2023-11-14 - School Board Meeting

3:05 Saving it. Organization of the board meeting is now in order. It is my privilege as superintendent to chair the meeting until such time as a chairman is elected. I’d like to take this opportunity to remind the public that the appropriate place for public participation in this meeting is during your individual public comment opportunity as identified in the agenda.

5:03 Outside of your individual public comment opportunity, your role in the meeting is as an observer. Paul, roll call, please. Miss Wright.

5:13 Mister Trent, Miss Jenkins, Mister Susan. Here, Miss Campbell. The board will now hold a moment of silent reflection, and I invite the audience to join.

5:41 Thank you. Now, please rise for the pledge of allegiance, which we led tonight by Cadet Lori Ann Wright from Titusville High School’s JROTC program. Good evening, school board members and guests.

5:55 I’m Cadet Wright. Tonight’s call guard is commanded by Cadet Malloy, carrying the national ensign. The Navy flag is being carried by Cadet Boers.

6:05 Cadet Baez is on left rifle and cadet captain is on right rifle. Please rise for the presentation of colors, followed by performances from Titusville High School’s NJRTC armed and unarmed exhibition teams. 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 liberty and justice for all.

6:55 Please be seated. As Miss Wright stated, we’re now going to be entertained by the title high JROTC program. They have a couple of demonstrations for us.

7:35 Please enjoy. Left, left, right, right, left. Left feet.

8:00 Down. Right face. About face.

8:13 Free set arms. High school high school armed exhibition drill team. Order arms.

8:40 Inboard. Step. Titusville High School arm and exhibition drill team.

9:45 Order arms. Forward march it. Right face.

10:31 Forward march. Right face. About face.

10:50 Present arms. The pioneers of high school HirtC on our exhibition drill team. Order arms.

11:04 Parade rest. Attention. Forward.

11:18 March. Dress right. Dress foot.

11:33 Ready. Front. To the rear.

12:00 March. About face. The pioneers in Tyson High School NJRTC on our exhibition drill team.

12:23 Order arms. Assemble. March.

12:33 Left dice. Forward march. All right.

13:03 So, board members, we have two cadets, Lori Anne Wright and James captain, who will be at the podium there to answer any questions that you may have. Who would like to go first? Hello? First, Miss Jenkins. Sure, this question is for both of you, or either of you, but is there someone who inspired you to join ROTC? The cadets came to my elementary school and did a drill presentation similar to this.

13:33 And that’s what really got me interested in ROTC. Fantastic. And for me, it was one of the instructors.

13:40 He came to my middle school and he was part of our drone program, and that’s what inspired me to join ROTC. Thank you. Awesome.

13:49 Thanks, guys. Great job. So this is just part of.

13:57 Part of what you do. But I know, like, my mentee through the take stock and children program, and she talks about PT and how terrible it is. I mean, how great it is.

14:06 Awesome workout. So I want to know, what is the hardest thing you have to do in PT or one of the hardest. It’s always hard to pick the hardest.

14:18 One of the hardest things I would say is our PT test, probably it’s as many push ups as you can do in two minutes, and then you get a two minute rest, as many sit ups as you can do in two minutes. You get a two minute rest, and then the fastest mile you can run. That’s probably one of the hardest things we do.

14:30 And how often are you doing that? Once a quarter. Wow. Okay.

14:34 So for me it’d be 110. No, that’s what I was saying. What about you? For me, it’s probably push ups.

14:44 Yeah, I feel you. All right. Thank you.

14:49 Thank you so much for giving us a performance this evening that was pretty amazing with the hands and how quick you guys were. I’m like, that was really impressive. What is your aspirations once you leave high school? I plan to attend the naval academy or ROTC in college.

15:09 Nice. I’m planning to go to Embry Riddle, do the ROTC program and join the marines as well. An officer.

15:15 Awesome. I wish you guys the best of luck. Thank you.

15:23 Well, we had some good questions already. I’m just at awe with the discipline that you guys show. I mean, I certainly was not at that level in high school.

15:33 I don’t know if I’m there now either, but we appreciate what you guys are doing. I mean, the future is bright. Geez, what examples you guys are.

15:42 So I just. Again, I’m at a. Thank you so much.

15:45 Thank you. Keep it up. We will.

15:47 Hey, I just wanted to say how proud I am of you guys and everybody here should be also you guys. Our ROTC programs have accolades lists that are a mile long. We recently engaged with a lot of the veterans organizations and everybody to do some expansions.

16:03 And when we started really putting it together, the things that you do on a regular basis, all the way from drill to raider teams, all the stuff is phenomenal, and it’s not known as much as it should be. Right. My question to you is, as we met with leadership staff, general staff and everybody else a couple of weeks ago to expand ROTC programs, we’re working on trying to assist.

16:25 If you guys want larger units to getting instructors, space, all of that stuff. From your perspective, how can we do a better job as a school board to assist you? Are we doing great or are there some things that we could do? Look at them all back there. They want to talk.

16:48 It’s hard to think of things on a day to day basis that you could do that would really affect us. I mean, obviously I could say more funding, but that’s true of every program. But what would more funding do for you? Allow us to buy better equipment.

17:03 Because a lot of our equipment is really old and out of date. Like these rifles. They’ve been here probably since it’s seniors, seniors, seniors, senior seniors, and a lot of the other rifles that we have, they’re missing parts and pieces like this is a little bit wiggly, but it would allow us to have better equipment.

17:22 Okay. And I appreciate it. Might swing by and listen to you.

17:26 Maybe after you have a second to actually think about it and stuff like that, you can do it, too. Thank you. I just wanted to say thank you so much.

17:31 Thank you to the team for coming and doing this for us. You guys are amazing. Thank you to the instructors for what you do.

17:37 This is the future of our country, and we appreciate you being here. Thank you very much. Thank you.

17:51 Big shout out. And thank you to the instructors and the parents that are here as well tonight. You know, these students wouldn’t be successful without their leadership and support.

18:00 So thank you all for that. That brings us to the organization of the board. First, we need to elect a chairman, at which time the person is elected, they will assume the responsibility of chair.

18:12 The board will then elect other officers and appoint individuals to committees where board representation is required or expected in various organizations across the county and in the state. Before we begin, Mister Gibbs General counsel will explain the process. Pursuant to Robert’s rules of order for the election of the chairman of the board.

18:34 The presiding official will be the superintendent, who will call for nominations. Any board member who wishes to make a nomination should call out. The first person to call out will be number one to make a nomination.

18:46 I will assist the superintendent in determining who is the first nominator. The superintendent will then call for the motion or the nomination by that person to go down to the second. And then the third will go back to the first person, the first nomination, and vote on that nominee.

19:01 The nominee that gets the majority vote, three votes, will be the chairman. If that person is the first nominee, that will end the process. If the first nominee does not get three votes, we will go to the second.

19:14 And so forth. The nominations do not need to be seconded under Robert’s rules. I would be happy to answer any questions before we get started.

19:22 So, Mister Gibbs will observe and Mister Gibbs will observe and inform me which board member makes the first nomination. The floor is now open. Megan Rice for chairman.

19:31 The floor is now open to nominations for chairman. There’s been a nomination by Mister Susan. Do I hear any more nominations? Do I hear a motion for nominations to be closed? Motion to close.

19:53 Motion to close by Miss Wright. Second by Misses Campbell. All in favor, please indicate by saying aye.

20:03 All right, so we have one nomination to vote on. Did we get the opposed? Was there a post, Nick? Oh, there was one. All members of the board, in support of Misses Wright’s nomination as chairman of the board, please indicate by saying aye.

20:20 Aye. Any opposed? Four to one, Mister Gibbs. Yes.

20:28 So, at this time, I’d like to congratulate misses Wright on her selection or election as chairman. Congratulations, chairwoman. Chairperson.

20:43 Chairperson. Did I say it right? Yeah, it’ll be corrected for sure. So now, Misses Wright will take over the meeting as chairperson.

20:55 And we’ll continue with the organizational proceedings for selection of vice chair. First, though, we will call for a short recess to have the technology reconfigured to accommodate the needs of the new chairman. We’ll take a short recess.

23:21 Welcome back. At this time, I’ll open the floor for vice chair nominations. I nominate Jean Trent.

23:31 First to speak. She started first. Matt called the first name, but Miss Jenkins did start first to ask for a nomination.

23:41 I nominate Miss Campbell. Are there any other nominations? I nominate Jean Trent. All right, we need a motion for the nominations to be closed.

23:57 Motion to close second. All in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye.

24:04 All right, all members of the board in support of. We’re going to go with Miss Campbell’s first, correct? Yes. Okay.

24:04 All right, all members in support of the board of Miss Katie Campbell’s nomination as vice chairman, please indicate by saying aye. Any opposed? All right, so that one does not pass. All right, all members of the board, in support of Jean Trent’s nomination as vice chairman of the board, please indicate by saying aye.

24:35 Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Absolutely not.

24:38 All right, that passes three to two. All right, so congratulations, Mister Trent. We move chairs.

24:47 That again? Give you a second to get set up. Let me know when you’re ready. All right, next is to adopt the.

25:27 And designate the dates and the times and location for the spring of 2024 and fall of 2025. School board meetings. Do I hear a motion? Second.

25:40 Any discussion? You guys already. Sorry. I jumped in there, so.

25:47 No, I don’t care. Let’s roll. Okay, so all in favor, signify by saying aye.

25:53 Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Aye.

26:00 Okay, that passes 50. All right, you have to forgive me. I’m fighting a bit of a cold, so.

26:06 All right, this brings us to the board authorization. Doctor Rendell. It is a requirement to authorize the superintendent to have signature facsimiles made of the chairperson and superintendent to be used for signing checks, and also to approve the continued use of the current signature facsimiles for the district checks.

26:25 Until new facsimiles are received, a motion and vote of the board are required for this issue. All right, do we hear a motion? Second. Any discussion? No.

26:40 All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? No. All right.

26:47 All right. So at this time, I would like to offer my fellow board members and doctor Rendell an opportunity to recognize students, staff and members of the community. Does anybody want to go first? I’ll go first.

27:07 Miss Wright, is it? All right, go for it. First off, I wanted to say all the individuals that came here today because you guys were concerned about a. Like we were going to discuss any kind of arming of teachers.

27:17 That’s not true. I was perpetuated by a news organization or some off the wall group that was not there. It was not an agenda item.

27:24 It was not decided. Discussed, was not part of a discussion. So anybody who came here to speak to that, I want you guys to know that was not part of our agenda.

27:33 Nobody has talked about it. And that news organization has been completely was wrong in doing so. I’m sorry.

27:40 I fielded calls the first time it came when it was not true. I fielded calls last night when it was, and I was trying to help the news organizations. I was able to stop a lot of them.

27:49 But I didn’t know you guys were coming or I would have contacted you. You guys. But I want you guys to know you have every right to come up here and speak.

27:57 But the issue is that we’re not going to be talking about arming teachers tonight. So I just wanted to let you know that. And then.

28:05 So sometimes in our area, some people perpetuate things that aren’t true. All right. Today we had something that happened and I wanted to facilitate something that was really cool.

28:15 The last, as board chairman, one of the last policies we were able to get across, as you guys may know, we went through all sections of nine thousand’s policies. We finished up yesterday. So we have done an entire review of all of our policies.

28:28 The last one, which was the coolest one was the fact that we’re now going to find all of the Koreans, I’m sorry, the people that fought in Korea, world War two and Vietnam and all of the other wars that they went out and as students inside of high school went and went to war and never got their geds. We’re going to go out and find them and we’re going to go honor them and have them graduate inside of our schools. So I wanted to say it’s an amazing thing.

28:57 That’s what we’re going to be doing. Yeah, that was an added bonus, and I think those men need to be honored. So I wanted to do that.

29:04 I wanted to say thank you to Mike Acosta. His team’s here. They’ve raised a ton, ton of money.

29:11 We’re naming a track after him. We have Coco here. We’re naming some amazing opportunities tonight.

29:16 We love you guys being here. This is what it’s all about as individuals, giving to our schools, giving to our communities, and then being remembered for doing so. We are honored that you guys are here and all the individuals that are here to support.

29:30 We appreciate you with that. That’s all I have. Thank you.

29:37 If I may jump in really fast. I missed something, and so I apologize. My first board meeting, this is going to be a bit of a learning curve, so I’m going to backtrack us on the recognitions and we’re going to go ahead and go back to the appointments of board representatives to different committees that we’ve been a part of.

29:50 We only have five minutes, four minutes, sorry. Before we need to stop for the leasing corporation portion of this meeting. So we’ll get through as many as we can and may have to pick it back up afterwards.

29:59 So I just want to make you guys aware of. So hopefully everyone has a chance to review the committees that you are a part of. There was a lot of committees.

30:08 I don’t know if that’s historically as many committees as we’ve all been a part of, but to walk through these, let’s just go through them from the top to the bottom and we’ll see who wants to stay where or if it’s a committee they’ve been a part of. So Space Coast League of Cities was mine initially. I will be honest, I have not had the ability.

30:23 Okay, you want it? He’s throwing his hand up there, but I want to honor anybody else who is okay. Anybody else interested in being the representative for the board for the space cos League of Cities? No? Okay, how about an alternate? Does anybody wish to take the alternate role I think we should give. Okay, there we go.

30:42 All right. So perfect. All right.

30:45 The Brevard county value adjustment Board. I will fight anybody for that. Okay, Mister Susan wants that.

30:53 He’s going to say, all right, does anybody else like to be the alternate for that? Mister Trent, you currently are. Do you want to stay there? You will never have to go. Ok, that’s great.

31:04 Ok. All right. All right.

31:06 What about the Brevard cultural alliance, Miss Campbell, that’s been yours? Yeah, I did that this last year. I’m happy to stay on there. You’re happy to stay? Okay, Mister Trent, you’ve been the alternate.

31:14 Are you happy to stay as the alternate? Seems like a good position. Okay. All right.

31:20 All right. The Central Florida Public School boards coalition that currently is Mister Susan with me as your alternate. Have you the chair.

31:29 Okay, so then you. I will stay there and then vice chair. Mister Trent, you are now there with me.

31:35 Okay. All right. Brevard Schools Foundation, I would love to keep that one if possible.

31:40 I really enjoy being a part of that. So if nobody opposes, I would like to stay as the primary. I would like to be the primary again.

31:47 You would like to be the primary again? Okay, I have been the primary. I. Can I ask why? Just out of curiosity, really. I’ve been actively involved in and I’ve attended all the meetings.

32:12 That’s great. We all have been. I would absolutely like to play a strong role in that.

32:16 For my last year as a board member, I was in my first year and I would like to do it again on my way out. Miss Wright, I know that like, we can all go attend the meeting, right? Why don’t you stay primary, she can stay secondary, you both can attend, and it’ll be. Mister Susan, I love your suggestion, but you’re not the chairman anymore.

32:34 I know. And so Miss Jenkins, point of order, let’s try and I don’t want to have an argument right now about this. We have 1 minute prior to needing to go into the leasing corporation.

32:42 So we’re gonna pick this back up after we go into our leasing corporation. All right? Just trying to help when you’re not helping. I guess that’s a new tool.

32:52 You’re not board chair anymore. I’m sorry, I don’t see anything in here right now. Mister Gibbs, as far as just recess this one and then we’ll convene the other one.

33:01 Okay? Recess this meeting. I do not see the paperwork. So let me just mention somebody else has access to my microphone.

33:27 All right. The leasing corporation is now called to order. Doctor Rendell, the item for the board to vote on is to elect the following officials to the Brevard county school board.

33:37 Leasing corporation president, chair of the school board. Vice president, vice chair of the school board. Secretary is the superintendent and treasurer.

33:45 Chief financial officer move to approve. Second. Is there any discussion? No.

33:59 All right. All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye.

34:02 Aye. Any opposed? All right, the leasing corporation, time certain meeting is now adjourned. All right, now we go back.

34:11 All right, now the organization of the board. School board meeting is back in session. So back to where we were just at, picking up where we left off.

34:25 Miss Jenkins, if you would like to be the primary for the Brevard Schools Foundation, I will honor that request. I would like to still be an active participant in it, as I’ve really enjoyed my time there with them. So I would like to be the alternate.

34:40 And there’s nothing stopping from any of us participating in anything. It’s just to attend their board meetings. Okay.

34:48 I understand completely. And so. And I’ve been in attendance of all their board meetings, and I think.

34:52 I’m not saying that to be snarky like you haven’t been there. I’m saying everyone is welcome to go. We’re all invited to the events.

34:59 Yes. That. The only difference is board meetings.

35:01 Okay. So going on, moving on now for the choice and the charter school liaison. Miss Campbell, that has been yours.

35:07 Do you wish to retain. Been mine for five years, but I’m. Because we all need to open up.

35:12 If anybody would like to take that role, I can do it again. But if somebody would like to take that role, I will happily give you. Can you share with the board what that looks like as far as an ongoing commitment? Yeah.

35:23 So it is what you make it. So I have made an. In addition to the 17 schools that I visit, I have made it responsibly to make sure that I visit all of our charter schools.

35:34 We’ve got a couple of new ones that I haven’t been to. Don’t visit everyone every year, but I also have coordinated meetings between our charter school principals and the superintendent a couple times a year and just host that to try to facilitate good communication between our superintendent and the charter schools. Really? Excuse me.

35:54 They’re not necessarily reaching out to me, except for relationships that we’ve built. So, you know, it is what you make it. Some of us are good at visiting our school.

36:01 Some of them aren’t as active doing it. I’d say charter school liaison is kind of the same thing. It is as much or as little as you want it to be.

36:08 That’s right. We’ve got a large expanse of athletics and programs and stuff like that. I’d love to be in there because I’ll be meeting with them on a regular basis anyway.

36:16 If it’s okay with Miss Campbell, I’d like to. To pass the torch or the baton and thank you, if that’s okay with you. All right.

36:23 Mister Susan has said he would like that. So we will go ahead and honor that request. All right.

36:28 Capital outlay committee. Mister Trent, this has been you and how often are they meeting? I’m here quarterly. Quarterly? I did it for like four years.

36:39 Do you wish to. I can stay again on their to do list. Otherwise I’ll stay.

36:47 Okay. Does anybody else on the board wish to. May want to negotiate later, but.

36:54 You may want to negotiate? Yeah. Depends on what happens later. I hate the order that we do this in.

36:59 Keep going, keep going. We’re good. Okay, so we’re gonna keep that with Mister Trent.

37:02 All right, so act committee, that is Miss Campbell, currently with myself as an alternate. Miss Campbell, what do you feel about this? I’ll stay on there. You want to stay on that? Somebody really wants.

37:14 I feel that I may not be the best person for the alternate in this role, just because there are some. Some things that. Within that meeting that can be a bit frustrating to say the least.

37:24 So I’ll be the alternate. Would you like to be the ultimate. Okay, I got cleared, so we’re good to go.

37:31 I’ll even take the head of it if you want. Campbell. Miss Campbell said she would like to.

37:34 To retain the head of it. So you call me though. You don’t get to go.

37:39 She’ll never miss. Yeah, I don’t. I don’t miss many.

37:41 I don’t miss many. But I have. I had to miss a few this year.

37:45 And miss. Miss Wright was good to step in. Yes.

37:48 All right. The school health and safety that’s currently mine. Is anybody interested in that one? What’s this? What does that do? Good question.

37:55 I don’t honestly. School health and safe. There’s not been a whole tied into the state school health and safety.

38:01 The new safety specialists submit a health, a school district health plan every year. And they sit on that committee that develops those rules. Oh, I mean, I might want that, right? Miss Stampier, am I getting.

38:12 I want it. I’m gonna. I really want to push health and wellness and stuff like that.

38:15 If you want it, I’m signing up for an awful lot. Here you are. Taking a lot of.

38:20 I had to come off chair. Okay. All right, go for it.

38:23 Listen, if I can free up some of my time, I know my commitment is going to be slightly increased with taking this role on, so, yes, if I can be removed from some committees, I’m okay with that. All right. We have the Palm Bay Youth advisory Board.

38:33 Miss Jenkins, you’re the primary. Are you planning to retire? This is not. Yes.

38:43 So I think that you and I need to maybe have a conversation of maybe how we can probably push them to put it back together, because I feel like they’re struggling. Okay. We’re kind of on it.

38:55 If they bring it back. Yeah. And they haven’t brought it back, but I think we can help them maybe facilitate it.

39:00 So we want to just leave it the way that it is. Leave it the way it is? Yes. Okay.

39:03 Am I kids? That’s you, Miss Jenkins. Are you wanting to retain that one? Yeah, I didn’t really do anything there. Okay.

39:11 If someone wants to take it on, I don’t think my kids is doing it anymore. Is there’s also like something like, I don’t know if there’s going to be a weird conflict soon because they’re going to have a contract with the state at some point. It was cut.

39:24 It came in that email we got about the legislative changes and stuff. Right. So I think that that might end up being a weird conflict.

39:32 And one of the things is, I was the representative, I think, two, three years ago, and I called them and I said, hey, I’m your board representative. And they said, no, we don’t have a board representative. So maybe part of the conversation is letting them know that they have a board representative and then go from there.

39:46 That’s all. I’m confused because I thought that they were done. I talked to the director not less than 30 days ago, and he said, or maybe 60 days ago, she seems to know more.

39:59 So we’re going to leave that one up in the air, or do we have a person who wants to do it just in case? Miss Jenkins is currently, currently assigned to it. Yeah, I mean, I don’t mind if you leave me there and I’ll just like re contact and I’ll talk to Mister Gibbs about what’s happening with the legislature, too, because I don’t know if that’s going to be something odd that we shouldn’t be sitting on at some point. Okay, sounds good to me.

40:18 Next is FSBA advocacy committee. So we need to make an adjustment and if Lina will make a note, because this is something that actually has to get picked in the summertime. Right.

40:28 So I. And this will. And will continue until summer if we can. I mean, if we have to make the decision.

40:37 But you’ve done a great job of advocating on there. And I think that Jean and I would allow that I sit on the board of directors. So if we wanted to move there.

40:44 And another thing that gets picked in the summertime. So we need to kind of realign. But if Lina will make a note, we can take that off the November meeting, because that’s something that we have to choose every summer.

40:53 Okay. Perfect. Civil.

40:56 That’s you right now. I love that. You want to keep that one.

41:00 Yeah, because I want to go start hanging with Rendell. He goes all the time. Okay.

41:03 All right. The economic Development Council. I’ll do it.

41:07 That’s currently Miss Jenkins. Mister Susan, you are jumping into. I’m getting.

41:11 I’m getting involved. I was thinking Paul may want to do some. Okay.

41:23 But we’ve been. We’ve been meeting with them. The only reason, and I’m sorry, like, if Miss Jenkins wants to take it, but we’ve been meeting with them regularly, so Rendell and I have been meeting on EDC with all of the.

41:29 All the Northrop, Grumman and Harris and l three. All of them. We’ve been meeting with them about different.

41:31 She wants it, she can have it. I don’t care. Miss Jenkins gave it up.

41:35 She said, you can have it. So. All right.

41:40 Career source, Brevard. I don’t mind remaining on that one. They haven’t been extremely active.

41:55 I’ve met with them a few times, but there’s not been a huge lift there. Or ask for me if anybody else is interested in it and maybe wants to work on developing it, they absolutely can have it. Or if not, do they have regular meetings that you’re attending, or.

42:10 I have not been invited to regular meetings. There was one board meeting and I met originally with the president, but no, I haven’t been invited, or I guess, to participate in the regular, ongoing meetings. So, Miss Campbell, it’s a real good.

42:20 They do meet as an industry they use usually do on a regular basis. It’s just that it’s usually the superintendent that gets requested. You may not have begun.

42:26 And he’s new, so they may not have even found his email yet. It’s a really good one. Okay, so Miss Campbell’s gonna take that home.

42:38 Builders and contractors of Brevard, that’s currently Mister Turnt. I’d love that one. All right.

42:48 EDC, HBCA. Okay, mister Susan, I think you’re filling your calendar with as much as you released up today. I meet with them.

42:53 I currently have the associated builders and contractors. I don’t mind keeping that one. I actually really enjoy their meetings.

43:05 And we have a annual, the annual handlebars for the holidays that comes up. So a big fun event which we can hopefully get involved in if nobody cares. All right, chamber of commerce, right now we’ve kind of split it.

43:17 Do we want to keep it the way it is? Obviously that makes sense geographically, so I think just keep it the way that it is. What’s that? Okay, and then we have the NAACP north, central, and south. And so.

43:24 I have not been involved with the NAACP north. I don’t know that they’re meeting on an ongoing basis. I’ll do central.

43:31 I don’t mind keeping it. I. If they’re meeting, I would love to attend, I just haven’t. I attended one of the south.

43:39 It’s been a little busy, but I’m emailing people. But if you wanted to get the south this year. No, I mean, I have a relationship with all of them, so I don’t.

43:42 There’s no point in me to be on there as it. Okay, so keep. Miss Campbell.

43:46 Yeah. Mister Susan, you’re currently the central. You okay with that? I met with them once.

43:48 Okay. I can reach out to him and get back on it. Yeah.

43:58 And then I will maintain the north. All right, so picking back up where we left off, though. So just to clarify, the Ami kids, did we pick a person? You.

44:02 We were gonna leave it the same. You were chosen, Miss Jenkins. Yeah, Miss Jenkins.

44:07 Miss Jenkins was chosen. Okay. All right, I’ve got my five.

44:11 Thank you. I know you have your ten. Yeah, you have your ten.

44:22 I think you just picked up all of them. All right, at this time we’re gonna resume where we left off and have our board members and doctor Rendell recognize student staff and members of the community. So, Mister Susan, you went.

44:35 Does anybody else like to go next? I’ll go next. I just want to do a general and broad thank you to all of our schools that participated in veterans day celebrations across the district. Some of ours went huge.

44:50 I wasn’t able to attend all of them. I missed two of the biggest ones, Beachside, which I’m really bummed about, but I did get to see some video and photographs of it, and I feel like they were more attended this year than ever before. Some of them had like 300 attendees at them, which was incredible.

45:12 So thank you to all of our schools who celebrated. I also had an opportunity to go to DC recently and speak at the Network for Public Education, which was an incredible experience with about 400 people who are advocating for pro public education policy across the nation. Just a really hopeful outlook on the future of public education.

45:43 And I really appreciated that. I want to give a shout out to the choir director at Satellite High School, and if you’re listening or somebody sends this to you. His wife is actually on the Brevard Cultural alliance liaison for Education and she had reached out to me because he had started a community choir, an adult community choir based out of satellite high school to involve parents of the choir student, but as well as community people within the community.

45:54 And they were asking for leaders in the community to join. And I reluctantly said yes. And then fortunately, my husband got sick the first week and I didn’t get to go.

46:10 And then I was in DC and I haven’t been there and I feel terrible at this point. I think it’s too late for me to join, but I’m probably going to join just to cheer him on. But I want to thank him for thinking outside of the box in a different way to support his students, but also support the program itself within the community and expose the community to that program.

46:23 So hats off to you. I look forward to being there to support you. And when they are performing at the performance in, I think, I think it’s in December, I’ll let everybody know about it.

46:44 And then last but not least, I had an opportunity to sit on a mental health panel with our incredible, organized by our incredible students, Emily Q. And Anjani Sharma, both from Edgewood and West Shore, along with other peers from across the district. Kind of an odd duck out sitting on that panel of experts in the field of mental health.

46:56 But it was a wonderful discussion. They streamed it on the Internet. I am so impressed by these students, how they were able to put together this presentation, but also community resources that then set up inside of the cafeteria.

47:05 I hope they do it again. I feel like it was a really good test run for them. And I think word of mouth from that will then get more people to actually join in person next time.

47:22 So hats off to you guys. Congratulations. A few weeks ago, the Brevard Achievement center had their annual performing arts showcase, which showcases groups of students with special needs.

47:41 I love this program performance every year that I can go because I, as a performer and a music teacher, think that every student needs an opportunity to get some applause. And it was amazing. Drumming, dancing, just all kinds of dramatic arts and some very talented students.

47:58 And so, kudos to the Bart achievement center for putting that on to the teachers who worked with the students and the. The special guest teachers that come in to work with them, the guest artists. And then also thank you to the King center and all the sponsors and obviously to the students.

48:07 You did a great job, and I was super excited to be there. They did not let me play anything, but it was fun. I also got to attend a few of the veterans day celebrations.

48:20 So just want to shout out to Sea Park elementary and to West Melbourne School for Science. What moving ceremonies. Our veterans that attended were so pleased, so honored.

48:30 Saw some tears from grown men. It hit the mark. And so thank you to all of the schools who took the time to recognize the veterans in our community.

48:44 You did a fantastic job. A few weeks ago, or I guess last week, we had the teacher leadership roundtable that we were all invited by. Got to sit in on some of those tables, discussions, and board they sent us.

48:51 Sent doctor Andel and I kind of a summary of the conversations around the teachers, but I think we can send. We’ll share that with you guys. I can send it out.

49:03 Yeah, that’d be great. But it was. It was fantastic seeing all of our teachers of the year from last year gather around and kind of their last event before we announce the new teachers of the year.

49:23 Very soon. And then last this time of year, in addition to celebrating our veterans, we are celebrating thanksgiving. And I know everybody’s super excited to have the entire week off next week, but our schools, our elementary schools, not so much, Melanie, but our middle school, our elementary schools are also having a lot of them.

49:37 They’re thanksgiving feasts, right, where they bring the parents in and they give them the turkey and the dressing, and you can have a Thanksgiving feast before Thanksgiving feast. Jupiter elementary. Miss Tracy is a shout out to Miss Tracy at Jupiter elementary for inviting me while I was there.

49:51 I got to be kind of a host and say hey to everybody as they were coming in the door. They served. In addition to the hundreds of students they serve every day for breakfast and lunch, they served 171 parents and other adults who came to the cafeteria.

50:01 So it was quite a production that got everybody through the line. They served a lot of turkey, and it was a lot of fun. So great job, Jupiter and Miss Tracy.

50:08 Can I jump in really quick? I was laughing because right as you started talking, I got a message. We have one and a half more rehearsals. It’s not too late.

50:22 We can send you the tracks. I don’t know about that, but the performance is on December 7, so I’ll be quick with this. Veterans day celebrations across the county.

50:34 You’ve heard it from all of us. They were amazing. It was inspirational to see the talent that we have in our schools, the appreciation we have for our veterans.

51:08 I had the honor to attend many of them, and it’s breathtaking to see the effort that our schools are putting into acknowledging our veterans and the amount of veterans that come out to these events. I wish we could all put them on primetime tv because it was amazing and our kids really buy into this and we’re talented. So it’s been a good few days to be in those schools.

51:22 So thank you. And a shout out to all the choir directors and even some of the talented teachers that they, they sang and played instruments. It was moving, so that’s about it.

51:28 Thanks. Okay. I have spent the last couple weeks, really, in a lot of my elementary schools.

51:46 And so rather than I’m just going to go through them really fast and give a shout to each one of the administrators there that have been absolutely phenomenal. So I have been to enterprise, challenger seven, Pinewood, Mims, Apollo, Imperial Estates and South Lake in the last couple of weeks. So just making a conscious effort to be in the school.

51:56 My goal is to be in every one of my schools once a quarter so I can see what’s happening. And every time I’m there, I am inspired. Everything right with education is happening in those schools.

52:02 It is inspiring. So I shout out to all of those leaders, all of those teachers that are at that school. I also.

52:13 I don’t want to take Doctor Rendell’s in case you’re going to do this one. But I also, I’m just going to say very quickly, got to attend the celebration of adoption, which is an event that’s held here in Brevard. Very, very cool to see with Doctor Rendell yesterday.

52:23 And so that’s an act of love that is just tremendous. And so thank you for putting that on and inviting us. And Doctor Rendell, I’ll turn it to you.

52:40 No, I think you guys have covered just about everything, all the Veterans Day ceremonies. I think it’s a real great thing that we live in a community where our children are being taught to. To honor the sacrifices of our military and that our military is responding to that and showing up to these different events.

52:53 It’s really cool when you’re at any of these events to see what the children are doing, but the impact that’s making on the veterans, it’s really cool. The adoption ceremony yesterday at Faceco Stadium was great. It’s one of those things to celebrate.

53:05 It’s a life changing, obviously, experience for these young people, but also for the adults that are adopting them. So two really great things have been going on recently. All right, that brings us to the adoption of the agenda.

53:16 Doctor Rendell. Thank you, madam chair. On this evening’s agenda, we have administrative staff recommendations, 26 consent items, nine action items, and 20 information items.

53:32 Changes made to the agenda since release to the public include the addition of the following items. F 23, which is the approval of the 2023 2024 collective bargaining agreement with the Brevard Federation. Brevard Federation of Teachers Awesome.

54:02 F 24 job description Food and nutrition Services Food supply coordinator f 25 reproduction, health and disease Education materials g 43 the proposed naming of the Viera High School’s track g 44 the proposed naming of Coco High School’s track revisions to the following items. H 51 board policy 22 60. Non discrimination and access to equal educational opportunities.

54:18 H 61 board policy 5420 reporting student progress. We had one pulled item. That’s f 15, which was a field trip for West Shore junior senior high school’s advanced spanish students to the University of Salamanca, Spain.

54:29 It was kind of tough for us to pull that, but given the world climate right now, we didn’t want to authorize our students going overseas to Europe. So tough to pull that, but we did. Thank you.

54:39 Doing your motion. Second. All right, any discussion? All in favor, signify by saying aye.

54:55 Aye. Any opposed passes 50. All right, doctor Rendell, will you please let us know about the administrative staff? Can I add something, though? Can I have something to bring up? And discussion is at the end? He can.

55:02 Mister Gibbs. Is he ok? If the board wants to let him. You want to let him make a motion? He can.

55:08 Is it a discussion or a motion? I’m not sure. It’s probably going to be a motion. All right.

55:16 Can we go through the administration recommendations? Let’s go ahead and start that. Yep. Yep.

55:25 All right, so back to you. Would you please let us know about the administrative staff recommendations this evening? Thank you. Madam chair, members of the board, there are eight items for your consideration.

55:33 Do I hear a motion? Oh, you got us. All right. Is there any discussion? Yes.

55:38 Do I have to make a motion? Yeah. You want to pull. Yeah.

55:44 So make a motion to pull it. Okay. I want to make a motion to pull number eight.

55:55 Just to be voted on separately, right? So no, just pull it? Yeah, just pull it. Yeah. All right.

56:14 But pull it to vote on it separately, right? I don’t mean to pull it that out. So the motion is to approve, one through seven to approve with the exception of number eight. Okay, she’s just pulling it, so.

56:24 Yeah. Okay, so, motion is to approve it with the exception of item number eight. Do I hear a motion to approve? We already did the motion.

56:28 Yeah, it’s the same motion. It’s just on discussion. She asked number eight to come come out.

56:36 Yeah. All right, so all in favor, signify by saying aye. Any opposed? All right.

56:45 So now we are going to look at number eight and stand it alone. And you need a motion in a second to approve number eight. Second.

56:51 Any discussion? No. All right. All in favor, signify by saying aye.

57:02 Aye. Any opposed? Nay. Madam chair, members of the board, I’d like to take this opportunity to recognize the following individuals who are with us tonight.

57:15 First, I want to congratulate Robert Pruitt for his promotion from the principal. From the position of principal at satellite high school to the position of director of professional learning and development. Congratulations, Bobby.

57:30 Welcome to the team. Good evening, and want to take a minute to thank the board. Doctor Rendell, Mister Dufresne.

57:44 For this opportunity, I’d like to thank the satellite high school community, the staff, and the students. It’s been an honor serving that community as their principal the last five and a half years, and certainly going to miss them. And last but not least, I’ve got just about the entire Pruitt family here tonight.

57:56 They all wanted to be here, with the exception of my daughter, Emma. She’s back in college, getting ready to come back for semester exams, but I know she’s watching online. My son Tyler, there in the end, his girlfriend, Casey.

58:10 And I’ve got both my parents, my mom and dad here, my two nephews, Grayson and Chandler, my brother, Brian, and my beautiful wife, Jennifer. Been my support network the last 27 years. My wife is currently in her 26th year as a teacher with brevard Public schools.

58:13 We’re a BPS family. So, again, just want to thank you guys for this opportunity. I’m looking forward to.

58:23 To serve in the district in this new role. Thank you. Congratulations again.

58:43 So, we’d like to also congratulate doctor Melinda Mayer, who’s being promoted from the position of assistant director of school choice charters and special programs. To the position of director of school choice charters and special programs. Doctor Mayer, congratulations.

58:53 I wanted to first thank Miss Harris for supporting me through this, and thank you for the position. Thank you, Doctor Rendell and the board. I want a special thing out.

59:01 Shout out to my son, Julius. He’s there through everything with me and my wonderful friends that I couldn’t do anything without. Thank you.

59:18 Congratulations. And last one for tonight. We want to congratulate Jonah Karikas for her promotion from position of assistant principal ten month at Central Middle School to position of assistant principal twelve month at Central Middle School.

59:38 Congratulations. I want to start by thanking Misses Smith for giving me the chance and believing in me to do this role as assistant principal of curriculum. Also, I’m excited to continue to stay in the west Melbourne community and continue building a rapport with the community.

59:49 And of course I want to thank Doctor Rendell and the school board for the opportunity as well too. Congratulations. More work.

59:57 Thank you, madam chair. I’m done. All right, Mister Trent, I’m going to come back to you because you had something that you wanted to discuss and I did.

1:00:01 Thank you. Oh, you got handoffs. Okay.

1:00:08 Take one down, pass it down. I do. All right.

1:00:37 So over the last few months, we’ve had some speakers from the public come up and express concern about our book review material review committee. That’s the lack of meeting, the dragging of feet we had to go through. We had change in personnel, so it took some time and we hear you and we need to streamline some things, in my opinion.

1:01:03 And since this process has been started, the state has produced a list of books and materials that have already gone through an informal and a formal process. So I asked some of our staff and Miss Harris had indicated we would probably go through 15 to 19 books per year. So it would go a little bit slow.

1:01:26 If you’re not familiar with the list from the DOE, we have about 298 books that’s on that list currently, that’s already gone through that process. So if you do the math, we’re a little bit shy of 15 years to go through the books that have already been gone through. And frankly, I don’t think our kids should be sitting around and waiting for that and parents that have been asking for that.

1:01:45 So I have picked up the phone, I have talked to board members in other counties that have gone through the process. So what I’m asking now is I moved to make a motion. I moved the board to accept a state’s list of district removed books for 20 22 23 for removal of bps.

1:02:15 Libraries except books that are currently part of an AP curriculum shall be removed from general access in the library in place so that they are only accessible to students in those AP classes as part of their curriculum. Furthermore, in those books that are on the list that are not in our libraries, currently that they are added to a do not purchase list. Point of order, madam chair, I believe that this needs to start as a discussion.

1:02:27 It’s not been put on our agenda. The board hasn’t had time to look over the materials and have those conversations that you’ve obviously had with people. So this is usually a type of item that we would bring up a discussion at the end.

1:02:36 Hey, board. This is what I’d like us to do. Let’s give some consensus, either consensus direction, to the superintendent, or let’s bring it forward as a motion.

1:02:55 Because at this point, especially right now, where we are in our meeting, we haven’t had a chance to have public comment on this decision, on the list, on any of those things. So just as a matter of procedure, I think we’re out of order. And we certainly could take this under consideration.

1:03:09 But I don’t think this is the time, the proper process to move this forward at this time. Mister Gibbs, there is a motion on the table right now, correct? Yeah, he’s moved to have that. There’s no second.

1:03:27 And you’ve got a question on the procedure. The public’s had sufficient time to comment on book removals, and all he’s doing is moving book removals up. So I believe procedurally it can be done legally, since the public has had an opportunity to comment on many of these books that.

1:03:38 That are on the list. Maybe not all of them, but they’ve certainly had time to comment to the board on their viewpoints. All right, so there’s a motion.

1:03:44 We need a second in order for it to come to a vote. I’ll second it. All right.

1:03:47 Discussion. Yeah, that’s for discussion. All right.

1:04:02 Who wants to open up the discussion on this? Well, I will, since it was. It was. Questions and timing may not be perfect, but I always believe there’s never a wrong time to do the right thing.

1:04:12 And we need to get going. We need to streamline the process. We need to move on so this committee that we have in place can pick up at ground zero.

1:04:18 And these books have already been looked at. And that’s where I stand. We need to move forward.

1:04:34 We owe it to the public. You, I’ll be happy to jump back in there. So here and I without know, I mean, this is a list of books and what counties that they’ve been removed.

1:04:45 What it doesn’t say is why they were removed. It also doesn’t say if they were removed only from certain grade levels. So I don’t.

1:04:58 Without that information, you know, maybe they were just removed from elementaries, but not secondaries. Your motion is pretty broad. And I am, you know, Mister Trent, I have spoken on this issue and you have applauded the way I’ve said it.

1:05:09 So, you know, where I come from. But I. To do a blanket. I mean, you guys can see from the list, if you aren’t already, weren’t aware, Clay county did a broad sweep without really taking a look.

1:05:17 And I, I think, you know, I understand the delay. Honestly, I was very frustrated. The majority of the board didn’t want to move forward with my idea, which was to start a second committee.

1:05:37 And maybe because you had this in mind, I don’t know. Because at least the second committee would get us going further. But to, but to make this decision, some of these don’t even apply to us because we don’t even have these books, right? So some of these, you know, if the story that’s going to come out later is, you know, Katie Campbell was okay with x book on this list saying our like, no, it’s not there.

1:05:45 It’s already been removed. It’s already in the process. What Katie Campbell has a problem with is taking a blanket thing that I haven’t had a chance to look at.

1:06:06 And I don’t really know what the reasons were that they were removed or what grade levels they were removed from. I just can’t go with another. I don’t want to cede my authority as a board member to another county because the state list was just for all school boards to report.

1:06:14 Schools report any books that removed. It’s just a generic list, and it could be for any reason or any grade band. They were supposed to report it.

1:06:28 What we do with it is our own. And we could make that decision. But I don’t want to give my authority away to these other counties when I have no idea the reasoning behind their decision.

1:06:42 All right, discussion to continue. Audience, I’ll remind you that your time for public comment. Yeah, we can recess it.

1:06:49 That’s okay. Moving on. Anybody else would like to speak? Yeah.

1:07:13 The irony of people who are so hungry for positions of power to relinquish that power to random counties that they have nothing to do with, is not lost on me. So, you know, a man of not so many words came here today with a prepared speech to ban 298 books without taking the time to see if they’re books that are actually within our county. So I’m with Miss Kimball on that one.

1:07:24 So just quick skimming, since I didn’t have time to go through this. The little rock nine hmm. Okay, sure.

1:07:39 That must be, like, super offensive. I like, I don’t even want to waste my breath on this argument because, you know, listen, when you lay in the mud, you’re gonna come up dirty. And.

1:07:44 And Frank’s diary. Hmm. That’s the graphic novel.

1:07:49 That’s the graphic novel. Yep. It’s Anne Franklin, so.

1:07:58 Yep. Sorry that it’s graphic. Sorry the Holocaust was graphic.

1:08:14 Listen, I would love to take, like, an hour of everyone’s time and just read this list, but it’s public. Well, it’s public now because you didn’t present it to the board ahead of time. Yeah.

1:08:22 Point of order, Mister Trent. Thanks. Ooh, this is going to be fun to watch afterwards.

1:08:29 I love this. This is great. I also love that you did this in a room full of educators.

1:08:36 I bet they respect that move. And parents and people who support public education. Job well done.

1:08:48 Job well done. All right, Mister Susan? Yeah, I would. I think that the issue that you have is that you’re right, that these are not ones that we’ve actually gone through.

1:08:56 Our public hasn’t been able to speak to and everything like that. But we do have brevards that when I was chair, I looked through. Right.

1:09:20 And there are some of these that are on there that may be the piece that we can do to speed it up. Meaning that the ones that are on Brevard, the list that we have in Brevard that are also on this would be the one that the public has had an opportunity to speak to, is on a list that is approved so that it could speed up the process and we could go that route that. That I would like to offer up as an amendment to.

1:09:30 Because I think that one of the questions is that I haven’t had a chance to, and I apologize. Like I went through and read and deep dove the other ones that are a part of Brevard. I did.

1:09:38 I made sure of that, because I didn’t know if, remember, I was given the opportunity to walk through and there’s some. Some pretty repulsive stuff. Right.

1:09:53 So I would say that with that, in that regard, I would like to say that if they are on this list, that they could. That gives us the opportunity to speed the process up. I have no doubt in my mind that if you look at those other books, that those would be the opportunity to be taken care of.

1:10:00 And it’s not. It’s one that our public has had an opportunity to speak on. So I’d like to amend this.

1:10:09 Amend the motion to not include all. 293, because there are there is some concern over. I haven’t had a chance to look at them, but that may not fly.

1:10:21 I just. Mister Trent would need to amend the motion, correct, Paul? Or no, Matt can put forth or Mister Susan can put forward an amendment to the motion. It has to be seconded and approved before it gets voted on.

1:10:34 All right, so your amendment to the motion is to just do the brevard ones that are on this list currently in the formal review process. And I have not had a chance to cross it yet. But I will tell you, there was no.

1:10:41 The only ones that were. All of the ones that are on the list, I have extreme concern with already. And I have a feeling that they’re going to get taken over.

1:11:00 And if you guys remember, we had a conversation about this earlier and we’ve gone through a process where our book committee people are being attacked on both sides. The process is taking so long to go through and it’s become something that was not meant to be. And we’ve been expressed by people saying that we’re slowing the process down and everything else.

1:11:10 This is an opportunity to do that. So that’s all. Okay, so the motion is to amend the list to reflect the books that are on the formal challenge.

1:11:17 That’s it. Just for Brevard? Just for Brevard. Not the whole state? I don’t think that that would be the right cause.

1:11:33 So to clarify, your motion is to amend Mister Trent’s motion to only remove books that have been challenged in Brevard? Yeah, I’ll second that motion. Thank you. I will tell you that I have friends.

1:11:39 I know Clay’s all over here. And so I was actually with one of my friends that’s on the school board at Clay county. Sorry about that.

1:11:54 Turn the mic on. I was at an event and spoke to one of the school board members that’s on Clay County’s board there. And they have an individual in Clay that has dedicated, I don’t know how many hours to coming and reading publicly, which it’s all out there.

1:12:05 You guys can go and watch the videos of these books. And so they all have failed the state statute test, the ones that are on here for Clay. I don’t know that we have all these in here.

1:12:14 And I tend to kind of lean with you, Miss Campbell, on I don’t want to give up. We don’t even know if we have these books. So for us to say, say, hey, we don’t want these books in our school, I don’t know that they’re there.

1:12:23 So I’m in favor of moving forward, I guess. Let’s go to a vote on Mister Susan’s amendment. At this point.

1:12:31 All in favor, signify by saying aye. All opposed? Nay. So that passes for one.

1:12:43 For the amendment? For the amendment. So now the motion is the amended motion. Okay, so can we clarify? So, and I may need you to state this again, Mister Trent.

1:12:59 So you want to take now amended any book that’s on this list that is also on our challenge list and put it in a. Not remove it completely. That was just the AP.

1:13:04 That was the AP. Okay. So go back and say your motion again, please.

1:13:10 So it’s clear, because I was a state list. Yeah. Thank you.

1:13:25 So it was the board to accept a state’s list, remove books for 2023 out of our libraries, except for any book that is currently in an AP curriculum. And then we would just remove those. So the only ones that could have access to that are AP reading list.

1:13:30 Because. AP reading list. Okay.

1:13:45 Because we’re in the middle of the year and those have been submitted before the year started. So just to clarify, any book that is on our list, it’s not on this list will continue through the challenge process. Yes.

1:13:59 Well, they haven’t been to clarify that they’re not in the challenge process. So we’re talking about the ones that are on the formal challenge process. So the books that are on here that are not in the challenge process wouldn’t come to us unless they were challenged.

1:14:09 Right. Right. No, I’m saying the books that are in our challenge process that aren’t on this list, like the toddler Bible and a couple other things, they will still remain in the process.

1:14:19 I still think this is. I’ll be voting no because I still want us to hold on to our control of this process. And it does mean that a lot of these books are going to be.

1:14:34 End up being gone. You know, some of them hopefully, I’m just be quite honest, because there’s still a lot of stuff that I absolutely think and I haven’t changed my position on this. This is not a new position of the body parts and the things that the body parts are doing in a.

1:14:46 As if it’s supposed to. It’s, you know, junior high, high school erotica that’s different from, you know, some of the other things. So I don’t want to give that, but I just don’t want to give that authority away.

1:14:47 So I will be voting no. But I wanted to clarify. Let me finish.

1:14:59 But I wanted just to clarify. And I do appreciate the motion, Mister Susan, of, you know, at least narrowing it down because I don’t want to do what Clay is doing. I don’t want to do what Martin’s doing.

1:15:06 I want to do what Brevard’s doing. And we’re actually voting on the policy that’s revised tonight. And we’ve worked really hard on it.

1:15:28 And I have to bring back to the board’s attention that part of the delay was this board’s delay in changing this policy several times this year. Miss Campbell, I did want to just clarify, and if you can, that the only books that we’re talking about are the ones that are on our list, that cross to this list, and there’s going to be a series because you kept. Okay, I just want to make sure.

1:15:37 Thank you. Yeah, I still want us to go through our process and not take somebody else’s. And Miss Kimball, I would agree with you 100%.

1:15:53 And to be honest with you, that would be appropriate. The problem is, is that we have people that are getting attacked at their place of businesses and losing their jobs. Based on that and everything else, the committee is going to do what the committee does and what happens with people behaving badly.

1:15:56 And I’ve seen it. I’ve seen it, Mister Stewson. I’ve seen it.

1:16:07 And honestly, the public needs to, in that case, grow up and tackle issues like grownups do it. Not on social media, not doxxing people. We are adults.

1:16:18 Brevard on both sides. I’ve seen the most ridiculous behavior and sorry for getting emotional, but we just handle, and this, our policy is the way we handle this as adults. That’s the way we handle this as a board.

1:16:28 And it is frustrating both sides. So I understand you, Mister Susan, and I hate it. That was one of the reasons why I could support our decision when we revised the policy to make the decision, come back to the board.

1:16:37 So they’re not sitting there listening to people threaten them, not actually talking about the book, but talking about, talking about how they think they’re doing some things wrong. I get that. I’m with you.

1:16:47 But back to this, that’s not a reason why to make this decision. If you would like to go ahead and. Yes, go ahead.

1:17:05 Right. I appreciate the brevard issue on that. I just want to make it very clear that those little list of books for those that are out there and they’re listening to this is on the department of Education’s website.

1:17:16 Please go. We have a few extra copies up here. I want to say that we’ve tried and when I say it’s going to take 15 years to get some of these books out from in front of our children.

1:17:35 We had an opportunity, we tried. I’ll try again. And every time it gets voted down, the ones up here that are voting now, are you voting for keeping those in front of our children? So that is not audience that is not true, Mister Susan.

1:17:45 That’s not true, Mister Trent. Those books that have been challenged in Brevard are not on the shelves right now. They’re pulled back awaiting, they’re sitting, they’re in, they’re being pulled back to the district.

1:17:52 They’re not even in the schools. They’ve been removed from the schools awaiting the process. So the delay is to get them back on if they are allowed on.

1:17:57 So that is a lie. And I don’t appreciate you saying that because I will still be voting no. We’re not putting those book back in the schools.

1:18:09 They are sitting off the shelves awaiting the decision by the committee. Miss Candler, speak the truth. All right, moving forward, Mister Trent, can I have a moment to speak please? Moving forward, we need to continue with this motion.

1:18:26 And honestly, here’s where I’m at with this and where I’m going to land on this. The idea that it’s going to take 15 years and they’re already removed and it’s going to take an exorbitant amount of work from our staff. Well, at the rate that we’re going, it may take 25 years.

1:18:38 I don’t know, honestly. So, I mean, honestly. So with that being said, I think it is a fair request to say, hey, these books have been through the informal.

1:18:57 They have made it to the formal, they have cited the literature that’s in the book that violates the law, and now they are on the formal list. So inevitably what we’re saying is they’re not going to pass the state statute, right? That is what we’re saying when we go to the formal. I mean, it really is, you have to be able to warrant why we’re going to the formal.

1:19:07 And when they cite the text in there, you can’t just say, oh, it says that. It shows a body part that’s not, but that’s not. Have you read that policy works? Because I’m just going to play the other side.

1:19:21 The gentleman who put in there, the children’s story Bible, he brought it to a formal because he requested it. He doesn’t have to prove that it is. He said, I think this violates this and this and this, but he doesn’t have to prove it, the committee will process that.

1:19:34 So just because it’s on our formal list doesn’t mean it actually violates statute in whatever conservative or liberal view people have of that statute. It just means that somebody wanted to take it to the next level because they weren’t happy with the informal. So we do.

1:19:40 I’m reminding you of our policy formal. And because I know it’s been a couple of times, we’ve revised it. We revised it.

1:20:01 But the informal process, they bring it to the school level. The school says, everybody who has that book, the media specialists and the principals, decide, do we want to hold onto this book? Are we listening to the formal review? And then we go back and some of those books have been gone through the formal review because the media specialists decided, you know what, for whatever reason, no, we don’t want this in our libraries. Then they go back to the person.

1:20:13 If the person says, okay, we still have this book in this library, this library, this library. And they want to do a formal challenge just because they want to. Now it’s on the formal challenge book list and it’s waiting to process.

1:20:27 And at that point, all those books get pulled off the shelf. So those two children’s story bibles that were on there, they’ve been pulled off the shelves because that’s our policy. So it doesn’t mean if it’s on the formal process that we can prove that it has those things.

1:20:43 It just means that the person didn’t accept the informal process and they wanted to continue to challenge it. So with that being said, stop. With that being said, yeah, I really wish you guys would stop because you’re just hindering governance at this point.

1:20:59 And so really, I mean, to let us have this conversation and let it organically develop the way that it’s going to. Please. I, with that being said, the alternative is this, and this is what the reality of what we’re going to see happen is, is that everyone’s going to come forward and read the books.

1:21:08 And part of me is okay with that. And I’ll tell you why. Because I think the community needs to fully understand what is in these books, because everyone says you’re banning books.

1:21:12 But let’s hear it. Let’s hear it. And let’s say, yes, that we agree that should be in the hands of a child.

1:21:24 And so to me, I tend to agree with, we have a process in place. I like our process. Our process removes those books from the access of children.

1:21:30 If the community wants to circumvent us, they can. Let’s be real. They can.

1:21:33 They can circumvent the process. I don’t. I don’t.

1:21:39 It is what it is, but I don’t. I can’t agree with this whole list. There’s no way.

1:22:05 And having heard Miss Campbell and what she’s saying on this formal, I again want to say we need to go back to policy making on this. I think we’re going to have to touch this thing probably every six months, unfortunately, maybe every 60 days with this policy, because to make it to a formal should warrant something in it other than I don’t like your decision. So, for me, I guess we’ll go ahead and let’s vote on the motion that’s on hand right now.

1:22:13 So I have something to say. Okay, go ahead, Miss Jenkins. I mean, like, seriously, you guys have pushed me to this point.

1:22:29 You guys appointed an administrator who made a racist comment tonight, and you’re scared of books for our children. That was your first motion as a vice chair. Books.

1:22:46 If you really care about keeping our children safe, you would worry about many other things than books. Okay, back to the motion at hand. All those in favor signify by saying aye.

1:22:52 All those opposed say nay. Nay. It fails, three to two.

1:33:54 All right, I’m going to go and call for a short recess before we go into public comment. Saving it. Welcome back.

1:34:09 Thank you guys for your patience and clearing the room for a short recess. Appreciate that. All right, so we’re moving on with our agenda, and we have a couple things this evening that are out of the norm as far as on our agenda.

1:34:24 One of them being is we have a couple renamings of tracks, which are very, very exciting. And I’m looking forward to having a conversation about the amount of volunteer hours that one individual has given for this track is unbelievable. Can I make a motion? Yes, you may.

1:34:34 So what I would like to do is move G 44 and G 45, which are the renaming of the tracks, being the fact that we have a lot of speakers. We do. And we have a lot of dignitaries in the crowd.

1:34:48 What I’d like to do is move those up and ask anybody that would like to speak to public comment to that agenda item, which are the families and people that came here for that, and then that way that we can honor them, let them go, and then we can listen to public comment. You know what I mean? If that’s okay with you. It’s a motion on the floor.

1:34:54 Do I have a second? All right, all right. All those. So just to clarify this discussion, if it’s okay.

1:35:03 Yeah, we’re gonna have public comment on the track renamings. We’re gonna vote on those track renamings, and we’re gonna have the rest of the public comment, correct? Absolutely. Yes, ma’am.

1:35:08 All right, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? All right, so everything’s a little bit out of order here, so you’re going to have to give me just a second because I got to go through all these fun things.

1:35:55 All right, so in regards to the proposed naming of the tract, this would be item number g 43 on our agenda. Is there anyone here who wishes to speak to that specific? We have a couple have already signed up for public comment, which it looks like this is Coco’s track, so. Yeah, yeah, looks like Mister Moore, you might be the first person who signed up for, but your g 46.

1:36:03 So is there anyone here who wishes to speak to item number g 45, if you can, and tell them what it is or. Sorry. 44, the name.

1:36:18 The numbers are all messed up on these. All right, G 44, which is the proposed naming of the Viera school high schools track. Is there anyone here who filled out a public comment card who wishes to speak to that? No? Okay.

1:36:33 There’s only, yeah, two that I’m seeing on here as well, so. All right, so. All right, do I hear a motion to approve the renaming of the Viera high? Move to approve.

1:36:37 Second. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye.

1:36:46 All those opposed? All right, that’s 50. All right, it looks like we’re now on to kind of some discussion and ask them to come up. Sure.

1:36:55 Let’s do it. I did want to say, I think Miss Brittany Stuffert’s here and Viera. Hi.

1:37:24 What you have done is absolutely amazing. Would you like me to speak to it, or would you like to come up and kind of talk? I mean, you. I mean, between the two of them, they’ve raised $173,000 for our vhs track, $19,000 for special olympics, $29,000 for early steps, $1,500 for the loan total of $222,755.

1:37:31 Over the past. I don’t know how long it is. We’ve been trying to rename this darn thing for, like, three or four years because of COVID and everything else.

1:37:35 I’m honored to be here. I got to run in your five k’s. You’ve done such an amazing job for our school.

1:37:53 So with that, thank you. I’m Brittany Struffer and Mike Acosta, who is not able to be here tonight, we make up power of pizza charities. And for the past twelve, we have been raising money through our eat my crust five k for the Viera high school athletic program.

1:38:03 And whatever clubs or different sports needed the money. And it’s been a pleasure of ours. We looked at, you know, I ate a lot of pizza.

1:38:12 That’s how I met Mike. And Mike did some running and we got together and he said, you know, I really want to do a five k. And I was like, well, that’s good.

1:38:21 And he’s like, well, I want you to be the race director. And I said, we got to have something to work towards. You know, we’re just not going to put on this race and eat my cross five k was born.

1:38:41 We said, let’s give back to the community. The brevard public School board has always been behind us. We’ve had over 1000 participants over the years at our races, and we look forward to doing this for another decade because we are committed 100%, you know, to giving back to our community in the vir high school.

1:38:56 Miss Brittany, you right now, you have a Santa run coming up, and it is the craziest thing because you have at least three 4500 santas running all over Viera. Can you tell us the date on that? Plug it? Sure. It’s Saturday, December 23.

1:39:05 It happens right across the street from the high school at Calvary Chapel. It races around 1 mile, so anybody can do that. And you do wear a Florida style Santa suit.

1:39:16 And we will be out there. And we are on track to have a thousand santas. So if you’ve never been in a race with a bunch of santas and you want to do so this Christmas season, come on out.

1:39:20 It is fun. I mean, it is fun. So I would encourage the board members to come.

1:39:25 I’ll be there. Paul, you can come. Yeah, Paul, you’re on everybody else’s.

1:39:27 I asked. I’m out of time. I’m out of town.

1:39:37 Sorry. Miss Legate, do you wish to say anything? Are you okay? I’m good. Just thank you so much.

1:39:51 We’re very appreciative of all the money that they have worked so hard to raise over the years. And, you know, donate to the school for the various sports, like she said, but especially for the tracks. When are we gonna do the.

1:40:14 When’s the ceremony over at the beer at the, at the stadium? You guys figured that out yet? No, not yet. Thank you. Thank you.

1:40:27 Okay, so we are now on to our next item, which I believe is g 44. Let me make, make sure that’s correct, though, because my numbers are not lined up online. It’s 44.

1:40:35 It’s 45. It’s 45. Okay, so now we are on to item number g 45, which is the proposed naming of the Coco high school track.

1:40:50 It looks like there’s two speakers that have signed up to speak to this, which. The first one being Mister Kendall Moore. All right, Mister Moore.

1:41:10 Good evening, madam chair, members of the board. Doctor Rendell, Mister Gibbs, it’s a pleasure to be with you this evening. And it’s our privilege to rise on behalf of Mayor Michael C. Blake, who I know many of you have talked to on this matter, and many members of the community who are supportive of the renaming of the track to James Falsten.

1:41:34 Just quickly, since I see the clock ticking down, if you are here in support of this item tonight, I’d ask that you please stand. Thank you very much, board members. I can personally vouch for this particular individual as it’s somebody that I actually attended Cocoa High with.

1:42:05 Mister Folston has a strong reputation, high ideals and solid character, and has been a huge influence on so many young individuals in our community changing their lives. He’s a proud graduate of Cocoa High and earned an athletic scholarship from northeastern Louisiana University, which is now known as the University of Louisiana Monroe, where he’s still the all time sack leader and was inducted into their Athletic hall of Fame. 1994, he was the second round draft pick of the Los Angeles Raiders in the NFL draft and retired in 2002.

1:42:24 Following that professional career, he returned here to his home to serve in Brevard county, founding many organizations, including the J 55 Folston Youth Foundation. Madam Chair, you referenced the volunteer hours. Certainly Mister Folston has given thousands of dollars in this community and he doesn’t like to talk about that.

1:42:56 He is most proud of the fact last year when it was reported that he had given 15,000 volunteer hours to Cocoa High School in the surrounding community, and as I understand that is getting closer and closer to 20,000 as he continues to volunteer every day. Just for the sake of the record, Madam chair, the policy, I think it’s 7520 on renaming facilities, we believe has been followed to a T. Coco High School’s advisory committee heard that item on September 25.

1:43:27 This board originally considered it on October 10, which you then said that they could go forward with the stakeholder process that included the creation of a website, the three required community meetings, October 17, 19th, and 25th. And then finally, I think as a part of your packet, you have a number of pages of signatures that came from people around the city of Cocoa and around the local community that were supportive of this effort. We would certainly like to thank the entire Cocoa High team and particularly its leader, Principal Denise Stewart, for her support of this effort.

1:43:54 Of course, Mayor Blake and I got these names from Mayor Blake. There were a number of people who were able to canvass the community to show the love for Mister Folston. This item and idea, including Linda Hudson, Christy Rines, Ryan Rhines, Armani Rines, Levita cover, Yolanda Cover, Mister Ed Jones, Elvin Pop Jones, Edwin Jones, Rashad Williams, Anthony Williams, Alicia Phillips, Tay Weaver, Brenda Battle, Louise Battle, Jay Ton Turner, and Shirlene Wade.

1:44:05 Madam chair, we stand before you today and ask that you would support this item. It is for an extremely deserving individual that we believe stands up for everything that Coco high stands for. Thank you.

1:44:15 And we look for your support. Thank you so much. All right, the next speaker that we have in regards to this is mister.

1:44:24 Ryan. Ryan, is that right? Misses? I’m sorry. Yeah, it’s open.

1:44:32 It’s open now. Oh, they left already. Okay, so unfortunately, you won’t be able to speak on behalf of them.

1:44:36 Is that Mister Gibbs? No. You can assign. I know.

1:44:43 I’m so terribly sorry. Unfortunately, because they are the person who signed up for public comment. So let’s go ahead and.

1:44:58 Do I hear a motion? Move to approve second. All right, any discussion? Yes, I. Mister Falstan, I love you. I do.

1:45:09 I. This isn’t the first time that you’ve been honored in this boardroom. Because I’ve had the privilege to meet you quite a while ago. And I mean this with all sincerity.

1:45:21 You have left a mark on me. You are a servant leader. You are a prime example for not only your community and the students that you serve, but for every community.

1:45:54 When I got to know you and hear from the students how they feel about you and the staff around you, what you give to them, not only in your time and your passion, but the money that you’ve poured into that school so that those students can have access to the same educational environments and sports environments as the students around them. You are absolutely remarkable. And I’m so grateful because back when you came in this boardroom last time and we just acknowledged you and gave you a round of applause and a standing ovation, we didn’t have anything to give you.

1:46:05 And at that time, Doctor Mullen said to me, there’s something coming. There’s something big coming, I promise. And I’m so grateful that we’re finally here at this moment because you are absolutely incredible.

1:46:13 Absolutely incredible. Mister Folson. I met him when we were doing the cocoa high weight room renovation.

1:46:31 And he was there every single step of the way with me, like legitimately building the weight room with me and a bunch of volunteers. Him and I, at one point, were the only two people inside that weight room painting with rollers, dusting the floors. I mean, he does everything for these kids.

1:46:41 I’m so proud to have met you. And sincerely, I mean this. You have left such a mark on me that I share about you and what you do for our community with every person who’s willing to hear it from me.

1:46:47 So thank you so much. I’m so excited for you. And I can’t wait until we actually have that ceremony to honor you.

1:47:13 Yeah, Miss Campbell, I didn’t get to meet Mister Folsom until tonight, but I will tell you, my words to Mister Moore were, if this is what this community of cocoa would like, I am not getting in your way. So I’m excited to move this along. I can’t wait for the kids.

1:47:45 To a lot of them who are there, I’m sure they know who you are and the work you’ve done. But just for, for generations, to continue to see what it means to have a servant leader, to recognize those volunteer hours, to recognize that service, it sets such a good example for the students to grow up to be the same kind of leader, a servant leader who’s willing to give back to their community. I did want to say something.

1:48:09 A lot of times when we have children that are in certain areas and they’re struggling in the areas that they’re at, they tell them, can’t wait to get you out of here, get you, go to college, get you to do all that stuff. And the message is, never go become somebody and come back and help your community. And I think we forget that sometimes we’re trying to push people, but there’s something to be said about coming back to your community and doing God’s work.

1:48:15 And that’s exactly what you’re doing. And the issue is, is that we tell everybody, go, go, go. You’re a perfect example.

1:48:34 And Miss Campbell said it just perfectly. Not only are you coming back selflessly to give yourself to the community that you grew up in and what you’re doing, but the other issue is that you’re setting an example for other children to follow. And as somebody who loves public service, works hard in that realm, you set that example, man.

1:48:40 And if there’s anything I can do, from the bottom of my heart, I’m there for you. I’m so proud that we’re able to do this. Keep it up.

1:48:48 Anything you ever need, let us know. You want to keep coming in here and making us feel good. We’ll rename that damn track after you every year, you know what I mean? So.

1:48:54 But with that, thank you so much, sir. I truly appreciate you. That’s all I got to say.

1:49:01 That’s a lot. You took every word that I was going to say. What we just are about to do up here is to eat easy.

1:49:17 Thing is to recognize somebody in your position. The difficult thing is to do what you’ve been doing. And again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for being that example, for not only everyone in cocoa and around you, but everyone in the county.

1:49:25 I mean, we’re very proud of what you’ve done and what you continue to do. So, again, if you need anything from us, you know where we’re at. I appreciate it.

1:49:35 Thank you. Yes, I want to thank you as well. There are 17 pages of signatures that are.

1:49:48 What is this, like, eight font? I mean, it’s single space. It is a ton of support for the renaming. I got a message from Mayor Blake, who was a former teacher of mine today, just with contagious joy in his voice.

1:49:53 Over. This is the right thing to do. This man has given 15,000 hours, is what he said.

1:50:06 Now I’m hearing it’s a little higher, but 15,000 hours, if you put in 40 hours a week, that’s 375 weeks. I’m like, where do you sleep? Or do anything else? This is just. I mean, talk about service.

1:50:10 So thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for investing in your community.

1:50:19 Honestly, it signifies what community should look like. I wish we could replicate you and make just a bunch of you. So thank you for all that you’re doing, and you have our full support.

1:50:31 We’re very, very excited. All right, and so we need to. All right, so we need to vote on the motion, because I think we all know where this is going, but.

1:50:35 All right. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye.

1:50:42 All those opposed, that passes. 50. Congratulations.

1:51:12 Yeah. This guy deserves. Yeah.

1:51:46 Okay, man, I got something that I’m supposed to read off of, but, man, it’s all I had to do right now. You know, pretty much, you know, when you celebrate someone by adding attaching their name to a track and field venue at a high school you graduated from. Man, that’s surreal.

1:52:04 That’s man. And for I emphasize the word living because from the word living legacy is because usually when you have your name attached to something, you are no longer with us. That’s been a norm in this past.

1:52:39 And so for me to be here, stand in front of you guys and have my name attached to a venue, my high school alma mater, man, that’s a beautiful thing. You know, all of this would not be possible without my loving parents, Mister Willie and Miss Elizabeth Folson over there. I was the middle child, so five boys, so they thought I was going to be the girl.

1:53:03 And, you know, I was outgoing, competitive at all times, you know, so football was me pretty much in my nature from doing back or flips off the roof of a house. I don’t think they knew that. You know, when you go through adversity at a young age, some of these things become second nature for me.

1:53:41 Hit by a car at age nine, and all my friends could say was, James, you put a dent in the car, ran over by a motorcycle the year after. So talking about facing adversity as a young kid, man, and then the following year, go out and play football, and football was just my sanctuary. So with that being said, you know, I also want to thank Miss Kimberly Stockton, coach Stockton’s wife, for actually giving me a phone call and asking me did I want to come out to cocoa and help with the track team? And I was like, no.

1:53:50 I let the coaches coach. And so she said, no, we really need you. And from there, therefore, I haven’t looked back.

1:54:09 I want to thank Coach Bud Williams, coach Danielle O’Reilly, Coach Charles Stockton, I mean, all those guys except me with open arms or what have you, with some of the training regimens, five, six o’clock am sessions on school days, 06:00 a.m. Sessions on weekends or what have you.

1:54:20 They all had an opportunity, understand that I had a visual. And, you know, you get out of it what you put into it. So if you want proper end result, you gotta get do what you’re supposed to do at the beginning of it.

1:54:29 I want to thank my brother. I got my brother Defoe, Derrick Folson over there. He’s one of my brothers who also went off to college.

1:54:36 I mean, three national championships at Life University. So we come from an athletic family. We stayed competitive year round.

1:54:45 And for. For a kid to win three national championships on a basketball court at a university, man, that’s kind of rare. So we have good genetics.

1:54:53 I’m not sure it’s from my mom’s side or my dad’s side. I let them decide that. I want to thank my high school coach.

1:55:03 I’m not sure. If you guys know I played one year of high school football, Mister Doug, coach Doug Cook. Doug Cook came to me and got me back out on the floor football field.

1:55:11 Other than that, I thought I was going to be like Mike Michael Jordan. But if you’re not six, six, seven, you can’t play basketball. And so I want to thank coach Doug Cook for getting me back out on the football field.

1:56:01 I want to thank coach Terry Humphrey for taking me to a, to a camp during the summertime at Appalachia State University. And when I went to that camp, man, the light bulb came on and I’m going to fast forward. Of course, I went to Northeast Louisiana University, graduated 1994 draft was fortunate enough to be in a veteran locker room with guys that talked about when you hang up the cleats and man, I’m sure they’re very proud of me that I took every word in that they said and came back home and exemplified it because with the resources that with my experience, we didn’t have these type of resources when I was growing up.

1:56:22 So, you know, we played football on the street or tackling the grass and if you’re from out of town, you better hurry up and get on the grass because we bring you down on the road or what have you. So with that being said, I had an opportunity to have four of my kids come through Cocoa high school and they all ran track. They all went off to college on the full athletic scholarship.

1:56:31 We talking about $1.1 million worth free athletic scholarship money that I didn’t have to pay for. We all know how that goes.

1:56:51 And so in 2018, I went on a recruiting trip with my youngest daughter to LSU and the head coach for LSU. He knew, he did his homework on me as a former player, and I only did my homework on him as a coach coach, a track and field coach. So we got to talking.

1:57:01 I did not know that he played college football as a defensive back. He was actually a football guy. And he’s now inducted into the US ATF hall of Fame.

1:57:15 He actually coached at Hutterson junior college as a defensive back coach before he decided to transfer over to be a track and field coach. So I made sure I picked his brain and I mentioned it to him. I said, you know what? I didn’t know that.

1:57:26 He said, you know what? He said there’s a lot of other coaches that have a football background that are not track and field coaches. So we can’t put on a helmet. We can’t.

1:57:34 I played a linebacker position, so we seek to destroy it. So you can’t put on the helmet and seek in the story anymore. If you do something like that, you go into jail.

1:57:47 So you know how there goes. And so he and I, we talked or we talked and, you know, he was, I told him what I have been doing and so I picked his brain and then, you know, with the information. So I guess I’m giving away what type, what philosophy I actually use at cocoa.

1:58:07 I’m actually using Dennis Shaver’s philosophy from LSU. With the track and field athletes over the years, we have multiple all Americans. And so those all Americans, if they complete 85% of the training, there’s a 100% college acceptance rate at Cocoa High.

1:58:22 So that’s what’s very rare. I mean, and I mention that to the parents all the time, but of course you got to get the kids to come away. But 85% complete 85% of the training regimen, that’s 100% college acceptance rate.

1:58:30 Again, I want to thank Miss Nancy Wright, my cousin Christie as well. Man, they tell me troops on the ground. There were troops on the ground.

1:58:36 Grind getting these signatures done. I mean, we took my thousands of signatures, man. They did a whole lot.

1:59:02 Got my son, I got t swab, I got squirrel, Jamiel Jackson, those guys I had a chance to work with as athletes, whether it be football, squirrel and James junior, of course, they were on the track team and those guys went off to play college ball. We got two ACC guys and we got one guy played for the national championship at University of West Florida. So those guys are here because we talk they graduated, what, 910 years ago.

1:59:13 And so they respect what I’ve done in the past and I keep it 100 with them. That’s, you know, keep it 100 with them and I don’t sugarcoat with it with them. And I let them know where all the traps at.

1:59:34 And so if you’re a good person and you all, you’re around, good people have you, good things will come out of it. And again, before I finish this up, I’ll. Again, I want to thank my principal, Miss Denise Stewart, for being all in with this.

1:59:44 I want my cousin over there, Miss Yolanda, she’s over there. Raise your hand. I want to thank our former principal, Mister Wilson.

1:59:58 He was, he was principal at one time when I was, I mean, helping the kids. I know he used to come to work early in the morning and I’m at the track 630 in the morning. I know he was over there shaking his head.

2:00:10 What is he doing? You know what I mean? I mean, I tell the kids all the time. I don’t have a job, so I got time on my hands. So all you guys got to do is be all in and show up, and I promise you we’ll get something out of it.

2:00:22 And again, and also, I want to address again, thank my parents. I’m telling you guys, without them, man, it wouldn’t be me. So they molded me to be a competitive athlete.

2:00:31 And at the bottom line, it’s all about trying to increase everybody’s athleticism. So that’s where track and field comes at, increasing athleticism. Thanks.

2:00:40 Congratulations. I think you want to grab a picture, right? We’re going to do one photo. Okay.

2:02:49 Yeah. Mister Folston, can we have you guys come up? We’re going to take a photo, if that’s okay, for the track renaming, also for our Viera track. Do you want them together or separate it? One without and one, two, three.

2:03:02 They got the message. You guys are good to go. All right, now we are at the public comment portion of the meeting.

2:03:10 We have a total number of speakers. We are right at 30, but we’ve already had two, so we’re 28. All right.

2:03:19 Therefore, each speaker will get three minutes. Please note that the time is per speaker. We have a clock on the front to help you keep track of your time.

2:03:30 When your time is over, you’ll be asked to stop and allow the next speaker his or her turn. Always keep in mind that reasonable decorum is expected and your statement should be directed to the board chair. The chair.

2:03:35 Well, we actually changed that. You’re allowed to address your comments to anybody, so it doesn’t need to be just the board chair. All right.

2:03:49 The chair may interrupt, warn, or terminate a participant statement when time is up. Personally directed, abusive, obscene, or irrelevant. Should an individual not observe proper etiquette, the chair may request the individual to leave the meeting.

2:04:14 All right, so moving on, our first speaker is Kathy west. So we have Kathy West, Anthony Colucci, and Vanessa skipper is Kathy. All right, good evening.

2:04:36 How you guys doing today? My name is Kathy west, and I’m here to speak on behalf of the substitute teachers. When I found out that the school bus drivers were getting a raise, it made me excited, and I wanted to. To apply for a bus driver job, but I was like, no, that ain’t gonna work either.

2:04:50 Cause the kids ain’t gonna like that. So, with that being said, I am here to ask for a raise for our substitute teachers. In 17 and a half years.

2:05:24 We only got one raise, and I can’t pay my bills. So our schools are struggling with having enough teachers and enough subs. And this is the reason why I’m here tonight, to ask for a raise for the subs and the office staff and all the support staff because it’s not going to cut it.

2:05:34 All right, that’s all I have to say. Thank you, Miss Kathy. All right.

2:05:49 Up next is Anthony Colucci. My name is Anthony Colucci. I’m the president of the brevard Federation of Teachers.

2:06:04 Miss Wright, congratulations on your appointment to chair. You certainly have your work cut out for you. But on behalf of our teachers, I’m asking that you do everything possible to move this board to the center.

2:06:25 These extreme positions on both sides do not represent our community. We need to move past the wedge issues and focus on other issues plaguing this district. With that said, we conducted our contract vote between October 30 and November 9 at nearly all our work sites.

2:06:45 There were 2901 votes cast for the 23 24 collective bargaining agreement, of which 20 817 were yes and there were only 84 no votes. That is a 90% yes on this contract. I want to thank the board and doctor Rendell for this favorable contract.

2:07:23 We agree to many things that are extremely beneficial for our teachers, including five additional days of paid parental leave, two additional days of paid bereavement leave, one flex day for religious holidays, an additional discretionary day, an increase in training pay rates, and the ability to transfer sites without bureaucratic interference. It must also be noted that our non classroom teachers will finally receive planning time through daily office hours. Moreover, we have ensured that our students who are teachers who teach students with disabilities will no longer waste valuable instructional time by limiting the time they spend on duties.

2:07:48 I also think it’s important for our community to know that we invested over $4 million from the Milledge referendum in our supplement schedule. Many of these positions are after school activities and sports in which teachers were literally getting paid pennies an hour to sponsor. With this increase in pay, we’re sure that all programs will be able to offer more robust school programs to our students.

2:08:04 We’re also pleased with the employer contribution increase to our health insurance and the raise of around $1,500. With that said, I need to address a couple items. First, our health insurance continues to be extremely problematic the year over year.

2:08:18 Rising costs hinders all our employees raises. All districts offer health insurance. Not all districts experience the drag on their finances that we experience year over year due to health insurance.

2:08:34 We need fresh eyes on this plan and new ideas. Secondly, I’m asking you that you start planning for next year’s raise. Now, per doe statistics from last year, Brevard is trailing the state’s average pay by $2,278.

2:08:47 With the soaring cost of housing and homeowners insurance in Brevard, we must close that gap. Furthermore, with the number of vacancies in our district, we are in competition to bring teachers to our district and can’t afford to trail and pay. Thank you.

2:09:01 Thank you, Mister Koichi. Next up we have Vanessa Skipper, followed by Heather Peterson, Deborah Christopholly, and Jonathan Hilliard. Good evening, madam chair members of the board.

2:09:10 Doctor Rendell, my name is Vanessa Skipper. I’m the vice president of the Brevard Federation of Teachers. A question that I often get asked is if I miss being in the classroom.

2:09:25 While some may call me crazy and probably a little crazier after tonight, my answer is always unequivocally and resoundingly, yes, I miss it desperately. I miss making connections with students. I miss watching their excitement when they exceed their own expectations.

2:09:40 While on a recent school visit, I was asked this question by an administrator who had observed me while I was a classroom teacher. My reply was, as I’ve already said, yes. But then I paused and added, I don’t think that I would be able to be as good of a teacher as I was.

2:09:52 Without hesitating, the administrator replied, because of the supplemental material submission requirements. To that response, I answered, yes. My philosophy in my classroom was to teach the students in front of me, not just my content.

2:10:06 It’s the idea that you should teach for 30 years, not the same year 30 times. Different classes needed different lessons, even if they had the same course code. Different students needed different materials that would help create the magical light bulb that we’re always talking about.

2:10:31 District curriculum material materials were never enough to accomplish this, and I had the autonomy to pivot with students in my classrooms when necessary. Now our teachers are drowning in a supplemental material approval process that is a knee jerk response to house Bill 1069. In order to get supplemental materials approved, teachers must submit a form weeks in advance, sometimes to wait a month to have it approved, and the lesson where it was needed has long passed.

2:10:55 This is not conducive to the real time decision, decision making and pivoting that goes on in a highly effective classroom. I never hid what I was doing from my administration, but I had the autonomy to make decisions that were best for the students in front of me. Teachers don’t have time to fill out a million supplemental material forms so that they can give students the scaffolds and interventions they need, and I assume that administrators don’t have the time to vet a million supplemental material forms.

2:11:25 Instead of simply focusing on educating our teachers and administrators, on making making sure that materials brought in are age and developmentally appropriate, we took a new law over, interpreted it, put more on teachers and administrators plates, and sucked the autonomy and joy out of our classrooms. Here are some quotes from teachers regarding this I do not have time in my contract hours to fill out that form for each individual paper I want to use. That is a total waste of my time and I can barely get done what the district requires now without this added job.

2:11:34 This may be what makes me finally walk away. I am feeling very defeated and frustrated. This is more than a state thing.

2:11:46 We are submitting things that are age appropriate, developmentally appropriate, and everything is getting rejected. I was going to go into drop, but I can’t do this anymore. I can’t meet my students needs with these overbearing requirements.

2:11:55 In a nutshell, we threw the baby out with the bathwater and our students are the ones who are losing because of it. Thank you. That.

2:12:11 Thank you, Miss Skipper. All right, next speaker is Heather Peterson, Deborah Crisafoli and Jonathan Hilliard. Sorry we can’t hear over the audience.

2:12:16 Heather Peterson. She’s not here. Okay, so Deborah, you are up next.

2:12:37 Sorry for the segue after the young lady that just spoke. Okay, so I rarely feel the need to speak during public comment, but tonight I believe it is important for you to be aware of a few issues. As we know, according to the HB 1069, once a formal review of a book is submitted, it should be removed from schools within five days until the review process is complete.

2:12:56 All of you have stated from the dais that the books on the formal review list are not in any of the preferred schools. But according to your own media library database, 28 out of the 31 books on the formal book review list are still present in brevard schools. However, in weeks of researching, I didn’t only use the library database, I wanted to be sure to have accurate information.

2:13:07 So I had several high school students go into different high schools to double check to see if these books are physically there. Luckily, they aren’t. They were told by the media specialists that the books were pulled and they haven’t had time to update the system.

2:13:21 This is a major problem. Here are the facts. The physical books are not in two high schools, but what about the other schools? I didn’t have the time to go look at eleven other schools, so I couldn’t confirm the ebooks and audio books on the review list are still available and this needs to be addressed.

2:13:46 The books that have been formally, formally removed from the schools do not show is available in the BPS media database. If the BPS media database isn’t updated and accurate, it’s going to cause a lot of misinformation in the community about which books books are and are not available, which will create a lot of issues and unnecessary drama. We want parents to remain engaged, but things like this cause them to become frustrated and discouraged because they are being ran into circles to get the truth.

2:13:58 It shouldn’t be this difficult. There are only 31 books up for formal review, not hundreds. The ebooks and audio books need to be addressed and removed today we ask that you please update the media database so there is accurate information moving forward.

2:14:21 We appreciate all the time and dedication that you have shown regarding the removal of inappropriate pornographic content in our schools and look forward to working together with each of you in serving all of our schools with excellence. And if I may, I would like to hand you a hard copy of what is currently in your database. Doctor Rendell, can I just hand it on the end of your desk there? Thank you.

2:14:30 All right. Thank you. All right, our next speaker is Jonathan Hilliard.

2:14:42 Bernard Bryan and then Kyle Savage. Good evening, madam chair. Congratulations.

2:14:47 Vice chair. Congratulations on your appointment this evening. And board members.

2:14:53 Doctor Rendell. My name is Jonathan Hilliard. I’m the second vice president of the federation of teachers.

2:15:15 When I was in the military, we used to have a thing called an AAR, which is an after action report. We would use this as an opportunity to look at events, to do pluses and deltas with them, to see how we could improve and address and not make the same mistakes over. So I want to tell you a quick story about a 14 year veteran, experienced teacher.

2:15:35 Loves their school, loves their kids, loves the community, loves the parents. Well, this teacher, on October 10, I attended a meeting with. With this person to address the needs of a child that was aggressive and violent in class, towards administrators, the teachers, other students.

2:15:40 They needed help. They needed a lot of. They needed support.

2:15:58 At this meeting with the administrative team was in attendance. In addition to the staffing specialist, promises were made. Five days later, this particular child had an event that led to disruption of the class.

2:16:13 Because of that, the teacher tout the teacher, the teacher tout the student. The teacher authority law, which is in the state constitution, that was never the intent. What it was, was to get support for this particular child.

2:16:54 Well, when that review board came back, they explained, oh, why we denied this request during that review, this teacher was told, and if you continue to want this child removed, we’re going to remove your ia, which was a total retaliation to the towel. We appealed to Doctor Rendell, the superintendent, and I really want to thank you for taking the time to meet with us. I noticed you made copious notes and we felt heard if I had to put a delta there, it would be that we didn’t hear with a follow up.

2:17:13 So fast forward to now. We’ve met with Miss Dan Pierre. We’ve met with Doctor Rendell, we’ve met with Doctor Fontaine, Doctor Baez, Mister Susan came to the school to actually see the teacher in the class.

2:17:29 And of course, now things are moving. But folks, we have to stop this. Where we have to have a nuclear option, where I’ve got to meet with all of our heavy hitters to get our teachers support, to get our babies support.

2:17:37 We have this mission up here, but we have to do better. We have to do better. We are losing teachers.

2:17:42 And that’s the bottom line. We have to do better, folks, thank you so much. Thank you, Jonathan.

2:17:53 Thank you for your service. All right, Mister Bernard Bryan, Kyle Savage and Sandra Sullivan. Good evening.

2:18:11 I’m kind of excited about being here today. My name is Bernard Bryan and I represent the South Brevard branch of the NAACP, as well as a concerned citizen of South Brevard. As you know, I mentor many boys, probably around 16 of them.

2:18:53 And when I mentor them, I asked them, I perform a survey with them, what do you need in order to be successful? And out of the top two or three, looking at the data, they all always said to me, Mister Bryant, I want somebody to teach me how to read. I need someone to teach me how to do math. And my heart dropped because I look at all the conversation that’s being held up here, and I’ve never heard a plan from you guys about what are we gonna do? But I gotta share with you, Miss Harris has a great plan.

2:19:06 Miss Tara Harris, I’ve studied her plan. Her plan is very intensive, but she needs your support. She needs you to give her all the help that she needs.

2:19:23 And you just heard a little while ago, you just lost 22 teachers last month. I need to see a plan. What are we going to do to retain those teachers? Because guess what’s happening? Those little boys are saying, teach me how to read.

2:19:45 Teach me how to do math. So if you will consider that, I would love to see a plan toward that so all kids can be effective as young men when they grow up. And then secondly, I know, misses Susan said there’s no plan for a guardian where teachers holding guns.

2:20:06 But I want to tell you right now, a lot of my parents, a lot of my children are not in favor of that. It’s been in the media that brevard Public schools is looking at arming teachers and our parents do not support that. And then thirdly, I want to share with you, I know you know what happened at Melbourne High School.

2:20:26 There was a racist act. That this young man had something written on his back of his shirt and it was offensive. I hope Brevard public schools have in your disciplinary process spiked out racial speech as well as racial action.

2:20:40 And then what I just heard tonight, you just hired somebody that have a. That was propagating racial slurs. You got to stand for the good of all kids.

2:20:50 And I’m begging you, please sir, please ma’am. Help support our children. Because every student needs to be served with excellence.

2:20:56 So if you will consider, consider that, I would truly appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, mister.

2:21:07 Thank you, Mister Bryan. All right, we have Kyle Savage, Sandra Sullivan and Aiden Beard. Yay.

2:21:12 Good evening, madam chair. Doctor Rendell, members of the board. My name is Kyle Savage.

2:21:19 I’m the treasurer of the Brevard Federation of Teachers. I’d like to start by thanking Matt for the last year as chair. Thank you.

2:21:31 It was a year, but we knew we had somebody up there that we could call. Miss Wright, congratulations on being elected to board chair tonight. We are excited with you to make bps the best place for students and teachers.

2:21:43 I have truly enjoyed our work over the last year and most people don’t realize we have very honest and open conversations and we will never agree on everything. But I know you will hear our teachers. So thank you.

2:21:56 If someone had asked me at the beginning of the school year, what does doctor Rendell stand for? I would have told him. Improving the job of our school based employees. I sat in this room, I heard doctor Rendell talk to a bunch of new teachers.

2:22:02 And that was his mission charge. That was what he wanted. But I have to be honest.

2:22:07 Our teachers don’t feel that right now. Our teachers. I got to call it for what it is.

2:22:19 Our teachers. Our members don’t feel anything has been removed from their plates and they need stuff taken off their plates. I’m going to share to you what a third grade teacher told me she worries about every week.

2:22:26 45 minutes of I ready reading. 45 minutes of I ready math, science. Pinda.

2:22:30 40 minutes a week. Math fluency. Ten minutes a day on I ready.

2:22:39 The district has four quarter tests, each for reading, each for math. Five to ten minutes every day on math standards mastery. I already diagnostic twice a year.

2:22:49 The state fast test that was somehow supposed to be less standardized testing three times a year. And then I’m going to end with this. A teacher shared this with us recently.

2:23:18 As a professional with 20 years of experience, why am I not allowed to use my professional judgment for what I know my kids need? Why is my undergrad degree in special education and my master’s degree in reading education suddenly not valuable? Why are my 21 years of experience suddenly worthless? That’s what I feel like when I’m told I cannot use anything else to help my kids learn. I’m not allowed to use what I know works and what I know my kids need. We have to do better.

2:23:34 Thank you. Thank you, Mister Savage. All right, we have Sandra Sullivan, Aiden Beard and Gregory Robert Ross.

2:24:07 Sandra Sullivan from South Patrick Shores. So I thought it was pretty ironic, the comment of if worried about safety, you should be worried more than books by Jennifer Jenkins, since she is the representative for the school area that I want to talk about. So you’re all probably very aware in 2018, there was a lot of discussion about the cancers beachside.

2:24:26 There are numerous articles in the newspaper. And it started with doctor Julie Greenwald, an oncologist who attended satellite high school, who’s had cancer several times, and at least 20 of her clients classmates. Also, we were very concerned about PFAS contamination.

2:24:38 And additional information has come to light. So in 2021, an EPA vapor intrusion study was due out. It’s taken two extra years to get a hold of that report.

2:24:57 And in front of you, it shows one report by testing by Patrick Space Force base next to the school with 400 parts per trillion. Of course, the levels now have been lowered down. It’s much more cancerous than they previously thought.

2:25:26 This vapor intrusion study by EPA shows, as you’ll see on that one page in the conclusions, an inhalation health hazard with breathing these. Now, I have tracked vapor intrusion in my community of this very mobile chemical. And I had twelve vapor VoC monitors throughout the community, because PFAS has been found to be much more of a volatile organic.

2:26:01 So what this means, what I have seen in my community, which I am even closer to Patrick, is that when conditions for vapor intrusion, for example, when the river is high like it is now, when the surface high like it is now, or it rains, or the barometric pressure goes down, certain conditions trigger very high spikes in vapor intrusion. So it went to the limits of my meters which were 38,820 parts per billion. Anything over 300 long term has been associated with cancer.

2:26:24 What I am asking you, in the interest of student safety, which is the number one role of government, is to test the school’s beachside sea park elementary and satellite high school in particular. And there are other areas potentially in the county that may need to be tested as well. But we’re talking about students have died.

2:26:37 Satellite beach, wrote Congressman Posey that three, three students with DIPG, there were only like 350 cases in the nation per year. There were three in our community. I find it very.

2:26:43 I just would like to do one sentence. Thank you, Miss Sandra. Sorry, your time is up.

2:26:55 Appreciate you. All right, we are on to Mister Aiden Beard, Gregory Ross and James May. That’s who’s on on deck.

2:26:59 Mister Aiden. You’re good. Hello, my name is Aidan Beard and I’m gonna keep this pretty short.

2:27:14 I’m a sophomore at Melbourne High School and I would like to talk about my views on the expanding guardian program. I understand there’s a lot to take into consideration with this decision, but I would like to share some views from the student perspective. I wanted to start off with a question for you guys.

2:27:46 Why try to fix the problem with more of the problem trying to fix gun violence in schools? Why do we think arming our staff would with firearms will solve the problem? Why do we think by doing this is not a school, a place that was once seen as a safe place for those in need of it, it then becomes a war zone? I respect the second amendment and the ability to bear arms as much as everybody else. However, adding more firearms to a school campus will not make the students feel any safer. Rather it will scare most of us even more.

2:28:03 Being in high school, I’ve met people that have dealt with domestic violence and gun violence at home. And bringing more firearms into a place takes all of that safety away from them, taking once their safe and secure place. For students that suffer from forms of anxiety, this could become too much for these students to handle.

2:28:12 So I urge you to talk to students and see how this decision would affect everyday life on campuses. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you.

2:28:25 Thank you, Aidan. All right, Mister Gregory Ross, James May and Damoni Hosey. Good evening, board.

2:28:45 Thank you for this opportunity to provide public comment. I do have something I want to read here, but I just want to start out that to the president of the BFT and your comment about coming to the middle, I agree with you totally. I would put that to this board.

2:29:04 Drop the culture war and a lot of this disappears. Stop the pretense of protecting students and get back to helping students. Now, Matt, I’m going to talk to you specifically.

2:29:15 I want to inquire how your campaign for reelection is. District four school board members was going feeling good about your chances. It appears you don’t have anyone running against you since you filed in June of this year.

2:29:38 So you got that going for you, right? I couldn’t help but notice that you have collected over $30,000 in funds from the community to use in your school board campaign. That, of course, includes funds you collected from the husband of the woman you just appointed to the book ban committee after you previously chosen member left. Due to the committee members who were unwilling to listen to one one another and spoke to make themselves heard instead.

2:29:49 But we will come back to that at a later date. Right now, let’s stay focused on your campaign. You have collected over $30,000 in funds from the community and a promise to run for the school board.

2:30:06 Right? You would never collect those funds and then not actually use them for the reason you claimed, would you? Wouldn’t you agree that doing so would be unethical? I don’t suspect you will answer that question. So let me move on. I now want to ask you about the other funds you have collected.

2:31:17 Well, let’s say the Friends of Matt Susan committee has collected, you know, the other 20 grand that the committee has collected in your name back in March of this year. Why would a surgeon give an additional twenty k to your 30k you have already collected for a school board race in which you are unopposed? Why would the Ramba consulting group provide you funds as well? The same Ramba consulting group that is heavily invested in state legislature races and has a PAC that only provides funding and support for state legislature candidates? And why would the Friends of Matt Susan committee give money to other state legislature campaigns like Nick Primrose for Florida House and Erica Booth for state representative? Interestingly enough, Erica Booth was just elected to the Orange County School board in 2022 as running for state house right now. Strange, right? Matt, why don’t you come clean with the voters and the community and admit that you are not planning on running for school board district four? Is it possible that you in actuality are planning on running for Statehouse District 32 or even Senate District 19 when our local idiot finally gives up on his failing campaign? Just come clean, Matt.

2:31:28 For once, while you’re on the school board, speak some truth to power. Do the right thing. Thank you.

2:31:40 All right. James may Damani Hosey and Virginia Hamilton. Just waiting for the clock to start.

2:31:52 Hello. So, my name is James May. I came to talk about something that apparently isn’t on the agenda, but I figured I’d give my expertise while I’m here.

2:32:10 So I was in the Navy for the better part of a decade, a little under nine years. And one of the cool things that I got to do there was guard nuclear weapons. So the security that you see around you isn’t real security.

2:32:40 Most of it is superficial, including at our schools. It makes us feel nice and warm and cozy and allows us to sleep at night and go about our day while our kids are at school. But the truth is, it doesn’t really anyone that wants to get in that school and shoot up a bunch of people, they’re going to do that unless you have real security.

2:32:50 And to be honest, you can’t afford it. There’s. You’re talking about just extensive armed people, like an entire police force just around every school.

2:33:00 That’s not going to happen. What we do have currently, I think, is a decent program. You’ve got locked doors, no one gets in or out.

2:33:11 You’ve got an officer, a trained individual who knows how. How to use weapons. Like a gun, for instance.

2:33:29 So at least it’s safe. Allowing volunteers to just bring their gun, regardless of what credentials they have. They’re not professionals.

2:33:51 It’s not adding to the actual security of the school. It’s introducing another gun, which, regardless of who is holding it, is a dangerous instrument. So at least when it’s being held by an officer, they’re accountable to the school district, that’s accountable to their department.

2:33:57 But a volunteer with a gun is just a really poor idea. I don’t think. Good.

2:34:10 Like you’re just putting our children’s lives in danger for no reason. Yeah, that’s it. Thank you.

2:34:14 Thank you. All right. Damani hosi.

2:34:23 Virginia Hamilton and Samantha Kervin. Hi, I’m Virginia Hamilton. I think you’re out of order.

2:34:34 Sorry, Mister Damani is behind you. Yeah, he’s first. Hello, my name is Damani Hosey.

2:34:46 I’m father of three children in Brevara public schools. Mister, Susan says that the idea of arming teachers is not up for discussion by the board. And I hope that’s the case.

2:35:01 Case? I have my doubts. Just in case, though, I’m going to give you my opinion on this preemptively. I believe that the arming of teachers with deadly weapons is wrong headed.

2:35:17 Teachers should be focused on teaching, not security or law enforcement. They should be focused on teaching. Even if teachers are equipped with extensive training, I’m not confident that that these civilians can be trusted to secure a firearm in a classroom setting.

2:35:47 The Giffords Law center reports that nearly 100 publicly reported incidents of mishandled guns in schools by armed staff members have occurred over the past five years. Nationally, the vast majority of parents, teachers, and teenagers are opposed to arming educators. Implementing a policy so unpopular amongst educators may have a negative effect on recruitment at a time when we are struggling to find qualified teachers.

2:36:18 In the vast majority of cases where potential mass shootings plots were foiled, it was not because of a gun battle with a teacher. They were prevented by alert peers, faculty, or family members who became aware of or reported an offender’s violent intent. Lastly, we know that brevard Public schools has an equity problem with persons of color often received a disproportionately harsh discipline for the same infractions as white students.

2:36:39 This may be due to the fact that minority students are more likely perceived as being a threat. Having guns in the classroom when such a disparity exists could present a clear danger to black and latin students. To conclude, I want to keep children safe, too, but I want their safety to be in the hands of professionals, not amateurs.

2:36:53 Prevention should be our primary weapon against school violence. Putting guns in classrooms will not solve any problems, but will probably create new ones. Thank you.

2:37:05 Miss Hamilton, you’re up now. Thanks, Megan. Okay, so I’m Virginia Hamilton.

2:37:15 I’ve been a teacher for 31 years and retired last year and loving retirement. You got to try it sometime. You’re discussing arming teachers and you’re not discussing armoring teachers.

2:37:37 But the door was open, so here I am. A survey conducted this year found 54% of us teachers think carrying firearms would make schools less safe, 20% believe carrying arms would make schools safer, and 26% had no opinion. I took a poll among our BPS teachers, and there are 97% voted saying they are not for guns.

2:37:45 These are our own teachers. And I also researched Bps SRO stats. 80 hours of firearm training certified by the FDLE.

2:38:14 24 hours of tactical pistol training, 24 hours of training in active shooter scenarios, 16 hours in defensive tactics annually offering awareness, medical, unarmed, and deterrence training, and firearms instruction. This is not enough, and it’s not comparable to our sros. And what about liability insurance, which is a nightmare to obtain for schools? Kansas allows school staff members to carry guns in the classroom when authorized in not writing.

2:38:30 EMC insurance companies, which covers most Kansas school districts, denied coverage to armed staff. And what about the accidents with guns. A few examples in the last five years include a teacher’s loaded gun falling from his waistband during a cartwheel.

2:38:42 A teacher unintentionally fired a gun in class during a safety demonstration. A student found a gun and bullets inside an unattended purse. A director allowed to have a gun on school property left the room and gun unattended.

2:38:59 In a room with two first graders left alone, a gun brought to a middle school by a teacher was stolen by two students. A teacher left a gun on the back of a toilet where it was found by a group of students ages six to eight. Student found a high school teacher’s loaded gun that was left in a laptop bag in a classroom.

2:39:14 A teacher unintentionally fired a gun in class where 117 year old boy suffered moderate injuries when fragments from the bullet ricocheted off the ceiling and lodged in to his neck. These incidents were just a few to make us rethink arming teachers. And I found many more.

2:39:33 And just a reminder in last year’s teacher contract, section nine, miscellaneous number twelve, teachers shall not carry weapons of any kind, either lethal or non lethal. Carrying weapons is an accident lawsuit waiting to happen. Just let teachers teach periods.

2:39:38 All right. Samantha. Sorry.

2:39:51 Samantha Kervin, Allison Kervin and Rochelle Jolly. Okay. Hello.

2:39:56 Oh, wow, that was loud. Hello. Good evening.

2:40:03 Happy to see everyone’s here and back. It’s been a while. I’ve been been here for quite the while, so that’s fun.

2:40:40 So, Irving, teachers, actually, funny story. Our school has our own newspaper, and we’re actually publishing a bit about this because it is interesting, to say the least, that this was even a consideration because of how dangerous and in my opinion, idiotic it kind of is. Common sense kind of says that this is not a good idea, but it’s not technically my decision.

2:40:53 But I can still sway you guys. So I would say, first, with arming teachers, the dangers, that is. Think of the teachers mentalities, teacher’s mentality.

2:41:07 For the most part, they are working with kids. They want to work with children to teach them, to guide them. They’re going to put the newer generation before their own safety.

2:42:03 Who says they’re going to use that gun for themselves? They’re going to try to protect the children by getting them out of there, not by using a gun. I can guarantee that two who’s paying for it? Because you’re going to have to get military grade training for this, if you think about it, because not only do you have to teach the obvious safeties of handling said weapon of any kind. You also have to teach disarming other people, because who’s to say that a student isn’t going to overpower a teacher? Since we have seen in other counties, other states that this has happened multiple times where a student has knocked teachers out on, like, incon words.

2:42:12 Unconscious. That’s the word. Or have just straight up overpowered, empowered them by a long shot.

2:42:28 Who’s to say someone isn’t going to take a gun and then go berserk because they can? That needs to be taken into consideration. But honestly, that’s kind of all I have to say. And good evening.

2:42:36 Good luck with my sister. Bye. Thank you.

2:42:49 All right, Allison Kervin, you are up next by Rochelle and Michelle. What does that say? Is it a u or an n or far? Now that’s a U. Okay.

2:42:56 Thank you. Good evening, board. You already know who I am, so let’s get to this.

2:43:10 I watched the work session today, and I have a bone to pick with Miss Campbell and Megan. When I think of a party, I think of a celebration. I think of having fun, hanging out with my friends and eating junk food.

2:43:22 Do you know what I don’t think of? Book bannings. To be cheerful about. Removing pages from our textbooks on health and reproduction is shameful.

2:43:38 It should not be referred to as a page ripping party, as if there’s a at the end. Do you know what students get when you deface our textbooks and restrict information from us? We get harmed. I don’t care if this is coming from the state.

2:44:01 They suck, too. But you will suck worse for being happy about it staying with you, Megan, I listened to the last meeting when you spoke about adding more guns into our schools. How about no? You voted against mental health training for our elementary school teachers to help their students learn about self regulation emotions.

2:44:16 You spoke out against our drug diversion program because you don’t know how platforms work. The district has put together a presentation on procurement, so maybe you’d get it today. Again, you make the dumb.

2:44:47 Well, yeah, you make the dumbest dumb statement that the BPS has plenty of cash because of property values, even though enrollment is dropping. If you want enrollment to continue to drop, then add more guns into our schools and waste more money that we don’t have. Megan, I don’t know why you hate the students of brevard public schools, but you show over and over again that you do, and frankly, we’re tired of it.

2:45:17 Keep in mind, the students whose education you’re harming now will be voting in 2026. I’m just saying, all right, we are on to Rachelle Jolly, Michelle Baranone, and Rebecca McAllinan. Rochelle Jolly, parent of a child and currently attending Brevard public schools.

2:45:47 I would like to start off by saying how embarrassing it is that you guys have elected gene as vice chair and he can’t even substitute teach in a Brevard public school because he’s dishonest and lacks integrity because he’s lied on his application. Then he has the audacity to suggest we streamline fascism by proposing we ban books without ever even reading them or knowing what books are on the list. This is embarrassing.

2:46:05 Matt Susan has joined him in the no integrity club when he opened this meeting stating that expanding the Guardian program hasn’t been discussed, when clearly Megan suggested it at the last meeting. And I quote, by no means. When we say expand the Guardian program in Brevard county doesn’t mean a teacher must carry a firearm.

2:46:10 It’s 100% voluntary. They can choose to do so if they want to be a part of it. Unquote.

2:46:28 Mister Rendell backed it up with his quote, we have direction to explore and bring some information back to the board on the expansion of the program. Last board meeting, Megan claimed that school shootings is just the world we live in. You are not helpless and have a lot more power than the average citizen.

2:46:46 Guns in school come from unsecured guns in homes where kids live. You can encourage parents to keep guns secured so that students don’t have access to them. For the last several years, guns have been the leading killer of our children in America, more than car accidents, more than cancer.

2:47:05 So I’m sure that you can understand the public’s concern when this was mentioned at the last meeting. In recent years, fentanyl has become a killer of a lot of our children in America. Between July of 2019 and December of 21, 1800 teenagers have died from a fentanyl overdose.

2:47:19 Guess what? No one is suggesting more fentanyl in school. To suggest that more guns make us safer is a falsity that has been proven by extensive research over and over again. America has the most guns than any other country also has the highest rate of gun deaths.

2:47:29 Rather than having more guns, here are some things that might keep our kids safer. Increased mental health screenings and services. Florida also has a red flag law.

2:47:54 Red flag laws empower family members and law enforcement to remove firearms from people who are behaving erratically and or showing signs of violence toward them or someone else. Using these flag laws has and will prevent school shootings has been used in other counties successfully if you are interested, as you claim, in protecting our children. Then use your voices to educate parents about the use of the law and keeping guns secured.

2:48:07 Books have not killed a single child anywhere in the world. Not a single one. Books are not dangerous.

2:48:19 Unless. Hello. My name is Michelle, and I’m the mother of a student in a Brevard county school.

2:48:34 I also want to speak about the proposed potential guardian program and why it’s a horrible idea. In addition to what you’ve already heard today, the one that strikes me most is the irony of it. You don’t trust specially trained media specialists.

2:48:52 That’s their title. Media specialists to make good decisions about bringing books into schools. What kind of training could these guardian volunteers possibly receive that makes them more qualified to bring guns, weapons, into our schools? This honestly should be satire.

2:49:06 It’s ridiculous. Rather than an arms race, we need to make sure we put all of our effort into hardening the outsides of our schools. The school my child goes to only recently got a front door lock.

2:49:14 Okay. And a camera allowing the receptionist to see who’s at the door. This was recent? That’s crazy.

2:49:35 Why are we going to bring more guns in when anyone can stroll into the school whenever they want? There’s a lot of things we can be doing that will be more effective and more safe than bringing extra guns. We don’t need an arms race. And how many guns is enough? Right? If the trained resource officer isn’t enough, then bring in another one.

2:49:50 But what do we need? Do we need ten? Do we need 30? Is there a percentage based on the head count in the schools? I don’t know how many guns it will take to make us safe. I don’t think there’s an answer. I think it just makes it worse.

2:50:03 And finally, if this is something that you persist in pursuing, and I understand you have to look at it. Well, I don’t, actually, but I understand you probably are going to look at it. My proposal is that you test it here.

2:50:13 If you think more guns makes you safer, then come up with your training. Let everyone in this building go through it. Let all the people who want to come in these meetings go through it.

2:50:29 And if they qualify, let them enter this building with a gun. If you don’t feel safe knowing that all of your coworkers are pack and heat, then they shouldn’t be going in around our children, in the schools. So put your money where your mouth is.

2:50:43 If you’re serious about this, I want to see it tested here first. Thank you very much. All right, Miss Rebecca, after that we have.

2:51:05 Julie Anton and Bonnie Harrington. Good evening. I spent some time today watching some previous workshops that I had missed because of some family situations.

2:51:26 So I had a few things that were confusing to me. And then Mister Trent motion off the bat, out of order also was kind of confusing. So I thought I would kind of shift gears a little tiny bit and read you some actual data about what happens when children read books.

2:51:45 Lost in the political battle over educationally suitable books is what actually happens when young children read. One side assumes that students reading certain books will become traumatized, radicalized, or morally perverted, while the other argues for free speech and democracy. But neither side notes that most students, particularly teenagers, don’t read much anyway.

2:52:10 Neither offers evidence of what actually happens when students do read these disturbing books. So some psychologists, some professors of literacy actually studied this. Four 8th grade English language arts teachers, initially mostly concerned about their students disinterest in reading, stopped assigning any particular book, and instead gave students wide access to books written for young adults, let them choose what to read or not, and gave them time to read and openly discuss the books.

2:52:33 They followed these students for two years, some of them all the way into high school. Over a four year period, they conducted over 300 student interviews and spent many hours observing classroom interactions. The research represents thousands of encounters teenagers had with books they found most engaging, those that don’t shy away from the complexities of being a human or the different ways of being human in a diverse society.

2:52:41 And yes, books that shared qualities with those being challenged were banned in unprecedented numbers, 40% of the nation’s numbers. Here in Brevard. Here’s what they learned.

2:52:54 Students, most of whom reported previously reading little or nothing, started reading like crazy, in and out of school, and their reading achievement improved. Wow. While this was the initial motivation for teachers, it became the least interesting outcome.

2:53:14 Students reported becoming better people, a change that was noticed by their parents and their peers. They engaged in narratives about characters with complicated lives. They reported helping them be more empathetic, which we don’t encourage anymore, less judgmental, more likely to seek multiple viewpoints, morally stronger.

2:53:16 Wow. And actually happier. Yes, happier.

2:53:36 They reported improved self control and building more and more stronger friendships and family relationships. I would encourage you, when you talk about taking a random list from the state of Florida, which doesn’t represent Brevard and Clay county by any measure, is not a beacon of education that we should be trying to modulate. We should not be considering them.

2:53:42 We need to consider actual data and what happens when children read difficult books. It does open the opportunity. They talk to their parents.

2:53:50 They talk to their teachers. They talk to their peers. They become better humans because they are well rounded and can understand.

2:54:20 Hey, I’m glad that’s not my situation. What would I do in that situation? What will you do in this situation? Last week was Veterans day, and we honored our military. Next week is thanksgiving.

2:54:34 So I have a little tale for you that’s about a heroic serviceman home from leave on thanksgiving. The story is true, and you can google it using the search terms. Galleria mall, Hoover, Alabama Thanksgiving 2018.

2:54:50 If you doubt me, our hero was home on leave for Thanksgiving with his family. He went on an outing thanksgiving night to catch those early Black Friday sales. While our hero was on this outing, he witnessed something horrible.

2:55:01 He witnessed a bad guy with a gun. Now, our hero was a good guy. He, too, had a gun, and he had military training.

2:55:18 So since the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is supposedly a good guy with a gun, he pulled his weapon. Now, that’s when the cops arise. The cops assessed the situation, and they took out the bad guy with a gun.

2:55:34 Now, immediately, the social media was flooded with photos of the dead guy. I know this because I was visiting in Hoover at the time, his carcass lying in a pool of his own blood. Captions and comments celebrating his death.

2:56:02 But wait a minute. Friends and neighbors and school boards. Isn’t this supposed to be a Thanksgiving story about our hero, the serviceman home for thanksgiving leave? Isn’t that what we’re supposed to be talking about? So why are we talking about the dead guy with his carcass in a pool of blood? Because, friends, neighbors, and board members, the dead guy was our hero.

2:56:12 You see, in the movies, the good guys wear white hats. They sit on top of a white horse. They even have little white leather outfits with little white fringe.

2:56:26 And the bad guy wears black, so you know who to root for. It’s not that way in real life. The good guy with a gun and the bad guy with the gun look just the same.

2:56:43 Just ask the cop who shot our hero. Thank you. All right, Miss Bonnie Harrington, Louisa Porter, and Julie Monteon.

2:57:01 Hi. I’m a mom of two kids in Brevard schools, and I wanted to speak to you today about arming teachers. I’m relieved that that wasn’t a topic tonight, but I still feel compelled to share some information with you.

2:57:26 I don’t believe that this will work. The Journal for Adolescent Health in 2019 published a paper that said that robust public health research demonstrates armed teachers increase exposure to violence, not decrease it. A speaker before had mentioned the Gifford Law center had said that nearly 100 publicly reported incidents of mishandled guns in us schools.

2:57:35 Schools in the last five years. A couple of highlights have been mentioned, but students being. A student being subdued by a resource officer grabbed a gun.

2:57:43 A teacher unintentionally fired a gun during a safety demo. I think someone mentioned that in Largo, Florida, in 2018. I think it was mentioned, too.

2:57:56 A loaded gun fell from a teacher’s waistband when they were doing a cartwheel, which really kind of highlights, you know, a teacher playing and doing a cartwheel. There’s no place for a firearm there. It’s dangerous.

2:58:12 How many incidents weren’t reported? It’s an unpopular motion. There are seven out of ten teens, seven out of ten parents, and eight out of ten teachers oppose arming teachers. We have a lot of things that are working.

2:58:29 The things that have been shown to work are better threat assessments, better security in schools, planning in advance for emergencies, establishing safe and equitable schools. Our teachers deserve our support to keep our schools safe. And introducing more firearms will not accomplish this.

2:58:30 But before I get down, I want you to consider a specific kind of student that I think will be really impacted by guns in our schools. And this is a personal one for me as a mother. I want you to consider a student in a VEB class who has an IEP to support behaviors that they are unable to control.

2:59:14 I want you to consider that our district serves a wide population of kids with varying abilities. And our school district is legally required to provide an education to all students required of regardless of their ability or disability. I fear that neurodivergent kids, especially those who have some of the most extreme behaviors, will be at risk if there are guns in schools.

2:59:33 And all kids deserve a safe school. So I hope that you will please consider some of the kids that have the behaviors that make them the most difficult to talk about and the most difficult to be compassionate towards. But they are children who are deserving of all of our love and support, and I hope you will remember them.

2:59:42 Thank you. Thank you, Louisa. All right, Miss Julie.

2:59:47 And that was Louisa that just spoke. I’m Louisa. Oh, sorry.

2:59:48 You’re Louisa. Sorry. Okay.

2:59:51 I apologize. All right, go ahead. All right.

3:00:06 This will be my first public comment here. I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it one day. I refuse to be a part of the silent majority any longer, and I trust others will follow suit soon enough.

3:00:26 I’m new to Florida, but my daughter and my mother here in the front row. We lived in Mississippi for over a decade, so we’ve seen our share of fear mongering and shaming others. But it’s truly something different here.

3:00:42 I love living here. I will always love living here. But it’s disturbing to see such a small, biased group like moms for liberty be allowed to wield such a disproportionate amount of control over this board.

3:01:08 What makes their taxes more valuable? What makes their ideas and their wants or needs more important? I don’t get it. It’s so bizarre. What I see is people making it their life’s mission here to strip rights, limit access to books, censor voices and spread fear and hate, further misguiding and denying this generation any safe space in this community.

3:01:31 The don’t say gay bill in Florida, the book banning no gun regulation, and this strange protect the kids language that they use to instill fear and put targets on our kids backs. It’s dangerous and deeply unchristian. Young people deserve to see themselves reflected in this diverse community.

3:01:58 They deserve our respect not to be singled out and persecuted in a new era of restricting ideas, teachers, and a time when book bans continue. I want to speak on behalf of the First 1st Amendment rights of students and community members here to access all materials. There are resources already available for people who want to restrict their children from reading books.

3:02:20 Controlling others is authoritarian and un american. We deserve a compassionate board that gives everyone respect, not bring biases to the table. If you want to control institutions this month, this is what private schools are literally for.

3:02:39 You have no right. You have competent families here in Brevard county, smart students that you don’t give enough credit to, and busy teachers who need just your support. Help them lock, love them, support them.

3:03:07 They need not added stress or restrictions forced upon them. You do see the big picture, right? Like, if not, there are books out there. Thank you, Miss Julie Montie, then.

3:03:10 David Kearns. Paul Robb. Amy Rob.

3:03:23 Well, I am truly intimidated to. Hello. I am truly intimidated to follow some of my parents and colleagues because y’all are awesome and make me very happy.

3:03:38 I came tonight. I understand that not everyone was bitten by the reading bug. Many of you may not have stayed up all night with the flashlight under the bed when your parents are like, go to sleep.

3:04:05 Or you actually missed a bus stop because you just couldn’t stop reading a book. And I understand that for many of you, the passion that my friends and I feel towards book banning just is baffling and or off putting. But I promise you, for us who have loved reading and what reading has done for us.

3:04:25 When you talk about banning a book, it feels like you’re trying to ban part of our soul. It feels like you are taking things that have made us who we are, how we’ve been able to connect with people all over the world. By the way, I just also want to say I was so inspired hearing all of you talk about the Veterans day programs.

3:04:40 I am fortunate that I’ve been able to do a lot with the VA and mental health service. And guess what the VA is using is arts and literature, because that is effective. Mental health.

3:04:54 That’s what mental health has been for thousands of years, is reading difficult stories. I’m not sure. I don’t doubt your sincerity at wanting to protect children.

3:05:05 I don’t. Man back there, I don’t. I do question your willingness to understand the role of literature.

3:05:23 I wonder if you’ve looked at Aristotle and read what catharsis is. Catharsis is greek for vomit up. The idea is that you watch a tragedy and you get so connected that when there’s a climax, you vomit up your bad feelings.

3:05:34 Aristotle says, this is the purpose of literature. This is the purpose of tragedy. And yes, you can take paragraphs out of books and say, oh, my God, it’s so awful.

3:05:50 But you’re missing the entire point. You’re missing the best tool to teach empathy, to teach critical thinking. To have our students, by the way, be competitive on a global scale.

3:06:06 I mean, our students aren’t going to be able to have the references that the rest of the country has because they have been exposed to the books. What’s going to happen to our property values? We want Clay county property values. I just.

3:06:20 Please take a moment to think what literature is about. Thank you, mister. David Kearns, you’re up next.

3:06:37 Paul Robb and Amy Robb. Good evening. I long for the days as a newspaper reporter when I heard Republicans fetch about unfunded mandates on city councils and school board meetings.

3:06:44 When it came to the environment, they would always. They would freak out, you know, scrub jays and this and that. They would say, this is an unfunded mandate.

3:06:57 Send it back to the state. We can’t. I wonder, this unfunded mandate of 1069, what it is actually doing in terms of cost, what this is costing the citizens of Brevard County.

3:07:09 I understand that some books might have objectionable material, but, you know, some of this stuff is ridiculous. I mean, Rachel Carson. I mean, we’re going to ban that.

3:07:19 I guess we’re going to ban. And Frank, we’re going to ban, I mean, it’s ridiculous, beyond comprehension. I spoke to a teacher this past week.

3:07:33 He reached out to me at a watering hole. He knows I come here and speak. He said the movie glory could not only get him fired if he ran it in the school, his fear is that he would actually be charged with a federal crime.

3:07:53 Now this is outrageous. What’s going on? He further says that so many teachers have been turned off by what’s happening, that right now there’s maybe he thinks there are 1500 teachers that are, that are pretty much gone. And he says there’s such a lack of substitutes that right now they’re just in the south county.

3:08:02 I don’t want to out him what school he’s at in the south county. They’re just sending the kids to play basketball. They just send the kids down to play basketball.

3:08:18 And it’s so common, it’s not even worthy of mention. He’s ready to quit teaching. And on top of that, when you guys began talking about bringing guns into school, and you did, you absolutely did, he says, you know, I mean, this is, this is ridiculous.

3:08:35 So these, these circular logic things that we’re seeing. We’re seeing an astroturf group that came from this community forced policy through Tallahassee. And then those policies, you guys are throwing your hands up and they’re not good policies.

3:08:48 And you’re saying, we have to do this. Oh, we have to torture these students and the teachers this way and we have to bleed our coffers dry complying with this ridiculous mandate. And it goes on and on.

3:08:57 And now we’re into the guns mandate and you’re going to use the same logic again. You’re going to say, well, it’s down from Tallahassee. They’re telling us we have to let the teachers come in.

3:09:09 It’s like you’ve never spent a day in the classroom. I had a kid with a box cutter he dropped in class when I was a substitute. That’s all I could think about is I had to put that box cutter in the desk.

3:09:13 It was all day long. I’m worried about what’s going to happen. A kid’s going to come behind me and get that box cutter.

3:09:41 Imagine guns, Valde, Texas, 400 guys with guns could not stop one guy with an AR 15. You and your teachers and your pop guns are not going to do a damn thing. That’s a reflection.

3:09:50 All right. I read something today that struck a chord. It said propaganda doesn’t have to stand up to scrutiny or be logical or consistent.

3:10:02 It simply needs to be omnipresent and constantly reinforced. And, uh, yeah, it’s ringing true today in a few ways. You know, we’re gonna protect the children.

3:10:16 The children, the tiny little children from the pornographies, not the high school students from the high school books that maybe have some passages that not everyone’s comfortable with. But let’s yell that enough and people will believe it. Or at least, you know, vote for you if you say it.

3:10:23 But somewhat. I heard tonight Mister Trent talking about all the delays and the. Somebody want to wake him up.

3:10:30 Somebody want to talk about all the delays in the book process. Said you had to change personnel. No.

3:10:40 You all chose to. Repeatedly. Two meetings with the original committee and two appointees were replaced for ideological reasons, for lack of a better term.

3:10:55 The actual experts were removed from the committee for conflict of interest reasons, although now there was one voluntary. The member with the most egregious actual conflict of interest moved away. Another member was chased away by all of the insane policy changes.

3:11:09 He said that parents have been asking for the quicker removal of books. The parents that want the books gone can walk to their kids library, those of them that actually have kids in the school and say, this list, boom. My kid.

3:11:19 No, that was confirmed by the experts before they were tossed out on the committee. By the way, no one is asking. No one is asking, hey, I’d like some other people to decide what my kid can read.

3:11:34 A lot of people want that job. I don’t get it. I’m not arrogant enough to think that my comfort or my opinion should dictate the educational and intellectual lives of even my own kids, let alone someone else’s.

3:11:50 And you said there’s never a wrong time to do the right thing, which is true in a bumper stickery kind of way, and true, but couldn’t be less relevant to anything you were talking about. My God. And you said, mister Susan, Miss Gamble, you talked about that.

3:12:02 The public has had time to comment on this, and the public has had, to the degree that they know or believe that the list is that large, but the public has weighed in on it somewhat. There was a parent survey that suddenly became ignored when the actual results came in. And the.

3:12:16 Well, we talked about the discipline part a lot. That’s fun and sexy and tough to talk about, but the number two and number three complaints from parents were book panning and moms for Liberty, number one with a bullet. If you combine them into the cause and effect that they are.

3:12:33 So you’ve had a lot of feedback saying those things stop it, but we’re not listening. What’s the point of parents giving feedback if it just falls on the floor? Pay attention to that. Are you here for the parents and the students or a few censorious randos from around the state? I mean, we saw the list dropped off earlier.

3:12:42 I think the censorious randos are certainly winning. Do better. Please, dear God, do better.

3:13:01 All right, we have Amy Robb, Kelly Kervin, and our last speaker is Katie 2023. Okay, hi, I’m Amy roub. And so, first of all, a little gaslighting going on there, Matt, with the head shaking when you’re like, oh, no guns, we didn’t even talk about.

3:13:37 So really, what my ask is right now is, would this board entertain the idea of expanding when we say, put the guardian program in? She did not say no teachers. Stop lying up there, you gaslight piece of God. All right, congrats, Megan, for being the chair.

3:13:46 This is great. Do not bring guns into the schools. Do not put more guns in our schools.

3:13:53 Do not do that. Do not. I was going to also bring up the parent survey.

3:14:08 What are you doing about that? It is a huge concern. Have you addressed it at all? Or are you just raising up their voices like they’re the majority? You are doing things that are so unpopular and you do not care. We are the taxpayers.

3:14:13 Listen. Keep laughing. Bangs.

3:14:34 Why? What are more important, facts or fears? Why are you so scared of books? Why are you so scared of books and not guns? Because you just don’t pay attention to the data. You’re so. Okay, parental choice.

3:14:43 Parental choice. Do not put guns in the schools. Now, again, moms for liberty, okay? They do not co parent with the government.

3:14:54 What is this? What do you call this? Do not co parent with the government. What the hell is this? It’s the government and it’s your. What is this? You’re so.

3:15:09 Can you please address the board? Listen, my daughter turned 18 now, and she’s still a student, so every student. Where are the books for her? In the fucking library. Excuse me.

3:15:14 She doesn’t. I don’t know how to pause this. Sorry.

3:15:24 Yeah. Miss Rob, until you can learn decorum and how to speak respectfully. Thank you.

3:15:42 Have a good evening. All right, we have Kelly Kervin and Katie Delaney. And then we’re done with public comment.

3:15:49 What did she just say? Wow. So many words. So many thoughts.

3:16:16 I just want to shout out to the public on all sides, Matt, you tried really hard to get people to leave, and they didn’t. And I just want to thank all of you for staying and letting your voice be heard. Dear Mister Susan, during my time on the reconsideration committee committee, I have read eleven assigned books, researched them online, and conferred with media specialists in anticipation of and in preparation for our discussions.

3:16:32 I am very disappointed by the book reconsideration process as a whole. I recognize that as part of this committee we were tasked with removing inappropriate content from our libraries. However, it is important to understand that many sections that came before the committee should have remained on library shelves, with restrictions if necessary.

3:16:55 Under the law, BPS does serve students who are 18 years and older or gifted and mature reading readers. Maintaining the selections away from general audiences would have limited access to those with concerns and provided access to those who had met criteria or had permission. I do not feel as if the committee members were provided adequate guidance by the school board of the evaluation criteria to be provided via email.

3:17:19 A number of Florida state statutes to review at leisure and then be expected to interpret and follow them does not serve the process well. In addition, I feel the committee members may have participated with individual goals in mind and used the process as a platform to share their beliefs without intent to seek a compromise. Sadly, when individuals are unwilling to listen to one another, actually speak to make themselves heard, rather than listen to one another, everyone loses.

3:17:35 In this case, it is the students of Brevard county schools. Unfortunately, the direction of the current committee has taken the results in entitled being removed from the library shelves for all students, and that was not the intent of the law. As such, I do not feel comfortable being part of a committee that allows this to happen.

3:17:54 In the future. I hope the school board and reconsideration committee will consider the needs of all students in their decision making. Warmest regards this was the resignation letter of your book review committee member who is a former ESC staffing specialist at Peppervard Public Schools.

3:18:12 I don’t care about what you say isn’t on the agenda. Jean’s 298 book list that he wanted pre banned also wasn’t on the agenda. I look through it Rachel, the daughter of a danish mother and a black gi, becomes the sole survivor of a family tragedy.

3:18:36 After a fateful morning on their Chicago rooftop, Forrest had moved to a new city with her strict african american grandmother as her, Rachel is thrust for the first time into a mostly black community where her light brown skin, blue eyes and beauty being a constant stream of attention her way. It’s there as she grows up and tries to swallow her grief. Then she becomes to understand how the mystery and tragedy of her mother might be connected to her own uncertain identity.

3:18:53 This searing and heart wrenching portrait of a young biracial girl dealing with society’s ideas of race and class is the winner of the bellwether Prize for best fiction manuscript addressing issues of social justice. Thank you, Miss Kirvin. Thank you.

3:19:13 Your three minutes are up, Miss Kirvin. Katie Delaney, you’re the next speaker. Thank you.

3:19:41 I wanted to mention something that Miss Campbell said a couple weeks ago about the legislature not intending for parents to get up here and read from the books. And I can tell you as somebody who worked with the legislature on this bill and who went to Tallahassee and lobbied for this bill, that was the intent. It was the intent because school boards all around the state were refusing to get this inappropriate material out of the classrooms.

3:19:56 And this was our final straw. And it gave the parents the power where it belongs. You also mentioned today that all of this inappropriate behavior happens on both sides.

3:19:58 And that’s not the truth. We do not pop people’s tires. We do not dox people.

3:20:08 We do not have screws thrown on people’s driveways. We don’t do that. I had a school board member put a picture of my eleven year old child on the news while they were calling me a domestic terrorist.

3:20:44 We don’t do that, so how dare you. I do want to tell you that you guys broke policy tonight for public comment. Sign up.

3:21:03 People weren’t able to sign up prior to public comment. And I know you didn’t do that on purpose, but that’s something that the staff needs to know about. And I do want to say that tonight, right now, there are books in our libraries that violate state statute.

3:21:20 And right now, today, you all can be sued for every individual book that’s in the library. That breaks statute. This was.

3:21:41 And now you’re forcing parents to read these disgusting, vile things at this dais. I want to say one more thing about us not being the majority. If we weren’t the majority, we wouldn’t have the board we have today.

3:21:47 So thank you. All right. Thank you, Miss Delaney.

3:21:53 I’m gonna call for a short recess, if that’s okay. Four. Just so we have a moment to go to the restroom and.

3:21:55 Ten minutes is. Five minutes. Ten minutes.

3:31:28 What do you want? Five minute recess. All right, sa. All right.

3:31:34 Welcome back. We are now moving into the consent agenda portion of the meeting. Doctor Rendell? Thank you, madam chair.

3:31:46 There are 26 agenda items under this category. Thank you, Doctor Rendell. Does any board member wish to pull any of the items hearing? None.

3:31:49 All right. I will entertain a motion to approve. Vote to approve second.

3:31:51 Wow. Let’s roll. We’re going.

3:31:55 All right. Our friends all left. Okay.

3:32:00 All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All those opposed passes.

3:32:07 50. All right. Hey, look, we have a break taken in here, but we already took our breaks, so we’re back in session.

3:32:13 All right. All right. Doctor Rendell, will you please let us know about the items under the action portion of today’s agenda? Thank you, madam chair.

3:32:25 The first item is g 43, FSBA fads annual joint conference travel request for Mister Susan. Do I hear a motion? Move to approve second. Any discussion? All those in favor, signify by saying aye.

3:32:29 Aye. Any opposed? 50. Yes.

3:32:32 Next item is g 44, proposed. Oh, we did that. Yep.

3:32:34 We did that. We did that. We did that.

3:32:45 Yep. The next item is g 46, board policy 24 one seven, comprehensive health education public hearing. This is a public hearing? It got put under the wrong one.

3:32:55 It’s under the wrong one. Okay, so do we even have a public hearing section in? Yeah, there is, but later. Yeah, we’re good.

3:33:03 Four of them are. Yeah, the next four, we’re good. We just got to have a public hearing so it goes open.

3:33:08 Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so am I okay to jump out of order now and do those and.

3:33:14 Yeah, do. Okay. All right, is there anyone here who wishes to speak to this item? This g 46.

3:33:27 Item 46, policy 24 one seven, comprehensive health act education. Yeah, it’s out of order. Is there anyone here who wishes to speak to this item? Hearing? None.

3:33:40 All right, do I hear a motion? Move to approve second. Any discussion? No discussion. All right, all those in favor, signify by saying aye.

3:33:43 Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Passes.

3:33:51 Five to zero. All right, we are on. Next item would be g 47, board policy 25 20, selection and adoption of instructional materials.

3:34:04 All right, is there anyone here who wishes to speak to this item? Mister Ross. All right, he legit can speak to this item. All right.

3:34:12 Good evening, board. Thank you for the opportunity to provide public comment tonight. I want to speak to agenda items g 48 and 49.

3:34:35 I have issues with this policy, but to understand those issues, one must understand how we got here and what drove the proposed changes to the policy. October and November of 2022, the book reconsideration committee reviews two challenge books and decides to place them behind the counter for checkout with parental approval. A compromise that most on the left and the right seemed content with.

3:35:06 December 13, 2022, school board meeting with extremists now having multiple seats on the Brevard school board and having fired Superintendent mullen at the first school board meeting in November, Mister Trent asked for book review process to be explained to the board. Doctor Sullivan provided an overview of the committee’s makeup, four media specialists and five handpicked members, one from each school board member. Mister Trent floated revising the board policy to update the committee’s voting members and the speed of review.

3:35:24 School board sessions in January and March of 2023, Doctor Klein relayed to the board the changes to the book ban policy that were requested. Mister Trent asked for clarification whether the books are being removed as soon as they are formally challenged. This was confirmed by Doctor Klein and Mister Trent.

3:35:42 Your reply was perfect. The school board also removed media specialists and school faculty from the committee. Curiously, in January of 2023, the very same person who had asked that close to 40 books be banned in BPS schools mysteriously withdraws her challenges.

3:36:14 Has this person, who claimed that they knew what they should read because they had six kids, suddenly decided that the books were okay? Or did she know something everyone else did not? April 2023. The board passes a new policy against the wishes of numerous media specialists who came and spoke at the school board meeting immediately, Jean Trent and Megan Wright appoint two of the more vocal book banners to the committee, one of whom was the very book banner who had withdrawn her complaints. June 2, 2023, book ban success.

3:36:33 The new committee meets and immediately bans three books for eight years from BPS schools. No in depth discussion from two of the committee members. But that is a feature of the committee, not a bug, right? During public comment, the public points out the many flaws in the committee members thinking to little avail.

3:36:44 June 6, 2023, school board meeting. Jean and Megan are upset that their chosen ones were called out during public comment at the book ban committee meeting. We can’t have that.

3:37:02 They screamed, let’s get the police involved and let’s ban certain people from speaking. Got to love the first amendment, huh? The new policy that we’re at nowadays requires no public comment at book review. The book bank committee only has one parent on it, only has to have one parent on it, and the board makes the final decision.

3:37:10 How convenient. Can you say lawsuit? Thank you. All right.

3:37:18 Sorry. Okay. Is there anyone else who wishes to address the board regarding this policy? Yes, Miss Carvin.

3:37:35 I also would like to speak to G 48 and 49 together. And I’ll keep this very brief. If you’re going to ban the books that our students need and should have access to, then you should have to read them yourselves.

3:37:45 I think it is a complete scapegoat to have a committee and ask them to read it. Ask that their vote not actually matter. And then what happens? If they vote one way, but you.

3:38:03 You feel a different way? What was the point? If the vote stops here, then do your job. Read the books. I mean, you just earlier today banned most of the list, so a lot of the lists you won’t even have to read.

3:38:09 You didn’t ban that? Didn’t pass. Okay, then we misunderstood that. Thank you for clarifying that.

3:38:14 So it’s 42 books. Two of them are children’s books. 41 books.

3:38:23 I mean, they’re not that long. I just reread the first book that you were supposed to meet on, on December 1. It took me all of a day.

3:38:40 If you guys are going to be the deciding factor, if you guys are going to be the one to listen to public comment, then you should be reading the material. You should know what’s in the books and not just a page here or there. Part of our law is part of the law at the level of the supreme court.

3:39:09 Court states that the whole work matters. Sex by itself is not pornography, no matter how many times people try to convince the world otherwise. And another thing that this policy doesn’t address, the state put in a loophole where residents have the ability to challenge your decision, and you then have to pay for that decision.

3:39:25 I’m just saying you witnessed today the passion behind books in this community. There are people that are going to challenge every single book you try to ban. Think about that.

3:39:33 Do your job, read them yourselves, and then make the decisions. There’s no point of having a committee. Thank you.

3:39:50 Thank you. All right. Is there anyone here who wishes to address this policy? Anybody else? No hearing? None? Do I hear a motion move to approve second any discussion? Yes, go ahead.

3:39:59 Thank you. I won’t take a long time because I’ve addressed this. Every time we’ve revised this, we will have a policy because we’re required to and we need to.

3:40:12 We have. The state law requires. It says that the board determines what instructional materials are in our schools, and that goes from textbooks all the way down to the media center books and now into the classroom libraries.

3:40:24 And so we have the responsibility and the authority to make that decision. It’s not a group, and I know people left, but I’m assuming some of them are still listening, or we’ll go back and listen. It’s not any group in the community.

3:40:42 It is this. This board makes the decision, and this board is taking the decision back from our group that we are going to ask to make a recommendation that we have selected them because of their willingness and their level of expertise, even if it’s just being apparent. But I’ve actually been very impressed with the committee meetings.

3:40:51 I think everybody participated. Everybody had read the book thoroughly. They may not agree with each other, clearly they didn’t in many cases, but they did a good job.

3:41:00 I think we’re doing a good job here. But I did want to thank Miss Kirby for bringing up one thing, and that is to deal with the magistrate. Because I think that’s where we actually.

3:41:23 The thing with the magistrate, it brings up to our conversation we had earlier tonight, because it’s my understanding that you can’t just, if you don’t like the decision that was made, bring up, you know, bring it to the magistrate. What the magistrate is looking at is, did we follow the policy? That’s correct, Mister Gibbs, right? Yes. Doe has issued memos on that, too, saying that the magistrate is there to determine whether the district has followed its policies.

3:41:29 Right. So when we talk about lists that we might do, just add, you know, all at once. That’s not.

3:41:36 That’s people that would open us up to a challenge because we wouldn’t have followed our policy. So this is a good policy. Except for.

3:41:44 I’m gonna make the one caveat. We did make that change about the hundred days, a minimum of 100 days. But it needs to be.

3:41:54 To be the other way around, 100 pages per day. So we’re going to adopt it as is and move forward. But I do want us board to go back and fix that.

3:42:05 And Doctor Rendell, you’re already aware, so we can switch that to what we intended, which was no slower than 100 pages per week. So thanks. All right.

3:42:08 Any other discussion? Nope. Nope. All right.

3:42:16 Do I hear a motion? Move to approve. All right. All those in favor, signify by saying aye.

3:42:22 Aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, so we are on to.

3:42:26 My numbers are messed up on my sheet. Yeah. The next item yet.

3:42:34 The script is off from the actual number. I know, I know. Next time is board policy 25 21, instructional materials program G 48.

3:42:43 Do I hear a motion? Oh, sorry. Does anybody wish to speak to this policy? Does anybody wish to speak to this policy? Seeing none. Do I hear a motion? Move to approve.

3:42:48 Second. Any discussion? No. All those in favor, signify by saying aye.

3:42:51 Aye. Aye. Any that are opposed? No.

3:43:03 Okay, 50. All right, and so the next item is G 49, board policy 5460, graduation requirements. Is there anyone here who wishes to speak to this item? Is there anyone here who wishes to.

3:43:08 To speak to this item? Hearing none. Do I hear a motion. Move to approve.

3:43:14 Check. All right. Any discussion? No.

3:43:19 All right. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Any opposed? All right.

3:43:27 Hey, that was. All right. So the next item is G 50, department school initiated agreements.

3:43:36 This one is not falling up under. It’s under procurement and distribution services. So I don’t need to ask if anyone needs to speak to the side of that.

3:43:40 Okay? I’m just making sure. Back on track. Do I hear a motion? Move to approve.

3:43:46 Second. All right, any discussion? Hearing? None. All those in favor, signify by saying aye.

3:43:55 Any opposed? All right, the last item is g 51, procurement solicitations. This one does not need a public hearing as well. Wonderful.

3:44:03 Do I hear a motion you have to approve? Second. All right, any discussion? All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye.

3:44:15 All right, passes five to zero. All right, we are going to move on to the information agenda, which includes items for the board review and may be brought back for action and a subsequent meeting. No action will be taken on these items today.

3:44:31 There are 20 items under this category. Does any member wish to discuss these items? Don’t everybody all jump out at once. No hearing? None.

3:44:38 We will move on. All right, we are now at the board member reports and discussion points. I have one report and one discussion.

3:44:57 All right. Wonderful. So, Miss Campbell, do you want to go ahead and give us whichever order you prefer? So, as our representative on the FSB advocacy committee, I am also on the legislative subcommittee meeting, and we had a meeting last week about the deregulation work that the legislature is going to do this year.

3:45:02 And those bills, three bills dropped yesterday. I know Miss Licinski already sent them out. I was.

3:45:12 I was going to. She beat me to it. I was going to send them out to staff because they have asked us to send it to our superintendents and to the staff to get their feedback on all that deregulation.

3:45:23 There’s some really good stuff. It’s just like little minutiae that over the years, it’s kind of like those things in your house that you just keep piling up, piling up, piling up. You never get rid of the old stuff.

3:45:42 So what they’re trying to do is really clear out some of that old stuff that’s irrelevant or it’s difficult. It’s just paperwork and bureaucracy that our school districts are having to deal with. So the reason why I bring that up is there was a feeling they said they were getting from the senators in particular, because they’re the ones leading the charge that, you know, where is everybody.

3:45:50 They’re not hearing from everybody. So the request was twofold. One, ask our staff to take a look and give feedback, and then to give that feedback to two different people.

3:46:00 One, to send it back to FSBA so they can kind of sort it all together, but also to send it to our legislative delegation and say, this is really important work. We support this work. This is how it will really help us.

3:46:17 And so I’ll be asking, I’m going to ask Doctor Rendell, if you, you have the staff take, kind of take a look at those items and give that feedback back to us, and I’ll be happy to share it with FSBA side. But if we could also send it to our legislative delegation, I think that would be fantastic. I was pleasantly surprised.

3:46:35 The DoE had a short list. But when the Senate committee for Education, when they started listing some of the things that they were, it was like, wow, this is pretty comprehensive. Now, the House may not have those same, that same level of plans, so we’ll see.

3:46:41 They’ll have to all hash it all out. But we definitely want to let them know, hey, this is, this is really a burden on us. This would make life easier.

3:46:45 This makes more sense. They’re not going to get rid of accountability. We don’t want that.

3:46:58 But just some of the little ticky tax things that don’t make a difference and in the world that are just left over from old, old regulations would be great. So want that. That was something that they asked us to do.

3:47:15 Follow on that, Miss Campbell, just so everybody knows, it would behoove us to be very strong in support of the Senate right now because both the DoE and the House are kind of lagging. And so if we are going to come out and honor our teachers and honor our staff, it’s time to rally. So I’m going to Tallahassee probably almost every week until this thing’s done.

3:47:23 I’m going to be, after thanksgiving. I’m going to get very involved into some of the process. They’re asking us to come to committees.

3:47:33 They’re asking us to be a part of this. This is almost in line with what the union was saying. And some of the other stuff is that there’s these things that are sitting there.

3:47:42 This is our big opportunity to do it, and the senate’s leading the charge. So thank you so much for what you’re saying here. And I think we should get up there and rally and go.

3:48:03 So the message they wanted to get out was that we want, we want to let them know that D Reg is important. Yep. Can I add to that as well? I think it would be wise for BPS specifically to look at what things have we implemented that maybe aren’t regulated through the state that we might be doing, that we could possibly do a little de rigging here in house ourselves to make life a little easier for our staff.

3:48:32 So our teachers just a little, they’re still taking input, that there were deadlines in the summer. But what I’m being told all over is not only the DOE is still taking input, but especially the Senate and the House, they’re really still taking input. So anything we want to give, and I know we didn’t put D reg items, particularly on our platform, but now that we have some ideas and now that we’ve got those three bills, really want to give them some feedback on that, do you envision us collaborating together to have a list that we all then go, no.

3:48:54 What I was, I think if the staff can take those three bills and just kind of go through them because it lists, hey, we’re going to talking about striking this, striking this, and just kind of give each department kind of say, hey, this would make our life easier or this costs us this much time and this much money every year. Just kind of do a quick analysis. Needs to be short, but, you know, just so we can kind of get behind and we can send that back to them.

3:49:17 So they’ve got really an idea because most of them don’t have any idea of what the manpower and the financial responsibility for some of these reports that are, you know, as the DOE said, some of those reports, we already have that information other ways. Wasting people’s time to do the same information in this particular way. Miss Campbell, one of the things when we passed the All American Flag act is it failed for three years.

3:49:37 And then when it passed, we sent lists of signatures. What I would like to do, and this is maybe not right now, but send the Senate a support, you know, that mean of all the things that they’re writing. And then we all sign it and say, we are in support of you, we’re behind you, we’re resolution.

3:49:51 We can still do that by December 1. So I don’t know if we can get it that fast. We won’t be together again and have all of our senior staff sign it and everything just say we are behind this because they need support as they move forward.

3:49:57 I think by the time we have our next board meeting in December, I mean, we can, we’ll, they’ll have some more committee weeks. It’ll be fleshed out a bit more. The house hasn’t taken up there.

3:50:01 They were supposed to present their sister week. I don’t remember when the meeting was. Thursday, I think.

3:50:20 Okay, so that was my board report, a discussion item. You know, you guys have served with me on the board long enough to know that, you know, misinformation is just one of the things that I get very frustrated about. So we, we’ve had the conversation.

3:50:46 So many people came to speak to us tonight regarding the Guardian program and I recognize that what I’m about to say, they may for some people not change their minds at all. But as I’ve had started to have conversations, as we all should be having conversations with our community members, with our staff, with our administrators, you know, I’m even hearing from people who work for us a misunderstanding of what it would be. And I heard it several times tonight.

3:51:01 So we, you know, the number one thing that people said in regards to the Guardian to program with not arming teachers. Not arming teachers. And we’ve had the conversation, yes, in Florida you can do that now unlike the original Guardian program that happened in 2018.

3:51:23 But our teacher contract, we had that conversation already. Our teacher contract doesn’t allow that and that would have to be negotiated. However, I just have to dispel this myth that is the idea of whoever wants to can just start caring or anybody with a concealed carry license can be a guardian.

3:51:29 I spoke to one of our staff members last week. They said, well, I’m concerned because any, whoever wants to can bring their gun on campus. That is not.

3:51:37 We’re talking about our security specialist. Somebody listed off the amount of training that sros go through. Our security specialists who are guardians go through 176 hours of training, which is more than the 144 that the state requires.

3:51:54 176 hours of training. Training. They have to do yearly re ups, training in all those things, active shooter, how to hold onto your weapon and listen, I’m not saying where this is going to go.

3:52:17 We don’t know where this is going to go. But I just want to dispel the misinformation they would have to go through all that training. This board decided, a previous rendition of this board decided when we brought those security specialists on, and this predates me, I think I told you guys about that, that they would only recruit security specialists who had military, law enforcement or security backgrounds.

3:52:30 This board could do the same thing for the, what we’ll call undercover guardians. We could do that if we decided to go that way. But the training is not only a good idea it’s required.

3:52:38 The 176 is more than what the state requires. But that’s what our sheriff has said and the sheriff has ensured. So we’re not just talking about random person who wants to be one of these people.

3:52:55 I ever had someone say I would do it, I’m like, you’re not qualified. So I just want to dispel that information again. That may not make everybody feel better, but I just want to make sure we’re all on the same page of the facts, of what could, what it could look like if the board decides to go that way.

3:53:10 Because we got to start from that position of facts and truth and information, whatever conversation we may go, because all of everything else is just inflammatory. You’re just going to arm teachers. You’re just letting whoever teachers need to be, they don’t need.

3:53:31 I’m like, first of all, even if we let teachers do it, it would have to be someone who, one, was qualified and two, they would have to volunteer in three, they have to go through the training and they’d have to pass all the tests and the mental health things and all that stuff. So it’s just not the inflammatory rhetoric that’s going around. There was one other thing, but it, it went right out of my very tired brain.

3:53:37 So I will stop right there. Thank you, Miss Campbell. I appreciate your clarification on it.

3:53:47 There is a lot of misinformation. The intention for me when I brought this forward to expand this out was not to arm teachers. That was not the goal.

3:53:58 I do believe that a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun. And I’ll say that all day long and I won’t back down from that. That it’s one of the reasons I appreciate our sheriff so much.

3:54:11 Thank you guys that are in this room keeping us safe right now. So with that being said, I am not supporting arming teachers. That is not what I said when I said we want to have this discussion about expanding the Guardian program.

3:54:20 In a perfect world, we could hire security specialists. The Guardian aspect of things. Actually, in a perfect world, we could hire all sros.

3:54:35 You know, in a perfect world that would be. If we had, if we had no limitation on budget, that would be the perfect world. The Guardian aspect brings in an element of our security specialists and our sros are very identifiable.

3:54:48 You know who they are right away. So if somebody were going to come in with ill intentions to harm our students, they know who their threat is that potentially could take them out, so to speak. A guardian is an element of surprise.

3:54:53 And that’s why they have them. So I advocate for them. I don’t think that that is a bad idea.

3:55:01 Looking at it five and a half years since when it first came out, I know all the controversy that was there. So thank you for clearing that up. I really appreciate you doing that.

3:55:25 Do any of my other board members have any other discussion? I do. Okay, mister schism. So I had the awesome opportunity to meet one of our sponsors for the Florida or future educators program, right? So there’s clubs out there where we have in middle school, high school, these students want to be educators and we have two programs, one at Bayside, one at Space coast that we actually have, you know what I mean, where they’re in that.

3:55:33 I was floored because she said, you know, I’d really love to take my kids to go shadow. They all want to be kind of teachers. We can go shadow one of the elementary schools.

3:55:41 And she said she’s reached out and done all that stuff. So I called the school that she was trying to reach out to. Principal said, absolutely, like we would love to have them over there.

3:56:01 It was just a miscommunication. So I wanted to say like in 2008 I was part of the team that put together the curriculum, built the whole program and was part of the initial teat Florida educators program, right? Go to competitions and all that stuff. I’m going to try to make a concerted effort to build up all those clubs and to do all that stuff and try to get them coordinated.

3:56:08 That’s all. And I think it helps us because when we started in 2008, I think you met Miss Wright. You’ve seen it.

3:56:15 A lot of the kids that were in that are now teachers, that are my former students and I see them everywhere. Like I walk into them, I’m like, oh my gosh, you’re there. And they were there.

3:56:29 They were that 2008. So it does work and we can produce that, but we’ve got to catch them at a younger age. We talk about catching them at a younger age, like them signing up in high school is great but getting touched into it in middle school, those kids love to go back there.

3:56:39 So kind of let you guys know I’m going to go into that area and kind of push into it and stuff like that. And it’d be cool if we could all, you know what I mean, kind of promoted at the schools and stuff like that. That’s all.

3:57:04 And then the other thing is, is that, Mister Broun, I was wondering if so community, because government is under your wing, right? And don’t we have, like, access to lobby tools and all that other stuff, like notices, like when the legislature comes out with bills and all of that stuff? Is there. Is that. Do we get any of that from our lobbyists? I was wondering if there’s an opportunity for us to start.

3:57:21 Because there’s going to be a couple train bills, right? And we want to start following them and stuff like that. Maybe there’s an opportunity to engage because we get stuff from the Florida school board association, from fads and all that stuff, but those are kind of general, like up top. So I don’t know if there’s an opportunity to try to engage with.

3:57:27 Here was our initiative. We had. There were five items, like, where are they? What’s going on? Kind of a track.

3:57:32 You were going to say something? No, I’m just waiting for my turn. That’s what I was going to do. Now it’s your turn.

3:57:36 That’s up to her. Go ahead, doctor Rendell. Oh, I thought he was talking about this.

3:57:40 Okay, sorry. Are you good? I’m good, man. I thought you meant, like, on this.

3:57:45 Waiting for your turn. Sorry, doctor Rendell. I mean, is there any other board member.

3:57:49 Let’s ask you, do you have any other discussion points or. No. All right.

3:58:05 Doctor Radal. Madam chair, I just wanted to take a minute and thank Mister Dufresne and his bargaining team, the BFT, their bargaining team and the board for their support in what I think is a pretty solid contract. You ratified it tonight or you approved it tonight.

3:58:18 The union ratified it with a 90% vote. Thank you, Mister Klucci, for sharing those details. It increased wages, but it also changed some working conditions, relieved some things, took away some things, gave some freedoms.

3:58:26 And there’s always more work to be done. And we’ll do that. The message I wanted to get out to the rest of our employees is we’re working on those other groups as well.

3:58:39 Mister Dufresne’s team has reached an agreement with 1010. So, if you’re a classified employee and you’re like, what about us? You need to reach out to your 1010 representative and find out where you guys are. Because that’s going to be, I believe, on the next agenda in December.

3:58:56 Again, a solid contract reached with support of the board and everything. And so, you know, that word needs to get out that we’re following this process of taking care of our employees, and then as soon as we get done with that, non bargaining. So, big day today for us.

3:59:12 Taking care of our largest group, you know, classroom teachers and those in that instructional position. But you know, the others, your time’s coming and we’re working on that. A lot of it’s increased wages, but it’s also some changes to working conditions that are positive.

3:59:20 So I want to thank Mister Dufresne, the unit, the bargaining units, and of course, the board for their support. Good. Very good.

3:59:34 I have one other discussion point that I just would like for us to talk about, mister. Susan, you did this last year and I think it was extremely beneficial for our board to. We scheduled an off site and we kind of vision cast for some things that we would like to see happen and some directions that we would like to move.

4:00:01 And I think that’s very beneficial for us to go ahead and look at scheduling that as soon as possible so that we can collaborate again to find out, hey, in the next twelve months, what do we want to see? What are some things we would like to work on? I think the offsite location worked really, really well. Doctor Rendell, would you be okay with helping facilitate and coordinate that? Yeah, absolutely. We can start looking at some calendar dates and locations and communicate that with the board.

4:00:03 Okay, perfect. Everybody. Ideally December.

4:00:15 I think that way because we’re already a month down, you know, once December hits, so. All right, anything else that we have. Congratulations.

4:00:21 Yeah, I know. Congratulations to you, too, mister. All right.

4:00:27 And Doctor Rendell, do you have anything more that you wish to add? No, ma’am, I’m good. All right. Being there for their business. This meeting is now adjourned.