2023-07-27 - School Board Meeting

6:02 Good evening. The July 27, 2023 tentative budget hearing and board meeting is now in order. I’m happy to welcome my fellow board members to the public. I would like to take this opportunity to remind the public that your appropriate place for public participation in the meeting is during your individual public comment opportunity as identified in the agenda.

6:19 Outside of your individual public comment opportunity, your role in the meeting is as an observer. Paul, roll call, please. Mister Susan.

6:26 Here. Miss Wright. Here.

6:28 Mister Trent. Here. Miss Jenkins.

6:30 Here. Miss Campbell. Here.

6:31 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, which is indivisible with liberty and justice.

7:17 Well, they were saying the pledge. Normally at this time, I give my fellow board members a opportunity to speak. But we’re going to give the floor to a brand new program and opportunity.

7:29 Sheriff Ivy, if you could come forward and to the diet or to the speaking podium and give us a little bit of overview on what’s going on, why these dogs are in here, and thank you for coming tonight. Yes, sir. Thank you, mister chair, members of the board and our superintendent.

7:43 I’m actually going to let the stars of the show come up on the front stage there, if you don’t mind, sir. So you guys head on up there. What you’re looking at is what we are starting to affectionately call Junie’s posse.

8:07 So, mister chair, as you know, and as our superintendent knows, for the last couple years, we’ve had a bloodhound at two of our schools, two of our different schools, and a comfort dog program that we’ve done in partnership. The dogs are trained as part of our Paws and Stripes college program that we have at the sheriff’s office. The only one of its kind in the country that trains child comfort dogs.

8:33 We decided this year to expand. We now breed our own bloodhounds so we can make sure the bloodline is strong in their abilities to. To scent and search for missing children, seniors with Alzheimer’s and dementia.

8:48 But we also decided to dedicate three new ones to our schools. So we will now have a total of five. One of our handlers is out right now, but we’ll have a total of five dogs in our schools.

9:00 And these dogs do everything from help comfort the kids in a time of anxiety, a time of need, to helping teach them to read. Reading to the dogs. We have reading programs that worked with the dogs, showing them love.

9:14 In those days where we’ve had tragedies, in our schools, we moved the dogs to the appropriate school that, unfortunately, has faced that tragedy. So this is an amazing program. The bloodhounds that you see up on stage with you on the far.

9:29 Your far right is ivy, and then you have chase, and then you have. You have Beth, and you have Patton, and they. They are.

9:52 You’re getting excited, aren’t you? And our. Our fifth dog that’s in the school is actually Daisy. And Daisy Mae is the mom of Ivy, Beth, and Patton, and she’s now been put into our schools and will be providing comfort for children at her school.

10:13 So we are extremely proud of this program. We’re extremely proud of the partnership. And as you know, our school resource deputies do more than just protect our schools, keeping evil away.

10:25 They go in and they become family to the teachers, to the parents, to the children that are in those schools. And I couldn’t be more proud of this partnership. As you guys know, I love our abilities to use dogs, not only in our schools, but just to combat crime and the things that we do.

10:42 And this is the side of it, where all it takes is to see these children as they love on these pets and just comfort them. And it’s an amazing thing. And so I thank you for allowing us to expand the program, and I thank you for allowing us to be part of brevard public schools.

11:01 Hey, sheriff, we’re going to come down there and take a picture if you join us. Yeah, they haven’t. Not one of them has bitten anybody today, so it should be good sa.

12:52 If you guys will bring them up. No, I was just letting the drinks and food get cleared. Yeah, that’s.

14:22 Thank you, sheriff. Absolutely. Thank you, guys.

14:25 Yes, sir. At this time, I would like to offer my fellow board members and doctor Rendell an opportunity to recognize students, staff, or members of the community. Who wants to go first? I don’t mind.

14:38 Okay, Miss Jenkins. So, first and foremost, thank you for that. It was so fun playing with them outside, and I asked Brevard County Sheriff’s office if I could trade my dog, who likes to leap over my fence and run away, for one of those.

14:53 They said no. So I want to do a shout out to the satellite high school cheerleaders. They actually hosted a summer camp in satellite beach this summer.

15:02 My daughter attended, and they had a little performance at the end of the week. But I want to say a shout out to not only the performance that the cheerleaders gave, they were really incredible. But also, some of them were also in the choir and sang the national anthem and it was absolutely stunning.

15:19 And so just shout out to our kids that are in our musical theater programs. They’re really, really incredible and tremendous. So great job.

15:25 I also had the opportunity to meet with two of our really impressive students who attended girls state, and out of 300 girls in the state of Florida, Miss Campbell mentioned this last meeting. They were voted governor and lieutenant governor right here from Brevard. And so I want to give a shout out to Anjani Sharma and Emily Q.

15:44 And they had asked to have a meeting to have a discussion about a really impressive initiative that they’re trying to launch to have a collaboration with county commission, with the Department of Health, and our schools and other community resources to attack and address mental health issues from the perspective of the actual students themselves. And I’m so impressed by the presentation that they gave me. I was shocked when they reminded me that they were juniors in high school, because just having a conversation with them, I felt like they were about to graduate from college.

16:15 So really incredible kiddos here in Brevard, and I’m really proud of them and happy to support them as they go along their way. I also had an opportunity to attend Endeavor Elementary’s opening of their health clinic on campus, which was really, really exciting and really incredible. And it served multipurpose for registering their students to their school.

16:36 A community event to celebrate coming back to school. The health clinic is really impressive, and it’s in a community that needs it so desperately, getting medical exams for the students there who may not have access to it outside of their schools, as well as a dental chair. And my daughter came with me, and we had the opportunity to put our handprints on that portable, and it was just.

16:56 It was a really incredible experience. So thank you to everyone there who supported that community. I really appreciate you and the Brevard Health alliance who helped put that together.

17:05 And last but not least, I won’t take up all my time on this because I think everyone will probably have something to say about it. But we all had the opportunity to attend the superintendent summit and the most remarkable, inspirational speaker, Eric, and I’m going to say it wrong, but. Wine.

17:20 Mayor or mayer? Mayor. Mayor. Mayor Winemayer.

17:25 Incredible, incredible human being who became legally blind at the age of 14 and was inspired by someone else who had a disability and realized, this shouldn’t be my barrier, this shouldn’t be my limit, and went on to do incredible things, I believe. Climbed seven different summits. One of them, Everest, kayaked through the Grand Canyon multiple times, showed some video of the sky scariest things I’ve ever seen in my life.

17:53 Really incredible. And went on to create an organization called no barriers to inspire other adults and children across this country and across this world, quite frankly, that there shouldn’t be any barriers to who you are as a human being. The end is the limit.

18:06 And so what an incredible speaker. So thank you. Thank you to him for his message and inspiring everyone here at BPS that there shouldn’t be any barriers for us as professionals as well as for our children in front of us.

18:17 Thank you very much. Campbell, you’re going for the mic. Yeah.

18:20 Yeah. So I second that about our special presenter last week at the summit. And thank you to him and also Doctor Rendell for can we spill the surprise about the 9th graders? Absolutely.

18:34 Yeah. So, yeah. So every 9th grader, every person who was there at the summit last week got a copy of his book.

18:41 But every 9th grader in Brevard public schools will get a copy of that book. They’re going to read through that book. And then he’s coming back to talk to them.

18:47 So super excited about that. And I have a 9th grade son, so who needs to hear that message. So I’m really excited about that.

18:54 I’m so thankful for the dogs, the two that we’ve had serving us. You know, a couple of my schools this year had tragedies happen. Teachers pass away our students and they really just do a great service just to be there, not just for the students, but for the staff who come.

19:11 And so it’s, it was really a nice surprise last week to find out that we’re getting three more. So thank you to the sheriff and for all the sros who took on that extra duty, even though, you know, it’s pretty fun duty. I just wanted to do a shout out to the budget and accounting finance departments because it’s budget night and it’s not very sexy, but it demonstrates a lot of work.

19:37 And even though the summer is downtime for a lot of our divisions and for our schools, schools, it doesn’t slow down for them because we have to close at our fiscal year, the end of June 30, and they’re building the budget for this coming year at the same time. And so it’s just so much work. And so thank you to Cindy Laszynski, our CFO, and to all your directors and staff underneath who worked so hard they didn’t get the final numbers until a week ago yesterday.

20:06 And so, and they’re not the final, final numbers because then we get more numbers before we do the final approval in September. Justice the way the state works. So thank you to all those budget and finance teams for doing that work to make things happen around here.

20:20 Thank you. Thank you, Mister Trent. Oh, you can go.

20:28 It’s just your vice chair. So I just go ahead? You go ahead. Okay.

20:34 So again, it’s getting close to the end of summer, hence the shirt. Enjoy your time, parents, teachers, students that you have left, the admin that’s working diligently over the summer, we applaud your efforts. This is a time where, you know, you can have the least amount of distractions and try to get things done, but that time is dwindling down.

20:56 So enjoy what you have left. It’s been busy around here. I was going to mention something about the budget, the amount of work that these individuals are putting in.

21:07 It’s amazing, the amount of staff that we’re hiring, well over 300 educational staff that’s being hired by BPS. Despite what you’re hearing out there, things are looking great as far as bringing those teachers in. So just enjoy your last few, as you might think, seconds of summer.

21:26 And we look forward to welcoming you back, teachers and students, here shortly. Thank you. Awesome.

21:34 I wanted to thank Doctor Rendell as well. The superintendent summit was something that was very special to be a part of and just to have somebody feed back into you in a system where sometimes you feel drained. And so it was very encouraging to hear the speaker.

21:47 So thank you for lining that up. That was an amazing experience. I also want to give a shout out to Titusville’s police department.

21:52 They held a breakfast where our security came alongside them, and they really just kind of laid out what’s happening with security, what the SRO’s roles are in the school. And I just want to thank all of our deputies, because honestly, there is no greater gift that you guys offer than making sure our children are safe every single day, and that they are going home every single day to their families. So thank you.

22:13 Shout out to all the sros in Brevard county. We appreciate you tremendously. And then I also want to give a shout out to a couple of schools that I was at.

22:21 So, Oak Park, I was able to attend Oak park and go up there and talk with the principal, and I just want to say they are doing amazing things up there. And there has been so much turnaround at that school to where now Oak park has become a sought out school to go to, which is so great. So I just want to shout out to the principal there.

22:39 She’s doing good things. They had a new teacher academy, which was very, very inspiring. They’re bringing in people.

22:44 It’s good things that are happening in the north end and then also to Titusville High. So we were fortunate enough to have space Florida come here and kind of look at our school on some different stuff with career and technical education. Thank you to Rachel Rutledge for coming alongside and working with us, and Lori Benjamin as well.

23:00 So exciting things. Career and technical education is the new thing that, well, it’s not new, but there’s a lot of focus on it now. And so we’re excited because we are the space center.

23:10 I mean, we have the space center here. We’re space Florida. So space Florida came, and I want to thank them for showing interest in Brevard county as well.

23:17 I think good things are going to come from that. Thank you, Miss Wright. I wanted to take a second and just remind everybody we have a commitment to our municipalities, that we are now officially sending out letters next week that we will be traveling to their cities to sit with them and workshop on various different things as far as collaborative exercises with many of the opportunities that they have for our children, utilization of facilities and other things.

23:43 So that goes out. And what we’ll be doing is traveling to Titusville, traveling to Palm Bay, traveling to Melbourne, and going in there to the cities and bringing in some of the chambers and stuff like that, and talking about how we collectively can do that. Now, that’s under the direction also of Doctor Rendell, who’s moved us to having north, central and south locations, which is consistent with many other school districts inside the state of Florida, for better drilling of community.

24:07 And I think that’s something that we’re going to start getting back to. And I wanted to thank Doctor Rendell, along with the cities that we’re about to travel to. Astronaut Memorial foundation, big opportunity.

24:16 They have two things that they’re talking about. They’re going to give us a jobs symposium for all 11th and 12th graders to go as 11th graders and meet all of the blue origins, SpaceX, all of the entities that are out at Kennedy Space center as 11th graders with their resumes. And then on 12th grade, they’re coming back to actually get the jobs.

24:36 And from what they’re saying out there, there’s so many jobs available that the majority of our kids, as long as they have a heartbeat and show up to work, are going to be able to get jobs. And the issue that we have now is training the next generation for space because we launch in like 2036 to Mars and all of the nurses pipefitters, electricians, and everybody else are going there. So get ready.

24:55 We are the Space coast. We’re leading the nation in that. And that brings it to the other piece that you were talking about.

25:01 Our school district is recognized in the state of Florida as leading in career and technical. There is no job, no doubt about that. And that’s because of the consistent dedication from this school district to career and technical, going back to the hangar that we built at Ogalle High School, to the machining program at Bayside, all the way to the welding program at astronaut.

25:21 Other schools don’t have this. That’s what your school district has done. And we are recognized by both the governor and many of the other entities, Space Florida, as being the leaders in that.

25:29 And that goes to Rachel Rutledge and her crew and everybody else. So be proud of your school district for that. The other thing that we’re doing is Lockheed Martin.

25:36 We just had a conversation with them. They are excited, along with all of our other space industry, because doctor Rendell had mentioned that there’s an opportunity for our children to take classes at night and go to work all day. So you have a lot of kids who are inhibited by going to work and getting that experience based upon the fact that they have to go to school.

25:56 Well, he’s looking at an opportunity to flip that. So a kid could go to work all day and then take online classes or. Or go to class at night and have that.

26:04 So Lockheed Martin and all of them are getting excited about that opportunity because that’s always been a bridged gap that we’ve had to figure out. I wanted to say thank you to two star major general Dwyer Dennis, the individual that came here the other night, he’s already moving. So we’ve got veterans groups that are all coming together.

26:19 And those of you that may not have been paying attention at the last meeting, we have a big veterans summit that’s at the beginning of October, where we have multiple entities coming together. So the federal government supports STEM projects through the federal government and the armed services for cybersecurity and other things that they’re going to bring down and create huge, massive pilot projects to drive inside of our schools. They’re also going to coordinate for families to come.

26:43 We’re also going to coordinate for jobs for all of the veterans that are out there that may be retiring. We’re going to advertise to come to the space coast, and we’re going to take their spouses to go to work with us also. So there’s a huge summit that’s happening.

26:55 And I wanted to give thanks to major, two star major General Dwyer, Dennis for putting that together. I also wanted to say great job at the superintendent summit. That was impressive.

27:05 One of my favorite things was when Tara Harris got announced and everybody cheered inside there like I’ve never seen before. And then also that our boy Dan Diesel’s back and I got a chance to go talk to his. Travis.

27:16 Travis. Sorry, Travis. Well, you might get Dan maybe sometime, too.

27:20 But the thing is, is that Travis is a special individual. And I, his staff was so excited at that table. So you just saw that exuberance and everybody was excited about the new year.

27:29 And that’s part of the next piece, is that the opening of schools? If you have an opportunity, say thank you to the kids. Our elementary schools, we’re going to be reaching out to all the elected officials in all the schools and everywhere else and asking them, I’ll talk about that later on, to actually go to our schools and clap in and say hi to our kids. This is a community and we have to get back to it.

27:47 COVID kind of took that away from us. So now we’re going to be ready to come back. I also wanted to thank our Kevin, our athletic director of directors, I guess that’s called.

27:56 He actually is expanding the largest expansion of athletics in the history of Brevard. And one of this is because if kids are involved in athletics, we notice that their discipline policies and problems go down. And what we’re doing is a large expansion into the middle school to allow kids to get ready for the high school programs across the state, state of Florida.

28:15 Many of our schools are inhibited because our middle schools were not feeder programs like they should be. The other problem is kids in low socioeconomic areas no longer can play in sports because its rec leagues have gone away. A lot of them are travel leagues that are costing two thousand five hundred dollars to three thousand dollars.

28:30 So we are making a commitment to middle school to bring that back. And elementary school, after school programs, its going to create a pipeline for athletics. Its going to create a culture of winning championships.

28:40 And that’s what we’re also going to do. Last thing, I’ve got a bunch of other stuff, but new teacher academy. I got to speak at the new teacher academy.

28:47 I know doctor Rendell had to come in after I spoke because I told them to ask for forgiveness before for permission. And even the union was trying to pull me back as a teacher. What I did was I always did what was right for the kids.

28:59 And if I did something out of control. I knew that it was just something that I was going to ask for forgiveness afterwards about. And that sent the union into a spin.

29:07 And Doctor Rendell had to go down there and kind of explain to them that there are rules and you do have to follow it. But 300 plus teachers in a room, and that wasn’t all of them. And I’ll be honest with you, when they were talking about giving the power back to the, to the teachers, as far as inside the classroom, there were cheers.

29:21 And the reason is that we’ve had a situation for a long time where it’s kind of gotten sideways and now they’re excited. And I met two people that actually came here, that were employed in other school districts, that actually stayed here. They were living here in Brevard and employed in other counties, and now they’re back here.

29:35 So there’s a lot of excitement happening in Brevard. We also have four school districts that are following our discipline policies. Just so you know, Indian River, Orange county and others.

29:44 So Seminole and others. So I just wanted to say thank you to all of that. And then I know, Doctor Rendell, if you can say something about that millage numbers when you get moving too, that’d be great.

29:52 Can I, before Doctor Rendell gets started, because that’s super important. And I just impromptu shout out to probably the only educators that we have in this organization that enjoy when supreme students talk back to them. Shout out to my speeches who are here today.

30:09 It’s nice to see some of your faces. It’s been a really, really long time. So thank you, speech language pathologists.

30:14 Good to see you guys. Doctor Rendell. Thank you, Mister Chax.

30:17 I have two things to share. The first, I’m going to ask Russ Cheatham to come on up to the podium. It’s a total surprise to the district.

30:24 Nobody else knows about this except me and Russ. He has some exciting news to share. Like, surprise, Russ is the leader of our ET educational technology, or it’s department.

30:34 And he has some really cool news to share. Thank you, Doctor Indale. Members of the board, in line with a lot of what Mister Susan was saying, wanted to talk about a very positive bit of information we got earlier this week.

30:49 Boeing, one of our partners with destination space, destination Mars, we get a grant from them every year to do those programs. They are more than doubling the amount of money that we’re getting this year, from $120,000 to $250,000 this year. So we’re going to do some.

31:06 Can you say that again? Because I don’t think I heard that. Go ahead. From one hundred twenty thousand dollars to two hundred fifty thousand dollars this year.

31:18 They continue to be great partners. We’re going to do some exciting things, getting our students to the Kennedy Space center, also doing some things with our girls and STEM programs as well. So we’re looking forward to it, but just wanted to share that bit of information with you guys tonight.

31:33 Ross, you can come back anytime you want to share information like that to us. Thank you, Ross. Doctor Rendell, thank you.

31:38 The other thing is I want to thank our community for the support they have shown us over the years. You may recall that last November we had the possibility of an increased property tax millage on the ballot. And a bulk of that money, 80% of the money that would be generated from that increased property tax millage, would go towards compensation for employee compensation.

32:01 The idea was we wanted to invest in our people, and our community showed support for that by passing that ballot measure overwhelmingly. So I’d like to ask Ryan Dufresne, our chief of HR, to kind of come up and talk about some of the monies that are going to be going into the pockets of our employees as a result of that community support. And that’s the thing that I want to keep emphasizing is this money is only available because our community said we value our educators, we value the people in our school district, and we want to be able to pay them more.

32:34 So he’s going to go over some of the amounts that our employees will receive this year as a result of this property tax millage, as a result of the generosity of our citizens here in Brevard county. Thank you, Doctor Randell. And also, again, I’d like to say thank you to our voters here in Brevard county for providing us this opportunity to reward our teachers for their work.

32:56 I will say Monday we’re going to release the actual numbers to the public so you guys will be able to view it Monday in conjunction with our local unions. So I’m pretty excited about that. But the average, the average for our BFT, our BFT is probably right around about $4,500 is about the average extra money they’re going to get.

33:21 So that’s good. Anywhere from 7000 from our 19 or more years all the way down to about a brand new teachers are getting about $1,000. So a little bit of extra helps.

33:32 I’m really excited about it. Our 1010 union is also going to get some as well as our non bargaining personnel. So we’re really excited and we can’t thank the public enough, our voters enough, for recognizing the need to help out our teachers.

33:45 They deserve it. And we’re excited. Yeah.

33:48 Thank you. Thank you. Some pretty incredible numbers, Doctor Rendell.

33:57 Yeah. As Mister Dufresne. As Mister Dufresne mentioned, we’ll be releasing a table, a chart with all that information on Monday.

34:04 So it’s not only instructional personnel, but it’s also support personnel and administrative personnel. It’s a lot of money going into their pockets. And again, thanks entirely to the community for supporting that measure.

34:17 That brings us to the adoption of the agenda. Doctor Rendell, Mister Susan, members of the board, on this evening’s agenda, we have administrative staff recommendations attended to. Budget hearing, which includes a presentation time for public comments, and three items for board action, 14 consent items, one public hearing, two action items and eight information items.

34:41 Changes made to the agenda since release to the public include the addition of f 17, approval of convenience fees for online payment system, and f 22, job description, director, student staff and community engagement. Revisions to a seven administrative staff recommendations. I 39, code of conduct.

35:02 F 23, interagency agreement for the purpose of sharing information about juvenile offenders. G 30, which is board policy 8600, transportation. I 33, our professional learning catalog for 23 24.

35:19 I 37, the individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Part B, k, twelve, entitlement and I 38, title III, Part A, english language acquisition, language enhancement and academic achievement. Do I hear a motion? Move to approve? Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Signify by saying aye.

35:41 All opposed? Doctor Rendell, will you please let us know about the administrative staff recommendations? Absolutely. We did all that. All right, so we have several people, too, that are taking on new leadership roles in the district.

35:59 It’s a big night for them. I want to celebrate them and all that they’re doing. So the first one is Ruth Jersey, who’s being reclassed from the position of guidance services professional at Cocoa High School to the position of interim interim principal at.

36:12 Interim assistant principal at McNair Magnet School, Ruth Gersa. Congratulations. Yes, you can move.

36:23 This is your moment in the spotlight. Okay. Thank you.

36:25 I’ll try. Try not to be too nervous and mess it up here. Superintendent, school board members, the Office of Professional Learning and Development, Doctor Richardson, Miss Rowe, and Miss Bowman.

36:36 Thank you for the opportunity to serve as McNair Magnet’s middle school assistant principal. To say that I am excited for this opportunity is an understatement. Miss Stewart.

36:46 Thank you. It doesn’t seem like enough for all the guidance, support and leadership opportunities you’ve taught me that systems are only as good as a time we take to reflect on them. A lesson that I will always carry with me.

36:57 Lastly, to my amazing mentors and family. You have listened, guided, helped me process things, nudged me. Some of them may have shoved me when needed, but you’ve never stopped believing in me.

37:07 Thank you for being my support system. But please know that we still have lots of work to do. Thank you.

37:13 Congratulations. Next up, I’d like to welcome Katrina Hudson to the podium. She is coming back.

37:35 Katrina is coming back to join us here in Brevard county. She’s been appointed to position of director of elementary leading and learning, but she was here previously. Long career, even principal.

37:44 So, Katrina, welcome. Congratulations. Thank you so much, very much, Doctor Rendell, and good evening to our board and all of our wonderful people here today.

37:54 I have just a smathering of my support team with me and yes, and I wanted to recognize them very quickly. First, I have my daughter, who is definitely going to be watching from online because she had to work today over in Hillsborough county. But I also have my son here with me, EJ.

38:02 I have my father, Freddie. I have my niece, Kiana. And I also have my sister Terri, who’s all here today.

38:21 I also have. Oh, boy. I have all of my family from Golfview.

38:30 These are some wonderful people, some very hard working people who truly are dedicated to the kids in the community. But I also ran into some of my family from Atlantis. I ran into some of my family from Coquina.

38:44 So just coming back home has definitely been an awesome opportunity and I’m so appreciative of it and I am just ready for the work. So thank you so very much for this opportunity and thank you. Congratulations.

39:04 Next up, we have Jennifer Clark. So Jennifer Clark is being reclassed from the position of principal at Atlantis Elementary School to the position of director of elementary leading and learning. Thank you so much.

39:21 Thank you to the board and doctor Rendell. I am so excited, I am very appreciative to misses Harris and Mister Ramer for giving me this opportunity. My Atlantis family, I’m going to miss them tremendously, but I’m leaving them in excellent hands with miss back.

39:37 I’m so excited that I’ve been there to help her through the transition. And there’s so many leaders that have helped me along the way. And it’s exciting to be able to follow this path and I’m excited for what’s to come this year.

39:49 Thank you. Congratulations. So wait, speaking of Erica back, let’s have Erica back.

40:00 Come on. So Erika is moving from the position of assistant principal Atlantis to the position of Principal Atlantis. Doctor Rendell Board, thank you very much for this opportunity.

40:16 I want to take a moment to thank the leaders that have made me who I am today. That begins with leaders from Sable elementary onto Fairland Elementary, Creel elementary, where I spent my four years as assistant principal before transferring, most recently to the assistant principal role of Atlantis, where I think I spent five minutes as that. I’m very grateful for this position now as principal, to just lead and further develop our students into what they can be.

40:46 And I cannot forget my family who’s here. I have two rows of chairs. I’m sorry for whoever had to bring in all the chairs for them.

40:54 But I’m very excited for the journey and I thank you, everyone, for the support. Congratulations. So now a new face to us, Gail Williams.

41:08 If Gail could come on up to the podium. Gail is our new director of professional standards and labor relations. Thank you to Doctor Rendell and the board.

41:23 I appreciate the opportunity to be here. I am from Melbourne, Florida, a product of this school district. So this is coming home for me.

41:30 This is full circle. So I have already met a lot of the staff here and they’re just wonderful. And so I’m excited about the opportunity to give you all that I can.

41:39 Thank you. Kayl, welcome. Might get the loudest cheer tonight, but Debbie lovers, if you want to come up to the podium.

41:58 In case you haven’t figured it out, Debbie is the new principal at Merritt Island High School. I would like to first of all, thank Doctor Rendell and the board for this opportunity, for entrusting me with Merritt Island High School. I also like to thank Mister James Ramer.

42:14 He has left a legacy and put us on a positive path that I’m going to work hard to continue and grow upon. We will be forever grateful for what he has done. I would also like to thank my husband of 38 years and my children for all their support through this journey.

42:30 And finally, I would like to thank my Merritt island family. Your continued support means more than you will ever know. And I look forward to working to make a difference in our students live and in our community.

42:40 Thank you. Congratulations. So now I’d like to ask another new face to come join us at the podium.

42:53 That’s Julie Cashin Smith. So Julie, if you can come on up. Julie is joining us as a director of student services over in the student services department.

43:06 Yes. I want to start by thanking the board, doctor Rendell and Miss Stampier for this opportunity. And then the next thing I want to do is thank my family.

43:16 So will you guys just stand up for me? Because I would not be here without them. My son even, and his fiance, they drove from Gainesville to be here tonight. So it means a lot to me so I can look back on my career and see now clearly that every step along the way led me to right here.

43:37 I can’t say I saw it coming. However, I can clearly see that path now, and I am honored to be here and I am so excited to get started serving Brevard public schools. So thank you.

43:51 Congratulations. Thank you. All right, John Rush, he’s here.

43:59 He’s being reclassed from the position of assistant principal at Ogalley High School to the position of assistant principal at Viera High School. John, come on up. Thank you board and doctor Reindell for this opportunity to move from an Ogalle Commodore to Aveira Hawk.

44:17 I’d like to thank my former principal for his leadership. Mister Solomon, my current principal for another couple hours, Mister Keith Barton, their encouragement in this process, and then Miss Le Gate for allowing me the opportunity to join her team at Viera. It’s going to be hard leaving the Commodore nation after eight years, but I look forward to serving the community of Viera and becoming a hawk.

44:45 So thank you. Congratulations. All right, coming back to the fold, Andrew Hoppenbrauer.

45:03 So Andrew is the new twelve month assistant principal at Merritt Island High School, but he’d been there before and now we’ve got him back. Yeah. Thank you, school board.

45:14 Thank you, doctor Rendell, for this opportunity to come back to Merritt island. You know, I want to thank everybody that’s helped me get this far. First off, she’s not here because she’s with my two great sons, is my wife, who I playfully say is the best thing that ever happened to me.

45:27 My son is going into manatee as a kindergartener, so I’m happy that I can, you know, have him be a part of BPS. I know someone else mentioned it, but there’s another satellite high school graduate here in this school, so, you know, that’s where I came through. You know, I love Brevard County.

45:41 I do want to thank my former school that I just came from, future Doctor Gunter and Pineapple Cove. They are doing some great work down the south end of the county. But I do want to thank Miss Lubbers for bringing me back.

45:54 Mister Ramer, who was always looking out for me, even when he brought me into Merritt island as a dean. And the wonderful, wonderful people at Merritt Island High School who’s made it a great place to come back to, as you can see from the great support that they have. So thank everybody.

46:09 And, oh, one more person I forgot. Mister Joshua Wells is here. He was my mentor teacher at Heritage High School when I was coming, coming out of Florida State.

46:16 I saw him walk in here, and I’m not going to let him know I don’t appreciate the work he put in. And Miss Lucarotti, who was my former principal at Pineapple, too. So thank you much for everybody.

46:33 All right, now I’d like to ask Mackenzie McFaul to come up to the podium. Mackenzie is being reclassed from the position of teacher at Myla Elementary School to the position of interim assistant principal at Myla elementary school. Thank you, doctor Rendell, and the board for this opportunity.

46:56 Thank you to my family. I wouldn’t be able to do it without you guys. Having a toddler at home and going on this leadership endeavor has been a journey, but they’re my backbone.

46:56 Thank you to my Myla team, who are here to support me. I’ve been at Myla for nine years, going on to ten, and they’ve become my family. And I wouldn’t be the educator that I am without learning from all of them.

47:22 And lastly, thank you to doctor O’Brien. I never saw myself in leadership. And she gave me that constant nudge to start the track.

47:33 And she saw something in me that I never saw in myself. And she inspired me and encouraged me, and still does to this day. So thank you, guys.

47:43 Congratulations, Mister Dufresne. Did I miss anybody? We get them all. We’re good.

47:55 Thank you. Just a couple. Thank you.

47:59 I think what we’re gonna do right now is probably take a break to allow everybody to vacate. Did you want a picture? Need a motion. Motion, motion, motion.

48:08 No, we’re not taking a. Well, we could. Yeah, let’s have to approve them.

48:13 We did. We already voted on them. We already did.

48:16 No, no, no. All right, hang on a second. You all have.

48:21 Enjoy your emotion. Second. Is there any discussion? All in favor, signify by saying aye.

48:29 Aye. All right. Just kind of jumped the gun on me there.

48:33 All right, we’re going to take a break. Take a picture. Everybody else can vacate the room and then we’ll get moving.

48:37 So, there we go. It. We are now under the tentative budget hearing portion of the agenda.

55:55 Doctor Rendell. Thank you, mister chair. Before we begin, Miss Cindy Laszynski, our chief financial officer, will provide a brief presentation on the proposed 23 24 millage levy and the budget.

56:11 Okay. Good evening, board members. Doctor Rendell this is the first hearing of the proposed millage rates and tentative budget for fiscal year 24.

56:21 Post pandemic Florida has become a stronghold of economic growth. Property values across the state have seen a significant increase as people from across the country and region have migrated to Florida. Sales tax trends have significantly exceeded any recession predictions, but along with this growth has come increased costs in housing.

56:44 The cost of operating schools has also increased in food, healthcare, energy and textbooks. Given these changes, our major challenge is the ability to increase compensation to ensure our employees are paid at a competitive wage and salary. Tonight’s public hearing will include this presentation that I’m doing right now, proposed 24 millage rates and the 24 budget opportunity for public comment and board member discussion adoption of the proposed total millage levy to support the FY 24 tentative budget adoption of the FY 24 tentative budget as presented a request authorization for the superintendent and staff to perform all necessary actions to comply with the truth and millage requirements and announce the date of the final public hearing to adopt the FY 24 budget.

57:45 The truth and millage legislation requirements are detailed under Florida statutes. Trim timelines are very prescriptive in law and the clock started July 1. The total timeline to budget adoption is 80 days.

58:00 The statute dictates the order of business during the budget hearings, and trim requires two public hearings for open discussion of the millage rates and the proposed budgets of all taxing authorities. Millage is a term that represents the tax rate levied on real estate or other property. One mil is equivalent to $1 in taxes per $1,000 in taxable value.

58:31 So if your home has a taxable value of 100,000 and you’re assessed a one mil tax rate, you will pay $100 in taxes. The Florida Education Finance program, the FEFP is a mechanism by which the state and local operating funds are allocated to Florida school districts. The Florida Legislature sets the required local effort millage rates.

58:57 The school board must levy the required local effort millage rates in order to receive any state funding under the Florida Education Finance program. The total proposed millage related to school funding for FY 24 school year totals 6.383 mils.

59:21 This millage rate will generate revenue for the general operating the capital outlay funds. The required local effort rate adjusts year to year while the discretionary and the local capital remain fixed. The voted operating millage is an additional one mil that our voters approved during the November 8, 2022 election.

59:49 When you compare the actual FY 23 total millage rate to the proposed FY 24 millage rate there is an increase of 0.888 mils. Therefore, the proposed total millage rate related to school related to school district proceeds is 6.

1:00:31 383 mils. This slide depicts historic millage rates over the last ten years. Since FY 13, the total millage rates have declined each year as our property values have increased in the county.

1:01:06 The orange area represents the fixed basic discretionary operating rate, the light blue represents the fixed capital outlay rate. The dark blue depicts the variable RLE rate that has been adjusted down each year and the green area represents the voter approved one mil operating millage rate as required by tRim. We must compare the proposed millage rate to the rollback rate.

1:01:26 When property values rise, property taxes generate more revenue. For the total revenue generated to stay the same as the prior year, the tax rate must decrease. The rollback millage rate is the rate that would generate the same amount of revenue as last year if applied to the current year’s taxable value.

1:01:56 Said another way, the state rolls back the millage rate as property values increase to bring the total taxable dollars available roughly equivalent to the prior year under trim. The rollback rate is the basis for determining if tax rates have increased or decreased. When the rollback rate is less than the proposed millage rates and we received that we received from the state, we must advertise a tax increase for brevard public schools.

1:02:22 The proposed millage rate is higher than the rollback rate. The notice of proposed tax increase was advertised in the Florida Today on Monday, July 24, and it was very difficult to find an actual newspaper that had it. This slide depicts the annual certified school property tax values from 2011 to current year.

1:02:51 Property values have increased each year since 2012. The 2020 tax assessment is pre COVID values and the 2023 tax rule is the property appraiser certified school taxable value. Heading into 2024 and beyond, the issue of millage will become even more critical due to the recent sharp rise in property tax roll stack.

1:03:19 Over the past two years, the statewide school taxable value has increased by 20% and 15%. The legislature has taken advantage of those property tax roll increases by increasing total FEFP funding by 5% and 9% over the last two legislative sessions. Yet, heading into the 2024 legislative session, the statewide tax is currently estimated to grow by 3%.

1:03:56 The lower growth rate will make it difficult for the state to continue investing in the FEFP at the same rate without allowing the RLE rate to stay flat or slightly increase. Using the proposed millage rate at the 2024 taxable property level, our total projected tax levy is approximately 427.7 million at a 96% collection rate.

1:04:29 The required local effort and discretionary millage makes up the local operating funds. The capital outlay millage is levied for capital improvement and the voting operating millage is provided predominantly for competitive compensation for our employees. The RLE makes up close to 40% of our FEFP funding at $210.

1:05:01 1 million. The full basic discretionary millage will garner 50.1 million.

1:05:33 If any school district levies the full 748 mill levy and it generates an amount less than the average of FTE, then that school district will receive a millage compression supplement that will bring the district up to the state average. In our case, we will receive an additional $167 per FTE or $13.4 million.

1:06:01 The voted millage is new this year and will provide increased compensation for our employees. After proportionally sharing the charter schools. BPS will receive 57.

1:06:45 6 million, 80% or 46 million will be allocated for compensation for all employee groups, 16% or 9.2 million will be allocated to student programs and 4% or 2.3 million will go towards technology advancement in the classroom.

1:07:05 The local capital millage or LCI will provide the district $100.5 million. So this slide compares a sample home valued at 300,000 and the impact of school related property taxes in 2022 compared to 2023.

1:07:22 In this example, a home valued at 300,000 minus the homestead exemption generated roughly 15 $11 in school related non voted property tax in 2022. In 2023, the school related non voted property tax would be $1,480.33, a decrease of $30.

1:07:53 80. When we include the voter approved one mil. The increase in property tax would be $244 in this example and this was said earlier.

1:08:23 But Brevard residents know that there is a direct correlation between quality score schools and economic growth in the community. And in order to have quality schools, we need quality staff. Education supports the community by ensuring students are ready for what comes after high school, college, career and life.

1:08:34 We need educated residents who are ready to become Brevard’s doctors, leaders, teachers and entrepreneurs and take on exciting positions in the space industry. So I really do. We all are very thankful to our community.

1:08:42 The proposed FY 24 budget is balanced and in our best estimate of revenue against expenses, it is not money in the bank. We built this budget understanding the uncertainty of enrollment across the state, inflationary cost increases and the need for increased compensation and penalty pay, benefits and retirement plans. We will continue to monitor and make necessary adjustments to ensure we have resources available to meet the needs of every student.

1:09:14 And this is a very high level summary of the 2024 all funds proposed budget. The final public hearing on the FY 2024 millage and budget will be held on Thursday, September 7, 2023 at 05:30 p.m.

1:09:29 Right here. And this concludes my presentation. Are there any questions? Thank you, Miss Licinski, for giving that presentation.

1:10:07 Anybody have any questions for. Okay, we’re going to move into. The hearing is now open for public comments.

1:10:26 We will, in accordance with Florida law, accept the speakers in the following order. The 2023 through 2024 proposed Milledge levy followed by the 2024 proposed budget. Is there anybody in this audience who wishes to address the 2023 2024 proposed millage levy? Anybody who wishes to address the 2023 2024 proposed millage levy? Okay, thank you.

1:10:38 Thank you very much. One of the questions I have with the budget, and I do understand it’s a high level budget, but I’d like to thank the young lady that presented it. She mentioned the importance of quality classrooms.

1:10:49 And one of the things I did see in the budget is the technology advancement for every classroom. And I know this is a lower level question, but my question from a high level perspective is that we want to make sure that those schools that needs the technologies to advance their classroom really gets what they need. And the reason for that is, I know there’s an ICOC committee that watches the surtax money, but I’m not sure the process for how the classroom are actually being analyzed and what is needed for those post schools.

1:11:02 So, you know, I’m just asking. Thank you for the high level view, but for the low level view, who’s in the trenches of these classes that are really needs a modern upgrade, that the money really get to where it needs to get to, so that every child can have an opportunity. Thank you very much.

1:11:24 Thank you, Mister Bryan. Anybody else wish to speak on this item? Okay, if you guys wish to speak on the item, if you can come sit down in the front. That way we don’t wait.

1:11:47 Thank you. So, good evening, Doctor Rendell, members of the board. I’m here to talk about the budget and the millage kind of together.

1:12:13 Historically, pay has been frozen year on year in this district. We fought long and hard for raises. We fought long and hard to get millage on the ballot and to get it passed.

1:12:29 When we were at the table, I was very disappointed to see that the team suggested that some of the supplements we proposed come out of Milledge money. The Milledge money is wonderful. It’s going to do great things to retain teachers in this county, but it cannot solve all of our ills.

1:12:52 We still have to budget for raises and we still have to budget for regular supplement increases. I’ve spent some time on a supplement committee with both administrators, athletic directors, teachers really digging into our supplement schedule. And the fact of the matter is there’s a finite piece of money coming from the millage that we can use to increase that.

1:13:01 And the district’s team brought back and said, why don’t you just take this out of the millage money? And the amount, I think, came up to like $700,000. And right now we’re looking at about 1.7 after french to spend on supplements if we want to raise football coaches salaries, if we want to raise athletic director salaries, if we want to raise the arts salaries.

1:13:21 And I have little time, so I don’t want anybody out there listening to think I’m leaving somebody out. But in secondary schools alone, we lost more than eight band directors. Eight band directors.

1:13:39 We brag about the arts in this district, as we should, but if we don’t take care of our people, we won’t have anything left to brag about. I just want to put this into perspective. For a band director with zero to six years experience for marching band alone, they’re going to make 1023 for the season.

1:13:46 I estimated it’s probably more that they are going to spend about 175 hours this season. Season that comes down to $5.84 an hour.

1:14:02 I will share the link to the supplements around, and you’ll see our other counties are much higher, including Orange county, who’s paying their band directors their hourly rate for the 80 hours that they’re out here on the field. I passed four high schools today, and I saw all their bands out there. Viera High is out there right now because their camps from one to nine.

1:14:05 President Ford said music education opens doors that help children pass from school into the world around them. A world of work, culture, intellectual activity and human involvement. The future of our nation depends on providing our children with a complete education that includes music and again, all the other athletics.

1:14:11 We cannot rely on the millets. Thank you, Miss Vanessa, to raise all the supplements. Thank you for your time.

1:14:15 Is there any individual who wishes to address the 2024 proposed budget? Is there any individual who would like to address the 2024 proposed budget? They did. They can go. They can go there, too.

1:14:22 Yeah. It’s not. No, they don’t need to do it now.

1:14:38 They can speak at their time if they wish. To speak before we vote on it. They can speak now or they can speak it during the public comment.

1:14:44 They signed up on public comment. That’s why if I ask and they get there. If not, they’ll be afforded the time.

1:15:04 Book on later. Anybody else not wishing to speak? Okay. Okay, ma’am.

1:15:40 Thank you. Can we just clarify? So if you came to speak on the budget and you sign it for public comment time, but you want to go ahead and go now, now would be a good time because we’ll be voting on it before the public. Regular public comment time.

1:16:10 What is your name? Hi, I’m Marisa Haeckel. Not one of the ones. Okay.

1:16:36 Good evening. Your budget is supposedly built on a goal of an exceptional workforce, yet you are cutting 370 educators. Teachers don’t even make up half of the personnel in your budget and yet you’re cutting them and you’re showing increased enrollment for the coming year.

1:16:59 And also you had staff come and stand here and tell you that you have like 1000 inexperienced first and second year teachers who are desperate for support and only have a 48% retention rate. Unlike the capital projects, you’ve made no mention in the previous months about how you’re going to achieve that first goal, which was academic excellence. So where is Brevard academically? I’ll give you some numbers from the released algebra exam.

1:17:37 Brevard county high schoolers tied way, way down in 38th place for being on grade level after sitting in a math classroom for an entire year. Only a small fraction of those students passed the test. The majority are now not eligible for a high school diploma when they come back in August.

1:17:57 Those students didn’t even answer one out of four questions correctly. I mean, the bar is set really low and we’re not hopping over it yet. If it sounds unbelievable those numbers, that’s because you’re seeing results that are pumped up with the advanced math students in your middle schools who we expect to perform a little higher.

1:18:09 But that other half, those high schoolers have an abysmal 28% pass rate. Mister Trent, Mister Susan and Miss Wright, you each represent two high schools. We’re less than a quarter of the students were found to be at a 9th grade level.

1:18:34 So how can the budget fix this problem? More teachers, more aides, more planning time. How about that tutoring program that you guys kicked back to staff and never did anything on? I believe that we need discipline, transportation, high quality literature, career programs, sports and strong leadership. But your number one priority, yea, your only true purpose here is to provide our students with a high quality education.

1:18:51 So please start discussing academics in these meetings and budget with that at the top of the priority list. Thank you. Can you state your name when you come up? Yes, members of the board.

1:19:15 Doctor Rendell, my name is Monet Payne. I am a speech language pathologist at Williams elementary. I’ve been a speech pathologist for 18 years, ten of which have been with brevard public schools.

1:19:36 I love what I do and I’ve spent my entire career working with children and youth from ages two to 21. My own children, who are triplets, receive speech services at Williams and I have witnessed firsthand the benefit these services have had in their lives. I come before you this evening to ask the board to please reconsider BFT’s proposed supplement increase for all speech language pathologists in bps.

1:20:13 This proposed increase is to compete with the surrounding districts and the state average. The proposed increase in our supplement was voted down two weeks ago. Speech language pathologists in Brevard county are paid via the instructional salary scale.

1:20:40 However, unlike other instructional personnel, we are not eligible for national board certification and the supplement that those board certified teachers are entitled to. Speech language pathologists in Brevard county are required to hold a certificate and clinical competency, otherwise known as rcs, from the American Speech Language and Hearing association. We are also required to hold a Department of Health license and speech pathology for the state of Florida.

1:21:02 ASHA and Florida both require 30 hours of continuing education every two to three years. ASHA requires an annual payment and the state of Florida is biannually these continuing education courses are out of pocket costs that are required to maintain our national certification certificates, our state licenses, and our job. The BPS strategic plan states theory of action.

1:21:15 If we recruit highly qualified employees with appropriate certifications for the area of expertise, fairly compensate all employees, provide directors, managers and other supervisors with the tools necessary to retain effective employees, and provide employees with meaningful, relevant job embedded performance professional development. Then we will be able to retain a diverse pool of candidates for all classifications of positions within BPS. This includes nationally certified and state licensed speech language pathologists, which is in a critical shortage.

1:21:29 Again, I ask the board to please reconsider the supplemental increase for speech language pathologists in the district so that we may be compensated for for our work to maintain our seas, which is comparable to a nationally board certified teacher. An increase in our annual supplement will truly benefit the approximately 160 speech pathologists in our district who work diligently changing the lives of the many students in Brevard county. Thank you.

1:21:55 Thank you very much. Good evening. My name is Heidi Dowling, and this will be my 22nd year as a speech language pathologist, or SLP, as we’re called in the school system.

1:22:05 I’ve been with BPS since 2005 and I currently work at Williams elementary. I’m also a proud product of BPS. I graduated many years ago at satellite High school.

1:22:25 I love what I do and I’m proud of what I do. My colleagues and I often say that we teach the number one life skill, which is communication. I would like to share with you a little bit about our SLP family.

1:22:45 Our group of approximately 160 slps serves public schools, private schools, charter schools, preschools, daycares, and sometimes home settings. We are required to have a master’s degree within two to five years of entering the school system, and a minimum. I believe at least 80% of us maintain a certificate of clinical competency, which we call our seas.

1:23:07 This is the gold standard of excellence in our field, which is comparable to a national board certified teacher. And here is a fun fact. This always amazes me.

1:23:27 Our group of SLPs who hold the Seas generated approximately 250,000 in Medicaid billing for our district last school year. That is most of any other professional group in our district. Unfortunately, BPS is losing more and more slps every school year.

1:23:40 So why is this the case? Well, many people aren’t aware that our profession has many options. When our school district seeks to hire an SLP, they are directly competing with hospitals, private practice, skilled nursing facilities, and telehealth. These positions make substantially more than what is offered in the schools.

1:23:46 In addition, surrounding school districts are offering higher salaries and better supplements than BPS. For example, our neighboring Indian River county has a supplement for slps at 15% of their basic salary. Currently, our supplement is $275 for slps who hold their cs.

1:24:03 This covers the cost of our annual certificate, and that’s about it. I ask that you reconsider the $5,500 supplement for slps. Our salaries are the lowest in central Florida, but by increasing our supplement, we will have a better shot at attracting and retaining slps in Brevard schools.

1:24:21 Thank you for your time and your consideration. Thank you. Heidi hi.

1:24:38 My name is Bernadette Pisino. I’m a speech language pathologist. I’ve been with brevard schools for ten years.

1:25:02 I would like to request you consider the $5,500 supplement for speech language pathologists. I was recently asked, what would your dream job be? I said without hesitation, I have my dream job. I love what I do, and I love working for Brevard public schools.

1:25:09 But quite frankly, remaining at our current salary is becoming very challenging. I know everything Brevard does is data driven, so I’d like to present some important data points. According to ASHA, the national average SLP salary in schools is is $65 to $75,000.

1:25:36 The average Florida SLP in schools is $60,000. Brevard public schools fall significantly below both of these at $50,275. When comparing our salary to our surrounding districts, we once again are at the bottom.

1:25:55 Osceola county speech language pathologists who have their master’s degree in seas average $69,185 a year year, and that does not include a very large supplement. On top of that, Seminole county averages $56,425. Once again, with an additional supplement on top of that, many people here have no idea what a speech language pathologist does.

1:26:14 We are often referred to as teachers. We are not teachers. We evaluate, diagnose, and treat communication disorders.

1:26:26 We are required to hold a master’s degree in communication science and disorders as well as maintain our Florida licensure from Department of Health. More important, data to consider research shows that students have speech and language disorders will likely struggle with reading and writing in school if they are not provided with early intervention. In addition to that, research shows difficulties with reading impact students ability to perform in every subject area.

1:26:51 After third grade, many people may not know what we do. However, we are an essential part of the schools and we are able to help approximately 7000 students every school year. Not only are we essential to our students success, but we also bring in revenue for Brevard through billing Medicaid.

1:27:08 We brought in approximately $250,000 last year. Once again, I hope you take the time to research what a speech language pathologist does and the mandates that are required to remain clinically competent. If you do the research, you will find that we are a huge asset to brevard schools that has been overlooked for far too long.

1:27:40 Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, members of the board and doctor Rendell.

1:27:55 My name is Amy Quatrochi and I am a speech language pathologist who has served at Cocoa High and Rockledge High School for the the last seven years and this year will be at Rockledge High. Although I was hired having only a bachelor’s degree, I had to be enrolled in a master’s degree program within two years to remain employed and complete that degree within five years. During the course of this rigorous program, I obtained 300 clinical clock hours supervised by other speech language pathologists.

1:28:11 I passed a praxis exam prior to graduation. After graduation, I began a clinical fellowship year, which is a nine month period period of being supervised during professional employment. Brevard Public school slps who are fully certified provide this supervision without additional pay or financial incentive.

1:28:27 Being an SLP in Brevard public schools has given me a vast array of students to work with, ranging in ages from three years to our blast students who attend until their 22nd birthday. I’ve had the privilege of serving severely disabled students who are non verbal to those who are highly intelligent but lack fundamental social communication skills. I’ve worked with students who struggle with stuttering and articulation disorders, language deficits associated with autism spectrum disorder, down syndrome, emotional and behavioral disabilities, as well as medically fragile students.

1:28:30 The wealth of experience I have gained from serving the students, as well as the wisdom and guidance from my selfless colleagues, is tremendous. However, I’m disheartened to know that our compensation stands so far behind our SLP colleagues and neighboring counties. We share the same level of education.

1:28:48 We hold our certificates of clinical competency through ASHA, our national organization. However, the current stipend we receive as specialists is dollar 275. In order to remain competitive and to retain highly qualified slps, this needs to be significantly increased.

1:28:59 Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, Doctor Rendell and esteemed board members.

1:29:22 Hi, Matt. Hi, Katie. How are you guys? Good to see you.

1:29:49 I want to thank each one of you for taking the time to listen carefully and consider our requests as speech language pathologists here in brevard public schools. My name is Valerie Kelly. I’m a speech language pathologist practicing in multiple BPS schools for 23 years.

1:30:09 I’m a product of the BPS system. So is my daughter and my granddaughter. I also started with Brevard County Schools as an instructional assistant in 1990.

1:30:42 It’s a long time ago. I met my husband in 1994 as he also worked for BPS as a contracted psychologist. I extend deep gratitude to my colleagues who have come forward to address this board regarding issues of the incongruities of our salaries, the supplements, and the duty times for slps in the school setting.

1:31:30 Furthermore, to the family and friends who are here this evening in support of this profession and us, we thank you. The goal of the SLP is to create a lasting connection with human beings, support the development of the number one skill of communication. Communication is the foundation for all reading skills, which is paramount to the success of all students in the task of learning and retaining knowledge.

1:31:53 While working as an assistant in BPS, I enrolled in the Communication Science Disorders program at UCF to obtain my degree. The requirements for the Communication science Disorders degree, the master’s program was 72 credit hours and maintaining a 3.5 gpa.

1:32:00 While a master of Education degree is only a 30 credit hour requirement, the hours are additional to what the slps are to hold a state licensure with the Department of Health. Our national clinical Competency certification is the nine months also including a six month dent of unpaid time as a clinic at any number of schools or at a skilled nursing facility. We have provided you succinct data.

1:32:45 In front of you are purple folders that contain what information we have gathered through research regarding the salary and supplement inconsistencies in the documents. I ask you with the deepest respect to consider our request to increase our supplements from $275 to at least reflect the national average of supplements for all sops and especially in regards to the Florida supplements. As speech language pathologists who hold their clinical certification of competency, we hope that this presentation has shed light on the incredible value and need for speech language pathologists in the schools and retaining the highest caliber professional in the pursuit of thank you for your time.

1:33:39 Every student with excellence as a standard. Thank you. Does anybody else wish to address us on the 2023 2024 proposed millage levy? I’m sorry, budget? Anybody wish to address the 2024 proposed budget? All right, public portion of this hearing is now closed.

1:33:48 That brings us to the recommendations of the adoption of the proposed millage rates in the tentative budget. Doctor Rendell. Thank you, Mister Chair.

1:34:05 There are a total of three separate motions for the board to consider. I will read each of these recommendations into the record and request board action. The first is to adopt the proposed 2023 to 24 millage rates of the operating fund, the required local effort of 3.

1:34:18 135 mills, the local discretionary of 0.748 mils, the required capital outlay of 1.500 mils, and the voter approved millage of 1.

1:34:26 00 mils for a total of 6.383. Do I hear a motion? Is there any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye.

1:34:33 All opposed? Doctor Endell the next item is to adopt the 2024 proposed budget of for the general fund, $799,378,536, the debt service fund of $37,931,802, the capital Project fund of $398,009,318 and special revenue funds of $208,899,179 internal service funds of $102,476,351 and the enterprise fund of 5929, $5,929,817 for a grand total of $1.552 billion. Do I hear a motion? Move to approve.

1:34:37 Second. Any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye. All opposed passes 50.

1:34:41 Doctor Endell, the last item is to authorize the superintendent to take the following actions. One, notify both the property appraiser and the tax collector of the proposed 23 24 millage and the following rolled back rates. The general fund rollback rates.

1:34:51 The required local effort is 2.9808 mils. The discretionary operating mills is 0.

1:35:03 687 mils. 0.6867 mils.

1:35:22 The capital outlay rolled back rate of 1.377 mils. And then the annual the additional voted millage.

1:42:49 The total rolled back rate is 5.0445 mills. Move to approve.

1:43:01 Not yet. Sorry, I jumped off there. That was just one.

1:43:10 Oh, sorry. I’m ready. We got a lot more.

1:43:14 The second step is to notify both your property appraiser and the tax collector of the final public hearing on September 7, 2023 at 05:30 p.m. At the educational services facility Viera.

1:43:18 And finally, to adjust the revenues and expenditures if necessary prior to the final public hearing. Do I air motion? Move to approve? Second. Is there any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye.

1:43:22 Any opposed? All right. Prior to the adjournment of this this hearing, I must read the following statement. The proposed 2023 2024 millage rate necessary to fund the tentative budget expense exceeds the rolled back rate by 26.

1:43:47 53%. This public hearing is now adjourned. We’re going to take a break.

1:44:13 Use the restroom before we get to public speaking. Thank you. It thank you.

1:44:23 That brings us to the that brings us to the public comments portion of the agenda. We have 30 speakers and each will receive three minutes. I will call up three speakers at a time.

1:44:42 Time. The first three speakers are Bernard Bryan, Anthony Colucci, Elizabeth Chale. Mister Bryan.

1:45:00 Thank you. Thank you sir. I got you.

1:45:17 Okay, there you go. I get 3 seconds actually. You got it.

1:45:31 Thank you so much. Boy. Mister Bryan is here again.

1:45:48 And the reason for that is we love revard public schools. We love all students that attend public schools. But I gotta be honest with you, I really need those dogs right now to kind of comfort me because I still am concerned about our reading gaps and our math gaps and I’m hoping that there’s a plan in place that will help resolve that.

1:46:04 And one of the things I’m very happy that Bavard Public School is doing, they have a tremendous reading program and that reading program includes science of reading. And I’ve had a chance to read the program it’s a wonderful program, but here’s my concern. My concern is that I don’t believe you have enough professional support, teachers supporting our kids.

1:46:16 I’m telling you, I’m part of full sac team. I can hear the cries of our teachers. I can hear, hear the cries of our parents and students.

1:46:31 So I’m hoping that the district provides support for our schools. One literacy instruction instructor does not solve the problem. So I’m just hoping that the board consider adding help where help is really needed, because you never close the gap.

1:46:47 We never solve the problem if this is not addressed. And I want this board to understand that. A couple of days ago, I called Florida department of education, and when I read their new black history policy, it knocked me to my knees.

1:47:19 And that’s why I really need the dogs right now. They said that black history slavery was a benefit. And I grew up in the Jim Corps era, and I saw the agony of my family.

1:47:48 And I’m asking that brevard public schools do not propagate that lie, because it’s a lie. My family did not receive any benefits. My great grandparents did not receive any.

1:48:45 And I did ask them what was the amount of people that received the benefit? They couldn’t tell me that data. So I’m just asking that when Brevard public schools present their black history curriculum, please let the public see it. Let us scrutinize it.

1:49:19 So we want to be part of that, and we cannot afford to misrepresent the truth. So that’s where I’m at. And like I said, I do need the dogs now because I’m not happy about that, and my family is not happy about that.

1:49:31 My community is not happy about that, and a lot of people are not happy about that. So would you consider, you know, let us see your curriculum so that we can understand what’s being taught as well. Thank you very much.

1:49:43 Thank you. Mister Bryan, Mister Colucci. My name is Anthony Colucci.

1:49:57 I’m the president of the Brevard Federation of Teachers. While there are differences of opinion on a few issues with some, some of you on this board, I do believe that this board is pro teacher. Considering four out of five of you were educators, I would expect nonetheless.

1:50:15 So when only two of our proposals we handed pps back in March were accepted by this board last week, beyond disappointed is an understatement. Our proposals were reasonable and crafted with member input. Now, whatever the reasons for this lack of progress at the table, I’m cautiously optimistic that you will put negotiations on the right track for August 1 as you deliberate, I encourage you to remember our proposals aren’t about you or even me.

1:50:36 Our proposals are about making bps a more attractive workplace, especially for the younger generation. And the fact is, whether we like it or not, it’s time to make some changes that will bring more of the best young people into to education and keep the ones that are here already. On the one hand, we have an incredible opportunity because research shows finding a sense of meaning from their work is a big priority for Gen Zs and millennials.

1:50:50 The sense of meaning one derives from educating kids is there, but when you start looking at other areas, that’s where we see the problems. So while nearly 40% of millennials are looking for good work life balance not only did BPs reject our proposals to ensure non classroom teachers received planning time and weren’t overloaded with duties, there was a proposal to take away 4 hours of planning from our teachers throughout the year. While 27% of millennials are seeking higher salary or benefits when looking for an employer, our proposals to increase speech, language, pathologists, behavior analysts, and occupational and physical therapists were rejected despite BPs having a difficult time retaining these professionals who can easily make more in other districts, in private practice and as one in five, millennials and Gen Zs are looking for flexible work models.

1:51:05 Not only did BPS reject flex time for those seeking to celebrate religious holidays, but for reasons I can’t comprehend, offered a reject on a proposal that would let teachers leave after student dismissal when air conditioning isn’t working. Research also tells us younger workers appreciate a workplace where their opinions are valued and they have a voice in decision making process. In other words, when these workers give input into their contract to their union that represents them, they want eleven yeses, not eleven nos.

1:51:23 As you know, BFT will fight for this profession, but a not what we’re looking for. We’re looking to ensure our students have highly qualified teachers. In order to do that, BPS needs to recognize the changes it needs to be done.

1:51:37 Thank you Mister Colucci for your time. We truly appreciate it. Good evening Superintendent Rendell and members of the board.

1:52:00 My name is Liz Shaley and I am a teacher here in Brevard county. Let me begin by saying that I am a brevard native and product of the Brevard county school system. I grew up here, left for college, returned to the area shortly after graduating.

1:52:15 I have over 16 years in FRS, 14 of those being in Brevard county. So I’ve been around the county for a bit of time over the years. I have seen different boards have many members that do not represent or respect teachers at the collective group, which in turn means do not have the students who attend our schools in the best interest.

1:52:27 However, I do believe the majority of the current board has a favorable view of teachers and the needs of our students. I do understand that there is state of Florida legislation that controls some decisions. However, there are other issues in our county system that the board continues to ignore when it comes to the equitable treatment of teachers and other employees.

1:52:42 This is evident from the outcome of the most recent bargaining meeting between the district and BFT in March. Our teachers union placed 18 proposals on the table at the mid July negotiation meeting. Only two were accepted and three were countered.

1:52:53 While two failed to be replied to, eleven were flat out rejected. This is unacceptable and demoralizing to our teachers. One of the proposals rejected with no counter proposal was that the AC was out in a teacher’s classroom.

1:53:00 They permitted to leave at the end of the student day if there were no prior scheduled meetings, why was this rejected? We live in Florida where it’s often quite warm. Also, many schools in our district do not have windows due to the timeframe when they were built. This can cause the classroom to heat up quickly.

1:53:06 Being in extreme temperatures for extended periods of time is not healthy. This shows a lack of concern for the well being of their teachers in the district. As I began with, I I have lived in Brevard county most of my life, so I’m committed to the community here.

1:53:23 To me, this seems that every year negotiations between BFT and bps get more difficult as district officials fail to budge on issues important to teachers in the district. Teachers have already left the district in swarms and more may be on the way out soon if the district continues to not support them as educators. Last school year there were vacancies that were never filled in the county.

1:53:29 This is a problem that shows that people do not want to work here. Please, for the sake, for those qualified teachers in our classrooms, provide and respect us with as knowledgeable professionals. I did not enter the field of education to become rich.

1:53:49 I entered it for my love of sharing knowledge and trying to better my future for everyone in the community. Education is important to students in the community. Without qualified teachers, teachers will miss out.

1:54:03 How do you keep qualified educators in this task commission? Support them and show respect. As I stated earlier, while past boards have not done this, I do feel that the current board is capable and can make the changes necessary to recruit and retain qualified teachers. Thank you very much.

1:54:17 Appreciate your time. Would Ruth cough hold. Randy Ondo and Marcus Hockman are on deck.

1:54:35 If Ruth could come up now. She left. Okay, so then we got Randy Ondo.

1:54:59 There we go. Then you, mister Hockman. Thank you.

1:55:13 For more than four decades, I’ve been a student, a volunteer, and educator with BPS, and have never spoken publicly at a board meeting. The most recent bargaining session was the final struggle. I sat in a room and heard the word rejected used proposal after proposal.

1:55:27 So here I stand. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Randy Ondo and it’s a pleasure to provide my input.

1:55:48 In 26 years as an employee, I’ve endured several hardships that I’ve chosen not to dwell upon and simply accepted. There were years where my insurance deductions increased more than my pay and I took home less than the previous year. I obtained national board certification only to receive a few years of pay before funding was revoked.

1:56:05 There was the year when the magistrate agreed with the pay increase proposed by teachers, yet the board voted it down. It’s important to understand our history as an organization. These barriers and more have created the current problem we all face.

1:56:10 During negotiations, I heard creative solutions that made sense. Any other workplace allows for transfers to take place. Teachers in Brevard must routinely resign and be rehired to work around the restrictions of our outdated system.

1:56:19 Each time this happens, multiple departments and personnel are bogged down in paperwork. Teachers must jump through orientation hoops, and veteran teachers have the burden of completing mentor paperwork. For teachers who have already completed these steps, this process wastes vast amounts of money and time.

1:56:24 Proposal rejected recently, the board touted creative, remote work options for some positions to attract and retain a quality workforce. BFT proposed giving teachers flexibility and schedules to incorporate aspects of working remotely. Imagine giving teachers ownership of their time before and after school to meet their needs while still meeting and exceeding job expectations.

1:56:30 I know I’d be more eager to serve. Proposal rejected I have bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education. I currently hold nine areas of certification along with three endorsements.

1:56:50 I’ve received national board certification, been labeled high impact, and best and brightest. I’ve been honored as a teacher of the year three times. I’ve served in various roles, including literacy coach, teacher on assignment, and classroom teacher.

1:57:11 I have numerous distinguished evaluations evaluations to document that I do my job and I do it well. No one has yet given me an acceptable answer as to why I can’t be trusted to adequately budget my planning time when students are not on campus. I’m beyond tired of being rejected by BPS I’m angry.

1:57:22 And yet I’m still here wanting to teach children every single day. In the words of soccer legend Abby Wambach, be grateful for what you have and demand what you deserve. I am truly grateful for the opportunities I’ve had with VPS.

1:57:46 And I deserve more. Thank you. We all deserve more.

1:57:56 Thank you. Miss Ondo, Mister Marcus Hochman. Good evening everyone.

1:58:15 And good evening, board members. I actually came here to speak to you as individually. Individually.

1:58:38 To see if I can lobby for air purifiers. Okay. Just.

1:58:58 You have to understand the context and that. But seriously, what I’m really here for is the standards. SS 68 68 aa s three, okay, which states basically is talking about trades performed by slaves.

1:59:08 And also the bench clarification about how slaves developed skills which in some instances could be applied by their personal benefit. The reason I strongly disagree with this, and actually I just want this standard to be abolished. The irony means me saying that by the way, slaves were considered property, so they had no personal benefits.

1:59:19 Trades naturally imply you get to choose what you, as an individual, want to work as slaves, had no choice. If you had a trade, you would get paid. And to my knowledge, slaves were not paid for their work.

1:59:27 I understand what Doctor Allen and some other others were saying from the group that created this, and what he stated was, by any attempt to reduce slaves, just as victims of oppression, fail to recognize their strength, courage and resilience during a difficult time in american history, recognize their strength, courage and resilience. But this is not the standard. To apply this instead, you could discuss the status of Chubbstown in Georgia.

1:59:31 Harriet Tubman, Abraham Galloway and Robert Smalls, etcetera, etcetera. There’s so much out there that you could discuss. Please recognize that standards should be factual.

1:59:40 And when you use the word benefit, represents an opinion. What do they define as personal benefit? Because personal benefit means a profit or gain pertaining to, directed toward, or affecting a person. And if they were not slaves in the first place, they would have gained a lot more personal benefits, like their free will.

1:59:46 So, based on these reasons, as a parent, I do not want to see that my children taught or be manipulated that there were any personal benefits. As a slave, I want my children to be taught that slaves had no free will in the first place. Secondly, as an educator, I do not want myself or my fellow colleagues to be be forced to teach this ignorant social studies standards to their students.

1:59:52 As an educator, we have an ethical responsibility to not intentionally suppress or distort subject matter relevant to a subject’s academic program. Now, the last thing I would like to do is hopefully if the NAACP is listening or here, I hope they get the youth. And what I really hope they do is burn that standard.

2:00:12 And what comes when you burn something. The paper of that nature was basically ashes. And honestly, from those ashes I hope they rise above this ignorance.

2:00:32 That’s what I would really like to see. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you Mister Hochman.

2:00:49 I’m going to read out some of these names that may have left already. If you can just raise your hand. Monet Payne.

2:01:08 Miss Payne left. Good. Heidi Dowling.

2:01:37 Bernadette Puzzino. Amy Quattrochi. I’m gonna murder all the names.

2:01:57 Valerie Kelly. She left. Okay, I have to do it because they’re on here.

2:02:09 Michael Browd is up next. Vanessa Skipper. And then Marissa Huckel.

2:02:23 Mister Brown, good evening. My name is Michael Browd and I am the automotive teacher at Heritage High School. I’ve been there since 29th 2009.

2:02:37 I like to tell people that I came with the building and during the last contract negotiation negotiations I was really disappointed that the BPS negotiation team rejected several proposals. And what I’ve handed out to you guys is a few things that I’d like to discuss. Number 15 and number 16 are first dealing with CTE teachers.

2:02:43 All right. Doctor Rendell spoke to us at the BFT building representation last week and he stated that there are two types of people in education, those who teach and those who support teachers. I am clearly not the latter.

2:03:00 Number 50 and 16 clearly are clearly the job of the CTE resource teachers team at ESF. We have millions of dollars that I am responsible for. I am a great steward of that in your shops, here in the automotive programs.

2:03:05 Now, as a highly effective team teacher for 14 years straight, I take great pride in that equipment. I do visually inspect it, I do maintain it, and I do make some repairs. However, beyond those basic items, I cannot be expected to procure quotes, process pos, service equipment, make repairs to all of that equipment while teaching in a highly effective manner that should and needs to be left up to the support of teaching from ESF.

2:03:19 Unfortunately, all too often these items fall to the lap of the teachers. I urge that you instruct your negotiation team to accept number 15 and number 16. In addition, on the next page, the other item that I would like to speak to is CTE teachers roles and internships in OJT.

2:03:46 I know, Mister Susan, you and I have talked about this directly. And in 2011, the Intern and OJT handbook was twelve pages long. That book has grown to 50 pages.

2:04:11 Now that twelve page document. I helped write some of that. That 50 page document has dumped almost all responsibilities of interns and ojts directly into the labs of teachers.

2:04:30 I am asked to regularly go to on site visits during personal time to students, places of business. Secure and maintain all the paperwork for a state auditable file. Take attendance for students who are not in my room.

2:04:39 Hello there. At work. Use our planning periods and personal time to email employers.

2:04:58 Follow up and track students. Maintain grades and attendance for OJT students who again are at work, not in my room. Last year I had six OJT students and for the last four periods of the day I had 13 grade books in focus.

2:05:19 That’s a lot to manage. It’s too much. I cannot be both the teacher and the support team.

2:05:37 Mister Brown, thank you for your time, Miss Skipper. Okay. Marissa Huckel got it.

2:05:55 Shayna Kearney good evening ladies and gentlemen of the board. I’ve come here today to speak as a parent and a teacher of students in Brevard counties schools. One thing we teach our kids is that fair does not mean equal.

2:06:13 And providing all of our students with the same cookie cutter curriculum and pacing guide does not consider our many beautiful backgrounds, the variety of income levels, and the parental education background of our students. I am lucky that my boys attend schools that have many students with parents that have a higher education and support at home. I know that in their classes the students are held to a standard in their homes and education is a priority.

2:06:24 That is not the case case for many of our students. Many parents barely finished high school and by upper elementary struggle to teach to help students at home. Many students come from homes where the narrative told to their parents is being told to them, you do not matter and school will not get you anywhere.

2:06:52 When I first started, I was introduced to the pacing guide. I was at a title one school. Many of my fourth grade students were on a kindergarten and first grade levels.

2:07:01 They were either passed on due to previous retention or due to COVID. I asked, what if the students were not able to master the standard? I was told you must move on and stick to the pacing guide in those environments. Small groups are difficult due to independent learning levels and various student behaviors.

2:07:06 To expect students from these schools to be able to keep up with the same pacing guide as some of our choice schools or schools in higher income areas is unrealistic. The students see their only way to success through sports, music or potentially dangerous options. As teachers, we understand that these students need more flexibility and patience.

2:07:16 We know how to find the best support for them in class. We understand that they need the curriculum structured in a different way and that they need to see themselves in the curriculum. Not allowing teachers flexibility and taking away their right to and professional judgment not only demeans the teacher, but harms our students.

2:07:37 Cookie cutter curriculum and pacing guides do not work in a world with many varieties and variables. The community only benefits from lifting these children from our low income areas up, showing them that they matter. They are not lesser, and they can do amazing things, and we believe in them.

2:08:00 I end with a poem from the late or not. Tupac, did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in concrete proving nature’s law is wrong. I learned to walk without having feet, funny it seems, but by keeping its dreams, it learned to breathe fresh air.

2:08:08 Long live the rose that grew from concrete when no one else ever cared. Thank you. Thank you.

2:08:13 Next up is Miss Beavers, Miss Colby and Miss Dana Herring. So I’m going to be reading something that’s probably not appropriate for necessarily all children. I wanted to give anybody with kids a chance to get out of the room.

2:08:38 I’d remind you that it’s illegal to. I’d appreciate it if you did not read anything. Go ahead, kids.

2:08:50 I want to. It doesn’t matter. It’s being broadcast live.

2:09:04 SEC rules. She can’t say those words. Yep.

2:09:06 Hold on. Miss Beavers, please. I got it.

2:09:20 Okay. The book. Me, Earl, and the dying girl is in central Middle School, Johnson Middle School, Dolores satellite Middle and senior high, Space Coast Junior Senior High, Ronald McNair Middle School, Edgewood Junior Senior High, West Shore Junior Senior High, Palm Bay Magnet High School, Melbourne High School, Titusville High School, Viera High School, Astronaut High School, Heritage High School and Rockledge High School.

2:09:40 And we have two ebooks. Yeah, Earl, I’m going to eat her pussy. Okay, miss.

2:10:06 Miss Beavers, please. I’m giving you a warning. Do not continue.

2:10:17 I guess that would make part of my point here. So, Empire of Storms is in Titusville High School, Rockledge High School, Ugalle High School, Dolores Satellite Middle High School, Edgewood Junior High, Senior High, Milburn High School, and Merritt island. You’re magnificent, he murmured into her lips.

2:10:27 His tongue slid into her mouth. Did I just get cut off? No. The hardness of him pushed against her and she bucked her hips, needing to grind herself against him to do anything to ease the building ache between her legs.

2:10:33 She slid her hand between them, and then she closed her fingers around, marveling on the velvet wrapped steel. Rowan groaned and pushed into her hand. She pulled his mouth from his, staring into those pine green eyes.

2:10:49 Let me touch you. His voice trembled. Enough.

2:11:03 The alien lifted her chin as if doing this, touching her was as much to remind him that he was what she had made it. Today she was safe. As if to pleasure her, she leaned up, brushed her mouth against his.

2:11:09 Do your worst, Prince. Rowan’s smile was nothing short of a wicked as he pulled away to run a broad hand from her throat down to the juncture of her thighs. She shuddered as the sheer possession of her, her breath coming tight pants as he gripped her thighs and spread her legs fully, bearing to him fully.

2:11:27 Aileen couldn’t take her eyes from his silver hair and water and moonlight from the heads holding her wide for him, his hands holding him her wide for him as he dipped between her legs and as Rowan tasted her on his, on the beach, as he laughed against her sleep, her hoarse cries of his name shattered across the pine trees and sand and water. Aiden let it go, all of it. Pretence at reason.

2:11:42 She moved, hips undulating, begging him to go. So Rowan did, sliding a finger into her and as his tongue flicked that one spot and oh God, she was going to explode into fire. Alien.

2:11:58 He growled her name again. I don’t think this is an appropriate book to have in some of these libraries. And I want you to look at the house bill.

2:12:25 Sorry? The house bill 1069. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Beavers.

2:12:46 Next up, Miss Karen Colby and Dana Haring on deck. Hi. So in my research, I was finding a book to mention that I found in a library that’s pretty, pretty close to me.

2:12:56 It’s located in satellite Delora, so that means middle school kids can see it. The name of the book is all boys aren’t blue. Let me read a part here without anything.

2:13:06 That’s too bad. Well, I’m trying. For me.

2:13:27 I was finally on my journey of sexual exploration and couldn’t wait to do it again. He and I had sex a second time two weeks later, before school let out for summer. I had several sexual encounters that involved mutual masturbation and kissing and fooling around.

2:13:39 Miss Colby, if we can bring it back to being appropriate for the people that are watching masturbation, that’s not okay. I got to his apartment and we both began drinking while watching tv. This lasted all of ten minutes before.

2:13:43 Before we started kissing and undressing each other. He then stood up and grabbed me by the hands and led me into his bedroom. We took each other’s clothes off fast but deliberate after he told me to lie down on the bed, he asked me to turn over.

2:13:52 While he slipped a condom on himself, my heart immediately started to race. Nervously I asked him what was he doing, and he said, so the next book I’d like to talk about is available in a lot more places. It’s available at Astronaut, Bayside High School, Cocoa Beach High School, Dolores Satellite again, Ogalley, Melbourne, Merritt Island, Rockledge, and West shore.

2:13:54 This one is called the bluest eye, and I got to be careful here. I get that. Be patient while I find something, okay? Pecola lost her balance and was about to careen to the floor.

2:13:59 Charlie raised his other hand to her hips to save her from falling. He put his head down and nibbled at the back of her leg. I should mention that Charlie’s her father.

2:14:22 His mouth trembled at the firm sweetness of the flesh. He closed his eyes, letting his fingers dig into her waist. The rigidness of her shocked him.

2:14:38 The silence of her stunned throat was better than Pauline’s easy laughter had been. The confused mixture of his memories of Pauline and the doing of a wild and forbidden thing excited him, and a bolt of desire ran down his genitals, giving it length and softening the lips of his anus. Surrounding all of this lust was a border of politeness.

2:15:00 He wanted to f bomb her tenderly, but the tenderness would not hold. The tightness of her vagina was more than he could bear. His soul seemed to slip down to his guts and fly out into her and in the gigantic thrust.

2:15:41 All right, Miss Colby, thank you for so much. That’s the three minutes that you’re afforded. I appreciate your time.

2:15:47 Thank you. Yep. What in the actual horn? Miss Dana Herring, please.

2:16:05 Donna. Donna, I’m so sorry. It’s all right.

2:16:28 My handwriting was probably pretty good. No, it says D A n a. It’s Donna.

2:17:01 My name’s Donna Herring. I’m a grandparent and recently started becoming an attendee at the school board and some of the book review meetings. And the two prior speakers read some things that could be very uncomfortable.

2:17:24 There’s a lot about life that is uncomfortable. These children are not being presented these books in a classroom and saying, you must read them. I think we need to be able to treat our children with respect and more importantly, our media experts.

2:17:44 If we have problems with what is available to the children in the library to check out, then we can discuss it with them. They have pulled books before based on input from parents who are concerned about content. But removing content that can be valuable to somebody is not the answer.

2:17:58 I would like to see this board support a broader education for a broad spectrum of students, some of whom can read that material and accept it as educational. Not an education on how to have sex, or how to masturbate, or how to do anything untoward, but as part of a lesson about part of life, about things that other people may experience that they haven’t. Or maybe things that they have experienced that they can now feel that other people have also experienced and can relate to.

2:18:24 That’s all I have to say tonight. Thank you, Miss Donna. Kimberly.

2:18:42 Sorry. Kimberly Rooks, Gregory Ross, Richard Weber, please come forward. Good evening, Doctor Rundallen and board members.

2:19:00 My name is Kimberly Rooks. I am the proud daughter of Mabel Rooks, who taught for school in Brevard county for 32 years until she retired. I also am a proud individual that is a descendant of slaves.

2:19:07 And for the decision to come out by the state Department of Education that any aspect of slavery was good is a gross and negligent assessment coming from someone who lived in a home where we heard the stories we had loved ones live the stories. I am a product of a mulatto grandmother. Great great grandmother.

2:19:19 I’m sorry. Which means that my great great great grandfather was a slave owner and my family was ripped apart because of the reality of slavery. Our children have enough challenges in their lives.

2:19:30 And the adults that are around them have a responsibility to be truthful, supportive and nurturing to them. Not make them feel that they’re lesser than. Not make them feel that they have something deficient within them.

2:19:44 Our jobs are to prepare them, to support them, and to help them to see the betterment within themselves. We don’t always have it easy. Life is not easy for any of us.

2:19:55 But we do have a responsibility to pave the way for those that are still trying to find their way. So I am asking that you please reevaluate and reassess. Because at the end of the day, those 15 to 17 individuals that were used to justify this statement, many of them were cited improperly.

2:20:20 We have a white female who owns slaves. Certainly she benefited from slavery, but not because she was enslaved. We have individuals that were quoted within those 15 to 17 people who they themselves were born free.

2:20:32 So we can’t say that slavery in any way directly helped them. And then we have individuals of those 15 to 17 people who in fact, were misquoted in the skills that they supposedly earned and learned through slavery. So please reassess.

2:20:43 Thank you. Thank you. Mister Ross on deck.

2:21:02 Mister Viber. Good evening, board. Thank you for the opportunity to come and speak to you.

2:21:09 I got a few things I want to talk about today. First is I watch the work session today, watch you guys talk about the drug diversion program. Miss Wright, I just want to call you out on a couple things.

2:21:16 One is I saw you kind of imply that all people who are sent to ALC for drug use or addicts. Right. I think that was a misstatement on your part, but please be careful how you say things.

2:21:20 Right. CDC says only 10% of people who use marijuana end up being drug addicts. So let’s make sure we’re talking to the science and the facts.

2:21:23 I also saw you talk about building an in house program, a drug diversion program over using the better without it program. That program is facilitated and run by scientists, doctors, phds, edds. It has numerous scientific based organizations.

2:21:34 It works with not the least of is Stanford School of Medicine. Stanford School of Medicine. So let’s not try to recreate the wheel.

2:21:40 You have a science based program right here in front of you that works. If you don’t want to use that one, that’s fine. But let’s not recreate the wheel and think you can do a better job than these people who are paid experts at this.

2:21:47 Let’s follow the experts and let’s follow the science. Second thing I want to talk about real quick is, Mister Trent, you said earlier that the school boards on or the districts on track for hiring, right. As of today there are 110 vacancies across the district.

2:22:02 I don’t think you’re on track. That’s probably the worst number we’ve had in quite a while. But that’s not the only problem you got.

2:22:09 The other problem you have is retention. Teacher retention. And it came out today in the.

2:22:16 Was it the gardendale? Right. Did anybody catch. They did a wonderful job.

2:22:28 I happen to agree with you. That was very competent. They did a wonderful job.

2:23:02 But did anybody catch it? They also said that almost every teacher they had, there was a new teacher had never taught before. That’s what she said. That’s exactly what she said.

2:23:22 But let’s move on to the real topic. Right? The Doe standards. Right.

2:23:50 And how. I’m not going to use the word racist, but they’re pretty close to that. They’re illogical, if anything.

2:24:26 I hope this board is as good as the last board that sat here. What that last board did last time was Doe came out and said something. The governor came out and said something and they said no, we’re going to do the right thing with masking.

2:24:53 They had courage. I hope this board does the same thing. I don’t think you will, but I certainly hope.

2:25:20 Please follow the science, follow the data. Do it for the students and the teachers. Thank you.

2:25:40 Thank you Mister Ross, Mister Richard Bieber. Good evening. Richard Beaver.

2:25:45 I wanted to touch on the topic about the drug and alcohol also I fear that the programs, the alternative learning center and the other component might be a little too rigid, not flexible enough. I think that there will be students and I think a large number of students were projected to fail this relatively large number. And I think Mister Trent also agreed with that.

2:26:20 If I recall correctly, it was around like 15% that would fail that program. I could be wrong. But anyway, that’s my concern is that we will have these particularly lower income students falling through the cracks once again.

2:26:36 Ones that we leave behind when we get take public monies to private schools. And who suffers is the lower socioeconomic group the most. I think more safeguards ought to be put in place utilizing maybe counselors and principals on each student along with maybe a health care, mental health care professionals.

2:26:43 I personally was a little bit of a thorn on the side of administrators in high school and one thing that got rid of their problem was that basically a coach who was a counselor took me under his wing to a degree he put me in as he made me the statistician for the football team. Knowing my math background and you know, that just took a little more of my time where he could watch. He took me out of journalism class though.

2:26:57 I mean, my high school yearbook that I worked on, they joked in the back of it about me oding on aspirin. But anyway, so I got deprived of journalism, but I got busy with a little athletics and that was part of the solution in me doing less. I was also in wrestling and so I was involved in after school activities.

2:27:06 I did run for the class president and much to their dismay because I had a conduct grade that didn’t really make it. So I was writing, but I made them redo the elections, but it was a problem and they took care of it with a counselor, a principal, football coach. But we need more hands on and particular individual attention to these students that might fall through the cracks.

2:27:29 Thank you. Thank you, mister Bieber. The next three people up are going to be Corey McMillan, Samantha Kirvin and Kelly Kirvin.

2:27:35 Good evening. Thanks for letting us come here and have a public comment. My name is Cory McMullin from Titusville.

2:27:40 I got two things I wanted to talk about, so I’ll do the boring one first, just a little bit about procurement. I’ve seen the last few meetings, stuff’s been pulled, and I know it’s not anything to be intentional, but when things get pulled like that, because I would assume you’re purchasing and procurement staff has a little bit, not as much, excuse me, not as much confidence when that happens. Working in that field, when things don’t follow the regular process, it gives more perception that there’s impropriety happening, even though it’s probably not happening, but just a little history of the school board procurement.

2:28:07 I think every member is in 2018, Florida Department of Law Enforcement did find unethical actions going on with the auditing. RFP or RFQ. I can’t remember which one it was, but I would just be a little more cognizant of doing that as often.

2:28:17 I know it’s unintentional, but actions speak louder than words. So just a couple solutions. Maybe some workshops on it.

2:28:39 Maybe have a liaison or appointment for the board you can talk to about it, know what bids are coming up, what contracts are ending at what time, what’s going to be done that year, fiscal year, year. Everyone will do it. So that’s the boring thing.

2:28:48 Second thing, I just. Simple question. Does anyone think slavery is a good character building system? Take that as a no.

2:29:07 Well, then tell the mouth breathers that Hal hassle you came up with it to get rid of it. Thank you. Hello.

2:29:19 Hi. It’s been a while. So about last week, I was at a running camp.

2:29:29 North Carolina, Boone. It was really fun. So much sightseeing.

2:29:41 But the Florida Doe voted in favor of history standards not based in reality and use the resource videos put out by the company Pageru. After watching a handful of these videos, I just kind of. Well, I’m asking brevard to please opt out of using these.

2:30:03 As a student. Please don’t use these. Not, in my opinion, that good of resource material.

2:30:20 History is messy and it’s uncomfortable, but it’s still knowledge. History is inspiring, and it shows what we did right, what we did wrong, how to fix it, how to prevent it. These videos revise history and lie to us.

2:30:28 They indoctrinate us into believing actual history isn’t real. And that’s not right. That isn’t education.

2:30:49 We are living on stolen land. Christopher Columbus was an awful human being, and I hate the fact that there’s a holiday just for him. And I will not embrace a role of life where I’m apparently just to be a household.

2:31:08 I want to be a lawyer, not a housewife, preferably, but that’s one of the videos. It’s called how to embrace your femininity. It’s so fun.

2:31:16 It is your job to teach us everything, even messy parts. Not everything is sunshine and rainbows. That’s not how life works.

2:31:29 There’s ups and downs, but there’s ways to get over it and ways to to be absorbed by it. You just have to learn to conquer. And using the pager, you, videos doesn’t do that.

2:31:34 It indoctrinates us into lies with and I opting myself out of watching these in my classroom. If you don’t do the right thing and opt the district out, that’s going to have to come to. I’m going to have to go to that.

2:31:37 I would like to say that thank you for your time listening to me. And y’all are amazing people, so enjoy. Thank you, miss kirvin.

2:31:58 I’m just going to state for the record again that I love that kid. Good evening, board. Miss wright, I actually want to say thank you.

2:32:27 Thank you for bringing up the practice of putting the department of health letters into the hands of our students. I know firsthand the life altering impact that can have on them, especially when I opted my child out of all health screenings. Yet she was one of three students screamed for BMI against the will of me and her father at her elementary school the year she was in 6th grade.

2:32:37 The damage that oversight caused our family was astronomical, mentally, physically, and financially. Resources for what that letter did to her were in Miami. But most importantly, it cost Alison her admittance to the best school district in.

2:32:55 Best school in our district. And that loss can never be fixed. So I appreciate you bringing that up earlier.

2:33:10 I thought I knew what I was going to talk about. I just want to state that you heard passages today from two books that isn’t porn and it doesn’t violate our law. Also, we have a.

2:33:24 We have a process for challenging books. And I would love an update on that. We had a policy.

2:33:35 Policy seems to be broken. We have a committee. Maybe we have a committee.

2:33:54 School starts in like, less than two and a half weeks ish, and our AP lit teachers still don’t know if they can use the kite runner. So it would be really nice if we could at least figure out what our AP college level classes can use. Back to what I had originally planned on talking about as a BPS alumni.

2:34:15 I remember being armed with a pencil and a piece of paper on the first day of middle and high school so I could take down the required supplies for each class. My mom and I would then spend the weekend hopping from school to school to find all the needed supplies, inevitably running into something that nobody had. This system is archaic and in the year 2023, with more communication options than ever, I’m struggling to understand why BPS hasn’t developed a standard operating procedure for getting all of our families of secondary students the required supply list before the first day of school.

2:34:28 Tax free shopping is now is started this Monday. It ends next Sunday, and every school has a registration date during that timeframe. At Samantha School, we walk our schedule during registration.

2:34:35 Teachers tape their supply list to their doors so families can shop for supplies long before the first day of school. And this should be standard across the district. I was horrified to find out this week that that’s not actually standard across the district, and many schools wait until the first day of school when it’s no longer tax free.

2:35:24 Samantha has this really cool color coded system she uses for each of her classes, and we preemptively bought because her registration isn’t until next week, so we can’t always find the colors. I spent $300 on supplies. The savings of tax is like 20 something dollars for me.

2:35:37 That’s not a significant amount of money, but for a lot of our families living in poverty, that’s significant. So maybe we should do something about that. Thanks.

2:36:01 Next up we have Miss Diana Haynes, Sarah Mirsky and Paul Rao. Good evening. Wow.

2:36:14 I never seen so many adults so uncomfortable when they were being read to junior senior high school library books. It’s almost embarrassing. Our school system, though, has many.

2:36:18 Our school system has many wins. We are the space coast. We are producing so many great opportunities for our children to have bright and successful futures, not only in space and technology and aviation, but also in construction, the trades, food service, and so forth.

2:36:27 But sadly, there’s also a dark side that has to be addressed. There are many unresolved issues that I am hoping that maybe next year we can resolve. There’s the unresolved issue of the sexual.

2:36:43 The alleged sexual assault at Johnson. And there’s the unresolved issue of poop gate at McNair. There’s a multitude of unresolved issues at Viera High School.

2:37:24 There’s a multitude of unresolved educational deficiencies in our lower income communities that I hope can be resolved. There are multiple unresolved lawsuits and so much more. But perhaps the most egregious and detrimental to our success and our progress is the ongoing victimization of one board member who has made it her public mantra, not only on the local level, but on and on and on the national level, it is beyond embarrassing and highly insulting to this board, to the administration, to teachers, students, and the hardworking people who assist in our students success.

2:37:41 I’m not asking, I’m begging you to stop. The victim grant standing is a detriment to all that I have mentioned. When is it going to end? We have become a national laughing stock.

2:38:00 And FYI, I also pray that there isn’t anyone on this board or passports that submitted to Washington DC and to other agencies the names of our parents as domestic terrorists, because that, I think, would be the ultimate embarrassment. Thank you. Have a nice day.

2:38:20 Thank you. Miss Haynes. Sarah Mirsky and Paul Robz on deck.

2:38:30 Good evening. Can you hear me okay? Thank you. Good evening.

2:38:58 My name is Sarah Mirsky. I’m a proud housewife, mother of two children in Brevard Public schools. I am a college student.

2:39:10 I’m a voter test taxpayer, and I have a holistic interest in this school district to become successful and be successful. The past two years, my family has been a part of this school district. I consistently brought to this board’s attention the issue of mental health.

2:39:37 According to the CDC, adolescent mental health continues to worsen, and here are some statistics, and I haven’t pulled the statistics for 2022, but these are for 2021. More than four in ten, which is 42% students, felt persistently sad or hopeless, and nearly one third, 29%, experienced poor mental health in 2021. More than one in five, which is 22% of students seriously considered attempting suicide and one in ten attempted suicide.

2:39:46 Adolescents are also dealing with self harm, anxiety, and substance abuse issues, as well as overdoses. Unfortunately, people have said that mental health help doesn’t belong in schools. Yet the statistics show that we desperately need the help in the school setting, particularly brevard Public School.

2:40:00 Children have suffered from anxiety, according to the Youth Truth Survey. I wholeheartedly support the mental health grant that is before this board, and I ask that you vote yes on it. I’m grateful for the foresight of a couple members of this board to put a clinical social worker and a school psychologist on the discipline working group.

2:40:13 My input about drug aversion would be that the students work with skilled social workers to create an evidence based intervention for kids who need it. The grant would help provide those services. My hope is that this working group will use evidence based practice and evidence based research to form a new and effective discipline policy for this district.

2:40:36 I’m looking forward to a great school year as mental health is just as important as physical health. Thank you. Thank you, Sarah.

2:40:47 Mister Paul rounds up. And then to round it out is Lee Guthrie and Erica Orissa. I still have to call it, you know what I mean? So I’m going to mention the DOE stuff again, which has been covered in detail and by people much better qualified to talk about it than me.

2:40:58 But I did want to say thank you to Jennifer James Jenkins for speaking out against that publicly. This is something that, in a sane universe, that would have been a. Well, you know, duh.

2:41:15 Are you also for breathing air and eating food and getting a night’s sleep? But our increasingly more insane department of Education did not seem to think so. And I wonder, honestly, why we haven’t heard any similar comments from anyone else up there. And if that’s happened and I missed it, I really do apologize.

2:41:26 If that’s happened privately, do it publicly. Because I know that all of you up there, and I’ll get snotty up here, and I make jokes at everyone’s expense. But I know you’re up there because you do care and you do care about these students.

2:41:30 And that’s in evidence all the time. Speak up. There’s got to be a line somewhere of what’s not acceptable to anyone, regardless of where we are.

2:41:33 It might be on some political line. And if racism was kind of, you know, I’m sorry, slavery was kind of okay in some ways, there was a benefit. If that’s not a million miles past the line, what is? Speak up.

2:41:40 I know you didn’t make the rules, but I also know that you care and you are allowed to have opinions and voice them and let students know, know that you actually do support them, even if your hands are tied about doing anything about it right now and again, not your actions. But Mister Ross said that, you know, maybe these. This policy wasn’t intended to be racist.

2:41:55 I don’t know. I don’t know what else motivates someone to decide, hey, I think we should put this in the policy. I don’t know a non racial motivation for that.

2:42:05 And what we walk by is what we accept. Don’t walk by this. I’m not going to address any playground theatrics that went on earlier.

2:42:20 I would also love to see the book review committee get back in action. I’m not going to sit here and tell you all things that you already know. That, for example, reading something to yourself and reading something aloud in front of a bunch of people are not the same thing.

2:42:42 But yeah, I’d love to get back to those meetings. I don’t love that we have an increasing number of books just in limbo forever. Again.

2:43:11 Let’s get moving on that. Please speak up. I know you do care.

2:43:23 I really do. I’d love to hear it. Thanks.

2:43:30 Thank you. Mister Rao. Miss Guthrie.

2:43:42 Bet you’re glad I’m the last one here. Okay, so, good evening board members and Superintendent Rendell and Brevard citizens. My name is Lee Guthrie and I am here representing the Brevard citizens defending freedom.

2:43:53 Our mission is to educate, empower and equip Brevard county citizens to stand up and defend their liberty. At the local level. Our county has been found.

2:44:08 Our country has been founded on christian values and moral. Religious people understand that our founders intent for the moral instruction of our children and all citizens. With that being said, I am going to read you an excerpt from a book called Sold.

2:44:19 But before I do that, I wanted to tell you that it is about human trafficking. And basically that is just another term for slavery and it is abhorrent. It should be a subject that should only be discussed in public schools with mature students and unpolarized instructors who can be unbiased.

2:44:30 This book has graphic descriptions of rape and violence and should not be allowed in our school libraries. The public schools are challenged with its choices outside of the mainstream learning. This book is actually at astronaut High, Bayside, cocoa, Ogalley, Edgewood, Mel High, Merritt Island, Rockledge and Space Coast Junior High School.

2:44:39 It is about trafficking. So whether you’re reading it to yourself or something else, it is something. And maybe we should be teaching our students more about how to avoid trafficking versus what it’s actually like.

2:44:46 He flies at me. She grabs me by the hair and drags me across the room. She flings me onto the bed next to the old man.

2:44:52 And then he is on top of me, holding me down with the strength of ten men. He kisses me with lips that are slack and wet and taste of onions. His teeth deepen my lower lip underneath the weight of him.

2:44:59 I cannot see or move or breathe. He fumbles with his pants, forces my legs apart, and I can feel him pushing himself between my thighs. I grasp for air and kick and squirm.

2:45:06 He thrusts his tongue into my mouth and I bite down with all my might. He is squeezing my breast with his hand like someone shopping for a melon. I try to push him away, but my arm, stone heavy from the lassie, doesn’t move.

2:45:11 I open my eyes. I watch him squeeze my other breast and he unbuckles his belts and the fish slips. Man removes his dress and while he is on top of me.

2:45:26 And something hot and insistent is between my legs. He grunts and struggles, trying to fit himself inside me with a sudden thrust. I am torn in two.

2:45:37 I guess I’m just going to leave at that. But something that maybe we should just work on. Teaching kids how to avoid trafficking and not tell them what it’s about.

2:45:45 Thanks. Thank you. Miss Guthrie, Erica Oris.

2:45:55 Miss Erica is not here. That concludes our public comments. We thank you for your willingness to address us in this public manner.

2:46:00 We are now on to the consent agenda. Doctor. Rendell.

2:46:07 Rendell. Sorry. Exhausted.

2:46:16 Thank you, mister chair. There are 14 agenda items under this category. Thank you, doctor.

2:46:25 Rendell. Rendell. Rendell.

2:46:50 Sorry. I’m good. All right.

2:46:58 So, does any board member wish to pull any items? Yes, I wish to pull item f 16. Okay. Does any other member wish to pull any other of the consent agenda? Okay.

2:47:07 Hearing, none. I will entertain a motion to accept the consent agendas, with the exception of f 16, which is pulled for discussion. Move.

2:47:13 Do I hear a motion? Second. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor, signify by saying aye.

2:47:20 All opposed? Okay, we’re back onto f 16. Do I hear a motion to approve? Move to approve. Second.

2:47:24 Is there any discussion? Yes, I do. I have a discussion on this. All right.

2:47:32 Board. I just want to. I reached out to Miss Kershaw and asked some questions about the process of.

2:47:39 Sorry, my mic is not on. How we’re going through this process of selecting members for this committee. I think it’s very important for the integrity of the committee to be respected by the community.

2:47:48 There was a lack of some questions, I thought, that were very, very important. And so I asked Miss Kershaw about that, and she said no, unfortunately. And that’s our fault.

2:48:07 I will own that, because we didn’t ask them initially to seek out some information. So I’m just asking, if at all possible, can we possibly move this to give Miss Kershaw a little bit more time to provide the details of the questions that I asked her, specifically in regards to individuals financial background. I think it’s important when we’re talking about oversight for the millage, that they have a solid, sound financial background.

2:48:27 I just would like to have that. I think it makes the integrity of the community or the committee that much stronger. So, are you asking to table it until the next meeting is? I am asking, yes.

2:48:44 Okay. So the table. So the motion on the floor is to table this agenda item on consent until the August 8 meeting.

2:48:51 Is it correct? Yes. Okay. Paul, do you want me to go through the motion process for that, or is it.

2:49:07 Is that good enough? Well, we didn’t. We didn’t motion on that, so. Okay, so we’re good.

2:49:17 So that’s all she needs. Yeah. Yeah, we will.

2:49:34 I’m just saying, like, the motion needs to be opened up, and I didn’t know if we needed to say in the motion that. But he says we’re good, so. All right, let’s get to discussion.

2:49:47 Since Miss Wright, if you have, you know, you stated that. Is there anything else that you wanted to state? No, I honestly. I think it probably will end up being.

2:50:01 Okay. But I just think for the integrity of the committee, it’s important to have that, in case it ever gets called into question by any of the citizens, we should make sure that we’re looking at all the. All facts.

2:50:06 Anybody else have any other comments? What do you mean by financial backgrounds? Like, professional backgrounds? No, I think. No, not professional financial backgrounds, but I think when you’re talking about oversight with the millage, we want to make sure that we don’t have anything funky on there. I don’t know that it’s been looked at for all the members.

2:50:16 When I asked her that, she said no. What does that mean? Well, bankruptcies, foreclosures, things like that. So you’re asking that we look into private citizens financial backgrounds in order to participate in their local oversight committee that they pay taxes for? I think it would be wise, yes.

2:50:32 Okay. I just want to make that very clear that you want us to inquire. Inquire about the financial backgrounds of private citizens who pay taxes on the committee in which oversees those taxes that they pay.

2:50:40 I think it would be wise, yes, I think that it’s a good idea. Okay. I just want to make that really, really clear.

2:50:53 That’s beyond inappropriate and intrusive, in my personal opinion, because, quite frankly, we don’t even have that qualification to be elected to this board. It’s not a qualification for the board. I said it’s not a qualification to be a member of this board.

2:51:02 You are absolutely correct. And we make a lot more decisions than the independent oversight committee. I think you are treading on a fine line there.

2:51:11 So I just need to make that very clear publicly. All right. Anybody else have any other discussion points before I say what I would say, what other questions, if you could have specific, if you wouldn’t mind sharing what you shared with Miss Kershaw, as far as what questions you want added to the.

2:51:17 To the process, I just think that the general application process was very vague, and so that was the other part that I wasn’t very clear on. So I just asked Miss Kershaw, can we look at this to just. I think as board, we need to know who is on that committee.

2:51:24 I don’t know. I mean, I guess it’s on here now. But the process itself, I believe, will be called into question if we don’t do our due diligence on everyone that sits on the committee.

2:51:30 Sue’s not here. Can we go back to. There was a.

2:51:52 When it was presented, I think sue was. When she was serving as interim superintendent. But there was kind of a process.

2:51:57 The schools foundation received the. The applications and then they had a team. Was it the schools foundation board that submitted these? Let me look at the agenda item, because probably on there that submitted these, they managed it and they selected it.

2:52:03 So the foundation’s board. Correct, doctor Endel, is that. That is.

2:52:12 I think that may be the steps that would have been taken or should have been taken. But I don’t know that the board reviewed all the applications or anything like that. I think that’s a question for Misses Kershaw.

2:52:28 Okay, here is. Because I want us to go back to process. And the policy in this case is the charter.

2:52:47 And the charter is attached to the agenda item. And I too, had questions when I looked at the list, just because. And I went back and like, okay, what? It wasn’t the same kind of questions.

2:53:18 I mean, honestly, I haven’t googled people’s financial information, so I don’t. I don’t. That’s not what stuck out to me.

2:53:40 But we did. There was what it says in article six. Membership number two.

2:53:57 Here’s the qualifications that were listed. ICCMO members shall be residents of Brevard county. Check.

2:54:09 There’s one who have expertise in fields relating to the purpose of the millage. Now, that’s still pretty broad, but that tells me that their expertise needs to be in the area of finance, accounting, that type of thing. Or education, perhaps technology, because we’re using part of it for that, those kinds of fields.

2:54:20 And so if there weren’t. Because. And then it’s things that you can’t be.

2:54:49 Like, you can’t be a school board member. You can’t be a current employee of the school board. And you can.

2:54:59 Can’t have a conflict of interest with the Florida chapter on that. And it said so. That’s pretty much it.

2:55:11 So here’s the things we’re looking for. And then there’s a few things that disqualify you. I think it would probably be inappropriate because of the charter, which this board has already approved for us to put anything outside of the charter as part of the application process.

2:55:23 If we want to go back and we want to make sure that what we said was going to happen happened. As far as the application process, you know, if we want to check that, I don’t have a problem with that. But to me, we’ve laid out in this board approved charter, really just two qualifications with a few disqualifications of that.

2:55:30 They have to be a resident of the county and they need to be an expert in the field. So if there was nothing on that application that where they had to explain why, what area are you in? Expertise, and it doesn’t have to be like, they don’t have to be an accountant, but they do need to have, you know, they can’t just be a taxpayer in the county. But again, if we to go anywhere outside of that, because that was already what was approved and that was advertised was the charter, I think that we would be going outside of the parameters.

2:55:34 I’m just going to look really quickly into the selection process because I think it’s said that how we’re going to get started to make sure that we follow that. Which section is it in? Sorry. It’s okay.

2:55:37 I don’t see it. Does it say where’s the part where it talks about how we’re going to get them started? Hang on. How about let’s just do a search? Do you want me to come back to you so we can.

2:55:39 No, I just, I mean, that’s pretty, it’s not in there, but we need to. I just think, I think it was probably an agenda item when we approved it. But I, like I said, I’m not comfortable with that.

2:55:48 But we can go back if that those two particularly things weren’t looked at, then they do need to be looked at. Do they live in the county and are they. I guess three things live in the county.

2:56:03 Do they have an area of expertise and do they not have one of the disqualifying things? Okay, Mister Trent, you wish to speak to anything? So, I mean, if Miss Wright’s just asking to push this to the August 8 and you’re hoping to get your questions answered. I actually have some questions myself, but yeah, I’m not going to ask you what your questions are. If you have some questions that need answering, I’m all for pushing it to the 8th.

2:56:17 Not a problem with that. Yeah, I think the motion is supported. I mean, there’s two, this, this millage has the potential to be 272 million plus.

2:56:29 That’s a good question to ask. I think if you’re wanted to do that, I’m completely in favor. And I think that pretty much sums it up for me.

2:56:59 It’s not a no brainer, because it also will protect individuals who may have something. Because people will come out and go after them if they do. So it may very well come back in two weeks that this is completely fine.

2:57:06 I just don’t know that all the questions were asked and answered. And it sounds like Miss Kershaw would appreciate the additional time to be able to do that. So when I spoke to her.

2:57:10 Her. So it may come back and the list is exactly the same, and there’s nothing there. And that’s fine.

2:57:15 It’s totally fine. But I just don’t think. I think we need to do the due diligence.

2:57:26 That’s all right. Just really quick on the. Okay.

2:57:30 Just really quick on the financial part. Just remember that an application is not going to be exempt to public record. And so we’re asking people to submit financial.

2:57:36 Which again, it’s not in the charter that I’m still going to have a problem with, because then it becomes public record, so. Right, Mister Gibbs. So again, another just caution against that, because I think we have potential to get in trouble for asking stuff outside the parameters of what we originally advertised.

2:57:42 Okay. Thank you. So, I appreciate your evaluation, Miss Campbell, but I explicitly asked if it was based on your experience or based on your personal situation.

2:57:50 And the response was, the concern was someone’s personal situation. And I can only assume. Assume that there’s something going on here that just smells really, really wrong.

2:58:17 And so I’m just going to say it one more time. We have board members who have questionable financial backgrounds, but they’re still here as functioning adults to make the decisions for this school system. So I caution, whatever the intention is here, to pry into private citizens who pay taxes that fund this very millage itself.

2:58:28 Okay, thank you very much. I think we have a majority moving forward. Do we need to vote on it? Because the motion was.

2:58:36 Yeah, we do. Okay. We need a second.

2:58:50 Eugene’s a second. Is there any discussion? We already did that. All in favor, signify by saying aye.

2:59:00 I clarified the motion. The motion is to table this until August 8. To give Miss Kershaw an opportunity to look into the finances of the individuals.

2:59:11 Well, no. To review the application. Oh, no, that’s exactly what we’re doing.

2:59:22 Okay, so, to review the applications, to see if there’s any inadequacies, because I’m. Okay. With that.

2:59:42 And so with. By doing that, all in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye.

2:59:54 Opposed? Nay. Okay, it passes. Moving forward, we will now hold a public hearing to address item g 30, board policy 8600, transportation.

3:00:10 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? I came to the work session about 16 and I noticed that there wasn’t a change to it. So I’m just. Just wondering if, during your discussion, if you could talk about how we are ensuring our physically disabled students safety when they’re dropped off at the bus.

3:00:19 Just a reminder. Physically disabled does not necessarily mean cognitively disabled. So these kids don’t necessarily have an aid or an IEP, which states a parent or guardian has to be the bus stop.

3:00:34 Technically, a child could be temporarily physically disabled. My daughter Samantha, right now can barely walk. She pulled a hamstring.

3:00:37 She isn’t using her what she’s been using to walk with because she doesn’t want to in public. But like, even something like a child in crutches would technically be temporarily physically disabled. So just ensuring their safety.

3:00:48 I would just like clarification on if you found the perimeters within the procedures that would ensure their safety. Thanks. Thank you.

3:00:57 Does anybody else wish to speak to this item? Hearing none. Do I hear a motion move to approve? Second. Is there any discussion? Yeah, I just.

3:01:08 Doctor Rendell, you did mention something when that was mentioned before that you were going to take a look at that. Do you have anything that you found? Thank you. Misses Campbell? Yes, Mister Wilson and Mister Miller.

3:01:25 Doctor Miller and I reviewed all of our policies. And first of all, we don’t ever drop off a student who has physical disabilities if it’s one of those situations where they’re supposed to be met by a parent or anything like that. What the policy actually states, it kind of takes away the ability of the driver to take responsibility for doing that.

3:01:34 So we already have a policy in place where they aren’t going to leave a physically disabled student on the side of the road. Like they’re just not going to do that. In those situations where they usually are met by a parent.

3:01:55 Like it’s a wheelchair student or something like that. If the parent isn’t there, they caregiver, they wait for a little while, and if they’re not there, then they drive back to the school and put the student back there. And parents have to come and get them for a temporary physical disability.

3:02:08 Again, the bus driver is not going to drop off a student in an unsafe situation at any time. It’s not going to show up in the policy that way. But it’s in our procedures.

3:02:25 Thank you. Okay, I think we passed that. Doctor Endell, would you please let us know about the items? I thought we already voted, didn’t we? No, that was a discussion.

3:02:39 All right. All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye.

3:02:52 Opposed, none. Doctor Rendell, would you please let us know about the items under the action portion of today’s agenda? Thank you, mister chair. The first item is H 31, department school initiated agreements.

3:03:05 Do I hear a motion? Move to approve. Second, is there any discussion? All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye.

3:03:10 Any opposed, say nay. The next item is H 32, procurement solicitations. Do I hear a motion? Is there any discussion? Yes, I have discussion on this one.

3:03:23 I have an issue with this procurement. And again, I’m like, I always have to signify these ones. But guys, we just sat here and heard from multiple of our, of our people saying that we’re not paying them adequately, but yet we’re going to approve a million dollar contract to outsource some of the same services that they provide.

3:03:31 So I guess for me, I’m going. I’m not. I think it would be better use to send it to the people that we currently have employed, and I would like that to be done through possible negotiations.

3:03:41 But I just. For me, that’s my issue with this contract is we’re not taking care of our own and we’re looking to outsource and we’re going to pay the outsourcing companies a significantly higher rate than we’re paying our own people. So speaking to lifetime, just to get some clarification real quick, are you speaking to lifetime mental health counseling? Is that what it is? No, they’re all of the counseling.

3:04:07 The rate sheets are on there for what the hourly rate is for all of them. Speech therapy, occupational, physical therapy. If you look at all of them, I’m like, there’s multiple companies that we are looking to open up potentially outsourcing these.

3:04:20 And I get it that there’s a need for this to some degree because we don’t have all of the people, but maybe we don’t have all the people because we’re not paying them enough. So I can speak to this directly and personally. I hear you and I respect that, and I am proud to hear that.

3:04:32 The intention of this board is to rectify the situation when it comes to salaries so we can hire more people. You will not fill these voids. There is no way increasing salary will help, but we will never fill these voids.

3:04:51 And if you don’t approve these services and their caseloads explode, they will not be happy either, because that’s going to be the consequence of this. These are things that have to be met on ieps. These students have to have their minutes.

3:05:14 They have to have, have services. I hear you and I appreciate that. But going forward, at least use this as an acknowledgement that the fact that we have slacked on their salary and their pay is why we ended up here in the first place.

3:05:18 But we can’t not do this because students won’t get serviced. Caseloads will be. They’re already out of control.

3:05:44 Quite frankly, they’re out of control. And I’m pretty sure we’re probably not in compliance all the time or we’re scrambling to be in compliance with those ieps. But there is literally no way we would fill these services, especially when it comes to physical therapists.

3:05:53 There just aren’t enough of them in the county, period, that are certified. It’s just not going to happen. So I respect that.

3:06:17 But it would be really. It would put us in a really risky situation and harm our students if we don’t approve a contract for contract services. Miss Campbell? Yeah.

3:06:33 So I probably would have been good to have a conversation with doctor bias about this and, and Miss Stampier, just so you could, you know, to get fully informed before we come to the meeting. But the contract is for up to a million dollars as variable because, you know, it’s just as needed. But what Miss Jenkins mentioned was, you know, we have a similar contract with actual few contracts with different people who are providing social workers.

3:06:41 And that’s not because it’s more expensive for us generally to higher out or same price, but you know, just depends. Sometimes it’s cheaper for us to have in house people. We’re paying the benefits and everything like that, but we just can’t find.

3:06:53 We could, we could pay for a social worker at everywhere we have a social worker, but we can’t find social because people aren’t going into those careers. So part of it is the pay and part, and other opportunities and part of it is there just aren’t people doing it. Same thing with teachers, people.

3:07:12 That’s why we’re getting so many people outside of education coming in because, you know, so, so part of it is pay. But we, if we don’t approve this contract, the workload on the ones that we have, ot’s, pts, slps, and they won’t be able to handle it. And if they were all in here, they all left.

3:07:32 There’s a few nod or shake your head, you know, so, you know, we’re not, this is a band aid in a patch, but it’s a variable. So that if we get to the point in the year, we’re not going to stop advertising for slps, we are not going to stop advertising for OT’s and pts. And I don’t know about the visually impaired, how many of those we use.

3:07:43 Those are as needed. Right. Right.

3:07:52 We don’t have as many blind students in the county, but we’re going to keep advertising for those. And if they get filled, then we have, we can use this contract less. So we, by contract, we’re not automatically saying, well, we’re done hiring, but if we can get more and if we can keep their retention, then we can use this contract less, but that this one would be particularly disastrous.

3:08:19 Thank you for sticking around. Okay, Mister Trump. Yes, yes and yes.

3:08:36 I mean, very happy you pulled this for this discussion, but it, it’s leading to, hopefully it shows all of us that we’re, we’re acknowledging problems where we’re not just frivolously going out and replacing our current employees or our future employees with, with contracts. Good point. Bringing up that it’s variable and it’s kind of like life insurance.

3:09:00 I can’t wait till I don’t need it, and I can’t wait till we don’t need this type of contracting work, because if we take care of our employees on the other end, we’ll need less of this. So I think it’s important that we at least acknowledge it. So I appreciate you pulling this.

3:09:13 Okay. And the way I look at it is like this. If I’m sitting there and I’m working and the person next to me is making a significantly amount of more money, then it’s up to the district to compensate that.

3:09:32 And I hate the fact that that happens. I sat inside my classroom while the person that was. I sat in my classroom while the person next to me had less years of, or had less years of experience, but made more money than me, and it burned my chaps.

3:09:41 So if we as a school district, can go find somebody to pay more money, because that’s the obvious reason that the individuals are actually there, they’re actually with that agency so that they can make more money. And if we can find the money to do that, then we need to find the money to pay our normal people. And when we find the money to pay our normal people, that would be the one I would approve this so I’m not going to prove it.

3:09:56 I’m actually angry with it because if we don’t start making a stand based on helping our people, and the argument is not that we don’t need the people, the argument is we need to stand up and start funding our people. I’m not going to have somebody that works and does it inside this district at X and somebody comes in and does it at Y. That’s not fair and that’s my premise and that’s the way I feel.

3:10:07 But it seems like it’s the minority. So can we, can we ask doctor Endell or Miss Dampier or Doctor bias I think is still back there. I mean, is there anything I don’t want to.

3:10:18 It’s your staff. So can you just give, weigh in on this contract? Yeah, absolutely. I think misses Dampier is ready to come to the microphone, but I’m going to echo the comments.

3:10:30 I wish we didn’t need to do this, but I feel like we need to do this. We may not spend all of the contract, we’re just going to budget for it. You know, we’re asking for approval to spend up to, but we don’t have enough staff to provide the services as is right now and we can work on increasing their compensation, but we would not, it would not be wise to move forward without this support.

3:10:35 And just so you know, we have to have contracted services because there is a need there we can hire. I’m just being honest. The way Miss Jenkins said, if we can hire 15 more people, we still, we have students that come into it with so many needs.

3:10:45 We could have teachers or slps that go out on maternity leave or they could get sick or their child. We still are responsible for providing those services and we still have to come up with a way and a lot of times that’s how we are able to, you know, like cover our classrooms and whatever the related services are. And it’s very hard to find qualified staff for physical therapists.

3:10:57 Like she said, physical therapists very hard because the private sector a lot of times do pay more, unfortunately. But that is a need we have to have. We have to have it.

3:11:05 Thank you. And I appreciate you bringing it about substitutes because you can’t just pull from the sub pool when the physical therapist is not there, but you have to student still has to get their minutes for that day or for that week and to give you guys a picture. And again, I can speak from the speech standpoint.

3:11:08 When there are people who are out, they are forced to pull from our employees to go cover those people. And I was one of those people. I worked for our pre k itinerant department.

3:11:19 I had a caseload of 65 kids of my own, but I had to go help out at Medellin two days out of the year. I had to go help out at Turner two days out of the week. Sorry, two days out of the week, because we had people on maternity leave or short term disability and things of that nature.

3:11:35 A friend of mine who still works for BPS as a speech therapist, who works itinerantly. When you work itinerantly, traditionally, your caseload starts low. It’s like the ALC, and it grows towards the end of the year.

3:11:56 And they are starting this school year off with 65 kids on their caseload. And for a therapist, that is extremely, extremely high. So that tells me that person’s caseload is going to be well near 100 by the end of the year.

3:12:00 So this is why we need contracted services. And traditionally, and unfortunately, they’re in the schools that are the most fragile. Fragile.

3:12:13 Thank you. They need consistent services. Those kids need those services more than ever.

3:12:28 And to not have the people in place to do that, to have those caseloads rising through the roof, those kids aren’t getting the needs that they should. I’m sorry. Those kids aren’t getting the services that they need to meet those needs.

3:12:35 And so this is really, really, really important for our kids. Really important for our kids. So I would say if you look at the overall purchase services budget, we consistently increase it every year.

3:12:55 Okay. And what you’re saying, Miss Jenkins, and what you’re saying, Miss Campbell, and Doctor Rendell, is 100% right. We need individual inside.

3:13:02 They’re doing it. But here’s a. Let me just explain something.

3:13:26 I do the insurance for a hospital outside of the state, and what they do is there’s been a lot of contracted nurses running around. This is the same thing everybody else has been dealing with across the country. This is what happens.

3:13:36 So what they did was they actually raised their nurses rates and then took all of the contracted ones and had them go to work for them. And now all the contracted nursing companies will not even go near there, because as soon as they get in, in there, they take them. So I’m not saying or disagreeing that our people need it.

3:13:38 What I’m saying is that if we continue to go down this road, where we have to continue to go out and pay people more to fill in the gaps while somebody that’s making less is standing right next to them, it’s a hard pill to swallow. And for the last six years, I’ve watched the purchase services increase while we continue to increase more and more and pay more and more into it. And I think at some point we need to try really make that break.

3:13:45 So that’s my thing. That’s why I’m making it. I appreciate everybody that’s here.

3:13:58 And I think, miss, I would write you had something to say. Yeah, I do. And again, here’s my, here’s my argument with this, is that these companies are going to recruit our people, right? That’s what’s going to happen.

3:14:12 And all the while, we could take care of our people. And I understand the need, but I’m like, guys, we’re creating the problems right now. And I’m, you know, for me, I would rather take care of the people that we currently have and attract more people into that line of work and coming here to Brevard.

3:14:21 Because if these companies can find individuals that they can contract, then obviously they’re out there, right? Yes. And they’re willing to come do the same job. I can tell you why, though.

3:14:30 I can tell you why. Because I could never leave a job in this school system and go work for a contracted service if I relied on full time schedule and benefits. Because when you’re contracted, if the student isn’t there, I don’t get paid.

3:14:35 There’s no guarantee how many contact hours I have a week. I don’t get paid for paperwork. I don’t have an eight hour workday.

3:14:51 And so, yes, you get a higher hourly rate, but the likelihood of you making a huge salary by working that kind of job is slim. The person who traditionally does that wants to work part time and doesn’t want to be tied to anyone, and they just kind of come and go as they please and they work for a contractor so they can say, you know what? I want to lighten my caseload. So when this kid gets off my caseload, I don’t want any more kids.

3:14:57 And they say they have 3 hours a week. So it’s really rare that someone leaves the school system to go work for this because they’re going to make the same salary. We still need to increase the salary of our slps.

3:15:23 That’s not it. But they’re definitely not. They’re not, they’re not.

3:15:33 They’re not pulling from us. They’re traditionally traveling. Or they’re people who weren’t in the workforce and are looking for a part time gig.

3:15:43 And. Or there’s speech therapists or occupational therapists who work in private clinics already, and they’re adding a couple hours a week to make a couple extra hundred bucks a month. But they are not pulling them from our school system.

3:15:50 And these funds are coming from our IDA budget because that’s what we’re supposed to be using for these related services. I am. I’m just a little nervous.

3:16:00 I’m actually a lot nervous. And it sounds like this is going to pass from what we’ve all said so far. But I’m really nervous because we.

3:16:10 In this one, in this item, if we vote this no down, I understand where you’re going. And we’ve. We can’t say too much outside of bargaining, closed sessions.

3:16:35 But we’ve heard tonight the need, and we need to. We’re going to. We’re going to address that need.

3:16:43 It’s coming to us from the union and we’re having to tackle it. But how can we vote no on this when we don’t have a solution right now? And we’re not going to get that. If we come up with a solution, we could give them all a $15,000 raise.

3:16:53 We’re not going to have this fixed by August 1. We have to have these people in place ready to go on August 1. So I’m just a little.

3:16:58 I’m a lot nervous that if we don’t pass this, we are leaving our employees hugely in the lurch, and we’re leaving our students without services because we will not be able to meet the needs of our students without this contract. Okay. Anybody else have anything to say? Okay.

3:17:07 All those in favor, signify by saying aye. All opposed? Nay. Okay, the item passes.

3:17:28 And I think that’s the procurement solicitations, correct? Yes. We’re on I 33. So now we are on information.

3:17:53 Information. Yep. We will move to the information agenda, which includes items for board review and may not be brought back for action in a subsequent meeting.

3:18:14 No action will be taken on these items today. There are eight items under this category. Does any board member wish to discuss any of these items? Yeah, just one really quickly.

3:18:39 We there. I don’t know if you got the email, but there was an employee who reached out to us about something in the code of conduct. There was something about physical aggression that the.

3:18:49 You know how we moved pre k to second to a level two, but then the third through six was supposed to be on level three. The email that Miss Dan Pierce sent us on July 7 had it on there, but somewhere between now and then it was inadvertently left off, but we couldn’t change it before the meeting tonight. So just for the person who emailed or contacted us or anybody else who may have noticed board, they can correct it before the next meeting, which is when we’re going to vote on it.

3:19:12 So that will be on there because we just. It wasn’t on there at all, but it will be at the next meeting. Thank you, Mister Dampier.

3:19:30 Yep. All right, that takes care of the informational agenda we are now at. Board member reports Mister Paul Gibbs had something he wanted me to take care of.

3:19:40 The chair recognizes the board’s attorney. Mister Paul Gibbs. Good evening, board members.

3:19:47 I’m notifying you that advice is needed regarding the former federal case Shirley Bazara Steele et al. V. School board of Brevard County County, Florida, et al.

3:19:49 Federal case number 621 cv 02035. Pursuant to 286.011, Florida statute known as the Government in the Sunshine Act, I am requesting an attorney client session with the board for the purpose of discussing the strategy, expenditures and or compromise of said case prior to its being refiled in state court.

3:20:24 I will ask the board’s clerk to cause reasonable notice of the time and date of this attorney client session and the names of the persons attending to be published. If the board approves, I will work with the board clerk to coordinate dates for the attorney client session, working with our council’s availability, and provide notice of the meeting inclusive of scheduling a court reporter. As required by this statute, only the following individuals will be allowed to be present.

3:20:29 School board members Katie Campbell, Jennifer Jenkins, Matt Susan Gene Trent, Megan Wright, superintendent doctor Mark Rendell, Paul Gibbs, general counsel Robert Sniffin, Esquire Terry Harmon, Esquire and sniffin Spelman law firm. I will ask a court reporter to record the session. Also, as required by statute, their notes will be fully transcribed and filed with the clerk of the school board.

3:20:32 Upon the conclusion of any litigation and or settlement of all claims arising out of this case, the transcript will be made public record. I recommend to the board hold an attorney client session pursuant to section 286.011, Florida statutes, to discuss strategy, expenditures and compromise of former federal case and expedite state case to be filed imminently.

3:20:38 If there are no objections, I will instruct our attorney to work with the board clerk and schedule as soon thereafter as the matter may be heard. Good. All right, just had a couple of things.

3:21:02 Kevin is going to bring forward some stuff on athletics at the next meeting, so if you guys have any questions in regards to athletics, have some of those ready. Also, Doctor Rendell and I spoke and I thought it would be a good idea that we all invite our elected officials from your local districts to go to the elementary schools and do clap ins and stuff like that. We were talking about doing that if you would like.

3:21:29 I think it would be good for us to create the collegiality also maybe like city managers and stuff like that to come up out. Doctor Rendell, referencing the first day of school or the first couple days of school. We’re going to invite all local elected officials to visit the local elementary schools to cheer the kids on as they come to campus.

3:21:36 I called some of our legislators to just see the temperature of it, and they loved the idea. We’ve done it in the past. What they said was some of them said that on the day that it opens, that they wouldn’t be there.

3:21:46 So they said they would love to come before or after. So. And I think that’s something that we should do with our local cities and legislators and stuff like that.

3:21:57 You know what I mean? So just that. And then the letters will go out to the clerks and the mayors over the traveling city opportunities. They’re going to bring that to their city councils, recommend a date back to us, that we already have some slots and that should get moving.

3:22:02 And then the other thing is that I sent a survey to each one of my schools to ask for certain information, like the PTO, the SAC president, the SRO, just building reps and stuff like that. And I got them all back and I didn’t know if you guys would like, I could provide that survey to you guys so that you might be able to do the same. I like to be involved in, you know, I mean, various aspects of the schools, but I never have offered that to my other board members.

3:22:10 I can work with Russ to get a survey out, or I can send it out of mine. It’s okay? Yeah, I would love that. That sounds good.

3:22:25 Would you guys like that? Sure. Okay. All right.

3:22:43 Those are just some of the heads ups on some of the. Of the things coming forward. Does anybody else have anything? Yeah, I got a chance.

3:22:56 I was catching up on meetings last week and got a chance to sit down with Miss Licinski. We started talking about the procurement process. And I would like to request at a workshop sometime soon that we just have a work, a topic of walking us through the process from beginning to end and, you know, along with the legal requirements and all that good stuff. If we could do that, Doctor Rendell, that would be great. I think it’d be great. I think we could add it to the next agenda item or something like that I’ve noticed some great, I’ve done a lot of research across the state and in many of those instances, like the things that we were looking at most recently with this procurement of our, like property insurance, they actually, in many other cities and school districts, they actually call in outside entities to come in and be a part of the procurement. And that’s at some of the highest levels in the state of Florida. So I think there’s some great opportunities we can talk about improving. I think that’s great. So whenever you feel comfortable, we can talk about improvement. But just so you know, my intention was, first of all, an educational piece because we need to know. We need, because I think sometimes on this end, we don’t always understand. And I know even in my time at the board, I haven’t really sat down and I walked through that office the other day and saw a table full of trophies like there’s something going on good here. Well, we just need to figure out what it is so we’re clear as a board. Yes. Thank you. So I think we have both ends, some suggestions, some education. We should be good. Yeah. I’ll talk to you, Christine Rodriguez, and we’ll look at a date. Doctor Renindell, do you have anything further to report? Just want to let everybody know. Last week I had the pleasure of meeting with Doctor John Nicolo, the new president of FIT. And we’re going to do some fun stuff with fit as we go forward. We’re going to be partnering with all of our local institutions of higher learning, EFSC, UCF. But fit, he’s new there as well and wants to do some different things with us. So it’s pretty exciting that we’re going to have an institution of higher learning right in our backyard that wants to do stuff with us and our students, provide opportunities for them, for our teachers as well, training and stuff like that. So pretty exciting stuff. We’ll share it as, as we go forward. Doctor Rendell, I want to tell you, I do want to say that I’ve heard very positive remarks coming back from everybody as you’re moving yourself through the community as far as building those bridges, and that’s a big one. So thank you for that. Anybody else? Okay, there being no further business, this meeting is now adjourned. It.