2023-08-08 - School Board Meeting

7:07 Good evening. The August 8, 2023 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 this meeting is during your individual public comment opportunity as identified in the agenda outside your individual public comment opportunity.

7:28 Your role in the meeting is as an observer. Paul, roll call, please. Mister Susan.

7:34 Here. Miss Wright. Here.

7:35 Mister Trent. Here. Miss Jenkins.

7:37 Here. Miss Campbell. Here.

7:39 The board will now hold a moment of silent reflection and invite the audience to join. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

8:24 At this time, I’d like to offer my fellow board members and doctor Rendell an opportunity to recognize student staff or members of the community. Who wants to go first? I’ll go first, Miss Jenkins. So I had the privilege of going to the back to school event at Surfside elementary this morning with my daughter.

8:45 So I want to thank all of our teachers and our administrators and our staff out there who are doing that every single day for the past week and a half, greeting our students, walking the back with smiles on their face, and giving them hope for the future. I really appreciate it. I also want to give a reminder to our staff that your health assessment, as well as your annual physical is due August 31.

9:06 Because some people might be slackers like I am. So make sure you get that done. Don’t forget, please don’t wait, don’t hesitate.

9:14 And on a more somber note, without giving too much detail, I just. I want to say a shout out to Coco High school and the family there. I just want you to know that we are all thinking about all of you, and we’re glad that everything is positive and good and you’re on our minds.

9:35 So just shout out to Cocoa High school. And last but not least, on a personal note, I would like to give a happy birthday to my sweet little angel who’s turning seven tomorrow. And sometimes she watches the beginning of these meetings with my husband.

9:50 And so I just want to say happy birthday, Olive. Mommy loves you so much. And I’m really excited to celebrate tomorrow.

9:56 And shout out to all those summer birthdays who don’t get to have their birthday party in school with their friends. Thank you, Miss Jenkins. Anybody else? Oh, yeah, I’m still working on my.

10:07 Okay. You want me to go? All right. I have so many.

10:10 So we’re in this season of back to school and there’s so much excitement and anticipation and the community comes out in huge numbers. And I want to thank to Miss Krista Miller. She put on an event this past weekend.

10:21 It was so hot, but it was so amazing. So all of our schools in the north end came, all the feeder schools that are going into astronaut, and they came and it was a community event. They handed out over 650 backpacks.

10:32 They had over a thousand, I think she said, 1000 hot dogs, chips, waters and tons of snow cones. And it was just a great event all around. So thank you to Miss Harris.

10:43 Miss Smith also came out from the district, which was really great to have some collaboration there. We had the mayor of Titusville, Titusville Police Department was there. It was just an all around, really fun event.

10:52 So I want to thank them. I also want to thank another special individual in the north end of the county, Miss Edna Wilson. So she has taken on a mission of raising funds every year to help kids be able to go in and buy a new pair of tennis shoes for school.

11:06 And that’s something that we don’t really think too much about. But for a child who’s raised by a single parent or maybe lower income, a new pair of shoes in the first day of school is a big deal. That child walks in significantly different.

11:17 And so she came up with this vision and this mission based on her own personal experience child and has carried this out. So her team was successful in raising $30,000 to put on brand new tennis shoes to over 600 kids in the north end of the county. And they get to come in and pick out whichever shoe it is.

11:35 It is one of the most amazing events that you will be humbled by. Thank you so much, Doctor Rendell, for stopping by and seeing that in action. He was able to come and join us there, which was great.

11:45 Also along those same lines, Brevard School foundation put on another event. So we had all these back to school events where we were at all week long. Lots of fun there.

11:53 I don’t know how many people they ended up ultimately serving, but it seemed like there must have been 2000 people. The line was astronomically long. Miss Campbell came out, I was out.

12:01 We were helping, you know, just pass out, things spread cheer, and it was a great event overall. And then we also got to partake in one other fun, really exciting upcoming thing that I kind of want to draw some buzz around, which I’m sure my fellow board members are going to do the same. But Senator Tom Wright was able to help secure some appropriations for Brevard county to be able to open up a CDL course in Brevard county with our adult ed.

12:25 This is a huge, huge need in our community. It is going to do amazing things. There were several different sectors of government that were there that were extremely excited.

12:33 So just want to give a shout out to Senator Wright and say thank you so much for your help with that. We are going to change central Florida, probably all of Florida, with this. We are looking forward to getting that up off the ground and getting, moving on, getting some CDL certs pushed out in the very near future.

12:50 That’s all right. Well, I’ve been saying it for the last few months. Is this a summer? And for students, teachers and parents to be well rested, take advantage of the time you have to spend with your kids and teachers to recharge your batteries.

13:07 And now it’s the time, the exciting time to say it’s, that part’s done and over. And we’re looking forward to seeing you back in your smiling faces this coming week. And kids, to our students out there to start getting to bed at a normal time and getting up at a normal time, because it’s got, Thursday’s right around the corner and we’re looking forward to it.

13:28 It’s going to be a wonderful year here in Brevard, and I want to thank you out there for making this and allowing this to happen. We’re excited with all the new staff that we have. Speaking of new staff, I was able to attend the BFT new teacher appreciation at a local pizza establishment, was able to greet and have some good conversation with our new teachers.

13:48 If I can remember back a few decades ago when I started the adventure of teaching, that’s a lot of excitement. So we’re very happy to have each and every one of you back in that classroom, and we look forward to seeing you starting Thursday and until the end of May. So thank you so much, Miss Campbell.

14:08 All right, let me just tag off a few things Miss Wright said really quickly. First of all, at the back to school giveaway, that brevard schools foundation, there were so many volunteers. So I just want to add on that thank you to all the groups, the businesses, even some of our own, like Brevard Afterschool and our RSM, our auditing company, who just send scads of volunteers to help pass out the school supplies.

14:30 And it was great to see so many community members there also with the adult ed check. Listen, I am super pumped about this. And our cities that were there were super pumped about it, too, because it cost them a lot of money to train their employees to get their CDL licenses.

14:45 And we’ll have not only the program, but the testing facilities and be able to provide that for municipalities and others in our county. So as well as providing a service to our community and even maybe getting some bus drivers out of it. So we’re super excited about that opening June right of next year.

15:04 It’s the goal. So it’s going to be a really fast track project so we can get that done. I want to thank Dave Lindemann and Jim Ross for taking me on my annual summer construction tour.

15:15 Every summer board I go, I say, hey, give me all the construction projects and let’s get a little tour together. And then we ride all over the south area of the county and get to see some fun things, tracks that were rubberized and ac things that were fixed. And some things are fun and some things not so fun.

15:32 Lots of really cool new flooring that if you’ve been watching following the Facebook page, you’ve seen a lot of really great transformations with paint and flooring. It’s amazing what a different floor will do for a classroom. So I want to thank them for taking me on that project tour.

15:46 And I got to go to Gardendale last Friday and see the model classroom that they’ve set up. It was really great because I’m a visual person to see. She’d mentioned it to us, but get to see, see the room set up the way it was.

15:58 And they were doing the training for the teachers and looking forward to hearing good things about Gardendale this year. This morning, sunrise did their charge session for all the employees, teachers, cafeteria workers, custodians, IAS, everybody was back and they brought in a special guest. Her name is Captain Sarah Evans and she lives here in the county, but she was in the US Air Force and developed bone cancer while she was on active duty and is an amputee.

16:30 But yet she has similar story that we heard just a few weeks ago. She overcame a lot of challenges. She’s climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and done some marathons as well.

16:41 And she really challenged our teachers to. And I thought it fit in so well with Doctor Rendell’s theme for the year of the mountain climbing and being the team. And she encouraged the, the teachers and the staff there at sunrise to not focus on the things that you can’t control, but to really keep putting your heart into the things that you can and to do the work and not let not get distracted by all the noise.

17:07 And so I just, I think it was fantastic. And thank you to Miss Cross for inviting me. And my last shout out is to HR.

17:14 Human Resources has processed so many applications this summer and getting people as fast as they can. We’ve got bus drivers coming in, we’ve got teachers coming in, IAS. And I want still a thunder because I think Doctor Rendell is going to share, but I just want to just thank HR and all the teams that support them, payroll and all that for getting those people through because I know our schools are desperate to have them.

17:38 You know, they want them as soon as they can. And our bus drivers are certainly, you know, we want to be fully staffed as soon as we can. But human resources, kudos to you because we’ve kept you busy this summer and I’m very proud of the work that you’re doing.

17:50 Keep doing it because we need you. Thank you. Thank you.

17:57 Miss Campbell, I wanted to, first off, say thank you to Kevin Robinson. He’s inside the group here and I want to just take a second. And he’s been working very hard about our expansion of that have athletics programs.

18:11 And I’ll be honest with you, he’s had an uphill climb the whole way and I wanted to take a second from the bottom of my heart, sir, that you’re working your butt off. And thank you so much for that because the expansion of the athletics will assist with the discipline, with everything, mentorships and everything else. And that’s a big opportunity.

18:27 So thank you for your work. And that presentation’s next week, our next meeting. So the other thing I wanted to do is say, Mark Rainey, you’re in the, in the stands here.

18:35 Thank you so much for everything that you do. The issue that many people don’t understand is, is that we had a big bus driver party yesterday where we were at Ogalle High School, and they basically came up for trainings to find out what the new rules were with discipline and all the other components to, hey, let’s get going on the day, right? Because we all know that the bus drivers are the first group that actually sees our children and the last ones that say goodbye. And that’s one of the most important components to what their jobs are.

19:02 And we recognize this board moved forward to give arguably, and I think it is the largest increase for bus drivers in the history of our organization. And in doing so, let me just read you some of these 158 applications. 20 of them have been through the class.

19:19 Seven are ready for the road. Ten are on deck, 13 are waiting on files. They are rolling and the issue there is, is that the response was twofold when I listened to them yesterday was thank you for the raise that brought us up to be competitive.

19:33 It stressed out everybody. I’m sure Doctor Rendell has gotten calls from scat across the street, all the independent bus drivers and everything else, because we’re getting all their drivers and we’re showing that if you respect the drivers and you pay them the right way, they will come. Right.

19:47 So thank you. Because I wanted to say the reason Mark Rainey gets a shout out and Dolores from 1010 is that you’ve been fighting this fight for two years, man, and you have been up here fighting, trying to get the. You’ve brought bus drivers in telling us, and you never gave up.

20:01 And thank you. I wanted to take a second. Thank you.

20:03 These numbers are you and Dolores and the others your work and what you did. So thank you. Next one is I want to say thank you to my son’s elementary school.

20:14 He was in today. So between the time of our workshop and now, I got to go into the school and sit there and watch him go in for the first time. And my wife was going in there, former kindergarten teacher.

20:25 She was really excited to have him go. So thank you to them. I wanted to say thank you to Pam Dampier because she’s working through giving all of the trainings to the new teachers, all of the new stuff that’s coming out.

20:35 She has all of the new restrictions, all the new dress codes, all the new. Everything that we’ve put in place. She has been nailing it on point the whole way.

20:42 So thank you, Pam, for all of your dedication and work to this cause. I want to say thank you to Ryan Dufresne for the union negotiations. I actually got to thank you.

20:52 A good job from Anthony. I think that’s the first time I’ve ever gotten that in my entire life. Usually it is.

20:58 You are the worst person I’ve ever known. And you are like, you’re all these ugly things. And he actually sent me a text and he said, hey, say, did you get that in writing? Listen, I got it right here.

21:09 And I looked at it and I said, wait a minute. It’s a public record. Because what it is is this, is that if he wants me to call him, I was like, I think he wants me to call him and then he’s going to yell at me, right? So I was like, I’ll wait three days.

21:21 So then I called him yesterday and he says, you waited three days? I just want to tell you good job. And I want to say thank you to that, Anthony. I also wanted to say thank you to Ryan Dufresne for his work.

21:30 I think he’s still trying to find, like, everywhere everything is right now, and he’s just banging it out of the park. So thank you guys for all your work and dedication. Thank you, Ryan.

21:39 And then I wanted to say, our adult ed bus driver program, the one that she was speaking to earlier, it is the only one that is going to drive from this area around. And there were municipalities there coming to say, hey, we need CDL drivers. There were like, rider had given a truck for a photo op.

21:58 They said they need drivers. So in order to raise possible money, I reached out to the mayor of Coco and Senator Wright, and they said that they would be in, if we can find it legal to race buses around that circle. And then what we could do is raise money.

22:11 Right? I mean, we may not be able to run them to where we’re rubbing against each other other, but we might be able to do times. Right. But I’m telling you, I will tell you, if anybody has ever seen the competitive side of Mayor Blake, he’s not somebody that I really want to go up against.

22:23 So I’m kind of worried. And Tom Wright actually had, like, fire in his eyes. He was like, that might be the funnest thing in the world.

22:28 And so he asked if we were doing figure eight, like he was getting into it already. But I did want to say on a not so so joking note, what they’re doing in this community and inside this school district is. Is everything short of them and what.

22:42 What our community is responding to and what the programs we’re putting together. Hats off to Doctor Rendell. This board, collectively as the work.

22:49 Here we go. School starts in two days. Here we go.

22:53 So with that, doctor Rendell, you have your floor. Sorry if we took everything. Yeah, you guys covered just about everything.

22:59 But, doctor Rendell, do you mind? I just. I have to piggyback off of what Katie said with HR. And I think you guys all got this email as well.

23:09 It wasn’t just HR. I want to thank everyone up at this district because there was one day where the courier services were down and Mister Dufresne had sent out an email to all ESF staff asking if they would help participate, driving some of those packets to the school so they can get the staff in faster, which is pretty incredible, like, throughout the entire district. So sorry to interrupt you, but you, you just reminded me of that.

23:34 And so I want to thank everyone who did that? Because that’s above and beyond what your job is. So thank you so much. Yeah, so I want to.

23:41 So I’d like to ask Rashad Wilson, our chief operating officer, to come on up to the microphone and give us some more details on that good news on addressing our bus driver shortage. And as he comes up, I want to say something to the rest of our employees, particularly our 1010 employees, our classified employees. And I have to do this in a way that I don’t put us in a violation of negotiations or anything like that, but we have our very first contract negotiation session with 1010 in September and we are going to do things for 1010.

24:17 We are. You are a priority. The rest of our employees are a priority.

24:22 We just have to do it the right way through negotiations, through memorandums of understanding, through the negotiation process. So just hang on. You know, we’re going to get to you and we’re going to take care of you, Mister Wilson.

24:33 Thank you. Good evening. Board chair Susan, board members and doctor Rendell.

24:40 I want to give you a quick transportation update. I know Mister Susan gave some numbers and he’s kind of stole my thunder, but we’re going to rock and roll anyway. I’m sorry.

24:50 I’m sorry. I did not know this was coming. I would have deleted that one.

24:53 No worries. According to our most recent report I received, it looks like we have 237 bus drivers. Of the 237 bus drivers, 25 are recent hires with a start date of eight, seven which was yesterday.

25:10 Five of those individuals will be ready to start of school. They will be ready to start driving buses at the state start a school. The others will be ready by the end of the month.

25:20 As you know, this onboarding process is tedious. It’s not. You come get hyped, sign the application and then we put you on the bus.

25:28 We put you through a very rigorous training process. Additionally, we have another 20 drivers in the pipeline and that is looking promising. If all 20 are hired, we would meet our staffing goal with seven substitute bus drivers.

25:50 With that being said, we still have some double backs. We have currently in the north area five, in the central area one, mid south area six and the south area one. And the double back is where a bus driver has to go to a school two or three times to pick up students that are on that same exact route.

26:14 So our we have identified the schools that will be affected by those double backs and triple backs. And they are north in the north area, Space coast in the central area, Cocoa High School, Mid South, O’Galley and Viera and the South Meadow Lane primary transportation has already communicated with those schools that they will be affected, and they know help is on the way as soon as we can get those bus drivers through the training. While I don’t have the data to support my claim, please trust that we are in a lot better situation than we were this time last year.

26:56 And I, too, want to echo Mister Dufresne and his staff for getting those bus drivers through the HR process as quickly as he and his team possibly could. Any questions? I’m gonna say something. Go, go.

27:10 I’m gonna say something. I’m gonna brag on you. Okay? I am Southern Twang, too.

27:17 I am. Because, honestly, you know what? This job is hard. Your job is hard.

27:23 All of our jobs are hard. But working with Rashad and you taking me and saying, hey, come look at this. Let’s see this.

27:29 Let me show you what’s happening out here. And talking to our bus drivers, I’m like, you are amazing. So, thank you so much for all your advocating that you’ve done, because, honestly, those are your people.

27:39 Those are our people. And it just really kind of meshed it all together. So I know you’re humble.

27:44 I know you don’t like getting up here talking. I know you don’t like people bragging on you. But I just want to say thank you so much, because you really have led that team in an exceptional way.

27:51 And what a lot of people don’t know is that we didn’t have enough bus drivers at the end of the school year last year. We ended that year not having enough bus drivers to start this school year. That is the reality of the situation we were in.

28:02 So this is tremendous. It’s huge. Getting our children to school is priority number one.

28:07 We’ve got to get them there, right? Like, we’ve got to get them there. We can’t teach them if they’re not there. So I just appreciate you.

28:12 So, thank you for all the hard work that you’ve put in, and good job leading your team. Well, thank you, Steve Job. You had no, I’m just giving myself thumbs up.

28:22 When you got announced the other day in front of those bus drivers, you could tell the energy of their applause, how much of a job you’ve been doing. And everybody I talked to about them, too, about you. They have the utmost respect, and we can’t ask for anything better from any of our employees.

28:36 And you as a leader, and I know that goes a long way. Sports, everything else. But, man, you’re doing it.

28:43 So thank you thank you. I’ve been blessed to have a good team. Yeah.

28:47 Thank you. Thank you. Good job, Rashad.

28:55 Just wanted to make sure that Rashad gave us the real picture. We will have a couple double backs the first couple weeks of school, so I don’t want anybody to get the impression that we think we’re not going to have any of those. We will while those employees are in the pipeline getting certified.

29:07 But once they get through there, we should have enough employees, enough drivers that every route will be on time. Only single routes. Everybody should be able to get to school on time and get home on time.

29:18 So it’s great news. We’re just not quite there yet. Once we get them through the training, we should be good.

29:24 That’s it. Mister chair. Thank you.

29:27 That brings us to the adoption of the agenda on this evening. Agenda we have administrative staff recommendations, eight consent items, two public hearing items, two action items, and two information items. Changes made to the agenda since release to the public include revisions to a seven administrative staff recommendations and I 23 personnel allocations.

29:52 23 24. Do I hear a motion move to approve. Second.

29:59 Is there any discussion? All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes 50.

30:07 We are now on the administrative staff recommendations. Do I hear a motion? Move to approve? Second. Any discussion? Hearing? None.

30:18 All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed passes 50.

30:23 Doctor, mister chair, I’d like to take an opportunity to recognize some individuals who just got promoted this evening. So the first is I want to congratulate a new assistant principal at Bayside High School, Vicki Medaros Rogers. Come on up to the podium.

30:38 Wow. Hi, I’m Vicki Medeiros Rogers. I will be the new dean at Bayside.

30:50 I’d like to thank my family, my friends and all the teachers and everyone I’ve worked with at Home Bay High, at Port Malabar, at St. And all the support I’ve received from everyone else I’ve met through my journey here the last 18 years. I’m also very excited to be part of Bayside and to work with Miss Holly Sander and the rest of the team there. Thank you.

31:13 Congratulations again. I’d like to congratulate a new assistant. Keep turning off.

31:20 I’d like to congratulate a new assistant principal at Atlantis Elementary School, Alyssa Copeland. Hi, I’m Alyssa Copeland. I’ll be the new assistant principal Atlantis elementary.

31:36 I want to thank you, Doctor Rendell and board members for this opportunity. I want to thank my family who’s here supporting me and has supported me every step of my educational journey. I want to thank Miss Erica back and my new Atlantis family who has welcomed me with open arms.

31:52 I am so excited to be a rocket and I am so excited to lead with Miss back and take them even higher than they already are. I know that usually people thank the leaders that have helped them along the way, but I am a product of BPS elementary, middle, and high school. I have had tremendous teachers, coaches, everything along the way.

32:13 Wonderful administration I’ve worked under. But for the last three years, I have worked directly under Tara Harris. And she has.

32:19 And I don’t want to look at her because I will get upset. But she has shaped me into the leader that I am today. And I am confident that I can lead Atlantis because of what I have learned from her.

32:30 And I just want to thank her for everything. I said I wouldn’t cry, but she means a lot to me and everything she has done, she has challenged me, she has pushed me, and she has seen things in me that I did not see in myself. So I said I wouldn’t cry.

32:45 So I’m not looking at you, Tara. But I am so excited and I am just so ready to be a rocket. So thank you.

32:52 You’re welcome. All right, so next we’d like to congratulate a new interim assistant principal at Medellane Primary Elementary School, Jessica Mowry. Good evening to the esteemed members of the board, Doctor Randall, and members of the cabinet.

33:18 I want to thank you for affording me the opportunity to work as an assistant principal at Brevard Public Schools at Meadow Lane Primary. For the last seven years, my family and I have been residents of Brevard county and have enjoyed watching our children grow and progress through the Brevard public school system. Their academic opportunities, along with multiple extracurricular adventures, have allowed them to thrive and reach their full potential.

33:41 BPS has indeed served my family with excellence as an educator. However, I’ve watched BPS from afar as I gained valuable experience as a teacher and educational leader in the school district of Indian River county. My training and experience there has no doubt led me to where I am today.

33:57 However, as of this evening, I’m proud to say that I’m coming home to serve and give back to the community that has given so much to my family. I want to thank my parents, my husband John, and my children for loving me and supporting me throughout my 20 years as an educator. I also want to thank misses Deanna Smith for selecting me to join her amazing team at Meadowlane.

34:16 I am humbled and honored to serve as an assistant principal in Brevard county and look forward to serving our students, families and staff with excellence. Thank you. So mister chair, if I might indulge for a few more minutes.

34:34 Not an administrative appointment and not on the agenda today. But word is out. We have a very familiar face and name joining us again at Brevard Public Schools.

34:45 Word was revealed today beyond the agenda next week I believe. But Doctor Mark Mullins will be rejoining Bps. This is a man who has devoted his career, his entire career to educating children in our community.

35:00 And he’s not done. He still wants to make an impact. So he is joining the staff at Cocoa High School in the position as a guidance counselor.

35:09 And we are so overjoyed that he would take another turn with us that he would give of himself to our children in our community. So when you see Mark, welcome him back. We are so glad that he is giving some more.

35:22 And I know the Cocoa high school community will benefit from that. So congratulations mark and welcome back. Now I’m done.

35:35 You want to take a picture with the administrators that we want to take a break? Yeah, I think we should. We always take a picture. I don’t want to.

35:40 I don’t want to sell them out. So we’re going to take a break. We’re going to take some pictures.

35:44 We’ll be right back. We are now on to the public comments portion of the meeting. We have 13 number of speakers and we will receive three minutes each.

37:26 I will call up three speakers at a time. The first three speakers are Riley Smith, Benny Jackson and Ellen Riposta. If the other two would make their way to the front, that’d be great.

37:42 Thank you. Thank you. Do I just start now? Yep.

37:48 Hang on just a second. Good evening. With school starting soon, I have some serious concerns about our curriculum and safety.

38:07 First, moms for liberty. We want you out and as far away from our schools as humanly possible. You are doing nothing to help and everything to hurt from banning books, idolizing Hitler, wanting no healthcare, including mental health care in school and wanting prager you as part of our studies.

38:23 What do you actually bring to the table? We do not agree with any of that. We want to feel safe at school. We deserve that.

38:31 I know myself, my friends and have no desire to make school into a church. We don’t want to learn from a man, Dennis Prager, who thinks incest is okay. Women are only here to please.

38:41 Men and children have no value. Let’s go back to. Back to when teachers could teach.

38:46 Riley, I’m not sure if you know, I don’t mean to cut you off, but you can’t use people’s names unless they’re up here on the board. So if you cannot. If you.

38:52 If you can just refrain from using names, you can. But individual names, we just can’t have. Thank you.

38:56 All right, let’s go back to when teachers could teach without fear of getting in trouble. How is history class going to look this year? History makes you uncomfortable, so just erase it. No, it shouldn’t make everyone uncomfortable.

39:09 It was a dark time, and we need to learn about it. Slavery was not beneficial, and trying to spin that narrative is just disgusting. Both ourselves and our teachers.

39:21 We want to learn of freedom without repercussions for both ourselves and our teachers. Let students be their authentic selves without worrying that they will be taken from their families because they live a lifestyle that you don’t agree with. We need you to stop and let us learn.

39:37 Let us be. Let us learn. Let us read.

39:39 We would really appreciate any ideas on how to keep our schools safe from fighting guns. Not books. We live in terror every day of being gunned down.

39:48 And your focus is where people go to the bathroom, what pronouns they use. Moms for liberty. We all know your mission has nothing to do with protecting our kids.

39:55 Your famous quote, they’re coming for our kids. Wrong. We kids, the younger generation, Gen Z, are coming for you.

40:01 And we will not stop till you quit. With all this utter nonsense of the last few years, we don’t even know what we are allowed to say anymore. It’s ridiculous.

40:08 But make no mistake, we’ll continue to fight back, being loud and doing everything we can until positive changes are made. And remember, human civil rights are non negotiable. Thank you for your time.

40:19 Do better. Thank you, Riley. Next up is Mister Benny Jackson.

40:26 Mister Jackson? Yes. Good evening. My name is Benny Jackson Junior.

40:31 I am currently president of South Brevard branch of the NAACP, unit 5115, and that’s out of Melbourne, Florida. I’m here tonight to make a statement, an appeal and a recommendation. The statement is that when I reviewed the newly released code of conduct, what I did not see in there was anything that addressed hate speech.

40:56 And so my appeal is that in common language, hate speech refers to offensive discourse targeting a group or an individual based on inherent characteristics such as race, religion, or gender, and that also may threaten social peace. My appeal to provide a uniform and unified framework for the Brevard public school system. To address the issue at the county level, it’s recommended that hate speech be included in the Brevard public School code of conduct.

41:33 And that the Brevard Public School code of conduct define hate speech as any kind of communication in speech, writing or behavior that attacks or uses prerogative or discriminatory language with reference to a person or group on the basis of who they are. In other words, based on their religion, their ethnicity, their nationality, their race, their color, their descent, their gender or other identity factor. That is my recommendation to this board.

42:08 Thank you. Thank you, Mister Jackson. Miss Ellen Riposta and Sam Riposta.

42:20 Good evening, school board. Thank you for affording me three minutes. So, let me introduce myself.

42:25 I’m Ellen Riposta, the spouse of a former substitute teacher, a mother of six, and grandparent of five wonderful boys. My husband Sam truly gave 110% of his time each day dropping him off at different schools. Hearing the children chant Mister Rip was rewarding.

42:45 Unfortunately, Sam, being a retired sheriff’s officer and retired security alarm company owner, he was unable to turn a blind eye to the drugs in our school. As a parent, you would think that is the proper direction to try to stop this from happening. Who knew it would cost him his job? He was assaulted at Cocoa High, accused of touching a student, which I tell you now, did not happen.

43:08 Then Rockledge High asked him not to come back for 60 days because he did too many referrals. Ronald McNair jumped on the bandwagon and accused him again of things he didn’t do. He was cursed at daily, so he continued to substitute at a school that appreciated him.

43:31 Thank you to Johnson Middle. Mister Skinner and Mister Foster kept asking him to come and sub for them. Unfortunately.

43:38 Strike three, you’re out. Then comes a letter from an a rated school, Kennedy middle, just excluding him from their school. And away goes his job.

43:46 Just like that. Only to find out a student in Mister Reid’s math class was selling Tootsie roll lollipops laced with THC. My husband told her not to do that in his class, and she told him, it’s okay.

44:00 My mom has a marijuana card and she knows people in the front office. So he is now abruptly terminated. Which it’s not terminated, but he’s no longer a substitute.

44:11 He waits for Doctor Green in the administration to let him know two days before school that he can reapply. Okay, so he reapplies. He jumps through the hoops and guess what happens? Yes.

44:27 He is not rehired. He has not rehired because something he said in his interview didn’t sit right. This will most likely be filed in the trash, as was the last school board meeting.

44:39 In May, we attended. Not one board member reached out to us. So I leave today with a challenge to each of you to fix this injustice and reinstate gratitude and optimism.

44:51 Thank you. Thank you, Ellen. Mister Sam Riposta.

45:04 All right. Thank you for letting me talk. I guess Principal Stewart at Cocoa.

45:15 No names. I need to reach out to her. Mister Sam, if we cannot use names outside of the school board.

45:23 That’s all. Thank you. Principal Cocohai sent me a letter saying I wasn’t welcome back because I punched a kid.

45:33 I never touched the kid. Never ever. The second letter I got was from Miss Rowe and Mister Richardson saying I was cursing.

45:49 Mister Sam, if we cannot use names, just say, okay, a teacher from a school. That’s good. That’s the second time.

45:56 Okay. That’s okay, mister. Okay.

46:00 At McNair school, the principal and. Okay, you know who I meant. And what happened there is I sent the kids to the office because they were cursing.

46:17 I never seen kids curse as much, but when I talked to the teacher and the. The school board of the school, they said I was cursing at the kids. They turned it completely around.

46:35 Next. And my last letter I received was from, okay, Kennedy School. Okay.

46:45 And that was the principal. And what happened there is the kid was selling drugs right in class. I mean, come on.

46:59 I don’t care if your mother’s got a marijuana car or not. You shouldn’t be doing that. A class.

47:05 So I sent her to the office. Next thing you know, I got a letter from him saying I wasn’t appreciated back. That means I got three letters.

47:14 And that means I got a letter from your place saying that I wasn’t welcome back. Even though all of them were lies. All three letters were lies.

47:28 So I don’t understand how I was able to put 100% into my time. And I really appreciate the kids. But all lies.

47:41 And they were sent to me as all lies. So I ask, where’s the justice? Where’s anybody calling me back? Nobody’s calling me back. And that’s how it sat.

47:58 So thank you for your time. Thank you, Sam. Mister Bernard Bryant.

48:04 Up next, Mark Rainey and Gregory Ross, please make your way to the speaker’s podium. Good evening. Thank you, board, as well as doctor Rendell, for allowing me to speak today.

48:31 My name is Bernard Bryant and I represent the south provider branch of the NAACP as their educational chair. And I know I’ve been up here many, many times, but I have one message. And the reason why I have this message is because of my background.

48:47 I grew up from a very poor family. I was a stutterer when I was a boy, but I was blessed by my teachers and my parents. One of the things that they taught me is how to read.

49:02 About a year ago, I met a little boy who was in third grade and the kid couldn’t even say the word the. So that really hurt me as a person because I understand how important reading is. And one of the things I can share with you, I have reviewed Brevard public school reading plan and I think it’s a very good reading plan.

49:25 Well designed science of reading is basically embedded in the plant. Literacy coaches are basically embedded in the plan. But what I’m concerned about is the amount of teachers.

49:40 I don’t think you have enough teachers on board to really handle this particular issue of improving our kids reading. Two of the schools that I support right now is missing seven teachers at the beginning of the year. So obviously that’s going to be a tremendous impact for those students that are actually missing teachers.

50:01 So what I’m asking this board to do is I’d like to see a workshop on what is the plan and invite the communities on how we’re going to improve our teaching staff. I’ve also reviewed a lot of the reasons why teachers are leaving, and a lot of the reasons that I see is because of personal reasons. I don’t understand what are the root cause of that, the turnover, the actual retention.

50:31 I think there’s a tremendous opportunity there. So if you will consider having a workshop where we can attack one of the critical needs of our children. If they can’t read, if they can’t do math, we aren’t going to satisfy the demand in this particular county.

50:48 And the last thing I want to share with you, I’ve reviewed the student code of code of conduct, and one of the things I hope you will spike out under bullying, you have racism. But I would love to see that code separated so that it can be well managed from the school area and it can get the right attention that it really needs. If it’s clogged into bullying, it’s going to be not given the attention that it needs.

51:16 So if you can consider in your code of bullying to remove racism as a separate item. Thank you so much, Mister Bryant. Thank you so much.

51:25 Truly appreciate your thoughts. Next up we have Mark Ramey, Gregory Ross, Julie Bywater. Mister Mark, this may be my last time here.

51:39 I had a bunch of notes, but I’m just going to speak from heart. The bus drivers asked me to come. The ones that you met yesterday, hundreds of them that you saw in that room, they asked me to come and say thank you to Doctor Rendell and to the board, but also in this public setting, to our teachers union and to our teachers, to the parents that we drive, the students that we drive who have been there impatiently with us, and to the citizens of Brevard county who voted for the millage tax, which gave you a tool to help in this process.

52:12 They want you to know with their just overwhelming heart how grateful they are and the amount of faith they have in you for laying down a foundation, knowing that it’s not over, but laying down a foundation that’s solid and will allow us to continue to move forward. So even though we move into the school year at the same level that we were at the last year, we have one big deal difference and that’s hope. We have a tremendous amount of hope because we see the numbers that our colleague just shared with you.

52:48 We see the pipeline. I’m a new trainer for the system. And all the other trainers, they’re excited because the classes are full, the buses are on the road with the training signs.

53:01 We’re doing the best we can to get them out. Then hopefully by September and October we can alleviate the crunch and then start working towards the reduction of students, the overcrowding on their buses, etcetera. So please understand, these drivers are so, so grateful for this board.

53:18 All of you. You voted 50 on this. For not only the money, but for the application of discipline and behavioral issues.

53:28 And discipline you tackled it. It’s not over. We understand that.

53:32 But we have hope. And we want to thank you. Thank you.

53:36 Mister Mark, Mister Gregory Ross. Julie Bywater on deck. Matthew Woodside right behind.

53:50 Good evening, Ward. Thank you for allowing the opportunity for public comment. I got two things I want to talk about tonight.

53:56 First, one is actually one of the items on the agenda. F 15, the mental health grant application. Please, please, please approve this.

54:06 I’ll give you kudos if this gets approved. You’re doing the right thing. That’s all I ask.

54:11 Right. It’s good to see the board and district staff focusing on what we know is a known shortage in public education. So please approve that.

54:23 Second thing I want to do is read some passages from a book from a school library. Masturbation. Erotic stimulation of one’s own genital organs, commonly resorting in orgasm.

54:41 Mister Ross, I need to remind you. I can’t read that. I know.

54:47 I just want to remind you that. I just want to point out that you have now met the statutory requirements. If someone had challenged this book, the dictionary Mister Ross, I’m just.

54:58 This is no longer about what you said. This is about. This is just about this.

55:01 Hang on. All right, go ahead. I want you to understand.

55:05 Can you please stop my time if you want to talk? Sure. I want you to understand that we have a respect with the FCC and everything else. So if you can make sure that when you’re speaking that it’s not anything inappropriate.

55:17 Understood? I agree. I just want to point out that you have now met the statutory, the Florida state statutory requirements for banning the Webster’s dictionary. Okay.

55:32 We saw what happened the last time people were here. If you can’t read it at the podium and it was challenged, you would be required by statute to pull this book. Okay, nobody’s challenged this.

55:44 It’s not on the list, so you don’t have to. I just want to point that out. Right.

55:48 That’s all I’m up here is make that point, please. I know you guys are redoing the book challenge policy. Please use some common sense.

56:00 The Florida statutes are not full of common sense. Thank you. Thank you very much, Miss Julie Bywater, Matthew Woodside and Johnny Sharma, please.

56:19 Good evening, I’m Julie Bywater. I am a member of the Brevard county chapter of moms for liberty. I have two kids in the school district right now and two that have graduated from Rockledge high Raiders.

56:36 I just really. What I want to comment on tonight is the code of conduct. But it’s really your code of conduct.

56:44 I’m incredibly disappointed in this board. I watched the work session earlier today, and let me tell you something. Your conduct isn’t really becoming of people who are creating a conduct guide here.

56:44 I’m incredibly disappointed because you’re setting a terrible example. You’re up there bickering like children. You are not setting a good example.

57:12 You aren’t looking for solutions. You aren’t talking to each other respectfully. You don’t have to like each other.

57:17 You don’t have to like me. You don’t have to like anybody in the audience. But you still need to treat each other with respect because that’s what you’re asking of your students.

57:31 You’re up there playing on your phones. Whether it’s work or not, it doesn’t really matter. We watch you.

57:38 You’re staring at your computer screens, you’re looking at your phones. Are you going to allow your students to do that? No. So why are you? I really challenge you to take a look at your behavior, go back and watch the work session video today and look at how you behaved, all of you, because your kids are watching.

57:59 Your students are watching us. Parents are watching, and we’re disappointed. We’re starting a new school year, and we should do it with respect and decorum.

58:13 We should look at that mission statement up there and serve every student with excellence. That’s a standard. But what’s your behavior, the excellence as the standard this afternoon? Cause we’re watching.

58:27 Don’t think just because this room was empty this afternoon that people weren’t watching. I challenge you. Set the example.

58:37 Look for solutions. Look to treat each other with respect, even if you don’t like each other. And I just want to point out that many of you are looking at me while I’m talking, and some of you aren’t.

58:51 Do you want your students not looking at you when you’re leading that classroom? Do you want them looking off to the side, staring at a computer or a phone, looking down at their papers? No. You want your students to pay attention to you. So let’s start the school year right.

59:11 Let’s readjust our attitudes like we’re asking our students to do. And I challenge you. Let’s do better.

59:19 Because our students deserve it. Our kids deserve it. The staff deserves it.

59:26 Every single one of these teachers deserve you setting the example. Thanks. Thank you, Miss Bywater.

59:35 Matthew Woodside and Johnny Sharma. Megan Tursek and Diana Haynes. Is there.

59:42 Is Matthew Woodside here? You’re up, brother. Good evening. My name is Matthew Woodside, and I’ve been a BPS educator for the last 17 years.

1:00:02 And as we start a new school year, I came today to share a concern that I have with BPS’s partnership with the company called one Love, a company that is actively pushing LGBTQ content on our students without any parental notification. Let me explain. Onelove is an organization that teaches students about healthy versus unhealthy relationships, which is a component in the middle school sexual health unit.

1:00:21 So those of us who are tasked with teaching that unit were required to attend a mandatory one love training where we learned about couplets, a series of very short animated videos created by one love to teach healthy relationships. Each couplet video shows a healthy and unhealthy version of an interaction between two characters who are in a romantic relationship. A blue character who’s the boy, an orange character who’s the girl, with each video declaring that’s love or that’s not love.

1:00:46 After each scenario, and as we’re in the training watching these videos, about halfway through, the videos started to show two blue characters holding hands or two orange characters saying they didn’t want to break up. Many of these videos ended up depicting boys dating boys or girls dating girls, so I refused to show these videos. The required opt out permission slip for this unit says nothing about this issue, so parents would be completely in the dark.

1:01:08 But then last spring, onelove came to my school and held a training for all of our teachers, showing only one couplet video between the boy and the girl, and said that they plan on coming to all of our language arts classes in a few weeks to teach all of our students about relationships using couplets. And parents would have no idea until it was too late. Thankfully, that event was canceled after I met with my principal, let her know that we had already taught this component in our schools.

1:01:30 But one love continues to operate in this county without parental notification. And I know some are probably saying, bro, be serious, it’s just a cartoon. But that’s the point, isn’t it? It’s a cartoon.

1:01:41 One love is using the most innocent of methods to subtly reach the minds of our students, seeking to normalize an issue that many parents in this county do not want their children learning about in school, which is their right as parents. It is the fundamental right of parents, not the state, to decide when and how to teach their children what’s healthy and what’s not when it comes to these sensitive topics as enumerated in recent legislation. And one more thing.

1:02:05 If it’s not that big of a deal, why the secrecy? When you go to Onelove’s website and I encourage you to do so, you’re going to find one couplet video between the boy and the girl character, none between two boys or two girls, which were shown to our students. But I have copies of those and I’ll be happy to show anybody who’s interested. I urge the board to end BPS’s dealings with one love as showing their content is not only a violation of parental rights, but with the passing of recent legislation, it may very well now be against the law as well.

1:02:32 And I urge the board to look into this. But at the very least, we must require parental notification before allowing any of one love’s content in our classrooms. Because contrary to the sentiments of some parents will always have the fundamental right to know what their children are being exposed to in our schools and make decisions accordingly.

1:02:50 I really want to thank you guys for your commitment to our students and I look forward to seeing this resolved. Thank you. Thank you, sir.

1:02:57 Johnny, Miss Sharma. Good evening, esteemed school board members and superintendent doctor Rendell. Thank you for allowing me and the public to speak.

1:03:10 I’m here to talk about agenda item f 15, as well as standing here before you today with the vision of a brighter future for our youth. A future where boundaries do not limit mental health access and where youth advocacy have no borders. My name is Anjani Sharma, and I’m the executive director and founder of Minds without Borders, a now national youth led mental health initiative which we started right here in Brevard.

1:03:31 I’m also a senior at Westshore, and I’m also a proud mental health and policy advocate. I’m here representing all 13 Brevard public high schools students in Florida. And now, happy to say, many us states, I’d like to talk a little bit about what minds without borders is.

1:03:47 This is a youth advocacy initiative aiming to increase mental health resources in schools, colleges and communities. We started here in Florida. We’re going in our state, the US, and eventually globally.

1:04:00 What we do is we’re aiming to erase the term mental health in schools and teach students life building skills. So, advocating for the inclusion of mental health support in school policies and practices, teaching students age and culturally appropriate self regulation skills, developing programs to help students coping and self regulation skills suitable for their development stages and cultural backgrounds, teach students psychosocial skills, present skills, cooperation skills, and so much more. We have students who are connecting with their local legislators, educators, school administrators, state legislators, and eventually federal legislators.

1:04:36 I’m here to my team, and I have reviewed the mental health grant that you guys will be discussing in your agenda. And let’s just say, as students, we’re strong in support for that. But as students, we also deserve more than that.

1:04:47 We need more than that. And that’s why we got together a coalition of students who are the main stakeholders in this mental health era. And we started this initiative to essentially advocate for implementing resilience, coordinating networks, think life building skills, and teach students proper life skills to handle them that serves them mentally, socially, and physically for their life while they’re in brevard public schools, while they’re in the state of Florida, but also when they’re leading.

1:05:12 It’s important that we, you know, as students, come out and speak for issues that we believe in. You know, all of you guys know what happened with the Florida legislator after Marjorie Stoneman Douglas. They established this mental health curriculum.

1:05:23 We, as students and educators, we don’t think that this is, you know, quite addressing the root cause of the problem. In today’s world, mental health is oftentimes the underlying issue for so many issues, from gun violence, climate change, mental health starts there. That’s why we should prioritize this.

1:05:40 Let me just point out that we have students working in Miami Dade County, Orange County, Seminole county, and expanding to many of the states. I’ve had the pleasure to meet with some of you guys, with some of my students, and we’re proud of the support that we’ve gotten to, you know, gotten here. I’m speaking here today to first inform you about our advocacy initiative, but also ask for your support and be a champion of the initiative that started here and that will hopefully, you know, go to the Florida state and nationally.

1:06:05 Thank you, Megan. Thank you so much for all your initiative. We really appreciate your work.

1:06:11 I’m sorry, Miss Adjani, Miss Sharma, it’s Megan Tursek. Up next, Diana Haynes and Julia Antonio. Here.

1:06:17 I’ll give you your contact information. Hi. Good evening, doctor Rendell and members of the board.

1:06:23 First and foremost, I would like to speak in favor of the mental health grant that is on the agenda tonight. I’m a Brevard county teacher and also a parent of a Brevard county student. I was awarded Brevard County Social Studies Teacher of the year last year.

1:06:42 I’m here to ask you to please not rob student, students and parents of the opportunity to experience AP psychology. First and foremost, I see this as an issue of parental choice. Parents sign up for AP based on the needs of their family.

1:06:56 Some families, like mine, their students want and desire college level courses and topics for their students. Families who believe that AP psychology is not the right fit for their student and their family can and should enroll in a more appropriate elective for them. Blocking AP psychology will cost Brevard families money.

1:07:17 This is an opportunity that students had to get a free college credit for psychology that they will not be able to get now. My understanding is that eastern Florida state psychology classes are full at this point, putting incoming seniors who would have been going into AP psychology, who may have been preparing for that for years, they will not have an opportunity to take to receive AP psychology credit free of cost. There is nothing in Florida law that would prevent brevard from teaching AP psychology as the course description is written right now to the standards of that course.

1:07:52 I ask that brevard aligns with the state of Florida in saying that AP psychology can be taught in an age appropriate way and to please not dampen some of our brightest minds to this high level of education that they deserve. Thank you. Miss Diana Haynes, Miss Julie Anton.

1:08:13 Miss Haynes. I saw her come in. All right, we’ll pass on Miss Haynes Miss Julia Anton, please.

1:08:28 Good evening. In receiving my quality education, one of the things that I was told taught was, if you don’t know something and people are talking about it, decisions are being made and you don’t know, look it up, find out what the facts are. Right? So this is what we’re going to talk about.

1:08:46 And I want to start by asking you to make a mental note to yourself. How many students are in Brevard county schools. You may know exactly, and you may know sort of, but make a mental note of that.

1:08:59 So one of the things that I didn’t know all the facts about was there’s a whole lot of swirl around lgbt students and trans students, and you’re being asked to make decisions. People come up here and talk. I said, well, I don’t know about this, so I’m going to look it up.

1:09:16 And I did. And I learned something very important. I learned that we don’t have an epidemic of kids saying, hmm, I think it’d be really cool to say I belong to another gender.

1:09:27 What we do have is medical conditions that include where the chromosomes and the hormones don’t match. We have medical conditions where the body is resistant to the hormones that develop secondary sex characteristics, such as hairy legs for boys, the onset of monthly cycles for girls, you know, the shape of your hands and feet. Well, some people’s bodies are resistant to those hormones.

1:09:59 And then there’s another one. Are you ready for this one? Conservative medical evidence estimates that one in 2000 infants is born with something that’s called ambiguous genitalia. Now, think about that number.

1:10:15 I asked you how many students in Brevard county schools, how many students have what’s called ambiguous genitalia? That means that a doctor, a trained doctor, cannot look at that infant and tell whether it’s a boy or a girl. Is that thing between the legs too small to be a boy or too big to be a girl? They don’t know. Now, through history, there’s been a lot of solutions to that.

1:10:40 The most recent one is to decide, you know, instead of the doctor deciding to give this infant surgery, which may or may not be right, wait till the child reaches puberty. And whatever happens at puberty, that will be their gender. But now we’ve got these political people making a game of torturing children who were assigned one gender or another at birth.

1:11:05 And it may not be right, because they didn’t even know. And they’re trying to engage you in the game of torturing those children. I am here to tell you that’s nasty.

1:11:16 You need to refuse to be a part of that game. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Anton.

1:11:22 Miss Haynes. Miss Haynes, if you’d like to speak. We called your name, but I know you’re coming back in.

1:11:29 You want to let her run around? It’s fine. I’m okay with that. My kids run all over this place.

1:11:33 Well, we’ll see how long she. Well, you just put her down. If she wants to go, it’s no problem.

1:11:37 That’s what we do. It’s in a great space, right? It’s pretty safe. Good evening.

1:11:42 I am. I’m here this evening and it’s so redundant and I really apologize. But until I get answers to all of the issues that I’ve brought forth, I’m going to keep coming and I’m going to keep repeating and asking the same questions.

1:11:58 Last year, in November, a parent filled out a form. I was stuck in traffic for me to speak. And somehow from the front to inside, that form disappeared.

1:12:12 It was on camera, allegedly, that the form was turned in. That’s a breach of your public records. Still never got answers, never saw the camera footage, never got an answer from the attorney or anyone where that form went.

1:12:29 The issue of Johnson Junior High School. I’m so sick and tired of talking about this. But more and more information seems to be coming forward in regards to what went on there in the summer of 2022.

1:12:43 And I have still questions, still concerns, kind of wonder if it was a real event that occurred or some sort of political ploy. But I want answers, and so does my community, because I live in Johnson’s district. And then there is the McNair issue of what I like to call pleasantly poop gate.

1:13:08 I will never allow anyone to call me a liar because that is just not in my makeup, my moral compass, or any of it. I have a reputable student who saw twice what occurred in that school. I made a public records request asking for some sort of reporting what was done about it.

1:13:32 And I got it never happened. So now I have to face your staff unequivocally. Is either hiding something or straight up lying.

1:13:44 Somebody knew about it. Whether it was the janitor, who knows? I want it addressed. And those are my issues and my concerns.

1:13:52 And hopefully one day I’ll get answers to these things and I can pleasantly go away and talk about something else. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Haynes.

1:14:02 That concludes our public comments. We thank you for your willingness to address us in this public manner. We’re now on to the consent agenda.

1:14:09 Doctor Rendell. Thank you, mister chair. There are eight items under this category.

1:14:15 Thank you, Doctor Rendell. Does any board member wish to pull any of these items? I just want to. I only want to pull one because I just want to have a conversation about it.

1:14:25 Okay. You want to take a second? And why don’t you, if you 16, you can do it when. If you want me to, I can.

1:14:34 If you’re not going to, we can move to approve the entire thing and you can just talk about it during discussion or if you want to pull it out and go through the whole separate evaluation. Yeah. Just in case, because I don’t know.

1:14:45 Okay. Which one did you want to pull? F 16. All right.

1:14:50 Items f 16 will be pulled for discussion. I will entertain a motion to accept a consent agendas, except for those pulled for discussion. Is there any discussion? Hearing? None.

1:15:04 All in favor, signify by saying aye. All opposed passes 50. Okay, now we’re back on to f 16.

1:15:13 Do I hear a motion? Move to approve? Second. Okay. Is there any discussion, Miss Jenkins? Yeah.

1:15:20 So I’m doing this based off of the public comment today, and I feel like I’ve kind of dropped the ball here in terms of advocacy. But thank you for having tightening me the awareness. Again, I think that this is something that we do need to have a deeper conversation about.

1:15:39 Unfortunately, some of the staff that was involved in the questions that I have are not here anymore. But I wouldn’t say this as broadly as I possibly can. We had incidents at certain schools where apparently it was really difficult to address the significantly inappropriate behavior because there wasn’t a way to label it as hate speech or racism, and it was extreme.

1:16:06 It was not a question of, you know, whether this falls in that line. And I know that the administrators had difficulty how to classify it, how to have consequences for those students, and then also how to address the staff that was involved, as well as the families on both sides of the issue. So I don’t know how this impacts the timeline of things, if we pull it and wait or if we can just approve this and kind of address that going forward.

1:16:38 But this is a conversation that I would like to have with staff a little bit further because it caused some significant issues at one of our schools. Then it started teetering with some potential Title IX issues because we weren’t able to address them appropriately. And I don’t want to get too specific because it’s not my area of expertise.

1:16:57 But I do know it was a significant issue that we were having, and so I appreciate you addressing it in public comment. And again, I apologize for dropping the ball of advocacy here. But it was definitely something that was brought up by staff as it was happening, because it was so extreme and so heightened to their awareness of what.

1:17:16 Why it was a problem. They’d be the best people to explain that and all the. All the issues that there were.

1:17:20 I truly can’t. I’m admitting that. But, yeah, it definitely wasn’t just the public.

1:17:26 I mean, our staff was significantly concerned about that change, too. So, again, I don’t know if we can just go forward with this and make sure we’re having a conversation about that soon, maybe at a workshop or at the table with our staff. But yeah.

1:17:39 Miss Jenkins, I would like to say that I agree with you 100%. I think that this is something that I was working on, on the side also. I don’t think, to be honest with everybody, that we shouldn’t move the code of conduct into a holding pattern.

1:17:51 But I agree with you 100%. Hate speech is not something that we should, you know what I mean, allow. And I think that we can work on a policy I would look to, if it’s okay with Doctor Rendell, if it’s okay if we have him bring forward a recommendation for a workshop and then go that route, let you get back to wherever she is to figure out what.

1:18:09 What that was, and then go. But I have some needs there, too. Yeah, absolutely.

1:18:13 I think my recommendation would be to approve the code of conduct as it is on the agenda tonight. But with the marching orders going forward to visit, the request for clarification and inclusion of some other language and policy, either code of conduct or policy, to address specifically hate speech and racism. And we can do that.

1:18:34 We can add that as soon as we can wrap our minds around exactly what that looks like. That’s okay with your conversation. Does anybody else want to say anything? Or we move on and pass it.

1:18:43 Okay, go ahead. I just appreciate the commenters and we want to make sure that everything is taken care of, but there’s some dangerous waters that you can step into when you start talking about pulling things out. But we do have our new committee and Miss Stan Pier, who’s going to be starting, leading the team to start working on the code of conduct for next year.

1:19:06 Very quickly, if there’s anything that we feel like needs to be made changed immediately, we can always come back and revise this code of conduct throughout the year. But I would suggest that that’s something that her team, the new team, including our representatives on, can tackle moving forward, because we need to find out what’s best practice, what’s language that other districts potentially have used. I always kind of like to see what’s out there before trying to figure it out on our own.

1:19:34 But I appreciate, sir, providing the definition. And if you would like to email that to all of us, that would be a good thing to start with. Yeah, and I hear you on that.

1:19:43 And I wasn’t suggesting that we find the solution by any means. That’s what I was trying to get at, is I’ve dropped the ball here. I need to have a conversation with Miss Dampier and some other people in our staff, because, again, there has been a lot of transition going on.

1:19:57 But I’m pretty sure some of our staff that have left would be very, very okay answering the phone and explaining some of the scenarios that happened last year and that kind of raised awareness to this very specific issue. But thank you, Miss Campbell. I didn’t mean for us to sit in a workshop and us figure it out by any means, but just so that we don’t drop the ball when it’s on the agenda, I would appreciate that.

1:20:21 So, this is something that’s near and dear to my heart. I would say that. Miss Dampier, when is the next meeting for that discipline committee? Because I’m afraid that if we have a problem inside of our schools that needs to be addressed, that we should not wait until two months for a committee to meet to then.

1:20:36 You know what I mean? I think you said something about September, October. Yeah, if there’s. Yeah.

1:20:43 So the first meeting will probably be in October, but we can address any situation. That’s what I was saying. We don’t have to wait for a change in any kind of idea that there’s going to be an act of racism that happens, that our staff are not going to deal with.

1:20:59 I don’t think that at all. I just. My concern was, is that if we waited on them to meet, then, you know, it would be Christmas before we’d get a recommendation back.

1:21:06 I think Miss Jenkins makes a good point. I think our speaker brought it to the table. This is something that’s very close to me.

1:21:14 So I would appreciate if, Doctor Rendell, you can move on finding it out and bringing it back. And even if we have to call some feedback from those groups, we could do that a little bit earlier. But I think with all speed.

1:21:25 Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And I definitely wasn’t waiting for the committee to meet by any means.

1:21:33 I really just wanted to publicly address that. I’ve had these conversations and I dropped the ball here. And I want you to know that if this was going through tonight, that that’s not something that’s going to be dropped any longer.

1:21:43 So, Miss Stampier, I will reach out to you and tell you the specific concerns that I was aware of, and then the people maybe you can possibly reach out to that can kind of explain it a lot better than I can. Thank you for. Thank you for advocating that, Miss Jenkins.

1:21:57 Anybody else have anything to say? No. If we’re good. All in favor, signify by saying aye.

1:22:03 Any opposed passes 50. Just so everybody knows, we’re about to move into those board policies where I read out like 15 board policies. So if you guys want to take intermittent restroom breaks along the way, feel free to check our email.

1:22:17 Understand? You can do whatever you need to do. But I just wanted to let you know that if you need to, that’s the reason I didn’t ask for a break, because you guys can take it. Okay.

1:22:25 All right. We will now hold a public hearing to address item g 20, school board policy 23 41, interscholastic athletics. Is there anyone here who wishes to address this item? If there’s anyone here who wishes to address this item? Okay, do I hear a motion? Move to approve.

1:22:44 Second. Any discussion? All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye.

1:22:49 All opposed passes 50. Okay, before we start, the next thing we. You do have to read them all.

1:22:55 But we don’t have to vote on every single one, right? We can vote on them in a batch. No, we have to vote on them individually. Mister Gabbs, can we vote on him? I asked him already.

1:23:06 We have to vote on individuals. The best practice is to vote on them as policy. So, yes.

1:23:12 Had already asked him. So. So if you can come over here, because my computer doesn’t have them set up.

1:23:18 Hang on, hang on. Gibbs did it. It was Gibbs that broke it.

1:23:21 Gibbs, come down here and fix it. You’re in the wrong. Oh, okay, wait.

1:23:26 Sorry, guys. Don’t let anybody know that we’re on tv. Don’t let anybody know.

1:23:34 All right. Okay, let’s get here. Round one, two, one.

1:23:41 Here we go. Okay, next item to hold is a public hearing on board policy 121, responsibilities and authority of the board. Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Anyone present who wishes to address this item? Seeing none.

1:24:02 All in favor, signify by saying aye or wait, wait, wait. Move to approve. Sorry, guys, we’re getting ready to go.

1:24:09 Move. Second, is there any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor, signify by saying aye.

1:24:16 Can I make a suggestion? If there’s anybody here who wants to talk about any of these policies that y’all go ahead and stand over there because otherwise he’s going to go really fast. We’re going to move quick. All in favor signify by saying aye.

1:24:26 Aye. All opposed passes 50 all right, next up is. I think she was waving that she approved it.

1:24:35 Next policy is 121.1 financial emergencies. Is there anyone here who wishes to address this item? Is there anyone here who wishes to address this item? Wait a minute.

1:24:46 What is your saying? Sorry. Mine doesn’t say that. Mine.

1:24:50 121 financial emergencies. No. We’re on.

1:24:56 Okay. Sorry. Yep.

1:25:05 Nope. Okay, sorry. Hearing none, move to approve second any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye.

1:25:22 Aye. Any opposed passes 50. Next up 122 board powers is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Seeing none, move to approve.

1:25:33 Second any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor signify by saying aye. All opposed passes 50.

1:25:56 Next up, is there anyone present who wishes to address board policy 122.1 member powers anyone present who wishes to address this item? Hearing none, move to approve second any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye. All opposed passes 50.

1:26:21 Next up hold a public hearing on board policy 123, standards of boardsmanship and code of ethics. Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Hearing none, move to approve second is there any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye. All opposed passes 50.

1:26:41 Next item to hold on. Public hearing on is board policy 124 standards of ethical conduct. Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Anyone present who wishes to address this item? Hearing none, move to approve second is there any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye.

1:27:14 All opposed passes 50 next policy next item to hold a public hearing on is board policy 131, legislative policy making is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Just so you know, you have to speak directly to the policy. Okay. I am speaking to the policy that it is not anywhere nothing you have called out is anywhere on this agenda.

1:27:50 There’s no speaker prepared to talk about anything you’re calling out because this agenda isn’t even remotely like what you’re calling out. Okay? Is there anyone else who wishes to speak to this item? Is there anyone else who wishes to speak to this item? Hearing none all in favor move to approve second is there any discussion? Yeah, just to. Just to clarify what the speaker had just mentioned because I. Again, when you look at the agenda, a lot of times you have to click on the attachment and the attachment will bring open all of the things that are there.

1:27:58 No, it’s on the Internet though. So if you can pull your phone up and pull the agenda, you can track along with us. But that’s where it’s advertised at.

1:28:04 Just so you know it has been properly noticed and it is on the Internet. I just wanted you to be aware of how to find it. Okay.

1:28:06 All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed 50 next item to hold a public hearing on board policy 133 quasi judicial is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Move to approve second any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye.

1:28:28 Aye. All opposed passes 50 next item is to hold a public hearing on board policies 141 number is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Anyone present who wishes to address this item? Hearing none move to approve second any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye aye any opposed passes 50 next item to hold a public hearing on board policy 141.

1:30:51 2 conflict of interest is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Anyone present who wishes to address this item? Hearing none move to approve second is there any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed passes 50 next item is to hold a public hearing on board policy 142.

1:31:14 3 orientation is there one present who wishes to address this item? Anyone present who wishes to address this item? Hearing none move to approve second any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye. All opposed passes 50 next item is to hold a public hearing on board policy 143.1 residents areas is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Anyone present who wishes to address this item? Hearing none move to approve second any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye.

1:31:39 All opposed passes 50 next item to hold a public hearing on is board policy 144 term is there anyone here that wishes to address this item? Is there anyone here who wishes to address this item? Hearing none move to approve second any discussion? Hearing none all in favor signify by saying aye. All opposed passes 50 next board next item to hold public hearing on is board policy 145 filling a board vacancy is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Hearing none move to approve second is there any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye. Any opposed passes 50 not bad.

1:32:22 We’re getting through it. Hang on, let me reset my thing here. Next item to hold a public hearing on is board policy 147 compensation is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Hearing none move to approve is there any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye.

1:34:30 All opposed passes 50 the next item is holding a public hearing on board policies 147.1 travel and per diem expenses is there anyone who present who wishes to address this item? Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Hearing none move to approve second is there any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye. Any opposed passes 40 next item is to hold public hearing on board policy 148 use of equipment and services is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Hearing none move to approve second any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye.

1:35:12 Any opposed passes 40 next item to hold a public hearing on is board policy 149 access to records is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Hearing none move to approve second any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye any opposed passes 40 next item to hear a public hearing on board policy 149.1 public expressions of members anyone present who wishes to address this item? Anyone present who wishes to address this item? Hearing none move to approve second is there any discussion? Hearing none all in favor signify by saying aye.

1:35:34 Aye any opposed passes 40 no that’s okay next up is the items to hold a public hearing on board policy 154 motions anyone present here to wish to address this item? Anyone present who wishes to address this item? Hearing none move to approve second is there any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye any opposed passes 40 next item to hear a public hearing on is public is policy 164 notice of meetings is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Anyone present who wishes to address this item? Hearing none move to approve second is there any discussion? Trying to get someone else? Hearing none all in favor signify by saying aye. All opposed passes 40 next up next item to hold is public hearing on board policy 165.

1:35:58 1 Order of Business anyone present who wishes to address this item? Anyone present who wishes to address this item? Hearing none move to approve second is there any discussion? Hearing none all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye all opposed passes. 40 next item to hold a public hearing on is policy 165.

1:36:04 3 special meetings is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Hearing none move to approve second is there any discussion? All in favor? Signify by saying aye. Any opposed? Is that an aye there? Mister Gibbs I know. I was just teasing him.

1:36:23 50 next item to hold a public hearing on is board policy 166 executive session is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Anyone present who wishes to address this item? Hearing none move to approve is there any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye any opposed? Hearing none policy passes. 50 next item to hold a public hearing on is board policy 171 review of policy is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Hearing none move to approve second any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye.

1:36:49 Any opposed passes. 50 next item to hold a public hearing on is board policy 171.2 review of policy, philosophy and goals is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Hearing none move to approve second is there any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye.

1:37:05 Aye all opposed passes. 50 next item to hold a public hearing on is board policy 171.3 review of policy and community relations is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Hearing none move to approve second is there any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye.

1:37:17 Any opposed should change your accent. I got it. I gotta do something that passes.

1:37:31 50 next item is to hold a public hearing on board policy 171.4 Review of Policy and ethics is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Hearing none? Move to approve any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye. Any opposed passes.

1:37:42 50 let me make sure last one this next item is to hold a public hearing on board policy 175 or 172 visitation of schools by individual school board members and legislators. Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Hearing none, move to approve second is there any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye.

1:37:50 All opposed passes. 50 all right Doctor Rendell, can 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 22, department school initiated agreements.

1:38:06 Do I hear a motion? Any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed passes.

1:38:24 50 next item is age 23, procurement distribution services. Do I hear a motion? Move to approve second is there any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor signify by saying aye.

1:39:06 Any opposed passes. 50 we will now move on to the informational agenda which includes items for board review and may not be brought back for action at subsequent meetings. No action will be taken at these items today.

1:39:27 There are two items under this category. Does any member wish to discuss any of these items? All right, hearing none. We’re now on to board member reports.

1:39:40 Does any board member have anything further to report or discuss? Oh, I just want to report that it’s 07:00 and we’re here. I think this is a world record. Come on, guys.

1:39:55 At the risk of going past 07:00 sorry, I just, I did want to, I was going to ask our doctor Rendell if we could talk about the AP psych thing for just a minute because there’s so many things that are spinning out there. I just would before, if you wouldn’t mind saying a few words. First of all, we hear you.

1:40:02 But I feel like what we don’t want to see is our students caught in the middle of war between college board and the state. I honestly am just to be completely transparent, I’m most frustrated with college board because if you go to college board’s website, they actually say, there’s a question on their website that says, if I don’t take an AP class, can I take the AP test? And you know what the answer is right off the bat? Yes. So what I feel like from what I’m hearing from Doctor Mandel, what he shared with us as a board this week through emails and what he shared with the public is we don’t want to put our students at, at risk of doing all the work.

1:40:17 And then college board at some point in the year fulfilling what they’ve already said they will do, which is to not allow students to take the test. But we are recognizing, staff is recognizing that students need those opportunities, whether it’s for psychology specifically. And we’ve come up with some options that the schools are going to be able to offer.

1:40:30 The ones our Cambridge schools already have other options, that IB schools already have other options, but also for the ones who just need that one more AP test. And we don’t want to leave those students in the lurch. It really was terrible timing.

1:40:56 I’m frustrated on a lot of levels, but we want to do what’s best for our students. And everybody may not agree, but I feel like Doctor Rendell and staff have really put a lot of thought into this. They did not do a knee jerk reaction to what really was a knee jerk situation.

1:41:07 But if you wouldn’t mind, Doctor Rendell just kind of sharing what our possible solutions are for our students. Sure. Thank you, misses Campbell.

1:41:26 So a couple things. There is some curriculum in the AP psychology course that if taught would violate recently enacted state legislation. So if our teachers teach the full course, basically they will violate state law.

1:41:47 AP has said if you do not teach the full course, we will not certify the course. So your students will not get apart credit, they will not be able to take the exam. So our students and teachers are actually the ones caught in the middle.

1:42:09 If we teach AP psychology as it is requested or required rather by a college board, the instructor is going to violate state law and we don’t want to do that to our instructors. If they teach the AP psychology course but skip the section that would cause them to violate state law, AP has stated on their website they will not certify the course and students will not get AP credit. They won’t even be able to take the exam.

1:42:44 So our students and our teach, our students and our teachers are the ones caught in the middle. We don’t want to put them in jeopardy by any means, students or teachers. So we’ve come up with alternative options.

1:42:57 So Cambridge is an international college level curriculum and international baccalaureate is an international college level curriculum. We have that in place at several of our high schools. So the schools that don’t have that or we’re going to offer AP psychology can use Cambridge psychology or IB psychology.

1:43:14 If the students take the test, the AP test or, I mean, excuse me, the Cambridge test or the IB test at the end of the year and they score high enough on those exams, they get college credit just like they would in an AP class. They can also substitute AP psychology with a different AP class. Most of our schools offer a wide range of AP courses.

1:43:17 So the idea is if you still want to take college level psychology, you can take Cambridge psychology or you can take International Baccalaureate psychology. If you want to make sure you take an AP course, you can take a different one aside from AP psychology. So our decision not to teach AP psychology was not really to deprive our students of that college level coursework.

1:43:26 It was to not put them in jeopardy of not getting any college credit for a course that they take and also not putting our teachers in jeopardy of violating state law. Even our schools who aren’t currently teaching ACE or IB will be allowed to teach the psychology class, ACe or IB of their choosing, and those teachers will be trained. So the only hurdles we have to overcome right now is making sure we have the instructional materials for those teachers, that is the textbooks and supporting materials if they choose to teach the ace psychology, the Cambridge psychology, that we have the materials for them, or IB.

1:43:39 And so some of the schools that already teach those courses, will be sharing materials until we get the new stuff in. But the teachers will receive training. If the kids, if they take the Cambridge psychology route, they’ll be fine.

1:43:46 They take the exam at the end, in the summer, at the end of the course, they score high enough college credit recognized by all the colleges and universities. Same thing with IB. So we feel like we’ve made the best out of a bad situation and made sure that our teachers are protected and that our students are protected.

1:44:05 I think that’s about it. Thank you Doctor Rendell. I very much appreciate that.

1:44:25 And we want to recognize that this is tough on the students, but it’s really tough. It’s going to be tough on those teachers who have to retrain in a different curriculum. It’s obviously, it’s psychology.

1:44:29 It’s called little psychology. It’s not going to be completely different. But we recognize the challenge that it is for them and also the challenge it’s been for our counselors to try to scramble to change those, those schedules as students needed.

1:45:02 But I appreciate the flexibility that our staff is going. But I just wanted to recognize that it’s been tough for everybody. It was tough for you guys to make that call last week.

1:45:18 Anytime we have those last minute changes, it’s really difficult. Can I just, can I ask you to clarify one more thing too? Just because I think it’s important, because I’m sure people are listening, tuning into this very specific topic. Can you just, I feel like people are very confused because the information flew off the shelves.

1:45:31 Right. So can you just clarify, you’ve responded to people via email about the timeline. So that memo where the state took it back, I think it’s really important for you to let people know when that memo actually came out because it makes it more frustrating and confusing for the public.

1:45:40 So I appreciate when you respond via email. Thank you misses Jenkins. That makes a ton of sense.

1:45:52 So last Thursday morning the superintendent statewide were on a conference call, Zoom call actually, and we were discussing this very topic and basically the DOE was on the call. The Department of Education, the Florida Department of Education, the state superintendents association had put together the call with the DOE so they could talk to us about this dilemma with AP psychology. And basically the Florida Department of Education said on the call, you can teach the course, it is in the Florida course code directory, but you cannot violate state law.

1:46:06 You can teach the course but you cannot violate state law. So some of the superintendents said, well, there’s a section in the course that if taught to college board’s requirements would violate state law. And they said, again, you can teach the course.

1:46:37 You can’t violate state law. That was Thursday morning. By Thursday afternoon, college board had issued a statement that Florida districts, if they teach the course in its entirety, they would violate state law.

1:46:55 And if they didn’t teach the course in its entirety, that they would not certify the course and college and the students would not get college credit. It’s still on their website. It’s still their stance.

1:47:15 It’s still their statement on their website. So the DOE had given us that information Friday morning and then released a statement stating the same thing. You can teach the course.

1:47:32 It’s in the course code directory. You should be able to teach it in an age and developmentally appropriate way without violating the law. All of the teachers that we’ve talked to that teach those sections say you cannot teach those sections without violating the law.

1:47:48 So in full transparency, there are a handful of districts that are still going to teach AP psychology. I was on another Zoom conference call with state superintendents today, listening to those districts who are going to go forward with AP psychology. And basically they are hoping that the curriculum that they submit because other background information for you, for college board to certify a course, you have to submit your syllabus.

1:48:11 So all of our AP psychology teachers would have to submit their syllabus to college board to be approved to receive the credit. So those districts are hoping that the material that the lesson plans that the syllabus they submit to college board will be blessed. They are hoping they don’t know that.

1:48:20 And so we aren’t going to do that. We’re not going to hope that we could get the course approved by college board and teach it in a certain way that doesn’t violate state law. I don’t want to put our teachers in that position and I don’t want to put our students in a position to take this course all year and then not get credit.

1:48:27 Thank you. I appreciate you doing that because the way it came out to the public was very, very confusing. And regardless of how you feel in this issue, it’s a weird, it’s a very frustrating place for the school district to be in because there’s really no wonderful solution here.

1:48:59 Right. And so I just, I wanted you to reiterate that because I know we’ve been getting emails and you’re going to get criticized for that decision, but it’s not an easy decision and I wanted people to be aware of that. You literally were sitting on a call where the state said, yeah, you can teach the course, but.

1:49:06 And then college board made this statement, and then the state made their very broad statement that people read on surface level and don’t understand that you were explicitly told you can’t teach it in its full capacity. So unfortunately, our hands are tied in making the best decision we can to try not to impact our students and teachers negatively, either now or later on. So thank you for clarifying that.

1:49:19 Thank you. And I wanted to say I agree with you, Miss Campbell, 100%. One of the frustrations that I feel strongly about is the college board.

1:49:27 I taught AP, us history, and some of the other apartments courses. I also was a part of the Cambridge program at ogalley. I know both of them intimately.

1:49:36 I understand the curriculums and the teachers. One of the issues that we’re running into is that the teachers that are out there that were willing to take and teach this class have to go through trainings ahead of time and lose revenue at the end of the year because they no longer are able to get those dollar 50 per. So that may be something that we want to address moving forward, is that you have teachers that would have, if the student passes, they get at least $50 per kid, and now no longer, when they take that chance to go over the summer to learn about the curriculum, to do it, to get ready and go.

1:49:42 That’s one aspect. The other aspect that I’d like us to try to look at. I’ll talk to Doctor Andrell and see if we can bring it forward.

1:49:55 The other issue that we have is that when you teach advanced placement, there is no way you’re going to teach the entire thing. Everybody understands that. And when you learn and they train you over the summer, they tell you you gotta focus on these main themes.

1:50:19 Like, they tell you where to focus. And for that, lockup like that was just kind of frustrating. And you’re right, Miss Campbell.

1:50:32 There were kids that took my regular us history class and would go take the AP course at the end and pass it. They never even took the course. Like, they just knew that they could pass the test.

1:50:36 So I think, Miss Campbell, you’re 100% right. I really appreciate you bringing this up for clarification. It’s something that was needed.

1:50:42 Thank you, Doctor Rendell, for that. Miss Campbell, did you say that you had something else? Yes. One other thing I just wanted to share, just at the risk of getting a little philosophical.

1:50:49 I was thinking the other day about how we function as a boar. I don’t know why I just woke up sometimes. Maybe it’s being 48, I wake up in the morning sometimes thinking about deep issues, and I was thinking about, about, you know, what? Can I compare our job as a board and leaders of this district to what’s a good picture in the physical world, in the natural world? And, you know, it’s.

1:50:55 We. Preparation is so important for us. And so it’s like, okay, maybe like a concert or a play, but really it’s not that, because if we function as performers, then we’re not really doing the right thing.

1:51:01 Right. The preparation is right, but we’re not really putting on a show for people. That’s.

1:51:14 If we’re putting on a show, then we’re doing things wrong. I think I thought about sports. You know, sports is always a great illustration.

1:51:26 My husband’s a pastor, so he’s an infinite resource of illustrations. Uses sports a lot. But we’re not really competing.

1:51:34 You know, we could be a team. We’ve got that teamwork expert aspect, the practice, the putting in the time. That is all still so important.

1:51:45 But we’re not really competing with our districts. We don’t want to see them lose. Yeah, we want to be higher ranked than them, but we don’t want to see them lose.

1:51:55 And we also shouldn’t be, as individual board members. And doctor Rendell include him, too, competing against one another, because if we’re doing that, then we’re doing it wrong again. So I just sat there and I’m like, maybe it’s because it was 530 in the morning.

1:52:17 I had a hard time, like, what can I think of? What can I think of? And I went to our special guest that you brought in, Eric. And I forgot his last name already. Winemeyer.

1:52:29 Winemeyer. Blind since the age of 14. Climbed seven peaks, kayaked through the Grand Canyon.

1:52:55 But that mountain climbing thing came back to me, and I thought it was so important when he talked about your rope team. That’s the right term, right? The rope team. And that doctor Wendell has made that the theme for this year.

1:53:18 And I thought that is a great illustration because the preparation for. For that kind of climb, that kind of task is huge. It’s so essential.

1:53:44 Not only that they have the right equipment, but they practice and they have the trust built to work together. And all the way up to the very tippy top, they have to work and rely on one another. And there are probably times when they don’t get along, and there’s probably one times they may not like each other, but they really have to work together.

1:53:55 And he talked about the dead tuna, right? Remember every now and then you’re the dead tuna and everybody’s pulling you along. That’s the term they use and climbing for the person who just can’t help right now, or sometimes you’re helping pull the dead tuna. So.

1:54:11 But we all have to be prepared. And I just love the illustration and I’m glad you brought that up because it just, and I just wanted to say, you know, for me, I want to, I want my focus and I hope all of our folks can be on that kind of goal because, because the truth is, as we succeed, the five of us, the six of us, the seven including Paul, appear on the front if we don’t work together. Well, here’s the other thing that’s important to that illustration.

1:54:28 It can be dangerous maybe to some of us, but really to our organization, we have to function well. We have to be prepared. We have to each know our role and stand and not be performing like the stage and not be competing like sports, but really to be prepared and focused.

1:54:36 And he talked about sometimes you have to sacrifice things for the good of the person who’s next to you that maybe, maybe need a little help, a little extra help. We have a whole team of 9000 people and then they have a whole team of 60 something thousand students. And we, I just want us to focus, I want to focus this year on that rope team idea.

1:54:40 And I think there is a way, we have our moments, we’ve had them tonight where we can all pull together in the same direction. And thank you, Miss Bywater, for sermonizing to us. We probably needed a little bit of that today.

1:54:55 I did too. But it’s so essential for us to come together and work together because there is a potential for this board to lead our district in a dangerous direction. And at any given time, I mean, like danger, danger, but, you know, just in a bad direction.

1:54:58 But we, when we’re pulling together and we’re all fulfilling our roles, we do good work. I think we’ve done some good work today. And I hope, Doctor Rendell, that you will continue to put that image, I know you’re going to put it before your administrators and your leadership team, but before us as well, because that was a really good message for us.

1:55:02 And again, it just kind of, kind of locked in with me the other night, you know, 530 musings of a 48 year old woman. Am 05:30 p.m. That’s all. Bets are off. But I appreciate you giving me the time. Just, I just wanted to, as I was thinking about that this week, it’s really important what we say. Every word is measured and recorded. But important to the team that we lead and the students that they impact every day. Day. Thank you. Thank you very much. Miss Campbell. Doctor Rendell, do you have anything else? No, sir. Hearing no further business. This meeting is adjourned.