Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
0:00 Music playing.
7:30 Thank you.
8:30 Good morning and welcome to the February 27, 2024 board meeting.
8:53 It is now in order.
8:54 I’d like to welcome my fellow board members and the public.
8:57 It is encouraging to see so many smiling faces that are actively
9:00 participating in local governance
9:01 at our school board meeting.
9:02 I’ll politely ask the public to help our board meetings go a
9:05 little more smoothly by following
9:06 a few simple housekeeping rules.
9:08 The public’s opportunity to address the board is during the
9:11 public comment portion of the
9:13 meeting.
9:13 I’ll ask the public to refrain from speaking loud disruptions,
9:16 distractions, or other
9:17 forms of communication that hindered the business of the board.
9:19 All right.
9:20 Paul, roll call, please.
9:22 Ms. Wright.
9:22 Here.
9:23 Mr. Trent.
9:23 Here.
9:24 Ms. Campbell.
9:25 Here.
9:25 Ms. Jenkins.
9:26 Here.
9:26 Mr. Susan.
9:27 Here.
9:28 Thank you.
9:28 At this time, I’d like to offer the board to hold a moment of
9:31 silence and I welcome the
9:32 audience to join in as well.
9:33 All right.
9:58 We are going to rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.
9:59 I believe we have two students from Tropical Elementary.
10:01 You guys at the podium already.
10:02 Wonderful.
10:03 If you will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance, we would
10:05 appreciate that.
10:06 I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
10:13 and to the republic for
10:16 which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with
10:21 liberty and justice for all.
10:23 Thank you so much for your help there.
10:28 All right.
10:30 We are honored.
10:31 Today we have a performance.
10:32 Today we have a performance in store for everyone.
10:34 So the Tropical Elementary Chorus is here.
10:37 We’re going to give you guys the floor.
10:38 So whenever you’re ready.
10:40 I’m going to give you guys a little bit.
15:59 That was a wonderful performance for us.
16:01 I believe, I think we have someone that’s going to come up to
16:05 the podium.
16:05 I don’t know.
16:06 All right.
16:07 Marlo, is that you?
16:08 It’s a little hard to see you.
16:09 All right.
16:10 In case any of my fellow board members would like to ask any
16:14 questions of this wonderful
16:14 group.
16:15 Ms. Jenkins, do you have any questions or comments?
16:17 Sure.
16:18 I’m going to, do you said Marlo?
16:20 Yes.
16:21 I can’t see you.
16:22 I know.
16:23 I can’t see you either.
16:24 Yeah, the TV screen.
16:25 Marlo, what is your favorite class during the day?
16:28 There you are.
16:29 Reading.
16:30 Ooh.
16:31 Good answer.
16:32 But also music.
16:33 Awesome.
16:34 And I want to do, I just want to say shout out to this girl
16:44 right here in this black headband.
16:48 Yeah.
16:50 Confidently busting a move during that dance break.
16:51 I saw a little Macarena.
16:53 Well done.
16:54 I’m proud of all of you guys for standing here and being so
16:56 brave and confident and singing
16:58 your little hearts out.
16:59 Thank you so much for bringing some joy this morning to us today.
17:01 Yes.
17:02 Wonderful.
17:03 Ms. Campbell.
17:04 All right.
17:05 I need you guys to turn around because I want the audience to
17:08 see what your shirts say
17:09 on the back.
17:10 Troublemakers.
17:12 I love that.
17:13 You guys are amazing.
17:14 Okay.
17:15 Now you can turn your smiling faces back to everybody.
17:17 What fun.
17:19 You guys did a fantastic job.
17:21 Okay.
17:22 So, let me ask of everybody, how many sixth graders in the group?
17:26 First training for sixth graders.
17:27 All right.
17:28 How many fifth graders?
17:30 Fourth graders?
17:31 Wow.
17:32 All right.
17:33 You guys have got a, you’re going to be a huge group next year
17:37 with just a few sixth graders
17:38 leaving.
17:39 Sixth graders.
17:40 I hope you keep up with it because, and go into middle school,
17:43 band, chorus, orchestra,
17:44 multiple groups because you guys have a great experience that
17:47 you’ve built up.
17:48 So, good job.
17:49 All right.
17:50 Question for Marlo.
17:51 All right, Marlo.
17:53 Can you tell us what the words of the first song meant?
17:58 Kind of like, hi, hello.
18:01 I love it.
18:02 Thank you.
18:03 I put you on the spot and you had the answer.
18:05 Good job.
18:07 Wonderful.
18:08 Thank you.
18:10 Mr. Susan.
18:11 Yeah.
18:12 Thank you.
18:13 I first wanted to say thank you for taking your time as an
18:16 instructor to work with these
18:16 beautiful children and get them to where they, they can be.
18:19 Thank you so much.
18:20 To have a program that’s successful and be asked to come up in
18:25 front of the school board
18:26 is a big honor for both us and you for your dedication to the,
18:29 to the profession.
18:30 I really appreciate you and what you do.
18:32 And thank you all of you who came here today and the parents,
18:36 you guys are amazing for coming
18:37 and supporting them.
18:38 I know you guys have work and a million other things going on,
18:42 but this is what, you know,
18:42 a school district, but this is what helps us as a school
18:45 district get back to our roots
18:46 is having you guys come out here.
18:47 The one question I had is besides these two gentlemen down here,
18:51 do you guys like tell the
18:52 boys not to try out for your, your, your thing or what’s going
18:55 on?
18:55 Do we, do we, should we get more gentlemen to be a part of the
18:59 singing group?
18:59 Or how do we do this, man?
19:01 Either that.
19:02 No, what?
19:03 Listen, guys, guys, guys, I, I get you.
19:07 Just stay strong.
19:08 All right.
19:09 You’re representing.
19:10 You got to bring some more friends out next time we see you.
19:12 Okay.
19:13 We’ve got to do a better job of that.
19:14 What’s that?
19:15 All right.
19:16 So third.
19:17 I’m sorry.
19:17 I didn’t see all the way through there.
19:19 I apologize.
19:20 Four.
19:21 All right.
19:22 Four.
19:23 Thank you so much.
19:24 Five.
19:25 We’re having more.
19:26 All right.
19:27 What in the world?
19:28 Okay.
19:29 Five.
19:30 I apologize.
19:31 I couldn’t even see them all.
19:32 So we got five kids.
19:33 Still, we need to have some more gentlemen that are a part of it
19:35 so that you can have some
19:35 of those deep tones and stuff like that.
19:37 So thank you so much.
19:38 And I just wanted to say thank you as the person that came out
19:42 and spoke for them.
19:42 It takes a lot of courage and dedication and I really appreciate
19:46 you for doing so.
19:46 That’s it.
19:47 Thank you, Mr. Susan.
19:48 Mr. Trent.
19:49 All right.
19:50 So again.
19:51 It should be.
19:52 All right.
19:53 I can see you guys.
19:54 It is.
19:55 So you guys are awesome.
19:57 Thanks.
19:58 I mean, there’s magic in numbers and you guys work well together.
20:03 You can really tell you put your heart and soul on this from the
20:07 instructor.
20:07 But I want to thank the parents, the teachers, the staff for
20:12 encouraging young people like
20:14 yourselves to maybe step out of your comfort zone and try
20:17 something new.
20:18 This is great.
20:20 I’d like to see this.
20:21 So with all those fourth graders, I expect to be double this
20:25 size next year.
20:26 There’s your challenge.
20:27 So love your energy this early in the morning.
20:31 It’s great to see that.
20:32 And now we get to say back to the school and have all this
20:37 energy go back to tropical.
20:38 So unfortunately.
20:39 But we parents again, thank you for allowing us have this time
20:47 to see your students in action.
20:51 So thank you very much.
20:52 Thank you, Mr. Trent.
20:53 Ms. Wright, if I may real quick, you guys may ask one of the
20:56 staff members in the back to give you an extended tour of the ESF
21:00 facility that may prolong your going back to this class.
21:03 Mr. Trent.
21:04 I don’t know.
21:05 Dr. Rendell is the person that makes that call.
21:06 Okay.
21:07 Let’s go ahead and mute Mr. Seuss’ microphone.
21:08 I just wanted to say, the other thing I wanted to say is, is the
21:11 three of us are part of a tenor.
21:13 So we would love to come speak and sing at your school.
21:15 So anytime you want to invite us to come by, we would love to
21:18 come by.
21:18 And that includes the other board members too.
21:19 So if you want us to sing, Dr. Rendell really breaks it down.
21:22 And so does Mr. Trent.
21:24 So anytime you want us to come, let us know.
21:25 All right.
21:26 Thank you, Mr. Seuss.
21:27 I skipped you.
21:28 I’m sorry.
21:29 Dr. Rendell, do you have anything that you would like to say
21:32 before I wrap it up?
21:32 On record that we are not part of a quartet.
21:34 We do not sing.
21:36 If we came and sang, it would be a bad thing.
21:38 No, I want to thank you guys.
21:40 What a great way to start the day.
21:42 Thank you so much for coming.
21:44 And maybe the bus driver will drive slow on the way back.
21:47 Thank you, Dr. Rendell.
21:52 Okay.
21:53 So I have a question for you guys.
21:54 How many of you were nervous this morning when you were coming
21:56 here?
21:56 Whoa.
21:57 You were like, am I TV ready?
21:58 I love it.
21:59 Okay.
22:00 And Marlo, I have a question for you.
22:01 Ms. Marlo.
22:02 All right.
22:03 How did you get selected as the person who stands at the podium
22:12 and answers the questions?
22:16 I don’t know.
22:17 In my world, we call that being voluntold.
22:22 And so that’s what maybe happened here.
22:24 But thank you guys so much for coming this morning and spreading
22:27 cheer and the upbeat music.
22:28 It sets the tone for the rest of the day for us.
22:30 So we appreciate you.
22:31 I hope that your joyful noise is sung throughout your houses on
22:35 a regular basis so that everybody
22:36 else can get to experience the magic that you guys brought here
22:39 for us this morning.
22:39 So thank you so much.
22:40 We appreciate you.
22:41 We’re going to take a quick break real fast, I believe, to take
22:44 a photo.
22:44 Is that correct, Mr. Bruin?
22:45 Okay.
22:46 All right.
22:47 So we’re going to take a quick break and we’re going to take a
22:48 picture with you guys if that’s
22:48 okay.
22:49 Thank you.
22:50 Thank you guys.
22:50 Thank you.
25:22 See you later.
25:25 Bye.
25:26 Don’t forget to invite us to come sing.
25:30 All right.
25:31 That’s a fun way to start our morning.
25:33 I love that.
25:34 The energy, the upbeat.
25:35 All right.
25:36 At this time, I’m going to offer my fellow board members and Dr.
25:38 Rendell an opportunity
25:38 to recognize students, staff, or members of the community.
25:41 Does anybody like to go first?
25:43 Ms. Jenkins, push the mic.
25:44 All right.
25:45 Yes.
25:46 So this week, Palm Bay Magnet High School’s Technology Student
25:51 Association chapter competed
25:51 in the Florida State Conference.
25:54 36 students competed in 40 events, placing fourth overall in the
26:00 state, winning 10 trophy
26:01 spots for the top three.
26:03 This team placed in almost every single one of the semifinalist
26:07 categories.
26:07 And if that wasn’t enough, Adeliz Rosa Padilla and Zoe Blackledge
26:12 also received Technology Student
26:14 Association scholarships as well.
26:16 So congratulations to Palm Bay Magnet High School.
26:19 And I was told they also have four students that attend
26:22 Melbourne High School as well on
26:23 that team.
26:24 So congratulations to all of you and to Mrs. Allen for being an
26:27 incredible teacher and
26:28 leader and mentor for these students.
26:30 I had an opportunity to go to Riviera Elementary with Ms.
26:34 Campbell to see the tax watch presentation
26:36 that we presented here in the boardroom to Mrs. Myers.
26:39 And Riviera was recognized for their incredible academic growth
26:43 in every single one of their
26:44 subgroups.
26:45 But having an award here in the board isn’t the best part for
26:49 her.
26:49 So she has an opportunity to pick a student for a two year
26:52 college scholarship.
26:53 And so we were able to be there when she surprised fifth grade
26:56 student Jefferson and his parents
26:58 who were sitting in the audience, they didn’t know why they were
27:01 there, with two years of college.
27:03 It was absolutely incredible and heartwarming.
27:07 Quite frankly, I was under the weather, but I still went because
27:10 it’s my favorite thing to see.
27:11 Not only were the parents super moved and overwhelmed, but
27:15 Jefferson himself when he went up to the
27:16 microphone to say a little speech, he couldn’t hold back the
27:20 tears and he was crying and thanking his
27:21 parents and his teachers.
27:22 It was absolutely incredible to see and she couldn’t have picked
27:25 a better student to represent that school.
27:26 So congratulations to Jefferson and all of the students at Riviera
27:30 Elementary for making such
27:31 incredible gains to even provide this opportunity for one of
27:35 your peers.
27:35 And last but not least, I just want to do an announcement that
27:39 the Space Coast Association of Realtors
27:40 on Saturday March 9th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. is going to be
27:44 hosting Project Prom.
27:45 So this is an opportunity for all of our students to go to Space
27:50 Coast Association of Realtors
27:51 to have access to free, free, free, gently used attire and
27:58 accessories for them to attend prom.
28:01 Thanks.
28:02 Thank you, Ms. Jenkins.
28:03 Ms. Campbell.
28:04 All right.
28:05 I wanted to thank the members of the board who were, I think we’re
28:11 almost there, all there,
28:12 who came to the Children’s Hunger Project fundraiser luncheon
28:15 and to the members of our staff
28:17 who came.
28:18 We had a great turnout and really thankful for Ms. Anna Diaz,
28:21 principal of University Park,
28:23 as well as one of her students, and the choirs from Sable and Crote
28:28 who came to entertain
28:28 and to share.
28:29 Those are schools that are impacted by the Children’s Hunger
28:31 Project, so thankful for them.
28:33 And I’m thankful for our community support of that organization,
28:36 which directly impacts students
28:38 all across our county from north to south.
28:41 We’re feeding 4,000 students on the weekends, in addition to the
28:45 school district being able
28:45 to feed them during the week.
28:46 And so it’s a great partnership, and I’m thankful for all the
28:50 people who participated.
28:52 The last two Fridays, I was able to participate at two different
28:57 schools
28:57 for their African American read-ins, where they brought just
29:02 tons of guests from the community,
29:04 leaders.
29:05 At Columbia, they had people who came from out of town and out
29:08 of state even to be a part
29:09 of this read-in, and they had guests for every classroom who
29:12 came and read books, either by
29:14 African American authors or about African American history, all
29:19 curated by our media specialists,
29:20 and just answer questions and talk about the careers that they
29:23 have and talk about the story.
29:25 I had some really fun books myself and had some great times.
29:28 And so I really wanted to thank the assistant principals at both
29:31 of those schools who coordinated
29:32 those efforts, and that’s Ms. Parks at Columbia Elementary and
29:36 then Ms. Hamilton Brown at Suntree Elementary.
29:39 What a great job.
29:40 They’re so connected with their communities, but it was really
29:43 great to see so many people coming
29:44 in and participating so that they could have a reader in every
29:47 classroom.
29:47 So great job to those two schools.
29:50 So we are entering in the music world, the secondary music world,
29:55 the music performance assessment
29:56 season.
29:57 And just for the board and the community, these are free.
30:01 It’s kind of like their Super Bowl game, their district
30:06 championship game, where they go,
30:09 the choirs, the bands, orchestras go, and they compete.
30:12 They’re not really competing against one another, but they’re
30:14 sitting before judges.
30:15 And if you just have a day where you want to sit and hear some
30:18 great music, send me an email.
30:19 I’ll get you the schedule.
30:21 It’s free to the public to come in here.
30:22 You do have a lot of wait time between as they come and set up,
30:25 but they get to perform
30:27 before the judges and really are just at their best every music
30:31 program.
30:31 So happy to send that information out.
30:33 Like I said, it’s free to get in at the different locations.
30:36 So I can see that information, but really excited.
30:39 And then if they do really well, they disappear, they have the
30:42 opportunity to go to the Super Bowl
30:43 for music, and that is the state MPA.
30:46 So I look forward to seeing a lot of those performances myself
30:50 and congratulating those programs who
30:52 are going to do a super awesome job.
30:54 Thank you.
30:55 Thank you, Ms. Campbell.
30:57 Mr. Susan.
30:58 Yeah, first I wanted to say on the tail end of Ms. Campbell,
31:02 many people may just read
31:04 and see some of the things that Ms. Campbell advocates for, but
31:07 you’ve done an amazing job
31:08 for advocating for the arts, the bands, the music programs, the
31:12 orchestras.
31:13 Through the years, you’ve not only honored them, but advocated
31:16 for their needs and stuff like that.
31:17 I just want to take a second and say thank you for that because
31:21 we do have arguably the best programs.
31:23 That does not come without your support.
31:25 So I wanted to say thank you for that.
31:26 The other thing that I wanted to do is say thank you to Harbor
31:29 City Elementary School.
31:30 I went by there and spent some time on Friday.
31:32 They came up with some things.
31:33 One of them I may bring up just a little bit, put on your guys’
31:36 radar later on.
31:37 But I wanted to say thank you to Ms. Boyd and the school for
31:41 having me over there, met with a lot of their leadership.
31:43 And a lot of the good things that we know are happening inside
31:46 of our schools and just fine tuning in some others.
31:48 I wanted to say thank you to Dr. Rendell.
31:50 On March 15th, there’s a workforce summit at NASA.
31:53 All of the major organizations are going to be a part of it,
31:57 Blue Origins, everybody else.
31:58 And there’s school districts that are coming in from across the
32:01 state.
32:01 Thomas Kennedy from Citrus is bringing 100 kids.
32:04 Miami-Dade is coming.
32:07 Broward is coming.
32:08 There’s a bunch of school districts that are coming.
32:10 And the overall idea for the workforce program is that we’re
32:13 trying to get students across the state of Florida in all their
32:16 tech programs to come to Brevard for work.
32:19 Because we don’t even have enough.
32:21 We have too many jobs for the amount of kids that we even have
32:24 in front of our schools right now.
32:25 So it’s become a regional competition.
32:27 Whereas if we don’t fill those jobs, companies won’t come here.
32:30 And what ends up doing is they go to Texas and they go to
32:32 Alabama and everything else.
32:33 So big deal on March 15th.
32:35 And I want to say thank you to the Astronaut Memorial Foundation
32:37 for putting that together.
32:38 I also wanted to say thank you to our discipline committee.
32:41 I don’t know if some of you guys have been briefed yet.
32:44 But we have a part of our resurgence as far as coming and redoing
32:49 our discipline was to form a committee by our peers.
32:52 So it includes both teachers, administrators, and other
32:56 individuals from our – I have – we each have a representation
33:00 on there.
33:00 But they just made some major recommendations.
33:03 And I had the opportunity to meet with Pam Dampierre, who’s
33:06 heading that up, and give her a shout-out for working so hard to
33:11 diligently keep on top of all of our discipline issues.
33:14 Because I think that our programs that we’re putting forward are
33:17 really good opportunities and policies.
33:19 We still have some ironing out to do.
33:21 But it’s in a good direction.
33:23 I want to say thank you to Samantha Nazario, who’s here today.
33:26 Thank you.
33:56 the other thing i wanted to do is say satellite beach so here’s
34:00 what happened at satellite beach
34:01 i don’t know if you guys knew this but there was a auto tech
34:05 competition and i’m sorry dr rindell
34:08 if i’m stealing your thunder here but satellite beach had the
34:11 universal technical institute top
34:13 tech challenge this is where all the state the programs from
34:16 across the state come in and they
34:17 compete this is turning motors and everything else that they
34:20 used to do back in the day and our
34:22 schools took first so listen to this first place satellite high
34:26 school jason white and koa kelly
34:28 instructors randy pitts and chris wilson took first in the state
34:31 of florida but guess what who took
34:33 second rocklage rocklage high school with owen erickson and shaffer
34:37 cook and instructor ed sabecta
34:39 so we have the top two schools in the state of florida for the
34:44 automotive tech challenges but don’t
34:46 get you know it goes on it goes ovito then it goes heritage lyman
34:49 all the way down but 10th place the
34:51 second satellite team came in with bryce giantonio and gage
34:56 underwood and koa kelly also instructors
34:59 randy pitts and chris wilson so in the top 10 for the state of
35:02 florida for automotive tech competitions
35:04 we took three of them top one and two and then number 10. skip
35:07 heritage oh mr heritage is right there
35:09 look at that sorry heritage high school took fifth jonathan and
35:14 smith and keegan blount instructor and michael
35:16 browden um apologize about that so we took four of the top 10 so
35:20 thanks for for adding that in and then
35:22 in the individual written competition we took first place by
35:25 satellite high schools jason white second
35:27 place satellite high school by koa kelly third place cut rocklage
35:30 high school owen erickson and then there
35:33 was a bunch of other non-brevard awards after that but one two
35:37 and three took it so if you’re looking at
35:39 are we number one in the trades definitely because you look at
35:43 ogalley high school with the um aircraft
35:46 hangar you look at the automotive programs winning here there is
35:49 no doubt that brevard is top list on
35:52 all um cte programs in the state um wanted to also that’s it
35:56 that’s all i got for the rest of my stuff
35:58 i had a couple more but i’m looking over you guys are giving me
36:00 the eye so i’m going to stop at that
36:02 point all right mr trent wow can we just uh sit back for a
36:06 moment and realize what we have going
36:09 on here at bps it truly is amazing what’s going on throughout
36:13 our uh district and uh you know i’d like
36:15 to maybe take another avenue is just the the feel inside the
36:19 schools right now on february 27th or it
36:23 was this past week is it wasn’t just one school is every school
36:27 i stepped into you could just tell
36:29 this is when teachers and staff administrators know it’s uh it’s
36:34 go time again in the classrooms you
36:36 know we’re off of the christmas break we’re off of the heels of
36:41 our uh science fair uh project so the
36:43 hangover there is is done and over with and you can just feel it
36:47 from classroom to classroom from school
36:49 to school teachers and students alike uh they’re just getting
36:53 down to work they know that many of
36:55 these teachers know they have between now and in spring break to
36:58 get through a lot of crucial curriculum
37:01 and it it is it’s it’s refreshing on my end walking through and
37:05 seeing the uh the young minds going and
37:07 the teachers excited to be there so uh pat yourselves on the
37:10 back you got a lot more work to do uh but
37:13 that’s that’s i just want to let you know out there when we when
37:16 we’re walking around and we see that
37:18 activity uh teachers we have your backs parents you know
37:21 continue asking the students what’s going on
37:24 because there’s there’s more projects and there’s a lot of work
37:27 to go on so uh there’s a lot to be
37:29 proud of uh inside our schools right now so i want to thank all
37:33 of us up here dr rindell for the the vision
37:36 but ultimately uh those of you out there that are are seeing the
37:40 uh the project you know continue so
37:42 thank you thank you mr trent okay i’m gonna i’m gonna piggyback
37:46 on one of the ones that you that you
37:49 already mentioned so one of the disadvantages of going last is a
37:51 lot of times like i’ve said before
37:53 we are the same things and so okay you’ve already thanked him
37:55 but i want to i want to highlight the
37:57 children’s hunger project um because that event is such a
38:00 special event and when you hear from a child
38:03 who relies on these meals to get through the weekend in order
38:06 for them to be able to eat
38:07 that’s a foreign concept to a lot of individuals but it’s not a
38:09 foreign concept to a lot of children
38:11 in our school system so for the children’s hunger project to
38:13 step in and really fill in the gap but
38:16 something really cool that happened from the children’s hunger
38:18 project is that there was a table
38:19 who was sitting with their school representative in the north
38:22 end one of the schools in the north end and
38:24 that representative from the school identified hey there there’s
38:27 a huge need at our school for
38:29 children to have shoes we have kids coming to school that have
38:32 no soles in the bottom of their
38:33 shoes sometimes they don’t even have shoes and you think oh my
38:35 gosh how in the world is this happening
38:37 but um you know special people in the community here call to
38:40 action like that and they step in and so
38:42 i want to give a shout out to edna wilson because the first
38:44 thing she did is she went to social media
38:46 she rallied the troops and she filled the back of her suv with a
38:49 ton of stuff to go and donate to that
38:51 school that specific site to put shoes on those kids feet and
38:54 and that is just i mean that is what
38:56 community is and so edna if you follow our social media you’ve
38:58 probably seen some of these
39:00 announcements and recognitions that we’re doing but just such a
39:03 special individual but
39:04 it’s one thing to hear it and it and it stirs something in your
39:06 heart it’s a whole other thing
39:08 to really go and do something about it and so hats off to her i
39:11 appreciate her thank you i sponsored
39:13 children for the children’s hunger project for the first time uh
39:16 yep i i did so i didn’t do it last
39:18 year but i did it this year i thought no i have seen this
39:20 program work now for a full year and i know
39:21 the importance and value of it so if you have not sponsored a
39:23 child you should sponsor a child it’s not very
39:25 expensive and it helps the kid get through and get meals that
39:28 they definitely need i also want to give
39:30 a shout out to the regional science and art fair we’ve had
39:32 awards going on and so one of the fun
39:34 things that we get to do is go and walk and they ask us to
39:36 sometimes participate be on the stage help
39:39 congratulate the children but i got to tell you some of these
39:42 science fair projects uh number one i’m
39:44 thinking i should have probably pushed my children a little
39:46 harder because we didn’t do science fair
39:48 projects to these caliber and when i see some of these projects
39:51 i am blown away that kids are able to do these
39:55 and the name is said for the art that they do it is absolutely
39:58 amazing it’s it’s outstanding it really
40:00 is and so i want to thank space coast because they were space
40:03 coast junior senior hosted the north end
40:06 science fair and art fair uh award ceremony and that’s a huge
40:09 ceremony with a lot of schools a lot
40:11 of kids a lot of people and so i want to thank them for making
40:13 their school accessible and giving us the
40:15 time and space to be able to recognize those students that
40:17 achieved so well um i also want to give a shout out to
40:20 the gardendale team so on president’s day when a lot of the
40:22 country was closed down it was a
40:24 um i guess this would have been a teacher work day uh for our
40:27 teachers so the gcr team reached out and
40:30 said hey we’re going to do a beautification project and invited
40:32 the board to come alongside
40:33 uh to help them and it was just a really cool experience to get
40:37 to go into that school and help
40:39 decorate and brighten a hall so to the gcr team who put that
40:42 together and the amount of hours that we
40:44 spent squatting up and down no shy of 300 times i think it was i
40:47 thought i thought this was a workup by
40:48 time it was all done but it was for a good cause when we left
40:51 that hallway the before and the after was just
40:53 drastically different and and that’s the hallway that these kids
40:55 walk into when they first come
40:56 into the school and so i think it’s very important to create a
40:59 welcoming fun environment
41:01 before it didn’t look very welcoming or fun and now there’s a
41:03 lot of color and a lot of love that
41:04 was put into that and so i look forward to some some future
41:07 projects there thank you for that team
41:08 at gcr for doing all the hard work and initiating that and and
41:11 inviting us to be a part of it it was
41:13 a very amazing experience so i appreciate that um dr rendell i’m
41:17 gonna i’ll stop so that we can give it to you at this point
41:19 do you have any recognitions that we have not hit at this point
41:22 mr susan back to mr susan we have
41:24 things going on every weekend it seems and we’ve talked about
41:27 music concerts and science fairs and
41:30 everything but two weeks ago there was odyssey of the mind so i’ll
41:33 let mr susan talk about that real
41:35 quick yeah it’s the reason that i’m wearing the t-shirt is is
41:37 that my son actually competed so i was
41:39 able to go to it as a teacher i had i sponsored uh community
41:43 problem solving and some of the other things
41:45 that went on like that that are similar to this and i just
41:48 wanted to say to the staff and all the
41:50 participants and viera high school for hosting it that was
41:53 amazing to have the engagement that the
41:55 students had with their peers and everything else and some of
41:58 the things it was just free it was free
42:01 thought is what it is and it’s amazing to give a little bit of
42:04 structure let the kids come in and
42:06 just take off and across the board from the building of the
42:09 bridges and the weights and everything else all
42:11 the way to the acting to all the other components what you saw
42:15 was kids smiling everywhere and that
42:17 it doesn’t happen without the support of those instructors with
42:19 the support of the schools with
42:21 support of the school district and everything else but to be a
42:23 part of it as a parent and as a school
42:25 board member was something special so i was wearing my t-shirt i
42:28 just wanted to say thank you
42:29 for having me both as a school board member and as a parent and
42:33 i appreciate the opportunity and way to
42:35 go odyssey of the mind look forward to many years to come thank
42:39 you mr susan dr rendell do you have
42:41 any other recognition just one more so yesterday was kindness
42:44 day it was appropriate that we had
42:45 tropical elementary here chorus singing today because kindness
42:49 day was actually born out of some work at
42:51 tropical elementary by barbara wilcox she’s a teacher there and
42:54 i think she’s actually across the street
42:57 today getting the proclamation from the county commission for
43:00 kindness day we’re going to do a
43:01 proclamation for her or for kindness day at our next meeting but
43:05 this is something that she and her
43:07 students started at tropical several years ago and it’s now one
43:10 of the things we do every february
43:12 26 is kindness day and it’s it’s a way that you know to for us
43:16 to stop and think and remember that
43:18 we should be kind to each other every day and make sure that we’re
43:21 you know treating each other
43:23 the right way so hats off to barbara and her team and we’ll have
43:26 her here at a future board meeting
43:28 for proclamation that’s it thank you looking forward to having
43:30 her here that will bring us to the
43:31 adoption of the agenda so we’re turning it back over to you dr
43:34 rendell thank you madam chair on this
43:38 evening’s agenda we have administrative staff recommendations 39
43:42 consent items three action
43:44 items and one information item changes made to the agenda since
43:47 released to the public
43:49 include the following add addition of f-25 job descriptions
43:54 school secretary administrative assistant one
43:57 administrative assistant deputy superintendent administrative
43:59 secretary confidential and f-26
44:02 the class size compliance plan do i oh sorry do i hear a motion
44:07 sorry guys it’s an alert system it’s a drill yep there’s no way
44:16 to turn it off unfortunately even
44:18 if you sell out your phone it’s gonna still go all right so we
44:19 have a motion and a second on the floor
44:21 is there any discussion who’s seconded uh mr trent seconded
44:25 correct okay no discussion all right paul
44:29 roll call please miss jenkins hi miss campbell hi miss wright hi
44:33 mr trent bye mr susan all right
44:35 wonderful all right we have one resolution on this morning’s
44:39 board agenda which is for the bleeding
44:40 disorder awareness month resolution i’m going to give mr susan
44:44 the floor i think he is going to go ahead and
44:46 read the resolution are you going to the podium yeah hang on oh
44:51 okay wardrobe change hang on
44:53 so just so you guys know i’ve been requested to wear a red shirt
44:58 but one of the issues that i had was
44:59 the only red shirt that i had at the time it was my amydeville
45:03 swim team from jaws so just so you guys
45:05 mr susan you have a special guest as well so have enough that’s
45:18 right yeah come on up you guys
45:21 listen as i said before this is an amazing family and we’re
45:24 honored as a school board to
45:28 promote the uh bleeding disorders awareness month so let me read
45:31 this whereas considered rare bleeding
45:34 disorders that include hemophilia von willebrand disease and
45:37 rare bleeding disorders are characterized
45:39 by the blood not clotting normally due to the lack of clotting
45:42 proteins also known as clotting factors
45:45 and whereas in the united states more than 20 000 individuals
45:48 live with hemophilia and rare bleeding
45:50 disorders with 6 000 of them living in the state of florida and
45:54 one to two percent of the american
45:56 population have von willebrand disease and while treatment can
46:00 help the conditions are not yet
46:02 curable and whereas symptoms of a bleeding disorder include unexplained
46:07 and excessive bleeding
46:08 large or deep bruising nose bleeds and bleeding into joints
46:11 muscles and soft tissues and if someone has
46:14 a bleeding disorder they may have extended bleeding with incidences
46:17 such as an injury or trauma
46:19 menstruation surgery or dental procedures and whereas the
46:22 bleeding disorder foundation of florida founded in 1996
46:25 supports the bleeding disorder community throughout the state
46:29 and its mission to improve the quality
46:31 of life for people with the condition and their families
46:33 throughout education information and referral
46:36 services advocacy support and research and annually the
46:39 organization hosts a 5k and fun walks and other
46:42 events throughout florida to bring awareness to the community
46:45 and needed funding for the research and supplied services
46:48 be it resolved that on february 27th 2024 that the brevard
46:52 public school board which is the only school
46:54 board in the nation that does this yes does hereby proclaim the
46:58 month of march 2024 as the bleeding
47:01 disorders awareness month a time to encourage all citizens to
47:04 increase their understanding and awareness
47:06 of these serious bleeding disorders and thank the efforts of
47:09 health care professionals and the bleeding
47:11 disorders foundation of florida and the national bleeding
47:13 disorders foundation organizers for their dedication
47:16 and for their commitment to improve treatments and ultimately a
47:19 cure miss nazario would you like to speak
47:21 good morning everyone my name is samantha nazario i’m a proud bps
47:29 mom and bulldog gomel hi
47:32 i have next to me my amazing son tyler he is a 100 through and
47:36 through product of bps from vpk all the
47:38 way to graduation he is also on his second degree out of eastern
47:42 florida state college and he is the epitome
47:46 of what we watched this morning so that brought me so much joy
47:48 because he will actually be performing in
47:51 dublin in st patrick’s cathedral with the eastern florida state
47:54 college community choir in june and that came
47:56 from bps’s music program so thank you katie for all your support
47:59 through the years we appreciate that
48:01 we’re here today to discuss bleeding awareness month and i do
48:06 like to point out that you know bavar does
48:08 lead by example we are the only school district in the nation
48:11 that actually recognizes bleeding disorder
48:13 awareness month for the third year in a row so i take this
48:16 beauty with me to dc and rub it in everyone’s
48:18 face so um today the main mission is i would like to bring a
48:22 little bit of awareness to everyone here
48:25 i am sure that everyone in this room pays a copay when they go
48:27 to a doctor right everybody has an
48:29 out-of-pocket cost for the year well here in florida we’re
48:32 fighting for house bill 363 and senate bill 228
48:36 it is a copay accumulator bill what that means is for example
48:39 one dose of tyler’s medication is 16 000
48:42 i would have to pay that 16 000 or my 5 000 out of pocket for
48:47 the year our pharma company gives us
48:49 something called pharma assistance up to 25 000 a year well my
48:53 insurance company will take my
48:54 25 000 and tell me in april you still owe the 5 000 out of
48:58 pocket that’s what we consider in the
49:00 bleeding disorder community as double dipping and it doesn’t
49:03 just affect us it affects anyone who’s
49:05 sick diabetes asthma covid uh chronic illnesses like hiv and
49:09 arthritis and other things of that nature
49:12 so please reach out to your local representatives i am we are
49:15 fortunate enough to live in bavar county
49:17 where senator mayfield does support the bill and so does
49:20 congressman posey on the federal level we will be there
49:23 next week in washington to get more signatures to get that bill
49:26 to pass but we do we act what we
49:28 access google research you may not know me you may have never
49:30 heard of a bleeding disorder you’d be
49:32 surprised how many people as the proc said one one to two
49:35 percent of americans are affected by von
49:37 willebron’s disease and go undiagnosed until a life-threatening
49:40 situation my son thank god is not
49:43 hemophiliac he suffers from von willebron’s disease which means
49:46 prolonged bleeding but the cost of his
49:48 medication can be upwards of 250 000 to a million dollars a year
49:52 depending on the episodes we
49:53 experience living in bavard we all know no rarely a family makes
49:57 that kind of money here so if we can
49:59 get these bills passed on a national level and here on our state
50:02 level it would be a great progress for
50:05 all of our rare diseases in the community i also want to thank bps
50:08 for constantly leading by example
50:10 i’m so grateful to be a part of bps in this community everyone
50:14 up here has been extremely supportive
50:15 of me through the years and i appreciate that i’ve donated over
50:19 40 000 hours of my time for bps
50:21 over the last 18 years and it’s been an amazing experience thank
50:25 you so much for supporting the
50:26 bleeding disorder community and thank you megan for looking
50:29 fabulous in your red lipstick today i just
50:31 had to throw that out there but thank you so much to everyone up
50:33 there for all of your support year
50:35 round and for all the hard work you do here at bps we really
50:38 appreciate you thank you thank you so much
50:41 i appreciate you tremendously all right do we have a motion i
50:44 know we need to make a motion and approve
50:46 this motion to move to approve all right wonderful any
50:49 discussion at all hearing none paul roll call
50:53 please ms jenkins hi ms campbell hi ms wright proudly say aye mr
50:58 trent aye mr susan all right yeah thank you
51:01 thank you thank you thank you yeah let’s let’s take a quick
51:11 photo this is
51:13 thank you
51:26 so
52:09 all right wonderful we are now at the administer administrative
52:25 staff recommendation
52:25 do i hear a motion
52:40 are there any discussion
52:45 none all right paul roll call please ms jenkins
52:49 aye ms campbell aye ms wright aye mr trent aye mr susan aye
52:54 ma’am chair i’d like to take a few minutes to recognize some
52:58 individuals who are in attendance
52:59 with us this morning it’s all about the great southwest this
53:03 morning so first we’d like to
53:06 recognize and congratulate sophia ponton she’s currently a
53:11 teacher teacher on assignment at southwest
53:13 west middle school but she’s being promoted to the position of
53:16 assistant principal 10 month effective
53:18 february 28th so congratulations sophia
53:21 good morning everyone i first like to thank dr rindell and the
53:32 rest of the board for giving me this
53:33 wonderful opportunity to serve our students in this new role to
53:37 mrs jasmine the lotter a true
53:40 inspiration and a phenomenal leader thank you for your
53:43 confidence and giving me the nudge i needed
53:46 and allowing me to become a part of the great southwest family i’m
53:50 truly honored i’d also like
53:53 to thank miss erica jackson green melissa rivera matt schinoski
53:57 and the admin team for
53:59 welcoming me with open arms and all of the guidance and support
54:02 you all have given me you guys are truly
54:05 amazing i’m thankful for all my previous administrators
54:08 directors and colleagues that have mentored and
54:11 supported me throughout my leadership journey i’d also like to
54:15 thank my husband kenneth uh for his
54:17 unwavering love and support i wouldn’t be here without you to my
54:21 four beautiful children nicholas ivy caden and
54:27 uh oh which one okay that’s never happened nicholas ivy caden
54:32 caroline oh my god let’s hope she’s not
54:37 watching this i’m sorry that has never happened before um yes
54:41 thank you for being my reasons why
54:43 to my extended family in new jersey and alabama thank you for
54:47 the many blessings prayers love and
54:49 continued support i’m extremely blessed and excited to continue
54:53 serving the students in brevard public
54:55 schools and i look forward to continuing my journey at the great
54:59 southwest let’s go brox thank you
55:01 so we’d also like to congratulate and recognize melissa rivera
55:10 she’s currently an assistant principal 10
55:11 months at southwest and she’s moving into the position of
55:14 assistant principal 12 months so more
55:16 responsibilities so congratulations melissa the podium is yours
55:21 good morning it is an honor and privilege to be selected for
55:29 this position i’d like to thank the
55:31 school board and dr rendell for the opportunity to continue to
55:34 serve the students and teachers at
55:35 southwest middle school a special thank you to my family who’s
55:39 watching at home my mom and dad who have proudly
55:46 supported me every step of the way throughout all of my
55:49 endeavors my brother and his wife shout out to
55:52 him since i forgot him last time um my other half chris and his
55:57 son for encouraging me every step of the
56:00 way and waiting for me on those long work days my principal mrs
56:04 de lauder for mentoring me and guiding
56:06 me in leadership and for choosing me to continue the journey of
56:09 what we started two years ago
56:13 and finally to the remainder of the admin team for being the
56:16 glue that holds us together i am so grateful
56:18 for the opportunity to continue to be a southwest bronco thank
56:21 you
56:24 thank you are we taking
56:27 i know that’s all i got okay that’s all you have at this point
56:33 all right we typically pause and take a
56:35 photo again i know it feels like a lot of photos that we’re
56:37 taking but that’s what we normally do
56:38 so we’re taking a picture so if you guys will come up front we’re
56:48 going to take another photo yep
56:52 so
57:20 you
57:32 okay
57:52 all right we are now at the public comments portion of the
58:00 meeting paul how many public comments
58:01 all right we have nine numbers of nine speakers today each will
58:05 receive three minutes
58:06 in an effort to remain unbiased to the speakers of the podium i’ll
58:10 be asking the parliamentarian
58:11 which is our attorney to announce the speakers and manage the
58:14 time clock i’m going to take this
58:15 opportunity to remind the public of the rules written out in
58:18 board policy 0169.1 all comments
58:20 should be directed at the board or individual board members
58:23 staff members or other individuals
58:25 shall not be addressed by name abusive obscene or irrelevant
58:28 comments will not be permitted
58:30 but i’ll be sure to ask you to ask you to ask questions about
58:32 the public comment and the
58:34 the public comment is expected from all public comment
58:34 participants and the presiding officer may
58:35 interrupt warn or terminate the participants public comment
58:38 opportunity mr gibbs will you
58:40 please call the first three speakers bernard bryan julia anton karen
58:45 fulton
58:56 good morning my name is bernard bryan and i’m representing the
59:02 south power branch of the nwacp as
59:04 well as the concerned citizens organization plus many schools
59:10 that i’m a sac member of so i’m standing
59:13 for them right now i just want to thank dr rendell and this
59:17 board
59:19 for looking at improving the vpk program and the marginalized
59:24 community we are so grateful and so
59:28 thankful for this school board taking the time to really look at
59:31 those areas we also would like to
59:34 thank the board for uh at least looking at some strategic
59:38 planning around capital expenditures and some of the old
59:43 schools that really really need to be upgraded uh thank you for
59:47 putting that on your schedule as
59:49 well as on your radar so we just we are so elated about that so
59:54 thank you so very much
59:57 i also want to uh bring up a concern that the community is
1:00:01 really a little bit nervous about
1:00:03 we understand that uh math levels and educational gaps and
1:00:08 reading and math is one of our biggest
1:00:12 concern and we are aware that pm2 was just completed and we did
1:00:18 see some gains in some schools but
1:00:21 not a but not a lot in some other schools so we hope that you
1:00:24 will continue to put that as part of your
1:00:26 priorities and really continue to focus on that one of the
1:00:30 things that we are really concerned about
1:00:33 though is the staffing uh instability uh what we have seen in
1:00:37 our teachers and our instructional staff
1:00:41 we’ve seen around 42 uh teachers that have lost that we have
1:00:45 lost in this county
1:00:48 and one of the concerns that we are uh worried about is when we
1:00:52 look at the reasons a lot of the reasons
1:00:55 just say personal reasons our other employment so to really to
1:01:00 help stop this bleeding we really need
1:01:03 to understand what are some of those personal reasons and i know
1:01:07 some of those may not be shared with the
1:01:09 public but in but in order to drive to the root cause of why
1:01:13 teachers are leaving this county it also
1:01:16 impacts our student learning uh instability in our teaching
1:01:21 staff instability in our instructional staff
1:01:23 is a problem so if you can really take a look at why teachers
1:01:27 are leaving what are the root
1:01:29 cause so we can really attack those root causes and then my
1:01:33 final statement today is i’m concerned
1:01:36 about chronic absenteeism and some of our schools we’ve seen
1:01:40 around uh 15 of the student population where
1:01:44 some of the students are not present and some of the things that
1:01:47 we’ve seen is that some of the
1:01:49 reasons are some of the students are homeless uh some of the
1:01:53 students are sick so if we can look at
1:01:56 more virtual um solution that will be helpful so thank you thank
1:01:59 you mr bryan all right we have julia
1:02:03 anton karen fulton and allison kirvin pay attention to him years
1:02:15 roll by and issues change wax on fire and
1:02:19 driving public outcry one day is old news the next but
1:02:24 underneath all these temporary rallying cries there’s
1:02:28 some fundamental issues that remain war on woke and the content
1:02:33 of books those are hot topics today but
1:02:35 they’re just flag issues resurrecting a dead argument that some
1:02:40 folks just won’t let stay buried
1:02:42 they’re part and parcel of the very same issue that had george
1:02:47 wallace standing in the door of the
1:02:49 university of alabama in 1964 to prevent black students from
1:02:53 registering and attending that segregated
1:02:56 institution the issue is state laws versus the constitution of
1:03:01 the united states of america
1:03:03 in one of america’s most dramatic events of the 20th century
1:03:07 with his fist raised in defiance of federal
1:03:10 authority wallace made his fiery speech about so-called states
1:03:14 rights to have any law they desired
1:03:17 regardless of the supreme court or the constitution and then
1:03:21 adding to the drama the national cart national
1:03:24 guard moved him out of the way and they enforced the
1:03:27 constitution of the united states of america
1:03:30 state law and violation of the constitution isn’t worth the
1:03:35 paper that it’s printed on as this event
1:03:39 showed us now let’s fast forward to now the state of florida
1:03:44 passes thought control legislation
1:03:47 and it’s not worth the paper it’s written on because it’s a
1:03:51 violation of the constitution for the
1:03:53 government to tell people what they may or may not talk about
1:03:57 and what they may or may not read
1:04:00 or what they may or may not think in any contest between the
1:04:04 constitution versus the state law
1:04:08 the constitution wins always every single time so why am i
1:04:15 talking to you about this now because the supreme
1:04:20 court whose job it is to interpret the constitution has given us
1:04:24 the miller test to determine whether
1:04:27 words or images may be regulated as a government entity it is
1:04:32 your job your job your job to apply the miller
1:04:39 test regardless of any noise from those who want you to ignore
1:04:43 the constitution and regulate works that
1:04:46 they personally find offensive the constitution wins and for
1:04:51 those who are offended by freedom of speech
1:04:55 that’s the price of freedom
1:04:57 thank you miss anton who’s who’s next karen fulton allison kirvan
1:05:06 and kelly kirvan oh goodness um good
1:05:09 morning board uh i’m here as a months for liberty member and um
1:05:14 i want to give a public service
1:05:17 announcement we are not in favor of banning books when people
1:05:22 use the word book ban it evokes an emotion
1:05:27 it brings up an ugly history of a time when books were banned
1:05:33 that’s why it’s important to clarify
1:05:36 the facts this board has control of brevard public schools not
1:05:42 the outside community or the world we
1:05:46 live in your responsibility is to be a steward over the money
1:05:51 spent and the students education living
1:05:54 in this county i know i’m preaching to the choir by saying that
1:05:58 you all know that but i do think it is
1:06:01 something important to be to be said for our community um there
1:06:05 are laws put in place to guide
1:06:07 you in your work and we appreciate the work that has been done
1:06:11 to try to curate our reading material
1:06:13 for students i’m not sure of the process of how the books are
1:06:18 submitted to the committee
1:06:20 i know that there’s a continuum of books some are more
1:06:25 concerning than others
1:06:28 i wish we could work to get the more offensive books limited to
1:06:33 our students ahead of the books
1:06:35 that are maybe a borderline book i don’t know how to do that but
1:06:39 i think there’s other people that
1:06:41 can figure that out um i i do wish that we could uh not spend so
1:06:45 much time talking about that but talk
1:06:48 about literacy literacy is something that is important to me and
1:06:52 obviously to a lot of members of our community
1:06:55 um i appreciate the talk that this board has given um and the
1:06:59 work that’s been done for um early
1:07:01 intervention i’m a big proponent of that um because that’s where
1:07:05 literacy starts
1:07:07 and i appreciate the work to build the readers of of our
1:07:12 students it’s our responsibility to our students
1:07:16 reading is powerful it’s very powerful think of all the the
1:07:21 words that we’ve been speaking about this
1:07:24 words true words truly have the power to change our perspective
1:07:29 and transport us to another place
1:07:32 and time thank you thank you who’s our next speaker allison kirvin
1:07:38 kelly kirvin and maribel campos
1:07:47 at the last board meeting i skipped my time to talk because i
1:07:50 didn’t feel good after watching the rest of
1:07:52 the board meeting online i realized that was a mistake miss campbell
1:07:56 said no one came out to spark to talk
1:07:59 specifically about quarter thorn and roses and that was what my
1:08:02 speech was about miss mr susan said a guitar
1:08:10 had no educational value i disagree in sixth grade we learned
1:08:15 how to pick out themes in a book
1:08:17 a guitar may be a fantasy book with fairies but the themes are
1:08:21 educational
1:08:23 in fact they share some of the same themes as the bible
1:08:26 our guitar
1:08:31 our talk teaches about the power of family the weight of duty
1:08:36 the differences between good and evil
1:08:39 and the power of love and mercy yes it has scenes with sex in it
1:08:43 but that does
1:08:45 so do many of the books that you voted keep after attending many
1:08:49 review meetings i have founded
1:08:51 i found another theme rape is okay but consent is not that’s a
1:08:57 questionable lesson to be teaching
1:08:59 the students at bps isn’t it the nowhere girls by amy reed is
1:09:04 the book you’re going to vote on today
1:09:07 it is about rape culture in high school i’m not saying you
1:09:12 should vote to ban it you shouldn’t have
1:09:15 voted to ban a court of thorn and reverses either i’m just
1:09:18 calling out the hypocrisy
1:09:21 jean trent you have a lot to say about the students who speak on
1:09:25 february 6. by what stood out to me
1:09:29 was your claim that we are misformed as a student i should not
1:09:32 have to explain to you your own book
1:09:36 banning policy but here goes books are banned in two ways in bps
1:09:41 informally at the student level
1:09:43 at the school level and if the challenger isn’t happy with the
1:09:47 result through the formal challenge
1:09:50 that is that is bore that this board votes on many of the books
1:09:58 that have been banned or weeded
1:10:00 are banned before they even came before they even got to this
1:10:05 room so when we talk about books of history
1:10:09 being books of history being banned we’re referring to books
1:10:15 like the one about helen keller or mesopotamia
1:10:20 or the 16th century painter there are countless more examples
1:10:25 there are countless more examples bps has a
1:10:29 district website that explains all of this maybe you should ask
1:10:33 the staff for the link thank you
1:10:38 kelly kirvan maribel campos rebecca mcalanen
1:10:48 once again i’m going to open with the word optics it was no
1:10:55 secret that a student-led rally was being
1:10:57 organized for the last school board meeting the biggest issue
1:11:00 these students brought forth was
1:11:02 educational censorship, yet you’ve eliminated them
1:11:04 from the conversation by holding this meeting
1:11:06 during school hours.
1:11:08 If you genuinely cared about student voices,
1:11:10 you wouldn’t be voting on any book during a meeting held
1:11:13 while students are in class.
1:11:15 But let’s delve deeper into the timing of these meetings.
1:11:17 It hasn’t escaped my notice that a slew of policy changes,
1:11:20 many of which will be contentious,
1:11:22 are conveniently slated for morning meetings.
1:11:25 In doing so, you’ve not only censored students,
1:11:27 but also teachers, staff, parents, and community members.
1:11:31 This raises serious questions about transparency
1:11:33 and inclusivity in our decision-making processes.
1:11:36 Megan, you held up the selection process
1:11:38 for the Millage Oversight Committee.
1:11:40 You expressed a concern that a potential committee member
1:11:43 would influence other people against the school board.
1:11:45 So with that in mind,
1:11:47 why is this board allowing a non-BPS parent
1:11:50 to remain on your book reconsideration committee
1:11:53 when she is actively working to undermine the committee
1:11:55 in public trust and BPS?
1:11:57 She has now voted twice to retain a book,
1:11:59 then uses her political organization’s platform
1:12:02 to rally against the book.
1:12:03 Just to be clear, she’s Jean Trent’s committee member.
1:12:07 Matt Seusson used to be her teacher,
1:12:09 and she’s friends with Megan Wright.
1:12:11 It’s as if the actions you criticize others for
1:12:14 are the very actions that those
1:12:15 that are closest to you engage in.
1:12:17 Speaking of public trust,
1:12:19 Jean Trent, you claim that you want open dialogue,
1:12:21 but you’ve never replied to any email I’ve sent.
1:12:24 Megan Wright, you replied to my last email
1:12:26 by calling me names.
1:12:27 Matt Seusson, you recently used a prominent
1:12:30 and well-respected black leader of our community
1:12:32 as a human shield at the February 6th meeting,
1:12:35 where ironically, I called this board out on its racism.
1:12:39 The board’s problem isn’t that no one will talk to you.
1:12:42 It’s that you’ve spent the last year showing this community
1:12:44 exactly who you are, and the community doesn’t trust you.
1:12:48 When the community has rallied to hold you accountable
1:12:51 for the bad decisions and policies,
1:12:53 your lies, immature reactions, and harmful rhetoric
1:12:56 has been immortalized forever.
1:12:58 As we learned from Jeremiah 13:23,
1:13:01 a leopard can only change its spots if they make the effort
1:13:04 to unlearn evil and choose goodness.
1:13:06 Matt, Jean, and Megan, you have spent the last year
1:13:09 showing the community that you do not have the humility
1:13:11 to admit when you are wrong.
1:13:13 You do not have the maturity to treat all people
1:13:15 with dignity and respect.
1:13:17 You have allowed wasteful spending
1:13:18 in the pursuit of culture wars.
1:13:20 You lack the courage to stand up to our governor
1:13:23 when harmful legislation has passed.
1:13:24 And you have allowed your own prejudice, ignorance,
1:13:27 bias, and authoritarism to get in the way
1:13:29 of what’s best for Brevard public schools.
1:13:31 And just to be clear, and I’ve said this before,
1:13:34 the community supports our schools,
1:13:37 our teachers, and our staff.
1:13:39 It is you in this board that we do not trust or like.
1:13:43 - Thank you, here’s our next speaker.
1:13:46 - Maribel Campos, Rebecca McAllenan, and Carrie Taycots.
1:13:51 - The pen is mightier than the sword.
1:14:06 These are famous words which simply mean
1:14:09 that words carry a heavy weight
1:14:11 and that words have consequences.
1:14:13 A book is indeed dangerous, and words in the books
1:14:16 can lead to mental health issues and to suicide.
1:14:19 What the book review committee is lacking is common sense.
1:14:23 Unfortunately, common sense can’t be taught.
1:14:26 Pornographic books, whether they are soft porn or hard porn,
1:14:30 are not educational, and they are not saving lives either.
1:14:33 In fact, they do more harm
1:14:35 to a student’s emotional wellbeing.
1:14:37 The following book, “The Nowhere Girls” by Emmy Reed
1:14:40 is neither educational nor appropriate
1:14:42 for any minor, including high school.
1:14:45 While I read the evidence from this fictional book,
1:14:48 I want you to imagine yourselves being 13, 14 years old,
1:14:52 the youngest ages in our high schools.
1:14:55 And I’m pleading to the board to make the right decision
1:14:58 and remove this book from all schools in Brevard
1:15:00 and to protect the minds of our students and children.
1:15:06 Also, I wanted to ask, I just noticed online on the work session
1:15:11 agenda
1:15:11 that this book is listed on the formal objection and was stopped
1:15:15 for language.
1:15:16 Shouldn’t this book be removed for language or just sexual
1:15:22 content?
1:15:23 Okay. So parents, if there are minor children listening or
1:15:33 watching now, now is the time to leave,
1:15:36 as this book contains explicit sexual content and not suitable
1:15:40 for minors.
1:15:41 Yeah, that’s what I thought, and if you’re busy and, excuse me,
1:15:49 and if you’re being currently sexually abused,
1:15:52 look for one-on-one professional help for these books aren’t
1:15:56 going to help you.
1:15:57 A different girl closes her eyes and lets go, feels the boy’s
1:16:04 head between her legs,
1:16:05 painting pleasure on her body with her tongue, just like she
1:16:09 taught him.
1:16:10 The annoying fact that Jesus loved and accepted everyone without
1:16:14 judgment,
1:16:15 she alluded to him being, his being a brown-skinned socialist.
1:16:20 So, we can’t teach religion in our schools, but it is perfectly
1:16:27 okay to teach anti-Christian values.
1:16:29 So I ask, where are my religious freedoms?
1:16:32 You ready, Ennis? Are you going to be a pussy?
1:16:38 Fuck, Ennis, it’s my turn.
1:16:39 I’m going to ask you to please stop reading due to the content
1:16:43 of that book.
1:16:45 The language, you can’t, you can’t stand up there and curse from
1:16:48 the dais.
1:16:48 All right, that’s what these books contain.
1:16:50 Thank you.
1:16:51 All right, next speaker.
1:16:55 Rebecca McAllenan, Carrie Taycox, and Gina Durain.
1:17:00 Good morning.
1:17:13 I would like to address a couple of comments made at the end of
1:17:16 the last board meeting
1:17:17 by my representative for District Two.
1:17:20 My representative said facts matter and his job’s not political.
1:17:25 Well, that’s good to know.
1:17:26 But I’d also like to point out some observations after I’ve
1:17:28 attended all but one of the board review
1:17:30 committee, the book review committee meetings.
1:17:32 The last meeting for the Nowhere Girls was emotional for all
1:17:36 members except the one representing me.
1:17:39 Why?
1:17:39 Because all signs point to the fact that she’s not reading these
1:17:43 books or sold or the kite runner.
1:17:45 Clearly, she is a political appointee.
1:17:48 My representative says it’s never the wrong time to do the right
1:17:52 thing.
1:17:53 Well, Mr. Trent, the right thing would be to appoint someone who’s
1:17:55 at least trying to be unbiased.
1:17:57 When the men on the committee are moved to suggest that Nowhere
1:18:01 Girls be put on a required reading list
1:18:04 or at least an approved list for high school students and her
1:18:07 comments were totally irrelevant,
1:18:09 it doesn’t take an educational major such as myself to see that
1:18:12 she did not read the book.
1:18:13 Shame on her and shame on you for your performative emotion
1:18:18 about student success and calling out bias.
1:18:22 Yes, there are millions of books released annually, but we both
1:18:25 know that’s a false equivalency.
1:18:27 There aren’t, can you share any books that have actually harmed
1:18:31 a child?
1:18:33 I am hopeful, as always, that those who’ve read these challenged
1:18:36 books will vote with integrity to keep it.
1:18:38 As to today’s ironic statements as well as last time made, we do
1:18:43 have more important things to talk about, absolutely.
1:18:45 And as soon as we can take away our personal religious
1:18:49 obligation, our religious choices,
1:18:50 trying to put them into schools and get back to reading, you
1:18:53 know, the more you read, the better you read.
1:18:56 That’s literacy. If you are reading a difficult book and it
1:18:59 pushes you to a place that you don’t understand, that makes you
1:19:02 grow.
1:19:03 We’re not teaching social studies. We’re not teaching culture.
1:19:05 We’re not teaching diversity.
1:19:07 We’re not teaching social emotional learning. These books can
1:19:10 provide that. They’re not required reading.
1:19:13 They are not being forced on students. They are not being told
1:19:16 to read these books.
1:19:16 You can rest assured that we can multitask. We will continue to
1:19:23 question your authority,
1:19:24 as your authority is the one that takes away the books for
1:19:26 everyone.
1:19:27 Please understand this. The people that stand up here to talk
1:19:31 about books constantly are not talking
1:19:33 about a book. We’re talking about all the books, all the books
1:19:36 that deserve to be on the students’ ability to get.
1:19:39 There is no way to describe pornography because there is no
1:19:44 definition of that. And if you are reading
1:19:46 a book like The Nowhere Girls and finding some sexual pleasure
1:19:49 from it, then perhaps you’re the one
1:19:51 that needs to seek mental health. This book is important. Every
1:19:54 member of that committee was
1:19:56 emotionally involved. Mrs. Wright was there. She saw it for
1:19:59 herself. I hope that you guys will take
1:20:02 the recommendation of your committee that you selected and not
1:20:05 waste their time and energy for what they’ve
1:20:07 done to read it and review it and vote to keep The Nowhere Girls.
1:20:12 Thank you. Who’s our next speaker? Carrie Taycox and then Gina
1:20:16 Durang.
1:20:16 Carrie Tagus, thank you.
1:20:27 “Not too long ago there was a hazing incident that made
1:20:33 headlines in the school district. The hazing
1:20:35 incident was of a sexual nature. There is a current school board
1:20:38 candidate who is campaigning for a
1:20:40 seat up on that dais due to this incident. Their child was one
1:20:44 of the victims of the hazing and it was
1:20:46 reportedly so heinous that it moved this parent to run for
1:20:49 office. And yet here we are discussing an
1:20:52 abhorrent book filled with sexual violence, rape, and other
1:20:55 atrocities on whether or not our student
1:20:58 should have access to it. It promotes the use of sexual
1:21:01 activities as a weapon of power over others.
1:21:03 This book directly contradicts the kindness proclamation that
1:21:07 was mentioned earlier.
1:21:08 The mixed messaging this district sends to students by keeping
1:21:12 this book promotes that repulsive behavior.
1:21:15 Please think hard before making your recommendation. I want to
1:21:18 personally thank my school board member,
1:21:20 Jean Trent, for the fantastic work he’s doing in District 2. He
1:21:25 has kept his campaign promises
1:21:26 and I appreciate it. Thank you.
1:21:28 All right, Gina Durang.
1:21:33 Good morning board. I’m Gina Derring. I’m with the League of
1:21:39 Women Voters.
1:21:40 And I’m here to talk about the science fair that was held at
1:21:45 Space Coast Middle and High School.
1:21:48 We were judges for this. We present a trophy or a little award
1:21:54 for the Indian River Lagoon,
1:21:58 Viability and Health. We looked at six projects from some
1:22:03 students. And I got to tell you,
1:22:06 my kids were in science fair and I looked at these projects and
1:22:11 I was blown away that kids from four
1:22:14 to sixth grade would be thinking on this level. It was great. It
1:22:17 was amazing. The kids came in,
1:22:19 they came up on the stage waiting to come down and talk to the
1:22:23 judges and the knees were going up and
1:22:25 down and the hands and they were bopping up and down. It was
1:22:28 like the first day of school with the kids
1:22:30 being nervous. So the projects that we looked at, three projects
1:22:35 were about the mangroves and their
1:22:37 viability. One was about algae growth and the other one was
1:22:40 about oysters and the positive impact on
1:22:43 cleaning the lagoon. We had an amazing lunch that was provided
1:22:49 by someone, donated by someone. It was a
1:22:53 great, great lunch. The staff was amazing. They were passionate.
1:22:58 The teachers were there talking to
1:23:00 the students and talking to us to see if we have any questions.
1:23:02 The next awards or next project or next
1:23:07 science fair will be at Central Middle School on March the 14th.
1:23:11 It is my understanding it is a larger
1:23:13 group of projects and we need judges. We need judges. It’s so
1:23:19 awesome to be at this event and see the
1:23:22 excitement of the students with science. It was just so great to
1:23:27 go through and weave through the projects
1:23:30 and the kids were nervous because they thought that we were
1:23:33 going to go up and talk to them
1:23:34 and then the teachers and all of us were like, “Oh honey, we’re
1:23:37 just looking at lagoon project and just
1:23:40 smiling and telling them what a great job.” Please, if you have
1:23:44 the time, it is March the 14th at Central
1:23:48 Middle School. They provide an excellent lunch for you and you
1:23:51 do make a positive impact on these kids.
1:23:54 Again, thank you for providing the lunch. Whoever provided the
1:23:59 lunch, it was great and thank you for
1:24:02 the staff up there because they were excellent. Thank you. All
1:24:08 right, we are now at the consent agenda. Dr. Rendell.
1:24:14 Thank you, Madam Chair. There are 39 agenda items under this
1:24:20 category.
1:24:21 Thank you, Dr. Rendell. Does any board member wish to pull any
1:24:24 of the items?
1:24:27 no all right i will entertain a motion to accept the consent
1:24:32 agenda for today’s sorry
1:24:34 all right i jumped in there okay so mr i’m sorry yeah you weren’t
1:24:38 all right perfect all right any
1:24:40 discussion hearing none paul roll call please miss jenkins hi
1:24:46 miss campbell hi miss right
1:24:48 aye mr trent aye mr susan all right thank you all right we are
1:24:53 on to the action items dr rendell
1:24:57 thank you madam chair the first thank you madam chair the first
1:25:00 action item is h51 procurement
1:25:03 solicitations do we hear a motion move to approve second any
1:25:08 discussion
1:25:08 none paul rockel miss jenkins miss campbell hi miss wright hi mr
1:25:17 trent mr susan all right
1:25:18 thank you madam chair the next action item is h52 book review
1:25:23 and challenges the book titled nowhere
1:25:26 girls do we hear motion math chair i move that we remove this
1:25:31 book from our libraries and shelves
1:25:34 i’ll second that any discussion yes i’ll go first since i made
1:25:37 the motion
1:25:38 um i wanted to make sure to get this on the record because i
1:25:42 think that um you know i anticipate that
1:25:46 my decision decision this board will be um misinterpreted misconstrued
1:25:51 but at least i’m
1:25:51 going to have it on the record i actually am very disappointed
1:25:54 in some of our groups for putting
1:25:56 selective parts out on social media as if that was the gist of
1:26:01 the book that tells me they didn’t read
1:26:04 the whole thing those parts actually are not the parts that
1:26:07 bother me because the book is about trying
1:26:10 to defeat rape culture that i can get behind the book is about
1:26:14 trying to get people to stand up for
1:26:17 what’s right and i absolutely can get behind that and so those
1:26:21 parts to me are not um the objectionable
1:26:24 parts there are still some what i would call graphic or explicit
1:26:28 they’re very short they’re very brief
1:26:31 but parts um one of them was was read that bothered me this one
1:26:34 i by the way i know miss wright you’ve
1:26:36 committed to reading all of them i have not but this particular
1:26:39 ones that are i think are going to
1:26:40 be on the line um i’ve you know decided i’m going to read them
1:26:43 myself and i finished this one the other
1:26:45 day at 4 30 in the morning so um i there’s just still some
1:26:50 things and that were to me on the border
1:26:53 actually just crossing over the edge of what state statute
1:26:56 requires um you know i don’t i we’ve had this
1:27:00 conversation so much in the public about the miller test and and
1:27:03 what is our job i will tell you what
1:27:05 our job is our job is not to determine what books anybody in in
1:27:08 this district can read our job is
1:27:11 to determine what books we will provide to them with taxpayer
1:27:14 dollars and i take that responsibility
1:27:16 very seriously i’ve said that many times but the other picture
1:27:19 of this is you know we’re we ask our
1:27:21 committee and i i very much appreciate the committee and i don’t
1:27:25 take lightly my decision to go against
1:27:26 their recommendation because i think they’ve done a really good
1:27:29 job and they’ve been
1:27:30 very thoughtful um but in this book in particular when we’re
1:27:33 asked to take things as a whole to me
1:27:36 that makes this book even more problematic because as a whole it’s
1:27:40 a book about teenage sex teenagers
1:27:42 having sex and even if the book the main message is against rape
1:27:47 culture and against those things what
1:27:50 we’re left with on the other side is not a positive message and
1:27:56 i will tell you this comes straight from
1:28:00 um let me read you a couple of things board uh one is out of our
1:28:06 own policy
1:28:06 on comprehensive health education we have um which is policy 2417
1:28:12 number one letter d says for students in grades six through 12
1:28:18 an awareness of the benefits of
1:28:19 sexual abstinence as the expected standard and the consequences
1:28:22 of teenage pregnancy
1:28:24 there’s not a standard of abstinence there are some people who
1:28:28 kind of say abstinence in there but it
1:28:30 but it’s not in there so as a whole this is this is not the
1:28:32 general problem because we’re not going
1:28:34 to go clear the shelves of every single book and every library
1:28:37 that has a sexual moment um because some
1:28:41 some of them are not very described and they wouldn’t break the
1:28:43 law we’re not doing this but this book
1:28:44 taken as a whole you can’t get beyond it and one of the um this
1:28:49 is from one of the reviews that our media
1:28:51 specialist can use to choose whether they’re going to pick this
1:28:55 book here’s a review here’s the last
1:28:56 sentence of it says a thoughtful literary portrayal of female
1:29:01 sexuality and a culture that often rejects it
1:29:03 so it’s out it’s that’s it that’s the summary from um what what
1:29:10 we’re looking at so i can’t
1:29:12 when i this one you know like i said it’s on the line but some
1:29:15 of them you know there was a scene in
1:29:17 in kite runner that it was not explicit and that was not the
1:29:20 point of the book there was a scene in
1:29:22 some of the other books and they weren’t explicit and it also
1:29:25 wasn’t the point of the book there are
1:29:26 some very brief scenes that i actually think cross the line um
1:29:31 but also as a theme of the book um i i just
1:29:34 can’t um go there with that one so that’s why i made the the
1:29:37 motion for us to to remove this one
1:29:41 thank you miss campbell does anybody any further discussion miss
1:29:44 jenkins do you have anything to
1:29:45 say yeah okay um respectfully i heard a lot of me’s and i’s uh
1:29:51 in something that we’ve appointed people
1:29:55 to a committee to and we’re essentially wasting their time which
1:29:58 i’ve said it over and over again
1:30:00 if the board is going to read these books and make their own
1:30:04 determination and disregard the
1:30:06 recommendation of the committee why do we have the committee in
1:30:09 the first place first we went from
1:30:11 all of these voting members with people who have expertise in
1:30:14 these areas downgraded it to appointed
1:30:16 members of the board and now we’re not even taking their
1:30:19 consideration seriously so if that’s what
1:30:21 we’re going to do ultimately and the power lies with the board
1:30:25 then disband the committee and stop wasting
1:30:27 people’s time stop wasting our staff’s time who have to oversee
1:30:32 the committee and be here it doesn’t make
1:30:35 sense it’s not it’s not adding anything because if you’re going
1:30:39 to read it yourself and take your own
1:30:41 interpretation then that’s the choice that you made so the
1:30:44 committee makes no sense uh the other thing
1:30:47 that frustrates me is you can have your own personal beliefs
1:30:53 about something but you cannot afflict and
1:30:57 flick that upon 70 000 students across brevard public schools
1:31:01 pornography is the intent to arouse if you are aroused by rape
1:31:10 scenes
1:31:12 that is a different problem it is not the book books are not harming
1:31:16 children we waste so much time on
1:31:20 this nonsense so again i’m with wasting less time let’s not have
1:31:25 a committee if we’re not going to take
1:31:28 their recommendations seriously there’s no point we’re wasting
1:31:32 staff’s time we’re wasting our community’s
1:31:34 time if this is what we’re going to do going forward then own it
1:31:39 and do it there’s no point of this
1:31:41 anymore never mind the fact that what has been made in public
1:31:47 comments is very clear as well we have
1:31:49 people on this committee who don’t even have students in our
1:31:52 school system the governor just had a press
1:31:54 conference the other day stating that exact same fact if you are
1:31:57 not a parent in the school system
1:31:58 you shouldn’t be challenging books but yet here we are doing
1:32:01 that it makes no sense just own it if
1:32:05 you’re if that’s what you feel and you feel like it’s the right
1:32:08 thing to do great i respect that you
1:32:10 that you have the guts to say that i don’t agree with it but i
1:32:12 respect you have the guts to say that
1:32:13 but then let’s own that we’re wasting people’s time because our
1:32:16 staff can be doing way more
1:32:18 important things than sitting here watching a group of adults
1:32:21 discuss a book that their recommendations
1:32:23 aren’t going to be taken seriously anyway
1:32:28 thank you mr susan i’m good you’re good mr trent all right
1:32:33 committees
1:32:35 committees give recommendations just like the discipline
1:32:39 committee doesn’t mean we have to
1:32:42 abide by them they don’t make policy we do we’re not going to
1:32:46 disband all our committees in the district
1:32:49 i think that would be not very productive so we knew the
1:32:53 committee was going to give a recommendation
1:32:55 they’re not making policy we respect their work on that
1:33:00 committee in reading of the books and if
1:33:03 there’s something that comes out and we disagree with it then
1:33:07 that’s why we’re here we’re the ones
1:33:09 that are going to be responsible for work for ultimately that
1:33:13 decision decision out of the committee
1:33:16 do we do we keep it do we not it’s you know they they’ve done
1:33:19 their job and i i respect each and every
1:33:22 one of them so i mean we have an audit committee discipline
1:33:25 committee i’m sure we have a few more
1:33:27 that they recommend and then we take their recommendation
1:33:31 i find it hard to sit up here and to say i am just going to
1:33:37 parent my child and my morals and my
1:33:41 values are not going to be put out in what i vote on here that’s
1:33:44 why i was elected and that’s what i’ll
1:33:47 continue to do it isn’t a free-for-all um ultimately i have to
1:33:52 go to bed at night i have to put my head
1:33:54 on that pillow knowing i’ve done the best for each and every
1:33:57 student that’s out there and if they want
1:34:00 to go and get books outside of our taxpayers dollars then so be
1:34:07 it do it but just not when i have a say so
1:34:10 i think i have the responsibility um to say something as a
1:34:15 parent i have a 12 year old daughter and when
1:34:18 i read this stuff and i want them to read it now we can get that
1:34:22 message across in a lot less graphic
1:34:25 way than seen here i have a 17 year old boy i don’t want to put
1:34:29 these ideas in his head
1:34:31 i have given this material to numerous parents with young
1:34:35 children
1:34:37 i have not had one say well let me read the entire book and get
1:34:41 the context of it
1:34:42 honestly i have i did i don’t read all these books i read this
1:34:48 book
1:34:48 and thank you for being honest and you know what we can go
1:34:54 against what the committee recommends that’s
1:34:56 that’s not only our option that’s our duty i set up here a few
1:35:01 maybe a month ago you guys are going to
1:35:03 love the committee when it’s in your favor but there’s an
1:35:06 opportunity or there’s a chance it may
1:35:08 not go in in what your favor is and this is possibly another
1:35:12 case
1:35:13 language matters you can’t unread something i mean the language
1:35:24 itself is enough not even the storyline
1:35:26 you’ll wonder why we have discipline issues in the classroom
1:35:29 when you can use the f word 50 times in
1:35:32 a magazine or in a book and you wonder why you get that response
1:35:35 back from a student when you say put
1:35:37 your earbud down or when you call home or when they say well
1:35:42 that’s just the culture well where are they
1:35:46 getting this our taxpayers are paying for this and putting the
1:35:49 manuals the how-to manuals in our libraries
1:35:53 and when this is all over with and our time is up here are we
1:35:58 going to be say say are we going to
1:36:00 be able to say we did what we could do to put the best material
1:36:04 in front of our children
1:36:06 you don’t just wrap it up i don’t even want to go there it’s not
1:36:14 the best way to get the message
1:36:15 across i’m all for against all the the rape culture but i don’t
1:36:20 believe this is a self-help book that
1:36:22 needs to be tucked away in our libraries this this book’s not
1:36:25 even being checked out anyway if you
1:36:26 look at the data it’s just not but it just doesn’t need to be
1:36:29 there because this is a
1:36:30 precedent that we’re going to set and i will not be here and and
1:36:33 set this precedent if possible
1:36:35 thank you mr trent okay um so i’ve been very open and honest
1:36:42 about the fact that i’m reading
1:36:43 these books alongside the committee because i believe that there
1:36:45 are times when the entirety of
1:36:46 the book does matter i am this one is a little different for me
1:36:50 because let me tell you i
1:36:51 typically um i have read at least a good portion of it before
1:36:54 the committee meets this one i didn’t
1:36:56 get the book in my hands until the day the committee met so i
1:37:00 saw the committee deliberate and then i i
1:37:02 thought okay five zero wow all right and then i went home and i
1:37:05 read the book and
1:37:09 i love the idea of what this book is trying to say i really do i
1:37:12 wholeheartedly think it’s a great idea
1:37:15 what i don’t agree with is the fact that there are multiple foul
1:37:19 languages mr trent brought up
1:37:21 the fact that they talk about kids that are getting together and
1:37:23 i mean underage drinking there’s all
1:37:25 kinds of things that are going on in this book that are not
1:37:28 acceptable and while it might be the
1:37:30 community standard or the standard for a teenager it’s not one
1:37:33 that i support it’s not one that i would
1:37:35 ever encourage and it’s not one that i could sit here and say
1:37:38 yes i would love to give this book to
1:37:40 anybody i wouldn’t give this book to anybody honestly based on
1:37:43 what is written inside of it
1:37:45 and so i’m glad miss campbell that you brought forward this
1:37:48 motion i know it’s controversial at
1:37:49 the end of the day the committee makes a recommendation it’s
1:37:52 exactly why we changed the policy because the
1:37:54 very first book if you’ll remember that they reviewed the
1:37:57 committee made the decision and then i thought
1:37:59 well wait a minute what happens if the committee makes a
1:38:02 decision that we don’t agree with because
1:38:04 as board members we are supposed to be doing our research and
1:38:08 reading and understanding and asking
1:38:10 questions and i’m willing to bet not very many of us sounds like
1:38:13 you read the book it sounds like mr
1:38:15 trent says he read the book uh not not everyone’s reading the
1:38:18 books and so it’s important it really
1:38:20 is and so i don’t wholeheartedly disagree with your statement
1:38:22 miss jenkins on why have the committee but
1:38:24 i think the committee offers a little more welcoming of a
1:38:27 deliberation process to happen and for people to be able to
1:38:30 spectate that and see that because when we’re up here we don’t
1:38:33 exactly always get to deliberate
1:38:34 on on why we feel the way that we feel this book i wish i really
1:38:37 really wish that this book would
1:38:40 have come through as something that i could wholeheartedly say i
1:38:42 believe this should go in the hands
1:38:44 of a teenager because the message of that what they’re trying to
1:38:48 get across is a very important message
1:38:50 and so now i will dedicate time to researching another book that
1:38:53 we can put in place of this book
1:38:55 because the message still needs to get across but this is not
1:38:58 the best means to deliver the message
1:39:00 so i appreciate you making the motion i really do i appreciate
1:39:03 everyone’s thought on this
1:39:06 you would like one more turn okay all right go ahead miss campbell
1:39:09 just very briefly because this was
1:39:10 brought up um pornography is not the only standard that state
1:39:13 statute requires us to take a look at i
1:39:16 would not actually not say that this book is pornographic as the
1:39:19 definition of state statute however
1:39:20 one of the other things we’re supposed to be looking at is
1:39:23 sexual content conduct and there is actually
1:39:25 a qualifier on the ones that we would um that we would make a
1:39:29 decision to remove because of sexual conduct it
1:39:32 actually talks about what would be underneath that uh
1:39:35 appropriate for certain grade for whatever age
1:39:38 level we remove it it’s not an automatic out like pornography is
1:39:41 an automatic out um so i think this is
1:39:44 one of those that falls under that category so i just want to be
1:39:47 really clear pornography is not the
1:39:49 only thing that we can use the only standard that we can use to
1:39:52 make that decision and i think um if we
1:39:55 make the decision to remove this we will be um will be in line
1:39:58 with state statute and our policy
1:40:01 i have a follow-up thank you go ahead miss jenkins um first uh i
1:40:05 don’t believe mr trent said that he
1:40:07 read the book uh and nor did his committee member um there were
1:40:11 multiple board members who made a comment
1:40:14 and i think this is important not only to say the public but
1:40:16 clearly the news was in here this morning
1:40:18 for this so i’m sure they’re paying attention um there was
1:40:21 multiple statements about how sometimes the
1:40:24 entirety of book does matter no actually matters every single
1:40:27 time that’s the law that’s how the law is written
1:40:29 the entirety of the book matters every single time and to say
1:40:33 foul language and underage drinking and
1:40:36 all these things that you don’t feel comfortable with that’s not
1:40:39 the law that’s not what the law says
1:40:42 so to take those into consideration for the decision you’re not
1:40:46 basing it off of the law that you claim
1:40:48 is driving this policy in the first place so you guys need to
1:40:52 take a step back and and make a decision
1:40:55 why if if if you feel like it’s the the sexual conversation in
1:40:58 there then then fine that’s part
1:41:00 of the law that’s what you’re deciding it on but to add all of
1:41:03 these other personal feelings
1:41:04 that that doesn’t fall in line with our own policy that we
1:41:08 drafted and why we have the committee in
1:41:10 the first place no one’s talking about disbanding all of our
1:41:14 committees my point is there is no point of
1:41:18 wasting staff’s time if this is what’s going to happen every
1:41:22 time there is a non-solid 5-0 vote or 4-1 vote
1:41:26 it’s a waste of time it doesn’t make sense
1:41:30 any other follow-up no none hearing none all right we have a
1:41:39 motion and a second
1:41:40 paul roll call please miss jenkins so to clarify the motion is
1:41:44 to remove it so yay means to remove
1:41:47 that okay miss jenkins nay miss campbell yes miss wright yes mr
1:41:52 trent yes mr susan yes
1:41:55 thank you all right um i know i said yes too i that’s saying all
1:42:00 right just to be clear because
1:42:02 on the agenda we have mr gibbs i want to just clarify because
1:42:05 the the agenda has the book review
1:42:08 challenge she made a different motion do we need to go back and
1:42:12 no clean up this motion recommended
1:42:14 motion was to approve the committees but the motion that was
1:42:18 moved and seconded on the floor was to
1:42:20 remove from library okay i was just making sure we didn’t need
1:42:23 to clear this one okay all right uh
1:42:25 dr rendell thank you madam chair the last action item is h53
1:42:29 orchid lake educational facilities impact
1:42:32 fees deferral do i hear a motion yes madam chair i am going to
1:42:39 move that we do not offer this impact fee
1:42:43 deferral to the orchid lake development second second all right
1:42:48 any discussion yeah i’ll go first i’m just
1:42:51 going to be very brief on this one um i just hasn’t set well
1:42:55 with me and after conversations with dr rendell
1:42:58 actually had a conversation with another organization that’s
1:43:01 doing something similar that we compared
1:43:04 this to i you know when we talk about the we did this for um st
1:43:07 stephen’s way and i just clarified with
1:43:11 them um this week because i want to make sure i’m trying to
1:43:14 picture the differences because it was
1:43:16 presented to us as this is the same thing but i believe it’s not
1:43:18 the same thing um just just for
1:43:21 your awareness um when we did that for st stephen’s way there
1:43:25 they are restricting the housing they’re
1:43:28 doing for it’s it’s 100 for homeless families um it’s it they’re
1:43:32 restricting theirs to the two and i i
1:43:35 didn’t write i didn’t bring the paper i wrote it down on but
1:43:39 specifically for x the the hud definition
1:43:42 of extremely low and very low uh income levels and so to qualify
1:43:47 for those there’s not it’s not just
1:43:50 the regular and i am all for trying to find options for
1:43:53 affordable housing but these impact fees are
1:43:55 also fees that we use to build schools for the people who are
1:43:59 moving in and so and we need those we
1:44:02 we want to build excellent facilities in in every area um and so
1:44:06 i just don’t feel comfortable with
1:44:08 doing that i know i know it wasn’t they made clear to us it wasn’t
1:44:10 their original intent to
1:44:11 get it but when they found out we did it for this organization
1:44:13 and maybe a little bit for us
1:44:15 um so i that’s why i said that’s why i’m making the motion
1:44:17 because i do believe these are two
1:44:19 different type of projects and i don’t feel the same um uh is
1:44:23 necessary for this project like we did for
1:44:27 st stephen’s way thank you any other discussion
1:44:32 hearing none all right so paul can you read the amended motion
1:44:42 sorry yep move to reject the impact
1:44:44 fee deferral okay all right so paul roll call please miss jenkins
1:44:49 miss campbell aye that’s right
1:44:52 aye mr trent aye mr susan aye all right um we are moving on to
1:44:57 the information agenda which includes
1:44:59 one item for board review it may be brought back for action at a
1:45:02 subsequent meeting no action should
1:45:05 be taken on this item today does any board member wish to
1:45:08 discuss these items no all right and we are
1:45:12 now at board member reports do any board members have any
1:45:15 further um things to report or discuss i just
1:45:18 have one miss jenkins will go down the line that’s fine yeah um
1:45:23 i just want to publicly uh address and
1:45:27 ask that the board get updated on the pending public records
1:45:31 lawsuit at some point uh like we traditionally
1:45:34 do for most of our lawsuits not right here in this moment but i
1:45:37 want to say it out loud thank you
1:45:40 okay miss campbell um i was gonna give my mind just went blank i
1:45:48 was gonna give a legislative update but
1:45:49 i’m i will save that for next time around because uh we’re there
1:45:53 hasn’t been a whole ton of movement
1:45:56 um but i will actually uh if you’re not getting the fsba
1:45:58 legislative updates every week i’ll are you
1:46:00 getting them because if not i can i can forward them to you
1:46:03 because russ also sent out a yes thank you
1:46:06 thank you mr brunson sending them out too so we do expect that
1:46:09 they’re going to be all wrapped up by
1:46:10 the end of next week with the budget so keep our fingers crossed
1:46:13 thank you mr susan yeah there’s two
1:46:15 things i wanted to say um the first one is is that we had a spousal
1:46:19 um insurability form that many of
1:46:21 our individuals pay what they do is they fill it out and if you
1:46:25 fill it out and properly you say that
1:46:28 your spouse does or does not have insurance and if they do have
1:46:30 insurance at another location that they
1:46:32 work at then we are charged we charge them 250 to our health
1:46:36 care plan and if they don’t have it then
1:46:38 they don’t have to to pay that we had 37 individuals i’m not
1:46:43 sure if you guys were cc’d on the email
1:46:45 that came out from staff but we had 37 individuals who had not
1:46:50 paid that fee of or had not filled out
1:46:52 that form and had been impacted with that fee the fee totals out
1:46:57 at 3900 during the year so what i did
1:47:00 was i asked staff i said hey um i truly believe that we should
1:47:04 no longer be impacting our people on this
1:47:07 because they may have made a mistake we had one individual that
1:47:10 had reached out that kind of signaled
1:47:11 it to me um and she had said that she had filled out the form
1:47:15 previous years and then all of a sudden she
1:47:17 got to a situation where she didn’t fill it out this year
1:47:19 because she thought that it would just roll
1:47:21 and now she was being impacted so it not being anything in
1:47:24 claims or anything like that and we
1:47:26 have the ability to um stop that from happening so that we can
1:47:30 not have our people who decide to fill
1:47:32 out the form um not impacted 3900 staff came back and said that
1:47:37 they’re going to resend out to the 37
1:47:40 individuals that had not filled it out the form and if they
1:47:43 properly fill it out then they will no longer
1:47:44 deduct it from their their uh their paychecks and then they can
1:47:47 move forward so i just wanted to give
1:47:49 you guys an update on that is this the the smoking um no this is
1:47:54 because i when you go into the
1:47:57 insurance i just want to clarify you talk about it being a form
1:47:59 but when you go in you have to go in
1:48:01 every year we tell our employees every year it’s don’t assume
1:48:03 that you’re going to get whatever last
1:48:05 year they have to go in it’s actually a pop-up that you can’t
1:48:08 get passed um i know because this i have to
1:48:10 do this myself that says with your your spouse you know do they
1:48:14 have coverage with another employer
1:48:17 and it asks you have to do that there’s there’s not an extra
1:48:19 form it’s my understanding unless you
1:48:21 know because i did it even just this last open enrollment period
1:48:24 so you you actually can’t get
1:48:25 past that so i i’d i’d rather have that clarified because it’s
1:48:29 you know the report the purpose of
1:48:31 that is that if someone has the opportunity to get insurance
1:48:35 with their own employer we shouldn’t be
1:48:37 footing the bill you know they they want to have our insurance
1:48:40 because they think it’s better or
1:48:42 whatever but they have opportunity to get insurance through
1:48:44 their employer then it’s not the same we
1:48:46 we offer lower for someone who doesn’t have offered because we
1:48:49 want to do that if your spouse can’t get
1:48:50 insurance because they’re let’s say a stay-at-home mom or they
1:48:53 they work for themselves or whatever we
1:48:54 want to offer that and i’m all for that but if they have the
1:48:56 opportunity through their employer to get
1:48:58 those benefits then that’s why that extra charge is there
1:49:02 because our primary focus in this is to make sure we’re
1:49:05 taking care of our employees yeah i think i think where you’re
1:49:10 so there were 37 people out of 900 that
1:49:14 filled out the form or did not like they chose one way or the
1:49:17 other there were 3 700 people that did
1:49:19 not fill out the form there was 37 of them right nine 37
1:49:23 individuals 900 did or didn’t so however that
1:49:27 form looks on your site it um you know what i mean it’s it they
1:49:31 did not fill it out and what the problem
1:49:33 that we had was is that you’re 100 right that is a truly good
1:49:38 program to be able to charge if people
1:49:41 have insurance in other places because they’re impacting our
1:49:44 health care that’s not the intent
1:49:45 of this the intent was we have teachers and and as this started
1:49:48 happening it started snowballing to
1:49:50 where we have a principal that has the same thing just people
1:49:53 that just did not fill out the form that
1:49:55 are now going to be charged up to 3900 dollars and they asked
1:49:59 may we be able to fill out the form again
1:50:01 so that’s all so it’s not that you’re sitting so what the staff
1:50:04 is doing is just allowing them to fill
1:50:06 it out properly if they come back and they say yes my spouse
1:50:10 does not have insurance the correct way
1:50:12 then they will be taken off the deduction but if they do come
1:50:15 back and they say my my spouse does have
1:50:19 insurance they get charged or if they sit there and don’t fill
1:50:22 out the form after the second one
1:50:23 they’re just going to get charged but it gives them the
1:50:26 opportunity to not impact our teachers in a
1:50:28 way that um you know what i mean may hurt them financially over
1:50:32 just not being able to file a
1:50:34 form and there was only 37 of them and i didn’t know that you
1:50:36 guys weren’t cc’d on that email so i’ll
1:50:38 just forward it but staff’s already said that they’re okay they’ll
1:50:40 send it out and then identify the
1:50:42 people who may not have had the opportunity to fill it out
1:50:44 before and then you correct the situation okay
1:50:46 okay all right um i had one other thing so i went to i just want
1:50:51 to give you guys a quick update i went
1:50:53 to harbor city um and when i was speaking to many of the leaders
1:50:56 there both the sack and some of the
1:50:58 other people something that keeps coming up routinely over and
1:51:02 over again is this mtss process of you
1:51:05 know what i mean evaluations and stuff like that it happened
1:51:08 when i was at quest it happened in a lot
1:51:09 of different places um i just wanted to say i wanted to give a
1:51:13 lot of credit to miss pam dampier
1:51:15 because yesterday when we had a conversation and during my one-on-one
1:51:18 we had sat down with dr rendell
1:51:20 she had said that her staff is evaluating that process to try to
1:51:23 look at best practices and look at how
1:51:26 we may be able to reduce that amount of time more effectively um
1:51:29 you know what i mean have that
1:51:30 piece so i just want to give you a quick update and a big shout
1:51:33 out to miss pam dampier for her work
1:51:35 um on that discipline and stuff like that and all the people
1:51:38 that don’t know what the mtss is it’s
1:51:40 the evaluation of students who have extreme um issues as far as
1:51:43 inside of our schools all right all right
1:51:46 thank you mr that’s it discussion or updates okay i have one
1:51:49 quick thing i just want to bring up because
1:51:51 it was a couple things were said and i just want to clarify uh
1:51:53 mr brian i believe you brought up the
1:51:55 asking the question of why someone leaves the district and i
1:51:58 wanted to just i i asked the
1:52:00 same question because recently i saw job fatigue was listed as
1:52:04 one of the options it was not previously
1:52:06 so the categories that an employee can select is compensation
1:52:09 personal relocation new job opportunity
1:52:11 job fatigue career development and advancement there’s not a
1:52:14 whole lot that we can do to necessarily make
1:52:16 them pick one um but those are the the categories are there so
1:52:19 that we can track the data a little
1:52:21 closer uh the second clarifying thing that i just want to bring
1:52:24 up is that um the board meeting is
1:52:26 being moved this conversation happened in december the board was
1:52:30 it october okay all right i thought it
1:52:34 was december but anyways okay so we had the conversation about
1:52:36 because we are statutorily required to have
1:52:39 one school board meeting a month but our district has two a lot
1:52:41 of months we have a lot more than two
1:52:43 in order to be fair to everyone we made an effort to have one in
1:52:47 the morning and one in the afternoon
1:52:49 this was not created because of the social media thing that that
1:52:52 people are putting out there this
1:52:53 was done before that ever even existed uh the social media
1:52:57 campaign that’s going on out there and again
1:53:00 not everyone works nine to five so this gives people the ability
1:53:03 to come to our school board meetings
1:53:04 that maybe work nighttime jobs as well so that was why that took
1:53:09 place um the other thing the special
1:53:12 meetings historically speaking special meetings are always held
1:53:15 at 9 30 in the morning so the policy
1:53:17 reviews that we have done and you can go on the school board’s
1:53:20 website at brevardschools.org you
1:53:21 can look up the school board meetings that we have had for years
1:53:24 past and you will see every time
1:53:26 there is a special meeting such as policy review meeting that we’re
1:53:29 having those are always held at
1:53:31 9 30 long before this board was ever up here so just to set some
1:53:34 records clear that that is not a stunt to
1:53:37 silence anyone’s voice it is the way it has always been done
1:53:39 these are conversations that have been
1:53:41 had out in the open um this is not some political stunt as some
1:53:44 people are liking to spend it i would
1:53:46 like to just clarify and correct that for the public so that
1:53:48 they’re aware all right and um dr rindell
1:53:52 do you have anything further to report to us i do not at this
1:53:54 time okay all right we are going to take a short
1:53:56 recess to move into the superintendent’s conference room um for
1:53:59 the consideration of a student
1:54:01 expulsion we’ll return to the boardroom to adjourn the meeting
1:54:04 at the end of the of the confidential
1:54:05 meeting so i’m just going to go ahead and let you know we’re
1:54:15 going to recess at this time thank you
1:54:31 we’re going to go ahead and let you know we’re going to go ahead
1:54:34 and see you next time
1:54:35 we have to go ahead and see you next time
2:05:31 we are going ahead and see you next time
2:05:33 we have to go ahead and see you next time
2:21:01 all right thank you we are back from our recess
2:21:21 this is a very peculiar process that we are going through
2:21:23 but we are now able to adjourn the meeting
2:21:25 there is no further business on the agenda
2:21:27 so we will adjourn thank you
2:21:29 we have to go ahead and see you next time