Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
6:16 Good evening. The September 19, 2023 board meeting is now in order. I’m happy to welcome my fellow board members and the public. I would like to take this opportunity to remind the public that the appropriate place for public participation in the meeting is during your individual public comment opportunity as identified in the agenda.
6:34 Outside of your individual public comment opportunity, your role will be as an observer. Paul, roll call, please. Mister Susan.
6:42 Here. Miss Wright. Here.
6:44 Mister Trent. Here. Miss Jenkins.
6:46 Here. Miss Kimmel. Here.
6:48 At this time, the board would like to hold a moment of silence in honor of Mister Steven Schenbaum, who died unexpectedly. He was with bps for eight years in various roles, including substitute teacher, ESC specialist, and most recently, the ESE support specialist for Manatee, McNair and Pinecrest schools. I invite the audience to join in this moment of silence.
7:36 Thank you. I wanted to say that for one of the first times in a long time, we’ve had people who came here for Mister Schenbaum. And I wanted to give any of them the opportunity if one of them would like to speak for him.
7:52 If not, no big deal. But I wanted to give that opportunity since some people had come. Anybody wish to speak for him? Okay.
8:00 I just wanted to know that this individual was very special to our district and that people traveled here to have that moment and for him to be recognized. And I wanted to say thank you for all those that were involved. Oh, you do? Okay.
8:30 She can take a chair. Okay. Hi.
8:36 This is Paola. This is Stephen Chambon’s wife, and she would like to say a few words. Good evening, everyone.
8:45 I really appreciate it. I’m honored here to be here. I was invited by Miss Shannon, and I just want to thank all of you that you guys had so much love for Steve.
8:58 I meant, I might not want to say anything right now, but I wanted to bring. How nice he was. Honest guy, diplomatic.
9:09 Great husband, great father. He was very dedicated to the school. He loved the school.
9:15 He loved helping parents. He was a guy that he was always working Saturday, Sunday, preparing the meetings. He was anal.
9:28 I have. I just missed the point. We missed the point to be as a couple.
9:34 I work, he worked, he had other duties. You know, we have a business, and he always. He was up 430 in the morning, running and doing the duties before he went to school.
9:48 I’m here to stand to you guys. Take advantage to be as a couple. You never know.
9:54 One day you wake up, he’s gone. We had so many plans. He was so dedicated to the kids.
10:01 He was so happy with the kids doing well, and me, he was like, he was just. He was pleasing his family, and he was always last. And now I. I feel like it’s just so much.
10:21 I’m missing him so much, and just. I appreciate all of you and everybody showing up for Steve’s funeral and calling me, and it’s been great. Thank you, guys.
10:35 And he was good guy. Very honest, working hard. But I do want to say, enjoy the family, all of you, because you never know when it goes.
10:47 We had so many plans in the future when the kids went to college, and now I’m alone. Those plans, he left. Thank you.
10:59 Thank you, Miss Schimboom. Can I go give her a hug? You give her a hug. Well, we’re just going to really quick.
11:05 He was a dedicated staff member. He supported our schools, our students with disabilities. And like she said, he was amazing.
11:12 He worked really hard. Dedicated father, dedicated to his family and our family at BPS. So he will be truly missed.
11:21 Steven never met anybody he didn’t love. He loved every person that he met. He cared for the parents very deeply, the children very deeply, and all his colleagues benefited from the deepness of his love and his respect, and he will be sorely missed.
11:38 So we appreciated having him here. We all learned much from him. Thank you for your time.
11:49 Thank you, Miss Schenbaum. I think that the dedication that Mister Schenbaum brought to our district is unparalleled. And I would say that those comments were meant deeply for many of us, as we know that many of the things that we do take away from our families and very well said, very well respected.
12:11 And I just wanted to say thank you for being here tonight. And thank you, Mister Trent. Thank you.
12:21 Leading us in the pledge of allegiance is Alexander Thomas from Coco High’s marching band. Let’s all please stand. 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.
12:51 Alexander’s not here alone. We have 26 of his closest school friends joining him. Welcome the Coco High Tigers marching band.
17:42 Awesome. So, hey, great job, guys. Tiger pride is on display tonight.
17:46 I see that you’re back at the podium. We’d love to ask you a few questions. First.
17:51 It is now questions from the board. I want to know how much these drums weigh. To this gentleman here, I’m like, this is looking like it weighs.
18:01 It’s got some weight to it. How much is that? Does that weigh 50 pounds? That’s a lot of weight. It is.
18:09 You guys sound amazing. Thank you guys, so much for starting off our meeting like that. It’s awesome.
18:13 It’s very upbeat and it sets the tone. So we appreciate you coming out and showing us your mad skills. Good job, guys.
18:20 Great job. All right, so how many freshmen? Raise your hand. How many sophomores? Yeah.
18:31 All right. Sophomores. Sophomores.
18:35 A few juniors. Seniors? Oh, we got a young group here. All right, I’m gonna do my little plug right now.
18:44 If you like what you heard. Let me just. A little plug for the district marching band, MPA.
18:51 October 21. It’s a whole Saturday afternoon and evening of this. All the bands on the field doing their show at Space Coast Junior senior high.
18:59 So board be there. We get in for free. So there’s no excuses.
19:03 Sorry, audience, you gotta pay because it supports the programs. But I can’t wait to see you guys take the field. Yes.
19:10 Congratulations. So, Miss Campbell, I’m kind of segueing off of your question, but I was gonna ask, is this the entire band? Yeah. All right, so listen, listen, Tiger pride, we need some support here, okay? This was phenomenal.
19:31 You want to be a part of this band, we can get them bigger in a bigger class size and make more noise for your team that you want to support. If you were listening, I hope you understand how incredible this is. And I saw there was a lot of freshman hands that went up, but I had the opportunity of going with the football team to the state championships last year in Tallahassee.
19:50 And some of the band had the ability to be there and make some noise for that team. And, man, they needed it because they were outnumbered when it came to crowd size. And it’s so much fun.
20:00 So if you’re paying attention and you want to join this band, please, please, please do it. It’s such an awesome opportunity. And as a former drum major color guard participant, you guys have my heart.
20:10 Thank you so much, guys. Thank you so much for coming out today. We were talking before this meeting about coming out to, like, intro songs just for fun one time, and I said, and then all of a sudden, you guys came out and it was pretty amazing with what you guys play.
20:29 I’ve been a part of a couple of bands playing indoor, and it’s so incredibly loud and impactful. So thank you so much for coming out. We really appreciate it.
20:39 You guys were right on. Like, I was watching you guys over there and your movements were right on. So congrats over there, too, to Chiron over there on the side.
20:46 So thank you so much. We really appreciate you. Back to Eugene.
20:49 Yeah, thanks, Alexander. And the entire coco marching band for coming out. Do you have one more song you can play on the way out? Yes.
21:02 Freestyle. It sounds like something they want to do. All right.
21:14 You switching? What’s happening here? Uh oh. All right, good. More than one of you can carry the heavy one, huh? That’s the heaviest one.
21:24 Yeah. I’m guessing. Yeah, it is.
21:33 Serious. Tell you what. You do what you want to do.
21:49 It’s your floor. Yeah. Let’s play in place.
21:52 Okay. All right, good job. All right, good job.
24:57 You want to take a small recess or no? Yeah, I’m going to do it, but hang on. Sorry. Do you guys play drums, like, nonstop in your house all the time.
25:24 Probably drive your parents crazy a little bit, huh? Now you’re putting it to good use. Come up here. I’m gonna have you gong the meeting with that thing.
25:31 All right. Don’t listen to them once you get up there. Come back over that.
26:42 Russ. Russell. Russ.
26:51 Yeah. All right, we’re gonna take a short break so that everybody can kind of leave, right? Or do you guys want to keep going? They’re all separate. They’re good to go.
26:53 All right. All right. I’d like to fellow.
27:04 I’d like to recognize my fellow board members with any comments that they have from the last couple of weeks coming up first. Who wishes to go first? Anybody? Take it, Miss Jenkins. There you go.
27:29 I just wanted to recognize the event that I’ve kind of been promoting the last couple of times I’ve been here, but the umatter event that was hosted at Merritt Island High School by do it four hunter for suicide prevention and awareness. I had the ability to stop by the other day, and I want to thank all of the staff of that school that participated that day across the community. There was also the theater schools that were participating, as well as community businesses and partnerships that participated.
27:57 Thank you so much for not only supporting the family and the friends of that student, but the school itself and all of the students who are benefiting for that suicide prevention Awareness day. And I know that they have a goal that hopefully they can do this in other communities, and I hope that they can because it was really well attended, and they were able to track that by having tickets when you went to certain places around the community, bringing them back to Merritt Island High School. And when I was there at 01:00, I think 03:00 was the last time.
28:10 I mean, that bucket was really full with tickets, so it showed that many people were participating, and not everyone, even, you know, obviously went and participated having a ticket so really awesome. Thank you to the student government association of Merritt Island High School. There’s about 15 of them there.
28:41 When I was there we had a really good conversation about why they love their school, what they love to do for the other students among that school. It was a really good conversation as well as participants with the sources of strength program letting me know and ask questions about how you feel about that program. How do you feel like your peers feel about that program? What can we do as a district to better support programs like that inside of your school to prevent suicide? So thank you to everybody who participated that day and a little personal shout out to Surfside elementary and district staff.
28:56 We had a broken ac and had to close school which was super fun for parents on the fly. But I want to thank all of the staff at Surfside. I thought I was going to get there and it was going to be complete and utter chaos, but it was really, really well organized.
29:07 Our students were calm and happy and parents were calm and happy too. So thank you everyone who participated as well as the district to get that up and running as soon as possible. Thanks.
29:13 Yep, go ahead, Miss Cameron. All right, so I did. I was going to plug the Marchabad MPA because everybody get that on the calendar.
29:29 October 21, Space Coast Junior senior high. And if you just want to come watch a couple of bands, their schedule should be out the week before so you can find out when your favorite band is playing on 911. I was at Discovery elementary celebrating Patriot Day with them.
29:52 It’s a many years tradition. They had many of the parents, they recognized the parents and family members who were in the military who had served as a first responder and the kids were so cute and had a little program and so thanks for inviting me Mister Corsa and the kids did great. And thank you for all the community members who came and Palm Bay Police Department and the fire chief and everything to celebrate and remember Patriot days.
30:17 Remember all the people who served and were fallen on 911. And thank you to our teacher leadership council who put on a great professional development. On Saturday I got to come in and go around to the different classes and I could see almost everyone that was offered during that hour and just really appreciated the work they put into teachers teaching teachers and it was great.
30:34 The last thing I want to mention board is to remind us and the rest of the staff who are part of our health challenge. It’s too late to sign up but we’re the school board team which I need to rename. The school board and legal office team is in 9th place.
30:40 So yay. I’m still waiting. I fell off of my bike, Miss Campbell, because of you.
30:52 So sorry. But hey, you’re our third point getter, so I’m really glad we had the legal office with us because the legal office is really good about getting to working out, especially Paul. And Gene’s like number one on our team, so Gene’s like the MVP.
31:04 He’s the mvp of the because he plays golf every day. So still waiting on Megan, Alina and Mister Susan if you signed up to join the team. But keep going, everybody out there.
31:21 The goal is for our staff, staff district wide, to get moving, to be healthy so that we can hang on to our sanity and to our health so that we can do good work for kids. We have to do good work for our bodies. So I hope that everybody, even if you didn’t, it’s too late to join the challenge.
31:27 Get out and move every day. But the school board is going to shoot for number one. All right, here we go.
31:29 Mister Trent. Oh, wait, I’m sorry. I’m done.
31:33 I apologize. I did that too quickly. Mister Trent, I’ll make this quick.
31:53 BPS is off to a great start for the school year. I just want to have a special shout out to all the ed administration and the staff that have been welcoming me with open arms to walking through your schools and for the teachers to have the strangers walking into your classroom and observing. I’m seeing some wonderful things out there.
32:08 It’s a pleasure being on this side. And the emails back from teachers thanking us for coming through and taking a look, but we’ll continue to do that. And like I said before, I think BPS is in a great position and we’re off to a good start.
32:23 That’s it. All right, I want to give a shot to a couple different places. So first off, the Titusville chamber, they hosted a wonderful luncheon this last week, and they brought in someone who was from the FBI, who talked about Internet security and the importance of it.
32:37 And it’s something that can so easily be overlooked because we just use it so frequently that we forget. So it was a great reminder to make sure that we have the authentication, two step authentication on all apps. So everybody out there, if you don’t have it, put it on your phones that way.
32:57 Also, I want to give a shout out to Miss Kerry Weeks and Miss Jackson, mister Flora at Space Coast. I was able to spend the better part of a good day over there with that team. And second harvest food bank came and dropped off a pallet of fresh produce along with bags for us to be able to bag up and help give these to children and some of the staff there.
32:57 And it was just an amazing blessing to see so they worked hard. It was a great, great success. Honestly, I hope it’s something they’ll continue.
33:14 And it was a lot of really, there were some different things in there. I don’t personally know how to cook yucca, but I don’t know if you’ve seen Yucca, but it was interesting. Everyone’s like, what is that? And I’m like, well, that’s Yucca.
33:27 So it was a learning experience all the way around. Also, I want to give a shout out to the Brevard Schools foundation. We had the opportunity to go to the take stock and children fundraising event this past weekend, and I will be excited to hear the results on how much they raised.
33:39 But a wonderful organization that helps our kids that are struggling or in need, helps really get them across the finish line, provides mentorship. It’s just a huge, huge partnership with our students. So excited to hear those numbers.
33:46 But thank you for putting on a wonderful event and inviting us to it. And that is all that I have. Thank you.
34:01 Miss Wright just wanted to kind of give you guys. I was at an event this weekend, and a principal of one of the charter schools came up, and it was really interesting because she said, thank you for everything that you guys have been doing. We feel more supported now than we ever have.
34:17 And I said, that is phenomenal, because I always thought that the charter schools worked separate from the school district. But when dealing with some of the changes that we’ve made at the school districts, there were a lot of the positives that even trickled down into the charter schools for discipline and some of the other things. So that was huge.
34:37 She asked me not to say which charter it was, but I just wanted to give congratulations to them and to our district for what they’re doing. I wanted to say thank you to Pam Dampier for her work in pulling together the data. Just so you guys know, all of our data from the different sources for discipline, they come in different ways.
34:57 Workers comp, they come in from different components. And she actually set up a system where we can review it on a regular basis to make sure that the fidelity of that is correct and that they all align. So that’s a huge, huge undertaking, Miss Dampier, and I appreciate all of your dedication to making that happen, and I look forward to the coordination in the future.
35:03 I wanted to say thank you. Big shout out to Remalia Farms, they had a big fundraiser this weekend. I attended that.
35:16 For those of you that don’t know, Ramalia Farms is up in Merritt island. What they have is an opportunity for kids and we have field trips that go there and everything else that see all of their animals that they have. They’re now trying to build out a facility that is much like the zoo.
35:28 But what they do is they don’t take it to show animals. They show some of the distressed animals and some of the ones that need care, they take them in and it’s a process. And they’re going to look to create an internship and some programs over the summer.
35:34 Just like we’ve done some of the organizations. But they do an amazing job. I wanted to say thank you to life recapture.
35:48 They’re in the process of putting together a community communication and stuff like that on a lot of our human trafficking issues. So they have their big fundraiser this weekend plug out for them if they. I think there was like six spots left at this point.
35:56 So good stop for that. What that is is life recaptured. One of the largest areas for human trafficking is brevard.
36:15 And I did not know that. The Gaiman gave a presentation during the summer and showed all of the needs for us to educate our families and our parents and everybody else about how the use of social media and other medians are actually allowing these predators to take advantage of our students and our kids. So they’re taking on the initiative to educate our parents on all of those best practices.
36:22 They brought in some of the FBI agents to work that and some other things. So it’s going to be incredible. So I wanted to say thank you to life recaptured.
36:29 Many of the principals out there. Maybe getting a phone call in the next couple of weeks. I wanted to say thank you to Mister Belluto from Rockwell Collins.
36:48 He gave us a tour. Did you want to speak to that? You want me to be quiet about it? He gave us a tour of the Artemis one, two, three. Just so you guys know, the capsule that actually launches to take all of our people up into space is when the one you’re seeing is the version one and it goes all the way to eight.
37:08 We were able to see one, two and three. And the reason for that is not to just show us that, but the fact that we have students now who are working from our Ogalley high school aviation hangar from the one individual that got a million dollar check at the last meeting has driven our students to go to work there. And they had said something and I wanted to tell this story.
37:14 So they don’t ever try to hire anybody that’s 18 years old. Correct. Straight out of high school? Straight out of high school.
37:25 They did not want it unless there has college experience. So there was a big push on trying to find somebody that would be the person that could break the ice. Right? So Rockwell Collins has all this stuff.
37:58 And we had an individual that went up there and it was a female, and she went up there and basically did such a good job that they now have rewritten their HR policies, just one kid, to allow all of our students to start working directly there. And the work that Mister Belluto and the Rockwell Collins team has done is anything less than extraordinary. They’ve talked about setting up a career in technical school at Kennedy Space center at the Artemis building so that they could have kids come during the day to go to work.
38:07 And doctor Rendell’s working on allowing them to take classes at night. So there’s some really innovative stuff that went on collaborative. And I was just really, I wanted to say thank you to Rockwell.
38:19 Thank you to Mister Belluto for all of his time. I also wanted to say to Miss Campbell, I have not signed up for the health challenge and I am going to. So I owe you an apology, because I have.
38:23 I was the one who said we got to do a health challenge and I’m going to join. And then I didn’t do you it. So look forward.
38:35 Who are we up against? Can you give me a little thing now? I’m like, excited. Who’s beating us? Like, what are we at some point? Curriculum, instruction? So, Miss Harris, we’re coming after you. I think Locmar was ahead of us.
38:37 Maybe Coco. I’ll check the list. Hang on.
38:47 So how are they ahead of us? Like, I need to know this. Do they have more people, the average of your team? So Paul and Gina really bring in our. And Jennifer are really bringing our average ups.
38:58 So can you explain what the minutes of activity include? I’ll share with you after the main. No, no, I want to know so that we know each time you work out. You got full disclosure, I haven’t been able to log any activities since September 11.
39:04 But you got them. I’m on it, too. You have a log that you’re getting ready to submit? Yeah.
39:09 So I can do it on the app, on the desktop. It’s not log anything. All right, take a walk.
39:15 You get 30 points. I’ve done stuff since September 11. I just haven’t been able to enter.
39:16 Yeah. Let’s go. Let’s go.
39:21 Team themselves. No, I know. No, I’m ready to go.
39:30 I gotta go on it and try to add if I’ve done stuff, but I haven’t registered. Yeah, it’s working. Anyways, I look forward to joining.
39:38 I look forward to the challenge. And I wanted to say thank you for spearheading that and thank you for being a voice for that. I think it’s something that we all should do.
39:43 So thank you, I appreciate it. And we’re not doing so school board weigh ins. But that was, that was an idea that I had.
39:53 But, you know, hey, look, I’m all on board. I’m all on board, whatever you want to do. I said I was a part of it and then the last thing I wanted to do is say thank you to miss hand.
40:12 Miss Hand gave a presentation today. Anybody that doesn’t know who Miss hand is, she’s the head, the assistant superintendent for, she’s a deputy superintendent and also head of facilities for our school district. And what she did today was one of the most innovating, forward thinking things that we’ve seen.
40:52 She went ahead and put together not only the needs that we will have for our school district going forward ten years, she also tried to talk about, now that we have this huge need, how are we going to backtrack and create those avenues so that our kids can achieve at a high level? And what kind of differences do we need to change along the way for success? And just so everybody understands, we, because of HB one, we are now in a competitive environment with charters like we’ve never seen before. So we have to dynamically adjust to create k through eight s, possibly junior seniors, possibly public private partnerships. All of those things were presented as possible options today.
41:13 And sue took it on, on her shoulders to not only go out and find a consultant, but start to talk about those things from a 30,000 foot view, then hone in on a strategic plan so that we can answer those things. That will be the first time I’ve heard about this in any other school district in the state of Florida. And we didn’t ask sue to kind of do it, she just did it because it’s what’s needed.
41:19 And I just wanted to say thank you to Sue Han and all of the hard work that she’s done. Thank you, sue, for bringing that forward. I really appreciate it.
41:26 And that’s all I have for the day. That’s it? Yep. Yay, sue.
41:28 Sorry. Yeah. Doctor Rendell.
41:41 Thank you, mister chair. I have the honor of announcing a huge award earlier today. The US Department of Education announced that Edgewood Junior Senior High School has been selected as a blue ribbon school.
41:50 This is quite an accomplishment. Edgewood Junior Senior High School has been a blue ribbon school before. You’re only eligible every five years or so.
42:09 We have several schools that have achieved blue ribbon status, but it puts you in the top like half of half of half of 1% of schools nationwide. You have to have incredibly high achievement and sustained it over a period of time. So it’s a huge, huge award for Edgewood junior senior High.
42:21 We congratulate them. It’s really a result of all the hard work and dedication of the students, the staff, the parents, the entire school community. They set very high standards for student performance and they meet them every year.
42:31 So congratulations to Edgewood. There’s a bulletin on our front webpage about it. And there’s also a list of our other schools who have achieved blue ribbon status.
42:45 We have numerous schools, I think over ten that have been blue ribbon schools before at one time or another. So congratulations to Edgewood. Big honor.
42:50 That brings us to the adoption of the agenda. Doctor Rendell. Thank you, mister chair.
43:14 On this evening’s agenda, we have one administrative staff recommendation, 24 consent items, two action items, nine information items and zero board member reports. Changes made to the agenda since release of the public include the addition of h 38, which is delegation of settlement authority, and revisions to h 37 procurement solicitations. Do I hear a motion? Move to appearance.
43:21 Second. Is there any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye.
43:26 Any opposed passes 50. Paul. We are now on to our proclamation.
43:33 Doctor Rendell? Yes. Tonight’s proclamation honors constitution week. Thank you.
43:53 I’m going to read this in a second. Do I hear a motion to support the constitution week? Move to approve? Second. Any discussion? I want to thank a local organization that took the time this past, I guess this is last week, that distributed constitutions to a lot of our middle schools and high schools.
44:07 They may have hit all of them. I don’t want to misquote that, but there was fearless mamas out there that were working hard and making sure that those were getting put into our kids hands so that they can have that valuable document and understand what our country was founded on, what our rights are as citizens. So thank you.
44:12 Thank you. Thank you so much. That was our local moms for liberty from Brevard that took that initiative up.
44:23 So thank you guys. Anybody else want to comment on. So Sunday was constitution day and our schools did activity by federal law, schools are required.
44:34 Who receive public funds are required to have activities to give instruction in the constitution. And they did that either on Friday or they did it on Monday. And we had a local citizen who was concerned, who wanted to see what was being done.
44:41 And so I want to thank Miss Jolly, who is our resource teacher. Content specialist. I can’t ever.
44:50 Content specialist for social studies, who took us on a tour. We went over to Viera High School yesterday and walked into several exemplary classrooms. It was so exciting to see the students engaged.
44:57 And they were remembering things like that they learned in the third grade. But it was fun. And I appreciate all the teachers, the work they do.
45:04 But thank you, Miss Jolly, for leading that out. And happy constitution week, everybody. That’s right.
45:11 Anybody else before I read the. Should I do it from here? Do we need to vote before we read it? Oh, yeah. We moved to approve, but we didn’t.
45:12 We didn’t. All right. Yep.
45:18 All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed? All right, let me read this thing from here.
45:30 So many people don’t know, but as a teacher, I was in charge of my schools, of the constitution. Miss Jenkins was going to read it, but I asked her if I could. I appreciate it.
45:43 What I have is that it means something to. For our students to understand the foundations of our government and our process and who we are as individuals. And sometimes because of the grind that we have, it’s difficult to put something up.
45:54 So it’s an honor to have the constitutions brought to us. There’s an individual named Don Weaver that brings veterans to speak inside the schools. There was a couple of those speeches, speaking engagements during this time, too, and I just wanted to read this.
46:59 Constitution Week whereas September 17, 2023, marks the 236th anniversary of the drafting of the Constitution of the United States of America during the constitutional convention and whereas it is fitting and proper to accord official recognition to this founding document and its memorable anniversary, and to the patriotic celebrations which commemorate the occasion and where whereas on 1955, the daughters of the American Revolution petitioned Congress to set aside September 17 through the 23rd annually for the observance of Constitution Week, this resolution was adopted by the US Congress and signed into public law on August 2, 1956, by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. And whereas, the goals of the Constitution week celebrate are to emphasize citizens responsibilities for protecting and defending the Constitution, inform people that the Constitution is the basis for America’s heritage and the foundation for our way of life, and encourage the study of historical events which led to the framing of the Constitution in September 1787.
47:45 Now, therefore, it be resolved that the Brevard County School Board proclaim the week of September 17 through the 23rd, 2023 as Constitution Week and encourage citizens to reaffirm the ideals of the constitution framers had in 1787 by vigilantly protecting the freedoms guaranteed to us through this guardian of our liberties, remembering that lost rights never can be regained. Adopted by the members of the school board, Brevard County, Florida, at the regular open public meeting thereof, held on the 19th day of September, 2023. Thank you very much.
48:01 Doctor Rendell, would you please let us know about the administrative staff recommendations? Yes, Chairman Susan. Members of the board, there is one item for your consideration. It is the reclassification of Carmen Elliott from the position of literacy coach at Sunrise Elementary School to the position of assistant principal at Sunrise Elementary School.
48:12 We need a motion. Do I hear a motion? Is there any discussion? All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye.
48:28 Any opposed passes 50. So now I’d like to congratulate Carmen and give her the opportunity to come to the microphone. Congratulations.
48:36 Thank you very much. Good evening. I’d like to thank the school board, Doctor Rendell and BPS for this leadership opportunity.
48:59 I’m so excited. I’d like to thank my former administrators that not only gave me leadership experiences, but believed in me and taught me to navigate this school business with grace and kindness, but showed me how to get things done. And for that, I first have to thank Mister Barry Pitchard, who gave me the opportunity to open sunrise with him back in 2006, and throughout the years was more than a mentor to me.
49:12 He became family. Even now that he’s retired, he continues to text and share his words of wisdom. I’d like to thank Ina Laiba, Cathy Campion, and Janine Jost, three amazing principals that I have had the pleasure to serve under.
49:15 And of course, the wonderful Debbie Wood. I’d like to thank my family, my husband for always jumping in and helping me with school projects, and my now grown children, who are a product of Brevard county public school schools, for going to school early with me, staying late, because that’s the life of teacher kids, right? And going to school on the weekends to get things done, and always being the model kids because they were the teacher kid. So thank you to my family and of course, my current administration at sunrise.
50:05 I’d like to thank our director, Katrina Hudson and principal Kraus Nap Marlaska for wanting me on your admin team. So thank you. And last but not least, I want to thank all the teachers and staff in our community at sunrise because it’s an amazing place to work and they just make it a great place to go to every day.
50:17 I’m so humbled to bring my sunrise experience full circle and serve as assistant principal there. Now I know that together we will have all our sunrise sea turtles swimming to success. And again, thank you.
50:36 Congratulations. Anything else good? Yeah. Let’s go.
50:38 Come on. Let’s go. Let’s go.
50:46 Come on. It’s a good point, Miss Jenkins. So I can get away from these animals that are like crawling on.
51:16 They’re in this group. One, two, three. Looks great.
52:14 One, two, three. We’re doing it right now. Thank you everybody.
52:24 We are now on to the public comments portion of the meeting. We have twelve number of speakers and they will each receive three minutes. I will call up three speakers at a time.
52:33 The first three speakers are. Oh, man. Anthony Colucci, Bernard Bryan and Maribel Campos.
52:58 Did you say all man? Yeah. He already gave them to you. They’re on your form.
53:09 My name is Anthony Colucci. I’m the president of the Brevard Federation of Teachers. I would say four of you came into your positions pretty much disgusted by BPS bureaucracy.
53:34 With that said, at what point does BPS start valuing the input of teachers more than bureaucrats? You have the opportunity to do so with the required makeup time from Hurricane Idalia. You can respect the wishes of your teachers or you can make the mistake of following the wishes of bureaucrats. We surveyed our teachers and the response is clear.
53:55 And let me say the survey didn’t include the most obvious fix of adding five minutes back into the schedule of the 18 schools, causing the need for this makeup time because it was already rejected by BPS. 65% of teachers believe the best way to make up the time is to expand the first semester one day into the second semester. By far.
54:07 This is the way to make up the time while having the least impact on family, students and teachers and district finances. We have additional days built into the second semester. We would not have to add any days.
54:26 Families wouldn’t have to rearrange schedule schedules and teachers wouldn’t have to give up planning time. It’s a no brainer. But instead the bureaucrats want to take away teachers precious planning time by taking away four early release days or the time they have to prepare report cards on October 16.
54:52 Not only would October 16 take away planning time, there would be additional costs to the district of running buses and paying hourly staff. You have over 150 instructional vacancies. Are you really in the place to discard the input of your teachers? How many more can you lose? And I’m confused as to why this board is allowing district officials to come after teachers planning time over and over again.
55:23 Teachers need the time to do the work that you expect them to do. And once again, how does that help with the vacancy crisis? Additionally, last week at the bargaining table made me wonder how the actions of the district bargaining team are going to solve this vacancy crisis while we’re trying to ensure raises comparable to our surrounding districts. While BFT is very concerned, our average teacher pay has slipped to being $2,278 behind the state average.
55:36 Your assistant to the chief negotiator threatened impasse after 30 minutes. That’s a gutsy move for a district with 150 vacancies. Furthermore, we’re supposed to have dates for the next bargaining session.
55:49 Last Wednesday. Despite my follow up, I received one response today. The three dates BFT offered were ignored and the one date bps provided conflicts with the SAC meeting.
56:01 Negotiating with your HR team is proving to be ridiculous as the last time bPs hired a bunch of out of district people to do a job that requires knowledge of the district relationships and competencies. Thank you Mister Kaluch. Thank you.
56:11 Thank you Mister Colucci. Appreciate you coming tonight. Mister Bernard Bryan, please.
56:29 Good evening board. First, I would like to say thank you Doctor Rendell, for taking the opportunity to allow us to chat with you and provide some feedback. So we really appreciate that and it means a lot to our community.
56:48 First of all, my name is Bernard Bryan and I’m a SaC member at University Park Stone Middle School, Palm Bay High School and now Central High School. And the reason why we do that is because we love all children and we love to see all children do well. Just a couple of things I’d like to say thank you for as well.
57:07 Board. Thank you for putting together the presentation that showed the distribution of students movement during the parental choice program. I saw that 85 page presentation and I say thank you for taking the time to really study that.
57:27 But a couple of things that we would like to bring your attention to. We on the south side, we’re still interested in how we going to improve our children flicker rate, which is our kindergarten readiness rate. And we believe that is the critical part of the value stream of all students.
57:56 And right now, Brevard Public School has 85 VPK schools. And we really need to understand that demographic breakdown because if a child is not getting off to a, to an early start, it’s going to propagate throughout his whole learning value screen. So if you will continue to study that, continue to look at that, we will really be thankful to you as well.
58:11 Another thing that we are concerned about, obviously, we’re still looking at the math and reading data. The educational gap is still there. And thank you for listening to us last few years, but I am still concerned about that.
58:38 I’m looking forward to our first reading and math workshop, our work session around reading and math. So I’m hoping that this board would take that challenge so that we can really be excited so I can retire, you know, once I see that happen. But again, thank you so much for being a good listener, and we’re looking forward to all children improving and reading and math.
58:43 Thank you. Thank you, Bernard. Thank you, Mister Bernard.
59:06 Maribel Campos, Richard Weber and David Kearns, please. September is suicide prevention month now, which aligns perfectly with the current hot topic pornographic books in our school libraries. Pornography ruins lives as it can become an addiction.
59:24 Just like a drug addiction, the mind becomes addicted to sexual images or sexual explicit material. After a period of time being saturated with sexual images, the person becomes numb, and the addict looks for other ways to get high. The addict no longer sees their sexual partner as a person, but rather as an object.
59:32 Pornography promotes instant gratification, except that it begins to. To do the opposite. The feeling of emptiness takes over.
59:56 Instead of having healthy, loving relationships, the sex addict is constantly looking for different physical or virtual partners. I was a gullible parent, and it never crossed my mind that our parent, that our students who are minors, will be able to obtain pornographic materials at school. After speaking to friends, I am now aware that these books have been in our public library for decades.
1:00:10 I wonder how many relationships and families have been ruined due to pornography. Then there’s the snowball effect. Once the sex addict can no longer achieve a high with sex, it then looks for other ways to find the quick fix.
1:00:26 Some call it the dopamine cocktail, a mixture of sex, drugs and alcohol. In the meantime, it’s taking a huge toll on their mental health. What follows when nothing else seems to work? Depression, perhaps suicide.
1:00:48 Having pornographic books in our school is damaging to our students mental health and impacts their future mental well being in a negative way. Our young students minds are vulnerable, and pornographic images are ingrained in their brains for a lifetime. Anything in regards to sexuality has no place in our schools, including the high schools that are still full of minors.
1:01:12 There are many parents like myself that will never approve our children reading sexually explicit books. But does anyone really think the students are reading these books in their entirety? When it’s so simple for teenagers to flip through the pages and go straight to the sexual content, Miss Campbell’s request of the book review committee reading the entire book that is being challenged made no sense. I’m 100%.
1:01:29 Excuse me, I’m 100% positive that there will be nobody in the library making sure the students read the whole book. A book having any sexual explicit language or drawings needs to be removed, period. There should be no exceptions on whether the book is educational or not.
1:01:35 Thank you, Miss Kalpas. Thank you. Next up is Richard Weber, David Kearns.
1:01:42 Amy Rouber. Amy Roub, sorry. Hello.
1:01:58 Rick Beaver. Alright, about book banning, moms for liberty and moms for America come up here and read books with what they call pornography. It is not pornography, for one.
1:02:12 It is not being taught to the students as grooming or anything like that. They are not used wrongly in the classrooms. This is a falsity.
1:02:47 And their attempt for reading the books was because the excerpts of the violent abuse, which was not pornography, mind you, was because they knew the new statues that came out and knew that if it were stopped by the board chair, then the book would be banned. Well, he gave them a warning and they kept reading. Guess what? The book was banned by doctor Runner.
1:02:53 He made sure they came off the shelves. Someone else came up here and was reading an excerpt of the book. He was told to stop too.
1:03:11 Come to find out it was a dictionary, he stopped reading it and the book was not removed anyway. Did he stop reading it? Maybe not. But anyway, this part of the hypocrisy of this situation.
1:03:26 So this is a good segue we had here with this past public comment. The ridiculousness of saying pornography is read. I think these are the same books probably on the shelves when I was a kid.
1:03:32 Yeah, yeah. I went off and did my drugs, but it had nothing to do with damn books. Excuse my French.
1:03:51 This just kind of pissed me off. So the books I read were very enlightening. It gave me a broader perspective of life and goodness and the environment, appreciation of the environment.
1:04:18 Anyway, so by removing books, we are removing good resources for the teachers to use. By removing the book and the laws that are being made. There is fear installed in these teachers because they might have legal considerations, because of the new laws by our state and the right wing planning and grooming, I might add, planning is disrupted.
1:04:27 Teachers are walking out. But now let me go to Constitution week. Since this was brought up, we had printouts done by a religious organization.
1:04:43 I don’t care if it’s christian, Buddhism, Judaism or whatever. What happened to separation of church and state? This is crazy talk about grooming. This was an organization that was nonprofit, asking for donations.
1:04:49 And it’s not right. Thank you. Thank you, Mister Weber, Mister David Kearns.
1:04:57 Amy Raob. Paul Rao, please. Good evening.
1:05:23 David Kearns, Palm Bay, Florida. Speaking of Constitution week, did you know that when they formed the government, Ben Franklin was asked, he was asked, is it to be a republic? And he said, if you can keep it, madam. And so we have people here that are constantly agitating and making sure that we keep democracy flowing through all the bodies of Brevard county school system, the county commission and so on, and each one of our city councils.
1:05:50 And so I was kind of disturbed to hear an off comment that was made by one of the school board members last session where he said, well, people will come to the board and they will have a point to make. And this might be just the grossest thing that could ever happen, that a person would come to the board and have a point to make and cause a disturbance. Well, coming to the board and having a point to make is in the first amendment of the Constitution.
1:06:04 That’s the right of redress is enshrined in our constitution, and it is sacrosanct. And if we come here to make a point, it might be very important that we make that point. For instance, in the last session, we were talking about a child who was attacked.
1:06:16 And nothing to our knowledge has been seriously done to humiliate that situation or deal with the family in a humane way. And to this day, it’s just shtoom. It’s quiet.
1:06:52 And the principal, avera high school, is telling her students, despite the fact this being constitution weak, that they should just keep stum and quiet with regard to this event, I find it very appalling and hypocrisy outright. And the other thing that bothered me was I saw how this board had its quiet meeting where we were going to discuss, apparently this was on News 13, what to do about public commentary if we have public commentary that we disagree with? Well, you know, it seemed to me you were talking about eliminating that public commentary. Now, when I come to the board and I address you guys, I’m making a statement.
1:07:07 It’s a public record. We have something also enshrined in our state constitution called the Sunshine law. So that means that I make a statement, it’s public record, and you can’t go back and retroactively erase it because you disagree with what I said.
1:07:34 So it’s just amazing to me that this body is talking about the constitution, is reading how wonderful it is that we have a constitution, and yet there are challenges that continue to erupt from this body towards the constitution of the United States and also the constitution of the state of Florida. Sunshine law is what’s prevented us. It’s prevented us from having so much corruption in our government.
1:07:52 It started long ago when people were selling land on spec and just ripping people off. And now it’s used to keep governments in line and we need to protect it. And we don’t need, we don’t need the Brevard county school board deciding it’s going to upend decades of tradition and law in the state of Florida.
1:07:56 Thank you. Thank you, Mister Kearns. Miss Amy Raub.
1:08:06 Paul Raub. And then Gregory Ross. Hello.
1:08:12 So. Whoo. Okay, Megan.
1:08:23 Thanking a hate group for passing out propaganda to 8th graders. That’s great. Maybe next year we can have the KKK pass something out.
1:08:31 You know, that’ll be fun. And you can, you can acknowledge them from up there. That was annoying.
1:08:42 Jean, last week. Wow. The don’t think we could get away with what I actually want to do with public comment.
1:08:52 Also the nothing better to do about the parents that come on Tuesday nights. Don’t talk like that. Okay.
1:09:05 Katie, whoof. You’ve really made your bed lying in it with these people that want to use this all against you. Careful who you vote with.
1:09:22 Back to Megan workshop. Last week you said these people never reach out and try to sit down with me, you know, blah blah blah. And then also you said after being attacked by 60 people, it’s hard to govern.
1:09:38 Sounds like you’re not really listening. That little comment after Greg and Paul were pleading with you to help prevent trans suicide. How you said won’t be that one, I don’t know.
1:09:53 It makes me think, like, why bother, first of all. But really the reason I never reach out, in case you’re interested, is because you’re a hopeless fascist. And I’m not trying to dignify your christian nationalist talking points.
1:10:07 Not really, no thanks. You also said that there wasn’t a discussion at the book review committee meetings. And like, so obviously you didn’t watch them because there was a lot.
1:10:14 Paul went on for 20 minutes. The last one. You know what Michelle Beavers said? Well, this doesn’t pass the law.
1:10:17 Moving on. That was it. That was all she said.
1:10:27 That was her first comment. All this leading up to her chance to ban books and that’s all she, she didn’t have any conversation. Nothing.
1:10:40 These people don’t want to have a conversation. You don’t actually want to have a conversation, just hang out, do you? No, all right, do better. Mister Paul Ryld, please.
1:10:58 I’d like to see that lady outside of this meeting evening. So I didn’t bring any notes up or actually plan anything. So either this will be really brief or it’ll be three minutes and I’ll be stunned and wish I’d gotten around to saying anything.
1:11:09 We’ll see how it goes. Sorry, I actually got a lot going on at work. I’m kind of concentrating on that right now.
1:11:15 I do have other things to do on a Tuesday night, but this is important. It’s important for us to be here. Our education’s important.
1:11:34 The education of our kids is important. And all the kids who I root for but do not want to control or parent if they’re not mine, for those, for anybody listening who may have misunderstood. And if you’re getting all your information on what’s going on from the public comment section, that’s probably not your best source up to and including me.
1:12:22 But no one’s saying that the constitution is propaganda. But unless things changed, the version that moms for Liberty hands out doesn’t just have the constitution has a nice little back page about a fascinating organization that I don’t know if that was vetted or cleared, as I think materials are supposed to be when they’re passed out. If not, and if they were actually again and again, it would be fantastic if we were to resume the book review process by the book man.
1:12:26 I did not mean for that pun. I apologize. That’s how it came out.
1:12:40 Reading the whole book, as we have done and will continue to do so. And as the statute says, not just miss Campbell’s correct suggestion, but actually how it’s supposed to be done. Because, you know, as I don’t know who it was, remember who it was that read the dictionary.
1:12:58 You know, context matters. Just because a few words are in a book doesn’t mean it doesn’t belong in the schools. Also, for those, you know, we’re not still pretending the dictionary is the only book that was read out here, right? Because that was adorable, guys.
1:13:01 Yeah. Nothing much left to say. Please.
1:13:09 I would love for those meetings to resume. Let’s get some of those books, maybe even back on the shelves. I know that’s a nightmare down toward this end of the dais, but let’s give it a shot anyway.
1:13:22 Thanks very much. Next up, Mister Gregory Ross, Donna Herring and Samantha Kervin. Good evening, board.
1:13:32 Thanks for the opportunity to speak. Always appreciate it. I want to start off congratulating the board and the district and you particularly, Matt Cte.
1:13:42 I agree. This county has a CTE program that the world should be jealous of, and I think everybody in this room can agree with that. So kudos.
1:14:06 Kudos to you, Matt. I know you’ve been somebody who pushes that. Katie, I watched the work session today, and I found it strange that you had two people that agreed with you on separating public comment two weeks ago, made statements in support of it, and then here we are, two weeks later, they all of a sudden, they’ve changed their mind.
1:14:25 In case you wonder how or why that happens, because of the very groups that we speak about up here every week. Let me read you an email, a response by one of the board members to an email from one of these groups. Just so you know, I do not support this proposed policy change that Miss Campbell is pushing.
1:14:53 I am beyond frustrated with this, and I will speak about this today at our workshop and meeting. Again, I hope the board majority does the right thing. Now, I’m not going to say who that board member was, but it just goes to show you just how influential these groups are over certain board members and how quickly they can get them to change their policy, even if it’s based in common sense.
1:15:09 One more thing I want to address here is the board policy 0018, the philosophy of the board. In particular, I object to the inclusion of the word desires and one of the responsibilities of the board. This board sees one of their responsibilities as meeting the educational needs and desires of the citizens.
1:15:33 The inclusion of the word desires after the word needs in this statement is, frankly speaking, ridiculous. It does not surprise me that this board has included desires into their philosophy. This board approaches any issue or policy has been nothing but a slog through the immature emotional and cultural desires of three board members, Mister Susan, Miss Wright, and Mister Trent.
1:15:53 Let’s look at some examples of where this board has ignored the educational needs of the community. Instead, focus on the educational desires of a small minority of brevard citizens. Let’s start here in the boardroom at the sign behind you states to serve every student with excellence as a standard.
1:16:23 Looking back over the last eleven months, an astute observer could argue this board has served no students with excellence. Is this the desire of the board, or just a side effect of unqualified board members? It is obvious from this board’s disastrous and self centered behavior that it is doubtful that you will place the students, parents, faculty, staffs, and communities needs above your own fallacious desire, desires, and worst of all, the continuation of that behavior, even after being called out by the very public. You are elected to serve, not represent.
1:16:31 Thank you, sir. Donna Herring, you’re up next. Then Samantha Kirvin, Allison Curvin and Kelly Kervin.
1:16:47 Got the whole family tonight. Okay. Okay, Miss Donna, Samantha Kervin, Allison Kervin and Kelly Kervin, if you guys will come up.
1:16:53 Miss Kervins, if you, if you guys don’t mind waking your way to the front. That way there’s less time in between. You have the floor.
1:16:58 Sorry about that. I had a bit of a walk. So.
1:17:04 Miss Cage? Yeah, I would love to join the workout thing. I’m a cross country runner. I’ve loved it.
1:17:30 So many points. You’re fun. But anyways, so my school met at Sac this month and one of the questions I was frequently asked is, well, who’s paying for like, all the permissions, like all the ink and all the paper? And it turns out the schools are paying for that.
1:17:57 The problem is, is that there’s like a million of them and there’s like only a set budget for like that amount of ink, the amount of paper. And I don’t think that’s very fair in my opinion. I think a better solution could be like the forms being more digitalized so the parents themselves could print them out as needed with their own materials.
1:18:34 Sure, they may put a little more of a burden on with the parents, but the bright side is the schools won’t have to knock into their own funding for their schools that they can use in different areas. Like replacing a track, hosting an event spirit weekend, more things like homecoming. Surprisingly, I had to get a permission slip signed so I could go to homecoming.
1:18:43 And it was like. It’s like there’s a million of them. It kind of don’t make sense to me, honestly.
1:18:49 Yeah, that’s kind of it. That’s all I wanted to touch bases on. Thank you and good night.
1:19:02 Thank you, Miss Samantha. Miss Allison, then. Kelly Kervin.
1:19:08 Good evening, board. My name is Alison Curvin and you haven’t met me yet. But I’ve been watching you.
1:19:16 Just to be clear, I’m not my sister. I have no desire to be a lawyer and politics bore me. And I’m not my mother.
1:19:29 I’m far blunt. I’m an 8th grade student at Brevard Virtual School. And what I enjoy most is going to work with my dad.
1:19:45 I’ve been to a handful of meetings and what I miss I watch on YouTube, which is why I’m here. Mister Trent. I struggle listening to you talk about being concerned for the students in the room when books are being read out loud.
1:19:58 First, you didn’t say a word when books were being read to me. The last time I came for reference, I was twelve years old. And second, if you cared about students, you wouldn’t have tried to kill yourself.
1:20:12 After hearing my sister talk about dyslexia, you are far more of a danger to students than any book being read. And don’t worry, I expect that stupid clap you do when I go to sit down, too. You’re immature.
1:20:19 You are as an elected official. Grow up. Miss Campbell, you are my representative.
1:20:32 Please stop using me as an excuse to change the public comment policy. Trust me, the teenagers in this room have heard way worse. Have you been in a fourth grade class recently? I have.
1:20:46 If I were to answer some of the questions I got asked by my peers, Mister Susan would cut me off. We know about sex and essay and molestation. Or did you forget that you teach us about human trafficking? Stop being weird about it.
1:21:20 Lastly, Miss Wright, at what point did you stop making women look dumb or start making woman look dumb? Sorry you laughed at my sister, refused to publicly apologize, and upset my aunt by not returning any of her dozens of emails. You pretend like you’re not aligned with the two guys you sit next to, yet you are the face of every bad decision this board has ever made. You don’t listen to facts, and you hate trans kids so much that you’d rather them kill themselves than acknowledge them.
1:21:41 Like Mister Trent, you are more dangerous to students in any book. What this board doesn’t understand is that we, the students, are watching. We are feeling the bad policy changes and the stupid laws coming out of the state.
1:21:58 We are the ones who are questioned because of our diplomas that come from Florida schools, and they are losing their value. We are the ones who are being harmed and who is at fault. You do better.
1:22:13 In the words of a growth mindset. Please remember, we can’t vote yet. Miss Kelly Kervin, please.
1:22:18 Full disclosure. I didn’t write that. I didn’t even know what she was going to say.
1:22:27 All right. Good evening, everyone. Tonight I will be reading a definition from the dictionary.
1:22:39 Miss Wright, I hope that you pay attention. The word is ban. To prohibit or forbidden, especially officially.
1:22:44 A condemnation by church authorities. A curse. An official prohibition.
1:23:08 A strong public condemnation. Now that the definition of the word ban has been made crystal clear, I’d like to revisit the comment Miss Wright made at the last board meeting that BPS isn’t banning books. Miss Wright, you do not have the authority to change the definition of a word because it makes you uncomfortable to identify as a book banner.
1:23:20 If you support the banning of books, then you are a book banner. Own it. Speaking of book banning, at the workshop today, we learned that multiple books were permanently banned following the July 27 meeting.
1:23:38 I have an issue with that for a few reasons. The first reason is I only remember Matt Susan interrupting a speaker once, not multiple times. In fact, I referenced this in my comment at the last meeting when I said the board needed to stop catering policies to extremist groups who seek to harm our students.
1:23:57 The second reason is the language in HB 1069. It’s not as vague as the public is being led to believe. The wording states that parents have the right to publicly read passages from any book as part of their objection to that book keyword being parents.
1:24:21 Miss Campbell said that we should verify what book is being read. But have you verified that the women on July 27 have students registered in bps? And who removed the books? If it wasn’t this board, who wasn’t? The lack of transparency has been a constant complaint and a talking point for months. In fact, Doctor Reindell, I believe it was a talking point at the parent leadership team meeting, too.
1:24:35 I feel like a broken record by saying the word optics. But again, optics. Also, the stay at cheat states that parents can read books quote as part of their objection to the book.
1:24:52 Does that mean that the reader has to be the challenger? Watch the workshop. And normally I get really frustrated, but I still have a sense of what’s going on. And today I left very confused because legally it felt really murky.
1:25:03 I think you all need to dig deeper into this. I also think you need to get the book review policy and committee back on roll as quickly as humanly possible. We still have AP books our schools can’t use, which is ridiculous.
1:25:20 We still have books our students can’t read, which is ridiculous. We still have teachers fearing about what they can and can’t bring into their classrooms, which is ridiculous. Our students, our schools, and our admin deserve better.
1:25:34 And all of y’all are failing. That concludes our public comments. Thank you for your willingness to address us in this public manner.
1:25:42 Does anybody wish to address any of the some of the comments that were maybe made? I don’t have that much time. No, I wouldn’t do that. Okay.
1:25:45 All right. All right. We’re now on to the consent agenda.
1:25:50 Doctor Rendell. Thank you, mister chair. There are 24 agenda items under this category.
1:26:04 Thank you, doctor Rendell. Does any board member wish to pull any of the items? Seeing none I’ll entertain a motion to accept the consented agenda, with exception for those that were not pulled. If move to approve.
1:26:12 It’s all written all weird. Is there any discussion? All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye.
1:26:16 All opposed, passes. 50. Doctor Rendell, do you wish.
1:26:33 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 37, procurement solicitations. Do I hear a motion? Second, is there any discussion? All in favor, signify by saying aye.
1:26:37 All opposed, pass. 50. Doctor Rendell.
1:26:58 The next item is age 38, delegation of settlement authority. Do I hear a motion? Second, is there any discussion? I already had a conversation. I am publicly speaking stating that I am aware of where the majority of the board will be standing on this issue.
1:27:44 And I have said already that I disagree with it. I disagree with making a decision on something before any action has been taken. And I most definitely disagree after recent requests for very broad, unrelated, virtually impossible communications with people like Marjorie Taylor Greene.
1:27:58 I think that this is a wild misuse of taxpayer funds. And I want to be clear about where I stand on this and why I’m going to be voting the way that I’m voting. And I would like that on public record.
1:28:04 Thank you, Miss Jenkins. Is there any other discussion? Hearing none. All in favor, signify by saying aye.
1:28:09 Aye. All opposed? Nay. Four to one.
1:28:19 We will now move on to the information agenda, which includes items for board review and may be brought back for action at subsequent meeting. No action will be taken on these items today. There are nine under this category.
1:28:35 Does any member wish to discuss any of these items? Hearing none. We are now on to board member reports. Does any board member have anything further to discuss? All right.
1:28:40 You okay? Yeah. All right. Well, with that, I think we’re all good.
1:29:26 Doctor Rendell, do you have anything all right with that. Thank you very much. I thought I was gonna be here on midnight, y’all. It.