Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
3:55 Saving it. Sunrise Sunrise Sunrise Sunrise Sunrise. All right. Okay.
8:06 Okay. Thank you so much. We are honored to have sunrise elementary here tonight, which is going to do a performance here in just a second.
8:14 But I wanted to take a minute and introduce everybody, so thank you for doing that. I think that’s the best introduction we’ve had since we started doing this board, so. Good evening.
8:23 The October 24, 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 participants participation in the meeting is during your individual public comment opportunity as identified in the agenda.
8:37 Outside of your individual public opportunity, your role in the meeting is as an observer. Paul, roll call, please. Mister Susan.
8:44 Here. Miss Wright. Here.
8:45 Mister Trent. Here. Miss Jenkins.
8:47 Here. Miss Campbell. At this time, I’d like the board to hold a moment of silence and I invite the audience to join.
9:16 Please rise. Michaela from Sunrise elementary will lead us in the pledge of allegiance. The floor is yours.
9:24 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. Thank you. We are honored to be joined by Sunrise Elementary’s sunrise inspiration.
9:46 They have been invited to perform in Tampa during the Florida Music Educators association conference in January. And now they will perform for all of us. This is like being in the movies.
10:07 Where does this dedication begin? In our hearts, music is light. That’s why our hearts have beats. Thank you.
10:44 It. If you guys are short any drummers, we would like to participate. No.
15:12 You don’t want them? No, she didn’t even. She’s like, no. She’s like, no, no, no.
15:19 That’s enough. I got one for each one. I’m telling you, there’s an empty one down there.
15:36 Is there an empty one? You’re not. Black lights. Look on the screen.
15:58 Should I have my. Should we hit the fluorescence? Do you want us to shut off the other ones? Yeah, look on the screen. It’s glowing on the screen.
16:13 So you guys are good. You run a tight ship. Thank you for that wonderful performance.
18:33 I think we have a couple of questions for some of the leaders of the band over here. Look. They did that in height order.
18:39 You see that? Look at that. So what we normally do is this is an opportunity for us to thank you and everything like that. And we’re going to ask you guys just some random questions and I’ll let my.
18:51 Miss Campbell from the left, who is the knowledgeable person about music. I am so pumped to see you guys do that in Tampa in January. It’s gonna be an awesome.
19:02 And I will be there. I will be there for the president’s concert. That is a huge honor.
19:07 Only three schools groups will be performing, including high school groups and middle school groups. So it’s a huge honor. So yay for you guys.
19:19 All right, so I’m gonna. I’m gonna go around with. What I’ve been asking before is finding out how old all of you guys are.
19:24 So how many of you are 6th graders? Raise your hand if you’re a 6th grader. Wow. How many fifth graders? Fourth grade.
19:34 Awesome. Anything younger? Third, maybe third. Okay.
19:38 Wow. So, fourth and fifth graders, you have stepped up. 6th graders are leading the way.
19:43 But that is. That is amazing. So much talent.
19:46 All right, one of you guys at the microphone, are you going to be doing some other instruments that you didn’t bring tonight in your performance in January? We’re doing recorder ukulele, and we’re also singing. Yay. I can’t wait.
20:02 All right, I will tell you guys all about it when I get back. So. Awesome.
20:05 I might play a little bit. I bought a ukulele recently. Miss Jenkins.
20:09 Yeah. So how much do you love your teacher? Make some noise for your teacher, please. I know that you’re up, and I know that you love her because it’s really obvious that you guys are loving what you’re doing.
20:24 And you can only learn that through somebody who’s showing you how to love what they do as well. So I just. Hats off to you.
20:31 Great job. These kids are incredible. And I just want to say to the moms and dads, how many of you remember when your little babies were learning how to snap their fingers and they felt so successful when they finally could accomplish that task? Like, how many of you really thought that they’d be up here doing that for so long? I just.
20:48 I had a little flashback moment thinking of my own daughter. It’s just so sweet. You guys should be so proud.
20:53 These kids are incredible. Thank you so much for sharing your talent with us tonight, Mister Trent. You’re welcome.
21:01 Well, first off, congrats on where you’re going in Tampa. That’d be great. My question would be, is how do you come up with, like, the neon theme? Was it more of a vote, or was it, did you have a couple you had to narrow down, or is just one of many.
21:18 Thank you. And so mainly, Miss Arnor came up with it, and we just went along, like, way to go. All right, perfect, perfect.
21:34 How often do you guys practice? We practice on Mondays and sometimes Fridays. Okay. That’s a great way to end the week and stuff.
21:43 So good job. I want to commend your teacher. I saw her toting out all this equipment in your truck in the parking lot, and I thought, oh, my goodness, what’s going on? And so.
21:55 Oh, man, you are. This is a dedication. It’s love.
21:58 You’re definitely invested. We appreciate you. Let me ask you guys, how did you pick who gets to do the snapping versus the drums? How do you guys pick that? It was a vote.
22:09 Everybody got to pick what they wanted to do, and we just separated them in our own ways. Okay, and how often are you practicing the snap routine? Because I’m watching you guys in sequence. I was pretty impressed.
22:20 Every time. Every time. Okay, good, good, good.
22:23 Well, congratulations. You guys were amazing. Thank you so much for performing for us.
22:29 So I wanted to first say thank you to the parents. This means a lot to us, and I know it takes a lot out of your skills schedule to leave work early to come here and to be a part of this, but it means the world for us because we’re up here. And although we go to the school sometimes, it’s nice to have this collaboration at a board meeting, because for us, what it does is it allows us to remember why we’re up here.
22:52 And if we can start every meeting with that, that means the world to us. So I wanted to say thank you for being a part of BPS and being part of our team. I want to say thank you to all of you.
23:01 You guys are the future of our school district, and it means the world to us that you guys come in here and show us what you can do. Many of you, by the time you graduate, will be sending people up to Mars or preparing to do so, which is going to be an incredibly different future than what we have. So we’re trying to prepare you for that.
23:18 So I wanted to say thank you for coming. Yeah, go ahead, go ahead. You got a question? Oh, I thought you were asking a question.
23:25 He wants to go to Mars. Yeah, we all do. But I wanted to say thank you.
23:30 I do. I want to tell you guys, if you do come back, I’m going to see the name and know you’re bringing the drums, and I’m going to request to be one of the drummers because it is very difficult for me to go ahead and do that without, you know, joining up with you. But we gave you an opportunity to come here and talk and be a part of us.
23:47 When they told you guys that you were selected to be the people that actually spoke and answered questions, did you guys get a little bit nervous or anything like that? Is there anything that you guys want to say to us? To everybody? I mean, I always go last, so the questions never, I can never get to. They’re already answered by the time I get here. What do you guys have? Go ahead, take the podium and start asking questions to us.
24:09 Thank you for letting us be here. Okay. You’re so welcome.
24:14 And you guys can come back anytime, like, if you want to come back in two or November 14. We have some time there. We have some other meetings that we have.
24:21 We’d love to have you guys. Anybody else? Go ahead. We loved performing here, and we would like to do it again sometime soon if we can.
24:33 We would love that. And anyways, how did you make room for us? Like, how did you get time for the preview? Listen, we could do. I’m on a.
24:46 We’re going way past the time that we normally go on this just because it’s really cool. And I would rather be talking to you than running the board right now. So I just want to let you guys know this is much more fun.
24:56 But we do this because we want to hear from you, which puts us grounded into making decisions based on what’s right. Okay? And we have a big push. Miss Campbell is honestly the person up here that speaks highly of mute.
25:10 I mean, there is not a single performance that gets named that she doesn’t know about and is not going to. She shows up everywhere when we go to argue over what budgets get, where she’s always slipping in extra money for all of the instruments. I’ve seen it.
25:21 I’ve seen you do it. I’ve seen you do it. And she.
25:25 And that is the dedication that we all have in our areas. But I wanted to give her credit. So sounds like we have a big fan in the back of your performance.
25:34 So one more question, then we’ll get going. Anybody? She has another question. It is not a question.
25:39 Anyways, they wanted to say thank you for the food and snacks in that room. Well, you’re welcome. That’s our favorite part, too.
25:53 Thank you for a wonderful performance. We appreciate all of you. We’re going to take a break, and then you guys are going to move all your stuff.
25:59 Did you have anything else that you wanted to say as the teacher? No. Listen, we love the fact that you took all the time out to make this happen. And we appreciate all of you.
26:09 So we’re gonna take a break for a minute, let you guys move all your. First. We gotta take a picture.
26:12 Yeah. Oh, yeah. That’s a picture.
26:13 We’ll do a picture first. That’s right. That’s right.
26:15 Let’s go take a picture. At this time, I’d like to offer my fellow board members and doctor Rendell an opportunity to recognize student staff or members of the community. Is there anybody who wishes to go first? You’re good? Yep.
32:14 Okay. I don’t mind going first. Okay.
32:17 Miss Jenkins? Yeah. I have a couple tonight. I want to say congratulations to principal Myers at Riviera elementary School.
32:26 This past week, she was honored by receiving the Florida Tax Watch award, which is given to nine different principals across the state. In schools with large populations of at risk students, students who have outperformed other schools with similar demographics through meaningful impact, they serve on their students. What’s wonderful about this award is that they are.
32:46 She’s going to be presented an official award in the springtime in Winter park. But what comes along with this award is an incredible opportunity for one of her selected students to have a two year scholarship to college. So really exciting.
33:00 And it’s going to be a really wonderful moment when she chooses that student. So I can’t wait. Another really cool thing is brevard has been privileged to have a winner for this tax watch award for the past four years, which just goes to show what incredible things our administrators and our educators are doing here in Brevard Public School.
33:16 So congratulations to everyone, past and present. I also have been asked to be joining a panel of a diverse group of panelists for the Minds matter, and this is going to be hosted by Minds without Borders, which is an organization that was formed by two students at West Shore Junior senior, and it actually grew. They’re from students from all different kinds of student governments across our district.
33:42 They’re hosting an event at Ogalley High School on November 2 at 530. It’s going to be an open conversation about mental health. There’ll be opportunities to meet businesses and mental health related resources, as well as networking with other professionals in the mental health field and students across our district.
33:58 So please turn out, support these students and what they’re doing to help one another and their peers, as well as the community that helps support our schools. I spoke about this last time, but I had the opportunity to go see the play fearless, which was the incredible story of Harry and Harriet v. Moore up at the Titusville Playhouse.
34:19 And I had an opportunity to go up there and meet two different busloads of people who came from Jacksonville, all the way from Jacksonville to see this, because they wanted to see the retelling of the story of Harriet Moore. And I’m sorry, Harry and Harriet Moore. What was really cool about this play was the Moore center brought this play to the playhouse, and it apparently was only 13 pages long.
34:44 And the cast that they had chosen, most of them are from out of state. Most of them came from New York City. They had, like, three days to rewrite this script, to turn it into about an hour long play, to memorize it, and to put it on just a couple of days later.
35:00 And what was really cool was the star playing Harry, I believe his name was. I believe it was Robbie Manning Junior. He was actually a resident of Titusville as a child.
35:12 He went to brevard public schools. And what was so cool at the end, they had a q and A with the cast and the audience, and a former retired principal from Brevard public schools shouted out to the star, saying that she actually taught his father. So it was a really cool, full circle moment, incredible opportunity.
35:27 And that cast and that playhouse is really ambitious and looking to turn that into a two act play and hopefully bring it a little bit further and continue to tell the story of the moors. So that’s really awesome. And last but not least, I just want to give a shout out to Sea park elementary.
35:44 They have an annual Veterans Day breakfast and celebration that’s really notable. But this was the first year that I’ve gotten emails and calls from veterans across the county asking me, I cut this thing in the mail. What is this? And so shout out to Seapark elementary for going above and beyond and reaching out to veterans across the entire county and inviting them to that celebration on November 3.
36:07 Thanks, Miss Campbell. A couple of Saturdays ago, I was able to attend, and Miss Wright was there as well. An event at Marjory Stone and Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
36:22 And we, along with other school board members from across the state and officials from across the country, really, and security people who are heads of security of districts and other humans here in Florida and other states, were able to walk through building twelve, where the tragedy happened on March, on February 14, 2018. I just wanted to, I’m not going to walk through all the things that happened, but I just wanted to thank Max Schachter, who is the father of one of the students that was murdered, as well as the state attorney’s office there in Broward, for taking the time to walk us through and let us experience that. It was as I have shared with people, I can’t say it was an honor or privilege because going through that is.
37:03 Those are not the words. It was a trust. It was a trust that they gave to us that we would be able to walk through, experience that and remember and come back and do good work for the safety of our students.
37:15 And so it was an incredible event that I will not forget, but I just appreciate very much them making the opportunity available to us. I wanted to thank all the sponsors and the participants at the Brevard Schools foundation golf tournament. That was on Friday.
37:32 Don’t know what the final total was of money that we raised, but we had great participation. I think we had more teams ever play than ever before. And so that equals dollars that go into funds for students and teachers and initiatives, all moving our students forward to success.
37:49 The marching band music performance assessment was on Saturday, and all our teams were just amazing. It was probably the best year. I go every year, but it was probably the best year that I’ve been.
37:58 They did such a fantastic job, all of them. And it was very entertaining. I just have to say one last word on our wellness challenge because the official date to get all your stuff in was yesterday.
38:09 We did end up board and legal office in 11th place, but not bad. Out of 45 teams, I think we did a good job. And the MVP’s of our team, I have to say, were Paul and Jean because they really brought the team average up.
38:22 I don’t know what they’re doing every day, but they’re moving. But I did want to say congratulations to the Locmar Knights team, who was first place by far. They had more points than any other team.
38:33 And the whole goal of all of it was to get all of our employees to jump on the movement bandwagon so we could be healthy and have an engaged, healthy workforce. So good job, guys. Miss Wright.
38:48 Okay, I’m going to go rather quickly. You spoke about the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas event that we had the ability to attend. And again, you’re right.
38:57 The right word isn’t honor. It is trust. And it is, you know, what are we going to do to make our schools more secure and safe? And so I want to thank them.
39:04 I want to thank the office of Safe Schools, had the opportunity to speak with Scott Strauss and spent some time there and just on how we can do better in our district to make sure that we have exhausted every avenue possible. So thank you to our sheriffs. They keep us safe every single day.
39:18 And God bless you all, because honestly, what you do there is no greater sacrifice than what you’re doing. So we’re grateful for you guys. Want to also thank Miss Cruz had the opportunity to go and present some of the principal awards that we’re giving acknowledging our principals this month.
39:31 You guys may have seen it through social media, and that is just such a fun surprise. So thank you to Miss Cruz for letting me tag along. I unexpectedly said, hey, I’m going to go since these are my schools.
39:39 And she was very accommodating. So appreciate you spreading cheers year in the schools. That’s always a fun thing.
39:45 And then lastly, I want to highlight that we have an event coming up in the north end of the county. Astronaut and Titusville seem to be a bit of a rival up there. The astronaut parade is going to happen on Thursday evening.
39:56 So this is an area where a big county like Brevard feels a little smaller because everybody comes out and they come together and it’s a good community event. So if you’re in the north end or you’re looking for something fun, family friendly to co and do, on Thursday evening, there will be a parade, and then Friday evening there will be the rivalry football team. Football teams will play each other.
40:13 So. And that is all that I have. Thank you, Miss Wright.
40:16 I just wanted to say tomorrow we’ll be at the cattlemen’s association meeting and there’s going to be some conversation wrapped around some of the meetings that we’ve had with a lot of the agricultural groups inside of our community with a big push to bring back four h and future farmers will of America and all of those things. So there’s a big push through the resources that they have to be able to let our kids join and be a part of that. We have many kids that live in many different areas inside of our county that literally live almost on farms and are involved in rural activities and everything like that.
40:50 But we have no access for them to do so. So tomorrow at the cattlemen’s association, I’ll be able to talk about that. I did want to say that we had a meeting with the veterans group and everything went according to plan.
41:01 Everything’s moving forward. We met with all of the generals and people from the community that run all of the different bases and community organizations and everything else. And what ended up happening is that they pushed forward a way to organize all of the groups that bring all of these scholarships in.
41:17 So the American Legion, the veterans of foreign wars, all of these different groups come in like March and they say, hey, we got these great scholarships, but there’s no way to put it into the curriculum and everything like that. That, so they’re going to consolidate all of that. They’re also going to work with our children to go to the veterans museums, and they’re going to go donate time and work with them through that and give certificates to them to go there.
41:37 And they’re going to start advertising out at the base for them to come to work at Brevard public schools. That’s going to be a big one. So we met with the person that’s in charge of the hiring, interning that, and they’re going to sit down, and when these guys are transitioning off of being active duty or coming here to, to retire, there’s a person that kind of helps them acclimate.
41:54 We’re going to then say, hey, why don’t you go to work for brevard public schools and give them an access point? So I wanted to say it was very successful. They’re also going to send resources to us to expand our ROTC programs and everything else. And many of you guys, if you haven’t had a chance to visit one of our ROTC programs, it is one of the best character development and job placement opportunities that there are out there.
42:15 So I just wanted to say thank you to the individuals involved there. Tomorrow I’ll be speaking at the delegation meeting about what our legislative ask is. We’re going to have stuff in there about pre k stuff about compression for the salaries and stuff like that for all of our members.
42:30 So we have, that will be going on about 03:00 tomorrow afternoon at the port. I’m looking forward to presenting what the needs of our school district are because we can, we’ve done a good job of turning the ship to the right direction as far as the state and locally. And now we need to keep, continue to do that.
42:44 I wanted to say thank you to Gary and Kathy Schiffman that are inside the stands here. Kathy, I taught with you for a long time, and Gary, you’ve been a great mentor and a great friend for a long time. And I wanted to say your work from the administrators association, BasTA has been great, and I love collaborating with you on that.
42:44 I wanted to say thank you to Kevin Robinson in the back. Not many people know, but we gave the largest expansion of stipends to athletics in the history of Brevard. And a lot of that had to do with him working to advocate, not only on the facility side, but now our coaches across the county are going to be getting more revenue than what they’ve had in the past.
43:22 And what happens is we’ll be able to hire more quality coaches and fill some of those vacancies. Many people understand that athletics is where a lot of children that have some of the discipline issues go to find themselves and to be a part of that. And there’s many statistics that show that when students have access to athletics and opportunities like that, that it’s able to increase student achievement and decrease discipline inside of school.
43:47 So the hats off, Mister Robinson, to your work and collaborating with the community. And thank you very much. I wanted to say thank you to Mister Wilson for the safety committee update that we had, or the update on security today.
43:59 Many people don’t understand that there’s. There’s a presentation later on today about our safety inside the school district. But there’s many things that you guys don’t know that go on inside of our schools that we can only know about because of the security risks to it.
44:09 And I will tell you, comparative to the rest of the school districts inside the state, we are number one as far as the security goes and what we do. The things we’re doing are far advanced past any of the other school districts. And even doctor Rendell said that this school district was a year or two ahead of the other school districts.
44:25 That he’s been a part of insecurity just because of how we’ve put that first. So I wanted to say thank you to Mister Wilson and all of his work. Inside of that, I wanted to say thank you to Viera High School.
44:34 Today we had an opportunity. I’m sorry, I’m going on and on. It’s just a lot of stuff going on.
44:38 Viera High School opened up today. Their new wing. And there’s two programs that came up that are very important.
44:44 We all know career and technical trades is important inside this community, right? So one of the programs is a carpentry school that is, is actually teaching the kids to go to work. For Viera builders and some of the construction companies. It’s a direct feed, so kids can go there and literally get to work right into the Viera builders here locally.
45:03 And the other one was the addition of a blast program at Viera. So many of you may not know, but the developmentally handicapped students that go through some of these programs, when they leave at 22 years old, they don’t go anywhere. So unless we give an opportunity, opportunity to get them that job to the next spot.
45:21 So what we’ve done is we put a blast program at Viera. And I’m going to work with a lady named Dixie that I met a couple of nights ago that has a big passion here about working to get the community to hire these students as they get older. Because we listened two nights ago to a series of families that sat down and said, hey, my son graduated and is now 26.
45:44 And once he left, he had nothing. So he sits in a room all day with no opportunity. So if you can help get these children jobs so that they have value in the world, it’ll bring them out of depression.
45:54 So we’re going to work to get these kids transitioned into job workplaces. And then I just wanted to say from the bottom of my heart, thank you. This will be my, hopefully my last chairman meeting.
46:04 So I wanted to say thanks for what you guys have done throughout the year. And that’s it. All right, doctor Rendell.
46:12 No, Gene said he wasn’t going, Mister Trent. So the board members covered most of the things on my list. But I do want to circle back to what misses Jenkins talked about.
46:24 November 2. Next week. A bunch of our students came to us a couple months ago with an idea to have an event centered on mental health and wellness.
46:32 And it was their idea, their vision for this event, and we’ve just supported them. So November 2, Atto Galley High School from 530 to 830 will be this event called minds Matter. And the first part of it is a panel of experts in mental health and counseling.
46:50 And they’ll be on stage in the auditorium. And after that panel, all the people that are there will be able to go visit with some providers in the community that offer different mental health services and support. And this whole event was visioned by these seniors at various high schools, spearheaded by Angie Sharma, who came to us and spoke a couple months ago here at the podium.
47:15 So it was her idea and her team that put this together. And the student services department has helped and community agencies have helped. But really this event is the work of, the result of the work of these high school seniors.
47:29 So to see these young people kind of take on a topic that a lot of us are hesitant to take on and take it on and spearhead and do this event is amazing. So next Thursday, November 2. If you’re interested in learning more about mental health resources in our community, I encourage you to come out to Ogalle High.
47:48 Thank you. Thank you, doctor Rendell. We have a special guest here, Sheriff Ivy, who has a special recognition that he’d like to give.
47:56 Thank you so much for coming today. Thank you Mister chair, members of the board. Mister Inkins, I have to agree with you.
48:04 Sea park has it going on pretty good. We were there this morning for milk and donuts. And I know everybody thinks I did that so I could get donuts.
48:11 Milk and donuts. We had a great time with the kids this morning, though. So mister chair and members of the board, Doctor Rendell.
48:19 It’s my honor tonight to recognize one of our citizens for life saving heroics. And, you know, here we often celebrate and recognize our teachers and our students and those that have done those things. But tonight we get to recognize a citizen.
48:36 And I’m going to read the nomination that was written by Corporal Vicki Sumlin. And I think you’ll see just how relevant this is to something I always say, which is if you see something, say something. In this case, they not only saw something, they took action.
48:51 And also that it takes a community to protect the community. And this is what that looks like. On September 20 of 2023, a three year old developmentally disabled student at Fair Glen elementary broke free from a staff member during dismissal of bus riders.
49:04 He subsequently ran out of the interior gate and straight into a body of water. A fair glenn. Teacher Lori Delida witnessed the boy running from the gate and took off after him while rating on the school walkie talkie system for assistance.
49:17 Maria Fisher. Miss Fisher, if you would come up here with us. Maria Fisher, the owner of Quality care.
49:25 And if you say it fast, it’s quality care. So learning center was in the bus loop of the school waiting to pick up students that attend her after school program when she heard the teacher yell for help. Without regard for her own safety, Miss Fisher exited her vehicle and ran over to jump in the water to assist Miss Delaude in retrieving the child.
49:44 The deep body of water is covered in algae and duckweed and is also known to be the home of at least one alligator. Miss Fisher entered the water and immediately grabbed the student who was caught up in the duckweed. Miss Fisher also was tangled in the weeds and algae and transferred the child to Miss Delida, who pulled him to safety before assisting Miss Fisher out of the pond.
50:00 The swift actions of Miss Fisher and Miss Delida resulted in the child being recovered from. From the water without being submerged and uninjured. The developmentally delayed child cannot swim and is also hearing impaired.
50:10 It could have easily been tangled further in the weeds and pulled underwater. As such, we wanted to recognize Miss Fisher tonight. And Mister Lyda is actually at an event at her school.
50:19 But we wanted to recognize Miss Fisher tonight for her heroic actions in saving a child and for jumping into action to do just that. Maria Fisher, Good Samaritan, for your unwavering actions in supporting the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office and assistance of Brevard county, we thank you for your heroic efforts in rendering emergency assistance to a purchase. It is citizens such as you that make Brevard county such a great place to live.
51:02 Thank you, ma’am. If we get a picture, I just want to thank you for the recognition. I was truly blessed to be there that day, and I was glad that I was able to help and be able to be there to make a difference and to help others, because that’s what it’s about in our community.
51:22 It’s about giving back. It’s about helping others, and it’s about making a difference. So thank you so much for this.
51:28 It means a lot. I thank you, Doctor Rendell. So at this time, we’d like to ask doctor Michael Miller, director of transportation and assistant principal Alyssa Copeland and Atlantis instructional assistant Peyton Petty and bus driver Heidi Erickson to come on up to the podium.
53:13 Principal back, if you could kind of share the story of Miss Petty and Miss Erickson and their heroic acts. Good evening. I’m Assistant Principal Copeland.
53:27 Principal back is on Baby watch. Her baby niece should be born at any moment right now. So I kindly stepped in for her.
53:34 We’re here tonight to recognize one of our ias, Peyton Petty. She’s going to talk a little bit about her heroic save, as we’ve been saying, with a student who we didn’t know at the time was one of ours. It happened after hours off campus while she was on her dismissal route with Miss Heidi.
53:52 So she’s going to go into a little bit more detail on that, but what she did was above and beyond. She did not know that the student was ours until she got to him. And I don’t want to give her whole spiel away.
54:05 So I’m going to read a poem that miss back asked me to read for Peyton. It’s called unsung heroes. It says, every day somewhere in the world, another unsung hero is born.
54:16 Someone who is willing to lay his life on the line to save another living creature on this wonderful planet of ours, to go out of their way and risk life and limb to save something from danger. These unsung heroes don’t want medals, glory, or even fame. In fact, most would walk away afterwards without anyone ever knowing their name.
54:34 It’s not that they feel guilty. They just feel that they haven’t done anything that is special or something someone else wouldn’t have probably done so. Therefore, to our unsung hero, Peyton, this poem’s for you.
54:44 We thank you for being you. Always being humble, always being willing to do what’s best for all kids, not just Atlantis kids. Oh, that’s awesome.
54:56 Okay. I’m really humbled and honored to be recognized here today. What I did says, I’m really humbled and honored to be recognized here today.
55:03 What I did simply came from a sincere love for children. All children are important to me, but students with disabilities have my heart. I’m an instructional assistant in a varying exceptionalities classroom at Atlantis elementary.
55:25 When I observed a child running down the road, all I could think about was his safety. So I immediately asked Miss Heidi the bus driver to please let me off the bus so that I could go after him. It wasn’t until I caught him that I realized I knew the child.
55:38 I honestly do not feel that I did anything out of the ordinary. I just knew that his safety came first, and I immediately sprang into action. I was raised by an educator, and I have always seen how much she loves her students, so therefore, I feel it came naturally to me.
55:52 I attended Atlantis elementary as a student, where I had numerous teachers and administrators who always made me feel loved and safe. And now I get to show this to all students I work with. I hope to continue being a positive influence in the lives of the students that I work with each and every day.
56:07 Thank you. And I have to stay. Same as Heidi has said that Peyton could probably win a track medal for how fast that she ran down the road.
56:21 And just to give you an idea where they stopped, Miss Heidi had to kind of. She couldn’t get to Peyton, so she had to kind of do a loop. So Miss Heidi was in panic on dispatch trying to get a hold.
56:31 Peyton caught him and he made it to from his house where he had. Because he’s not a bus rider, he had made it to us one. And Peyton was able to grab him before he had gotten across us one where there was a park and water, and so she was able to get him.
56:47 And a good samaritan picked them up and got them back to Miss Heidi so that they could take the student home. So we’re very proud of her. Looks like another standing ovation, so we need a picture for that, too.
57:20 I was going to say it. How are you? I gotta hug you. Oh, my God.
58:05 I love your heart. So, mister Susan, I have one more. Yep.
58:34 So our teachers do some amazing things in the classroom with our students. Endeavor elementary is a great example. I would like science coach amanda chaplin and principal Katherine Murphy to come to the podium.
58:47 Miss chaplin is not just a science coach. She is an amazing science coach. Here is some proof.
58:55 Miss chaplin has been chosen as the outstanding elementary teacher of the year for Florida by the Florida association of Science Teachers. Principal Murphy, why don’t you brag on Amanda? I will. She is the amazing science teacher for the state of Florida, the one and only.
59:14 So I’m honored to have this opportunity to sing the praises of endeavor’s amazing science coach, Amanda Chaplin. She, in true coaching fashion, does all the things she plans with teachers. She does coaching cycles.
59:27 She goes in and model lessons. She gathers countless amounts of materials for hands on projects. She does it all, but she doesn’t stop there.
59:37 She has secured grant funding for a variety of things on our campus, from needing a new PA system at PE to going after $50,000 to transform one of our classrooms into a STEM center. The sky’s the limit with her. She has established STEM based clubs for our students, coordinates our volunteers, and our mentors.
59:59 She helps plan and facilitate family events. She has coordinated our stream camp for kids last summer. Our kids experienced everything from gardening to cooking to design challenges and robotics.
1:00:14 They were immersed in everything, all because Miss Chaplin has a principal who came to her and said, I need you to do this. How do you feel about organizing this? So she does everything. So one of the things that I struggled with is those two dreaded words that strikes fear in the heart of all parents and teachers.
1:00:37 Science fair. Oh, yeah. One of those still saying it kind of gives me heart palpitations.
1:00:43 She has reinvented our science fair process for our students. So where students were hesitant because they couldn’t grasp the concepts at home to be able to do the projects, everything is done in house now. Our teachers are supported in their classroom.
1:00:58 Every bit of the materials are purchased by the school. The students complete the projects with their friends, or singularly, they have an option. So our students are able to have that experience.
1:01:08 They are able to glean what they are supposed to from that learning, and they walk away feeling successful. And that is all because of Miss Joplin and the things that she does for our campus. That’s amazing.
1:01:18 So not only is she an amazing science coach, she is a true team player. Many schools face vacancies at the beginning of the year, and we are not immune to that. So we had a first grade vacancy, and never in my experience as an administrator have I had someone step up and say, I’ll do it.
1:01:41 I’ll take that so she stepped up at the very beginning of the year and said, math and reading coaches have to get in first thing. I will coach when I can. I am going to take over that first grade classroom, and I’m going to give those students a successful start to their year.
1:01:55 And she did. She spent five weeks in that classroom during her planning, at her lunch, she didn’t plan during planning, and she didn’t eat lunch. She was in fourth and fifth grade classrooms planning for their success, for their science instruction.
1:02:07 She was working with her team as a successful first grade team member. But going above and beyond and supporting everybody else on my campus, she doesn’t stop. So it is no wonder that she has been chosen as the Florida outstanding science teacher of the year.
1:02:21 This is Amanda Chaplin. I just want to say thank you. And I couldn’t do it without the administrators that I’ve had in my life to lead me and guide me.
1:02:36 Starting over there. It’s all his fault. I told him that today.
1:02:39 And then going all the way through Miss Murphy. And so having those opportunities and chances and every little milestone along the way has just been a new thing that I get to experience and do. And I can’t thank these guys enough for everything that they’ve given me the opportunities to do.
1:02:58 All right, so if you. Congratulations. And I think one more picture.
1:03:01 Yes, one more picture. Thank you. Congratulations, girls and stepfather.
1:03:47 Yeah, even when we work on the girls. And so I just want to make sure. That’s right.
1:04:04 So up here we have. Thank you, mister chair. That’s all I have.
1:04:21 Thank you. Doctor Rendell brings us to the adoption of the agenda on this evening. Agenda, we have administrative staff recommendations, 21 consent items, one public hearing item five action items, and one information item.
1:04:36 Changes made to the agenda since released to the public include the following addition of items f 13, student expulsions, f 14, general fund budget Amendment number 1. July 2023 through September 2023. F 20, suspension of administrative employee h 36, legislative agenda and h 39, school improvement plan.
1:05:00 Revised items are h 38, procurement solicitations. Do I hear a motion? Move to approve second. Any discussion? All in favor, signify by saying aye.
1:05:11 Aye. All opposed passes 50. We are now onto our proclamation.
1:05:16 Doctor Rendell. Yes, Mister chair. Tonight we have a proclamation.
1:05:19 The first proclamation is lights on after school, which is a national celebration going from October 26, 2023. And this proclamation will be read by Miss Jenkins. This is weird.
1:05:41 Standing over here. Okay. Whereas Brevard public schools, through our brevard before and after school program, stands firmly committed to quality afterschool programs and opportunities because they provide safe, challenging, and engaging learning experience that help children develop life, physical, and academic skills.
1:06:00 Support working families by ensuring their children are safe and productive after the regular school day ends. Build stronger communities by involving students, parents, business leaders, and adult volunteers in the lives of young people, thereby promoting positive relationships among youth, families, and adults. Engage families, schools, and community partners in advancing the welfare of our children.
1:06:22 Whereas afterschool programs provide engaging, hands on learning and opportunities to connect with caring adults and peers, today, programs are supporting young people and families as they navigate the return to school and will continue to innovate to meet ever changing needs. Whereas Brevard public schools, through our brevard before and after school program, has provided significant leadership in the area of community involvement in the education and well being of our youth, grounded in the principle that quality afterschool programs are key to helping our children become successful adults. Whereas lights on afterschool.
1:06:57 The national celebration of afterschool programs will be held this year on October 26, 2023, to promote the importance of quality afterschool programs in the lives of children’s children, families, and communities. Whereas more than 28 million children in the United States have parents who work outside the home and 7.7 million children have no place to go after school, whereas many after school programs across the country are facing funding shortfalls so severe that they’re being forced to close their doors and turn off their lights.
1:07:27 Therefore, be it resolved that Brevard Public schools urges the citizens of Brevard county to ensure that every child has access to a safe, engaging place where the lights are on after school. And be it further resolved that this school board enthusiastically endorses lights on after school and is committed to innovative after school programs and activities that ensure the lights stay on and the doors stay open for all children after school. Thank you, Miss Jenkins.
1:07:58 Do I hear a motion? Second, any discussion? All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed? We are now onto the administrative staff recommendations.
1:07:58 Do I hear a motion? Nope. Do I hear a motion? There was another proclamation. I hear you.
1:08:17 I pulled it. Oh, you did? Do I hear a motion? Here we go. Thank you.
1:08:23 We are now on to administrative staff recommendations. Do I hear a motion? Is there any discussion? All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye.
1:08:35 50. We are now onto the presentation of portion of tonight’s meeting. Chair.
1:08:39 Mister chair. Oh, yeah, that’s right. Administrative staff.
1:08:42 Go for it. Thank you. I’d like to take this opportunity to recognize a few individuals with us this evening.
1:08:48 First, the reclassification of Amber Smith from the position of assistant principal at Pinewood Elementary School to the position of acting principal at Pinewood Elementary School. Congratulations, Amber. Would you like to come to the podium? Thank you, doctor Rendell, and good evening to the board.
1:09:09 I would like to say thank you to the leaders who have guided me thus far in my career. Leaders that are from Coquina, Atlantis elementary and Pinewood. Thank you to my family for the support that you guys are always giving to me.
1:09:26 I am so appreciative of Misses Harris, Mister Ramer, and misses Clark for this opportunity to lead Pinewood elementary. We have a truly amazing staff and community in Mims, and I am beyond excited that I get to continue my career with them. I look forward to working alongside Courtney Schifrin as my assistant principal at Pinewood, transferring from Southlake Elementary School.
1:09:53 I might be more excited than them. I understand, but we’re in that we have that relationship together. We will support our staff in doing whatever it takes to provide that quality instruction to them.
1:10:07 And we are going to work with our staff in having that happen. Again, thank you for this opportunity, and thank you for my support. Congratulations again.
1:10:20 Congratulations. Second, I’d like to announce the reclassification of Rosemary Browning from the position of manager of labor relations to the position of director of professional standards and labor relations. Rose.
1:10:35 Mayor, if you’d like to come on up. Hi. Good evening, Doctor Rendell and the board.
1:10:45 I would just like to take this opportunity to thank the leaders that I’ve had in the past from the school district. I have been working for the school district for quite some time. I remember when some of our top administrators were actually teachers within the district.
1:11:01 So I have had the opportunity to learn and grow with the school district. And I find that brevard public schools. I tell our new employees every Wednesday that this is the best place by far to work.
1:11:16 So I would like to thank Mister Dufresne for the opportunity. I would like to thank you, Doctor Rendell, and for the board to have confidence in me that I am excited to work with our employees and our bargaining units to make our employees lives a little bit better each day so that they can serve our students as well in their positions. So again, thank you for the opportunity.
1:11:37 I’m so grateful for the experience. And thank you. Congratulations.
1:11:43 Congratulations. I didn’t lose anything. No, no, no.
1:11:58 Don’t worry about it. No, he’s got it. Oh.
1:12:02 That’s why I was like, what in the world’s going on here? Do we have one more? One more. We’re just looking for something yeah, I thought you had. We’re good.
1:12:17 Miss Chiffon. We’re not going to have miss. She doesn’t want to talk.
1:12:22 Oh, okay. Yay for Miss Chiffon. Yeah, yay for Miss Chiffon.
1:12:29 You can’t get out of here that easy. All right, here we go. We’re now onto the presentation portion of tonight’s meeting.
1:12:39 Doctor Rendell. Tonight we have Mister Rashad Wilson, chief operating officer, with a presentation on the 2023 2024 Florida Safe Schools assessment tool, also known as the FSAT. Good evening, Chairman Susan.
1:13:17 The board. Doctor Rendell, today I will speak to the district best practice assessment for the 23 24 school year. The objective of the Brevard Public Schools district best practice assessment is to demonstrate to the school board that a school security risk assessment was completed at each school campus by October 1, due date as required by the Florida law, and that the findings and recommendations of these assessments were presented to Superintendent Rendell and each member of the Brevard School Board.
1:13:57 This summary will address the efforts of Brevard schools regarding legislative compliance under the Marjorie Storm and Douglas High School Public Safety act, the recommendations of the MSD High School Public Safety Commission, and best practices related to school safety and security. Furthermore, this summary identifies strategies and activities that the district school board should consider implementing to address the assessment findings and improve school safety and security. The Department of Education developed the Florida Safe Schools Assessment Tool, better known as FSAT, to provide a secure online risk assessment portal for completing school security risk assessments.
1:14:49 The FSAT was developed to be the primary physical site security assessment tool for the use by school officials at each each school district and public school site in the state in conducting security assessments. The two annual assessments performed using the FSAT are the individual school security risk assessment, known as SSRA, and the district best practices assessment. A school security risk assessment SSRA must be completed and submitted for every k twelve public and public charter school facility using the 2023 2024 template in FSAT no later than October 1.
1:15:37 We have compiled. We have complied, excuse me, with this directive, district school safety specialists must use the 2023 2024 district best practices assessment and the FSAT to compile in the SSRA findings and recommendations and to report back to the Florida Department of Education districtwide progress on implementing certain school safety and security requirements. It is intended for use by district school officials to help identify threats, vulnerabilities, and appropriate safety control for the schools that they supervise.
1:16:18 Information contained in the FSAT tool is confidential and exempt from release as a public record pursuant to sections of Florida statutes the positive school measures in place at the time the school security risk assessments were conducted for this year range from school emergency operations plans to therapy dogs. These measures are as follows. A school emergency operations plan, better known as COP, is completed at each school by administration and law enforcement and shared along with the active assailant response procedures with staff to their awareness.
1:17:05 The superintendent has issued annually since 2019 a directive outlining mandates safety procedures and discussed these directives during a leadership team meeting with all principals. The school aggregate FSAT results indicate that the superintendent’s directive has had impact on daily safety procedures at our schools. In April 2020, an independent security consultant true North Consulting group completed a district wide security appraisal of safety measures at all facilities and provided recommendations for enhancing those measures with improvements at the building and district levels.
1:17:51 Principals and district leaders have analyzed those recommendations and are working toward those enhancements with available budgets. A secure group document was created to track the progress of implementation of those recommendations. This is an ongoing, multi year process.
1:18:11 A capital improvement plan has been developed to implement facility and technological enhancement recommendations. In 2021, all schools underwent an assessment of their 800 MHz radio reception. District security staff have provided annual opportunities for schools to test the usage of the rave app when conducting active assailant drills and will continue to do so.
1:18:44 Students participate in monthly critical incident drills and monthly fire drills where they are educated on the district’s general emergency procedures to prepare them for a variety of emergencies. Schools complete after action reports that are reviewed by the Office of District and School Security. Our student crime Watch program for reporting suspicious activity has been enhanced by the reporting Tools Crime line speak out hotline and fortify Florida and are promoted at both school level and district level and by the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office, K nine deputy and finally, with the assistance of Brevard County Sheriff’s Office, we have five therapy dogs implemented in our schools.
1:19:35 These therapy dogs and handlers deploy with the crisis intervention team to assist with threat assessments and emotional support. Results show that dogs are able to lessen stress and anxiety after a tremendous stressful situation in the district. Assessment summary the district has recently implemented or enhanced the following measures to increase school security and is continuously evaluating their efficiency and effectiveness.
1:20:09 We continue to review the true north security assessment, analyze the results, implement recommendations, and enhance the secure document to track the status of each recommendation. This is an ongoing process. District staff and principals responsible for the implementation of security recommendations regularly document the status of each recommendation.
1:20:32 Improved access control would benefit the district. The hardening of vestibules or public entry is still in process and a high priority. We added and enhanced security cameras for better quality, extended coverage, and longer storage.
1:20:52 We evaluated the number of cameras installed at each school to ensure we have met the true north consulting group. Recommendations we upgraded and re keyed classroom door locks throughout the district to configure them to default to the locked position. Additionally, upgrades may be needed and will be assessed on a case by case basis.
1:21:18 We have enhanced the public address system at many schools. This is an ongoing process district wide. This year’s superintendent director for security procedures accountability was reissued and presented at the leadership summit on July 19.
1:21:36 Training is in the process for the threat management team members on the new Florida Harm prevention and Threat management model, also known as the Florida model, we have implemented a comprehensive GPS student ridership solution to contribute to the safety of school bus transportation by ensuring everyone stays connected throughout the daily transport process process. Additionally, Transportation department continues to work with Transportation Security administration, better known as TSA, to improve bus security, which includes the training of bus drivers during their annual in service instruction. This has been an ongoing partnership.
1:22:19 Since 2021. District security has worked with school administrators to practice the usage of the rave panic button application. This remains an ongoing process.
1:22:34 Furthermore, with mutual link and the new Vercada camera system, digital security can provide live video monitoring to local law enforcement. This year’s FSAT data recommendations are the superintendent will continue to annually reissue the mandatory security procedures regarding the MSD Commission recommendations and discuss it with principals at a leadership meeting to reinforce their critical security responsibilities. All stakeholders of the organization must be involved in maintaining and increasing the culture of safety and awareness.
1:23:17 School and district and school security will plan annual rave drill window for all schools to practice using rave during an active assailant drill. The district reunification Response team will conduct routine reunification drills to improve upon their district wide response. We will complete the new threat assessment training by January 1, 2024 and we will submit for the 23 24 Office of Safe School School hardening grant to acquire appropriate funding for continued intercom replacement or upgrades to effectively communicate during an emergency for schools identified through the FSAC.
1:24:09 In conclusion, this summary and recommendation is provided by the district school safety specialist based on the school security risk assessment and district best practice assessment. BPS principles, in conjunction with local law enforcement and the district offices of security facilities, educational technology, and student services have made substantial improvements in school safety. However, work is still to be done.
1:24:40 The superintendent of district security are committed to implementing the recommendations and findings that were identified within the 23 24 FSAT. The board and superintendent were briefed on all findings and recommendations by the district school safety specialist in executive session earlier today. Therefore, in accordance with the provisions outlined in Florida statute, the assessment findings, as well as the recommended strategies and activities to improve school safety and security are hereby presented to the school board for consideration and approval.
1:25:22 Lastly, if our board has any recommendations for the Department of Education to consider, recommending to the governor, Florida legislature and state Board of Education regarding policy changes to our funding needed to facilitate continued school and safety planning, improvement and response at the state, district or school levels, they can be included within the FSAT best practice assessment. Any questions? Does any board member wish to have any questions for Mister Wilson? We had an hour meeting with him earlier, so thank, I think we’re all in you a good place. I would just like to say thank you Mister Wilson and Major Klein and the teams that both of you guys represent, including our school leaders who did the hard work of walking through and how many questions are on the.
1:26:19 Plenty. It’s in the hundreds. It’s in the hundreds of walking through.
1:26:24 And this is such important work, even though it’s tedious and has to be done every year. So good job. You ask for recommendations and I think we hate to come always back to the state with, you know, asks for money.
1:26:37 But the truth is, a lot of what we’re not able to do yet is due to restrictions and funding. And so that would be, you know, my recommendation is if we can get more funding specific to some of these things that we’re trying to take care of. We’ve been, we’ve been making lots of improvements over my five years on the board.
1:26:56 We’ve made, we’ve, even though we were already ahead of the game, we’ve continued and not ever stopped. And I appreciate that work. I’m going to echo, I’m going to echo your sentiments, Miss Campbell, on asking for additional money.
1:27:09 So I think what would be very wise for the legislation to do is to tie money towards that guardian program specifically for reoccurring dollars. So that’s what happens with a lot of these programs is, hey, it costs millions and millions of dollars. And when you have to choose between which one is, you know, what are you going to do? For me, it’s always safety, security, whatever the cost is.
1:27:29 That is number one priority. So I don’t think this is probably the proper place. It will probably happen under board discussion.
1:27:35 But I do want to talk more about that guardian program. Paul, would that be the proper place to insert that conversation rather than here? Okay, so I’ll bring that up at the end. So thank you.
1:27:46 Anybody else? Thank you, Mister Wilson, for. I just want to say before I walk away, I want to give the office of District School security a shout out. This work is tedious.
1:27:58 It’s ginormous, if you will. And this was definitely a team effort and this couldn’t have been possible without the efforts of our BCSO partnership. So I just want to thank them for their efforts in this process as well.
1:28:13 Thank you, sir. We are now onto the public portion, comments portion of the meeting. We have eight number of speakers that will speak for three minutes.
1:28:21 I will call up. We don’t need to approve it. It’s in the agenda.
1:28:21 I will call up three speakers at a time. The first three speakers are Mister Bernard Bryan, Richard Weber, and Bethany Culig. Hang on just a second.
1:28:41 Let me get this down. Repeat. Got that going.
1:28:45 All right. Hannah Berger is after Bethany Kulig. So we’ll start with Mister Viber.
1:28:52 Mister Viber, come on up. Hello, folks. I wanted to discussed the past 1011 months since I’ve been coming to board meetings.
1:29:10 Been quite a ride for me with my experiences in the Brevard county, with my new experiences involving school board meetings. In my first meeting here, it was suggested by a member of the board that Superintendent Mark Mullen’s contract be reviewed. The board had just got two new members in, Jean Trent and Megan Wright.
1:29:31 Matt. Susan had just become new board chair. Now, I wanted to read you an NPR article about this incident.
1:29:43 And I was getting it ready when I was. Before I was walking up here, I was supposed to have a speaker before me. Bear with me 1 second.
1:30:04 Tick tock. Tick tock. All right.
1:30:13 Brevard county superintendent. This is an NPR article of schools. Mark Mullins will be leaving December 31 after the new school board approved a separation agreement Monday.
1:30:26 Three board members, Megan Wright, Jean Trent, and Matt Sussan, indicated last month that they wanted the change. That earlier meeting marked a shifting tide for Brevard county schools as a new board restricted bathroom access for transgender kids and got ready to update its book banning policy. The removal of Mullins, who enforced a mask mandate, is part of that.
1:30:53 All right, I’m going to do a little pivot here. Talk about transgender in the bathrooms. There was fake news spread about a transgender student attacking another student.
1:31:11 Word is that republican state representative from District 33, Randy something or other was involved with his with this rumor. Now that being said, I want to talk about this article in today’s parent. Well, I’ve got a little to read.
1:31:29 It says, intersex when a baby isn’t quite a boy or a girl. Being intersex is almost as common as having red hair, yet no one ever talks about it. Here’s one family story of the of raising an intersex child.
1:31:46 Okay, I’ve got about 15 seconds left. Well, this child would be excluded in Brevard schools. And these signs in the front and back of the room proposed by moms for liberty person does not set the standard.
1:32:02 Thank you, Mister Bieber, for coming out to speak tonight. Miss Bethany Kulig, if you could please come up. Thank you very much.
1:32:13 Hi, my name is Bethany Kulig. I watched the meeting two weeks ago where Miss Campbell read the dyslexia Awareness Month proclamation, where she stated, literacy is a critical skill needed for education success. And students who do not read at grade level by third grade are four times more likely to not graduate from high school with a diploma.
1:32:30 And that Brevard Public school board proclaims October dyslexia Awareness Month and supply courts of all staff and family who work to ensure all students receive the best education for which they are entitled, and other unfulfilled statements. As a mother of two former BPS students who have dyslexia, I would like to address these claims. According to the Florida Department of Education, as of 2022, 75% of Florida’s third graders cannot read on grade level.
1:32:57 While 19% of third graders were considered proficient, only six showed mastery of the subject. According to the National Institute of Literacy, 85% of juvenile offenders cannot read, three of five people in american prisons cannot read, and three out of four people on welfare cannot read. Currently, the status quo in brevard is to delay and deny parents, gaslight them, and minimally accommodate students under a 504 plan, rather than appropriately service them with an IEP and provisions of an evidence based dyslexia intervention program.
1:33:30 My oldest stood here at this podium eight years ago in 2015 as an 8th grader, and gave a speech about dyslexia and why she decided to opt out of the state tests that did nothing to ensure she received a free and appropriate public education, but merely pointed out the deficits that were not being properly addressed by anyone but me. At that time, I began to make inquiries to the district about why we had nothing in place to address the needs of these students, considering these children represent approximately 20% of the population and 80% of students receiving special education supports. At that time, I was invited to sit on a dyslexia focus group.
1:34:04 During that focus group, we reviewed many structured literacy programs and developed the dyslexia toolkit. Three years later, in 2018, my son entered third grade. I had been making requests for support for three years when I noticed he was really struggling to decode and encode words.
1:34:20 By this time, I had forgotten the idea he was going to be provided with proper evidence based literacy intervention based on the science of reading and began asking that he being given accommodations to be able to access the curriculum, all of which were listed in the very toolkit that I helped create. He was denied those supports over several meetings for an entire academic year. More recently, I’ve connected with a parent led foundation whom in the last four years has raised approximately $2.
1:35:09 5 million in order to provide Orton Gillingham training to Florida teachers. After several years of disappointment with trying to get with my own children proper supports, I emailed the district and ultimately connected district staff with this foundation and they were granted several training scholarships at no cost to them. But I have been informed that many of our dyslexic students are still not receiving the proper literacy supports they so desperately need.
1:35:25 In 2021, I decided to take the training myself and attended 60 hours of Orton Gillingham training through the associate level. Thank you Miss Kewlig for your time coming out and speaking. Miss Hannah Berger, can you please step forward? We have Allison Curvin and Kelly Kervin coming to now.
1:35:31 Thank you. Good evening school board members and doctor Rendell. My name is Hannah Berger.
1:35:52 I’m a student of Cocoa Beach Junior Senior high school and as the communications director of Mines Without Borders, I have the privilege of speaking on behalf of the students within our educational community. Today, I want to shed light on the vital role that mental health plays in our academic and personal lives. Minds without Borders has been a beacon of hope for us, advocating tirelessly for mental health awareness and support.
1:36:07 Through their efforts, they’ve created a space where students feel heard and understood, a place where we can openly discuss our challenges without fear or judgment. On November 2 at O’Galley High School from 530 to 08:00 p.m.
1:36:38 Minds without Borders is hosting our Minds without Matters event, which has been highlighted by Miss Jenkins and Miss Doctor Endel, and it’s an opportunity for students to hear directly from mental health professionals who can provide guidance and resources tailored to our unique needs. I encourage my fellow students to attend Minds banner and take part in this important conversation. It’s a chance for us to learn, grow and support one another in our journey towards mental wellbeing.
1:37:00 Additionally, if any parents, students or faculty want to join minds without Borders, please visit our website or our social media page under the name minds without Borders. Help us on this global movement to make mental health more achievable or accessible. Let us embrace this opportunity together, for it is through our collective efforts that we can foster our community of understanding and empathy.
1:37:06 Thank you. Thank you, miss. Allison Kervin.
1:37:13 Kelly Kervin. Gregory Ross. Good evening, board.
1:37:33 My name is Allison Kervin, and this is my third time speaking. I would like to talk about board policy ap 3210, standards of ethical conduct. In section f number one, it states, you shall make reasonable efforts to protect the student’s mental and or physical health.
1:37:51 I’d like you to reflect on what that means, because I have. Matthew, John, Susan, as a chairperson of the board, I’d expect you to follow the rules. But seeing that you have spent more time laughing at me while I speak than listening to me, it seems you need the reminder.
1:37:59 Turn your head to the left. I know you hate them, but look at Miss Campbell and Miss Jenkins. Do you see their faces? No emotion.
1:38:17 No laughing, no ridiculing. This is what you’re supposed to look like during public comment. Doctor Rendell, didn’t we just talk about this at the town hall meeting? You want students input and support? Then treat students, including me and my sister, with the respect that we deserve.
1:38:33 Sorry, there. Are. Are these really the horses you want to stick your wagon to, Megan? With matt stepping down this chairperson, and every indication that you’re next, you have no thought.
1:38:43 Have you really thought about what that’s gonna look like? Remember when I told you guys on either side of you. Oh, my God. Sorry.
1:38:50 Okay. To be the fall guy. Remember when I said patterns were my thing? Oh, my God.
1:39:18 Where am I? Well, I can only lead to a horse, to water. And if you want your legacy to be filled with regret, don’t say I didn’t warn you. What is your legacy anyway? A failed, one term school board member who doesn’t understand policies, funding or acronyms? Who doesn’t know she’s being manipulated by a narcissist and an idiot, who says she stands of her students but doesn’t take responsibility for her actions, and who refuses to apologize.
1:39:37 Who says she isn’t a book, but who will oversee cutting off speakers who read books, thus turning into the lead book banner in Brevard? When history. Yeah, when history tells your story, they won’t even remember your name. That is your legacy, Megan.
1:39:43 Unless you change it. In conclusion. I know I don’t get to vote for the next chairperson.
1:39:56 Well, yeah, but there’s only one good choice, and her name is Miss Katie Campbell. Love you. Thank you.
1:39:59 All right, Miss Allison. Thank you very much. Miss Kelly Kervin.
1:40:13 Gregory Ross and Raul Luke Leone. Good evening, board. I’d like to say thank you to everyone on the dais this evening.
1:40:28 I know, Jane, you’re not a fan of compliments from me, but hold your outrage. I’m thanking you all for being so bad at your jobs that you have literally performed a miracle. You see, when I walked into this boardroom for the first time in December of 22, I didn’t know anybody.
1:40:52 Sure, I recognized a few faces from watching the meetings and knew some names from social media, but I hadn’t come face to face with any of them. Ironically, it would be Megan who got this so terribly wrong in an email exchange with me when I challenged the hiring of Doctor Rendell, Megan told me that I had been against this board from day one, and nothing you all did was going to be accepted by me. To which I asked, and she never answered.
1:41:02 Did you know who I was before December of 22? In meeting new people, I often said, hi, my name is Kelly. Yes, I have two daughters. They actually go to BPS schools.
1:41:25 And, yeah, you’ll probably hear from my oldest, but you’ll never hear from my youngest. Obviously not verbatim, but a variation, a byproduct of being my child in schooling, virtually, is that she’s around all of this. That isn’t to say she didn’t express frustrations to me, point out important behaviors, and track things, but she never asked to speak until, amazingly enough, a BPS teacher told her she had opinions and a voice.
1:41:29 So use it. That’s right. Your own employee empowered her.
1:41:41 I wasn’t sure I was even going to get the girl to vote when she turned 18. And now she’s pre writing ideas for speeches and has every meeting marked on her calendar. You think I’m tough? You’ve met your match with Allie.
1:41:50 The most challenging part of being her mom is that she has always been smarter than me, and she knows it. Good luck with that. You’re gonna need it.
1:42:18 Switching to the board workshop today. I have a question for you, Megan. Is this hard for you? Stop playing the victim and acknowledge that your supporters are recognized by the SPLC as anti government extremists who have called all of us groomers and pedophiles while threatening to show up to the show’s a Miss Jenkins book review committee member with signs labeling him as such, who have approached the sheriff to arrest somebody for handing my daughter back her own books.
1:42:47 She lent out who cry about content in books they deem pornography, but who have had no problems reading them to my children multiple times, and they were twelve and 14. Who have stalked, threatened, intimidated, filed a false DCF report against her own colleague, and that doesn’t even cover the protests at her home with her young child inside. I mean, your supporters have actually sued this district, wasting taxpayer money.
1:43:04 They have taken to privately stalking a private citizen, which is me, and actively worked to get BPS teachers fired because they don’t toe the line. Stop pretending like you aren’t in bed with radical domestic terrorists, because you are. And that makes you one, too.
1:43:22 Gregory Ross and Raul Leones, please. Good evening, board. Thanks for the opportunity for public comment.
1:43:31 I’m just going to talk about a few different topics tonight, short and sweet. First, thank yous. Thank you to doctor Rendell for coming down to South Palm Bay for the town hall.
1:43:37 I thought it was very productive. A lot of good information. And thank you, Miss Campbell, for coming as well.
1:44:11 So, Matt, still waiting for your candidacy announcement, so looking forward to that. One of the things I want to talk about was you guys talked about your legislative agenda today. One of my concerns is that time after time, you pointed out the shortage of funding and how you have to apply for grants to fill that grant after grant after grant or rely on Esser funds just to promote good math and reading outcomes.
1:44:23 And yet, nowhere in your legislative agenda is there a request for more funding. Miss Campbell, I think you were right on this. Right? Something like that would be dead on arrival.
1:44:35 Right? Which is why people like me are here. The legislative. The republican legislator legislation.
1:44:59 Members that have been in charge since 1999 have systematically defunded public education in Florida for 20 plus years. I’d love to see school boards fight back against that. Megan, you made a comment today that’s been referenced here already a couple times about how your book review committee members were attacked.
1:45:14 Nobody was yelled at, nobody was physically threatened. All I would say to you is, welcome to the First Amendment. I also eagerly await this board’s proclamation supporting transgender awareness week next month.
1:45:31 So I guess I’ll be waiting on that. Right and a minute left to speak. I know Mister Trent has left the room, but he made a point last week of having doctor Rendell state that there’s only three banned books.
1:45:50 And yet, I went online today and printed out right off the BPS website, the number of books that have been removed in informal review. 40 double sided pages, 186 books. So I got 30 seconds left.
1:46:17 I’m just going to read the name of some of these that have been removed. The Random House Book of Bible stories, the Easter story, Tennyson, the story of loaves and fishes, the story of baby Moses, the story of Christmas, psalms and proverbs, the story of Noah, my 100 adventures. All of these removed for content.
1:46:24 They were banned. Thank you. That’s not true.
1:46:37 Yeah. Mister Rawl Leone. Sir, good evening.
1:46:55 What I have is really pretty simple. Just really asking all of you to use your influence with the Viera high School to allow their baseball team to start operating at the same capacity as other baseball teams within the county. We’re not allowed to fundraise, we’re not allowed to work out, we’re not allowed to have practices.
1:47:10 And it’s to my understanding, that stemmed from meetings here with people complaining about how the baseball program was run. Like I said, that’s what it seems or is perceived. But I just ask that you guys influence the guy that was the coach that was there.
1:47:28 He quit, he left, you know, and the only people that have been punished are the kids that play baseball for the school. Give them the same opportunities as all the other kids in the community to fundraise and practice and work out and do the things that they need to do to be the best that they can be. Because right now they’re fighting through that.
1:47:49 And they were state runner ups last year, you know, and for multiple years, they have not been allowed to participate as the same capacity, at the same capacity of what other schools in the county have been allowed to do. Let’s just move forward. If you guys could influence them, give them the green light, hey, you could operate like everybody else because we ask and they say, no, you can’t fundraise.
1:47:59 They say, no, you can’t practice. Some form of influence has affected that. And this is the only outlet I have to express this.
1:48:16 So please do that for them. I mean, it’s what they deserve, and that’s really about it. One other thing, since I have so much more time to speak, is it is the largest high school in the county, I believe.
1:48:26 Please, seriously look into this place. Building a facility for the baseball team and softball team. I mean, it’s kind of crazy that they don’t have it and they don’t have a home.
1:48:36 So please consider that stuff the fundraising thing. I know, I saw, and I just saw this on your agenda for today. Brockledge is looking to go to Arizona.
1:48:41 There’s no way you could do that without fundraising. We can’t do fundraising. We can’t have any type of experience like that.
1:48:55 So just. That’s really about it. So if you guys can help influence in a positive way to help these kids move forward with whatever’s happened here, a new coach was announced today and just move forward from all that that has been going on.
1:48:59 Thank you, mister. Thank you, mister Milioni. We’re going to take a break.
1:56:26 Come back in just a second. Thanks. Scottish welcome back.
1:56:31 We are now onto the consent agenda. Doctor Rendell. Thank you, mister chair.
1:56:38 There are 21 agenda items under this category. Thank you, doctor Rendell. Does any board member wish to pull any of these items? I wish to pull f 23.
1:56:48 F 23. Anybody else? Okay, items f 23 will be pulled for discussion. I will entertain a motion to accept the consent items on tonight’s agenda.
1:56:58 With the exception of those pulled for discussion, applicable move to approve. Second, is there any discussion? All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye.
1:57:06 All opposed passes 50. All right, open up the floor for f 23. Yes.
1:57:11 Ford. So I have. I moved to approve f 23.
1:57:14 Okay, now we’re on to discussion. Sorry. Okay.
1:57:27 Just wanted to go through this a little bit. I don’t really want to highlight too much of this, but I had a chance to review some of the material here. Some of it’s from 2015, and there is no way that it would pass right now with legislation the way that it is.
1:57:44 So I think it would be in the best interest of the district for us to pull this until we can investigate it further to make sure that we’re not going to do anything we shouldn’t as far as putting some type of curriculum in a child’s hand that would be inappropriate for their age. So I will be happy to share these. If you would like them, you can gladly take them.
1:58:27 I spoke with Miss Harris about this just a moment ago, and so I believe the consensus is the safest thing to do is to pull for right now. So we have a little bit more time to make sure that we are okay and not doing anything or giving anything that we should not be doing as part of our review. If we could get like, you know, there’s some sections in here that may not fit, but I mean, if we can know, like what, what’s the scope and sequence or what are the lessons that are being used, you know, because is it in there? And, you know, just a little more detail of how these materials are used as far as what we’re, what the direction is given to our staff, that would be helpful to me.
1:58:41 We can certainly provide that. So we’re good to. Is there a motion on the floor to pull this or not to approve it for tonight and to bring it back in 14 days or something like that.
1:58:45 I believe your current motion is approval. Your motion right now on the floor is to approve, so. Right.
1:58:57 So take the vote for the motion to Mister Susan can withdraw his motion. That’s fine. Or you can just vote it down and make another motion.
1:59:01 Right. And then they can bring it back in two weeks after review. That’s how we should do it.
1:59:08 Okay, so the motion’s to approve right now. So can we just table. You can move to table the items here.
1:59:12 Yeah. Till date or bring it back. It doesn’t matter.
1:59:15 There’s an open motion. We have to close it. You can.
1:59:23 Yeah, you can move to table the discussion, but that’s fine. Or we can move to not approve it until we get back later. You can vote it down? Yeah, we can just vote the motion down.
1:59:25 We can get done. Okay. Okay.
1:59:32 All right. All in favor, or is there any other discussion on this item? All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye.
1:59:40 All opposed? Nay. Okay, motion does not pass. Moving on.
1:59:51 Can we just make a note that those were state approved instructional material from 2015? Yes, they were. So I think that one I don’t think is. Yeah.
2:00:09 All right. We are now to hold a public hearing to address item g 35 22 through 24 23 24, student progression plan for brevard public schools. Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item hearing? None.
2:00:19 Do I hear a motion? Is there any discussion? All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed passes 50.
2:00:31 Doctor Endell, would you please let us know about the items under the action portion of today’s agenda? Yes, mister chair. The first item is h 36, the legislative agenda. Do I hear a motion move to approve.
2:00:50 Second, is there any discussion? Yes, sorry, my board agenda’s not working right now, but I. Mine never got logged in. I thought that when we discussed this in the workshop today, we had agreed on a total of five things, right? One through four, in addition to seven or. No, it seems like the VPK component of this is not in here.
2:00:59 Is that correct? Because I thought we walked away from the work that saying we’re gonna. Yeah. So 1234 and seven is what we agreed to.
2:01:04 The only difference is, and it doesn’t. The only. Whatever’s on there, it doesn’t.
2:01:16 What it is is that we’re going to ask them for a. The DOE to review to bring the Opaga report is the proper process there. So going to the legislators and telling them, here’s our legislative agenda is a little bit out.
2:01:21 Okay, I’m sorry I misunderstood that for you. So that’s why I was like, I don’t see the VPK component on. Believe me, I would not let it off.
2:01:27 So what’s on there is one, two, four, and seven. Okay, but VPK will be part of the conversation. That’s all.
2:01:33 Just wanted to make sure it was clear that was still going to be discussed. Good point. All in favor, signify by saying aye.
2:01:45 Any opposed passes 50. Doctor Rendell, would you please let us know about the items under the action portion of today’s agenda? You already did that. The second item is h 37, department and school initiated agreements.
2:01:56 Do I hear a motion? Second, is there any discussion? All in favor, signify by saying aye. All opposed passes 50. Doctor endo.
2:02:05 Next item is age 38, procurement solicitations. Do I hear a motion? Move to approve. Second, is there any discussion? Hearing? None.
2:02:14 All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Next item is age 39, school improvement plans.
2:02:16 Do I hear a motion? No. Two. Approved.
2:02:34 Second, is there any discussion? All in favor, signify by saying aye. All opposed? The last item would be h 40, the 23 24 student progression plan. But we actually already approved approve that under g 35.
2:02:45 Okay, so that includes the action portion. We’ll now move on to the information agenda, which includes items for board review and may be brought back for action in subsequent meetings. No action will be taken on today’s item.
2:02:53 There’s one item under this category. Does any board member wish to discuss this item? Hearing? None. We’re now on to board member reports.
2:03:01 Is there anybody who wishes to have a board member report? Miss Campbell? Anybody else? I have two reports, and then for the discussion, two. Two reports. Yes.
2:03:25 So I was able to represent our sub in for Miss Wright on the Brevard Schools foundation meeting last week, and I just wanted to give you guys just a couple of updates. One is that the take stock and children, because of the funding that they received at the gala, they have a goal of adding 35 to 40 more students. Really? Usually.
2:03:42 What the first step hurdle in getting more students in the take stock and children program, which allows students who are underprivileged students to get a mentor, to get a college scholarship, to just find that path to success. The first hurdle is funding, because they have to find funding to do the scholarship. The second is to find a mentor.
2:03:58 So we always need more mentors. But good work to everybody who’s getting the funding together to add 35 to 40 more students. Hopefully this year, if you’ll put this date on your calendar, everybody, December 7 will be the annual light the lantern hygiene drive here in the parking lot.
2:04:14 And so the community start getting your personal hygiene products that they collect for the supply zone to provide to schools so they can give out to their students who are in need. I also may have volunteered us for something. I love doing that.
2:04:41 So, one of the things that Miss Kershaw shared was, you know, we have the supply zone for teachers there in Coco, and the teachers can kind of put an order in, and in the past, they’ve had those orders of supplies delivered to the schools through the courier. The courier is being overwhelmed right now because of a shortage of staff there. And so they’ve also tried to use outside transportation that’s proven to be very expensive.
2:04:51 So I offered. I said, hey, why don’t you ask the board members if we would? I’m sure we’d be happy to help every now and then. So miss Kershaw may be sending us an email.
2:05:14 So if you guys are in town and you’d like to pick up a load, the board has done that in the past, especially during the pandemic, to deliver books and hand sanitizer and things like that, they could certainly use it. If you’ve got a big vehicle, and several of us do, to just pick up some things and head to the south. They’re doing kind of a drive through now where, if you can let them know you’re coming, and they’ll come loaded in your car.
2:05:27 But for the people who live in the south end, the people who live in the north end, it’s quite a task. And on the beach side, really, to get there and pick them up after school. So I know I said I’d be willing.
2:05:40 Miss Wright said she’d be willing. So the rest of you guys, when she sends that invitation, if you can, every now and then, hopefully, we can arrange to be of assistance to that. Can you explain that just a little bit better? So we are volunteered.
2:05:45 I know. I ask, listen, I get it. That’s what we do.
2:05:51 So we’re gonna go to the supply zone, pick some things up, and then we’re driving to the south. Where in the south? Oh, no, no. Anywhere.
2:06:03 To driving to the schools to the south. I think you’re trying to order online, right. My purpose of that was that the people who live in the extreme ends of our county, it’s hard to get to.
2:06:06 To the supply zone to pick them up. So if we would be volunteering to. We’d be volunteering.
2:06:15 So the help would be to drive it all the way to Mims. Mico is what you’re saying. Wherever, whichever school to provide it, to drop it off at the schools for the teachers who put their order in.
2:06:18 It’s kind of like Walmart groceries. You know, you order it online, deliver it to your. I get it.
2:06:24 I get it. And Miss Kershaw is going to send us an email where we can sign up for this. Yeah.
2:06:30 Okay. I’m sure she says an online scheduler, like, we can say at 08:00 today. No, I think it’ll just be it.
2:06:34 You let them know when you’re available and they’ll let you know where they need it to do go. All right. The last one.
2:06:41 Really fun event, though. So I think this would be great. I think we should make it a challenge to see who can deliver the most to schools in pounds, slightly competitive.
2:06:43 There we go. There we go. In pounds or miles.
2:06:45 We’ll see. Pounds of things delivered. We’ll see.
2:06:53 So the other report I wanted to just share with you, and I’ll be, clarify what the competition will be. Since we’re going to be doing it now. Let’s, we’ll figure it out.
2:07:21 So I represent us also on the Brevard cultural alliance for this year, and Miss Julie Albright, who is their education director, sent me a report from the last school year of all the cultural arts enrichment programs that were supported by the Brevard Cultural alliance and supported in funding mostly from Brevard Schools foundation. And so I’m going to be forwarding that to you all. But it’s really fantastic.
2:07:46 You’ll get to see pictures and descriptions of what local artists, what that program does by bringing local artists into our schools to do art clubs, to work with our choirs, to do the mosaics and murals and things at different schools. Some of you, we’ve celebrated some of those this year at different schools, the unveiling of different mosaics and things. So I’m going to forward you so you can see that whole education report.
2:08:05 And we want to give a big shout out to Brevard Cultural alliance for supporting that and the Bard Schools foundation for supporting that financially in our schools, to bring these artists and residents into our schools to do different programs and to enrich what they’re already doing through their music and arts curriculum. So that’s it. Thank you.
2:08:14 That is great. And I wanted to say thank you, Miss Campbell. A couple of weeks ago, I wasn’t able to make a meeting, and she filled in for me so I heard that she did it for you.
2:08:21 I just wanted to say thank you for your dedication, Miss Campbell, for all that you do. All right. Anybody else got anything I do before? Go ahead.
2:08:23 Miss Wright goes here. You guys have two of them. Okay.
2:08:45 Miss Wright, if this is truly your last board meeting as chair, I just want to say thank you for me being a new board member. You made it interesting at times. But the one thing doesn’t matter what they think of you, Matt, is they know where your heart lies.
2:08:54 And it’s with our students, it’s with our staff, our teachers. And it’s been a pleasure having you in the middle there. Appreciate that.
2:09:01 Thank you. Thanks for taking a second, Miss Wright. You got something? I was going to do the exact same thing after I made my pitch.
2:09:08 About what? I’m looking for board support, on board. Things you’d never know that I know. Go for that first, and then you can say if you like me or not.
2:09:11 Okay. All right. So, board, we discussed a couple times today.
2:09:27 The fact that some of us had the opportunity to go and visit the marjory, Stimm and Douglas, and what took place down there in parkland. And I walked away from that feeling good about where Brevard is, but feeling also like we could be better. One of the things that just.
2:09:44 I heard multiple times from multiple different districts that were doing security very, very well was that the Guardian program was thriving. They were doing well, and I would like to see it expanded in Brevard county. There really is nothing more valuable than our students.
2:10:04 And I know that there will be an expense that comes with this, but I think this is worth making an investment for our district to look at, making sure we have adequate security in all of our schools. So really what my ask is right now is, would this board entertain the idea of expanding the Guardian program? And I know that that’s going to be. Be a hard yes or no right now.
2:10:10 It may be a. We may need to gather some information first and then come back and bring it. But I want.
2:10:21 I guess I want the approval from you guys on. Yes, the board’s moving in that direction. Are willing to look at the expansion of the Guardian program and BPS.
2:10:28 Mister Trent. Anybody want to speak? I’m usually going last, so this is easy. Yes.
2:10:32 Man of so many. I think he used most of mine thinking. Yeah.
2:10:59 Made me feel good. So this is a big conversation. And I would suggest that maybe rather than trying to look for consensus in this meeting, it’s, you know, to me, we need to just for the transparency for the public to really let staff dig in and bring back, you know, and we heard that day Swan, Suwannee county has implemented this in 2018.
2:11:21 There are some other counties that have both what we have, which is kind of a hybrid with the security specialists and the other kind of guardian. It’s not a short conversation, I will tell you. Procedurally, there actually is a motion on the table back from the spring of 2018, and.
2:11:27 But I just mentioned that to Mister Gibbs recently. That was before I was on the board. Mister Susan was on the board.
2:11:41 That motion was tabled when they were originally having the conversation about having guardians. And then they created a new motion and said, let’s do this security specialist idea. So we need to go back into somebody, find that motion, exactly what it was.
2:11:57 And if we need to just pull that off the table, or if we need to do something completely different, because the legislation has changed a little bit. When it first was created in 2018 bit, it was not teachers, but just other personnel. So it could be support staff, administrative staff.
2:12:16 This is something I was fully immersed in 2018 because that was the year that happened, happened to be the year that I was first running. And so I, before COVID it was probably the thing I spent the most time researching and studying. But so here’s some differences, I think, between now and then.
2:12:49 One is because I remember the Fuhrer that really the country was in, but particularly the state of Florida, and Brevard was in, over what we were, what the board at the time was going to do with the Guardian program. I had conversations with the sheriff that year, and when I, by the time I was elected and got on the board, the security specialist program had already been implemented. And I thought this, that as I would go out and visit my schools the first time, sorry, I’m gonna take some time, because this takes some history, and I wanted to provide some historical background.
2:13:02 By the time I got on the board and started doing my school visits, you know, a lot of my schools in Palm Bay are the ones who would have the security specialist. And the response I got from all of them, with them only having been there for a couple months, was, I love my security specialists. They’re amazing.
2:13:28 Please don’t take them away. So it really was going over very well, and has continued to go over very well, including some heroic acts by some of our security specialists throughout the years since I’ve been on the board. Some things, though, that have happened since then, I think that changed the conversation for us, for school boards across the state, and for our community.
2:13:39 Is that there have been more school shootings since then. You know, Uvalde, the one in Tennessee, I’m missing one. There was another one in Texas.
2:13:51 So that has changed some of the conversation. The other thing that changes the conversation is that it’s no longer an unknown. We do have school districts in Florida in particular.
2:13:55 We have some in other states. And at the time, in 2018, we could look to Texas. They had a program.
2:14:02 It was the Marshall program. It was very similar to what the Guardian, the, the air and vice guardian program was supposed to be. And so we could kind of look to that.
2:14:31 But it was still fairly new. We have now had school districts in the state of Florida that have been doing the true concealed carry type of guardian for the last five and a half years or five years, five school years, and we can look back and see all the things that people were afraid were going to happen have not happened. And so, and, and the things that they were supposed to prevent, many of those things have been prevented.
2:14:47 So I think it would probably be good what I would like to do just to make sure that we’re moving forward, because I remember all the contention of the community around this topic during that year, 2018. We had talk about, we had these town halls and nobody shows up. That didn’t happen that year.
2:14:57 There were town halls and people showed up. I was at a few of them myself. So I’m not saying we go back there, but I’m just saying that’s the kind of investment that this community had around this conversation.
2:15:22 I would like to have some more information from our staff, look at what other districts are doing and how they’re implementing it. Because when we had that, when they shared with us that Saturday that we went a few weeks ago, there were districts that said, you know, we have the, like we do, you know, we, we have the Guardian, but it’s only, what’s the word? They’re like, they’re labeled. Right.
2:15:28 It’s a known factor. Right. And then some said, like Suwannee, I think they all have the concealed.
2:15:40 There are some districts that have both. There are some districts that aren’t using the provision that’s now allowed, which wasn’t in 2018, that teachers could do that. That has to go back to the car, the contract, the teacher contract and bargaining.
2:16:03 So that’s a different battle that might have to happen. But, you know, I would just kind of like to get that information of who’s doing what because that’s, I, you know, we never want to reinvent the wheel. I do think our sheriff, when he first proposed it, before the hybrid security specialist position was created, he developed his own training program in the state for Brevard.
2:16:08 That is beyond the 144 hours. It’s like 176 hours. So it’s bigger.
2:16:31 It requires more. We have the best training facilities and equipment here in Brevard and have done really well. So there definitely need to be some parameters, but I think this board needs to take some time, really, to do their due diligence like the board in 2018 did, which was a months long journey of getting public input and knowledge.
2:16:39 But now it’s not going to be an unknown. Now that it’s a known, we really need to find out what are other people. People doing, what are the pitfalls, and really get that input.
2:17:06 So, like I said, there is a motion that’s tabled out there from 2018. But rather than just pulling that motion back off the table, I think we really need to take the time and have some conversations around what it might look like, because it’s going to involve the office of District Security, it’s going to involve the sheriff, it’s going to involve our unions, both unions, and. And then obviously, our parents and students and community stakeholders.
2:17:21 Miss Jenkins, you have a comment? Yeah, I mean, I’ll keep it quick because this was obviously sprung on us today. I’m not ever gonna support this. I don’t think that’s a surprise to anybody.
2:17:52 When I ran for my seat, quite frankly, it was the number one question I was asked when I was running, because the person who sat in the seat before me was a proponent for it. I don’t understand why. And the visit to Parkland, that father who led the walkthrough, would be really, really, really disappointed to hear that this is what came of that visit.
2:18:18 Because. Because he is a strong proponent for safe schools, but not through this manner, and he fought this hard for years. So the fact that that walkthrough is what’s inspiring that conversation is a little disheartening, because that’s not the message that that parent would.
2:18:37 Would want it to have resonated with the people who walk through that building with them. As an educator, married to an educator, my seven year old little girl inside of a school, I do not believe that that is that responsibility of our teachers. I don’t believe that that’s the answer.
2:18:55 A daughter and niece and cousin of law enforcement, I believe that is their responsibility, and I believe that what keeps them safe as our law enforcement officers is for them to be the ones in charge when there’s a crisis. Situation. So I will not be moved on this whatsoever.
2:19:09 Never mind all the data when it comes to going against this proposition. Just like I wasn’t even on the board, I wasn’t even running when that conversation was happening. But, I mean, it was not supported.
2:19:47 It still isn’t supported by the school, school resource Officer association nationally, again, because it puts law enforcement in a tougher situation when there’s more people in a crisis situation, armed. The other thing that I just can’t wrap my head around is the responsibility a classroom teacher has to close down their classroom and keep those kids safe. But then to assert that they would then be the ones to go after an assailant again, this was sprung on us today.
2:20:07 It’s crazy to me that we’re having this conversation again years later. I remember the turmoil. I remember my colleagues around me thinking, why would you put this burden on us? This is emotional for me, and it frustrates me.
2:20:27 I’m really frustrated as a mom, if I’m being perfectly blunt, like, really frustrated as a mom. Cause that’s just not what I want for my kid. We’ve had parents already this year that were really upset when they came to school and saw the new tactical uniforms and weapon across the chest of our officers.
2:20:35 Like, we don’t need to do more. I don’t. I don’t know, but I’m not going to be moved on this issue.
2:20:41 And I think you guys. I think you understand that, but I think it’s important for me to express that. But I feel an obligation.
2:20:55 And I had expressed to miss Campbell earlier today when I found out that she had gone to Parkland and then you had shared that you had gone to. I didn’t get the email. And I am.
2:21:05 I feel guilty that I didn’t get to go through that experience because I feel like if that was presented to us, like we should. We should be doing that. And it’s not an easy.
2:21:16 An easy thing. So at a minimum, I feel the need to at least say, like, that father would not be okay with this. So thanks.
2:21:23 Okay. So I think there’s board consensus to move forward with it. I didn’t hear that we’re arming teachers.
2:21:36 I think that the idea is that we’re going to look at the expansion and see where it falls, have people have conversations back and forth. I think that I’m in favor of doing so. I don’t think that we should reinvent the tabled motion that was way back in the day.
2:21:43 I think there’s some other things we can bring to the table. I think, Miss Campbell, you’re 100% right. Have the evaluation done by staff.
2:21:51 And that’s what I think you were proposing is let’s go ahead and have this conversation. Ted’s a good friend of mine from Suwanee. Maybe a road trip up there to say hi to him.
2:22:01 And there’s a nice little barbecue place that we can all go to. So I think that I’m in favor of having that discussion and moving forward. I think that’s a four board member consensus.
2:22:21 So if you can meet with staff, sort of talk about what that looks like, we can each kind of say, hey, this is what I’m thinking, and then the staff can start putting that together. Does that sound good for everybody? I have a question, because I don’t want to put words in your mouth. So what I heard today was teachers.
2:22:28 No, she didn’t say teachers. That was said earlier today. When were you talking about? This afternoon.
2:22:32 Well, that wasn’t here. Right. And that’s why I’m saying I’m not going to re put words in your mouth.
2:22:37 But that’s. That is what you said earlier. You said about talking about arming our teachers.
2:22:45 You asked me, Mister Gibbs, and so that’s where that’s coming from. So let’s make sure that’s clear. Let me.
2:22:54 Let me clarify that. So when I say I want to take a dive into looking at this program, there are several counties around the state that have different versions of it. By no means.
2:23:06 When we say, put the Guardian program in Brevard county, does it mean a teacher now must carry a firearm? That is not what that means. It’s 100% voluntary. They can choose to do so if they want to be a part of it.
2:23:23 And again, I don’t even know that the teacher is the best model, because some of the other counties, I think it was Lake county or that was speaking about, again, they did not have any teachers at all. Anybody who was with students teaching a class did not conceal carrie. So there’s different options there.
2:23:35 But honestly, I believe the invitation to go to this event came through an FSBA email. So we all were involved to it. And I think Miss Campbell and I must have been the two that said, yes, we would like to go.
2:23:58 I will tell you, Max gave the tour of Marjory, Stoneman Douglas, and I don’t think there was a single person there that wasn’t emotional about what took place there. At no time, ever, did he ever say he was not an advocate for the Guardian program. He sat right next to sheriffs that sat there and again reiterated over and over and over again this is the reality of the world that we live in.
2:24:05 Do we like it? No, I absolutely hate it. It’s disgusting that we even have to do this. But I will be honest with you.
2:24:36 After you walk through a building like that and you see bloodstains on the floor of a school and you hear the stories of teachers or coaches that were trying to do something to stop this from happening and had no means to do it, you go, how in the world, how do we stop that? How do we make, how do we at least try to give them a fighting chance? If this ever were to be on our doorstep? I think it’s worth looking at. Because to me, I don’t ever want to have to look a parent in the eye and say we could have done more and we didn’t do more. We chose not to do more.
2:24:42 And I feel like this is a way that we could do more. And so that’s where my heart is behind this. I understand what you’re saying, Miss Jenkins.
2:24:45 I hear you 100%. I don’t like it. I don’t love it either.
2:24:57 I really don’t. But I also don’t love what I saw down there and the fact that there could have been a different outcome possibly had there been different measures that were taken ahead of time from that school board. So that’s my heart behind it.
2:25:03 And again, I know this is going to be a process. It’s going to take time. It is not going to happen, like, oh, next month, guardians are up and running.
2:25:20 This is a huge undertaking. I realize that it’s a huge undertaking for our district security, but I think it’s one that we should take in an effort. As a parent who has children that are in the same school system, like, I want to know my kids how have every chance possible to be safe in our schools.
2:25:33 And I respect that. I’m not. And I appreciate, sorry, I respect that and I appreciate you being very transparent and honest about where you stand on that issue.
2:25:51 But I will say it again, the father is not against the guardian program. The father is very much against school resource officers, school security specialists. But earlier today it was, the word teacher was used and that’s where it’s coming from.
2:26:07 And teacher doesn’t mean I didn’t take it to think you meant that every teacher was going to be armed in our schools by any means. But that is an option in the Guardian program to have a voluntary teacher. And so that’s where that came from.
2:26:29 Again, I will never be moved towards that. But it was said and so I need to know what you mean by that because you’re the one who put it up there and like that’s going to be driving the conversation going forward. So I think the motion is to take a look at what each one of the facets of the Guardian program looks like, get with staff, kind of talk to them and stuff like that.
2:26:34 There’s no conversation about arming teachers right now. There’s none of that. I think that’s good.
2:26:53 I think we’re gonna sure Miss Campbell because I just, if I can address one more thing, just because this is a conversation that our little conversation right here is blowing up the Internet if it hasn’t already. So I just want to clarify because people, I remember all the misconceptions from five years ago. So I just want to clarify a couple things.
2:27:20 I know one, the first thing that you mentioned, one, it does have to be voluntary. Two, not everybody who volunteers qualifies, not everybody who is qualified is eligible through completes the training or they have to go through the training, they have to go through the mental health screening, they have to do all those things. So it’s just because people won’t remember all those facts and details from five years ago, they’re going to remember the inflammatory things.
2:27:36 And so I just want to make sure again what we’re saying is we’re starting the conversation again and that it’s not a matter of we’re about to let loose. So thank you guys for that. Yep, a lot of factors, finances, logistics, everything else.
2:27:42 Speaking to other people, doing all those things. I think those are all into consideration. So I think that that’s good.
2:27:49 I think Doctor Rendell, you kind of have the idea. Yeah, we have direction to explore this and bring some information back to the board. Sounds good.
2:28:04 You know, and one more thing, one more thing Mister Susan, I want to thank you also. So honestly, coming on this board, no one can actually propose you for what it’s going to be like to step in the role of a school board. You have an idea, been to school board meetings, you watch it, you know how contentious they are.
2:28:13 But I really appreciate you, I appreciate the friendship I feel like I have with you and your family. And I’m just grateful for your leadership over the last twelve months. It’s not been easy.
2:28:20 It has been hard, it’s been very, very difficult. But thank you for all that you’ve done and yeah, we appreciate you. Thank you.
2:28:28 Thank you Megan. Thank you so much. All right, you guys, um, I guess we’ll move on, and we’ll have the meeting in, what, a week? On Halloween.
2:28:32 Halloween. Oh, are we doing a group costume? I was gonna say, like, that was my thing. Was.
2:28:36 Is that. Do we want to do any kind of. There is a costume.
2:28:46 Costume contest all on your own. There’s. There’s a costume contest happening that day, and I feel like.
2:28:51 Yes, there is. There. There is a costume contest happening here, and we’re gonna be here.
2:29:00 Do we want to have discussion? Do we want to be. I have a few in my closet. Are we just all gonna wear our own? I will entertain anything that you guys bring forward.
2:29:08 I don’t know. I don’t know. So no group costume? Is that what I’m saying? Miss Lena, I have had a.
2:29:18 I think Jennifer would look good in a red tie and a blue vest jacket. Oh, my gosh. All right, so that’s a no to the Halloween costume.
2:29:26 All right, well, hey, I tried, okay? I will. I have to dress up all the time, so I’m game. Whatever you want to do.
2:29:32 You want to come in with a theme? I’ll find it, and we’ll do it. So I’m up for it. It’s just a workshop.
2:30:07 It’s not. Yeah. All right, you guys, and that’s it. It.