2023-08-22 - School Board Meeting

3:14 Good evening. August 22, 2023. Board meeting is now in order. I’m happy to welcome my fellow board members and the public.

3:21 I would like to take this opportunity to remind the public that your appropriate place for public participation in the meeting is during your individual public comment opportunity as identified in the agenda. Outside of your individual public comment opportunity, your role in the meeting is as an observer. Paul, roll call, please.

3:38 Mister Susan. Here. Miss Wright? Here.

3:40 Miss Campbell? Here. Mister Trent. Here.

3:43 Miss Jenkins. The board will now hold a moment of silent reflection and invite the audience to join. Miss Hannah, can you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance from the podium? Thank you.

4:17 Everybody else, stand up. Say it loud and say it proud. 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.

4:48 Tonight we are very fortunate to have with us the Rockledge high school orchestra under the direction of Miss Megan McGivney, here to perform for us. Miss McGivney, you have the floor. Sa sa it.

8:37 Sa sa sa. Just want to make sure. I didn’t want to be disrespectful.

12:57 Miss Addison, can you go to the podium and your team here and your experiences and say hi? Hi. My name is Addison Jones. This is the Rockledge Chamber Orchestra.

13:18 Our program is built off of inclusivity and family. We were really excited to come and perform and we appreciate the opportunity. Thank you guys.

13:33 You guys don’t have any questions for Miss Addison or any of the team? No, but I wanted to make the point that it’s only the 9th day of school. That was my question. I was thinking, great job, you guys.

13:43 Great job, you guys. Amazing. That’s awesome.

13:46 So thank you so much. If you guys will pack and we’ll do some introductions in between there. Is that okay? So we’re going to take a short video break.

13:53 Yeah. All right. Do you know how long that’s going to be? I don’t need to take a break.

13:58 We’re just going to let them. He’s holding up three fingers. Three minutes.

14:01 Three minutes break for three minutes. Okay, so we just stay up here while they’re running a video. Okay.

14:08 Thank you. Thank you. Choosing your child’s school is one of the most important decisions your family will make for parents.

14:20 With elementary students, it may seem like middle school is lurking the great unknown, but you have options. Our eleven middle schools offer an academic challenge, including avid Cambridge STEM courses, robotics, coding science research, national junior honors society, and more. At brevard public schools, our middle schools are the launch pads to high school success.

14:49 Don’t just take our word for it. Hear from parents and students. It’s a big jump going from elementary school to middle school.

14:57 And I think the teachers do a really great job bridging that gap. They hold the school day during the summer where the kids can come in, you know, and they meet the teachers and they learn their schedules. You know, it makes them really at ease before they go to the first day of school, everybody is just like, they don’t care who you are, what background you come from.

15:18 They will just accept you, include you, and be kind to you. The staff and administration have really focused on creating a community, and it’s just that feel of family, and that’s probably my most favorite thing about the school. The staff members definitely care about this.

15:36 Like, if you ever need anything, they’re always there for you. It doesn’t matter what it’s about. And very nice overall.

15:45 The staff definitely care for the students and their education. They’re always encouraging them to do their best and be their best, and they encourage them to believe in their own bright future. When you have teachers that believe in you like that and are telling you that you can do this, we’re prepping you for college.

16:01 It’s just great for them to hear that from the teachers that they look up to. My favorite things about coming to school is how there’s so many opportunities between electives and clubs. It’s just a great experience.

16:14 Overall, everyone is dedicated to the success of the children here. They have really great programs. If your child isn’t interested in academics or sports, they also have other, other opportunities that will meet the needs of your child.

16:31 There are also options for band, chorus, drama, debate, culinary, and sports each day and each year at BPS, our middle schools prepare students for their best future. Schedule your school visit today. It it.

17:46 At this time, I’d like to offer my fellow board members and doctor Rendell an opportunity to recognize students, staff, or members of the community. I think, Miss Campbell, if you’d like to go first. Sure.

17:56 Sure. You know, this afternoon we had a wonderful and lengthy presentation on the state of athletics in the district. But I have to say, especially after just seeing the performance that we saw, that there is another area of participation that through the decades and through research, has been shown to improve reading levels, improved test scores.

18:19 Students who participate in these things have more successful careers and college opportunities, and that is the performing arts. And I am very proud to be a part of Brevard, and I want to continue to challenge the board that as we support athletics, we want to continue to support our performing arts because we have great ones. And those also are shown to just prove to drive students to community and have a better experience of school while they’re here with us, but also help them to have success beyond us.

18:47 And I want us to continue to have our priority in that area. I want to do a shout this week to educational technology. You know, we are on the 9th day of school and it is always everybody’s geared in and focused on the job at hand.

19:03 But when we have a beginning of a school year and all of a sudden we’ve had this lull in the summer, and then all of a sudden 70 something thousand people log in all at the same time. Shout out to Russell Cheatham and his whole team. A huge team, not big enough, but a team of people who make sure that we can all get online and do our work.

19:23 They handled a big chunk of the power outage at Ogalley High School in the first day because we didn’t have phones and Internet and all of that related to the power outage, which is not anybody’s fault. It just happened. And so, as well as tracking down rogue apps that create security risks and all the bajillion public records requests that have happened lately.

19:45 So I just want to appreciate them tonight. I’m trying to hit a different department each time, but I just was thinking about them today and all the work they do, especially at the start of school, getting us all rolling. They are quite frequently unsung heroes, and I thought I’d sing their praises a little bit tonight.

19:59 Thank you, mister chair. Thank you, Miss Campbell, Mister Trump. Sure.

20:05 I too would like to mention a little bit about what we learned this afternoon. And a shout out to our own Kevin Robinson, which is our district athletic director. It was a wonderful presentation, very promising, of what’s going to happen, hopefully, if his vision comes to fruition completely here in Brevard county, with athletics, bringing it in on an intramural basis and then competing even at the elementary or the middle school teams.

20:34 It’s a wonderful vision and program. We know the life altering effects that being connected to your school, other than just academics, can do for students. So we’ve got somebody and a whole team behind them that’s going to make this come true.

20:50 So big shout out to Kevin. Welcome back to school. So, of all the schools that I’m visiting again, I just see the excitement in this year.

21:01 It seems like the past is getting further back in the past, and we’re getting everything back to normal here in Brevard. And that’s exciting for those of us that have lived through the last few years on our campuses. And we can see things are moving forward.

21:18 And again, welcome back. And it’s gonna be an exciting year. Thank you, Miss Wright.

21:25 All right, I wanna give a shout out to Madison meddles. So I have had hands on with this school for some time now. And, you know, that’s a tough school.

21:34 And it’s got, it’s just, it’s tough overall. But I wanna give a shout out to Travis Diesel. So he is doing amazing things.

21:39 He has filled all of their teacher, yeah, their instructional teacher vacancies, which I’m like, what in the world? So amazing job that he is doing there. Appreciate him. He’s doing phenomenal things.

21:50 Also, want to give a shout out to an organization called Young Kings. So I had the opportunity last week to go along with Miss Kershaw to meet with Mister Ramos, who is the tech person, I believe, at Viera, and then officer Prince and officer Taylor, who are two of our sros in the north end of the county, and sit down and listen to their heart and their vision for how they’re going to invest in kids and mentoring kids and making sure they’re raising up the next generation of students that will become citizens of our community that contribute. And so I just want to give a shout out to them because they truly are somebody who has seen a problem and met it and met that need.

22:24 And so I’m just. Every time I meet with him, I’m like, I am so inspired by you guys. I want you guys to come and tell the world about your vision and what you’re doing, because I truly do believe that those are some world changers.

22:33 So, thank you guys so much for all that you’re doing. Also, want to give a shout out to Mister Ramer in the back, back there. So I have received several messages about how wonderful he is and how just this year is so different than previous years.

22:45 And so, good job, you guys. Miss Harris, you’re doing a wonderful job. Everybody is extremely happy.

22:51 So our team is up and running, and we’re just grateful for the team that we have here. Thank you. I want to echo those same things.

22:59 I actually called Rammer last Friday, and I told him how amazing he was doing because I’ve been hearing some of the same things and the same thing with Miss Harris. So I agree with you wholeheartedly, and thank you so much for the work that you guys are doing. You guys are running as fast as you can to do the amazing job you are.

23:14 And I wanted to take a second and say thank you. I also wanted to, everybody understands what mister Trent was saying. There’s a large expansion of athletics that’s going on right now to include k through six programs of six weeks so that students will be able to compete in soccer, basketball and all those things and have a jamboree at the end of these little six week seasons so they can test out some of the athletic things that they may want to be interested in.

23:37 And then some of the other sports like rowing and rugby and some of the other things that are going to be club sports that are offered. It’s going to be great. So just like we were talking about some of the great, great things that the orchestra and some of the opportunities the kids there have, there’s also statistics that actually show and reports that talk about rigorous physical activity also indicates higher test scores and lower discipline.

23:59 So welcome that with Mister Robinson and the great job he’s doing, I wanted to welcome the Viera High school band and cheer squad. Thank you so much for coming tonight. We really appreciate you coming here and advocating for who you are.

24:10 I got a call from Miss Dravis who’s the, she’s the athletic director currently at Viera High School, but she’s also the cheer team. She called me about a half an hour ago and said, hey, you’re going to see my girls come up there. So we’re able to kind of lock off some areas.

24:24 So we encourage students to come and you know, advocate for their beliefs and everything else. And we appreciate you guys being here. But I did want to say that there’s a special individual here that’s received an award and I wanted to give an individual to come up here and explain, but I wanted to tell you guys about this man just from the wholeheartedly experience that I’ve had with him.

24:44 Mister Bill McGinnis runs our aviation program at Ogalle high school. And my story starts with Bill. Way back before he was even hired, our former CTE director, Miss Janice Schultz called me and she said, hey, we’ve got a guy that I think we can build a program around.

25:00 And I said, who is he? Says, well, he’s this amazing guy, former coast guard veteran. He lives in Alabama. I said Alabama.

25:07 I said he’s going to move all the way down here. Oh man. And then all of a sudden he came.

25:11 And then the next thing I knew, this man, I get this call, it wasn’t Bill it might have been three weeks into school, and he calls me and he says, I don’t have enough room. They’ve got me in this locker room. Mister Susan, you represent this school.

25:22 I need you to come down here immediately. I said, okay. And I walked down there.

25:26 This man was carrying airplane wings through Viera High or through Ogalley High School in the back. And I said, what in the world? And he was literally taking in airplane wings. He had the kids working on him, and I was like, we’ve got to get this guy.

25:38 So we built an entire aviation center. The only stand alone aviation hangar in the United States for a high school is at O’Galley High School, built because of this man right here. And I just wanted to say, from not only the perspective of driving our students to achievement, but then the man is also an amazing holistic human being.

25:57 He also preaches, he’s the head of his church, Coco, and if anybody wants to go there, it’s not a very large church, so don’t bring a bunch of your friends. But he does have a. He bring them all, and you guys be outside.

26:08 But the thing is, is that during the pandemic, Bill took in some of students that were special needs, that were released from another area, so he took them in. And Bill, you’re just all the way around, man. Like, I’m just so proud of you and who you are and what you’ve brought to our school district.

26:24 If we had 100 bills, we would, would be able to do some amazing things here. But anyways, I did want to just say thank you. I was there on the second day of school because Ogalle had a little bit of an interruption.

26:37 And I walked in there, and he had up all of the jobs that the kids have gone to with all of the employers. And, I mean, it’s phenomenal what you’ve done. I mean, you must have a graduation rate inwards of like 80% that are taking jobs in the industry or higher.

26:51 And those, I mean, all the way from Northrop Grumman to Piper airplane and Brer, and, I mean, it just was phenomenal. And the other day, I was in there, and they had the Mars rover in there, and they were working on tracks for the Mars rover. So I just wanted to say thank you from the bottom of my heart.

27:04 But for the award that you received, I have to introduce, first off, I want to say retired two star general, Mister Dwyer. Dennis and his wife Tammy are here. Thank you for coming and being a part of this.

27:14 And then I also have to recognize Mister Russ Louie, president of the Space Coast Air and Space Forces Museum and retired colonel from the Air Force. Mister Louie, if you’ll take the stand and explain what we’re about to do, because this is a heck of an award that this man just won. Mister Susan, thank you very much.

27:34 Words do not express how excited and proud we are. We in Brevard know that we’ve got an outstanding group of, of students and instructors. But it’s times like this that it comes to bail.

27:49 I represent from the Air and Space Forces association, formerly known as the Air Force association, over 100,000 men and women that are supporting, that are advocating, supporting and more importantly educating for our air and space forces. Without teachers like Bill, our students are going to be left behind. But more important, our nation is going to be left behind.

28:16 And each year we recognize the most outstanding teacher of the year. Two years ago Bill was put up as our chapter representative. Our chapter teacher of the year, hands down, was easy pick went on, was selected as the state teacher of the year.

28:34 This year he was able to compete as the national teacher of the year. And it is my distinct honor and privilege to say that Bill McNennis is the national teacher of the year for the Air and Space Forces association. This is no small task and in fact it is sponsored by Rolls Royce.

29:03 So Bill will be going up to Washington DC to receive the award where we’ll be going over to the Capitol, meeting with congressmen and senators, telling them all the great things we’re doing this Friday. Hopefully we’ll be watching a space launch. Those astronauts will be going up there working with equipment that builds, students have built.

29:28 Incredible. And anybody that has any doubt that it’s not well deserving, just look up and I guarantee you’ll see something that your students here in Brevard are doing. And so Mister chairman, if I could please just.

29:42 I’d like to bring Bill. There’s a military tradition that we do is we coin, those are excellence. And I can think of no better person than deserving of this coin from our air and Space Forces association than Mister Bill McGinnis, sir.

30:01 Thank you Mister McGinnis. Bill. Take that.

30:15 Bill, we’re going to get a big picture with you. But I wanted to give you the floor also if you would like to speak. Mister Bill, could you put my picture up? Oh, it’s on broadcast.

30:25 I don’t think they can see it, but what’s out there is a picture of where my kids are right now. This is neat. I appreciate this so much.

30:34 Unexpected, greatly appreciated. But this isn’t cool. Let me tell you what cool is.

30:40 One of my students, and we’ll call her name out. Lauren Henderson. She’s an adult now.

30:45 I can say her name. Finished our program up at the end of last year, was hired by Lockheed Martin straight out of high school on the Orion program. She is currently building the space capsule that will send our astronauts to the moon.

31:05 That’s amazing. That’s cool. It’s not what I do.

31:20 It’s what our kids do. And they’re getting careers. It’s not just a job.

31:26 They’re going into things that will carry them throughout the rest of their lives. So my favorite saying is, my job’s easy. Get the kids off.

31:35 Off the parents payroll and on the industry’s payroll. Thank you. Good stuff.

31:45 I wanted. We’re going to get a picture with everybody, but I wanted to give everybody the opportunity to speak on bill before we did that. Anybody want to say anything? No, I can’t add too many kudos to that.

31:56 Great job. We always appreciate you. And it’s a program that we.

31:59 Because it’s so unique across the state, really. There’s plenty of jobs to go around. More school districts need to emulate what you’ve got going on here.

32:08 But it is a fantastic program that I love to brag on. Just thank you. Thank you.

32:18 And thank you. It’s always our goal to find programs that we can put kids in and then it’ll last for the rest of our lives in some sort of. Of career.

32:29 We talk about our CTE programs always, but, I mean, this is a program that would be pretty hard to match, but it takes unique individuals like yourself. So thank you so much, Phil. Thank you so much.

32:42 Honestly, sometimes day in and day out, you get bogged down with the things that happen here. And then someone like you comes along and you remind us of our why and why we’re doing the things that we’re doing. And I just thank you so much because you truly are changing the world into making it a better place.

32:57 Thank. And you. We couldn’t do it without you, so thank you.

33:00 So I wanted to say this last piece before we take the picture is that Bill built the house that he’s in not only by coming, but then also he advocated and went to Tallahassee with us. And Senator Mayfield paid for half of the building. Then he came back up the next year and demanded for half of the equipment.

33:17 And one of the well known facts is, I know when Bill’s coming. I always leave my wallet in the car because he’ll always empty it out. So what I’m looking forward to doing is seeing how much money you’re willing to bring back to our programs and for our children when you go up there to the federal government and start talking to all them senators.

33:32 Because I know that’s what his first thing he’ll do. He’ll do it. He’ll do it.

33:35 He’ll say yeah, this is great. Just like he did there. This is exactly what he does.

33:38 He goes, he says, well this is great, you know, thank you for this honor, but this is what we really need. And I could do much better if you guys donate this money to my program. And he gets them right there and he gets it every time.

33:48 There is nobody that raises more money than this guy right here. And I just wanted to say thank you because you can’t say no. So Bill, if you’ll come up and we can take a big picture with you, that’d be great.

33:55 That’s awesome. Doctor Rendell, I think you have some big announcements to make right now. Thank you mister chair.

35:46 I’d like to call up Mike Alba, our director of educational leadership and professional development. He has a couple other awards to hand out, some other people to celebrate for all their hard work. Hi, good evening and thank you Doctor Mendel and members of the board.

36:02 It is an honor to announce the principal and assistant principal of the year for brevard Public schools. The Principal Achievement Award for outstanding leadership and outstanding assistant Principal Achievement award were established in 1988 to recognize exemplary principals and assistant principals for their contributions to their schools and communities. The program honors principals and assistant principals who have spearheaded initiatives who increase student performance, promote safe learning environments, and establish partnerships with parents and community members.

36:34 We acknowledge and deeply respect the formidable responsibilities that come from being a school administrator. The individuals we are recognizing tonight as finalists and winners truly embody authentic leadership, unwavering determination, and a high level of professional professionalism. The remarkable efforts in collaborating with educators, staff, parents, and the community showcase their community a commitment to upholding the core mission of our school district, to serve every student with excellence as the standard.

37:06 These exceptional individuals are a reflection of the outstanding school leaders that we are incredibly fortunate to have within the BPS community. Joining us for this recognition will be Gary Schifrin, executive director, and Richard Myers, assistant executive director of the Brevard association of School Administrators, along with Julie Demig and Sharon Barry from Community Credit Union. As you are aware, the Community Credit Union is a member owned financial institution that has a long history of supporting brevard public schools and tonight is no different as they are supporting each winner with a check and gift bag.

37:43 We have the privilege this year of honoring at this board meeting the winners for principal and assistant principal of the year, as well as recognizing the two finalists for this year. Our Principal of the Year and Assistant Principal of the Year winners will receive a dollar 500 check and a goodie bag from our amazing business partner community credit union and a $500 check, flowers and a gift card from Brevard Public Schools. Our 220 24 finalists for principal and assistant principal of the year will both receive a $200 $250 check and flowers from Brevard Public schools.

38:17 I am also excited to announce that all four finalists and winners this year has the opportunity to attend the National association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, otherwise known as ASCD National Conference in Washington, DC in March. This will be an amazing conference for them to collaborate with other districts or other leaders across the country and of course, bring back their learning to share with the rest of the leadership team here in BPS. This professional learning opportunity is funded through some title two funds.

38:47 Prior to beginning the recognition, I’m going to provide Mister Gary Shifrin and Richard Myers with Brevard association of Schools Administrators. A moment at the MIC to say a few words and I’ll be back to start the awards. Thank you Mike.

39:07 On behalf of the Brevard association of School Administrators and the community credit union, I want to thank Doctor Rendell and the school board for taking the time to recognize these outstanding educators who hold very important roles in our school system. Although I think we all agree that the teacher is the most important person for the success of our students, it needs to be said that without the support of a great principal and assistant principal, our teachers would struggle as they perform their duties. Our administrators provide the necessary resources, motivation, research, encouragement, and so many other aspects of school life that allows our teachers and staff to bring out the very best in our students for their success.

39:57 Our administrators put in so many hours as they leave home to go to work in the dark and in so many instances arrive home way past sundown and most of them do not know what a Monday to Friday job is as they are attending the many sporting events, community gatherings, fundraisers, odyssey of the mind competitions, robotics, future problem solving, a drama, or a musical performance. And those are only a few of the administrative tasks that they complete. And I would add that the accountability issue has become so important over the past years that administrators are being held responsible for literally everything that takes place in their school.

40:46 We ask so much of our administrators and in Brevard County, I can tell you that the administrators go above and beyond and do an awesome job. Without their expertise, commitment, dedication, and certainly their passion, we would not be as successful as we have been over the years, where indeed, we have become one of the top districts in the state. And so tonight, we recognize our newest principal and assistant principal of the year, our assistant principal of the year, Kelly McCluney from Saturn Elementary School, and our principal of the year from Satellite High school, Bobbi Pruitt.

41:25 In addition, I would also like to recognize our assistant principal finalist, Jennifer Shockley from McNair, and our principal finalist, Michael Mahl from Palm Bay elementary. We are so proud of all of you and know you represent the very best we find and our awesome administrators. This recognition puts you in an elite group of all former principals and assistant principals of the year.

41:53 As a former superintendent once told me, this is a recognition that can never be taken away from you. Indeed, congratulations are in order, and you have much to be proud of. Thank you.

42:13 Thank you. Mister Schifrin. At this time, I would like for school board chairman Mister Matt Susan and Superintendent doctor Mark Rendell, and to join Mister Schiffer and Mister Myers, representing the Brevard association of School Administrators, and Miss Julie Deming and Sharon Barry with community Credit Union.

42:30 Join us at the very front of the stage here as we start our recognition. To start our program, we are going to start with the two finalists first. So that is at the very top, Mister Rendell, the two checks and the two flowers are for them.

42:50 So our process of selecting our finalists consists of nominees being submitted and eventually voted on by their peers. Then the two district finalists for both assistant principals and principals participate in a panel interview to select the winners and who represent brevard public schools at the state level competition. We will begin by recognition of our assistant principal and principal finalists.

43:12 So at this time, Miss Shockley and Mister Ma, would you join us up front to be recognized? You stayed there. You’ve got to stand there while I talk about you, right? So this is the best part. I will start by recognizing Miss Shockley.

43:52 So, Miss Shockley are 2024 assistant principal of the year finalist was previously working at McNair Magnet Middle School and is now the principal at Jackson Middle School. So congratulations on both these recognitions. Miss Shockley is the epitome of professional, smart, witty, and classy.

44:09 She transitioned to a new school in which she was able to hold things down over the summer alone, while one principal was departing and another one was arriving. She is respected by the faculty loved by the kids, offers valuable feedback on instruction, is data driven, and knows how to be a leader, and accepts leadership from others. Miss Shockley has an extensive institutional knowledge and is a mentor to many aspiring assistant principals and previous mentor to current principals across the district.

44:39 She knows how to organize and prioritize her work, understands district timelines and procedures, and works tirelessly to meet deadlines. Miss Shockley is dependable, loyal to her school team. Please join me in congratulating one more time Jennifer Shockley as Brevard Public Schools 2024 Assistant Principal of finals all right, now we’re going to move on to recognizing our principal of the year finalist, Mister Michael Mahl.

45:05 Mister Maul is a passionate belief in high standards and student success. He was assigned principal at Palm Bay elementary in 2017 while at school was in state turnaround status. Based on the school’s grade status, Mister Ma was given the daunting task of finding employment for teachers with unsatisfactory advanced scores and rehiring others.

45:28 This impacted the culture of the school and the morale of the teachers and staff. Mister Ma believes at his core that all students, regardless of circumstances, deserves an education. Through this belief, he trusts that when teachers are allowed to use their professional judgment and receive adequate support and training, they will have a positive impact on their students.

45:46 While visiting Palm Bay elementary, you will also notice that Mister Mall has created a model teaching culture that exemplifies our operational beliefs, specifically of having a professional teaching culture marked by shared purpose, collaboration, innovative spirit, and continual learning and building relationships among adults and students, anchored, of course in caring and trust and fueled by the mission of student success. Please join me in congratulating Mike Mohl, our 2024 Principal of the year finalists. Russ, did you take a picture of these guys already? Perfect.

46:23 I just don’t want to miss that opportunity. If you guys want to sit down and we’ll bring you back up for all group picture after you recognize the first two. All right, thank you.

46:35 It is now my honor to introduce and congratulate our 2024 Brevard Public Schools principal and Assistant principal of the year, Mister Robert Pruitt and Miss Kelly McCluney. Please come forward into the front of the room to be recognized. Thank you.

47:22 You have some big checks too to hold. You know, you got too many things to hold, so I want to figure out this, but yeah, we’ll talk about it first, then have them hold the checks. So I’m going to start by recognizing Miss McCloney, our assistant principal of the year winner.

47:37 Miss McLooney, in her position as assistant principal at Saturn elementary was key to the school raising their 20 21 22 school grade 89 points over the previous school year. She models, supports and sets high expectations through her administrative work and her willingness to take over a fourth grade classroom for six weeks. While continuing to assume her AP responsibilities, Miss McCluney restructured the teaching coaching cycle with the administrative team to include an additional cycle that allows for peer observation and grade level debriefs.

48:10 By extending support with district induction process, Miss McCluney has contributed to higher retention rates among Saturn’s first year teachers. Her positive impact is directly related to her robust ability to identify the new teacher’s needs and schedule. School and district support let’s congratulate Miss McClooney for being named the 2024 Brevard Public School’s assistant principal of the year.

48:43 I love the teacher. She’s definitely a Saturn superstar. So yes, absolutely.

48:53 All right. Lastly, we’ll be recognizing logistics principal of the year, Mister Robert Pruitt. So Mister Pruitt began his tenure at Satellite High School in July of 2018.

49:03 His commitment to his community, students and staff is unwavering. Mister Pruitt’s supportive attitude and positive relationships have allowed him to establish a caring and respectful culture at satellite High school. He spends many afternoons and evenings supporting his students at a variety of activities and events.

49:19 Mister Pruitt works with his teacher leaders and administrative team to analyze data, promote equitable access for all, and develop successful classrooms. He is a strong advocate for his students, which is evident in the focused work with his teachers targeting areas of need. This work resulted in satellite high school earning an a for the 2022 school year, showing growth in almost every category, with significant growth in math learning gains moving from 39% to 75%.

49:48 The lowest 25 learning gains moved from 36% to 66%, and science moving from 63% to 73%. So amazing work on, on moving those numbers. Mister Pruitt is also known for his ability to grow and support administrators and teacher leaders.

50:04 Please join me in celebrating Brevard Public Schools principal of the year, Mister Robert Pruitt. I think we’ll take one last big group picture. So, Miss Shockley, Mister Mall, if you would join us as well, and then we’ll get everybody together.

50:46 You’re not going to see it? Oh, well, yeah. It’s weird that we’re not up there. I don’t know, like.

50:55 No, I’m fine. I’m just saying. I know, me too.

51:03 I can move over. You can just smile, right? It looks like I’m back there. Yeah.

51:16 Good. Just so the audience aware, Miss McClooney and Mister Pruitt will be representing Brevard public schools at the state level competition. So they’re not quite done yet.

51:36 So hopefully they’ll be bringing back some additional awards for brevard public schools in the future. Thank you all very much. Thank you, mister chair.

51:51 I’m done. Oh, okay. That brings us to the adoption of the agenda.

51:58 You guys want to take it? You want to take a second so you guys can all kind of go? We’ll take a break for two minutes. That brings us to the adoption of the agenda. Doctor Rendell.

54:00 On this evening’s agenda, we will have administrative staff. I know, I know. Go ahead.

54:06 Thank you, mister chair. On this evening’s agenda, we have administrative staff recommendations, 16 consent items, one public hearing, and three action items. Changes made to the agenda since released to the public include the addition of f 17 job description custodian, and revisions to a eight administrative staff recommendations and h 29 procurement solicitations.

54:30 Do I hear a motion? Move to approve. Second. Any discussion? All in favor, signify by saying aye.

54:40 All opposed passes 50. Doctor? I’m sorry, you’re right. Four.

54:45 Doctor Rendell, will you please let us know about the administrative staff recommendations? I would love to, but the gentleman is out in the hallway and he’ll be back in a minute, so when he comes back in, we’ll do it. All right? You want me to come back to it? Eventually you can move to approve and approve. Yeah.

55:02 You want to just do that? Yes. Chairman Susan and members of the board, there are two items for your consideration. Do I hear a motion? Move to approve.

55:09 Second. Any discussion? All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye.

55:15 Any opposed? Passes for zero. You want to wait or you want to just as soon as they come back, we’ll get them in. We’ll do it at some point.

55:21 Okay, doctor Rendell, we go to public comment now? We’re out of order a little bit. Okay, we’ll hold up on it. We’re now at the public comments portion of the meeting.

55:38 And here he is. And we’ll bring him right up to the podium. Our new director of student staff and community engagement, Mister Hillary Poole.

55:46 Congratulations. Ok, thank you to Doctor Rendell and the board members. I really am excited about this opportunity.

56:00 I’m grateful and honored to come back to a place that has added so much value to my life. And hopefully I have the opportunity to represent this school board and this district and provide the same value back. Thank you very much.

56:13 Thank you. Congratulations. He knows we’re on a tight schedule.

56:21 Okay, he did it. He did it. We’re now on to the public comments portion of the meeting.

56:26 We have 19 number of speakers, and we will. That will each receive three minutes. I will call up three speakers at a time.

56:31 The first three speakers are Andrew Kemp, Beverly Marker, and Gina Deringe. And if I can get you guys to move to the. And sit in the seats right there.

56:43 That way we can keep moving. We’ve got 19 of them. So if you guys don’t move to there, I’ll probably move you to the back, and then you can.

56:50 Can speak at the end of the meeting. Mister Andrew Kemp. I know you’ve missed me.

57:01 I missed a couple of meetings, and it was only because I was recovering from trauma due to your leadership. So I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Drew.

57:13 I’m sorry, it’s Andrew. I haven’t filled out the form form yet, and my pronouns are he, she, and they, because I am here today to represent everybody. So let me gather my thoughts as I stand here.

57:40 As close as I can say to being a lifelong educator. It’s been more than half of my life, and the rest of it was spent in school. I’ve really known nothing other than education, and I realized that you were at the whim of DeSantis for much of this stuff, which makes.

58:03 Matthew, can you please not shake your head like that when I’m talking? Allowed to shake my head and laugh. I don’t appreciate Mitch Ruth smiling. Okay, if that’s what you think.

58:17 But I am here to represent all of the students that you don’t. Black students, Hispanic students, transgender students, all LGBTQ students, and especially special ed students are being publicly ridiculed and accosted by members of the community in a very public way. So I know there’s a lot of stuff going on in the district right now, and I’m really probably not going to take the full three minutes, but I know there’s all of this stuff going on with one of the schools in the investigation, and I hear a lot of stuff, names and blame going out.

59:09 But for people that believe in parental rights and parental responsibilities, maybe we need to call out the parents on this one, because students don’t act like that unless it’s okay for them to act like that, and they had to have learned it somewhere. So I think that is all that I have to say, except from my profound disappointment in this school district. And it really does bother me, the reckless disregard that the board has for many, many of these students.

59:53 Thank you. Thank you, Mister Kemp. Next up, Beverly Marker.

59:58 Someone’s keys are up here also. Okay, thank you. Just put them down there.

1:00:02 They’ll come back and get them. Thank you very much Mister Kemp. Miss Beverley Marker.

1:00:06 And then Gina Deringe. Is Miss Gina Deringe here? Okay. Derringe.

1:00:11 Thank you. Thank you. Sorry about that.

1:00:14 Amelia Carroll, you’re on deck. I’m a retired attorney and I found the video of the football players with the simulated sexual harassment extremely disturbing. Considering the fact that there are over 2000 students in Viera High school.

1:00:35 I also find it very disappointing and disturbing not to see more parents here. Whether you’re child is in the football program or not, there’s some kind of an environment and culture going on at the high school that these students believed that this behavior was going to be okay. Earlier tonight I talked to a young woman who’s a senior here.

1:01:01 She said she was subject to a similar incident earlier and nothing was done about it. She also informed me and I do find this young woman a very credible person, that this behavior is not unusual and it’s never addressed. That is absolutely not acceptable.

1:01:23 The Brevard schools seem to be totally against any kind of sex education. But every one of these students should be put through some training and learn more about sexual harassment and that absolutely not allowed. This is no boys will be boys as some people have argued.

1:01:40 This is no okay locker room behavior. This school board and the school administrators have to do something about this. As a criminal, former criminal defense attorney, I believe every darn one of these students should be charged with a crime and have to accept responsibility for what they’ve done.

1:02:05 And the kids that are victims, their faces are going to be out there forever. And that’s a huge problem too. Thank you.

1:02:15 Thank you. Miss Marker. Miss Gina? Good evening.

1:02:23 I’m Gina Derringe. I’m a retired history teacher with the district. Last Thursday night I had the honor of attending women in politics, a nonpartisan discussion with one of your members in attendance.

1:02:39 And while there I spoke to the manager of the Florida Solar Energy center in Cocoa and we struck up a conversation. I told her that I had taught in districts for many years and taught for two years at Cocoa High. And she mentioned Susan Schliether, that as the manager she is looking to start quite possibly a study hall in the afternoons at the center and would love to see local schools come to the study hall.

1:03:13 Wouldn’t that be an awesome study hall to go to at the solar center for Florida on the campus? So she wanted to know if I could reach out to someone in cocoa. Hi. To see if there would be interest.

1:03:27 And I said it’s been a long time, but I know some people there, I will try to contact them. Haven’t heard back yet, so that’s why I’m coming up and talking to you. I am not a stem person.

1:03:40 That is my husband, he’s the PhD and sister, engineering. But I can get pizza and snack for those kids. I can hustle that angle of it.

1:03:50 So school board, what a great opportunity of getting kids engaged early on into solar energy and other cool STEM activities. So she’s waiting for a director of academic studies to come on board and she wants to have kids to come and have study hall at her center. So see me during break for more information.

1:04:17 Thank you. Miss Derringer, if you would give that information to Mister Ramer. Who’s in the back? Mister Raymer, if you can have your hand.

1:04:26 There you go. They’ll figure it out back there. All right, next up is Miss Amelia Carroll, doctor Taylor Avanzi, and then Kurt Vieira.

1:04:38 Miss Carroll, if you’ll go up to the podium. Thank you. Hi.

1:04:42 On behalf of Viera high cheer team, we’re here to say that we appreciate the board taking all sides into consideration with any matters concerning the Viera high investigation. We understand that it is a terrible situation and that no one should be having to go through it. We are here to say that we care about Viera and all the programs being affected by this incident.

1:05:03 Not just being the football team, but also the marching band, color guard, dance team and Viera high cheer squad. Additionally, it would be affecting the families and kids who look forward to Friday night football and all the traditions it brings. And as troubling as the situation is, it is heartbreaking to hear that we may be losing a season that we’ve all been working so very hard for.

1:05:25 We also want to demonstrate that we are part of the community and that we are here to show that Viera is a good school and that we care about what is going on. Miss Carol. Thank you very much.

1:05:42 Doctor Taylor Avanzi. Kurt Vieira. Julia Anton.

1:05:48 Sorry, who was the next one? Doctor Taylor Avonz. Sorry if I say it wrong. Good evening.

1:06:05 I’m speaking today as a parent of a child that has been hazed. I want to make it clear that my son is not a political pawn, because football is over for him, no matter if the Viera football team season is reinstated or not. Those players that were involved took that away from him and turned his life upside down when they chose to post it on social media anti hazing, computer based training is not going to solve the problem.

1:06:38 It’s only a band aid if you don’t get to the root of what’s really going on. I’ve listened to the comments everywhere on the Internet, the news about how this situation is affecting all of the players who weren’t involved, the band, the cheerleaders and other activities. But I encourage you to think about how this is affecting my son.

1:06:59 I’ve seen in the news that you have a timeline and want to get the investigation and everything wrapped up by tomorrow, if possible. Just know for me there is no timeline for justice and there is no timeline for the emotional trauma that will be left behind when things go back to business as usual. For all of you.

1:07:25 Thank you. Miss Evonzi. Kurt Viera Julia Anton Gregory Ross Good evening.

1:07:39 Good evening sir. I’m here as a parent of Viera football player. We are new to the community.

1:07:49 Sorry, that’s a first. Normally people, my voice carries. My wife and I are new to the community.

1:07:56 We are in the process of raising five children now onto two grandchildren. This is our 5th, 3rd high school that we’ve been involved with. I’ve spent 18 years as a high school varsity coach.

1:08:10 During the course of my life, I’ve had the opportunity to coach all of my children at one point or another. This is a very unfortunate situation and I’m very sorry that your family has been impacted by this, I really am. But what we have here is we have an opportunity for growth for everyone.

1:08:29 Not just the football players, not just Viera High school, but the entire community has the opportunity to stop and look at what our current perspectives are. As I was a young man sitting in your chairs as high school students, I saw a great deal more events than what’s typical now. I graduated from high school.

1:08:54 I never thought about it again until I got into high school coaching. As I started coaching, I became exposed to more things than I ever really thought of and I had to learn new perspectives. And there were things that I handled as a first year coach that when I ended my coaching career, I looked back on it and I would have liked to have had the opportunity to handle it differently.

1:09:21 I’ve never had to deal with anything like this. As I coach my players, as I work in the professional world, with teams that I develop, one of the things that I always push for all of those that I lead is that a mistake is not truly a mistake if you learn from it. Once you figure out that you’ve made a mistake, understand why that was a mistake.

1:09:53 Use that as an opportunity to learn how you can make a different choice the next time. And if you do that, it’s a learning opportunity and not a failure. And I really would like to challenge the board to take that perspective, to teach those that are involved so that they have an opportunity to learn a better perspective and use this opportunity district wide to allow all athletes to grow in perspective.

1:10:20 And it’s not just athlete types. Stanford University was right around the corner from us and they had a huge scandal with their bands. It’s not just sports, it’s all organizations that are looking at it as a hierarchy rather than a brotherhood.

1:10:37 So again, I’m asking for you to take your time and to think the whole thing through. And again, I’m sorry for your family is involved in this, because that should never happen. Thank you.

1:10:52 Thank you, Mister Vieira. Next up, Julia Anton. Then Gregory Ross, then Brian Capud.

1:11:09 Careful of the things you say, children will listen. Careful the things you do, children will see and learn. The children were listening and learning when at last board meeting, a teacher proudly announced he didn’t actually teach the curriculum because on healthy relationships, because the curriculum featured a gay couple.

1:11:35 The children learned from his remarks that he consider such couples to be unworthy of learning about healthy relationships. And they also learn from the fact that you didn’t do anything about him not teaching the curriculum, that you don’t care either. Children look to you for which way to turn.

1:11:54 To learn what? To be careful before you say, listen to me, because children will listen. Children listen and learn. When you accommodate loud, angry voices insisting that you are safe here, must be removed from schools.

1:12:10 Children listen. And they learn that keeping kids safe isn’t your priority because you kowtow to that. Careful the spell you cast, not just on children.

1:12:21 Sometimes the spell may last past what you can see and turn against you. You want to investigate whether there’s a culture of bullying and unsafe behavior and aggression. Really, you’ve enabled such a culture every time you’ve kowtowed to demands that books teaching empathy must be removed from the shelves.

1:12:42 You enable that culture when you discontinue social emotional learning. You enable that culture. You enable the culture when you allow political agitators to use marginalized students as targets.

1:12:58 What can you say that no matter how slight, won’t be misunderstood? Careful what you say. Children will listen. When you weigh the harm done to boys who are pinned to the floor and simulated sex assault is performed on them.

1:13:15 And it’s done with a jeering audience, and it’s on a video that goes viral and will be there for the rest of their lives. And you weigh that against. I’m sorry, children.

1:13:27 You weigh that against the fact that cheerleaders don’t have a football team to cheer for and you actually think there’s a contest. Children are listening, they’re learning. And you’re teaching them that sexual assault is no big deal.

1:13:43 You’re teaching them that your commitment to their safety is not a zilch and non existent. And I see you, Mister Susan, making that face. That’s the problem right there.

1:13:58 What you’re teaching Mister Gregory Ross, Brian Caput or Capud. And then Mister Paul Rub. Good evening board.

1:14:12 Thank you for allowing public comment tonight. Before I got into what I’m going to read. I have question I just have to ponder and ask.

1:14:21 The board is Matt and doctor Rendell. I saw your interviews and press conference about the hazing incidence this week and I just have to wonder why you didn’t do that in front of the jail this time. With the sheriff.

1:14:39 With you. Right. Why not? Right.

1:14:44 You’re hard on discipline until. Until this point. Right? Until it involves football.

1:14:49 Right. So you know, that’s the message you sent out. Be consistent.

1:14:56 Right. I got two minutes here, so I’m going to say this. I’ve lived in Brevard for 23 years and for Florida the majority of my life.

1:15:09 My children have been bps for 15 years and they have participated in numerous BPS programs including choice schools, CTE programs, educational program opportunities, athletics, band, and numerous after school clubs and programs. I am here to speak about what I’ve seen in the last nine months since Gene Trent and Megan Wright were sworn into the board and Matt Susan was elected chair. I have seen highly qualified, knowledgeable and experienced staff and administrators leaving at a historically high rate.

1:15:40 I’ve seen teacher resignations hit a historic high. I’ve seen teacher retention hit a historic low. I’ve seen the number of underqualified teachers hit a historic high.

1:15:46 I’ve seen the quality of teachers drop to a historic low. I have seen the separation of church and state chipped away at. I have seen the amount of censorship of thoughts and ideas hit a historic high.

1:15:54 I have seen Matt Susan ethically misuse his position as school board chair. I have seen the school board chair exhibit his frail grasp of Robert’s rules of order. I have seen Matt Susan publicly lie on numerous occasions, even doing so from the school board chair podium.

1:15:54 I have seen school board members Matt Susan, Jean Trent and Megan Wright actively engage with citizens who are actively suing the district. I have watched this board consistently put politics over students. I have seen bigotry and hate exhibited towards those this board would eliminate from society if they could.

1:15:54 I have seen this board ignore or deliberately misinterpret public input on serious topics. I’ve seen this board address every stupid culture war issue instead of addressing the education, health and welfare of Brevard county students and BPS teachers, admin and staff. Lastly, I’ve sadly watched far too many times the policies, actions and words of this school board make Brevard county schools the laughing stock of Florida and on occasion, the nation do better.

1:17:12 Mister Brian Capud, then. Paul Raub and Amy Raub, please. Is Brian here hearing no, Brian.

1:17:21 Moving on. Mister Paul Raub, Miss Ab Raub and Richard Bieber, please. Miss Raub, if you’ll make your way to the front.

1:17:28 And Mister Weber, if you’ll make your way to the front. Thank you. Evening.

1:17:38 Oh, is this on? No, I got it. Go ahead. Thanks.

1:17:46 First of all, please, anytime you want to start off with an orchestra performance, please let’s have that happen as often as possible. More student that was wonderful. That’s it? No, sorry, Miss Campbell, I really appreciated your heartily.

1:18:04 Second, your comments on the importance of arts and the value of those. And if you know, if you have any friends on the county commission, maybe reload. Relay those thoughts to them.

1:18:12 They don’t seem to agree. Speaking of the arts or arts and literature, this Friday should have been. I’ve lost count now.

1:18:25 I think it would have if we were really on schedule. Would have been like the 9th maybe book review committee meeting. Instead it’s at best it would be the fourth.

1:18:34 But it’s actually canceled, postponed in limbo, something. Last I knew there was something like 29 remaining formally challenged books. That number may have gone up since then.

1:18:47 It’s too depressing for me to go find out. We’ve managed to review three since October due to rule changes and delays and delays and delays and delays. And it was last postponed so that we could have a new moms for liberty feelings protection plan put in place in June.

1:19:03 Here it is. August. We’ve got another canceled meeting coming up.

1:19:06 Nothing’s happened that I know of. I would hope I’d be one of the first to know since I need to make the meetings when they happen. At this point, even if we got fully back on schedule, just to clear the backlog, as it stands, it would take us, what, close to three years to review those books with the single committee? And thanks to the new rule change, the guilty until proven innocence rule.

1:19:32 If a person challenging one person, one person doesn’t like a book enough to fill out a form and formally challenge it, that book is pulled indefinitely. And again on the current schedule. Somebody doesn’t like a book, fill out the form.

1:19:42 Gone from our shelves and as instructional materials in our school system for currently at least three years. This is way past unacceptable. And I understand that it’s very popular with certain astroturf movements, but are you educators or are you flunkies? Are you here for your students and the majority of the parents? Or are we here for the comically censorious minority? And at this point, honestly, Mister Susan, the head shakes kind of a badge of honor.

1:20:18 I appreciate it. Thanks. Miss Amy Raub.

1:20:25 Richard Weber. Aiden McFadden, please. Hi.

1:20:34 So, Katie, it was nice to see you at the League of Women voters thing the other night. That was really cool. And listen, I wish you would stop burning books, but other than that, like, I. I want you to know that, like, it’s nice that you’re capable.

1:20:51 Like, we have somebody up there that’s capable along with Jen. So, anyway, I’m really sorry about Matt rezoning you out of your district. I, too, would be pretty pissed.

1:21:05 Let’s see. Oh, okay. So, Matt, you are planning on doing voting registrations for seniors or all students.

1:21:15 And I am there. I’m in on it. Let’s.

1:21:17 Let’s team up. I have lots of people on TikTok that are following me that are younger. I would love to be involved.

1:21:26 Let’s. Let’s get them there. Let’s do excused absences for voting, field trip forms.

1:21:32 You know, I’ll drive. Maybe when kids register for school, they can register to vote. You know, that would be great.

1:21:43 So watching the budget today and hearing you guys just like. Like, we don’t have the money we need, but you’ve wasted the money we have. On what? Like, moms for liberty and the little knockoffs have cost us, what, over like a millimeter? You’re suing TikTok for some reason.

1:22:06 How much is that costing us? Firing Mullins, that was not cheap. You know, we could have paid a few more teachers. A little higher, maybe.

1:22:18 The other thing from today, the workshop. Megan and Jean. Not good.

1:22:28 I mean, like, why do you automatically assume there’s no racism involved when you’re disciplining black students three times more? And you want to just. You’re just, like, real quick to, like, oh, well, it’s got to be. I want to know other dia.

1:22:45 I want to know more information like, but also maybe racism, maybe some of that. Maybe work on that. Don’t act like it doesn’t exist.

1:22:58 I mean, come on, that’s your job. Wake up, gene. You too, honey.

1:23:04 Come on. Okay, thanks. Okay.

1:23:09 Richard Bieber, Adien McFadden and Samantha Kirvin. Hello, I’m Rick Beaver. Another series, another big low this week.

1:23:25 We’ve got some serious cultural issues here. We had another coach that was arrested for dating a student, 17 year old from Brevard schools. I guess we need coaches in the locker rooms.

1:23:43 I think we need women coaches in the women locker rooms. I think that should done. You know, these cultural issues just know no bounds.

1:23:55 We’ve got moms for liberty, people coming up reading books, calling them pornography when they’re examples of people being abused. And some young women only have these books for references on learning about being abused, to not hold themselves as feeling guilty, as learning how to empathize. And we don’t need books off these shelves.

1:24:23 They’re not hurting anybody. Nobody is grooming anybody except for the right. And it’s very sad.

1:24:33 That’s about all I have to say. Do better. Thank you.

1:24:40 Aiden McFadden. Samantha Kervin. Lindsey Roberts.

1:24:44 If Miss Kirvin and Roberts can head to the front. Hello, my name is Aidan McFadden. I’ve been going to brevard schools my whole life, and I’m currently at EFSC.

1:25:00 And I would just like to go over a couple of the things that have happened these past nine months that I’ve been coming to school board meetings and participating in. Just local politics, I guess, even though this shouldn’t be politics. But I’d like to say that there were three books of poetry banned by Rupi Carr.

1:25:27 There was one book by Sarah J. Mossberg banned these books from. I went to all the meetings, and I would like to say that the books are not anything that we should be worried about, especially when so many other things like the Viera High school thing are happening.

1:25:50 And we’re very, very concerned about, like, three passages in a 700 page book. And I would also like to mention the redistricting that happened that pushed two people out of their seats so they can’t run again. The limbo, like Paul said, that the book review committee is in.

1:26:15 Nothing’s happening with that. There’s no realistic way to review all those books. And really going into the future, my hope is very low for my little cousins that are currently going to Holland elementary, and I’m worried about their education.

1:26:34 And luckily, my sister is going to graduate this year and she won’t have to deal with this anymore. Thank you. Thank you, Mister McFadden.

1:26:45 Samantha Kirvin. Lindsey Roberts. Kelly Kervin.

1:26:53 Okay. Hello. So I recently came across a mom whose school is telling her that her students cannot bring books from home without it being checked to see if it’s a banned book.

1:27:14 To be clear, she is not reading the book out loud or sharing it with her friends. The teacher and vice principal have told her this is the policy. Can you tell me where that policy is? By ignoring the book review policy, not only are you limiting the access to books my friends need for their AP classes, but teachers and administrations are scared to do something wrong.

1:27:46 Walking on eggshells is not, you know, healthy for the mind. It is time for our school board to get back to work and focus on the issues that matter to our students. Access to books.

1:28:02 As a student with dyslexia, I used to read below grade level until the end of third grade. I used the library to access books I could read and brought them from home. If we are telling kids that libraries are bad in scary places, that their teachers can’t be trusted to have a classroom library with books, and they can’t bring books from home, you’re stripping the fun away from reading.

1:28:49 You. Um. Okay.

1:29:01 Well, then I’m just gonna go off speech. No, I’m not. Have a good day.

1:29:09 Lindsey Roberts. Kelly Kervin. David Kearns, please.

1:29:19 Good evening. Thank you all for being here. I find it interesting that at the beginning of the meeting today, you all made mention of the athletic presentation made at your work session today.

1:29:40 But none of you mentioned the CCEIS presentation, which is what I found most interesting. It was pointed out, Miss Wright, by you several times that it simply couldn’t just be the color of the skin of the students that made up for the disproportionate discipline rates. There must be something else at factor.

1:29:57 And as I listened to you, I kind of started to think and try to figure out what other factors may only solely apply to black students and not other students. And, you know, the only one I could think of was the color of their skin. So this does actually become a problem of racism.

1:30:16 So I went ahead and did some, you know, statistical background work for you, since that’s the information you were asking for. And the rate at which black students in Brevardo county schools are disproportionately disciplined is even more astounding once you add in the multiracial students. But you guys also don’t want to hear that, do you? No.

1:30:36 But you know what it mirrors the disproportionate incarceration rates in Brevard county, the disproportionate incarceration rates in the state of Florida, and the disproportionate incarceration rates in the United States. So for you to sit there and full faced imply that these students just simply don’t know how to read. So that’s why they’re bad.

1:30:46 Or that they come from single parent homes. So that’s why they’re bad or they’re foster children. I’m telling you no, because guess what? White children also have reading issues.

1:31:01 White children also are foster children. White children also come from single parent homes. And also white children have just as many discipline problems as their black counterparts.

1:31:28 But you don’t punish them. Now, we’ve had this incident at Viera High School, and this brings me full circle back to what I said in the book review committee, that the number one parental complaint on the surrounding survey that you gave them was discipline in the schools. And instead of addressing discipline in the schools, you chose to address book bans and transgender students and bathroom bans and all these crazy things that nobody cares about except for a very small minority of very loud people.

1:31:43 Okay? And that’s what you focused on. So, nine days into school, the entire county slash state slash nation at this point has heard of an incident that happened at our most affluent high school involving sexual assault. Let’s call it what it is.

1:32:03 It is defined by law as sexual assault. I have reason to believe that there was some sort of a cover up on your part, Mister Susan, that you had information privy before others knew it and that you chose to not do anything about that. I also understand from Miss Jenkins that the board was not made aware until Saturday.

1:32:14 So the rest of you, I do not hold complicit with Mister Susan. But Mister Susan, it is your district and there are parents who have spoken out in the fact that you did in fact know. But I digress.

1:32:29 That can’t be proven, unfortunately, lucky for you. But what can be proven is that there is a whole lot of unethical things that have been happening on this board since nine months ago. And it frankly, quite honestly, needs to stop.

1:32:47 Because you are most importantly meant to represent students. And I want to end with saying freedom is simply a privilege if it doesn’t represent all. And until you’re willing to extend the graces you’re giving your cheerleaders, that, Mister Susan, you groomed on what to say walking into this meeting tonight.

1:33:04 Yes, I did hear you. Thank you. Miss Kelly Kervin, David Kearns and Katie Delaney, please.

1:33:18 You got an adult attacking children at this point, ma’am. Thank you. Okay, so I actually had no intentions of talking about the incident at Viera High School.

1:33:26 I do not have a student there. I do not live in that district. I was compelled after he hearing some of the speeches.

1:33:35 Sexual assault is not a mistake. It’s a crime. And I just want to say that my heart goes out to the victims in this case.

1:34:02 Because while the games will eventually go back, and the cheerleaders cheer, and the band plays their music, and the dancers do their thing, as a former dancer, I loved flag and color guard and all of that fun stuff. Those children that were involved, those victims, they don’t ever get to go back to normal. And I say that as a survivor myself, there is no normal for those children.

1:34:17 On to what I had originally planned on talking about. I was absent from the last meeting. I had an obligation with my daughter, so I did not get a chance to thank Miss Campbell, who my heart also goes out to.

1:34:30 Her mother is in the process of passing away imminently, so my heart is also breaking for her. And I had permission to share that. Yes, Miss Jenkins, Miss Campbell.

1:34:43 And actually, Mister Trent, is the world still turning? Because I’m not quite sure the way I feel right now. Thank you. On June 27, you listened to reason, and you listened to our slps when they said we needed help.

1:34:59 And you approved a contract that two other board members did not value. So everybody says you’re supposed to start a speech with a thank you. So thank you for ensuring that our slps had the help that they needed.

1:35:09 In a perfect world, we would be able to staff it ourselves. But we live in a very imperfect world. Which brings me to Miss Wright.

1:35:26 On June 5, I listened for the off site meeting where you said one of your complaints was, you’re not getting the agenda fast enough to be able to ask the staff the questions. So you have to ask it up here under sunshine. And I called you an upto one point, and I don’t think you enjoyed that.

1:35:34 My issue is not you asking questions. My issue is that you getting answers. And yet your answer doesn’t change.

1:36:04 You had three board members, an audience full of horrified slps, and a superintendent telling you, we need this contract, and you still voted no. So it’s not the asking the questions that I personally take issues with. It’s that you ask the questions, get presented factual, non bias information, and still vote against the better interests of our admin schools, teachers, staffs and students.

1:36:09 And that super deeper frustrates me. And that is when I’m going to close it out. Because I don’t want to cry up here.

1:36:13 Have a good night, guys. Thank you. Miss Kervin.

1:36:22 Mister David Kearns. Katie Delaney on deck. And that would be the end of it? No, it’s not the end of it.

1:36:36 It will be after those two speakers. Good evening. What a cowardly, filthy word is hazing to describe what happened to one of our students here in Brevard county.

1:37:00 What a bureaucratic word invented by cowards to describe what happened to this student. I weep for these parents behind me. As a victim myself, at eleven years of age of molestation, I can tell you that I was never the same after a camp director who claimed to be a Christian, who claimed to be a veteran of the Navy, molested me.

1:37:12 The only consolation I have from that molestation, when I look back at it, is that my junk was bigger than his. Was Mister Kern something I laugh about? I would ask you to. I’m sorry.

1:37:20 I’m sorry. No, I would just. You had some students that were acting out a rape scenario in a locker room.

1:38:00 How does this behavior square with the policy in place regarding don’t say gay book bans, etcetera? Now here’s a question which has never been answered in the media. Are the participants of an age of 18 or so because we have the tk one? If so, then what we have is aggravated child abuse. Not hazing, really is disappointing not to see all the people who continuously bleat about the transgender nine foot tall person, a demographic that doesn’t exist, invading the middle school bathrooms.

1:38:19 I don’t see them here tonight because they’re embarrassed. You need permission slips for nicknames but can’t supervise the locker rooms. Kids can’t even read books that might reference sisters sexual activity, but sexually inappropriate conduct is occurring all over the place.

1:38:36 You have some very confused children out there. You have kids that aren’t really aware of their own sexual identity, yet they don’t know what’s going on. And from this board, we’ve got so much hate that’s been brewing here.

1:38:55 We have members of this board that want to tell people of a democratic stripe where they can live. We have a chairman who calls students idiots and snot rags or whatever it was he said. We have a chairman who also said that what he wants to do is get law enforcement involved because he didn’t like some tweets that were being sent to the.

1:39:10 To this whatever grassroots organization, moms for whatever the heck they’re about, what are the priorities of leadership of this school system? Because this is good, this is going bad to worse. This gentleman made a point. It’s absolutely.

1:39:23 I watched ten years of hatred go off. It started with the muslim, alleged muslim messages in the textbook. And now here we are with a child enduring simulated rape in a bathroom.

1:39:36 Thank you. Mister Kearns, Miss Delaney, please come up to the front. And Miss Delaney will be the last speaker.

1:39:40 Thank you. Hang on, hang on. There you go.

1:40:09 Thank you. I just wanted to start by saying when I’ve been coming to these meetings for years now, and regardless of the good things that are thrown at you all, and the bad things that are thrown at you all, and I mean all of you, you don’t cut people off, you don’t stop the conversation and you don’t hide from it. So I really appreciate that, because we didn’t get that same treatment when there were other people sitting on that board.

1:40:27 So I really appreciate it. What happened at Viera High school should have never happened. I agree.

1:40:35 It wasn’t hazing. It was not hazing. Those things should have not ever happened.

1:40:48 And I’ve been speaking about the discipline issues in this district for years. I went to BPS. There were issues even back then and they haven’t stopped.

1:41:07 And I hope that this board will take this so seriously. Because even though it wasn’t rape, I can’t imagine how that child feels right now. And it’s not just this situation in this school, it’s across our district.

1:41:23 And it’s not just us, it’s the culture. It’s the culture because our children are being over sexualized and the adults are not being adults. We need to bring back discipline into our schools.

1:41:39 We need to hold people accountable when they do, when they do something wrong. And it needs to be serious. And then we need to educate those kids on if their parents are not going to do it.

1:41:49 That’s when the school district needs to step in and say this was unacceptable. And we’re going to teach these kids a different way. And I’m calling out the parents here.

1:42:07 We have got to do better. We have got to do better. So I know many of you up there, and I believe that you guys are going to do the right thing, whatever that looks like.

1:42:18 But please don’t stop with this. Look in deep, look into all the schools. Talk to parents, talk to the teachers, talk to the students and figure out what the issues are.

1:42:26 And we all got to come together as a community and figure out how to fix it. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Delaney.

1:42:31 That concludes public comments. We’re there. Thank you for your willingness to address us in this public manner.

1:42:39 We are now onto the consent agenda. Doctor Rendell. Thank you, mister chair.

1:42:47 There are 16 agenda items under this category. Thank you, doctor Rendella. Does any board member wish to pull any of these items checked in? They had no.

1:43:03 We need to pull 17. Okay, item 17 will be pulled for discussion. I will entertain a motion to accept the consent agenda with the exception of those pulled for discussion.

1:43:14 Do I hear a motion? Second. All right, is there any discussion? Hearing? None. All in favor, signify by saying aye.

1:43:30 All opposed passes 40. Back on to item 17. Paul, you want to explain what’s going on? We got an email indicating that the process and the contract wasn’t followed for job description changes.

1:43:42 So we’re going to pull that and allow that process to take place. And then if it wants to come back, yeah, you guys can move to table it to the next board meeting or ask. Is that something that you want us to do or is that something.

1:43:47 That’s what staff have confirmed they. I’ll make a motion to table until the next meeting. Item number 17.

1:44:15 Do I have a second? All right, is there any discussion? All in favor, signify by saying aye. All opposed passes 40. We’ll now hold a public meeting to address the item g 28 revisions in policy 6180.

1:44:23 01, allocation and use of sales surtax and new administrative procedure 6180.01. Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Hearing none.

1:44:29 Do I hear a motion? Move to approve. Second is there any discussion? Hearing. None.

1:44:40 All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed passes 30.

1:44:44 Doctor Rendell, will 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 29, procurement solicitations. Do I hear a motion? Move to approve.

1:44:52 Second is there any discussion? Hearing. None. All in favor, signify.

1:44:57 Signify by saying aye. All opposed passes 30. Next is H 30, department school initiated agreements.

1:45:00 Do I hear a motion? Move to approve. Second. Is there any discussion? Hearing.

1:45:13 None. All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye.

1:45:20 All opposed passes 30. The last item is age 31, amended outside legal counsel contract 23 1042 a k r. WAG staff and Cartmel LLP and co.

1:45:23 Counselor. Do I hear a motion? Second. Is there any discussion? Hearing.

1:45:29 None. All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye.

1:45:42 All opposed. Motion passes. We’re now on to board member reports.

1:45:55 I think misses Wright may have something, but mister. She usually has something. Mister Trent, did you have something? I figured, you know.

1:46:07 Yeah, actually, quickly we hear some discussion on board member reports on how some of us are voting. And I respect every single board member’s opinion. The thought they put in behind a vote.

1:46:27 I respect that vote. And I’d be concerned out there if every vote we took was a 50 vote. When somebody votes, in a way, I may not want that vote to go.

1:46:35 You know, there’s a reason for that and it brings up good discussion and points that should be heard. So I just want to let you guys know that just because sometimes you’re on the other side of the vote doesn’t mean it means anything other than you have different opinion. And sometimes you vote no.

1:46:48 Not saying that you know the whole plan is wrong, but there’s still part of it. And I’m not, I’m not fully ready to accept. And I appreciate.

1:46:55 That’s why we’re five different people up here. Okay, Miss Wright, do you want to speak now or do you want to wait until after we run through the workshop stuff? Well, I think. I mean, we can wait till after we run through the workshop stuff to be at the end of it.

1:47:01 Sure. Yeah. I mean, I feel like we need to address the issue that’s at hand that so many people have spoke about today.

1:47:13 So that’s something that needs to be talked about. I don’t know if this is the appropriate time or if we should. It could be now, it could be after these.

1:47:51 It doesn’t really matter. Doctor Rendell, why don’t we just go into it? Doctor Rendell, why don’t you give an overview of what is up to this point? Kind of give us a breakdown of how this all came to be. Sure.

1:47:59 So just for everybody’s understanding of where we are right now, after we learned about the incidents that happened at Viera High School last week, got more information, we decided to suspend operations of the football team while we investigated further and also took some measures to change the culture and climate in that locker room and in that program. So we had a parent meeting last night with the players and the parents and talked about steps moving forward. The plan is not to shut the program down for the entire season.

1:48:21 We are educators. This was a very negative situation. Extremely unacceptable.

1:48:40 There’s no just unfortunate and extremely unacceptable. Our job is to take those types of situations and turn them into learning moments, things we can learn from. So starting today, the members of that team are learning from that experience.

1:49:02 They took a course on hazing, anti hazing, and what hazing is, what to do if you see it or experience it, how to report it, and that kind of thing. And that’s the first step towards putting that program back on the field. That is not the only step.

1:49:32 We haven’t made any decisions about when they will return to competition. They will return to practice tomorrow with some modifications to supervision in the locker room and some expectations about how they conduct themselves. And we understand that the football team is not the only group of students and or adults that are affect, that are affected by this or impacted.

1:49:42 So we’ll make our decisions about when and if the team returns to action as soon as we can, so all those other groups can know what their fate or the impact is. The students that were most intimately involved with the incident did receive punishment swiftly from the staff at Viera High School. Those students, many of them, are still involved in that discipline.

1:50:08 I can’t really say anything more than that without violating FERPA. So we have taken the matter very seriously from the beginning. Nothing of the sort.

1:50:16 I mean, absolutely taking it seriously from the beginning. And, you know, what we want to do is make sure that when we’re presented with these types of situations, that we can do our best to turn them into learning experiences for the people involved. But rest assured, the behavior that occurred is unacceptable, and there are consequences for that kind of misbehavior.

1:50:28 So we appreciate the different groups that have come to speak. Everybody’s passionate about it. That’s the way it should be.

1:50:37 You know, we’ll make the decisions as we go forward that we think are in the best interest of the most. And that’s about all I can say tonight. Thank you, doctor Rendell, for that overview.

1:50:47 Miss Campbell, did you have anything to say? I did. You know, first of all, thank you, Doctor Rendell and staff. I know Mister Rumer has been very involved.

1:51:05 Way to get initiated into his new role. We’ve had a slew of controversial things that he’s had to deal with from the get go. But I appreciate the work that you guys are doing to do a thorough job.

1:51:17 You know, the beauty of the way that it works is we set policy as a board, and it’s your job to execute it. And so my intention to support you as a superintendent is that we’ve set what our expectations are with the hazing policy that we just. It was already in place.

1:51:31 We reviewed last week with the student code of conduct that so many of the community members and staff members had input in and we had time to walk through and to revise. And it’ll be continue. It’s in a continuous process of revision this year.

1:51:55 And so we set that and then we expect it. You know, everybody, we’re gonna go buy the standards that we have. And there’s not a group of students who are going to get a more lenient decision made against them because of the school they go to.

1:52:03 But also they’re not going to get a more harsh consequence because of the school they go to or because the kind of team they’re on. We’re going to follow the policy because that is the only way that we can really do it fairly. And so we’re going to do that, whether it’s Viera or Pompeii High or Space coast junior senior high, regardless of where they are, regardless of the economics, we’re going to follow the policy.

1:52:22 And that’s. I appreciate that you guys are doing that and that you’re going to do a thorough investigation. And we want to support.

1:52:40 I’ve heard a couple people say we want to support those students. And I know that you guys are reaching out and to the families and making sure that they have the victims and making sure that they have what they need as well. And so to be quite honest, I’ve been kind of quiet about this because everybody’s had an opinion.

1:52:48 My official position, I don’t need to speak when I don’t have all the facts. And we’re not going to react based on social media and we’re not going to react based on people’s favorite radio hosts. You guys are making your decisions based on facts and based on investigation and based on having conversations with everybody who is involved.

1:53:00 And so I appreciate that. And like I said, as a board, we’ve done our job. And that was to set the expectations of, of the policy and then to give you the authority to act on that.

1:53:20 So that is what I expect it to continue. Mister Wright. So I too have been somewhat quiet on this matter.

1:53:32 I, like everybody else that has heard about this and seen this, appalled and absolutely disgusted with what I witnessed and what I saw on social media, and more so appalled at the fact that someone would feel like that is an okay video to put out because that is going to damage that child’s life. There is no two questions. No, there’s no way around that.

1:53:52 So, you know, we’re a community. And the reality of a team is that everything good that you do impacts your team and everything bad that you do impacts your team. And sometimes your team might be your football team.

1:54:06 It might be the cheerleading team though, too, and it could be the band. And we’re all part of it, of we’re all connected. And so I know, I understand that there’s multiple sides of this and everybody has an opinion one way or the other, but we have to do the investigation to the fullest, and we have to make sure that we uphold the policies that we write and make sure that our students are protected.

1:54:17 So I appreciate you guys coming as far as the VR cheerleading team. Let me just say you guys have been so respectful and patient throughout this process of hearing all the things that maybe some adults weren’t even as responsible as you are. So I just want to say thank you for that.

1:54:32 And as we move forward, we will do what we can to make sure that our students are safe, because there’s no reason that that situation should ever happen. And it’s horrible. So thank you, Doctor Rendell, for jumping in there.

1:54:52 Thank you to our law enforcement, because I know that they also have played a role here, so they’re reacting as well and making sure that our students are safe. That is the number one priority. Doctor Rendell, I wanted to say thank you also.

1:55:04 First off, I’d like to say that this is a heinous act and it is horrible what happened. And that at no time would any of the programs that have ever been a part of think that that’s acceptable, nor should we ever, both in the Viera community or in any of our brevard schools or anywhere else in the state with that. Also, I want to say thank you, Doctor Rendell, for the process that you’ve put together from the beginning.

1:55:14 You’ve evaluated all the facts, you’ve said the next steps you’ve kept in community communications. You’ve done a great job when it comes to that. And I wanted to say thank you and appreciate you for the guidance that you’ve been giving.

1:55:17 Individuals that were inside there. Let me just run a couple of facts. The individuals that were inside of the incident have been put on ten day pending, which in the event that they stay away from discipline.

1:55:39 Okay. All right. All right.

1:55:54 We have the sheriffs investigating and there has been some decisions that have been made that are moving towards, towards rectifying those individuals behavior that has been inside there. I wanted to say we had a parent meeting last night that was very well received. And I wanted to tell you one of my biggest fears was that we are investigating this to make sure that the culture is not bigger than what it is.

1:56:04 Okay. And one of the biggest fears I had was that when we were inside that room, that I would be looking around at some of the parents and then feel that culture, because you can feel it. And I will tell you that the gentleman that spoke earlier and some of the other parents all stood up and said, this is a horrible act.

1:56:17 And they felt that way. And that rang true for many of the things that we all have been feeling. And it meant that there was, at least from the parents perspective, that they were feeling that this.

1:56:27 They agreed with it. And I will tell you that I called on the parents because just like some of the other speakers have said, it is also the parents that have to be a part of this culture and the parents that have to also guide their children. So the school district can only do so much.

1:56:53 And that that’s where a lot of it has to come from. So I wanted to say thank you for putting the parent night together, Doctor Rendell. And I also wanted to say thank you for all of the other stuff that you’ve been doing.

1:57:01 I did want to say one thing. There is another culture besides this heinous act that happened, and that’s the posting of our students information and faces online. And I will tell you that I am just as angry about that posting of what is minors online and posting it and posting it as I am about the same thing about the heinous act that occurred, because that is just as detrimental.

1:57:11 And so I will be reaching out. I’ve had conversations. I will be reaching out to the FBI to make investigations into all the people that posted it and all the people that shared it.

1:57:26 Because I’ll tell you right now, it’s disgusting. It’s disgusting that individuals think that that’s appropriate to put that on there and to push that out. That is horrible.

1:57:31 And any individuals that put it on their facebooks or put it on their Twitter or put it on their whatever the hell it is, it’s wrong. And if you did it and you’re inside this room, it was a heinous act to do that. And you should be ashamed of yourself and anybody else that’s outside of there that did it.

1:57:52 They should be ashamed of themselves also. So with that, I’m finished. We’re good with the conversations.

1:58:05 Good to move on. We have, just so everybody understands, we have a series of topics that were from the earlier. There’s three topics, three, four topics that we have from earlier our workshop that we need to run through.

1:58:08 They’re not going to take that long, but I wanted you guys to understand, we wanted to be able to give that to you now so that if you guys needed to leave, that you didn’t need to continue inside of the meeting. Five minute bathroom, five minute break. You guys need that? You went to the bathroom? Yes.

2:07:16 All right, let’s take a five minute bathroom break. Here we go. Man.

2:07:26 We were moving SA, the next topic of review is policy 3124. Drug free workplace. You know what, I did that.

2:07:42 Supposed to give us special individuals. So Doctor Rendell kind of went over this. Have you guys been.

2:07:47 I met with him one on one and the discussion was brought up and I, so I guess as far as this goes today because this is, we’re kind of workshopping it, only carrying it over to our board meeting. So this is just y’all’s turn to review this and review the changes they’re proposing and say yay. Or name, but.

2:07:59 Okay. So I, maybe it’s because my computer was slow. I didn’t see any redlining.

2:08:12 I, it’s on a, yeah, I don’t have a 39 of the packet. I went up and down, up and down. I saw a clean version away.

2:08:17 There’s the red line. So my, so what we’re actually talking about reviewing then is the technical guide, right? Yeah. Doctor Reynold, you want to give it a quick overview and then we can.

2:08:55 Yeah, because I need a few minutes. The red line part. Gotcha.

2:09:07 The board may recall several months ago when they were reviewing the 3000 policies, we talked about this policy where if you fail to get your drug screening done within 24 hours that you’re automatically barred from employment for a year. Now we understand that if you fail a drug test, you should be automatically barred for a calendar year. We had numerous occasions where people have not been able to complete the drug screening because they didn’t make an appointment with quest or they got there and there was a line that was too long or something happened and they didn’t get it done within 24 hours.

2:10:01 And our policy is very clear. 24 hours. If you don’t get it done within the 24 hours, it’s as if you failed the test and you’re barred for account for a year.

2:10:18 And so the board demonstrated some interest in revising that part of the policy, not making any change to if you fail the drug test, no change there out for a year. But if you for some reason aren’t able to get the drug test done, the drug screen done within 24 hours, could we shorten the amount of time that you have to sit out before you can you know, come back and be issued the paperwork to submit a drug screen. And so the suggested policy before you keeps the, you know, the penalty for failing the drug test the same calendar year, but failure to get a test within a 24 hours period, you have to sit out for 30 days and come back and, you know, get the paperwork and submit a drug screen.

2:10:21 So that’s the suggested revision, right? I think we had meetings with you and you expressed that to me. Is there anybody that has an issue with moving forward with that recommendation? No. Do you need a vote, Paul? No, it’s just you.

2:10:29 It’s kind of like the first reading. Yep. Yep.

2:10:59 Well, it’s not the first. This is just your chance to discuss it amongst yourselves and make changes if you want to. The next one’s the first reading.

2:11:14 Just to be clear. And looking at this, I mean, I have a question I just want to ask, and for clarifying purposes, if somebody were to have a situation like, I don’t know, they were sick and they couldn’t go the next day to get that done, are we going to give them grace? Are we going to say, okay, no, we’re going to bunch you out 30 days now? 30 days? 30 days. And so, like, I guess the only thing I would like to see is that there are sometimes, there are circumstances that might prevent somebody for needing longer than a 24 hours notice to go take a test, whether it be their work schedule, whether it be, hey, I tested positive for COVID and I can’t go.

2:11:21 You know, I mean, it could be something like that. So is there a way to work that into the policy to where? I don’t know if they were to talk to HR and have a reason for not being able to go. So we do have an appeals process in place.

2:11:30 I am not aware of any time that has been granted any grace of that kind. Has been great. Okay.

2:11:35 I know when I first came on, I had received an email in regards to someone who went to one lab and it was closed or something, they were doing renovations. And so they. It was at the end of the day, couldn’t go to the.

2:11:43 And then they were like, I can’t apply now for another year. And they were ready to come on. And I’m like, oh, my gosh, that’s crazy.

2:11:51 So I want to say that’s why even we. They don’t give them on Fridays, right? Do we still. No, Friday.

2:11:55 We don’t even give them on Fridays. That way the 24 hours period won’t run into the weekend because that way, if you get on a Monday through a Thursday, you should. And you can’t go that day.

2:12:11 You should have the next day. But that’s pretty standard. I’m not really comfortable going with less.

2:12:15 I think we’ve done a big, huge change with the 30 day one, because there’s all kinds of reasons that people could give us why they couldn’t go, and I’m sure some of them would be absolutely sincere. But I think this is a good change so that we don’t. We’re not hampering our recruitment efforts.

2:12:24 Okay. Well, in the right direction, for sure. Go ahead, sir.

2:12:29 Yeah. Is the 24 hours just prevard? No, that’s standard. Standard as in standard practice? Yeah.

2:12:31 As far as most. At least public entities. Well, I mean, so then it is brevard.

2:12:34 I mean, it isn’t. It is. Well, it’s not just brevard, like.

2:12:39 Right. Yeah. I’d have to double check the statutes and everything.

2:12:46 I just didn’t know if it was. Ever talked about it, say. Yeah, no, but 24 is kind of the six foot.

2:12:49 I’ve been. Yeah. I’ve been with multiple agencies, and it’s always been, if you take this paper, you have 24 hours to get it back.

2:12:52 Otherwise, you’re barred. Yeah. Okay.

2:12:58 That’s all I wanted. That’s fine. All right.

2:13:07 Okay. Everybody’s good on that one. If we’ll move forward to the contract performance review.

2:13:16 So what I wanted you guys to just. Looks like after today, we have a new system. We’re going to be upgrading our systems for procurement.

2:13:38 Great opportunity. And many other things that we spoke about was available there. I think some of the rubric areas for.

2:13:54 You know what I mean? There’s just a lot of really good things there. And Miss Rodriguez was available today when this thing was going on. But the thing is, is that what I wanted you guys to start thinking of is like, Miss Campbell will tell you, we have a series of healthcare contracts that are coming up, I think isn’t pharmacy coming up? And I think our consulting is coming up and stuff like that.

2:14:10 Great opportunities to put in performance reviews on each one of them. So that if you say, hey, in order to get this business, you need to do x, Y and z. So, like property insurance, you say there were a lot of requirements that our school district had asked that were new.

2:14:17 Let’s make sure that those are to a performance, performance guarantee that, hey, you get these, you have to follow these things, and that gives you the review. Miss Wright, over. You know what I mean? Instead of actually taking them out to bid every year, you can hit them with a performance review if they’re not doing a good job.

2:14:33 Right. And that gives that opportunity to do that. So I just wanted to tell you guys as part of this, I talked to Miss Rodriguez.

2:14:47 She said the new system has this in place and it has it to where we can put that in. So of course, we’re not the ones that are going to come up with what the, you know what I mean? The standards are, that are performance reviews. But if there is something that you see and you’re like, hey, I’d like to see this as part of it.

2:14:53 Like when we go out to bid, you can actually ask that to be part of the contract in the end, if that makes sense. So just kind of letting you guys know it’s just kind of a review point. And if anybody has any questions on it, if not, when we start to see them, we can just take some input and go from there.

2:15:07 I’m excited about the new software that’s coming forward. So I. So Miss Christie’s really excited. Yeah, it’s going to be.

2:15:25 It’s going to be really good for our district. All right, next. Next topic is the citizens Advisory board.

2:15:45 Nobody has anything to say about it. I mean, yeah, we had discussed this before, and I, again, I do think it would be smart of us to put some, some guidelines around who’s on the board just because it just seems like it could become a, you know, you could have a conflict of interest. You could have somebody that’s sitting on that board that could steer a committee one direction or the other.

2:16:01 And so I don’t, you know that this is probably a deeper conversation where we’re going to have to look at what would those prerequisites be that we were looking for. But, you know, if they’re actively suing our district, does that potentially pose from them being on a committee? I don’t know. Those are questions or just discussions that the board should probably have just to make sure that they’re not anything.

2:16:05 I think that. I think what we’re looking for are some of the same standards that we hold our employees to in regards to behavior while you’re part of our school system. I think that’s the kind of 30,000 foot view that we’re talking about.

2:16:19 Standard of conduct. I see this on here. You know what I mean? Lawsuits.

2:16:45 I don’t think you should be sitting on one of our boards if you’re openly involved in a lawsuit or actively going to try to pursue one. You know what I mean? Or possibly paying for ads to go against the school board. Right.

2:16:54 Stuff, you know, things having conflicts of interests are there. You know what I mean? So I think that there’s some, so I think this is a great topic. How did you guys wanted to move forward? Do you want to send some of those in so that they can put them together and come back? Because I think that our teams are probably waiting for that credentialing or do you want to have hang on because we’re kind of talking around.

2:17:11 No, we’re pretty much, let’s just be very clear. I want to make sure that I understand because we kind of talked about last time and then it. But we’re talking, we’re not talking about a specific board.

2:17:17 We’re talking, you’re talking about whenever we have a board, advisory board. Advisory board. Would that extend also to people that we appoint to one of those committees in the city? Absolutely.

2:17:31 I mean, I mean, if you’re on a committee. Yeah, if you’re on, if you’re on a, if you’re, if you’re. Yes.

2:17:45 Planning and zoning. That’s the one I was thinking about. I mean, so, you know, it’s interesting that you, first of all, I have like a little, we just need to be careful because I have a few concerns.

2:17:59 One, some of these that we have, have charters. And what we really need to do is abide by the charter. If we want to adjust the charter, we can adjust the charter, but we need to, if we do something outside of the charter, like we had the conversation a couple weeks ago, it needs to be according to what the charter says because that’s what we’ve established.

2:18:04 We go outside of that. I think we might get into some funky territory. Two, it’s interesting that you mentioned that we expect of our employees because some of these lawsuits involved other kinds of things.

2:18:13 We don’t have that. We don’t, I don’t. Nobody brought it up today, but people have.

2:18:28 Somebody mentioned a couple weeks ago, like financial thing, we don’t get into our employees finances. I mean, they could be bankrupt. That’s not something that we do.

2:18:46 The other thing is First Amendment. We may not like somebody putting ads and listen, I speak that as someone who has been spoken of. I may have gotten a few cheers tonight, but I have had my share of jeers.

2:19:06 And, you know, that’s just part of the role. And I may not like it, but it’s someone’s First Amendment rights, whether they’re our employee or somebody from the public to say those things. So I think that’s a little.

2:19:25 I’m just not comfortable with that. I think I would certainly want significant legal review. I’d also, you know, as I frequently do, if we’re going to do something like that, I kind of like to see some patterns from other places and just see other districts wherever we can kind of look at a model so that we’re not flying in the dark as to what, how we might envision this.

2:19:48 I’m not saying we can’t do something that nobody’s ever done, but I would. If there, if you have examples of other organizations that do things like this, most of the things that we appoint people to committees or planning and zoning audit committee, we appoint them as board members. They are our representative.

2:19:59 And so we, by being elected by the public, then we get that choice as to who we’re going to put, and then we vote on them as a board. So we have that check and balance there. The independent committees, the ICOC and this new committee, the millage oversight committee, are a little different because of how they’ve gotten started.

2:20:15 And the ICOC because it is an independent committee. Once they got started, then they elect their own members. They go through the application process when they have an opening, and then we again approve it.

2:20:32 Same thing with this new committee. We got it started with the broader Schools foundation because that’s the way we established it was going to start. And then in the future they will again go through the application process because that is supposed to be an independent, not under our thumb, not under the thumb of the district, but they’re truly supposed to be independent.

2:20:44 So, you know, we had to talk about the background check. Some of that doesn’t apply because they’re not being around students, but at the same time, it might catch something, you know, arrest or whatever. Would that disqualify.

2:21:12 We never really answered this question. Would it disqualify them? We said they had to submit for a background check. If it came back with some findings, are we going to say, nope, you had an arrest in one of these areas.

2:21:21 Is it going to be the same as with our employees? So you can’t serve on this committee? I’m not defending anybody’s position being on it, but those are questions that we have to ask and answer before we start putting anything like this in place. Yeah, I would. I would come back and I would say, I personally feel that if you have an open lawsuit against the school district or you’re in the process of recruiting people in a lawsuit against the district, that I find that to be a conflict of interest.

2:21:34 I don’t think we should have anybody sitting on our boards that actually does that. That’s just me. Like, the other thing I wanted to say is in the background check.

2:22:03 I think that’s appropriate. I think we should ask to do, you know what I mean, background checks and check people just to make sure, because here’s what ends up happening. There’s two fold to it, Miss Campbell, and I understand where you’re coming from because it’s kind of like this.

2:22:22 Well, we may not have ever done it before, but let me help you get where I’m going. There’s the side of the district that says that if you do have somebody that’s going to be on a say, there’s somebody that’s going to be on our icock, and we do a background check and find out that, hey, they had major, major construction violations as a contractor, and they were sued and they were doing all this stuff. Okay? So that, that hits now, it might have happened five, six years ago, might have been something that was resolved in the courts and all that stuff, but here’s what ends up happening.

2:22:37 That person then becomes part of it, then it over. It wears down on the overall fidelity of that board that is reviewing it. And when you’re talking about 60, $70 million in taxes that are being flowed through and a voter participation, it comes to me to where I want to make sure that the individuals that are on there represent that.

2:22:56 Does that make sense? So, like what, let me, let me just finish, though, so that there’s another side to it. So the first is we need to put together the best advisory committee that has that. And listen, lawsuits, background checks, conflicts of interest, that should be part of it.

2:23:00 The other part is that many of these individuals don’t understand what’s about to happen when they become a part of our committees. Because if you’re on the right, the left attacks you, and if you’re on the left, the right attacks you. And so all of a sudden, their personal interest becomes open to the public and it completely destroys them.

2:23:42 Right. And there’s. So I think that that conversation needs to be had.

2:23:48 But for me, I mean, I just wanted to reiterate, why is those two prongs, one, if you put somebody on one of our committees that has some sort of, say, construction for the ICOC or has financial in there on the sales tax or whatever it is, then what ends up happening is, or the millage, the fidelity and the authenticity of that review committee becomes in question to our voters, which puts the value of the revenue in question, too. So that’s where my mind was at when we had this thing. So, you know, you’re talking about something bigger than what I thought you were talking about, because our background checks that we do through the district security are going to catch arrests and convictions.

2:24:08 I don’t think they’re going to catch if someone was in a lawsuit. So suing us is what I said. I’m not worried.

2:24:15 I know, but you just mentioned if someone was sued because of a contract or whatever, that the only time in my recollection that I’ve been on the, the board that we’ve done any kind of that significant background check was when we did that for our three finalist superintendents. So. And we had a service that did that for us to catch all those things.

2:24:29 So, I mean, you’re. That’s a, that’s a pretty significant thing to do. And I’m not saying I don’t want people full of integrity.

2:24:45 Our committees, I absolutely do, but I think we. I mean, like I said, our background checks not going to catch. If you don’t want someone who’s, who’s, you know, gone bankrupt on a committee, our background check doesn’t catch that.

2:24:56 No, and I don’t think it would. What it will do, though, is that we have some very interesting individuals that are a part of our community, so they may, all of a sudden, you may put a list of ten people up and then all of a sudden you receive this information. And now we have to make a decision.

2:25:17 But without these restraints in place, we wouldn’t be able to make it. I agree with you 100%. There’s no way that we would be able to research any of all this stuff.

2:25:29 Right. But if brought to us and we have to take action and we don’t have a trigger in place to do so, then that becomes an issue, and that’s the reason behind the lawsuits and stuff like that. So, like, look, if we, somebody all of a sudden gets approved and then all of a sudden we find out, well, this person’s actively going to try to get a lawsuit against us or is involved in a lawsuit against us that we missed or something like that, we.

2:26:06 I feel that we should be able to have a trigger to remove that person and hire somebody else just because of the fidelity of the amount of money that the millage or the sales tax or something else. That’s what I would say. No, but I’m just going to be quite honest.

2:26:29 This whole conversation sounds like there’s somebody that was nominated to be on a committee that we don’t want to be on a committee because we’ve never had this conversation before. And I would like, and whether I like them or not, I just want us to, I mean, let’s just miss Campbell. Paul, is there anything, I mean, any advice you would give just on the surface, without having done a bunch of research as to the legality of what kind of restrictions we can place on, especially the independent committees? Because that is where I’m very concerned, because we can’t keep that independent committee under our thumb and it truly be independent for the community.

2:26:44 Off the top of my head, I’d have to look, you’re head talking like a lot of that sounds like credit checks and background checks that you do for like credit applications and things, and that’s where you catch a lot of lawsuits and what we did with the superintendents and things. There are laws that specifically address when and how you can conduct those types of background checks. I do not have them off the top of my head, so I would have to go research.

2:26:49 When we can conduct those types of background checks. You can certainly build it in like our millage charter has. You have to comply with 112, part three for Florida statutes, which is the public employees code of ethics.

2:27:00 So that’s in there. You can’t have conflicts of interest with the district. So that’s in there.

2:27:23 So we can build them into that realm. I mean, you could build a provision that says you have to comply with district policies while you’re on service. So, because that part is built into the charter.

2:27:34 As far as the conflict of interest, if it were to be found that one of the people that we, that is approved to serve on the committee has a conflict of interest, somebody brings that up, then what would be the recourse in that situation? Then they wouldn’t be qualified to be on the charter. What if they were already there and we find out later they would be removed by a majority vote of the board? That’s what the charter says. Yeah, the charter says if the board lies.

2:27:57 So in other words, we have, we, we already have the authority. If something comes up like that to right for the 112, I’d have to double check and see if the board policies are built into that charter. I don’t remember off the top of my head.

2:27:59 So I will say, since you brought it up, that there is no reason behind this for an individual. What this is, is there’s actually a reason behind. Now all of a sudden we have, for this, we have a large second committee that we have, we are politically divided out here, and I’m trying to keep the fidelity of the overall committee to be strong so that in the event that we need to renew it in the future, there’s an opportunity to do so.

2:28:21 And that’s what this comes down to. So I wanted to kind of say that because I don’t want it to be lobbed out there, that that’s there. And I don’t think that that was.

2:28:29 I wanted to clear that up for you because it seems like that’s something that you had, that you wanted to make that statement for, to be quite honest. I’m not trying to be naive, but this is, this committee and all the committees, these aren’t, and we’re not talking about the book committee. We’re talking about these.

2:28:36 We’re talking about ICO. See, these are non political decisions. These are accounting things.

2:28:50 These are did. Okay, we said we’re gonna spend the money on this. Did we spend the money on this? I mean, it’s pretty simple.

2:29:01 So we talk about divided. That’s, that’s the board, that’s, I’m gonna say the book committee, but we’re not talking about that committee, those kind of committees. They’re talking about these kind of committees where, I mean, you can say somebody would insert something, but there’s, it’s.

2:29:11 They have a clear job. Their job is to be handed all the audit reports that RSM is going to create right for the millage twice a year. And once it gets, once a million money starts coming in.

2:29:33 Here’s the mine’s coming in, here’s how we spend it. It’s going to go, they’re going to get, it’s going to go through the audit committee, all that stuff. And it either, we either did do what we said we’re going to do, do, or we didn’t do what we said we’re going to do.

2:29:43 And, you know, if we go to them, I’m assuming, like, we’ll do like sue does with the ICOC if we have extra money and we decide, you know, that they’ll need to kind of put their seal of approval, this still fits in the plan. It’s got to meet the plan. So it just seems like a lot of Ado for what we’re.

2:29:57 I just, I don’t want, it seems you. All this, all these political things, and I just don’t think, I don’t see it as that political that we need all this political backup. I mean, I don’t know.

2:30:28 So I’ll be honest with you. Where this triggers from is the insurance committee, where we had multiple conflicts of interest that were on there. But the fact is that while they were doing it, there was no way to trigger it.

2:30:43 So it went on for a long time before we decided that we were going to do what was different, which was change the charter to not allow the conflict. But literally, right now, as it stands, there is nothing inside of our checks that goes back to when we had those conflicts of interest that allows us to do it. Because the rectifying situation back then when we had SAIAC, was that these individuals that had conflicts of interest that pretty much broke the law that were on our SAC committee ended up continuing until we were saying.

2:30:46 And it wasn’t that they had the conflicts of interest that ended it. It was just that we couldn’t get anything done inside the meeting. So the bottom line is, is that since then, until now, we don’t have a set of standard of ethical conduct that we have for our board, committees and appointees.

2:31:00 That’s what this is about. There’s no. Hang on, Miss Campbell.

2:31:21 There is no conspiracy theory. There is an act that occurred in the past that I was a part of, that extremely upset me, and now it’s come through, and there’s a series of other boards that we’re putting through. I would like to have a standard of ethical conduct.

2:31:28 And I would ask you. I would ask you, Miss Campbell, hang on. I would ask you, do you or don’t you feel that having an active lawsuit against the school district or pushing to or actively engaging in getting a lawsuit against the district would be somebody that you would want on our committee? I guess maybe I’m clueless.

2:31:43 I’m not aware of who was on the list that was actively engaged in lawsuits. I asked that question, though. If it’s.

2:31:48 If it’s. I have to find out if that’s legal, if that’s something we can look into. But if it is legal, would you be against, would you be, would you be for removing somebody that has a lawsuit against brevard public schools that’s sitting on one of our committees? No.

2:32:18 Would I personally do what I like that? I think that’s a great idea. No. And by a matter of policy.

2:32:38 Am I ready to jump in there? I got to see all the legalities of it. Well, Paul just kind of mentioned to you, and Paul, what I would ask, and what she’s asking is a very good comment. I would ask what we are, not what we cannot require, because when I know anything about what a standards of conduct or regulations that a board who’s creating that we have to vote on, if we have to vote on individuals being a part of our school district, then we have the authority to say what we want on that vote.

2:32:49 We can’t just be told, these are the people that are going to be on there and, oh, by the way and all that. No, we have the authority to do it. So what I would ask, and it’s a very good question, because I don’t want to have to put you into a position like that, Paul, if you could go back and figure out what we cannot require, and that would then give us the peace that would allow us to do that.

2:32:51 Okay, I’m sorry, go ahead. Just to clarify, too, I think this would require, depending on which committee, we’re going to have to amend the charter, correct? Not. That’s what you’re saying.

2:33:18 So. Okay. All right.

2:33:37 I just. So, and I understand that issue with SAAC because I served on SAAC when we had and saw the conflicts of interest in multiple members who were appointed by the board members and were approved by the board with the time they serve on the committee. And to be quite honest, board members at any time could have brought up, hey, this is a conflict of interest, or could have pulled, changed the charter to begin with.

2:33:55 Whatever triggered the change, the change could have been made at any given point in time. And honestly, the board member should not have appointed a local pharmacist ahead of a hospital, whatever. I mean, they should not have appointed people because it was in the charter, to not have a conflict of interest.

2:34:07 It just wasn’t, people weren’t following the charter. So to me, the policies were in place, the charter was in place. It just wasn’t being abided by, well, if we don’t have it to where it’s in policy and we have a standard ethical conduct that we can set.

2:34:21 For instance, we have the review boards, you have the planning and zoning boards. If all of a sudden I found out that my appointee had regulations against them from something, I would like to remove them. Right.

2:34:23 But then if the board has to sit there and debate whether that is or isn’t in the future, that’s a whole other. To avoid all of that, you set the standards of ethical conduct for our people. If they break that, then it comes before the board and it’s an easier.

2:34:29 This is what it is. This is the rule. This is what we do.

2:34:36 So that’s all. So that’s. It’s far easier to catch us at the front end than it would be to catch it after the fact.

2:34:48 If we put some safeguards to steer it in the right direction on the front end, then hopefully we don’t have that happen. I hear you. I just.

2:34:59 But I, again, if we have a model that we can, if we have some models we can look at, I’m absolutely in favor of looking at that. So we’re not starting from scratch. And of course, you know, we’re going to need the lead legal review as well.

2:35:23 No, I think that’s completely respectful and part of the process. Paul, you understand that? Yep. Is there any other discussion on this? We’ll hear back and bring it back.

2:35:34 All right, next up is the lobbyist registration, and this should be the final one. I had Paul just kind of put it into policy, which would be the most benign one, which is the Brevard one. Paul, did you figure out which policy number this would go into because you were kind of trying to look into it? I told you, I think we just send them to Neola, and Neola places them so they’ll put them in our numbering system.

2:35:41 So if you guys look at the registration policy, which is the first part on there, you can see it’s pretty simple. It’s like no fee, so nobody has to track money if there’s a thing. It’s kind of like, hey, we need you to do this.

2:35:58 You know what I mean? It’s just. But what it does is it makes people register so that we know who they’re tied to if an event comes up. Okay.

2:36:11 Yeah. And then the. So if you see that you guys had spoken about, and we provided copies of other lobbyist registrations that were more, you know what I mean, in depth with higher applications and all this other stuff, I don’t think the board has appetite for that.

2:36:34 I think putting this as a beginning step and then seeing how it goes and adjusting to it may be the way to do it. So that’s the first piece, and then the second piece is the lobbyist registration application. If you guys look at that, it’s pretty simple.

2:36:46 It’s last name, first name, you know what I mean? Zip code, email address, name of principal. And this is pretty standard with all governmental entities from the legislature down to many cities, as you saw in school boards throughout the state. So with that, does anybody have anything that they want to, like, add to it? I guess I’ll open up the floor for discussion.

2:36:59 No. No. You guys good with moving, bringing staff to bring this policy back, mirroring the county and send it to Neola? Yeah, I can’t remember what the other policies that we looked at said.

2:37:13 But b, where it talks about expiration, they have to register every year. Is that, is that pretty standard? Yeah. Because what ends up happening is a lot of these lobbyists will come on and they’ll engage in a conversation with people across the street.

2:37:15 I asked about that. And what happens is they no longer, after that initial engagement, continue representing that firm, and then they’re just on this thing. So they like to have it to where every year they have to redo it just for the fidelity of a contract or whatever it is.

2:37:23 So we know who they represent. Yeah. Yep.

2:37:26 Makes sense. Yep. And then that also means that, like, that, you know, there’s some poor guy that didn’t come and lobby with, you know, over the year for ten years now he’s got 150 people.

2:37:34 It looks like he’s right. Yep. Yep.

2:37:44 So if everybody’s okay with that, Paul, you’re good to take that. Bring it back in some sort of form after we send it off to Neola. Well, we got.

2:37:45 You got to approve it first. Would you like us to say that we give you direction to do that, or do you. I’ll just put it on a track and it’ll go through regular rulemaking and then it’ll go to Neola.

2:38:08 Thank you. Perfect. I have one more thing.

2:38:12 I just wanted to bring out that that took place this last week, and I don’t know if anybody else received phone calls about this, but I had parents approach me at a volleyball match. There was communication that went out from the district in regards to the COVID I don’t know what it was called, but did you get any contact about that? I had parents that were in a tissy about this and. Wait a minute, we’re quarantining for five days.

2:38:19 We’re this, we’re that. We have to show a negative test. We, you know, and then they list all the symptoms.

2:38:25 And so I. I just wanted clear direction from the board to be given on. Yeah, you look confused on this. Like, I had that conversation with Doctor Rendell.

2:38:41 Do you want to. I think Doctor Rendell and I were talking about this doctor Rendell, if you can. He started moving on this.

2:38:52 I just want to make sure I get direction from board corporate, a majority of the board that we would want to return to pre COVID policies. That’s really what makes sure. So I think I had actually had one of our administrators reach out to me because when they.

2:39:07 It was in the LTP. Correct. But Mister Reid pointed to the DOH state rule which is still in the books.

2:39:25 And the DOE guidelines is also still in the books. So that’s where we’re coming from. So I don’t know how much we can look at how much wiggle room we have, but as long as a DOH rule is still there.

2:39:37 And basically it’s. I mean, what you should be doing if you come down with a fever and whatever, anyway, but we’re not, you know, so, Doctor Rendell, I think we can solve this if you can send a request up to the DOE and say, we’d like to return to the COVID policies prior to COVID, or the restrictions prior to COVID. Right.

2:39:44 Clinic procedures, let them see what they give back to us, and then we can come back to that in the event. In the meantime, we as a board, had given direction not to have that come back. So if we can kind of rescind that piece a little bit.

2:39:54 Right, right. I mean, the DOH has taken their guidance from the CDC and they’re still. They’re still advising, masking and things that we’re not doing.

2:40:03 Well, it was actually. It was the guidelines that are there. And the one that’s from the Doe, which is the graphic, is the one that Richard Corcoran sent out at the kind of the end of whatever, it’s been a couple years.

2:40:11 But I’m just saying. I know, but it was like, they haven’t rescinded it yet. So, I mean, that was all that our state DOH was actually.

2:40:25 Those are from the governor and all of that. So it’s just a clarification needs to be given as far as the schools go, just because that’s where it gets a little confusing on quarantine. Correct.

2:40:38 So what happened is that letter came to us from the Department of Health, and we said, is this the same letter as last year? And they said, yes. Okay. So we sent it out, not realizing that we had made a change since it was sent out last year.

2:40:41 So we’ll make sure we’re able to do that without violating any Doe protocols. And because of the variance, I think that the DoE would be the appropriate body to reach out to. So thank you.

2:40:45 Thank you. One more. Sorry.

2:40:53 Since we already went late. We’re going late. Let’s just keep going.

2:41:13 I’ll keep it. Sorry. I’ll try to keep it short, but in the middle of all of things that are these going on, it was not the most important thing that we had to talk about tonight.

2:41:31 But, you know, in addition to the nickname thing, which, you know, people have been upset about this. This one actually upsets me more. And that is we’re having to get parents to sign off for every little thing that their children might participate, including tutoring after school, before school, all the clubs, assemblies, dances, things like that.

2:41:58 So I talk to Chancellor Burns today, and they’re not giving us a lot of. Paul sent you guys an email. They’re not giving us a lot of guidance, but I just want to put out to any parents who might still be listening and employees and club sponsors and things like that, extracurricular sponsors, you know, I think this is something moving forward.

2:42:09 He suggested that moving forward for, like, next year, we can put in a registration paperwork and parents can, we can kind of figure out this, this out, but, you know, it won’t really affect athletics. And I’ll, you know, as a music mom, because you sign so many things that says, you know, the parents know, these are all the dates, and you sign a contract saying, my child will come to all the concerts and here’s all the rehearsals. Like, I already have the whole calendar all the way through the end of May of all the band and orchestra dates for my kids.

2:42:22 Same thing with athletics. You get the game schedule, so you sign off all the things. But it’s going to be, we really need parents to cooperate because we don’t want any kid to miss out on the clubs and activities they want to be a part of.

2:42:39 We certainly don’t want them to miss out on tutoring that they need. And so, parents, if that extra paperwork comes to you, please just, you know, sign it. And I know my daughter got one from one of her teachers that is just kind of a here before and after on any of these days.

2:43:05 And it’s kind of a one time for anytime she might come in for tutoring, but that’ll be something that will be easier next year when, you know, and Miss Chancellor Burns did say we were trying to pass these rules earlier because usually we do them in November. Everybody complains. So the commissioner wanted us to do it earlier.

2:43:11 But I’m like, it’s still three weeks before school starts. So these are changes that are coming at us as a district. And we know sometimes it’s a pain for parents, but we’re going to try to, I hope that we can be as helpful as possible to help our school staff and our parents and families understand them and make sure their kids get everything that they need to be involved in of our activities for the year.

2:43:24 So I’ll wait. I had something to tail on. I think I got a solution so thank you for bringing this up.

2:43:37 It’s a great point. I met with the tied together Mister outlaw and he said, Matt, he goes, I didn’t even know this. And now when I go to the school, it means that every kid that comes in to do my tie has to sign a form before they get there.

2:44:05 He said it’s going to decimate my numbers. He said it’s going to bring it down to 1015 percent of what the original, original kids do because it’s hard for some of the low socioeconomic areas to go home to get a form filled out by their parents. So he made that.

2:44:19 And I think I sent an email to some people, it might have been Ramer or somebody just saying, hey, can you give us some, like, is there some wiggle room inside of this policy for things that are district approved? Right. Like, so the district approves of these people that the, you know what I mean, as a board, then can we go something like that? Or one of the other things is the mode of communication. Can we text it to parents? Can we email it to parents? Because sometimes if you hand a kid a piece of paper, there ain’t no way he’s coming back with this.

2:44:22 They’re using digital. Okay, so they are using, I don’t know about text, but they have approved forms for digital signatures. We can get those approved forms to our partners that have been doing great work for us for so long.

2:44:31 I think that would be great. Well, the schools are the ones who sent it out. Yep.

2:44:56 Yeah, I know. But you know, if the principals know that they can use the digital forms for those things. I was just trying to think of a way in the process before we hear back if there’s any wiggle room.

2:45:10 In the meantime, if there are parents who are upset because of this vague rule that is now, I just think there were some things that it was trying to make sure that parents know their kids are involved in, but I think it went a little because it was so vague, it went too far. So please reach out not necessarily to the board, but to the state board of education to make sure that they understand. This is a vague rule and it’s really caused a paperwork nightmare.

2:45:30 Even if it’s digital for our schools to keep up with in a year that hb one is saying, hey, let’s deregulate the school districts. They just added all this on. And to the point that has been made, it really is going to affect our students, who we have.

2:45:42 It’s like pulling teeth to get really important forms back. Right. Like the health forms and all those kinds of things, you know, if we’re going to have to get a form for every dance, every assembly, every time the kids, you know, tutoring and different kinds of programs, it’s really going to cut into what those students who, you know, it’s hard getting the parents to sign or hard getting the kid home, you know, whatever.

2:46:05 Communication is not always great in every family. I hate to see that. And I don’t want to see our clubs and programs go down either, because of this extra barrier.

2:46:12 And it is a barrier. So please reach out to the state board of education to communicate that barrier that they have created with some good intentions, but at the very least, it would be good for them to provide some more clarity as to exactly what kinds of things need to be. Is there a way to just pump this out through focus to all of our parents and just have them be able to click a button that says, I give consent? Well, and that’s what I was thinking.

2:46:16 So if Melbourne says, okay, these are ten things that are going to happen before the end of the year. Put it together, send it out. Boom.

2:46:32 As long as it has whatever. The fourth, it has the date. Yep.

2:46:42 The four requirements in for each activity. So a packet like in that we’ve had that conversation you can put together in your beginning of the year stuff. Here’s all of the activities, all of the clubs when they meet and all that.

2:46:50 And a big packet at the beginning. And have parents sign off on all of those activities at the beginning that they want their child to participate in. But all things will be easier next year.

2:46:58 Yeah, I mean, the rules for this week. So we got late notice. Yeah, you can put it all together and send one email and probably get three quarters.

2:47:12 That’s what I’m just thinking. There’s a way to do it through focus and just easily click a button and sign your name that says, yes, I give consent. You’re waiting to talk.

2:47:37 It sounds very easy if we just say we’re going to do it through focus. But I think Mister Cheatham would let us know that we still have a strong participation in focus by the parents yet. So again, you know, and it’s.

2:47:45 It’s a challenge, whether it’s paper or electronic. And even if we go electronic, it’s still man hours that staff are going to have to track who’s turned in a form, whether paper or electronic, who can participate in the club or activity, who can’t. So in the meantime, teachers are turning kids away at the door, say, sorry, you can’t come to tutoring this morning because your parents haven’t signed this form.

2:47:52 Correct. Kids probably like, good. But if they’re coming in before school for tutoring, you know, that’s.

2:47:56 They’re coming in voluntarily before school for tutoring. That’s. You know, that’s frustrating.

2:48:13 Yeah. I don’t like it. I mean, I’m just gonna just put this out there.

2:48:18 I feel like if a student shows up at homecoming in a dress with a paid for ticket, we can probably assume that they’ve got permission from the parents to be there, but not according to the new state board rule, so. Okay. Everybody good? All good. Anybody else have anything else they want to say? Dr. Rendell, do you want to. I’m good. Pontificate a little bit. Oh, I thought Gene was going to have one. All right, good of order. Go home.