus drivers. We’re not stating that they do not deserve more money, but we are stating that we all deserve more money. The decision should not have only been for one group.

1:15:37 All of us at bps have been working harder to keep up with the growing demands. With 12 million square footage under air, not to mention millions of square footage of grounds and more being added in the very near future. We have had a new elementary school in the last three years.

1:15:53 We’re getting a new middle school, not to mention new buildings that have been added to some of the schools. For instance, Mims, Southlake, cocoa junior High, Viera High, and the talk of one at West Melbourne Science. We’re gaining more with less.

1:16:08 We’re also shorthanded, not just the bus drivers. The shortage has so much to do with pay. We have some techs that have been here for more than eight years that aren’t even making $20 an hour.

1:16:20 We currently have ten open positions in maintenance that have been vacant for some time. Years ago, we had more employees in maintenance and only get smaller as the demand gets larger. In custodial alone, we’re about 20 short H Vac, three heavy equipment operators, one carpenters, two roofers, one electrician, one painter, one flooring, one.

1:16:42 Although I’m not sure the shortages in areas such as kitchen and IAS. This may not seem much like to some, but with the size and demand it is massive. Most do not apply due to pay and when they do apply, they are not experienced enough to last.

1:16:56 Some have left after they received their first paycheck. We are all here to help keeping the buildings running and safe for the students and faculty. Yes, bus drivers get the students to the schools and then home.

1:16:59 We are all here throughout their day helping to reach the mission of serving every student with excellence of standard. Mister Sussan, you yourself have bragged about the CTE trade classes, but fail to support trade workers when they come to work for BPS by low pay. We want to encourage more people to get involved with trades.

1:17:25 This is not how we do it. And per doctor Rendell, the bus driver is the first person many of our students see when they start their school day. This pay increase is a statement that we value these team members and the critical work that they do.

1:17:37 Where is our appreciation and your show of our value to this team. Thank you. Miss Arzola.

1:17:46 Don Swinger. Bernard Bryan. Anthony Colucci.

1:17:53 Hi, my name is Dawn Swigger. I’m with the H Vac department. I’ve been in the school board for 25 years.

1:18:01 I fix air conditioning as well as a number of other responsibilities. Many of us finding ourselves wondering what the school board plans to do to fix the wage compression that has happened. You rarely hear from the maintenance department.

1:18:13 We work in hot places. We do dangerous work. We work hard, we go home tired.

1:18:17 I understand the deficiencies in the bus driver department, but there are also deficiencies in the maintenance department. The gaps are filled by contractors at a great expense to our budget. Ourselves, we work a large amount of overtime just to get it all done.

1:18:32 Years ago, filters were taken away from the custodians and given to us. No additional employees were added to our workforce. Our controls department used to have seven or eight techs.

1:18:42 It now has three. We can’t hire knowledgeable people for the rate of pay that the school board offers. In addition to filters being given to us on top of our normal responsibilities, now we also have to help troubleshoot and fix controls to cover that shortage.

1:18:56 Every time new responsibilities are given to us, we rise to the occasion and we keep the buildings cool. We’ve had the responsibility of teaching interns from Space Coast Junior senior High’s H Vac program. We became the teachers.

1:19:10 This put a strain on our resources because one or more of our techs would lose productive time every day picking up and dropping off the interns. But still, we rose to the occasion and managed to get our jobs done. Because we’re not offered competitive pay, many of our new hires come in with little or no experience.

1:19:26 We train them. Perhaps you believe you can simply replace us with contractors. I can’t tell you how many things we fix behind the contractors.

1:19:33 The list is way too long. When I walk into the schools, the staff knows me. They know my face when I make a mistake.

1:19:41 I’m accountable to them, and I care. A lot of us have stayed for the benefits and the retirement. Some of us went to school for years to learn our trades.

1:19:52 You have a painter that’s been here for 29 years, h vac techs that have been here for 15 years, plus they don’t make $20 an hour. The man that maintains all of your generators for our emergency shelters will now make just a few pennies more an hour than a starting bus driver. He’s been here for 17 years.

1:20:09 These wages are unacceptable just because we work hard and overcome challenges that are thrown our way doesn’t mean we should continue to be overlooked and underappreciated. If something isn’t done soon to fix the wage issues, you risk losing loyal, knowledgeable, hard working people. Thank you very much, Miss Slinger.

1:20:32 Mister Bernard Bryan Anthony Colucci, Jason Blair. It’s okay. He knew I called him before.

1:20:32 Mister Bernard Bryan Anthony Colucci, Jason Blair. I’ve been saying the names with the mic the whole time. It’s okay.

1:20:46 I know. It’s fine. They can hear me.

1:20:48 I’m sorry. No, it’s okay. Go ahead.

1:20:51 First of all, I’d like to thank doctor Rendell and his board for allowing me to be here. I just want to say a couple of things. I have no children in Brevard public schools, and I have no family in Brevard public schools.

1:21:06 And the reason why we’re here, me and my wife, is because. Because we love Brevard public schools, and we love all of our students as well. So I’m standing here on behalf of the South Brevard branch NAACP, as well as the concerned citizens of South Brevard.

1:21:24 Just want to let you know that we are concerned about our students. We’re concerned about the instability now that we see in our leadership. We’ve seen a lot of changes, and the people that will be impacted is our students.

1:21:42 And that’s why I’m here today letting you understand that we’re very concerned about that. I read your HR report. I saw 14 teachers that actually resigned.

1:21:55 14. And I’m not sure what the standard turnover rate, but to me, that is a major instability because our kids will be suffering because of that. So I don’t know the reasons why, but if your stability is not stable in your leadership, those students will have a negative impact because of that.

1:22:18 So I kind of ask myself the question, not having the inside information, why are they leaving? Is it because of culture wars? Is it because of banning of books? Is it because of the attack on different subgroups? So I think that’s a question that the community really wants to know. But the thing that I’m concerned about is the achievement gaps in reading and math. And I haven’t seen the recent data, but I’m thinking that that gap is going to get widened.

1:22:52 And I’m concerned about what is the recovery plan in that area with the instability that we actually seen. And I think I cried twice today. My heart is broken a little bit.

1:23:07 This brevard public school staff is a very powerful staff. But when I see the loss of Doctor McKinnon. When I see that we are losing Doctor Sullivan, and when I see that we’re losing misses Klein, I don’t know what the reasons are.

1:23:27 Is it because of lack of inclusion? Is it because of lack of shame value? Is it because of lack of not making reading and math a priority? I don’t know what the reasons are, but I do understand and I want this board and this leadership team to understand. Instability impact those at the lower side. Our kids will suffer because they’re used to seeing Doctor McKinnon and Miss Klein and Miss Sullivan.

1:23:58 And I gotta be honest with you, they’re very good people and our kids understand that. I don’t know what the reasons are. I really don’t.

1:24:08 But as an operations manager for over 15 years at Collins Aerospace, if your leadership team is not stable, my people under my leadership team would actually suffer. So I hope that there is a mitigation plan, there’s a recovery plan of losing these valuable knowledge of over 50, 60 years. So please give the community confidence, especially to South Branch NAACP, the concerned citizens of South Brevard.

1:24:42 What is your plan? Because reading is important and the gaps are getting wider. So that’s what we’re looking at from the community perspective. Thank you so much.

1:24:52 And I want to also say that again, my heart is broken because I know these people personally. So God bless you and if the community can be of any help, please let us know. Thank you.

1:25:05 Mister Bryan, Mister Anthony Colucci. Jason Blair Ricard Soetioji Ricard Sootioge so Anthony Colucci Jason Blair Ricard Sootioge Mister Colucci, my name is Anthony Colucci. I’m the president of the Brevard Federation of Teachers.

1:25:25 Over the last few weeks I’ve had the privilege of visiting 26 amazing summer school sites. At these sites, been impressed with the programs going on and the hard work of our teachers, administrators and staff. Parents have really been taking advantage of these programs.

1:25:41 And most of the enrichment programs focused on the arts, stem and culinary, have been packed with students. Administrators have told me that many charter, home school and private school students are attending these programs as well. Hopefully the quality of these programs will bring these students back to our public schools.

1:25:59 I believe these programs were an excellent investment and I hope BPS funds them going forward. But what impressed me most was seeing the joyful learning and teaching going on at these sites. And for us, that’s what education is all about.

1:26:15 The joy that teaching brings to the teacher and that learning brings to the student. Then I think of these meetings and how far removed. The discussions here are from the realities of what’s happening in our schools.

1:26:29 I looked around. I believe there’s only one teacher here today. School board.

1:26:35 As we start a new chapter in our district, I’m urging you to do everything you can to make the work you do in these meetings more about our schools and less about culture wars. Teachers, administrators, and staff are all tired of being collateral damage in the war. We are exhausted and want to be able to focus on our jobs without all the noise.

1:27:01 On behalf of our teachers, and I’ll take the liberty to say administrators and staff as well, please stop feeding into groups of extremists on both sides of the political spectrum. Instead, we ask that you, you focus on bringing back joy to the classroom. Thank you.

1:27:20 Thank you, Mister Colucci. Next up, Jason Blair. Mister Sohe Tioji and Mister Ross.

1:27:32 Good morning and thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Jason Blair. I was proudly, I work proudly in our maintenance and grounds department.

1:27:43 I am part of a three man crew that all hold class a commercial driver’s licenses, and we also operate, just happen to operate, heavy equipment for Brevard county schools. The staff I got is great. The three of us, we drive the biggest things on the road for the county, and our license is even higher than the class B for the bus drivers.

1:28:09 It was brought to my attention that the district has decided to increase the bus driver pay to $20 an hour. I am offered bus drivers receiving an increase in pay. I actually started my career with Brevard county schools as a bus driver.

1:28:26 I didn’t make it to the first day, but I learned a lot. I think they deserve it, but I’m sure they deserve it, and as do all our maintenance and support staff. That’s really what it comes down to.

1:28:45 I feel like we’re kind of being left behind. You know, we’ve got a little higher credentials that we have to have in order to drive the larger vehicles and operate the heavy equipment in the school district. So.

1:29:01 So my concern is that our crew with the class A licenses, for example, were held to a higher standard, greater responsibilities on us, and our pay really doesn’t reflect that because the pay scale, because of the pay scale, we can’t even find people to work in our department anymore. It’s literally just three of us doing the heavy hauling for the school district. We’re losing a lot of positions based on that.

1:29:32 Just please consider that there’s other staff in the district, mainly your maintenance department, that put just as many hours and just as much effort in maintaining our facilities to provide a safe learning environment for your students. For our students. I thank you for your consideration.

1:29:53 Thank you. Mister Blair, this is sootioge, Mister Ross and Mister Mueller. Thank you.

1:30:04 I hope I said your name right. I’m so sorry if I did not. It’s all right.

1:30:08 First of all, I would like to say good morning to all of you. And my name is Ricardo, teacher and I work with the grant department as a head heavy equipment operator. And I heard the bus driver get a raise of $20 per hour.

1:30:25 And I know for sure they really deserve for that, but it’s kind of really fair to get us, you know, for the pay for it because the bus driver they have, they just get a raise a little while ago and then they get another raise for another $5 an hour. That’s a big jump for it. I’m pretty sure, you know they deserve it.

1:31:04 But we also have monsters. Responsibly or more than a bus driver. We drive a big truck, the biggest we have in a semi truck.

1:31:16 And we operate big machinery like big excavator and front loader. And also another machine that we have and I understand that the bus driver, the short of the driver, roughly about 90 driver. But we have 88 schools and multiple vacant properties that we have to take care of it.

1:31:42 And we only have three of us with the commercial driver license, class a. And like Jason said before, you can’t find people to get hired because the wages is not competitive. I just want to see.

1:32:02 We’re asking you to consider giving us a raise or maybe match with the bus driver. Speak as everything we do. Everything what we do.

1:32:12 Thank you. Thank you sir. Mister Gregory Ross.

1:32:16 Mike Mueller. Marcus Hawker. Thank you board for allowing public comment today.

1:32:27 Quite a few things to talk about today off the top. Mister Susan, please wait till people are done applauding before you call. We can’t hear you out there in the audience.

1:32:36 Okay? The extra 30 seconds isn’t going to kill you at the end of the day. First off, same question I’ve been asking every two weeks for the last month. Why is Jean Trent still getting paid by BPs? Why is this health insurance still getting paid by bps? There’s an inequity in how teachers who have lied on their applications have been treated in this district.

1:32:59 Okay, I’m waiting for an answer for that from the board. Moving on. Mister Susan, you like to take credit for lots of things.

1:33:13 I know you’re under on the political campaign trail here earlier today. You like to say you took credit for the summer programs and all the great summer programs. That was Doctor Sullivan that created those summer programs.

1:33:26 Okay. And her crew. You know, I know you like to add yourself into that, so I was also kind of weird to see the d three candidate for school district come in here and buy.

1:33:38 Buy a support, right? What good timing. What good timing. Very nice.

1:33:48 It’s kind of the typical brevard corruption. It’s low level. People don’t understand that.

1:33:55 That’s just the way it’s done, right? Mister Trent misses Wright. It was great to see the finance and accounting office up here getting an award for their accuracy and their precision, right? And yet I seem to remember on the campaign trail a year ago, the big thing was we need audits. That’s what you guys said.

1:34:21 The accounting and financing department at BPS doesn’t know what they’re doing. We need audits. Do you remember saying that on the campaign trail? There’s lots of public comment, lots of people here who got up here and said that as well.

1:34:32 And yet the reality is, that’s not the truth, is it? BPS has run well, has financially run pretty well. Okay? But on the campaign trail, that’s not what you said. And lastly, I hope the lesson here is learned.

1:34:47 The bus drivers deserve a raise. But this is the price you pay when you have now mechanics and everybody else in the district is going to come up here and say, where’s our raise? Right? That’s the price you pay when you do it for political reasons instead of for the right reason, which is to look across the district, ensure everybody gets a raise. I know your hands are tied by the state, right, and how the budget works, but quit putting politics over students.

1:35:14 Thank you. Thank you. Mister Mueller, Mister Hockman and Miss Haynes on deck.

1:35:25 Good morning, board members and doctor Rendell. A few days ago, I had the privilege to attend a public meeting organized by a local group who invited members of the American Civil Liberties Union, better known as the ACLU, which in my opinion is a far left political organization. The theme of the event was speak up against educational censorship.

1:35:49 I have to admit I was a little perplexed to see Miss Jenkins at the meeting as she is a member of the school board and the ACLU is currently suing school districts across the nation. In fact, members of the ACLU panel said during their meeting that they are actively recruiting parents, teachers, students, staff and union representatives to obtain information that can be used as actionable items to legally go after this very school board. Looks like a bit of a conflict of interest to me, but that’s not for me to decide.

1:36:26 In any case, I just want to thank Miss Jenkins for the special treatment I received from her that evening. She literally crossed from one side of the room to the other side where I was standing all by myself, and she planted herself firmly right next to me. This, what can only be described as a heartfelt gesture of support for me, did not go unnoticed.

1:36:48 Overall, it was a wonderful meeting, and I learned so much. Thank you for having my back, Miss Jenkins, and thank you for creating the special moment for me. I truly appreciate it.

1:36:58 Thank you, mister Mueller. Thank you very much. Mister Hochman, Miss Haynes and Miss Castellano on deck.

1:37:12 Mister Hockman, there you are. Come on, brother. Yep, I see.

1:37:21 Good morning, school board and superintendent. Welcome aboard. A few issues that I would like to talk about.

1:37:28 The first thing is the workshops. I appreciate the workshops that you are doing. I encourage it for the next few years.

1:37:36 I hope that keeps that trend keeps going and going, because to me, that’s when the workshops get the most governing done. You have the most people at the table. You lay out all the issues.

1:37:46 So keep doing that. Now, one issue I would like to see being talked about a future workshop is ese. And specifically for me, my two concerns for that is ve in our middle schools.

1:37:59 Okay. Having. Because to my knowledge, there is isn’t any.

1:38:03 But I could be wrong on that. I don’t know what’s being developed or not. I see shaking the heads of no, but I wasn’t sure what was being developed or not over the summer or not.

1:38:11 And the reason is, what I like to see that is because I’ve had many teachers come to me, including my own opinion, when you have a continuum of services, you also need to have a continuum of placements. Okay? So that needs to be addressed. That’s putting too much pressure on our middle schools, especially those, our middle school teachers, ESc teachers, especially if we’re already low on teachers.

1:38:34 And some of those schools don’t have those ESC teachers, etcetera. Okay? So that is an issue. And the next thing also is, for me, is ESE extracurricular activities for middle school and high school.

1:38:49 Kind of brought this up over a year ago. I know there’s a lot of changes, et cetera, et cetera, but kind of worked on it with some people here. Hopefully they’ll get back on the groove again eventually.

1:38:59 But it’s. I like to see more ESE students in actually their athletics, not just be a team manager, not just do that. Actually participating in having their own thing, in a way.

1:39:11 How that gets done, we’ll see. Especially when we’re the changing of structure here at BPS and everything else. I know this might take a year.

1:39:17 Plus the two things I just talked about now, the next thing I wanted to talk about is the books. Especially after yesterday. I read some email and I read some stuff last week and I was a little bit confused on the meeting.

1:39:31 So I apologize for that when I sent you guys the email last night, which you guys know what it’s about. But the other part I want to talk about is to the public, our volunteers are volunteers. No matter what you think about of these five, whatever political spectrum they are on, two of them are at least politically, like, polarizing.

1:39:53 I get that. But when they pick somebody to represent them, they’re volunteers as a public, they choose free will to be there. We need to choose to have the free will and have the decorum and be respectful to those volunteers.

1:40:12 If you have issues and problems with the whole thing, you talk to them here. Don’t go after them. Intimidation, disrespectful thoughts that I’ve been hearing about.

1:40:21 Thank you. Thank you. Mister Hockman, Miss Haynes, Miss Castellano.

1:40:31 And then Miss Kirvin. Good day. I’m here to speak to you all about some misconceptions that are being spoken about in this room on a regular basis.

1:40:42 And I’m going to start with a comment that was made by a previous speaker at the last meeting regarding racism, CRT hate and the left agenda that tries to turn everything into a racist agenda when it is absolutely not. I’m talking about the comparison between board member Gene Trent and lavender Hearn. Now, I’d like to start off by saying I do not know Mister Hearn.

1:41:08 I could not pick him up, pick him out of a lineup. Miss Haynes, if we cannot say individuals names that are not. You could say Mister Trent.

1:41:15 But please, could you stop the clock? Please don’t. Please don’t use individuals names that are as part of the speaking policy. So if we can.

1:41:23 The only problem is, Mister Susan, is that the previous speaker used both names. And I corrected when we did that. I just.

1:41:30 Listen, it’s something that’s our policy. I appreciate the time, but we have to keep with the rules and regulations. So thank you, Miss Haynes.

1:41:36 Anyway, I do not know the gentleman in question at all. But I do know some facts. I know that for a fact there was an issue with Mister Trent’s application and that Mister Trent was disciplined for that issue.

1:41:54 You may not like the outcome but the fact is, authority did make that decision. The other gentleman is an entirely different situation. And the other gentleman’s skin color has nothing to do with his background.

1:42:10 38 cases on the brevard clerk of courts, and the belief that the case that probably carries the most weight was the charge of a convicted delinquent felon having an arm a gun in his vehicle that he was driving, which was an AK 47 with one in the chamber, and loaded magazines in the truck. So if you know anything about guns, that’s probably one of the biggest violations right there. One in the chamber.

1:42:44 So stop using race as the basis for every judgment that comes down the pike when it comes to the school board and the outcomes of different cases. And then I’d like to go on to something about cell phones. You have a cell phone policy where you’re not going to allow children to have cell phones in the classrooms.

1:43:08 And now I hear possibly not at lunchtime, not in the hallways, etcetera. And that’s all good and well because kids are sent to school to learn. But I find it rather hypocritical that the majority of you sit up there during meetings on cell phones if you are employed and in a private sector.

1:43:28 There are many companies in this county where you have to lock it in a locker and you cannot have it out on your desk or in their place of employment. You can go. Go at lunchtime and check your messages or do whatever you want, but during the business hours, you’re being paid to conduct business.

1:43:45 And I don’t know if you are texting each other and violating sunshine. You can text anybody in the audience you want because that’s your right. Miss Haynes, thank you so much for your time.

1:43:56 I appreciate it. Thank you. Have a great day.

1:43:58 Miss Castellano, Miss Kelly Kervin. And then Rachel Jolly. Rochelle.

1:44:05 Sorry. Good morning, Mister Trent. I have persistently said that there is a legal definition of pornography and what is acceptable in our libraries.

1:44:16 And that arbitrary action beyond that law is a violation of my parental rights. And un american. You proved that point with your statement on record.

1:44:24 We are removing books that are not only violating law, that we just say we don’t want that in our library. You get three votes, you can remove a book because you don’t like the COVID of the book. We’re not removing books just because it violates the law.

1:44:36 If you don’t like the standards set at the state level, then stop electing the yahoos who write them. And how dare you present an ethics issue when you are still collecting a paycheck from bps in spite of lying on your employment application, which, regardless of what led to the banning of another teacher, it’s the exact same offense which led to a black man being barred from working for the district for a year. And now you, Mister Susan.

1:45:01 Nice opening comments. I do love the smile. I love that you’re so attentive to people when they’re in alignment with you and you’re dismissive when they’re not.

1:45:09 Nice opening comments regarding the moors. However, you are on record saying that you would like to preemptively ban. And thank you for using the word ban, because we know that’s what it is.

1:45:17 All books by Penguin House Publishing because they are practicing their first Amendment protected right and suing another district entirely. Are you ignoring the fact that the lawsuit is based on banning books about race? What is happening here? Threatening to punish Americans for practicing their first Amendment right is the most un american act imaginable. Yet we see it happening all over the state.

1:45:40 By the way, flags of our fathers, which is the story of the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima, was published by Penguin House. And you would ban that book all too own the libs, or whatever it is that’s actually driving you. It certainly isn’t providing excellence for all of our students.

1:45:56 Miss Wright, you said at the book review committee they didn’t sign up for this. Well, yes, they actually did. It’s a volunteer committee, and they’re entirely volunteers, and they can resign at any time.

1:46:05 They are the ones making the decisions regarding books, and their decision is currently binding. They should have to hear from citizens regarding the same. They’re legally required to hear from citizens regarding the same.

1:46:16 Until the final decision regarding the banning of these books is formally returned to your body, public comment must be allowed. It’s the law. And it’s the right thing to do.

1:46:26 And all of you and your concern for the sensibilities of the volunteers who accepted your appointment to their committees. Where was your outrage when people were calling your teachers pedophiles? When they were calling your teachers groomers? When they were spitting on the faces of people coming here to support teachers? Where was your outrage when one of your members accused another member of being mentally ill? And that his fan club showed open t shirts repeating that claim? Perhaps you should learn from the professionals. The professionals that these people are fighting, who serve our students with joy, as Mister Colucci said, and love of public education.

1:47:02 Thank you. Thank you. Miss Kirvin.

1:47:05 Our Miss Castellano. Miss Kervin. Up now.

1:47:08 Miss Kervin’s. Up. Rachelle Jolly and Katie Delaney.

1:47:19 Matt, you said late last year that fixes to our policy would help a teacher recruitment in retention. Once again, the agenda shows that more teachers and staff are losses and gains. Is there an update for that? Jean, I was a little taken aback by comments you made during the work session on June 6 specifically about who your boss is.

1:47:41 While the board talked about professionalism and decorum not only at the dais but also to each other, you said several times that if something went wrong, you expected someone from the district to haul you into an office to talk to you about it. You’ve been at this job for seven months, and I’m a little concerned that you didn’t know what running for the school board meant, so I thought I’d help you clarify. I am your boss.

1:48:02 Most of the people sitting behind me are also your boss, and those watching online are, too. Every Brevard county citizen is your boss. That is what being an elected official means.

1:48:12 So when someone comes to the podium or writes you an email or calls you or even stops you at the grocery store, those are your bosses pulling you into the office to tell you what you’ve done wrong. It’s also an opportunity to tell you what you’ve done right now, let me be clear. I’m not saying you have to change your stance based on what you hear or that those who reach out get to be your puppet master, because it’s not that type of job.

1:48:35 So in 2026, if you decide to run again, that’s your report card, and it’s pass or fail. You’re either reelected or you’re not. You also claim that there’s a group of people trying to burn the house down.

1:48:45 I’m assuming you meant me in that, right. Just to be clear, you’re wrong. My daughters are actually educated by brevard public schools.

1:48:55 Why on earth would I want to burn the house down? It makes zero sense. Every time I speak or I write an email or advocate, it isn’t to burn the house down. I’m literally trying to hand you a fire extinguisher and you refuse to take it.

1:49:09 Also saying that people need to grow up because they don’t align with you. You openly disrespect our students and still, still don’t apologize, so I really don’t want to hear it. Now that we’ve established that we the people are your bosses.

1:49:23 Matt, Susan, please do not ever tell district five Katie Campbell that she is the reason the media thinks this board is dysfunctional. Are you kidding? Is that a joke? You are the reason this board is dysfunctional. I also question your judgment of letting Gene Trent go on a tirade against a fellow board member, Jen Jenkins, knowing that she was homesick and couldn’t defend herself.

1:49:48 Not only does this show a clear bias, it’s also a clear lack of leadership on your part. I sound like a broken record, but optics, y’all. This message isn’t just for y’all, but also doctor Renzel, I can only speculate that you forgot the camera was rolling at the June 6 meeting, because I’d like to believe, as professionals, you would have thought more before you spoke.

1:50:07 However, this has just become a pattern with this board. It only continues the perception and frankly, the reality that you’re putting politics over students. Stop it.

1:50:20 Thank you, Miss Kirvin, Miss Rochelle Jolly, Katie Delaney, and Carrie Takis finished. By Mister Andrew Kemp I would first like to start off with saying that while some of us would like to live in a little bubble and believe that racism doesn’t exist and that systemic racism doesn’t exist, and that CRT isn’t a thing, I’d like to point out that the gentleman that was spoken about today having a gun in his vehicle, if you do your reading, and perhaps maybe you attended bps and you’re behind in your ability to read, but those charges were dropped and never even went to court. And also, I would like to say that both of those charges, including Mister Trent’s, were considered violent charges.

1:51:28 Mister Trent also. His charges were also dropped and nothing became of them. However, it did take this system a lot longer to come to a conclusion for Mister Trent than it did for the other person, who happens to be black.

1:51:47 So I’d like for you to explain to me what the difference was that they both lied on their Brevard public school applications during the June 6 school board work session, which was held off site and not live streamed. Jean Trent said, adding a stipulation to the policy about ethics that the book review committee should commit to would be a good idea. It’s important to note that Jean Trent cannot work in Brevard public schools for a year because of his unethical choice and lack of integrity to lie on his Brevard public school school application.

1:52:24 Why is Jean Trent still receiving a salary and health benefits from Brevard Public schools? Why hasn’t our board chairperson asked for his resignation? That would be the ethical thing to do. I would also like to point out that the United States code, flag, code eight D states the flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding or drapery. Thanks.

1:52:51 Thank you, Miss Jolly, Miss Katie Delaney, Carrie Takis and Andrew Kemp. Thank you. I don’t know if this is on.

1:53:02 There we go. I just wanted to speak about the leadership changes that are going on. And I wanted to say that it’s absolutely normal to have movement in an organization after leadership changes.

1:53:18 This is nothing new. It was expected and needed in Brevard. I respect doctor Endell’s experience and look forward to seeing his plan for BPS unfold.

1:53:29 Under the previous regime, we fell to 37th in graduation rates. We even had one school with only 67% graduation rate. That’s embarrassing.

1:53:40 Especially when I was part of this district, we were in the top five. Some would say there was a toxic work environment here at BPS because of a few at the top. Many principals were afraid to talk about real issues due to the real possibility of retribution.

1:54:02 In order for BPS to get better, change was needed, and it still is needed, as we see today with the maintenance people speaking up. There is a major budget issue. Regardless of awards BPS is getting, paying our people should never be an issue.

1:54:24 Being told there is no money is unacceptable. This is due to reckless spending. And I thank this board for tackling this issue.

1:54:35 Moving forward, the focus needs to be on education, not culture wars. Board, I encourage you to keep charging forward through the noise. The children of Brevard need you and their education is at stake.

1:54:55 Thank you so much. Thank you. Miss Delaney, Miss Takis and Mister Kemp.

1:55:00 Up next, Miss Takis. Yep. Thank you.

1:55:16 Brevard Public Schools has fallen 37th in the state for graduation rates. And to echo Misses Delaney, one of our schools rate of graduation was only 67%. Our literacy rates have been on a downward spiral, threatening the very foundations of our educational system.

1:55:32 Stats such as these should bring change within a district. And with those changes come the potential to reverse this alarming trend. It is said that change is the only constant in life.

1:55:43 And in the realm of education, the sentiment holds true as we look around our school district. We cannot deny the signs of stagnation. Paired with toxic culture where principals and teachers alike fear retribution for speaking out.

1:55:56 Graduation rates and literacy rates have suffered as a result. The future of our students, our community and our society are at stake. It’s time we take a bold step forward to embrace change and to pave the way for a brighter tomorrow.

1:56:09 I want to thank this board and doctor Randell for making those changes so that we can move forward and raise our graduates rates, raise our testing scores. We live on the Space coast. Our kids have every opportunity to go work at one of these space companies, and we need to help them achieve those opportunities.

1:56:28 Thank you. Thank you, Miss Takis. Mister Kemp.

1:56:46 Hold on just a second. Is it you or me? Too many people. Okay.

1:56:52 My name is Doctor Andrew Kemp. I am a child of Brevard County Public Schools. I went to Indian Atlantic Elementary, Hoover Junior High School, which is what it was called before it was a middle school, and I graduated from Melbourne High school.

1:57:10 I went away to school in Florida. I went to Stetson University. I went to the University of South Florida.

1:57:15 I got a degree in English, and I moved back and became a teacher in Brevard public schools. At Rockledge High School, where I was the person that started the Cambridge program and was on the team that started avid. While I was at Rockledge, I got my doctorate, and when I finished, I moved into higher education, specifically teacher education.

1:57:36 And I did that for 15 years. It got to the point in life, my mom still lives in Indian Atlantic. I was like, you know, I think I want to move home.

1:57:45 And I was quite joyful to do so because I missed Florida. Well, now I’m back in Florida, and it is not joyful. It is miserable for teachers and students.

1:58:01 In the biggest issue that I think there is is this active policy to desecrate probably our most sacred institution, public education, by sharing misinformation and making policies that are not based on knowledge of the actual issue, but bullet points that were hidden to you. Because of this large swaths of our population, students are being ignored. They are, if you are black, gay, lesbian, trans, pansexual, asexual, non binary, if you have different abilities, if you’re of a different religion, all of those are silence.

1:58:53 So only one voice becomes prominent, and that is the dominant voice of the majority of the school board. And like I said before, when I was in higher education, I created doctoral and master’s level classes on racism, social justice, lgbtQ. That’s what my career was, is doing that stuff.

1:59:19 So I have a deep knowledge of each of these things. You don’t. You say you do, but listening to policy points are just purely incorrect and is making you nothing more than a spokesperson for people that hate.

1:59:48 And that’s about it. I have 4 seconds left. Enjoy your time because this is going to happen a lot.

1:59:54 Thank you, Mister Kemp. Appreciate your time. That concludes public comments.

1:59:57 We thank you for your willingness to address this in this public manner. We’re going to take a break. Some individuals have asked to use the restroom, take a five minute recess.

2:00:59 Sa it. We are now onto the consent agenda. Doctor Rendell.

2:08:47 Thank you, mister chair. There are 29 agenda items under this category. Thank you, doctor Rendell.

2:08:52 Does any board member wish to pull any of these items? I do. Okay. Which ones did you want to pull? I want to pull f 18.

2:09:00 F 20. F 21. So you’ve got f 18 job description.

2:09:31 Bus driver. F 20, job description. Chief of schools.

2:09:35 F 221. F 21, job description. Assistant superintendent.

2:09:43 Curriculum. All right, Paul, does that take a second, or are we good on that? No, she can pull. Good.

2:09:50 All right, so with those polled, I’ll entertain a motion to accept the consent agenda items, with the exception of those pulled for discussion, if applicable, move to approve second. Is there any discussion? All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye.

2:10:10 All opposed passes 50. Okay, Miss Jenkins, you have the floor for f 18 motion and a second person? Yep. Move to approve item f 18.

2:10:24 2nd any discussion, Miss Jenkins? Okay, so this was a topic of conversation in our public comment, and I’ve got a lot of questions here. So I’m going to start off by saying, first and foremost, that we had a meeting as a board in which all five members agreed to an increase to $20 an hour for our bus drivers, unanimously. And all five members gave instruction to the superintendent to bring it to the 1010 bargaining unit and to hopefully push for an MOA to expedite an agreement to pay our bus drainage as soon as possible so we don’t wait for the ratification of an entire contract.

2:11:25 It was brought to my attention by a post on social media from Brevard public schools, as well as a press conference in which Miss Wright was a part of that we apparently had come to this agreement, which is wonderful. But then it was brought to my attention that this may have never been brought to the 1010 negotiating unit, and I have deep concerns with that. Number one, that is not what the board directive was to the superintendent.

2:12:01 And number two, I question if that border is on the line of unfair labor practice to the 1010. There is a positive outcome here. But there was no need to circumvent process and procedure because there was a unanimous agreement to this amount.

2:12:25 Behind closed doors, Miss Wright one time asked me if I worked for the union, and my response was, I am pro union. I was a part of the union, and I will always be pro union. And so I am a school board member.

2:12:43 But I’m an educator at heart. I’m pro union at heart. And I’m concerned by the process that took place for this, because though it was a positive outcome.

2:12:53 It tells me that it’s potentially going to happen again and could be used in any way possible. I’m concerned that there was no phone call to hear that we had come to this agreement, which I guess there wasn’t an agreement because it wasn’t proposed. I’m concerned that the president of the 1010 unit was approached in a hallway to sign an MOA.

2:13:01 I’m concerned that the response to are we allowed to do this or does it have to go to the negotiating table? Was I can just change their job description, which is what’s on the agenda right now that concerns me. It’s just wrong and there was no need for it. And the only thing I can imagine was the intention was to put it out there to look like a champion and a hero when we all agreed to this.

2:13:49 It doesn’t make sense. And 1010 could very well try to file unfair labor practices and delay the raise for our bus drivers, which was an unnecessary risk. I personally believe that a bargaining unit with very little paid membership was taken advantage of because I know you wouldn’t have done that to BFT with over 60% membership because they would be coming screaming at this podium if that happened.

2:14:22 It’s wrong and it was so unnecessary because it’s a positive thing. But here’s my other concern. My other concern is we explicitly had the conversation in that room that we were concerned about how this would look to our other staff members who significantly need raises as well.

2:14:41 And the way this went about was wrong. It should have been at the table message correctly with union message that we care about you as well. You are important as well.

2:14:53 We are working on you next. And a reminder of the increases of the millages to come to give them something to hold onto and look forward to until we get there. But that’s not the message that we sent.

2:15:04 And it’s evident based on the emails that we’re getting, the phone calls that we’re getting and people showing up here today and they have a right to do that. They should be annoyed because it was done wrong and there was again, zero need for that. I’m concerned.

2:15:23 I’m concerned and I would like an answer because clearly miss Wright got a phone call because she showed up at a press conference. So I want to know who else got a phone call about this agreement being done and that there was going to be a message from BPS. Because I don’t care if I’m a constant minority decision.

2:15:42 I get a phone call and I didn’t get one. And so I want to know why. I want to know if this was brought to the negotiation table and if it wasn’t.

2:15:51 Why wasn’t it? I want to know if there was an MOA that was reached and if it was, when. And do we get to see it? And I want to know what is pay grade 50 on the job description and why do we think that this is the. The correct way to go about it? Thank you.

2:16:12 Thank you, Miss Jenkins. Does anybody else wish to have any comments? Seeing. None.

2:16:18 All in favor? No, absolutely not. I asked a question of our superintendent. Hang on, mister.

2:16:23 No, sir. No, you will not. No, sir.

2:16:25 Hijack this meeting. No, sir. You will not hijack this meeting.

2:16:29 You had something to say? Go ahead, ask a question on something or vote. We usually ask. It’s appropriate.

2:16:34 Sometimes. Not. Sometimes, Mister Susan, provide answers to our questions before we’re about to vote on something.

2:16:41 That’s very important. That is the proper procedure, Mister Susan. And Miss Campbell, if you remember, the proper procedure is also to send an email to staff, to us, to Mister Susan.

2:16:50 Mister. Mister Gibbs, can you please. Could you make it more obvious that you were aware of the parliamentarian piece to this? Can you explain that while speaking? That I should not be interrupted? Mister Susan.

2:17:00 One person at a time. Thank you. Thank you.

2:17:02 Miss Jenkins, please. Mister Susan, you cut me off to call. Miss Jenkins, please, would you stop? No.

2:17:09 And you’re out of order. Thank you. So the issue is, is that we have multiple ways to communicate.

2:17:14 We have emails, we have everything else. I’m okay with taking a vote. Everybody else.

2:17:19 Okay, hang on, Mister Susan. We do. But when we come into a board meeting, we shouldn’t come with our mind 100% made up, because part of the process is we have public input.

2:17:31 And so when we have public input and that may. That may come into play, you know, in our decision making, we. We can ask questions.

2:17:40 And yes, there shouldn’t be surprises. From the dais, we went through our school board working guidelines. We asked board members not to pull stuff from consent agenda without letting the superintendent know.

2:17:50 But there are times when that happens. And I think that it would be appropriate to ask our CEO to provide some kind of response to the questions. And Miss Campbell? I did.

2:18:00 I asked those very same questions and I got a response from the CEO. I think it would be okay to ask. Perfect.

2:18:05 To get those answers. Just so you know and understand the process. After that comment was made, I looked at the board members and Doctor Rendell and asked if anybody else had anything to say.

2:18:14 Both of them didn’t along with Doctor Rendell. So I moved to vote. And then you said, I’d like to speak.

2:18:19 So that’s it. So we’re not trying to cut anybody off. It was just given the opportunity.

2:18:23 So if they have that opportunity, then they would say something if they wanted to. If not, we move on. And that’s the process.

2:18:28 Miss Jenkins, you’ve had your afforded your time. Is there anybody else that wishes to say anything? Doctor Rendell? I do. Miss Jenkins.

2:18:34 I will call on you when it’s returned. You don’t get to call. Mister speaker.

2:18:38 Doctor Rendell. Thank you, mister chair. Just to clarify some things, when I. When I walked away from the closed session, I thought the direction was to pursue the $5 an hour raise with the bus drivers.

2:18:48 That was the directive. Pursue the $5 an hour raise with the bus drivers. In talking with labor relations, there was a way to grant that, to meet that, to get that $5 raise without going to an MOU.

2:19:00 We are in a crisis situation with the lack of bus drivers. So the idea was to move as quickly as possible to get the word out that we were going to raise our bus driver salaries by $5 an hour. The quickest way to do that was to rewrite the job description and put it on the agenda for approval.

2:19:21 When we decided to do that, I did notify the board chair and worked with Mister Brune to set up a press conference when the board chair wasn’t available. Then we went to the vice chair to see if she was available to be at the press conference. Should I have called all five board members? Yes, I should have called all five board members to make sure that you knew that we had found a way to do it and we were going to move it as quickly as possible to get the word out as soon as possible so we could hire as many bus drivers as possible.

2:19:49 So not calling all five board members is my fault. I will take ownership of that. I will make sure it never happens again.

2:19:56 We were trying to move as quickly as possible. I thought that was the directive of the board. Get the $5 an hour raise done as soon as possible.

2:20:02 So we did that. We’ve had over 60 applications already, so we’re moving in the right direction. Should I have called all five board members? Yes, and I will make sure I do that in the future.

2:20:16 All right. Any other discussion, Mister Trent? Sure. Yeah.

2:20:20 I too left that meeting with clear thought that we said get them the $5 an hour raise. Something I learned early on was as a board, we are the what and you are the how. I did not receive a phone call and nor did I expect one.

2:20:39 So don’t apologize to me because you were doing what we asked you to do and thank you for doing so. It was a crisis. It is a crisis.

2:20:48 Bus drivers, we heard it and we answered it and I’m sure we’re going to look at all the other positions. We mentioned that in that meeting also. We knew we were leaving some people out, but that was expected.

2:21:00 But hopefully it shows bps that when there’s an issue, we’re going to tackle it and we’ll get around to all of you eventually. Thank you. Miss Wright.

2:21:13 Since we’re speaking about the meeting that we were all present to, I too left that meeting with the clear understanding that we told you, go forward, make this happen. Find a way to make it happen. I have to believe if 1010 had major issues with what was taking place, that they would be here today and they would be voicing concerns.

2:21:28 But I have not seen them and I have not heard from them and I haven’t. So to me, I would think if there was a problem that Tenten had on this, that they would have come forward and said something to the board members. And apparently maybe you’re the only one who got that phone call.

2:21:41 But no, I think this wasn’t a either or. So we heard, we heard a lot of the maintenance crew today talk about the fact that they feel left out in this, and I don’t disagree with them. The wage compression issue has been something that this district has had for many, many, many years.

2:21:55 It is ridiculous when somebody that’s brand new coming in can get hired at a higher rate than someone who’s been with our district for multiple years. And that’s something that we have to tackle as a whole. So it wasn’t either or.

2:22:05 It was. This is a huge crisis. If we don’t have students in our schools, we don’t have schools, we don’t need facilities, we don’t need cafeteria, we don’t need, we don’t need any of it if we don’t have students there.

2:22:16 So if we don’t get our students there, we’ve got to get them in the classroom. So transportation delivers those children every single day safely. And so we needed to do something.

2:22:25 And I’m grateful for the board for taking the 50 initiative on making that happen. That’s a tremendous step in the right direction. To the other departments out there that feel that they were left out, please know that you’re not left out.

2:22:35 You’re not overlooked. It was that. That was the fire that was burning the brightest at that moment that had to be taken care of.

2:22:42 So I hope that the board takes the initiative, really to tackle some of these issues with the wage compression so that we don’t see this continually happening over the years. But I left there with the same understanding, make it happen. Find a way to make it happen.

2:22:53 So I did receive a phone call. I received a phone call because, as he just stated, it sounds like the chair wasn’t available. So that was why I was brought into the loop of this.

2:23:02 I’m excited for this, for our drivers and our transportation department. I think this is going to change that department as a whole and make things a lot easier for everyone and better for our students. So, thank you.

2:23:16 I just wanted to go back around because as we were listening to the public comments, we did have quite a few talk about their years of experience. And it is, we do sometimes, in solving one problem, create another issue. But just because this is an information that is not always communicate.

2:23:31 As I’m going across the last, even since November, when the voters approved the millage, the communication of how it’s going to work has not always gone out to every group of employees. I just want to make sure to remind our experienced employees that those mous on the millage have already been settled, were settled before we voted. And so then that’s something that our brand new coming on bus drivers and other employees will not be receiving.

2:23:56 And I’ll just, I know the numbers may adjust depending on the amount of money we’re expecting to get in, but our 18 plus year ten ton employees will be looking at an additional $4,500 per year, not bonus, but supplement FRS eligible tax like regular income salary. And then our BFT 19 plus years, 6800. And then it steps down from there.

2:24:20 So I just want to make sure my mind is reminded that one that’s coming and that it’s coming soon, because our amazing finance department that was up here a little while ago made sure that we could fund that in advance of getting that money so that all of our employees can start getting those millage stipends starting in their august paycheck. I can’t remember which one, but it’s one of the august paychecks. So just to all our employees, especially to our experienced ones who’ve been caught up in some of that wage compression, just remember that that’s, that’s coming, and it’s coming very soon, and that will make some of a difference, which is one of the reasons why the majority of the board a couple years ago, you know, last year, supported it.

2:24:57 And the public has supported also, and we’re very appreciative. Thank you. Anybody else? Miss Jenkins? So you could say what you want on this.

2:25:13 Daisy? The agreement in that room and the directive in that room was to go to the negotiation table, not only to Doctor Rendell, but to green and if possible, to get an MoU to expedite the raise. That was the directive inside of the boardroom. And I hear the apology for not calling.

2:25:36 However, we did have a conversation a couple of days ago on the telephone in which it could have been said, and it wasn’t. And that only leads me to believe it was intentional. Inside of your cabinet meeting, it was brought up and fluffed to the side.

2:25:52 Your HR director had a concern with the way it was done. It was wrong. And don’t assume because 1010 wasn’t present today, they aren’t concerned about it either.

2:26:02 It was wrong and it was unnecessary to gain the same, same positive outcome for our staff. It was wrong. Okay, thank you very much, Miss Jenkins.

2:26:14 And hold on. I will be voting against this job description change because it is concerning to me that that is the process we took to accomplish the very same goal we were offering our staff anyway. Our bus drivers deserve that raise, but 1010 deserves the respect to come to the table like they should have.

2:26:35 It’s wrong. Okay. So with hearing that, I did want to follow up and doctor Rendell did reach out to me as the board chair, I was actually in the mountains on vacation.

2:26:45 And the rightful process is to have Miss Wright be the individual that represents the district. So that was a good one. I have no problem moving forward with changing the job description.

2:26:55 I feel it’s a good pathway to get it ahead and get it taken care of. As a former union member, as a former person that has voted and support Mister Loris and 1010 and everybody else, I would hope that she would understand. We have 66 applications.

2:27:09 As we spend right now, we are so far ahead of the curve as far as applicants. Before any of the other school districts are starting to try to wrestle, we’ve had some of the most amazing responses. There were emergency meetings in other transportation centers across the county, other school districts.

2:27:28 There were applications where there was people who were talking about coming from Orange county and carpooling to come to us. This was an amazing response and that is the story that we should go by. And granted, if there were some miscommunications were moving so quickly.

2:27:44 I apologize to Dolores I’ll call her after this meeting. She did not contact me through the entire thing, so I apologize. I did not know.

2:27:51 But I feel truly that if we want to fix a problem with school bus drivers, that this was the fastest and quickest way. And I thank you, Doctor Rendell, for taking that leadership. I thank you for making that happen and moving forward.

2:28:05 If anybody else doesn’t have anything, I’d like to call a vote. All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye.

2:28:11 Aye. Opposed. Got that one.

2:28:15 Okay, next up, we have f 20, move to approve. Second, is there any discussion? Yes. So I have the same scenario with this situation.

2:28:36 I received a phone call from doctor Rendell about a potential reorganization. And when I asked why, I didn’t really get a good one, and I told this is not a surprise. I told doctor Rendella I was going to talk about this on Tuesday.

2:28:52 I gave him forewarning. I said I was going to ask why. Again, the explanation I got was because of a report written by a short term employee that we hired to do a job that wasn’t consulting, who ended ended up up doing a consulting job.

2:29:07 An employee who never had a one on one meeting with the top three people in those director positions and in those assistant superintendent positions that she then wrote a report about. And I very quickly said to Doctor Rendell, that is not a why for me. That doesn’t justify this change for me.

2:29:26 What else do you got? And the response was, well, we did it this way nine years ago, and since then we’ve had a significant academic decline. And when I asked if we can put that on a slide with data, the response was, I cannot prove a correlation between the organizational chart and our academic decline. So that was not a why for me either.

2:29:44 And I continued to press and ask why. The next why that I got was because of conversations with staff, principals and some directors. It’s not documented anywhere.

2:30:01 That wasn’t a why for me either. In a time when our organization is so unstable, to me, this was not a necessary change. The other explanation I got was because of the audit from RSM telling us to focus on discipline.

2:30:19 My response was, the audit actually recommended that we have a department dedicated solely to discipline. And that is not what this solution is. This creates another department that will have two jobs.

2:30:29 That’s not what the recommendation was. That wasn’t a why for me. I know the why.

2:30:38 I told you flat out, you don’t need to try to pull a hood over my head. I’m not surprised by this, but we’ve seen the significant ramifications of this decision already. And it’s only going to continue.

2:30:51 I am deeply concerned that we make rash changes over and over and over again without thinking about the consequences to our students, to our schools. There is never a thought process there. When I ask why, there should be a solid reason why this is a huge organizational shift.

2:31:13 Keep laughing, Mister Susan. Do you know why? I bet you don’t. Are you finished? No, I’m not.

2:31:29 Well, please continue. Please don’t interrupt me. Thank you.

2:31:33 Just asking if you’re going forward. Let me tell you something publicly while you’re looking me in the eye. When the Office of Safe Schools called RSM for our discipline audit, they specifically asked about individuals in our assistant superintendent positions by name.

2:31:49 I wonder why. Mister Susan. Yeah, no idea what you’re.

2:31:55 I don’t care. You don’t need to answer me. Point of order, please.

2:31:59 Bring it back on track. Point of order, please. Bring it back to the agenda.

2:32:03 Order. It is the agenda item. I am talking about the intention of an organizational shift with no significant justification as to why.

2:32:15 Then our staff members find out about it walking in a hallway again. It’s inappropriate. You don’t pull someone who’s been working 25 30 years for a district and pull them aside in a hallway to tell them about a demotion.

2:32:33 It’s wrong. And I asked for the discussion to be at the end of this for bored superintendent communication. And it’s not on our agenda.

2:32:37 I asked for that. You know that. It is so deeply concerning how off the rails this organization has become.

2:32:58 How far, far away from student outcomes we have gone. It is off the rails. Thank you, Miss Jenkins.

2:33:17 Does anybody else have anything to say? I’m not done, mister. Miss Jenkins, we have to move. I want.

2:33:21 I don’t care if five minutes pauses in between. I don’t care. Mister Susan, enough not making it worse.

2:33:28 I’m just trying to get through the meeting. This organization, our cabinet, our staff and our community deserves an answer as to why. They deserve an answer.

2:33:44 So I’m going to. Are you finished? Miss Jenkins? Have you completed your sentence or are we finished here? I don’t know. Are you finished laughing? Doctor Rendell, I would like an explanation as to why this is necessary in this moment.

2:34:15 Yes, Misses Jenkins. We were scheduled to meet last Tuesday at 10:00 a.m.

2:34:19 And I was going to go over all this with you. You. Then you were not able to make that meeting.

2:34:23 So I did call you in the afternoon and go over the rationale for the two job descriptions. The changes to the organizational structure. You may recall that during the interview process, it was one of the five things I said I was going to look at when I came on board, if I was to be selected, was an organizational structural change.

2:34:41 So the rationale for that was based on my experience in other organizations in Brevard previously and my last four years here as a high school, junior senior high school principal here in Brevard. Also some data, also the report, as you mentioned from Doctor Cody, also the RSM audit, all of that is outlined in the PowerPoint presentation for the workshop later today. I did give you all of the rationale, the reasons behind all that on Tuesday.

2:35:09 You were not satisfied with those. I can’t do any more. You know, based on my experience and training in this profession for almost 30 years.

2:35:17 That’s why I believe these structural changes need to happen. The chief of schools position, which we’re talking about right now, is in place in almost every other large district in Florida, either as a deputy superintendent or chief of schools. I had those organizational charts ready to show you at the meeting last week.

2:35:35 Is the way to service our schools better to provide support to the principals better than what we have recently seen? It’s the model we used to use before, similar to the model we used to use before with area superintendents and then area coordinators. So the chief of schools position, the one that’s currently under discussion, is a way to better supervise, monitor and support the principals in their mission. That’s the rationale for the change.

2:36:00 That’s rationale for the job description. So, Doctor Rendell, I’m just curious, why is it our staff members were told that it was? Because it’s the will of the board. Because I didn’t have a discussion with you about it prior to that phone call.

2:36:25 I never said that. Okay, well, I’ll take your word for that, Miss Jenkins, to help with the further conversations. If, when you’re finished, you can say I’m finished.

2:36:40 That way we don’t have any mistakes. So if you’re moving forward, all in favor, signify by saying aye. I know we’re trying to get done and I’d like to have some lunch, too, but it’s not rush.

2:36:53 I just. It’s really hard. And it should like that because we have some sensitive emotions are running high with today.

2:37:01 I’d like to separate out the job description from the people that we were attaching to these. And knowing my personal feelings and of respect and honor that we’ve already shared this morning, this particular, the job description, I actually am in favor of. I think it’s a good idea.

2:37:15 I look at our counties like Duval and others and the way they’re structuring, and we had conversations over the last couple of months about our directors in secondary leading and learning and elementary leading and learning. I know we’re, hate to still thunder from this afternoon because then we’re going to talk about it again, but who are overseeing a handful of schools, and a handful is small, a lot bigger handful because it’s more than five, right. A good handful of schools, two handfuls of schools and other jobs and title one and discipline and all of the other things, you know, charter programming and early learning.

2:37:51 So it’s a lot. And so we even talked about how other districts, we’ve heard from other people how other districts have like those director positions that are just supervising schools and then other people are doing the other things. And so this kind of gets us more focused.

2:38:06 And I actually like this area of focus. And I just have, we have to focus on this job description for the job description. This to me is a good idea to structure ourselves like this, you know, who’s going to be in which seat.

2:38:19 That’s a different conversation. And I feel like what I’m hearing from you is that’s a bigger issue than what the job is that they’re doing. But as far as the structure, I think this is good.

2:38:29 And when we had the discipline audit presentation, I know one of the things that I had concerned with the discipline audit coming back is I am not going to be in favor of adding another cabinet member role. And I think our public is frustrated sometimes. I think we have too many.

2:38:49 They don’t have any idea what jobs these people are doing. But to add another cabinet level position, which is what they were recommending, I think that was not a good idea. So part of the way we can have discipline come to one place, and it hasn’t been, it’s been student services, secondary leading learning, elementary leading learning, kind of aligning.

2:39:06 All of that makes sense and is very helpful. And it helps us to accomplish the goal without adding funding, without adding and help us to align that school supervision better. So I think when it comes to student performance, there can be a focus there.

2:39:23 When it comes to discipline, there can be a focus there. When it comes to chain of command and all of that, there can be a little more alignment focus there. So for the job description itself, I think my personal thought is this is a good idea.

2:39:35 And, you know, and I, for me, we have to separate this conversation from who’s in the role to the actual job that we’re asking them to do. Thank you. Anybody else? Good.

2:39:47 Good all the way around. I did want to just say, from the chair’s perspective, that every single superintendent that I’ve been a part of, and I’m almost positive Doctor dupattre, Doctor Dipatri reorged. When Bingley came on reorg, Blackburn came on Reorg.

2:40:07 The reason Mullins didn’t do too much of a reorg was he was a process to continue what was with Doctor Blackburn. So I think that it’s consistent with other superintendents, it’s in line with most of the large districts to have this position and others that we’re seeing here. So I just wanted to.

2:40:21 To say thank you for bringing it forward. With that, I’d like to call all in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye.

2:40:27 Aye. All opposed? All right, Miss Jenkins, f 21. Need a motion.

2:40:35 Oh, yeah. Move to approve second. There we go.

2:40:39 Any discussion, Miss Jenkins? Okay, all in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye.

2:40:46 All opposed? Nay. Passes. Four one.

2:40:49 All right, everybody good? Yeah. We are now. We will now hold a public hearing to address item g 40, public policy 5511, dressing and grooming.

2:41:02 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Okay, if you can come down to the front if you wish to speak that way, we can roll pretty quickly. Thank you. That was something to follow.

2:41:17 So, I’m going to, again, sound like a broken record. When I attended Miss Campbell’s community forum, which shout out to Miss Campbell for having one nobody else did, there were elementary school administrators in the room. And when it came to dress code, the big ask of them was, please stop making policies for secondary education.

2:41:42 And we become the collateral damage, because what’s appropriate on my 14 year old might look very different when she was five years old, and vice versa. So I’m really disappointed that you listen to some advice about taking out words like modest or reasonable under the guise that they’re not enforceable. Because what is modest to Doctor Rendell might not be modest to Miss Jenkins, and so on and so forth.

2:42:10 We’re doing that again. We’re setting this policy up to fail again, and here’s how we’ve made the principal the arbitrator of this policy. So every school is going to have whatever variation of specifically 0.

2:42:41 4 not being able to address to a non human characteristic. That’s subjective. And again, what Doctor Rendell sees as dressing as non human might be different from Miss Campbell or Mister Susan, or whomever.

2:43:08 So, in an effort to unify our schools to make sure that our policies, whether you’re at Bayside or endeavor, look the same isn’t going to happen because that bullet point. I have talked to more people about this one topic than I’ve even talked about books. And everybody, their first reaction was, what does that even mean? What does it look like? And it’s not clear in this policy.

2:43:21 You’re setting this policy up to fail. And like, we’re seeing with other policies that get done, and then we have to open them back up to change them because of unintended consequences. Like I’m screaming from the rooftops, there’s unintended consequences.

2:43:34 Again, this is an another fire hydrant experience. I’m trying to tell you it’s not going to work because it’s too subjective. It needs to be more black and white, and especially for parents.

2:43:51 When my little ones were in elementary school, my youngest loved the zip up hoodies where like, once you zip it up, you become like a cool Pokemon character. Under your policy, that’s outlawed. Because guess what? A Pokemon isn’t a human, so therefore she’s dressing as a non human entity.

2:44:00 It’s not just headbands. It’s more well rounded than that. And so I would really, really, really appreciate it if you could pull the policy back.

2:44:13 Be more black and white, not just for your administrators, not just for your teachers, not just for the staff, but also for the parents. Like, back to school. Shopping is coming, and frankly, we need to know precisely what our kids can and what our kids can’t actually wear.

2:44:22 Thanks. Thank you, Miss Kirvin. Next up.

2:44:40 Thank you. Addressing the dress code. Why are we discussing a dress code? Where is the research to show that dress code is necessary to improving reading levels and graduation rates? Rates.

2:45:03 How much taxpayer money has been spent on discussing this dress code? It is a complete waste of money and time. Please stop creating problems to solve and start solving real issues that our schools are facing, such as shortages of teachers, shortages of IAS, bus drivers, maintenance staff. Can we speak to the actual.

2:45:04 I am. The dress code is not an issue. The dress code is the issue.

2:45:11 The dress code is the issue. The dress code is the issue. And here are other issues that you should be.

2:45:16 Those other issues are not supposed to be maintenance staff, cafeteria staff. Miss, can you. I attended.

2:45:24 No, it’s gotten to the point. If you then bring it back around, please. Convening meeting as well.

2:45:44 Do you know what was not mentioned at this meeting? For resiliency and helping the mental health of our students. Dress code period. Why? Where’s the research? Why are you wasting our taxpayer money on this ridiculous subject? Thank you.

2:45:52 Thank you. All right. Seeing none, we’re moving forward, just as I said.

2:45:57 If you guys can come down and sit in the front so that. I know I didn’t mean to move on, but it wasn’t. They weren’t there.

2:46:09 Thank you. I have to agree with what Miss Kirvin said about the vagueness of this. You’ve left a wide open field for more dissension than anything else.

2:46:28 And to arbitrarily just put this in the hands of principals is going to be a nightmare. You want to have a cohesive policy that’s spelled out. And unfortunately for some people, yes, it has to state, no cat ears, no collars, no leashes.

2:46:53 You know, you just have to spell some things out for people because common sense seems to elude a lot of people in this world. But I’d like to talk about the most unpopular position that might help, and that’s school uniforms. And when I say a school uniform, I don’t mean parents having to go out and spend an expensive amount of money on a specific type of uniform, but each school has a school color.

2:47:18 Why not say that kids can wear shirts of that school color and stick with black khaki and white pants? I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve been to the high schools. We’re educating our students for success. And do you not think that dress has an important role in that? I mean, as an employer? Once that hired people, I was appalled how people came to.

2:47:25 Young kids came to job interviews. It was beyond appalling whether they had qualifications or not. I’m sorry.

2:47:30 You come in and flip flops and short shorts. I’m not hiring you. Okay.

2:47:49 Because there’s no decorum and we’re not teaching it in the system. There are studies about uniforms, there are pros, there are cons, but it has been shown that it reduces certain things like bullying, economic issues. You know, everybody is treated the same.

2:48:12 It does improve morale. I don’t know about the test scores or not, but there is a flood of information that can be looked into when you’re thinking about possibly going in that direction. And like I said, you don’t have to mandate uniforms that have to make parents go out and buy specific type of clothing, but you can mandate a consistent policy, and I hope you would at least try to consider it.

2:48:18 This one, it’s not cutting it. You’re leaving this open for a nightmare, unfortunately. Thank you.

2:48:32 Next up. Okay, hello. I would like to respectfully disagree with the input of uniforms.

2:48:50 Uniforms, to me, limits its and my ability to be creative with my outfits. See, take me as an example. So if you see what I’m wearing, I dress confidence and act confident based on what I wear.

2:49:05 That’s having me so confident in how I speak because of this. That if you give me a uniform and I can only wear that, that limits that, and then I can. You can’t add to it or subtract to it at all.

2:49:15 And that kind of creates a problem to me. And I am not the kind of person who likes to fit in, per se. I like to stand out.

2:49:26 I like to. I like to walk into a room and allies go, you know, because that’s just kind of my personality. I like that because I like people.

2:49:39 People. But you kind of will limit my expression with my clothing if you use uniforms. And I would also like to add with cat ears and cat tails.

2:49:45 I have a hoodie. It has cat ears on it. That could technically be against dress code.

2:49:51 It is a black hoodie, but it has little cat ears on it. It’s so cute. But that’s against the dress code.

2:50:11 And I would like wearing that. It’s comfortable, but I wouldn’t be allowed to because of how vague this is. It needs to be more boom, boom, boom, less spectrum, more put, if that makes sense.

2:50:27 Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next up, I don’t know that I’ll take up the full three minutes, but I could be lying.

2:50:41 First thing, the idea of the dress code. A dress code is just another tool which schools are in love with to promote complicity and compliance. That’s it.

2:50:52 You’ll dress the way we say. You will talk the way we say, you will raise your hand to go to the bathroom, will eat when you say, walk when you say. It is just about compliance and conformity.

2:51:04 More importantly, though, is the inequitability of the dress code. It is insanely biased towards men. We all know the story well.

2:51:43 If a woman wears and shows a little too much, it will distract the men, and, you know, and if they’re distracted, they’re not going to do as well in school, which is not true, and we can’t be at blame for their behaviors. That seems like a parental issue. And I know you are all about parental rights, so it is the parents responsibility to make sure that their sons are not rapey, that they are not touchy, that they are not inappropriate, because that’s the reason for that.

2:51:47 And that’s all I have to say. Okay. Thank you very much.

2:51:56 Okay, that concludes our speakers. Let’s move on this. I’ll second it.

2:52:06 Is there any discussion? Yeah. Okay. So I so appreciate everybody coming up and, and sharing their thoughts on any plethora of issues, including this one today.

2:52:16 I do get a little frustrated sometimes when people come up. I’m just going to be quite honest. And they’re really more arguing with each other than addressing what’s on in the agenda item.

2:52:51 But clearly, we need to go back and communicate better as to why we’re here, why we’re doing this, where we got the direction from it, and what we’re allowing, what we’re not know you going when we to work as a board, we have a collaborative process. Do I know? We had differences of opinion on how we worded the cat ear issue, but it is what it is, and I don’t think it’s as vague as what people are saying, but I have to say, to say we’re still dealing with bias and gender things. That tells me you didn’t read the policy as it is because we took out a lot of that stuff.

2:53:03 And also, you know, we can’t talk about uniforms today because this is, this is not part of it, but our schools, many of our schools do. Just so you know, many of our schools do. And that this policy allows them to continue to do that.

2:53:20 I was just at golf u this spring, do a ja in the day, and their school has cute little, not uniforms, but like you mentioned, here are the colors you can wear, and it works great for their school. So it’s a school by school decision. But, you know, I just want to go back and say the policy as it stood was not working.

2:53:30 It was not enforceable because of the inconsistency. So we had to do work on this policy. Whether people think if it was a waste of time, money, we had to do something.

2:53:46 And it hadn’t been touched in quite some time since 2014, 2017, it says. But we had, we had to do make some adjustments. There was some things that needed to be in there that weren’t in there, some things that were in there that actually, many people who even stood up today said needed to not be in there.

2:53:56 And we’re, we took to care going of that. And we got rid of, thankfully, because of some people who came up and did public comments at last meeting, we realized, oh, we had the wrong one attached. We still had all that vague language in there, and we got the right one.

2:54:11 So thank you to those who came up last time especially that drew our attention to it was the wrong attachment. But I also have to say, going back to the one issue that seems to be consistently the most controversial, that was driven by student voice. Student voice.

2:54:32 We had over 2000 comments from students in middle school and high school. And the number one, not the number one, but one of the most consistent things they said we want to stop having this was the dog collars, cat ears, tails. That issue was a student voice driven.

2:54:49 Otherwise we probably wouldn’t have been having this conversation. But as we read through those comments, that was part of student voice that they thought was a real problem, a real distraction. And, you know, so I just want to just make sure, because people sometimes are only paying attention when we get to these meetings.

2:54:59 Those are conversations we had in our workshops of why we’re making these changes, why they’re important, where it’s coming from. And we also had principal voice and Dean voice. We had all of that.

2:55:08 We took all of that together and with the help of the staff took all those ideas and formulated this. And, and it may not be perfect, but it’s better than what it was. And so I think we’ve done good work here.

2:55:20 And again, not perfection, but it’s good work. And I have confidence in our building administrators that they will be able to take this and make it what they need to, to best serve their own student populations. Thank you.

2:55:23 Yep. Thank you very much. Does anybody else wish to add anything or.

2:55:29 Good to go. I’m good with all of that. Is there any discussion extra? No.

2:55:41 All in favor, signify by saying aye. Any opposed? 50. Doctor Rendell, will you please let us know about the items under the action portion of today’s agenda? Yes, mister chair.

2:55:49 We have two. The first item is H 41, procurement solicitations. Do I hear a motion move to approve.

2:56:13 Second, is there any discussion? I have something, but I’ll wait for you guys. I would like to pull and table to the July 11, the 23 64 646 p. Doctor, the contract for property and the reason behind it is that I had some questions that I wanted to reach out to miss Scipio, but she wasn’t available.

2:56:19 I would just like to table it to the 11th. There’s nothing that’s devious or anything like that. I just had some follow up questions.

2:56:28 So if everybody’s okay with that, I’d like to entertain a motion. I’d like to move to pull the item. Need a second? I’ll second.

2:56:32 Can I discuss that for a second? Absolutely. Oh, I can’t see my light. Because it’s back here.

2:56:45 I’m glad that you’re pulling that one up because that is one of the ones that I asked for additional information on. And I did receive some of it, but for some reason I wasn’t able to view it, so I had to request for permission. I’m hoping that that will come through and I can review it beforehand, but yeah.

2:56:56 So, no, I’m in favor of pulling it just to give more adequate time to review. And I think the rest of the board will get the same documents that I had requested, so they may look at those as well. So we have a motion in a second.

2:57:11 Any other discussion? Yeah. Before we move on polling this, I’d like to know what the consequences would be for the delay. Because, you know, we have to have, you know, do we have coverage in the meantime? Because that could cause a significant problem.

2:57:23 And if we are at risk of losing our rate, if we have the delay, no, the rate won’t be changed. I do know that. I’d like to get confirmation of that from staff, please.

2:57:39 Okay. Is there anyone that can speak to that? And I said, because this has all been on the agenda since all of these attachments have been here since the 14th when we, when it was first released to us. So we needed, we had time.

2:57:45 And I know sometimes it’s been busy. Miss Lucinda want to get those answers. Hi, Judy Arnaz.

2:57:51 She is the senior vice president of Gallagher. She’s here if you have any questions. Not for her.

2:58:02 Okay. We won’t have services starting one. You have services for consulting, which means that it continues the contract just like it was going to when we didn’t have it before.

2:58:17 So when this was coming up before, back in October, we were sitting there and the idea was that if it didn’t come forward, that we would just continue the services. I’m not saying that we’re not going to approve it. I’m just saying I need to table it because we have some questions and the person that was in charge wasn’t there.

2:58:27 Okay. Again, Miss Slosinski started providing an answer and then you directly contradicted her. I’m not.

2:58:40 She just. Are we, are we not going? Are we going what? What are we losing here? Are we losing just a brokerage service or are we losing coverage? That’s what I need to know. I’m trying to make sure we’re not going to lose coverage.

2:58:47 We’re not losing coverage. I don’t need an answer from you, Mister Susan. I need the person who is the expert in this field, and I know you do insurance.

2:58:55 You don’t do this kind of insurance. The people who’ve been covering this job are here. My understanding, it’s the consulting.

2:59:09 That’s it. Good morning, mister chair. Board members, staff Judy Arns with Arthur J.

2:59:21 Gallagher. A concern that I have is that I signed a contract that expires on June 30 through June 30. So technically, you have no broker as of July 1.

2:59:38 And what would you do, miss that between now and July 1 that would be any different than the previous six months. What would your actions be? Because we’ve already renewed the policies for all of our coverages. There’s no coverage issues, just like Misses Campbell said.

2:59:43 And as I know there may not, there’s nothing that’s going to be in the next eleven days. Correct? That’s incorrect. Okay.

2:59:51 We have a July 1 casualty program that is on the agenda. It’s already been passed. Pardon? That’s already.

2:59:57 The coverages have already been passed. It’s the consent agenda. Consent? Yeah.

3:00:07 Okay. So we can go forward today, tomorrow, and bind coverage. But technically, as of July 1, you don’t have a broker.

3:00:21 So you’re not binding the coverage. We are through the approval of those different lines of coverage. I understand that a broker is the one who actually does the binding authority with the carriers.

3:00:35 Specifically. You give us your approval, we take it to our carriers, and we give them direction to proceed accordingly. That is the most important thing, is to have the broker.

3:01:09 If something happens July 1, what if we have a serious claim situation? So you’re saying that the policies that we renewed from each one of those carriers that we’ve signed off on, and we would not go into effect because you, as the consultant, did not bind them? That is not what I’m saying, sir. I’m saying that if we get an authorization today, which we do, to bind the casualty, it becomes effective July 1. But you do not have a broker effective July 1 because our contract expires June 30.

3:01:11 Right. I’m not trying to be difficult. No, no, no.

3:01:17 But the coverages. The coverages are the same. And you’re the only is what Miss Campbell was asking.

3:01:23 The coverages will give you in place and we just need to. I just. To be honest with you, I don’t have any problem with it.

3:01:28 I just need to ask some questions regarding the procurement process. And miss. Now Miss Wright has some.

3:01:34 And I’m looking down at Mister Trent. And if you’ll give us a couple of days, I think everybody will be fine. That is perfectly fine.

3:01:40 But I’m just trying to answer your question. Thank you. On a very technical basis that you have a broker.

3:01:48 The contract expires June 30 July 1. You have your renewals. They will be processed, you will have binders.

3:02:08 But if there is an event, you don’t have a broker to advocate for you and to manage the process. Can I say in that event, since we know that the. If there is a process, if there is an event, there’s a longer process than two weeks to make claims and to do all that stuff, which would be in that event, we would have a broker in place.

3:02:16 Because we’re saying that we’re just tabling it. We’re not saying we’re not going to do it. So I would say that if there is a claim in between, that is our team that actually puts it together.

3:02:23 We’re the ones that go investigate. We do all that stuff. And if we did have the carrier coverage, then we would just work with the broker in two weeks.

3:02:37 I can agree to disagree because on a serious matter, you have a fatality. What do you do? If you have a fatality on your workers compensation? You have to notify that carrier within 24 hours. We do? Yep.

3:02:51 Or does the broker. Can I ask a question just out of curiosity, because again, I was trying to review some documents that I had requested last week, and one of the people that was granting those documents was on vacation, and then they ended up sending them and I wasn’t granted permission. So it was a whole thing.

3:03:06 Is. So you’re saying that the risk that we run is if there’s a major event that happens from July 1 to the 11th, when our next meeting is that we would not have coverage in these areas or. No, that’s not what I’m saying.

3:03:22 I have a broker. What if we have a major hurricane? Our job as a broker is to deploy the claims people and every type of support we can to this, to the school board, insurance company would do it. I’m just being honest.

3:03:36 I’ve had business a long time. It doesn’t make good sense to not have a brokerage contract in place when it expires. Technically, I lose my authority.

3:03:53 My authority goes away without having a contract with brevard school. And in the event that we have a major catastrophe, and we normally, just so everybody understands, we make the claims through the carriers. We work with our consultants and stuff like that.

3:04:01 That doesn’t. If tomorrow a hurricane hits, it’s not that within two weeks all of this stuff is going to happen. We have to deploy things.

3:04:06 We will be okay. In the next two weeks, to make sure. Due diligence on a large item.

3:04:33 I’ll be honest with you, we should have had this come before us a little bit earlier so that it wasn’t running up against it. But I do think that with the gap of a consultant, there’s not a risk of coverage. There’s just a risk of you guys assisting a major event in the two weeks that might happen, which, you know, I don’t think you would be able to deploy the resources after an event, after we’re trying to make evaluations.

3:04:35 It’s. I think we’re okay here. I just.

3:04:41 I just didn’t want to make a decision based on. I want to just clarify. All of our insurances remain in place.

3:04:51 They are still there. So, I mean, and I’m just going to go back to a normal, normal, average person here. When you call an insurance broker to get insurance, they secure the insurance company.

3:05:05 And then at that point when something happens, if your house floods, typically the homeowner calls the insurance company. And so you’re saying in this case, the district typically calls you guys as the broker and you the broker on your property insurance. Absolutely.

3:05:21 And on the rest of your lines of coverage, we work with the third party administrator and the claims department for brevard schools for workers cons. And I respect the fact that you call me a consultant, but we’re not a consultant. We are the licensed broker.

3:05:50 You cannot deal direct with the carrier to plead place coverage. You don’t deal direct with a carrier to negotiate terms and conditions. We are a broker and our job is to design programs, manage your program, market your program, bring the best coverage we possibly can in current market, and support you 100% from safety, loss control as well as claims.

3:05:56 It’s not a consulting role. And then the other part of our. Just so the main reason behind this is this is a major decision.

3:06:09 And I just wanted to make sure that some of the things were checked with our personal CFO. And the issue that we run into is that she wasn’t available. And I did not know that she was not available to the point where I wouldn’t be able to get a hold of her.

3:06:25 I spoke to doctor Rendell about this and I just. You know what I mean? I feel true that we’ll be okay with the lines of coverage that we have in place and then also just kind of doing our due diligence of making sure in the process of that we’re not in a bad place. That’s the way I feel.

3:06:39 And that’s the reason I went where I was at. So I guess I need some more for me to understand. I’m trying to understand what the holdup is because we had a request for more information.

3:06:47 Where I asked for more information about the bids seemed to be, I don’t want to put words, but seem questioning the process. Right. And so we were, and I had same problem.

3:07:26 Smartsheet, you have to, had to grant permissions, but I didn’t realize, but, you know, our bid process, there’s a process, there’s a team of people. It goes through that, you know, very open as much as can be, unless it’s, I don’t know if this is something that has to be closed, but you know that, you know, there’s different across functional teams that say, sit on those committees that rate the different proposals or bids, whatever it is in the procurement process. And so I guess I can’t be in support of polling if I’m not understanding what the hangup is, especially since we’ve had, and I understand Mississippi hasn’t been available, but someone has been covering her role.

3:07:50 It’s fallen under Miss Licinski and for actually for a month and a half at least. So I gotta understand why we’ve been on the agenda for two weeks and we’re not getting these questions answered. I need, I gotta have more or I can’t go with you on pulling this, because this particular broker, what we did today on these insurance, we didn’t, we didn’t vote on contracts.

3:08:01 What we did was we voted to grant the superintendent the authority to bind our insurance policies at a certain amount. And so that process, you know, it’s set in place. I don’t think these insurance companies are going to pull their contracts and go, oh, nope, now we’re not doing it.

3:08:11 It’s set in place. Thank you. But that’s the work that this, this broker did, correct you, you brokered all those deals for us? Absolutely.

3:08:22 So I gotta have, I gotta have more to go on. Besides, you know, what you’ve given the person that I normally ask the questions to was not available. Okay.

3:08:42 That’s the reason there’s questions that I have that are, are related to it, that just are standard policy process questions on a large consulting program. Gallagher has been our program, our consultant for how many years? I personally and Gallagher, almost 24. So it’s not an issue of their quality.

3:08:50 You guys are also the largest public sector related to property. There’s no question to that. And I don’t want this to ever get there.

3:08:57 Questions that we normally have about processes and if we’re going to be able to ask them on a regular basis. I wanted to pull it. That’s it.

3:09:08 And if you’re not comfortable with that, then I totally understand. But I would ask that to get the support to do that so that we could do our due diligence. That’s all.

3:09:18 I’m with Miss Campbell on this. It sounds like you have questions and I understand the person wasn’t there to answer them. But what are your questions? Because you’re not articulating to the rest of the board the what your concern is.

3:09:34 So it doesn’t make sense to give support to pull something without having any idea what the question is or why. What are we questioning? I’m not done. Mister Susan.

3:09:47 Give me the same respect you give to the people to your right. I don’t know who you think you talk to. I will not stand for it ever.

3:09:55 I never have and I never will. Miss Jenkins, we’re here. Miss Campbell just said the same statement, mister Susan.

3:10:05 Okay. I find it interesting that you look down the line and said, oh and Mister Trent, as if the three of you already are aware of where you’re going with this. Mister Susan, I am speaking.

3:10:12 It doesn’t make sense to ask for support, to pull something without being explained about why. Just say why. It doesn’t mean that I’m not going to support you.

3:10:18 I genuinely have no idea what your concern is. I have no clue what your concern is. So say it.

3:10:30 Yeah, I did. And I have a right to ask that. My concern is, is that normally on large contract issues, I sit down with the person that’s in charge, ask the questions as I review the documents.

3:10:37 I did not get that opportunity. Now that misses Licinski is in charge, I can sit with her and of. I just need to be able to table.

3:10:41 I’ve said that this is a good organization and I hear you on that. I do. I hear you on that.

3:10:47 But what are. I don’t understand what your questions are. I genuinely don’t understand the why behind it.

3:10:51 I don’t. I don’t understand why that’s so difficult. Just give me a why you don’t think me all the why.

3:10:54 You have ten. Give me one. Thank you.

3:10:57 I will. I’ll give you my why. Thank you.

3:11:09 Significantly asking a question. It’s fine. I think it’s very smart for the board as a whole that when we are looking at contracts that are a million and a half dollar contracts that we’re going to approve, we need to have all the facts before we may make a decision.

3:11:18 And for me, I would like to see the entire procurement process. I want to see all the bids. I want to see who was on the committee, who were the people that made that decision.

3:11:33 How did they rank those people? And I’m going to use the contract that just came up within the last, what, month? Month and a half that I pulled into question that would have 100% got across the board if I didn’t flag it, that there was a problem. And I’m not saying that there’s a problem with Gallagher at all. I’m not even saying that.

3:11:40 I’m just saying we have to have all the facts before we make a million and a half dollar decision for our district. And I don’t feel like I have all the facts. For me.

3:11:51 I’m missing the other pieces of this to say, yes, this is definitely the best company that I think we should go with. And I appreciate your response. Cause that is a why to me, you didn’t get to see the other bids.

3:11:56 Thank you. That’s all I wanted to do hear. Because saying I have questions doesn’t mean anything to me.

3:12:09 I can’t support saying, yeah, you guys need more time if I don’t know why. So thank you. Ok, may I interject, please? The school board is not going to be cutting a check to Gallagher.

3:12:40 There’s a negotiated commission that’s paid by the insurance company direct to Gallagher. We do it on a percentage, a standard percentage. And anywhere from ten to 15% we have offered and was selected at 4%, which also included a large amount of value added services, appraisals, loss control certificate tracking.

3:12:49 The list goes on. Those were the things that risk management said I want help with. I want support.

3:13:07 So I’m not going to bring you a bill for Gallagher brokerage for a million and a half. You do the comp, you do the percentages, and maybe it’s 300. Your insurance program is enormous.

3:13:10 It is. Multimillion dollars. Yep.

3:13:15 That’s not what the broker is getting. I’d love it if I got 10%. It would be brilliant.

3:13:20 And I don’t think any of that’s the question. I think the bottom line is, is it’s the process. We just want to check it out.

3:13:27 We’d like to table it. So with that, we have a thank you. All right, we’ll call it in favor.

3:13:29 All in favor, signify by saying aye. Let’s clarify. We’re vote.

3:13:37 We’re voting to table it to the 11th. All in favor? Signify by saying hi. All opposed? Okay.

3:13:45 Now back to the original department initiated agreements. We have the motion to approve. And second.

3:13:55 Already on the floor, correct, Mister Gibbs? Yeah. So all we need is discussion on it. The motion is approve all the solicitations except for 41 d.

3:14:00 And that’s. So that’s what’s on the table. Is there any discussions on those items? Yeah, I just want to say, I just.

3:14:26 Because this has come up several times, to be quite honest, board, I’m kind of approaching every meeting with our procurement things going. What’s going to get pulled this time? And I want to call us back to our commitment to make sure that we’re looking at the agenda early enough so that we can get those questions answered. Because it’s not fair to Gallagher, it’s not fair to our staff that have to now scramble to do or different times scramble.

3:14:44 So let’s commit to looking at agenda, and if you want to skip over the things that are routine and go to these contracts first, that’s what I would recommend. Go look at the financial statements and things that are kind of routine later, if you want to. But let’s go to these first, because these contracts, when we keep pulling them, I think we’re.

3:14:55 We’re not setting our staff up for success. And I know that. I don’t think this is necessarily our intention, but every time we do that, we just insert an x little question mark of stability that I think we’re causing problems.

3:15:21 So please, board, let’s commit to going back and reviewing the agenda as quickly as possible, because the staff did a really good job of not adding, making any late additions on these two items. So let’s make sure we’re reviewing them early enough so we can get those questions answered sooner and not have these last minute surprise us what we’ve committed not to do. And I think just for public comment, I did preach previous to the entire time, try to reach out, trying to try to find answers.

3:15:32 Didn’t know Lyskinski was the point of contact. So we can go from there. I think if we can get Miss Wright’s access to the actual documentation, we should be pretty good too, and we can move on.

3:15:41 So with that, if there’s no other conversations, I’d like to call a question. All in favor, signify by saying aye. All opposed passes 50.

3:15:56 Okay, we will move to the information agenda, which includes items for board review and may be brought back. Mister Susan? We still have age 42. Sorry, we still have age 42.

3:16:07 Next item is age 42. Department school initiated agreements. Do I hear a motion? Is there any discussion? Hearing none.

3:16:18 All in favor signify by saying aye. Any opposed say nay passes 50. We will move on to the information agenda that includes items for board review and may be brought back for action at the subsequent meeting.

3:16:30 No action will be taken on these items today. There’s one item under this category. Does any member wish to discuss any of these items? Hearing none.

3:16:44 We are now at board member reports. Does any board member have anything further to report or discuss? I do. I want to make a motion that we postpone our book review committee meeting that’s happening on Friday.

3:17:01 I was very adamant at the offsite that I would like to have that go back to policymaking immediately so that we are able to have that committee make a recommendation to the board. And the board have the ultimate authority on that. Somehow or another, it got lost in transition.

3:17:10 So I just. I’m making the motion that we postpone book review committee this coming Friday until that policy is revised. And I think it’s not a.

3:17:15 Yeah, Doctor Rendell, we had spoken about this. Were you able to. I had.

3:17:21 Just so everybody understands, we. The law changes July 1 and changes the entire infrastructure. We’re meeting on the 30th.

3:17:28 Putting people through a meeting that then can change on the first. So I asked Doctor Rendell for his recommendation. And he had been working on something to that extent.

3:17:35 So basically just waiting for the direction of board corporate. You do have a meeting scheduled for Friday. It is one book.

3:17:40 We do have a policy in place. It does allow for public comment. We do want to revise that policy.

3:17:50 We have to make some changes to it anyway because of the changes from the legislature. So we can postpone it. We can hold the meeting on Friday.

3:17:59 Really need kind of like board direction, you know, because it is your committee. So you more direction. Don’t necessarily need a vote, but board corporates direction.

3:18:08 I believe that’s my correct, Mister Gibbs. Right. If you’re fine canceling it with the board consensus, I’m fine.

3:18:11 Correct. But I didn’t want to make that decision myself. Right.

3:18:16 I’m looking for direction from corporate. Miss Jenkins. Go ahead.

3:18:22 I understand the law is changing. I’m not arguing that. But we haven’t had this scenario before.

3:18:42 At least not that I can think of, where. Typically, if it starts with a policy, it has to continue with that policy that was in place when it started. So if you remember last time, we postponed the book review committee back in November, I think until we could revise the policy and implement the new procedures.

3:18:53 So the board has done this before. And any book committee that, that comes in after July 1 has to meet the new statutory standards. So we have to make changes before the next round.

3:19:01 Since this is already scheduled, you could allow this one to go forward and the next day new standards would be in place, right? No. Okay. I figured.

3:19:10 I just. We haven’t had that happen. Where there was, it was because of a law shift, it was always like we would change the policy and then we just had to follow the previous policy.

3:19:13 So I didn’t understand how that would work, so. Okay. Thank you.

3:19:25 Okay. Anybody else have any other part of the discussion? Yeah, I’m torn here because part of me, the reason why I didn’t go anywhere was because we didn’t have consensus on the 6th. And I see you’re trying to get consensus today.

3:19:34 You know, I’m torn because I want us to keep moving. These committee members have done the work and they’re ready. And I. And there will be a delay.

3:19:44 There will be the delay because one we don’t even know the law takes place on July 1. We don’t actually, actually have all the details until we get them from the DOE. The DOE has to take the new law and give the specifics down to the districts.

3:19:49 And so that could take a little bit longer. We’re not talking about. And so we’re talking about.

3:19:59 They had another meeting scheduled in August for the next couple of books and then we’ll go from there. So we’re talking about pushing it back several months. So I don’t want to delay for that.

3:20:27 But on the other hand, the reason why I’m torn is having watched since July, June 6, or when we talked about this, our off site, I got a chance to watch the whole meeting and I had the same concerns in the day of that. These are volunteers were asked to do very, very difficult jobs. And I did hear comments that were highly inappropriate, but they are required, way we have it written, sunshine law, they are required to hear those.

3:20:31 But people were threatening people. They were insulting people. And listen, we get paid to do that.

3:20:49 We get threatened and insulted all the time. I’ll take it, whatever. But the people that we’ve asked to do this very difficult job, whether you and the public like them or not, whether we on this board like each of them or not, it’s not fair for them to be threatened and basically intimidated, attempted intimidating them into voting a certain way that wasn’t fair.

3:21:14 And so, and when I look at it some more, I think that our, you know, the statutes says the board has that responsibility, and I’ve mentioned that several times. And so if we do take it back, the ultimate decision, one, the public comments get directed towards us, which I’ll take that all day over my sweet volunteer, who I love and I appreciate and apologize to every time I talk. I’m so sorry you’re having to do this job.

3:21:35 I’m so thankful for him, but I would rather that be going to us. And then we get the final say, which to me seems to align more with statute, that it’s our responsibility and we kind of give it up to the committee when we have them do that vote. And again, some people say, why we keep tweaking this? Well, part of it is brand new.

3:21:47 We’re entering uncharted territory. Before we made this policy change a couple years ago, we’d only ever had one book challenged, and so we had to get our book policy changed with the time. So I’m kind of torn.

3:22:25 But if, from what I’m reading on social media, Friday is about to turn into an all out nightmare, and honestly, I don’t know that I think it would be fair for those five people to have to sit through another five hour meeting because people on the one side and people on the other side are all getting their posses coming and going to flood the room. So with that, I am kind of in favor of, even though I don’t want to stop the process of let’s stop the process, because I don’t think it’s fair to any of them, any of the five of them or our staff who have to be here to have to sit through all that when our direction is for it to come back to us anyway. Mister Trump.

3:22:44 All right, so why are we doing this, possibly delaying this meeting? Because we care, and we care about the people that are involved, the people that agree with us and don’t agree with us. We care about them and they should not be treated the way they were treated at the last meeting. That was appalling.

3:23:11 So if it were any people that say they aligned with me, that participated in that behavior, I would be saying the same thing. It’s inexcusable and it’s unnecessary. We are now to not one, but two volunteers that are being potentially destroyed online, going to their employers and stating that they shouldn’t work and their jobs should be boycotted.

3:23:16 Their employers should be boycotted. This is where we’re at. You know who you are.

3:23:31 Grow up and let the process work. We’re talking about our kids here, not taking jobs away from people so it is one book. And it is, you know, it’s all over social media to be a circus about one book.

3:23:43 So hopefully we can not wait till August, we get some information. You know, I’m all for moving it into. Into July, but I mean, I’ll publicly state this.

3:24:08 If the person that I appointed to that position, if that person or their spouse attacks another committee member, I will be committed to removing that person. I would really hope we would all take that stance on committees when we appoint people. So you’ve got my thumbs up to move in the meeting and acting like adults? No, I said my piece about it.

3:24:15 So I thank you, Miss Campbell, for some of your comments. You eloquently laid out the entire process. I truly appreciate that.

3:24:30 Mister Trent. Some of your sentiments are exactly in line with the way I feel. Being personally attacked at my personal business multiple times, it becomes an issue of defamation of character and some other legal pieces.

3:24:46 And these are individuals that are serving for us on this committee. And I think that this is something that we should definitely take a look at. And if our people, or anybody else as a part of them, are acting in an inappropriate way, we should address that immediately as individuals.

3:24:54 So, I’m in favor of moving this to have conversations. Conversations. And move forward and cancel off the meeting on Friday, it looks like.

3:25:06 Miss Campbell, is. Miss Jenkins, are you there? Are you in favor of canceling this off to change the law? Yeah. I’m also in favor of turning all of the temperature down.

3:25:24 But I think people need to be honest with themselves about what’s happening, because it is absolutely happening on both sides. It’s ridiculous. And someone who had to deal with constant threats and harassment, I don’t.

3:25:32 It’s wrong. It is wrong on both sides. But be honest with yourselves about what’s happening.

3:25:39 Yep. And I think that if there’s any out there, that we should all address it and move forward. So, does that give you the direction you need, Doctor Rendell? Yes, mister chair.

3:25:46 We’ll postpone that meeting until we revise policy. Thank you, sir. Doctor Rendell, do you have anything further to report? I do not. Okay. Being that there is no further business, this meeting is now adjourned. Close.