Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
0:00 music
2:56 Thank you.
5:25 Ms. Campbell?
5:26 Here.
5:26 Ms. Wright?
5:27 Here.
5:28 Mr. Trent?
5:29 All right.
5:30 Mr. Susan?
5:30 Here.
5:31 All right.
5:31 Wonderful.
5:31 Will you please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance?
5:37 I pledge you to the flag of the United States of America and to
5:42 the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible,
5:46 with liberty and justice for all.
5:49 All right, so our work session today does not have a real hefty
5:54 agenda.
5:55 The first thing that we have is the discontinued book title
5:59 update.
5:59 I’m going to turn the floor over to Ms. Harris.
6:02 I think you’re going to give us a quick update on this.
6:04 So good afternoon to our board members and Dr. Rendell.
6:08 We, in front of you have a handout, and these are titles that
6:11 were removed at a board meeting, and we’re just looking for some
6:16 direction for next steps and just some clarity.
6:20 So what the language in the law says is it speaks to objective
6:24 titles that are silenced due to pornographic information or the
6:29 language around sexual content.
6:32 And so at that meeting, we pulled quite a few titles just as we
6:36 gained clarity.
6:37 And so in the chart in front of you, you’ll see some of the
6:41 titles were on our formal objection list and were stopped for
6:44 sexual content.
6:46 You see the light blue column.
6:48 Those are titles that are on our formal objection list, but were
6:52 stopped for language that was not necessarily pornographic.
6:56 And then the third white column, those are titles that were
7:00 removed, but they are not on our formal objection list.
7:04 And you see you have the title allegedly that was stopped for
7:08 language.
7:09 And then the next two, they were stopped for sexual content.
7:12 And so we’re looking for direction moving forward of that white
7:17 column.
7:18 Looking around is your definition of objective titles, those
7:23 titles that have gone through the objective, the formal
7:27 objection process, and that makes them an objective title.
7:30 Or I know there has been some conversation around objective
7:34 title is once our community stakeholder comes up and speaks to
7:38 that title, that that is their form of objection.
7:43 So we’re looking just for next steps around, obviously, when we
7:47 printed this out, this was before we knew of the vote for Nowhere
7:51 Girl.
7:51 So we’re clear on what to do with that one, but all of these
7:54 titles are currently not on the shelves.
7:57 So we’re looking for the far right column next steps based on
8:02 are we acting as though they are objected if they were stopped
8:07 for sexual content?
8:08 Are we considering them objected because the stakeholder came to
8:12 the, came up and read them aloud and then they were stopped for
8:16 sexual conduct or are we saying they did not have, they were not
8:20 formally objected?
8:21 Okay.
8:22 I know this is sounding clear as mud, but it’s just, we’re kind
8:25 of, we want to be clear.
8:26 We’re navigating through a fun topic.
8:28 So just for clarification, I know, Paul, you just got back, so I
8:30 apologize for the last minute question I’m going to ask you.
8:33 But if they were objected because of sexual content, I believe,
8:37 my opinion would be that they should be on the removed books
8:40 list because they were stopped from being read, even if they’ve
8:43 not been formally challenged.
8:44 That’s my opinion.
8:45 Question about being stopped for language versus being stopped
8:49 for sexual content.
8:51 Can you tell me, I don’t, does the statute clearly define that
8:54 you must stop it because of, do you have it up right now?
8:57 All right, go ahead.
8:57 If you have it up, if you’ll read it for me.
8:59 Yeah, I thought this would be helpful to all the conversations.
9:01 So it’s that section of 1006.28, just so y’all can find it later
9:07 or go back.
9:08 It’s number one little, I’m not, just find it.
9:14 I lost track of which number it is.
9:16 But in there, that, that part says parents shall have the right
9:19 to read passages from any material that is subject to, that is
9:22 subject to an objection.
9:24 If the school board denies a parent the right to read passages
9:27 due to content that meets the requirements under sub, sub, sub,
9:31 paragraph B1, which is pornographic or prohibited under 847.0
9:35 and 2,
9:36 the district shall discontinue the use of the material.
9:39 If the district school board finds that any material and then,
9:45 right, and then it talks about, then it goes on to other things
9:47 that is not related specifically to them talking to it.
9:51 But if it has to do with two through four, which is the sexual
9:54 content, conduct part, that is, it uses the same words as far as,
10:01 so it doesn’t say anything about language.
10:02 Which it’s only about pornographic sexual conduct, those things.
10:07 So, but I will tell you the, the result of all of them, just to
10:11 go back to Ms. Harris’s question, is if the school board denies
10:16 a right, the school district shall discontinue.
10:19 If the school board finds any material meets, you know, B1, the
10:23 pornographic one, they shall discontinue the use of the material.
10:27 If it’s two through four, which is the sexual conduct, the
10:29 district shall discontinue the use of the material.
10:32 So, to me, the result is the same regardless.
10:35 So, it is, these books, if we own them, they are, and they are
10:39 subject to objection.
10:41 So, my opinion is that if we stopped them for sexual conduct,
10:47 content, that they, whether they’re on our formal list or not on
10:52 our formal list,
10:53 that they should be removed, but not for language.
10:57 I’m, I’m of that same opinion.
10:59 I, I believe if I stopped them for language, it’s no different
11:01 than if somebody gets up there and starts hurling curse words
11:04 from the, the podium.
11:05 We have to stop them from talking.
11:06 It doesn’t mean that they’re not allowed to speak.
11:07 It just means they’re not allowed to speak the way that they’re
11:08 speaking.
11:09 So, my, I’m of the same understanding if we stop them due to
11:12 language, it still needs to go through the process.
11:15 If they were stopped due to sexual content, then they need to go
11:17 on the list of removed books.
11:19 I.e. this column that you have on the right-hand side that are
11:23 not.
11:23 Which.
11:24 This column here.
11:25 These are not.
11:26 But not all of them.
11:27 The first one, it wouldn’t be.
11:28 The other two, it would be.
11:29 So, the first one on that far, far right column, the first one
11:31 was stopped for language.
11:32 The other two were stopped for sexual content.
11:34 So, we would be.
11:35 It would move to the.
11:36 I’m just looking at that first one that was stopped for language.
11:38 Okay.
11:39 But it’s not on the formal objection list right now anyways.
11:41 Correct.
11:42 Okay.
11:43 That’s why we were unclear just with the language around
11:47 objective.
11:48 It doesn’t say formal objective.
11:50 Right.
11:51 Okay.
11:52 All right.
11:53 Board, what’s the rest?
11:54 There’s only two of us that have weighed in on this.
11:55 Does anybody else want to weigh in on this?
11:56 I concur.
11:57 Yeah.
11:58 I want to weigh in.
11:59 So, I have a couple of questions.
12:00 First question being, did we confirm whether or not these are
12:03 people who are parents of children
12:04 in our school system?
12:05 So, we are unable to do that based on just them speaking because
12:09 we just have their name.
12:11 So, we know for a fact that there were at least five to seven
12:16 people who don’t even go
12:18 to Brevard Public Schools who were up there at that podium
12:20 reading.
12:21 We can identify them.
12:23 Some of them identified themselves.
12:25 I do not believe that we should be making any decision off of
12:29 that alone.
12:30 Again, I’ll go back to the governor who literally just said that
12:34 himself.
12:35 If you are not a parent of a student in the school system, that
12:39 should not be a consideration
12:40 that we’re having.
12:41 That is my opinion.
12:43 I don’t believe that it should be for language.
12:46 I also am going to go back to the argument that I made in the
12:50 past.
12:51 So, when you read that statute and it says shall discontinue,
12:54 our policy already discontinues
12:57 the use when something is formally challenged.
13:00 They are already removed from the shelves.
13:02 So, the ones that are formal objections already in that box
13:06 right there, I argue they have
13:09 already been discontinued.
13:10 We have already met the letter of the law.
13:13 I believe they should still go through the challenge and the
13:15 policy that we have in place
13:17 because otherwise what we have just created is some way to
13:19 circumvent the policy we have in place
13:21 and it doesn’t make any sense in my opinion.
13:26 Okay.
13:34 Again, when there’s the two outliers that are on the not formal
13:37 objection list, I question
13:39 who was reading those books.
13:43 Because, again, we had a press conference from the governor in
13:47 the Department of Education
13:48 saying we have too many.
13:49 We’ve got to change the law.
13:50 We’re going to start fining people for making egregious things,
13:53 making egregious requests.
13:55 They’re not even parents, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
13:58 And we know, we all know, everyone up here knows, that I want to
14:02 guesstimate seven out of the
14:04 ten people that were speaking that day don’t even live in Brevard
14:06 County.
14:08 And we can’t confirm whether or not the people who were in Brevard
14:10 County have kids in our schools.
14:13 I think we need to be taking this seriously, taking control of
14:16 the policy that we have established as a board,
14:19 and we need to be the ones making those decisions.
14:22 Not the public intentionally coming up here and trying to circumvent
14:24 it.
14:25 So, again, I believe that the ones that were already on the
14:29 formal objection list already met the letter of the law.
14:32 They should continue through the committee review policy, and
14:35 that’s my opinion.
14:37 Otherwise, you are literally opening the floodgates.
14:39 And I guarantee you, in March, you’re going to have all those
14:42 people show up again.
14:44 Yeah, and just for clarification, I mean, we can pull the public
14:47 comment card, which should be able to tell
14:49 and identify pretty quickly, because they’re supposed to fill
14:50 out their address and their name.
14:52 So, it’s trackable to see are these Brevard County residents
14:55 even if they’re not.
14:57 The tricky part is that the statute vaguely, I mean, it doesn’t
15:02 describe.
15:03 Well, it says a parent of a student to whom or for whom
15:06 instructional materials.
15:08 I understand that.
15:09 But I know you all watched the press conference with the
15:11 Department of Education and Ron DeSantis.
15:13 I did.
15:14 So, you can’t be fearful of what the ramifications are when the
15:16 governor and the head of the Department of Ed point blank said
15:19 that over and over and over again.
15:21 I do think that particular, and I didn’t get to watch the press
15:23 conference, but I saw the articles that came out after there.
15:27 They, I thought that was specifically talking about people who
15:29 are bringing challenges, not this part that has to do with, and
15:35 I don’t like it anymore,
15:36 because I don’t like that it opens up the door for people to
15:38 come and read the material in our board meetings when we’re
15:41 trying to take care of business.
15:42 I don’t like it at all.
15:43 I made that very, you know, I was, you know, I fussed about that
15:45 several months ago.
15:46 But, you know, it’s in there intentionally to kind of circumvent
15:50 the process.
15:51 I don’t think necessarily for Brevard, but for the districts
15:54 that aren’t maybe handling it in the same way.
15:57 But I will say there is a difference between the language of the
16:00 statute of discontinued use versus what we have in our policy
16:03 when somebody submits a formal request.
16:05 And our language is removed from circulation.
16:08 And there’s a difference.
16:09 To me, the discontinued from use is we’re done.
16:11 It’s not going to be in Brevard.
16:12 Right.
16:13 What we have done currently with these books is they are removed
16:16 from circulation.
16:17 So we haven’t discontinued use.
16:19 That’s the, that’s kind of the permanent end decision, not the
16:23 removed from circulation.
16:25 That means we still have them.
16:26 They can go back.
16:27 Like Kite Runner, all those are going to go back, have already
16:29 gone back.
16:30 But there’s a difference between, in that language that kind of
16:34 separates the result.
16:36 Can I, I want to challenge that though, because it’s all
16:39 language that’s up for interpretation.
16:42 And if it’s up for interpretation, it’s difficult to fear legal
16:47 ramification when both sides can be argued.
16:50 If it’s removed from circulation, then it can’t be used.
16:55 So it’s discontinued from use.
16:58 It’s not available anywhere.
17:00 So if someone, if it goes into the formal challenge process, it’s
17:02 not sitting in one school and removed from another school.
17:05 It’s completely removed.
17:07 It is unusable.
17:08 And so I, I argue that it could be said that they’re already
17:12 discontinued from use.
17:14 It cannot just readily go back on the shelves either.
17:16 It’s going to have to go through this review process in order to
17:19 get there in the first place.
17:21 So it’s not like a willy nilly back and forth decision.
17:25 I, I think it’s something that, you know, we should be asking
17:28 legal counsel about how they feel, which way or the other.
17:32 Well, if I may, um, the commissioner on education has his ways
17:38 of enacting policy through the department of education.
17:42 The governor can veto, but the legislation that we have in front
17:46 of us is from the legislature, which is the intent.
17:51 So if the governor and the education commissioner come out and
17:53 they say, Hey, we’re going to do this.
17:55 If they do it, that’s one thing.
17:57 If they want to start trying to do that, that that’s their
17:58 avenues.
17:59 But the core of what we read inside the statutes has nothing to
18:02 do with their purview.
18:03 They, they have specific roles to the statutes, but it is not to
18:07 create the laws.
18:08 If they want to create the laws, they have to go through the
18:10 legislature in order to do so to put it inside statute or it
18:12 becomes educational law and code.
18:15 So it’s just, just so you know, like they can pop up and say all
18:17 they want, but they’re not going to define the statutes.
18:20 The statutes are law that is done a different way.
18:22 That’s all.
18:23 I just wanted to kind of clarify that.
18:24 So to get us back on track with what, what Ms. Harris is looking
18:28 for, I think we need to make a clear decision on this.
18:32 So, I mean, I, I still stand where I stand with mine.
18:35 Um, I believe that the ones that were stopped for language still
18:38 need to go through review.
18:40 I believe that the ones that are not on the formal list that
18:43 have been stopped, obviously, I still think, I mean, they need
18:47 to be put somewhere because they were stopped.
18:49 So we can’t just say, oh, we’re going to ignore it and not, not
18:51 make an account of the fact that we stopped those books due to
18:53 content.
18:54 So they can’t ever go, they can’t go back into our libraries is
18:56 what I’m saying.
18:57 And if we don’t put them somewhere, then they’re potentially
19:00 going to come back into the libraries.
19:02 So, so I, so I didn’t add that part.
19:04 I don’t think that they should just go back into the library.
19:06 I think in order to follow the discontinued rule, they would
19:08 have to be in the formal challenge process and removed from the
19:11 challenge.
19:11 So something that may, um, help with the two titles that are,
19:17 were removed for sexual content that have not been formally
19:20 objected.
19:21 We also have teams reviewing our, uh, books in the district
19:25 period.
19:26 So whether they’ve been formally objected or not, just with the
19:29 rollout of the language to make sure that we’re being compliant.
19:32 So what we can do for the ones that are, we don’t have to put
19:36 them through the book committee process because we have never
19:40 received a formal objection on them.
19:42 But we can have our district team review those two titles to
19:46 confirm, do they either meet the letter of the law around the
19:51 sexual content or not as that off ramp without going through
19:54 committee.
19:55 And then, uh, the first title.
19:58 Now I say this, um, we have a couple other people than the two
20:01 ladies here that are part of our team, but it’s still a very
20:04 limited team to read the number of books.
20:06 Um, but what we can do for that first one is because it was
20:09 stopped for language.
20:11 That one, um, because we haven’t yet confirmed, does it have
20:14 sexual content in it?
20:16 We can do the same thing.
20:17 We can review that.
20:18 It will take some time and we just want a direction for when
20:20 they’re stopped for language.
20:22 So we’re hearing that when they’re stopped for language, we’re
20:25 going to go through the process.
20:26 We would either if they were going to be objected and going
20:29 through the book committee process or that the district team is
20:33 reviewing them to see, um, do they meet the letter of the law to
20:37 be on our shelves?
20:38 Um, I think that helps us adjust.
20:40 Um, I think that helps us in knowing our next steps.
20:43 We know that the two tiles, uh, titles, house of earth and blood,
20:46 what girls are made of.
20:48 Those are books that we would do first to confirm with that off
20:51 ramp.
20:52 And then, um, so we won’t put any of these back on the shelf
20:56 today.
20:57 We will do, uh, our process.
20:59 We just want a clarity on the formal objection if they are
21:02 stopped and why they’re stopped.
21:04 But I think now we have that information going forward.
21:06 If they are stopped for language, we would do our due diligence.
21:10 We would not remove them just based on stop for language without
21:14 knowing that they have sexual conduct, um, or content included.
21:20 So can I clarify then what in the middle of that, I think I lost
21:24 track of what we’re doing with the two on the third column that,
21:29 that were stopped for sexual conduct.
21:30 Are we, are we removing those or are we putting those through
21:33 the committee?
21:34 They would not go through the committee necessarily because they,
21:38 the books that are coming to committee have, we’ve received a
21:40 formal objection to.
21:41 I mean, not the reading committee, but your, your team.
21:44 Um, well, that is where we just need, um, if it, because they
21:49 have sexual conduct in them that violates the language that we
21:52 just wanted to be clear that what you guys call it objective
21:56 title is what we’re considering an objective title.
21:59 So, um, just confirming that sexual conduct, that was why they
22:03 were stopped.
22:04 And so when we go into that language where it speaks to sexual
22:07 content or pornographic, uh, material, those two titles, um,
22:11 would go through that process because they were stopped.
22:15 If you’re saying that’s an objective title, they would be
22:17 discontinued use.
22:18 Yeah, I, yeah, that’s, that’s what I was thinking.
22:20 I just want to make sure because to me, if they were stopped,
22:22 whether they’re on the list or not on the list, they all are
22:24 subject to an objection.
22:25 So they need to be removed in the same way, treated the same way.
22:28 Okay.
22:29 Sorry.
22:30 My mic was on.
22:31 And what we can also do, um, that night we were doing our best
22:35 to record and we’ve watched that meeting over and over to record.
22:38 We can also, um, if, if, if needed, we can look if it is a
22:42 parent or not, but if the, if the book has sexual content in it,
22:47 it, that becomes a little of a moot point if it’s a parent or
22:49 not.
22:50 Yes.
22:51 For removing it based on being silenced here.
22:53 Yes.
22:54 It requires a parent.
22:55 But if we find that the title does have content that’s not allowable
22:58 under the language, we would do our district process for that.
23:03 So we’re going to, these two books confirm the sexual content is
23:07 there that they were silenced for, um, that they won’t go back
23:10 on the shelf.
23:11 And then with the allegedly we’ll be reviewing that, um, with
23:14 our district team.
23:16 So we’re going to have to do that.
23:17 Perfect.
23:18 Sounds good.
23:19 Okay.
23:20 Yeah.
23:21 Or are you okay?
23:22 Yeah.
23:23 On, on a side note, I’m just going to throw this out there if,
23:26 because, you know, I, I think things, um, after that night, we’ll
23:31 settle down.
23:31 I think our community has understood that this board’s doing the
23:33 best they can and doing a good job and better than most, I’d say,
23:36 and trying to deal with the situation.
23:38 Um, but there are other districts that add a step in their board
23:42 meetings because we’re not the only ones that this happened to
23:46 that they do.
23:48 If a parent says they’re going to read from a book, they do not
23:52 stop them, but pause them.
23:54 They have somebody in the, pause the timer or whatever.
23:57 They have somebody in the room to confirm that that’s a book.
24:00 It’s something I brought up last year, but, you know, that’s
24:02 actually a book on our shelves.
24:04 So people aren’t walking in reading things that aren’t, um, that’s
24:08 something that we don’t own.
24:10 Um, so just something to consider.
24:11 It may, may not matter at all.
24:13 It may not, it may not come up, but that’s something that we
24:16 could do, you know, and we could even confirm that they’re, uh,
24:20 a parent at that time, you know?
24:22 So, I mean, it’s something we could do just to try to limit that.
24:25 What I, what I would say the governor was trying to limit, you
24:28 know, misbehavior or, uh, theatrics on behalf of people who that’s,
24:32 you know, it’s, you know,
24:33 if the law was not written with that intent.
24:36 So, I appreciate you trying to mitigate that problem, but I don’t
24:41 think that we can do that.
24:43 Because we cannot police what people are saying with their First
24:47 Amendment right to come here and make public comments.
24:50 Yes, there’s a limit, of course.
24:52 Um, so it’s, so just randomly stopping people and asking what
24:55 they’re going to talk about and whether or not it’s something
24:58 appropriate for here, because we don’t have the book or not, is
25:01 going to get us into a weird situation.
25:03 Also, you can’t require someone to say who they are, where they
25:07 live, and if they’re a parent.
25:09 Right, right.
25:10 Um, my whole argument was, we knew who those people were.
25:12 They lived in Indian River County.
25:13 Like, that was my whole point.
25:15 But we can’t legally require that of somebody either.
25:17 So, I don’t, I don’t really know if that’s necessarily going to
25:19 fix the problem.
25:20 I appreciate you bringing it up, but, um, I think it’ll just get
25:23 us into weird situations, even more situations.
25:27 And they’ll just start making up names and places and, and all
25:30 of that.
25:31 Agreed.
25:32 But I do think it is something that we should be taking
25:34 consideration of after the fact, before we make decisions that
25:37 we’re making for Brevard Public Schools.
25:39 All right.
25:40 Does anybody else have anything that I need to add to this
25:42 conversation?
25:43 No, other than thank you for your hard work for this sensitive
25:47 topic.
25:48 I know.
25:49 And there’s two ladies right here.
25:50 Yes.
25:51 Your whole team.
25:53 It is a village.
25:54 All right.
25:55 Okay.
25:56 So, um, part of our team is, just wants clarity around discontinued
26:00 use.
26:01 So, if we’re discontinuing the use based on it being silenced
26:06 for sexual content, discontinued use is in order for it to get
26:11 back on our shelves.
26:12 And I’m, this is a question I’m posing.
26:14 What my understanding would be that to get it back on our
26:16 shelves, we would do the same vetting we would with a new book
26:19 purchase to make sure it’s in compliance.
26:23 Doesn’t our, does our policy still have the.
26:25 Our policy has a time stipulation on it before it’s able to come
26:27 back in, but.
26:28 Eight years.
26:30 But that’s if it’s formally challenged.
26:31 Yes.
26:32 If it’s formally challenged, we have a timeline on that.
26:33 If it’s discontinued use.
26:34 If it’s not.
26:35 Use.
26:36 We do not.
26:37 If it’s discontinued use based on.
26:40 Something that happens here at a board meeting and of a parent
26:43 speaking.
26:44 There’s not a timeline.
26:45 It just says discontinued use.
26:47 Also, when we are going through our district process.
26:51 If we determine a book has meets that off ramp and it is being
26:55 removed.
26:56 It’s.
26:57 There’s not a timeline to that either.
26:59 It’s discontinued use.
27:00 And we’ve been working under the understanding that.
27:03 If in.
27:04 Three years.
27:05 Four years.
27:06 Fifteen years.
27:07 A media specialist wants to bring that book back into his or her
27:10 collection.
27:11 They would then look at the language as we’re doing with.
27:14 You know, every time we’re purchasing a book.
27:15 Now we have that language out.
27:17 And that would be part of that.
27:18 Can I.
27:19 Purchase this book or not.
27:21 So what we do.
27:22 And it’s kind of like when we’re removing a book.
27:25 We inform our media specialists.
27:27 But if in five years.
27:29 A media specialist.
27:31 Wants to.
27:32 Consider bringing that book back.
27:34 They would have to do just what we’re doing now with every new
27:37 book purchase.
27:38 Reviewing that law to see if that title.
27:40 Meets.
27:41 We can.
27:42 You know, like we have a list of everything we’ve removed.
27:44 Whether by committee or by district committee or team.
27:47 We’re clear on what we have removed.
27:49 And the people currently in all the positions are clear.
27:52 But we just want to.
27:54 We do not have a timeline written into policy.
27:56 If it’s removed outside of the book committee.
27:59 There’s not a timeline.
28:01 Per se of that.
28:02 We’ve just gone with this continued.
28:04 Knowing that if it were coming back into a collection.
28:07 It would have to meet all the criteria.
28:09 A title needs to get back into a collection.
28:11 I have a question.
28:13 So.
28:14 This is why I was.
28:15 When we were reviewing.
28:16 Revising this.
28:17 Like.
28:18 I don’t know.
28:19 A couple year and a half ago.
28:20 And we were.
28:21 One of the steps.
28:22 A couple times ago.
28:23 But.
28:24 I.
28:25 It was.
28:26 Brought up.
28:27 It was so important to make sure we’re documenting.
28:28 In the system.
28:29 Right.
28:30 Because.
28:31 What you just described.
28:32 Is a situation.
28:33 If it’s not clearly.
28:34 Labeled in the systems.
28:35 In the order system.
28:36 I don’t know exactly how it works.
28:38 But.
28:39 Then there’s potential.
28:40 That we could have a brand new media specialist.
28:41 Next year.
28:42 Who goes.
28:43 Oh.
28:44 I’m going to order this book.
28:45 And maybe it’s one that just got removed.
28:46 They could.
28:47 You know.
28:48 The nowhere girls.
28:49 Oh.
28:50 We’re going to bring in the nowhere girls.
28:51 Is going to pop up.
28:52 And say.
28:53 You can’t purchase this book.
28:54 Because the school board.
28:55 Voted to remove it.
28:57 So.
28:58 We need.
28:59 That needs to be.
29:00 Crystal clear.
29:01 And.
29:02 I know that the law doesn’t.
29:04 Describe for us.
29:05 How.
29:06 To bring things back.
29:08 But discontinue.
29:09 Kind of.
29:10 To me would say.
29:11 It’s.
29:12 It’s done.
29:13 Yeah.
29:14 In order for.
29:15 The media specialist.
29:16 To know.
29:17 The state.
29:18 Requires us.
29:19 To submit a form.
29:20 Every year.
29:21 Of books.
29:22 And they keep a list.
29:23 So.
29:24 The media specialist.
29:25 Consult that list.
29:26 Before making purchases.
29:28 Right.
29:29 And it still could be something.
29:30 That is.
29:31 Because I mean.
29:32 Other districts.
29:33 Pulled things.
29:34 For.
29:35 All different reasons.
29:36 Which is why we didn’t go with.
29:37 I think what’s good.
29:38 About.
29:39 The statewide list.
29:40 And what.
29:41 What we don’t have on that state list.
29:42 That we would like.
29:43 Is the why.
29:44 It was removed.
29:45 And that’s not there.
29:46 But what we do have.
29:47 Is whether.
29:48 regardless of how the title is removed it’s on the state list so
29:51 whether it’s through book committee and board recommendation if
29:54 it’s through district team if it’s removed because of a speaker
29:58 being silenced it’s on that list so I think moving forward
30:02 because we can put it in our like ballad systems but again we
30:05 don’t know in three years that that’ll be our vendor you know
30:09 there’s so many variables but that state list now that we have
30:13 this language that will be updated and at the end of the year I
30:17 think it’s
30:18 by June 30th each year we put all the titles of removed now we
30:23 do inform the state why we’ve removed but whether it was removed
30:27 through board recommendation or district committee it is on that
30:31 list so if that’s something that our media specialist always
30:34 have to reference that list would be one one way to catch that
30:39 from happening okay I noticed in the statute that that that part
30:48 about reporting to the state
30:48 and it is June 30th it says each material that was removed or
30:52 discontinued and don’t have to give a reason but then the next
30:55 one says each material that was not removed or discontinued and
30:58 the rationale for not removing or discontinuing the material so
31:01 have we we did this already once right because June 30th
31:04 so did we send any any of the ones that were because we had
31:08 there were a few that were not discontinued they were limited
31:11 right so in the list that we send to the state did they publish
31:17 that the ones they’d publish that as well with the rationale
31:20 no no rationale okay so they ask us to give the rationale but
31:24 they don’t publish the rationale correct I wish they’d do it the
31:29 other way
31:29 we’ve requested that just because that would be helpful you know
31:33 like if it would be helpful if they requested you know in
31:36 violation of whatever then we would that would make our jobs at
31:41 least more expedient in making decisions
31:44 I appreciate that I look forward to the day when we look at book
31:47 publishers and there’s a rating system on a book I really do
31:50 because honestly it’s crazy to me when you think about movies
31:52 you think about music even has explicit warnings on it
31:55 but for whatever reason books have just kind of flown under the
31:57 radar and that hasn’t happened
31:59 interestingly enough with the movie rating system that’s a
32:01 voluntary system it’d be really great if publishers just took it
32:04 along you know on themselves and said hey we’re going to
32:06 implement this because this has become such a hot topic all over
32:10 the country
32:10 even video games
32:11 yeah even video games you’re right even video games have age of
32:14 you know but not books which is interesting so thank you for
32:17 your hard work I know it’s a lot that you guys have been doing
32:20 it’s a lot of fun you’re not clear okay
32:24 about definite discontinue
32:28 you can talk a little about it
32:29 sorry go ahead
32:30 we just want to be crystal clear
32:31 we’re not trying to meet this
32:32 clear as mud we got it
32:33 we’re making decisions
32:34 no I would have I I believe they should be removed and not go
32:51 through the process because we’ve already stopped them there
32:54 doesn’t I mean the district has the ability could we just I don’t
32:58 know I don’t want to open that
32:59 yeah this is the hard thing because then it puts all the it’s
33:02 there’s one decision maker and no offense to you but the board
33:06 didn’t make that decision the chairman did
33:09 um and any particular chairman of any board that did this made
33:12 that decision but that is we as a board
33:16 that as this board in Brevard that is the only um that’s the way
33:23 we’ve we because of how we did or didn’t address it and it
33:27 happened
33:28 that’s the only avenue we have is that the chairman does it
33:32 there are other districts who are handling this public comment
33:35 clause differently so that the rest of the board can have some
33:38 more input
33:40 um and it’s not just all on one person to make the con the
33:43 decision in the moment but unfortunately I do believe the
33:46 statute was written so that yes one person made in the moment um
33:50 whether it you know some other boards like I was I was talking
33:50 about Volusia they have where other I don’t remember I think
33:50 they use the point of order term um it’s made in the moment it’s
33:50 made in the moment
33:50 um if someone on the board and someone starts reading and they
33:59 think oh this is too far someone says point of order and then
34:03 they stop them or that I don’t remember exactly I have to ask
34:06 uh my buddy in Volusia how they do it but so there’s but it does
34:08 put a lot of pressure but like that’s what the statute says so I
34:12 I think that I am of the same opinion
34:16 that this this first column this formal objection that they’re
34:19 removed just as if they were gone had gone through the process
34:23 and we voted um
34:24 um you’re talking about the last column the columns that are not
34:27 no the first column the orange one where um
34:29 because that would speak to the language that the chairman
34:31 stopped them from speaking due to sexual content so
34:33 then they but what about the books that aren’t on our challenge
34:35 list those are the ones that are in
34:37 question that those are the ones that we’re trying to figure out
34:39 right are you asking about the ones that
34:40 are we I think they just want a clarity on um but I think I
34:46 think we have it because it’s if the chair
34:49 person stops the speaker of an objective title for sexual
34:54 content um what Mrs Campbell is saying is that
34:57 that would be no different than if we sent a recommendation of a
35:00 title to the board and you guys
35:02 took a vote so I would argue the difference though is when you
35:06 have that conversation about it getting back
35:08 because it hasn’t gone through the official policy to be removed
35:14 to put the timestamp that you want on it
35:17 in the first place so if you’re circumventing the policy you’re
35:22 also circumventing the things that
35:24 you guys want in place so remember that I didn’t like that being
35:29 put in the law but it’s in the law
35:31 no what I’m saying is if you don’t continue it through the
35:35 process and acknowledge that they’re
35:37 already removed off the shelves they’ve already been discontinued
35:41 and you don’t formally vote on it to be
35:42 removed then you don’t have that timestamp of not of not having
35:46 it be re-brought into the school system
35:48 again so what a I don’t want to hear it anyway I know I know I’m
35:51 like this one again we’re trying to
35:53 clean up all kinds of things here so would maybe a good solution
35:57 to this be that that book title goes
35:59 on the next board meeting as something that’s voted on and then
36:02 it circumvent it kind of circumvents
36:04 the process but then the board always in on it depends on how I
36:08 don’t think that’s how the policy
36:10 is written it opens up the opportunity to go against state law
36:12 which is if it’s the same as if we went
36:15 through the process where it doesn’t have a time specific that
36:18 it comes back that also says
36:21 if it goes on our due to buy list from the district there is no
36:25 time that it comes back
36:28 if it’s through statute we said what five years our policy I
36:31 mean so if it doesn’t go through that
36:33 it doesn’t it’s not five years it’s all right we got to clean
36:37 this up though and it’s not cleaned up
36:39 right now and so that’s why I’m trying to they’re trying to get
36:40 clear direction the policy is the policy
36:42 is but if it’s if it’s removed through the book committee
36:47 process right right so and I’m like I don’t
36:51 even want to utter the words that we need to go back to policy
36:53 making on this one but I think it and I’ve
36:54 said it um I’ve said it multiple times I don’t think we’re done
36:56 touching this one so I and I
36:58 understand I understand your emotions behind this and I know
37:01 your opinions on this which obviously
37:03 different from mine but what I’m trying to argue here is to make
37:07 it clear and easier and to stop
37:09 people from coming to this podium continuously and doing this or
37:12 prevent it as much as we can
37:13 it’s already off the shelves they’re already challenged they’re
37:18 not there anymore it’s already
37:20 discontinued from use the state’s not going to come down and go
37:23 brevard county you didn’t discontinue
37:25 use of these books that are not on your shelves right now that
37:28 are in a formal challenge that
37:30 clearly you all want to vote to remove anyway so you know the
37:32 end result of this they’re not going to
37:34 do that that just doesn’t make any sense and then it goes
37:37 through the process and then you have your
37:40 timestamp and you’re following the policy and then you take away
37:42 the the random power of people who don’t
37:46 live here coming to challenge these books at the podium that’s
37:48 my argument about the discontinue use
37:50 thing again we all know where we all stand on this issue I know
37:53 what the end result’s going to be
37:54 I I understand that I would like to challenge your comment that
37:58 we clearly know where we all stand
37:59 on this because this board has actually made the decision to
38:01 keep a couple books in that have gone
38:03 through the formal challenge so that’s not a very fair statement
38:05 for you to make I’m not I’m not
38:06 judging you for that you did say though you want them removed
38:08 right now you just said it so that that is a
38:10 fair statement you all just said you want them all removed that
38:13 is a fair statement I said if they were
38:14 stopped for the context so I’m not judging you for that I’m
38:17 saying that’s what you said you want
38:19 them removed that’s not an assumption you just said that so one
38:23 of the things I would say is is
38:24 that if it’s removed through the process of state law that
38:26 should follow consistently with what our
38:28 policy is for the removal on the other end as board members just
38:31 to be consistent so is your mic on
38:33 yep to keep it consistent I think that’s what we do but I think
38:36 the problem is our policy isn’t
38:38 consistent with state law our policy says we’re moving it for a
38:40 certain amount of time and state law says
38:42 discontinue they don’t align well then let’s make it discontinued
38:45 so that’s that’s where I’m like okay
38:47 if they don’t align well except that except that where the law
38:52 doesn’t specify then that’s left up to
38:56 the board to to determine the law doesn’t say we we can’t have
39:00 it just says discontinues it doesn’t
39:02 I mean where it leaves it vague that’s our decision to make
39:05 there it’s one of the very there’s very few
39:07 things where the state has made it clear and where they don’t
39:09 make it clear it’s our decision
39:11 um they don’t make clear parent I would take that as if we said
39:17 it has to be a parent you know maybe
39:19 would maybe it would be challenged and we’d have to deal with it
39:23 but you know right now you know
39:25 I’m trying to think you know from what I have heard the state
39:28 has not come down on any district
39:31 specifically and said you didn’t do this you didn’t do that and
39:35 there’s 67 different ways this is happening
39:38 and but what we do have to do is report whatever way we decided
39:42 to do it in Brevard we’re reporting it
39:44 and so it I say they’re not coming down the legislature has come
39:48 down and then
39:49 refined what the asks are in some cases because some districts
39:53 weren’t following it
39:54 I think where we have wiggle room it’s our it’s our decision to
39:57 make and so whatever we decide today
40:01 I think we can decide do we want if if this happens again
40:03 hopefully it won’t but if it happens again
40:06 and people come and read the title do we want to decide as a
40:08 board what we want staff to do as a
40:10 result of of the chairman stopping them so I don’t actually
40:14 think it’s a terrible idea for it to cut if
40:17 the chairman stops them for it to be immediate um discontinued I
40:22 I to me there’s definitely just the
40:25 loss of discontinued use it doesn’t say removal from circulation
40:28 um so I’m taking I’m gonna take that
40:31 back I mean we can still do a vote but but if you vote against
40:35 it then you break state statute which
40:38 says to be have it removed does that make sense to you yeah so
40:41 the argument is is that we have to follow
40:43 the state statute on that angle which is that path and I and I
40:47 wanted to say thank you for correctly
40:49 stating where our our ability to you know what I mean navigate
40:52 those waters are as opposed to the
40:54 state law but this one’s pretty clear you know what I mean and I
40:57 think that we we follow that is what
40:59 I would like okay so what is your so if it is challenged if it
41:03 is challenged and to be honest with you
41:07 you start to get into who’s a parent who’s this who’s that I don’t
41:10 think that it has to be a parent I
41:12 think it has to be you know what I mean what is clearly defined
41:15 or not defined inside the statute
41:16 you roll with and if anybody comes up and challenges it and says
41:19 this if it’s inappropriate inside of
41:21 our school district to be read in front of us it violates what
41:24 the state law is we remove it and then
41:26 it follows that path of being removed forever and then we have
41:29 our other process to go through if
41:31 somebody challenges it that way that’s that would be my
41:33 recommendation is that what you’re looking for
41:37 so the law does say parent the law does say parent for the
41:40 ability to read it
41:41 the objections say and I don’t know if it’s in this statute or
41:44 another one parent or resident of the
41:46 county right and it defines resident as as far as bring an
41:50 objection basically and our policies
41:52 that bring objection you can’t you can’t bring an objection if
41:54 you’re not
41:55 do they clearly define who a parent is inside do they clearly
41:58 define what who a parent is inside of
42:00 the statute for which one for the reading or for the other
42:03 reading um for the reading it says parent
42:06 no it doesn’t so one of the issues you run into when you say a
42:09 parent is is it because you have
42:12 homeschool parents that may have half the curriculum so here’s
42:14 what it says it says each parent of a
42:17 student to whom or for whom instructional materials have been
42:21 issued so that would clarify that they
42:25 need to be they got to be in our school we’ve been issuing their
42:28 materials wait where’s what part of
42:30 that’s the summary sorry brevard virtual school brevard and i
42:38 think that’s why we’re seeking the
42:40 clarity is we also want to be mindful to prevent dealing with
42:43 the expense of a special magistrate
42:45 like either policy law and then for district process
43:00 so my whole argument is that whatever decision the majority of
43:04 you decide it’s going to circumvent
43:07 the policy that exists so you can’t get away with not rewriting
43:11 the policy to address these issues
43:13 that’s my argument so we shouldn’t be making the decisions
43:17 before you rewrite the policy
43:18 it doesn’t make any sense so here the um under section 2 a 2
43:26 says the district school board must
43:27 adopt a policy regarding objection by a parent or a resident of
43:30 the county to the use of a specific
43:32 material thank you so that is that’s for our policy so we have
43:37 our policy has to allow a parent or
43:40 resident of the county
43:42 but this the reading of the board meeting is just it just says
43:47 it’s different it’s different
43:49 and i i don’t like it this the circumvented process but the
43:53 legislature specifically put this like i said to
43:56 to intentionally to circumvent the process
44:12 what do we want to do i thought we did these titles that no you
44:17 didn’t okay we haven’t given clear
44:20 the title is that we stopped for sexual content because someone
44:26 read it and you would stop them
44:28 for sexual content should be discontinued permanently as same as
44:33 if um or permanently the same as if
44:35 we um voted on them and if that’s five years make five years
44:40 because that same later on in that
44:45 sentence because it’s all in the same paragraph about them
44:47 reading and then also about district
44:49 school boards deciding to remove them it says the same language
44:52 discontinued use so if our policy
44:54 is we’re discontinuing use for five years then i would say it’s
44:58 for five years okay and then the um
45:00 titles stop for language that are in the blue that have been
45:03 under formal objection we’re going to
45:04 continue the process for those the district process correct yes
45:09 yeah i thought so i just don’t know
45:11 how we find out if it’s apparent and then were you telling us
45:13 that that one it’s not on the list it was
45:15 stop for language you guys are going to put that on your
45:18 internal correct group yes allegedly i mean
45:22 that’s the title yes okay but we’re still not addressing the
45:30 fact that we don’t have a policy
45:33 that dictates what we just did so that has to be addressed it
45:39 does say our policy does address the
45:41 i’m not saying you can’t do it i’m just saying that’s not
45:43 something you should just ignore because
45:44 we’re it’s not it’s not gonna be the last time that this happens
45:47 sounds like an administrative
45:48 procedure to me we we added that section about parents being
45:53 able to read because when that law
45:55 passed miss harris added on this on our last revision i’m trying
45:58 to find it and both of those policies
46:02 are coming up on march 5th i believe so right we can see if we
46:09 can clarify some language that includes
46:12 the statute around public um speakers that come forward perfect
46:17 it uses the same language as the
46:20 law it says discontinued use discontinued use the board the
46:22 discontinued i understand that but it
46:24 doesn’t talk about the decisions you just made right now as a
46:26 board which you’re going to want to do
46:28 consistently if it happens again right that’s what i’m saying i
46:31 understand it addresses the language of
46:33 the law which is broad and not helpful put in administrative
46:37 procedures okay so um just so
46:41 that we can be clear on that clear uh what we’re going to modify
46:45 the policy for march 5th is we have
46:47 in there the law about if a parent comes to speak to an
46:50 objective title so we’re going to add the same
46:54 timeline that we have for the book review committee process that’s
46:58 in policy of the five years
47:02 it’s it’s um maybe it’s it’s l l the board’s decision is final
47:09 for five years as l and this
47:12 part about parents reading it is n so look the order make the l
47:17 down to the bottom and so that
47:19 it’s just clear that whatever the board’s decision whichever way
47:22 that it got there is final for five
47:24 years i think it has to specify because because to stop them it
47:27 just says discontinue but our policy says
47:29 five years and so when you stop them that’s why i’m saying this
47:32 isn’t they don’t align they’re not
47:34 consistent and we’re going to have an issue so we accept that
47:38 here’s where i don’t here’s why i don’t
47:41 necessarily agree with that because after the this is the new
47:44 parts that we added after the parts that
47:46 say parents shall have a right and we the district shall
47:49 discontinue this is out of our policy now this
47:51 is straight out of the law but it’s in our policy then the next
47:53 one says if the board finds any material
47:55 meets the requirements the district shall discontinue the use if
47:59 the board finds any material contains
48:01 prohibited content under whatever the district shall discontinue
48:05 use for any grade level for which
48:07 it’s inappropriate so basically it’s just the law clarifying our
48:10 process that we had just laid out in
48:12 the policy of where we’re doing this is just a summary um and
48:15 then it talks about how they can hire the
48:17 uh you know go to the magistrate and all of that um but it still
48:21 then comes back to um i think that then
48:25 it comes back to the board so i i think somewhere in there it’s
48:28 we’re still handling that to me i’m
48:31 looking at our policy now o and p are the descriptions of how
48:35 the board has decided to handle this process
48:38 but the the result is still discontinued use so if we have
48:41 defined discontinued use as we’ve made a
48:45 decision of five years that’s that’s it regardless of whichever
48:49 way it happens discontinued use needs
48:51 to be consistent across whichever way we do it and just to
48:56 clarify the policy only bars for it bars for
49:00 five years before it can be reconsidered it doesn’t mean it
49:03 comes back in it just means the board may need
49:06 to reconsider that title so it can be challenged again right it’s
49:10 to prevent people from challenging
49:12 it constantly and so that the board’s constantly taking up the
49:15 same title so that i think five
49:18 years you will be fine because that doesn’t mean it
49:21 automatically goes back on the shelves that just
49:23 means it’s eligible to be looked at again and then staff may
49:27 want to bring it to the board again
49:31 okay so five years okay we’ll add that for march 5th all right
49:36 i thought we were done talking about all this fun stuff all
49:40 right all right our next topic that we
49:43 are on to is an assessment update should think that’s still so
49:48 you should have the powerpoint in front
49:51 of you and what we want to share today is what is current as of
49:55 today and go into some details around what
49:59 assessments look like k-12 but also give some recommendations
50:03 moving forward uh because some
50:06 things we’ve just done because we’ve always done and then some
50:09 things you know we have fast in place so
50:11 we want to have some conversation about possible next steps so
50:14 we’re going to start out with the
50:16 elementary looking uh specifically by grade level and i know
50:20 this will seem tedious but um there are
50:23 different legislation requirements around interventions
50:27 depending on the grade level and subject area so
50:30 that’s why we broke it into grade levels but as you know we have
50:33 fast and so in kindergarten that is
50:35 state required the star early literacy and then the star math
50:39 three times a year what is currently uh required and
50:43 i’m speaking of last year um and then i’ll speak to this year is
50:48 the i ready diagnostic what we did last
50:50 year with fast coming out is we made that diagnostic three
50:55 optional and so i want to just speak for a
50:58 minute because this will be as we move through grade levels what
51:02 fast tells us is that a student has
51:04 mastery of that benchmark or not what it doesn’t tell us is are
51:08 they if they have mastery are they above
51:11 grade level two years if they are if they you know got that one
51:14 incorrect and don’t have mastery it doesn’t
51:17 tell us where they are are they two years behind are they six
51:21 months behind and so that’s where we gather
51:23 some other data but what dr smith and i have been working with
51:27 curriculum associates as well as a
51:29 consortium of districts because once fast came out it was you
51:34 know great that for once we had three
51:36 times a year on grade level content we could be progress
51:39 monitoring students but um we also then you
51:43 know a week later we’re giving the diagnostic and so we
51:46 understand and we agree with our stakeholders
51:49 that that was a lot on uh students and we worry about you know
51:53 getting clean data if i have you
51:55 know two weeks in a row of what some sites we were realizing
51:59 were considering that high stakes testing
52:02 that students were maybe you know just clicking through and
52:05 which assessment were they clicking
52:07 through and were we really getting the diagnostic data we needed
52:10 for students and so in working with
52:13 curriculum associates moving forward if we continue to partner
52:17 with them we still need that
52:19 student specific data in order to do interventions but we don’t
52:23 uh and they agree they don’t believe
52:25 that that needs to be in the form of a diagnostic and so a
52:28 platform that we would like to recommend
52:31 moving forward is a lot of our students when they go to center
52:34 time so the teacher table is three or
52:36 four students and then students are doing different things a lot
52:39 of our students do the instructional path
52:42 on iReady and what that is is that is instruction and lessons on
52:46 their individual level
52:48 and that’s a way that we can differentiate because teachers have
52:51 a variety of levels and that’s a
52:53 tool that they can use so instead of sitting down and we’re
52:56 going to take the diagnostic when they do
52:58 their instructional pathway that meets them where they are they’re
53:01 going to get a few items here and
53:03 there throughout that instructional pathway that will give us
53:07 very similar data that’s student specific
53:11 that we used to get on a sit down today we’re going to take two
53:14 days of a diagnostic to see where you are
53:16 and so a recommendation we have moving forward is that we would
53:20 not continue with the diagnostic
53:21 two or three times a year but instead consider an embedded model
53:27 where we’re able to get data on
53:29 students in reading and math that meets them where they are
53:33 without saying okay today we’re going to stop and test
53:35 and when you look at this kindergarten you see we have a kls
53:39 screener it gives us different data one of
53:43 the things as a team we’ve been talking about is what are the
53:46 data points of things that as a district
53:48 we’re requiring that may be duplicative of other data points so
53:53 with the kls that is where it’s one-on-one
53:56 so the teacher is listening to that child read so it gives us
54:00 some different data points but we also
54:03 hear the voice of our teachers very loud and clear if i’m a
54:06 kindergarten teacher doing that five times
54:08 a year individually is consuming a whole lot of instructional
54:12 time and so when we look at this
54:14 our recommendations is that we would do that embedded piece so
54:18 that it’s not you know fast is the three
54:21 times a year and that we would do that embedded piece for
54:24 kindergarten to get that ela and math data
54:27 points that you know it’s an item here and there when they’re
54:30 already on their instructional pathway
54:32 but that we would really evaluate that literacy survey if it if
54:36 it truly needs to be five times a year
54:38 because it is a one-on-one assessment and also making the
54:42 recommendation that perhaps there’s a test
54:46 out so for some students they come to us reading in kindergarten
54:51 so are we still needing to yes we
54:53 want to measure them but we have other tools just in regular
54:56 classroom instruction where teachers can
54:58 gather data on student performance without potentially doing
55:02 that survey five times so but this is all
55:05 current and when we after we go through all the grades we can
55:08 talk about you know directives that
55:11 you guys would like us to consider but those are just some
55:13 recommendations that we make around
55:16 this again not testing for the sake of testing if it’s not
55:19 driving instruction why are we doing it
55:22 then here is where um and in the powerpoint can we go back to
55:27 that yes real quick just want to
55:29 summarize what what i’m hearing you say is on the right hand
55:32 column you’ve got i-ready diagnostics both
55:36 reading and math and those will go away the diagnostics would go
55:40 away for next year yes so that’s four
55:44 test experiences that would be correct correct and then the
55:48 kindergarten literacy survey could be
55:51 reduced the number of those correct okay just want to summarize
55:55 thanks
55:56 what’s math boy uh so that’s beginning of the year you know we
56:01 like a good acronym yes and we have
56:04 an eoyt that’s end of the year and so really again looking at
56:08 those to see what is the data gleaned um
56:14 we want to arm teachers with the data they need to make
56:17 decisions but we also want to um we’re really
56:20 diving deep into how are teachers using this data if it is just
56:24 a chart they’re looking at but it’s not
56:26 driving instruction tomorrow what is you know we’re taking up
56:29 some instructional time to do that and so
56:32 really looking at when we start our kindergartners in brevard
56:35 they come three days later
56:37 and so initially what those three days were utilized is for that
56:40 kindergarten literacy so parents would
56:42 bring their child child in for the appointment and we would do
56:45 these screeners and so we would know
56:47 on day one what this child comes to school with which skills and
56:52 what we have found is in many schools
56:55 they’re doing some school readiness activities during those
56:58 three days like they bring students in to have
57:01 different experiences but that they’re in some cases waiting on
57:05 that literacy survey until school has
57:07 started well so we would be saying if we are going to continue
57:10 with even the initial survey that that
57:13 happens for those parents that bring their children in for those
57:16 appointments knowing that not all children
57:18 come in during those three days before we start but that was the
57:22 design when brevard made the decision to
57:24 delay kindergarten start by three days it would be so we have
57:27 one-on-one time with students to set them
57:30 up for success on day one this is where this has been a huge aha
57:37 as we look into our optional assessments
57:41 we have depending on if children are going through that mtss
57:45 process and we’re like you know they’re
57:47 struggling with tier one instruction we need to know more is is
57:51 there more going on and we need more data
57:53 we created a menu in both ela and math of here’s where we can
57:57 get more information on students
57:59 so schools at the beginning of the year get all of these
58:03 optional assessments but what we thought the
58:06 intent was for when you need to collect more information in some
58:10 of our fact finding we have found that
58:12 schools and you know classroom teachers are making decisions of
58:17 utilizing these and so what we are proposing as
58:20 we go through these optional assessments is that for ela and
58:24 math for sure holding those at the district and
58:27 so then if an assistant principal says i you know we need more
58:31 information on this child we can release
58:33 those assessments this isn’t something we’re set in stone about
58:37 but what we are finding is that in some
58:39 classrooms all of our optional assessments are being provided to
58:43 students yeah and and how we found that is when we’re
58:47 partnering you know and getting teacher voice they’re saying
58:49 well this is required and this is required
58:52 and dr smith and i are meeting with them and we’re like that’s
58:55 not required and sure enough we’re going
58:57 into performance matters and there’s data there and so we just
59:01 want to kind of rein this in because
59:03 you can do an assessment every single day but if you’re not
59:06 teaching in between assessments the data is not
59:09 going to change and so we were thinking of pulling those back
59:13 and having them we’ve built them all but
59:15 having them on an as needed basis if if a child is going through
59:19 mtss and we need to collect more
59:22 information then we can release some of those or you know we can
59:25 release them to school administration
59:27 but with very careful guidelines of this is not just for if i
59:31 want to give all of these assessments
59:33 that that’s not without conversation first can i clarify yes so
59:38 this page because some of these like
59:40 a unit assessment seems like that would be like that’s the end
59:43 of the chapter test right
59:44 so you’re are you saying that you would pull those back it seems
59:47 like that in a course
59:47 of study that’s pretty normal right well finish a unit on
59:51 fractions and you’re going to have a fraction test
59:55 that wouldn’t preclude the teacher from having their own this is
59:58 not the one
59:58 that’s is this the one that’s attached to the curriculum are
1:00:02 attached to the
1:00:02 instructional materials correct so what we did is we picked out
1:00:06 the items that
1:00:07 were most critically the heavily assessed or the head what you
1:00:11 need to
1:00:12 know by the end of that grade so we know we have all the
1:00:14 benchmarks but here are
1:00:15 the ones that you absolutely have to have to be successful and
1:00:17 that’s where
1:00:18 we made the quarterly assessments okay and so in lieu of taking
1:00:23 a unit so every
1:00:24 nine weeks there’s an assessment that students could take what
1:00:28 we are finding
1:00:29 is they’re doing the quarterly but then they’re also doing unit
1:00:33 assessments and
1:00:34 when we’re having conversation with teachers they’re saying well
1:00:36 I need
1:00:37 grades and I go back to there are things that we can do as a
1:00:43 district if it’s a
1:00:44 matter of grades that you’re doing this you really want to see
1:00:46 where that
1:00:47 student’s performance is we can give a child two or three
1:00:50 questions and you know
1:00:51 what we can do so quickly do they have it or do they not a unit
1:00:54 assessment for the
1:00:55 sake of grades again good intent by our teachers like they want
1:00:58 to have data on
1:00:59 their students but with the quarterly and the unit assessments
1:01:04 what we are finding
1:01:05 is those are all in use and so to your point yes we want to say
1:01:08 okay we study
1:01:09 fractions where do they know what we built in the unit
1:01:12 assessments is we took out
1:01:13 here are some items on improper fractions and here are some
1:01:17 items you know so that
1:01:18 we’re taking out pieces and in that nine weeks they’re having a
1:01:21 snapshot of what
1:01:22 they know when we get to science and social studies and again
1:01:26 you’re going to see a lot
1:01:27 of this is duplicates as we go through grade levels but one
1:01:31 thing I do want you to keep
1:01:32 in mind is in Florida our fifth grade students take the science
1:01:37 assessment that is currently
1:01:39 the one and only time we know what our students know in science
1:01:42 as far as on an assessment so we
1:01:45 have optional assessments and what these have been built are for
1:01:49 there are four or five questions
1:01:51 that a student could take of what they know for their grade
1:01:53 level these have always been optional they
1:01:57 are not heavily utilized nor are the social studies but none of
1:02:02 them are required what we do want to
1:02:05 just consider is when I take that science state assessment in
1:02:09 fifth grade this this standards
1:02:11 being tested are what I was taught in third fourth and fifth and
1:02:15 so we would like to as we move through
1:02:18 just have some conversation about how can we get some snapshots
1:02:21 around science because you know what I know
1:02:25 about our fifth grade data that’s the first time I know how our
1:02:28 students are doing in science but we also
1:02:31 again have all of these a lot of science little quizzes that we
1:02:36 have found are being over utilized in some cases
1:02:40 so when we go into first grade you’ll see a lot of this is
1:02:44 similar remembering that this year we have a
1:02:47 diagnostic one and a diagnostic two for iReady that that would
1:02:51 go away as we know it with our recommendation
1:02:54 for next school year in first grade I want to bring your
1:02:57 attention to the Brevard benchmark assessments
1:03:00 and there are components within that that assess fluency and we
1:03:06 are open to you know being mindful of
1:03:09 what our student experiences but we don’t want to take away the
1:03:13 fluency checker so there are parts of that
1:03:15 assessment that we feel we can get from both fast and ongoing
1:03:20 classroom information but that fluency if
1:03:23 you’re looking at the science of reading that fluency piece in
1:03:26 first and second grade that’s that is our
1:03:29 indicator that says this child will be ready to read to learn by
1:03:32 third grade and so what is required by the
1:03:35 state for our raised schools so our raised intensive schools
1:03:38 they have a monthly fluency check once a
1:03:41 student meets the number of words per minute they’re not
1:03:45 assessed again but that is monthly for our raised
1:03:47 schools and remembering that those are our most fragile schools
1:03:51 with reading proficiency for our other
1:03:54 schools that has been quarterly but we just if we were to remove
1:03:59 also that benchmark assessment we would like
1:04:02 to maintain a fluency check that that’s one piece of that
1:04:05 assessment that we feel strongly a fluency check
1:04:09 is the top the one time a teacher gets to listen to that child
1:04:12 reading to see is it an issue with
1:04:14 comprehension or can they not decode the words i’m just going to
1:04:19 jump in here because i mean i could say
1:04:21 this for every grade level but the the benefit of keeping some
1:04:25 of these that you’re talking about
1:04:27 is that the star and fast when we get to the older grades and i
1:04:32 ready are all on the computer and
1:04:35 the these other district assessments that you’re talking about
1:04:38 many many if not all or once we’ve
1:04:42 highlighted these these benchmark these are the teacher sitting
1:04:45 next to the kid you know
1:04:47 and some students are going to have an advantage or a
1:04:50 disadvantage strictly based on was on a computer or
1:04:54 not so i think it’s important for us to appreciate the work that
1:04:58 you’re doing to make sure that we have
1:05:00 some of this so that we can find that a kid actually can be
1:05:03 successful they just can’t be
1:05:05 successful with the equipment which is why it really makes me
1:05:08 sad even though i understand why it makes
1:05:10 me sad when we went to paper pencil and we left paper pencil a
1:05:13 couple years later to go to this because
1:05:16 some students really just if the temptation is too easy to click
1:05:20 click click click you know computer
1:05:22 version of a christmas tree you know to get through it so these
1:05:26 having some kind of one-on-one or small
1:05:29 group evaluations is really important is what i’m getting and
1:05:34 here’s what i can tell you as a prior third
1:05:37 grade teacher i’m looking at data as a third grade teacher and i
1:05:41 can’t always i’m you know they’re not
1:05:44 answering the questions right but when we dive deep oftentimes
1:05:47 it’s not that the students can’t make
1:05:49 meaning of the text they cannot decode the words so they they
1:05:53 have that first and second grade when
1:05:55 we think of that early literacy and importance by third grade
1:05:59 they’ve learned enough to compensate
1:06:01 and so you’ll you’ll hear parents say you know my child’s
1:06:04 reading every night i don’t understand
1:06:06 um but is it are they reading the right words like sometimes
1:06:09 they will look and that’s when you’ll
1:06:11 see a child with a picture of mouse the word is mouse and they
1:06:15 say rat and they think they have it
1:06:18 right because they look at the picture cueing and that’s why in
1:06:20 legislation that that part went away so
1:06:22 some of this one-on-one just gives us good data and and maybe
1:06:26 not for all students but as we need to
1:06:28 know more about certain students to better intervene on where
1:06:32 they are
1:06:32 so when you move into second grade again very similar you’ll see
1:06:38 for our requirements
1:06:39 again d1 d2 d3 we did as an option last year and a lot of our
1:06:46 schools still picked that up and we’re
1:06:48 doing it we have continued with that that is an option for this
1:06:52 year and then moving forward that those
1:06:54 these would be removed as we know it with an embedded model
1:06:58 again going into those optional pieces here
1:07:02 when we start to go into third grade that’s where things become
1:07:06 a little different because remember
1:07:08 third grade is where we’re looking at um statutory language
1:07:11 around student progression and we want to
1:07:13 make sure that students have more than one pathway to get to
1:07:16 fourth grade and so we call it you know
1:07:18 their ticket to fourth grade we know one way is to score proficiency
1:07:21 on that fast assessment but we know
1:07:24 for a variety of reasons um many of our students rely on that
1:07:27 portfolio and so when we look at that
1:07:29 bavard benchmark assessment while we’ve kind of you know had
1:07:33 some discussion with teachers about what
1:07:35 is the value of that is it driving their instruction in some of
1:07:39 the grades in third grade that is
1:07:41 approved pieces for that third grade portfolio so if a student
1:07:45 were to come at the end of third grade
1:07:47 and not be proficient on the fast test we have those artifacts
1:07:51 that can be their ticket to a
1:07:53 good cause to fourth grade and so that is something when we
1:07:57 think around those quarter one two and three
1:08:00 assessments that we’re being very mindful again when we look at
1:08:04 an embedded if doing away with the
1:08:06 diagnostic but having an embedded model we would still have a
1:08:10 data point because the state gives us
1:08:13 different criteria of how students can go to fourth grade to
1:08:16 show mastery one is fast one is a portfolio
1:08:20 the other is an alternate assessment which curriculum associates
1:08:23 with i ready so that we would have a
1:08:25 score even though they’re not sitting and taking the diagnostic
1:08:29 with those embedded items we’re going to
1:08:31 still get a number that could then be a ticket to fourth grade
1:08:34 for our third graders because so that’s the
1:08:37 only difference when we get to this area the other is i’ll bring
1:08:42 your attention here to
1:08:44 when we go to third grade we did some work around science a
1:08:49 couple years ago because we had districts
1:08:51 that were moving faster than we were and that’s when we started
1:08:55 looking at how can the penda lessons align
1:08:59 so these are all optional but what we have done since our
1:09:03 materials aren’t aligned to the benchmarks
1:09:07 currently because we’re coming up on adoption in a couple of
1:09:09 years the penda can kind of take the
1:09:11 place not computer-based instruction but there are lesson plans
1:09:15 lessons and activities that we have
1:09:17 embedded into our curriculum guides but this is where we do
1:09:21 encourage schools at some point you need to
1:09:25 figure out using some of these optionals which of these
1:09:28 benchmarks for third grade your children have
1:09:30 because they’re not going to take a state assessment until fifth
1:09:33 grade and it’s unfair for our fifth
1:09:34 grade teachers to hold them accountable for a test score in
1:09:38 fifth grade that is heavily those third and fourth
1:09:41 standards with actually very few that are assessed that are
1:09:44 taught in fifth grade so we just want
1:09:46 to make sure our third and fourth grade teachers and i
1:09:49 understand it third grade teacher it’s all about
1:09:51 getting them to read you know on grade level but we want to make
1:09:54 sure that they have options for gathering
1:09:58 data around science for third and fourth grade as well but again
1:10:01 these are all optional fourth grade you
1:10:06 could say exactly all the words i’m going to say because you’ve
1:10:08 seen this and you’ve heard me over and
1:10:10 over for all these grades but we do have a state assessment in
1:10:13 fourth grade that is the best
1:10:15 writing so that occurs in april so our students begin to take a
1:10:19 writing assessment so you’ll see
1:10:21 when you move to the district required we have a three times a
1:10:24 year writing assessment that’s preparing
1:10:27 again teacher feedback says you know is that driving instruction
1:10:32 and so really looking at do we continue
1:10:34 with a district writing assessment three times a year to prepare
1:10:39 for a state writing
1:10:40 assessment is it truly driving instruction what are teachers
1:10:44 doing and there is a teacher voice that
1:10:47 is is not valuing a three times a year assessment for writing a
1:10:52 recommendation i would make is you know
1:10:55 if we’re doing a writing writing assessment in the first few
1:10:58 weeks of school
1:10:58 i would be okay with recommending that we abandon that because
1:11:03 most of our students haven’t had formal
1:11:05 writing instruction that will be similar to what they’re
1:11:08 assessed on so i don’t need to give them an
1:11:09 assessment when i kind of could predict what that data may be
1:11:14 when i could in turn spend the time
1:11:16 teaching the writing instruction when we get to fifth grade the
1:11:23 state adds in that science assessment
1:11:26 again we have all optional when it comes to science and social
1:11:31 studies so that state assessment is
1:11:33 currently our first time where we have any science information
1:11:37 on our students
1:11:38 and then you will see sixth grade it reverts back at the state
1:11:45 level to ela and math
1:11:47 and with the addition of the writing
1:11:53 can i go back to the panda yes so that’s so right now those are
1:12:01 optional i mean they’re using panda
1:12:03 and they have that option i guess it’s not required we’re paying
1:12:07 for it for all the schools so they can
1:12:09 do it’s kind of like an i ready for science right where it’s
1:12:12 individual to the students if they can have
1:12:14 yes and now and the time so it is uh where it gives them
1:12:19 opportunity to refresh standards that they don’t
1:12:22 have okay so that it has that component but what it also has is
1:12:26 lessons for direct instruction okay and
1:12:28 that’s why you know we’ve really advocated for penda because we’ve
1:12:32 seen it work um but it also has been
1:12:35 very helpful because yes there’s the computer piece but what we
1:12:39 did is where our current instructional materials
1:12:42 don’t hit the benchmark strong enough we’ve been able to embed
1:12:45 that so it’s not a case of like with
1:12:47 i ready we recommend 45 minutes of ela um instructional pathway
1:12:52 we don’t recommend that for math and we
1:12:55 have no recommendation of minutes for penda because there are
1:12:58 only so many minutes in the school day
1:13:00 but what we do say is okay during science time if you have a 45
1:13:03 minute to an hour science block
1:13:05 here are lessons that you could be utilizing in penda that can
1:13:10 support where our textbook has gaps and
1:13:13 holes but we’re not requiring them my pathway like i ready but
1:13:16 it also has the instructional lessons okay
1:13:19 thank you
1:13:19 and then for sixth grade you’ll see it’s very similar
1:13:30 we’ve included the link on the powerpoint that’s uploaded and
1:13:35 that is where we list everything that
1:13:37 is both required and optional and if you click on that list it
1:13:42 is uh very lengthy and that is where
1:13:45 we’re absolutely recommending you know when we’ve had
1:13:48 conversation is we’re putting it out there so that
1:13:51 that if schools need something we’ve created it and they have it
1:13:55 we want to be very mindful of
1:13:58 is it potentially being misused misused and i give the example
1:14:02 everyone knows if you get on the scale
1:14:04 every day but you don’t change what you do in the 24 hours the
1:14:08 number is not going to change in the manner
1:14:10 you want and that’s how i feel about assessment is we can assess
1:14:13 every day and collect some really great data
1:14:16 but if we don’t prioritize the instructional time the data point
1:14:20 numbers are not going to trend in the
1:14:22 direction that we are wanting but i just caution you when you
1:14:26 click on that link remember those include
1:14:28 everything possible that we have so can we pause for a second
1:14:33 just for a minute okay i mean when we look
1:14:36 at these these assessments for it and we’re going i mean
1:14:38 kindergarten there’s 18 there first grade
1:14:41 there’s 16 these are these are district and state uh second
1:14:45 grade 16 third grade 16 fourth grade 20
1:14:48 and then it goes up from there i’m like these are this isn’t
1:14:51 including spelling words this isn’t
1:14:54 including quizzes this isn’t including so honestly i this is i’m
1:14:57 so thankful that you guys are looking
1:14:59 at this because i do feel like our teachers are bogged down with
1:15:02 just assessing assessing assessing not able
1:15:04 to teach and our kids are stressed i mean they are so speaking
1:15:07 from having my own kids in the school
1:15:09 system they’re like i have a test i have a test every single day
1:15:11 and i’m like how do you have a test
1:15:13 every single day like when is there ever time to teach anybody
1:15:16 anything so i’m very grateful that
1:15:18 you are taking a deep dive on this i think this will be honestly
1:15:21 tremendous for our teachers i believe
1:15:23 they’re going to probably sing praises for years to come over
1:15:26 this work that you’re doing right here
1:15:27 so thank you for looking at it and researching it i’m looking
1:15:30 forward to getting these numbers down to
1:15:31 where it’s not test fatigue for our kids all the time so i have
1:15:36 a i ready question so we have purchased the
1:15:39 toolbox um that teachers can use lessons from for small group or
1:15:44 for class instruction if they see a
1:15:47 deficiency across you know most of the class is will the
1:15:52 embedded piece still give them will they still
1:15:57 will that still tag some of those toolbox things for them in the
1:16:01 same way that the diagnostics did
1:16:03 it will um we have been meeting with them uh they’re probably
1:16:08 sick of meeting with us because we keep
1:16:11 we’re saying here is what our teachers value we have heard loud
1:16:14 and clear they value toolbox um because
1:16:16 i can customize instruction and it’s already there i don’t have
1:16:19 to go find a workbook i don’t have to go do
1:16:21 this i can click on tara harris and see here’s what she has here’s
1:16:25 what she doesn’t and click on the pdfs
1:16:28 that are already prepared into a box and so the reporting
1:16:31 teachers will have will be the exact same
1:16:34 the difference is is uh on the student experience side and we we’ve
1:16:39 noticed it we’ve heard you know
1:16:42 we’ve said repeatedly in this room you know i ready diagnostic
1:16:45 is not high stakes should not be high stakes
1:16:48 yet then we’ll see you know get a good breakfast and go to bed
1:16:51 early and students feel that as high
1:16:54 stakes so we know our teachers value that data reporting and
1:16:57 they will have all of that the
1:16:59 student experience will be i’m doing my my pathway right where i
1:17:02 am and every once in a while i’m going
1:17:04 to get a couple items that are going to give me that data point
1:17:09 and so we will be i believe they said in
1:17:11 like a four to six window at the beginning of the year we will
1:17:14 have all that same reporting with access
1:17:16 to toolbox as well as access to standards mastery all of the
1:17:20 same pieces that can be driven by that
1:17:23 student data so the data will still be individualized okay thank
1:17:27 you all right may i go yeah i wanted to say
1:17:31 thank you um you know a good instructor knows where their
1:17:35 children are at inside of their classes even
1:17:38 when i taught american history had 150 kids to 120 kids
1:17:42 depending on the year i knew exactly where they
1:17:44 were inside of the curriculum um and the problem you have is
1:17:48 when when those kids take a test it’s very
1:17:51 difficult to pull them in and then do instructional either
1:17:54 before or after it also because they’re prepping
1:17:56 for it and then afterwards they’re fried right so you lose those
1:18:00 entire days just based on that
1:18:02 and you lose that ability to connect to them and get down to the
1:18:05 root of okay what do we need to do
1:18:07 to get it to the next level and i really appreciate um because
1:18:10 when i look at this i don’t just see tests i
1:18:13 also see days of instructions that are given back to our
1:18:15 instructors and i think that that’s the most
1:18:18 important thing when we start moving towards um you know what i
1:18:21 mean the this testing cycle and stuff like
1:18:23 that uh i have some follow-up questions at the end of the
1:18:26 presentation but i just wanted to say thank
1:18:28 you so much for what you’re doing yeah i have something to add
1:18:32 so i just um i do want to thank
1:18:35 you for bringing up the fact that if you continuously get data
1:18:37 there’s no time for the teaching right and
1:18:39 we all know that and our teachers know that too um but it’s just
1:18:42 the culture and the pressure that they
1:18:44 have um you know when they’re when their salaries are tied to
1:18:47 assessment results for a long time
1:18:50 when there’s pressure from administration because that
1:18:52 administration also feels pressure to show
1:18:54 performance and growth within their school as well so not only
1:18:57 taking a deep dive on this just to
1:18:59 mitigate the experience for our students but it is mitigating
1:19:02 that experience for our teachers and
1:19:03 relieving a little bit of that stress and burden and ultimately
1:19:06 the administrators too right so i
1:19:08 appreciate that but the other piece too that i think is really
1:19:11 really critical is how
1:19:14 you addressed the fact that some of these tools are
1:19:17 intentionally to monitor where our students are
1:19:21 and so if we’re giving them in the beginning of the year and
1:19:23 assessing something that they should
1:19:24 have completed by the end of the year there’s value in that but
1:19:27 if we don’t have to do that there’s
1:19:29 also significant value in not depressing the confidence of that
1:19:33 student and unfortunately that’s kind of what
1:19:35 we’ve continuously been doing even with you know the progress
1:19:37 monitoring testing that we have we see
1:19:39 value in that don’t get me wrong but there are plenty of
1:19:42 students who feel like they’re not achieving
1:19:44 because they’re not hitting they just don’t understand that
1:19:46 concept that they shouldn’t be there yet
1:19:47 so i appreciate you acknowledging that and just reiterating that
1:19:52 to our teachers and our
1:19:53 administrators my daughter’s only in second grade she she
1:19:56 probably has a little test anxiety i mean i can
1:19:59 see it already but for her to already talk about things like i
1:20:02 ready in first grade and second grade
1:20:04 and have like her own self-fear behind it that’s you know that’s
1:20:07 sad that’s concerning and i know she’s
1:20:09 not the only one and it’s it’s not her teacher’s fault it’s
1:20:11 definitely her nature too um but you know
1:20:13 it’s just something we need to be conscious of for our students
1:20:15 that we’re aiming towards them
1:20:16 learning not just assessing them so thank you
1:20:23 so when we move on to secondary they as you know have a lot more
1:20:27 state assessments by content area
1:20:30 so you’ll see on the left side those are our state required and
1:20:33 then we have district created for
1:20:36 because for the algebra geometry they only have that eoc so they
1:20:41 don’t have the fast of progress
1:20:43 monitoring along the way so we have a district assessment that
1:20:47 for those courses can tell teachers okay
1:20:49 mid-year where does the student have half of the content or
1:20:52 where are they with what we’ve already
1:20:54 taught is the content they’re missing the content that we’ll be
1:20:58 teaching before that eoc kind of like a
1:21:00 you know progress monitoring tool is along the way is that maps
1:21:03 yes and then when you go in
1:21:07 we have a lot of optional again it’s a different feeling i will
1:21:12 say in my you know experience now
1:21:15 spending more time in secondary schools um it’s it’s just not
1:21:18 the same where they’re giving as many
1:21:20 district assessments there there’s not a feeling of as many
1:21:24 assessments that they’re they have them
1:21:26 available but they’re they’re just not i i don’t have the same
1:21:30 caution i do with some of our other
1:21:31 optional when i compare elementary to secondary but these are
1:21:35 the ones that are all available
1:21:40 any questions on secondary or the whole k-12 assessment package
1:21:45 mr susan i think you said you
1:21:47 had some questions or comments to make yeah i just part of so i’ve
1:21:52 been speaking to a lot of teachers
1:21:54 and stuff like that recently and one of the related to our tests
1:21:58 they’re saying that the windows of
1:22:01 when we can test at the end of the year we are testing at the
1:22:05 beginning of those windows is that
1:22:07 consistent with what you’re as a teacher i always tried to
1:22:11 stretch when i could make that test because
1:22:13 what ends up happening ultimately is everybody gets into that
1:22:18 test mode near the end and if it’s
1:22:21 say may 2nd is the day of the tests or april 2nd if we’re able
1:22:26 to push it later into the end of the year
1:22:29 when the test starts hitting the conversation starts hitting
1:22:33 there’s more time to actually
1:22:35 drill them basically and i didn’t know if that was something
1:22:40 that you guys had done i have i have it
1:22:42 written down in specific dates and stuff like that but they were
1:22:44 concerned that we were testing
1:22:45 in the available window earlier than later is there a reason for
1:22:49 that i’m sorry so what we’ve done this
1:22:51 year is nata brings in from the elementary side and secondary
1:22:55 side testing coordinators principals
1:22:58 assistant principals to a cadre because the state has the
1:23:01 testing window and then we identify because we
1:23:04 actually have a uniform testing calendar that we submit to the
1:23:08 doe and so she brings them in so in some
1:23:10 cases we’ve had school leaders say you know kindergarten they
1:23:15 need to be doing it at the beginning of may
1:23:18 the closer we get to the last day of school so there’s kind of
1:23:20 conversations around that we can absolutely
1:23:24 revisit that if there is a concern of if i only had two more
1:23:28 weeks of instruction what that could look
1:23:31 like on the outcome this is especially important when we’re
1:23:34 thinking around the fast student the
1:23:37 students taking the fast because that mid-year assessment some
1:23:40 of the window is before winter
1:23:42 break and some of it is after winter break and you have two
1:23:44 different philosophies you have some that
1:23:47 say i want to have the assessment before the winter break and
1:23:50 then some will say no they’re you know
1:23:53 excited about the holidays i want it afterwards so she does have
1:23:56 a cadre but we can absolutely look at
1:23:58 that it was it was and it was specific to the april may areas so
1:24:02 i’ll get those that email to you i just
1:24:05 didn’t know if that was something that and that’s already set
1:24:07 for this year but it might be something
1:24:09 we look at for next year absolutely and we are already starting
1:24:11 to look at that especially when we think of
1:24:13 grades like fifth or the high schools where they’re taking
1:24:15 multiple assessments assigning the days so
1:24:18 that students aren’t doing back to back cool thank you all right
1:24:22 forward any other questions in regards to
1:24:26 this dr randall i just wanted to point out going through the
1:24:29 presentation i counted 30 assessments that
1:24:33 our district required that we would be removing and 12 others
1:24:36 that possibly could be removed
1:24:39 so i just wanted the stakeholders mrs harris mentioned the
1:24:41 stakeholders earlier that’s parents
1:24:44 that’s students and that’s teachers you know we’ve heard from
1:24:47 the stakeholders that there seems to
1:24:50 be too much testing so her team you know talked to people doing
1:24:54 the work and some of the testing was
1:24:56 not necessarily required that maybe they thought was required so
1:25:01 we can we can clarify that but there was
1:25:05 some were some required assessments that will no longer be
1:25:08 required so you know we don’t want to stop
1:25:11 assessing because we want to measure our progress but it was
1:25:15 clear in her presentation that we can over
1:25:18 assess and cut out time for teaching which is the opposite of
1:25:22 what the result is that we want so
1:25:24 appreciate the work that everybody’s doing but one of the
1:25:27 messages you get out of the stakeholders that we heard
1:25:30 you know that this this thought this feedback there’s too much
1:25:34 testing well we stopped and took a look at
1:25:36 it and we’re going to do something about it and i and i think
1:25:40 that part of this also is is to communicate
1:25:42 this effectively to our stakeholders that this is happening um
1:25:45 you know brune running the communications to
1:25:48 you know parents or news articles everything else because it’s
1:25:51 been years i mean for seven years i’ve been on
1:25:54 this board and we’ve been talking about over testing and what’s
1:25:57 required and what’s not this will be the biggest
1:25:59 significant step towards that and i appreciate you that’s all um
1:26:02 so i know our pacing guides have
1:26:06 these steps along the way or stops along the way so then will
1:26:09 those pacing guides also be redone so
1:26:12 that gives they’ll give them a little more breathing room but
1:26:15 also they can get more content in there
1:26:16 along the way we will revise them because right now we have some
1:26:20 of those assessment windows built in
1:26:22 to the pacing guides where they would naturally fall and so the
1:26:27 one that will be the least impacted so
1:26:30 the will be that third grade so we in our pacing guide we
1:26:33 already put here’s where a portfolio piece
1:26:36 and we and we link it right there so that would be the one that’s
1:26:39 the least modified but all the other
1:26:41 ones will be modified to give back that instructional time okay
1:26:44 thank you thank you for all the hard work
1:26:47 that you’re doing here this will be good for everyone all the
1:26:51 way around all right our last topic that we
1:26:53 have on the agenda is the modified school calendar let’s see
1:26:56 what i did there uh year-round school
1:26:59 pilot for challenger 7 elementary it’s the miss harris show yes
1:27:03 yes yes you’ll hear my voice in your
1:27:06 nightmares um so today i just want to share kind of our process
1:27:10 as you’re aware we uh we’re one of the
1:27:12 districts selected for the year-round pilot through the um doe
1:27:17 and we applied i think back in october
1:27:19 and november kind of thinking that we’d hear back before winter
1:27:22 break and that didn’t happen so we’re
1:27:25 trying to play catch up so we want to inform the board so we can
1:27:28 get some direction on next steps
1:27:29 because this takes everyone in the room to get this off the
1:27:33 ground with success so i’m kind of just
1:27:36 background of why and a lot of this you know uh the challenger
1:27:40 seven school community was once a year
1:27:43 round school and a lot of the staff remain a lot of the parents
1:27:47 of the school were stakeholders either
1:27:49 as a student themselves or had siblings that went through that
1:27:53 so there was a a want from the staff
1:27:55 and community input and then our selection being selected as one
1:27:59 of the pilot schools led us to begin this
1:28:02 process so next steps at that point included really surveying we
1:28:07 went and met dr rendell mr raymer myself
1:28:11 mrs wright we went and met with both the staff and the families
1:28:15 and we put out quite a few surveys for
1:28:17 them and so i want to just go over the staff input and the
1:28:22 community input around would they are they
1:28:25 embracing this possible change so if you see the staff currently
1:28:30 it’s like all but one staff member is
1:28:33 very much on board with moving in this direction and this
1:28:36 includes teachers but also our support staff
1:28:39 members if we look at parents and and we’ve even updated this
1:28:43 with current data since that parent meeting
1:28:47 you see that there is a large majority of our parents that would
1:28:52 are requesting this change at the meeting
1:28:55 it was interesting some parents came with some concerns but
1:28:58 after hearing from the teachers they
1:29:00 they understood what the teachers were saying and i think they
1:29:04 it allayed some of their concerns what i
1:29:07 want to let you take a minute to look at is what this would mean
1:29:12 for students but also as we start to
1:29:14 consider staff allocations so when we see we went survey by
1:29:18 survey and while it wasn’t every family
1:29:22 at the school we did have a large turnout if you think that
1:29:24 their enrollment is a little less than 500
1:29:27 and so we got to talk to a lot of the challenger stakeholders
1:29:31 but when we look at some grade levels
1:29:33 this um when you look at that no column that is about one class
1:29:37 that would be exiting the school
1:29:40 when we think of that what we have talked about if the district
1:29:44 decides you know if the board recommends
1:29:46 that we move forward we would be looking at offering spots to
1:29:50 the nearby schools at both atlantis and
1:29:53 enterprise currently as far as capacity they could absorb these
1:29:58 numbers it would then start looking at
1:30:00 allocations so our but i just want you to see the numbers
1:30:04 because as we talk about next steps
1:30:06 this gives you an idea of what it would look like per grade
1:30:10 level
1:30:10 we also asked our stakeholders if the you know if this is not an
1:30:18 option that works for your family
1:30:20 what is your why because that would help us problem solve next
1:30:23 steps for the families so you see the
1:30:25 data here is a lot of this was scheduled in full transparency
1:30:29 when we put this survey out
1:30:31 the beginning of the window they didn’t have the tentative
1:30:34 calendar yet because we were literally
1:30:36 building the airplane as we were flying it in that initial stage
1:30:40 but then we went back in and got more
1:30:42 data and we once we had pushed out the tentative draft calendar
1:30:46 in our survey feedback so we had the parent survey the staff
1:30:52 survey but we also had an email address for
1:30:54 any stakeholder that could email me directly with any feedback
1:30:58 but it was very important that they
1:31:00 maintain the current holidays within the traditional calendar
1:31:05 and some of that was because they might
1:31:06 have siblings in schools that were on a traditional calendar or
1:31:10 they were employed at sites and so that
1:31:13 was a very strong feedback we received it was also important
1:31:16 that they wanted us to consider having child
1:31:19 care so having our before and after care programs run during
1:31:22 intersessions and that would just be because
1:31:26 if they were reliant on siblings that were on a traditional
1:31:28 calendar that we’d want to consider that
1:31:30 another piece in the feedback was providing what we call like
1:31:35 academic support or enrichment opportunities
1:31:38 that we have offered in the summer that we could offer some of
1:31:41 those activities during these intersession breaks
1:31:44 and then obviously you know being mindful of families that have
1:31:48 students in two different calendar types
1:31:51 of schools when making the calendar
1:31:53 so you have it the draft calendar in front of you and it has
1:32:00 lots of color coding and shading
1:32:02 but kind of the highlights is this would begin with students on
1:32:06 july 22nd
1:32:07 if you were here when challenger 7 was last year round you might
1:32:11 remember an earlier start so there
1:32:13 was about a five week june uh summer but knowing that we were
1:32:18 turning on this with you know we got this
1:32:22 information late from the state and so we wanted to provide
1:32:25 families with not losing all of their summer
1:32:28 and so that is what led us to that july 22nd start date in
1:32:32 honoring the community feedback to align with
1:32:36 already existing breaks that became a little different than if
1:32:39 you revert back to the last time challenger 7 was
1:32:42 year round because we now have like a week off at thanksgiving
1:32:45 so there are different breaks that
1:32:47 bps has now and so we tried to align the breaks um so that they
1:32:52 would back up in some cases so like the
1:32:55 winter break that’s the intersession you’ll see in the spring
1:32:58 you’ll find that it’s the week that backs
1:33:00 up to the spring break so they would just basically have an
1:33:04 extended spring break
1:33:08 when we look at this draft calendar something that is important
1:33:12 to note is our before and after care
1:33:15 they’re obviously district employees and so when that intersession
1:33:19 falls during the winter break the
1:33:22 district is closed and so we would not be honoring you know that
1:33:26 commitment during that intersession of
1:33:28 running our child care programs the same goes for during spring
1:33:32 break our bas programs do not run and so at this
1:33:36 point we could not commit to both weeks of that intersession so
1:33:40 we would run one week with before
1:33:42 and after care so summer programming basically during that one
1:33:46 week of intersession but the other week
1:33:48 would be your traditional spring break any questions on this
1:33:53 tentative calendar and just for clarifying
1:33:56 purposes we’re not running before or after school care during
1:33:58 those times anyways for any of the other
1:34:00 schools so this is something that’s different for challenger
1:34:02 than it would be for our other elementary just
1:34:04 want to clarify that um i can assume the answer here but i’m
1:34:11 sure the public is curious too for the
1:34:14 before and after care for those intersession breaks will there
1:34:17 be a cost associated with that for
1:34:20 families there will there will it will be very similar to we do
1:34:23 run in certain sites during the summer the
1:34:26 summer programming and so it would be a fee-based program during
1:34:30 uh that would match that rate
1:34:32 that we pay now in the in the june we run summer programs i
1:34:37 think at five or six elementary programs
1:34:40 and that is fee-based so it would be fee-based what would not be
1:34:43 fee-based would be our enrichment or
1:34:46 academic support that we would run now that would not
1:34:49 necessarily be a full day that could be you
1:34:52 know an 8 to 12 students come you know we’re doing either
1:34:55 enrichment or you know different things that
1:34:58 we would hire teachers using that academic support funding so if
1:35:01 i could draw that a little further so
1:35:04 during those intersession weeks we could offer an 8 to 12 intersession
1:35:11 enrichment period or even longer
1:35:13 depending on what funding we want to direct towards it and that
1:35:16 would be bust and that would be free
1:35:18 and all that so if that was 8 to 12 and you wanted to you know
1:35:21 stay for the full day then you would only
1:35:23 pay for the before and after care costs after that that kind of
1:35:27 thing so most of the models we looked at
1:35:30 that have a year-round or modified calendar offer some kind of
1:35:34 instruction during that intersession
1:35:36 time that’s free it’s paid for with either supplemental
1:35:39 instruction money or summer school money and stuff
1:35:41 like that so you know those three weeks on this calendar two
1:35:45 weeks september october and then one week
1:35:47 in march there could be you know instruction provided for part
1:35:52 of that day and that would be free so
1:35:57 that’s still part of the plan so i have a i have a question um
1:36:01 because i see the value in that i
1:36:03 totally understand that um but our students need breaks too
1:36:08 right um and so really this is also
1:36:10 because parents just aren’t going to be able to adapt to that
1:36:12 schedule and they need child care for
1:36:14 their students so my question is it sounds like we were awarded
1:36:18 whatever from the state to do this
1:36:21 is that coming with money no additional course not money okay um
1:36:25 because my follow-up question would
1:36:29 be then for us to consider because this is a pilot program that
1:36:32 we are initiating and kind of pulling
1:36:34 the band-aid off last minute to some families to make this shift
1:36:37 that we should consider some kind of
1:36:39 support for those families for these intersessions at least for
1:36:43 the pilot year that’s just my opinion
1:36:46 i also think um because even though there was a significant
1:36:49 response from families there is one
1:36:51 third of those families in that survey that are not okay with
1:36:54 the schedule um for us to consider
1:36:58 that that might keep them in that school for this pilot year and
1:37:00 you might win them over
1:37:02 um so if we can i know we can’t talk about that today obviously
1:37:05 but if that’s something we can just
1:37:06 kind of think about and possibly consider as a board to make
1:37:09 this as success like successful as possible for
1:37:11 that community potentially saving staff members from leaving
1:37:14 that school too um i what it was only one
1:37:18 one that was no we’re gonna lose one staff member per grade if
1:37:21 all of these kids who said they don’t
1:37:22 want to come back well here’s here’s what i do have to offer and
1:37:25 it’s on a future side is what we
1:37:27 will be doing is initially doing placement of the families that
1:37:30 are saying i’d like a traditional calendar
1:37:32 then we’re going to open up an application window for families
1:37:36 choicing in because what we have heard
1:37:37 from the community is they believe that there will be
1:37:40 potentially from some of those uh neighborhood
1:37:42 schools in port st john that they would want to apply in so we’ll
1:37:47 do we won’t know obviously if
1:37:49 if it’s 114 out 114 in yet but that is um what we are planning
1:37:54 for and just for reference to when
1:37:56 challenger 7 was year-round school before it was on a wait list
1:37:58 it was at capacity always so i i
1:38:00 anticipate that that is a similar situation that we will see
1:38:02 with this one so just want to put that out
1:38:04 that i understand that but i what i’m uncomfortable is the
1:38:08 disruption of the school the way it is now
1:38:10 and the people it’s serving now and the people who are serving
1:38:13 that school now and so i’m just asking
1:38:15 if we consider possibly keeping it as stable as possible and
1:38:19 because it’s a pilot program and because
1:38:21 we’re the ones making this choice to institute this to consider
1:38:24 during this pilot year to possibly
1:38:26 support those families or maybe a threshold of families that we
1:38:28 can support when it comes to that
1:38:30 intercession so that way we’re not limiting people to be able to
1:38:33 access the year-round school if they
1:38:35 want to access it um i just think it’s something for us to think
1:38:37 about just just put the numbers on
1:38:39 the paper and see what it looks like i just i think we should
1:38:42 consider it that’s all massive the only
1:38:44 thing about that is i mean i hear you saying but it’s we’re all
1:38:48 we’re really doing is shifting around
1:38:51 the decks the chairs on the deck right i’m not gonna say i have
1:38:54 the titanic because it’s not sinking
1:38:56 but we’re we’re just shifting around the week so still 180 days
1:38:59 we’re just putting so if so if a
1:39:01 family normally would have to pay for child care in the summer
1:39:05 in june it’s everybody’s still gonna
1:39:07 have june off but in that part of july and august where now they’d
1:39:11 have school they’re going to be
1:39:13 paying instead of paying for it then they’re going to be paying
1:39:15 for it in other places and rbis is
1:39:17 still the cheapest thing out there and it sounds like from what
1:39:20 dr rondell is saying if it’s it’s we keep
1:39:24 saying free it’s free to them not free to us and i i want to
1:39:26 find out where we’re getting this money
1:39:28 from to pay for the intercession because that’s one of the
1:39:30 things when i was doing my conversation
1:39:32 with people who are doing this they had they had the money to do
1:39:34 it when they first were doing the
1:39:35 intercession it was to do all these programs and to provide busing
1:39:38 i don’t know that’s that’s a that’s
1:39:40 a maybe we can if we if we choose to if we have the funding for
1:39:43 it but you know for our families who
1:39:46 want to take advantage of the intercession the enrichment and
1:39:49 the um what’s the other word
1:39:52 yeah like remediation mediation remediation those things that is
1:39:58 no cost so they would only be paying
1:40:01 for like a half day a three hour you know whatever the rest of
1:40:04 the day if they wanted to do a full day
1:40:06 full day um so i think we’re just kind of we’re just moving
1:40:11 around for a family’s budget we’re moving
1:40:12 it from this part of the year to this part of the year um you
1:40:17 know one of the ways reasons why this
1:40:18 was able to be successful in charlotte and the schools that they’re
1:40:21 doing is the whole entire
1:40:22 community kind of came around and they’re used to this right so
1:40:26 if our daycares i think this is in
1:40:28 one of your presentation if the daycares in the area are also
1:40:31 because some people even even then
1:40:34 maybe bas is not going to work for them um if they are on board
1:40:39 enough to say hey this and the county
1:40:42 programs and things like that to to know ahead far enough ahead
1:40:45 of time to say hey this school’s going
1:40:47 to be doing this calendar you might want to staff in such a way
1:40:50 and do your program in such a way that
1:40:52 you’re prepared to take on extra kids during these weeks um so
1:40:57 which i’m assuming they already do
1:40:59 like during spring break and miss maynor the principal did reach
1:41:03 out to the daycare so in the survey
1:41:05 it asked the community which outside providers do you use and
1:41:08 she has partnered with all of them
1:41:10 and they have agreed to support this um initiative yeah i just
1:41:15 um i hear what you’re saying miss campbell
1:41:17 i just just to be a devil’s advocate though for a diverse
1:41:21 community a lot of families when the
1:41:24 chunks of time off is in one time it’s a lot easier for them to
1:41:27 coordinate they have grandparents come in
1:41:29 or they send them to grandparents or one parent takes off
1:41:32 vacation the other one doesn’t um and also
1:41:35 thinking about our students with disabilities a lot of these
1:41:38 facilities aren’t going to take those
1:41:39 students so it’s just something to think about if even if there’s
1:41:44 like a a threshold or requirement
1:41:45 or something just for us to even just consider i’m not saying it’s
1:41:48 a definite i just think if we want
1:41:50 this to be bought into from the community that already is using
1:41:53 this school i really think we should
1:41:54 be supporting them through this first transition year if we can
1:41:56 miss miss uh jenkins can you explain what that means as far as a
1:42:05 threshold what you’re looking for like
1:42:07 what are you looking for honestly i think that hang on hang on
1:42:09 hang on if i can make finish
1:42:10 um if you can do that and then i didn’t understand the comment
1:42:14 of they may not be able to be picked
1:42:16 up in another place um for their disabilities if you could
1:42:20 explain that many after scare after
1:42:23 school and daycares are not going to take students with moderate
1:42:26 to significant disabilities they’re just
1:42:28 not going to if they have any kind of behaviors they’re just
1:42:30 they’re just not going to they don’t
1:42:32 have to um it’s just a reality for many of our family students
1:42:35 who have even just adhd if their
1:42:37 child is you know running around the room and knocking over
1:42:40 furniture daycare doesn’t want to
1:42:42 to deal with that and they kick that child out of that daycare
1:42:45 it happens all the time and so
1:42:47 this puts a lot of stress on families that we may not think
1:42:50 about um but if they’re in the schools
1:42:53 it’s just different it’s just you know those students are just
1:42:56 treated differently and and um
1:42:59 we’re willing to work with them and teach them and guide them
1:43:02 and so it’s just something about in
1:43:04 terms of thresholds really what i just mean is honestly that’s
1:43:07 for staff to to think about um because
1:43:09 i don’t know what the cost would even be associated with
1:43:11 something like this um i don’t know the legality
1:43:14 of what saying what kind of criteria criteria that family would
1:43:18 have to meet could be legal even um
1:43:21 but i just throwing it out there just if we can support this
1:43:24 community transitioning this quickly
1:43:26 into something very different again i think it would be best for
1:43:28 the students who are already going
1:43:30 there that want to stay there and the only thing stopping them
1:43:32 is that schedule let us consider a
1:43:34 way to possibly support them for the first year that’s all i
1:43:37 just didn’t it’s kind of a wormhole to go
1:43:39 down you know what i mean without the guidance that was all i
1:43:41 was just trying to have you define it a
1:43:42 little bit more and i will say what i being a student a former
1:43:47 kid that was borderline adhd
1:43:49 i think this is going to be incredible because i think what you’re
1:43:53 going to see is rather than
1:43:54 kids and issues and problems i think what you do is is when they
1:43:58 mentioned in there about the
1:43:59 transitional weeks about how you have community support and
1:44:03 partners inside the community coming
1:44:05 in to do it i think it’s going to be one of those stars i’m
1:44:07 really looking forward to seeing this happen i
1:44:09 think um you do have a validity there ms jenkins as far as you
1:44:13 know trying to help some of those
1:44:15 families but i just didn’t know what your definition was and i
1:44:17 was trying to help you refine it before
1:44:19 we sent staff out on a you know a wormhole but i guess they can
1:44:23 do that that’s it thank you all right
1:44:27 all right we have a couple more slides i think so these are just
1:44:30 um some of the questions you’ll see
1:44:32 here that came up at the community meeting and also through our
1:44:36 email contact that we’re working to
1:44:38 address we’ve been uh you know we were very transparent the
1:44:42 parent meeting that this is pending
1:44:45 board approval like that we we can’t say that this is a for sure
1:44:47 yet that we just are collecting
1:44:49 information and as we have information we are pushing it out
1:44:52 through the principal as things come but we
1:44:54 were able to answer a lot of these both with pushing out the
1:44:58 tentative map as well as hosting the parent
1:45:01 meeting and communications that miss mayner has pushed out to
1:45:05 her staff things we kind of already
1:45:07 addressed the placement of students opting out and then the
1:45:11 potential impact on staffing allocations
1:45:14 if we we believe that we’ll have a balance of incoming students
1:45:19 so but we do know that we would work with
1:45:21 hr if it if in fact more students come go out then come in that
1:45:25 we would be shifting allocations but we
1:45:27 do have the capacity at both of the other elementary schools in
1:45:31 the area so this would not be looking at
1:45:34 bringing in learning cottages or any type of portables and then
1:45:38 transportation possibilities we in talking with
1:45:42 the parents talked about if you do opt out transporting you to
1:45:45 one of those two neighboring schools we did
1:45:49 have some parents mention well i work in merritt island you know
1:45:52 i’d want to be placed at a school in
1:45:54 merritt island we didn’t really speak to transportation outside
1:45:58 of just that fort st john community just
1:46:01 because for our other students that apply to alternate settings
1:46:04 we’re not providing that for them
1:46:05 and then just extending choice options for incoming students and
1:46:10 that would be through an
1:46:11 application process that we would open
1:46:13 how how far off are we because we haven’t we don’t we don’t open
1:46:19 the elementary elo window until
1:46:22 april may correct i mean it’s already towards the end of the
1:46:25 year anyway yes when i talk to dr mayor
1:46:28 depending on next steps from the board we may be able to have
1:46:33 that an incoming option
1:46:35 you know with our normal elementary and just putting that on
1:46:39 there what we did want to honor
1:46:41 for the families that are asking to go to a traditional calendar
1:46:44 that they wouldn’t go through the
1:46:45 application we’re going to have a different pathway for them
1:46:49 because they won’t be you know selected or
1:46:51 not we will be placing them in a site right so they get they get
1:46:54 first priority right
1:46:58 what is the timeline for this to be concrete and set in stone
1:47:03 both calendar we would need to be set in stone right now this is
1:47:09 like revision number
1:47:10 50 with all the different feedback so this calendar right now
1:47:15 would be the calendar that we would be
1:47:17 submitting to the board for next steps if you if you were to
1:47:20 vote to move forward with this we are working
1:47:24 behind the scenes so that we’re just waiting on next steps from
1:47:27 the board and basically what we would
1:47:30 look for some kind of consensus today stop what you’re doing don’t
1:47:34 do it or move forward if it’s moved
1:47:37 forward then we’re going to bring the calendar back for approval
1:47:41 at a board meeting and then any other
1:47:43 policy changes or not policy changes but any other things that
1:47:46 we have to do to accommodate all these
1:47:48 needs would come back for board approval so i’m asking just
1:47:52 specifically for i mean the families that
1:47:55 have to deal with custodial agreements and arrangements i mean
1:47:58 we had a disaster the year we randomly took off
1:48:01 thanksgiving break and that was a legal disaster for many
1:48:04 families so um just if we can make that as
1:48:07 clear as possible for families as soon as possible that is my
1:48:11 recommendation
1:48:14 okay i’m gonna chime in on this one just because this has
1:48:17 obviously been something i’ve been very
1:48:18 vocal about being passionate about wanting for all of our
1:48:21 schools and and the funny thing is as
1:48:23 this calendar has come out and become public i’ve heard from
1:48:25 several people that are like why can’t
1:48:27 we have this at our school and i’m like well maybe one day um
1:48:30 but just just to kind of put it in
1:48:32 perspective when we had the teacher meeting this doesn’t happen
1:48:35 like this very often but we got a round of
1:48:37 applause at the end of it they were excited so i was like okay
1:48:39 staff is on board they love it uh and and we got a round of
1:48:42 applause from a lot of the family when we were having the
1:48:44 conversation with them um this community is
1:48:47 they have used it’s actually this calendar is a little more i
1:48:51 want to get to a place where we’re
1:48:53 not quite as long as we are even on this calendar for summer
1:48:55 because right now i think our summer is
1:48:56 looking like it’s what six weeks um so and i know we’re kind of
1:48:59 easing into it this feels a little bit
1:49:01 like an ease into but this schedule i believe the community is
1:49:05 going to love it i believe we’re going to
1:49:07 have a wait list at challenger seven i believe that um that this
1:49:10 will be something that’s so successful
1:49:13 that i hope other schools in our district look at going to this
1:49:16 model and i think you’re going to see
1:49:17 a lot of teachers that are very attracted to this schedule and
1:49:20 the breaks that are there as a family
1:49:22 i mean think about it you can go on vacation in september and
1:49:26 october versus having to wait till
1:49:28 thanksgiving or christmas or the summer which are the most
1:49:30 expensive times to vacation um and then again
1:49:33 you know the child care expense thank you miss jenkins is very
1:49:35 thoughtful for you to think about
1:49:37 the families that that are maybe not in favor of this and how
1:49:40 how can we help them i appreciate that
1:49:42 perspective um but but i do also have to echo a little bit of
1:49:46 what miss campbell said on we’re just
1:49:47 shifting it around it’s the same amount of time off uh it is
1:49:51 just shifted around and you know i think
1:49:53 overall this calendar is going to be so successful like i said
1:49:56 that i believe we’ll see other schools
1:49:58 that will want to jump suit with us as well so um obviously my
1:50:02 my recommendation is move forward let’s
1:50:04 go but uh we need we need board consensus on that so i will be
1:50:08 quiet and let the rest of you speak and
1:50:10 chime in on this i’m excited let’s go yeah um so i i’m glad to
1:50:16 hear about the community staff parents and
1:50:22 i and i think i had a conversation dr rendell he said the survey
1:50:26 was done before you guys came in and
1:50:27 did the presentation kind of answered some of those questions so
1:50:30 if you did the survey today it might
1:50:31 be a little more different you you estimate it might be more
1:50:33 positive because people are like oh okay oh
1:50:36 that um and it sounds like before with the the choicing in from
1:50:39 the community that you know that that
1:50:42 would take care of because i’d hate for these 94 of staff who
1:50:45 want it to happen and then you know like 13
1:50:48 percent of them have to go somewhere else um i here are some of
1:50:54 the the questions that i think about
1:50:57 and i can’t get them all answered today but you know we have the
1:51:01 potential anytime any year-round
1:51:03 school that’s going to be one of our traditional public schools
1:51:06 you know we have families that move
1:51:07 in even for our regular schools after labor day especially if
1:51:11 they’re coming from up north right
1:51:14 in a situation like that where family comes in august 12th
1:51:17 because they moved in they weren’t paying
1:51:20 attention whatever they come in to enroll or they’re moving up
1:51:22 from the north and they come in then in
1:51:25 this case here’s here’s the downside one of the downsides is
1:51:28 that we’re already three weeks into the
1:51:31 school year at the first day of school if they come in after
1:51:34 labor day we’re like six weeks into the
1:51:36 school year so they’ve missed most of the first quarter what do
1:51:41 we do with those kids i mean i guess
1:51:43 we could say hey this is your zone school we’re on a year-round
1:51:46 format yeah you just missed the first
1:51:48 six weeks of kindergarten but you could go to this school over
1:51:52 here um are we going to leave that open
1:51:54 for families who because we i don’t know how transient the uh
1:51:59 port st john community is compared to some of our
1:52:02 other communities and is this title in school um it’s one of
1:52:05 those it’s on and on okay last year
1:52:07 so that’s i think we need to be prepared to address that so that
1:52:12 just as just as if we’re saying we’re
1:52:15 going to give the families that are zoned for challenger seven
1:52:18 kind of a outside of the regular elo
1:52:21 opportunity i think that needs to be ongoing so that any new enrolling
1:52:26 family can come in depending
1:52:27 on when it is in the year because if we’re if we’re after that
1:52:30 fall break then we’re kind of
1:52:32 caught up right but especially in that first quarter if they’re
1:52:35 already three weeks behind
1:52:37 or potentially six weeks behind or whatever it’s really going to
1:52:40 be impactful for families that move
1:52:42 in so i i would suggest that we would have an ongoing ability
1:52:45 and we kind of already do with the state
1:52:46 law where you can go to whatever school but i think from the
1:52:48 moment they enroll we need to give them
1:52:50 their options and say just so you know this is the way it is but
1:52:53 you can if you’re willing to get your own
1:52:55 kid there here’s a school a couple miles down the road mile and
1:52:58 a half down that way whatever here’s
1:52:59 your other options if you want the traditional calendar we need
1:53:02 to leave that to them upon
1:53:03 enrollment for people who are moving into the area um because i
1:53:07 would sure hate for a kid to miss six
1:53:09 weeks of a grade and then these intercession times you know i i
1:53:13 have concerns about and these are
1:53:16 concerns that can’t be overcome but i have concerns about
1:53:19 funding uh because because it’s not always and
1:53:23 always every year title one school we’re talking about pouring
1:53:26 extra funds into a school um so that
1:53:30 we can run this calendar which are funds that will have to come
1:53:34 be diverted away from other programming
1:53:37 or you know unless there’s grants that we can get for specific
1:53:39 for things so we’re so we’re
1:53:40 we’re talking about putting funding into a program just so we
1:53:44 can run this program in the way that the
1:53:47 families want to be and i i don’t want to not do for certain
1:53:50 kids but if we’re doing for them we’re
1:53:52 there’s some things we’re not able to do if i’m make i’m feel
1:53:56 like i’m being not clear about that but
1:53:58 so i that’s the downside another downside can i just ask you to
1:54:02 elaborate on what you mean for the
1:54:04 funding because it’s the same amount of calendar days it’s the
1:54:06 same amount of so the intersession’s not
1:54:08 well and that would one of the things that we talked to the
1:54:12 principal about as an idea you know as we’re
1:54:14 exploring this is our schools all of our schools receive an
1:54:18 allocation for academic support and a lot
1:54:20 of them run before school after school programming and we have
1:54:24 all different levels of success with that
1:54:26 just due to teachers being tired students being tired looking at
1:54:30 diverting that funding to support
1:54:33 the intercession so it’s still using the funding as allowed but
1:54:37 instead of doing after school programs
1:54:40 running using that funding to pay the teachers that would work
1:54:44 the intercession and so it’s enough to
1:54:46 cover not be it’s just kind of a little out of the box movement
1:54:50 of funds so to do away with the
1:54:52 after school program uh that’s remediation or enrichment reallocating
1:54:57 that to the intercession dates we have
1:54:59 that funding outside of esser yes that um while we had esser
1:55:03 schools actually got double so they will
1:55:06 go back to 50 of what they’ve had for two years but they’ve
1:55:10 always had that allocation okay um yeah
1:55:12 because that was my concern because i was talking about funding
1:55:15 it it’s it’s we have to pay the teachers
1:55:16 to do right and we transportation we’ll have to find funding
1:55:20 because i’m assuming that funding doesn’t
1:55:21 cover necessarily things like transportation that we’ll have to
1:55:24 figure out how we’re going to pay for
1:55:25 that um so is this i don’t know if this is also a predominantly
1:55:29 walking maybe it’s not that much
1:55:31 because if they only have one so that’s that’s what they do they
1:55:34 only have one bus that bus is in
1:55:36 whereas the other elementary school i think one of them has nine
1:55:38 yes uh they’re they’re significantly
1:55:40 higher challenger only has one bus that comes in so it should be
1:55:44 doable okay and i know food nutrition
1:55:46 service is always as a way to find it out with their summer
1:55:49 feeding program and they they have
1:55:51 creative ways of dealing with the the speeding kids um yeah and
1:55:56 then the other input i would have is how
1:55:59 are you know if we have let’s say only half of our teachers
1:56:02 agree to do intersessions we have limited
1:56:05 spaces how are we going to prioritize who gets to come obviously
1:56:10 bas can ramp up as much as they can
1:56:12 for their side of it but i think if we can prioritize for
1:56:17 example staff students who are going to be working
1:56:20 um prioritize low performing students um you know there needs to
1:56:26 be a way not just a first come first
1:56:28 serve there needs to be a priority on the students who like the
1:56:31 people who are working there obviously
1:56:33 need a place for their kids to come but you know we need to
1:56:36 prioritize those bas spots and the enrichment
1:56:38 remediation spots for the students who most need it
1:56:46 and i think that’ll be something that when if we move in this
1:56:49 direction that we’ll work closely with
1:56:50 the school on you know identifying those families that would
1:56:54 have traditionally been invited to
1:56:55 academic support or enrichment before and working with those
1:56:58 families are they planning to come so
1:57:00 that i don’t want to say like a reservation system but truly a
1:57:03 planning so that we can staff
1:57:04 it appropriately within the dollars that we have right which is
1:57:07 really no different than child
1:57:08 care would be anyways the same kind of idea where you have to
1:57:10 make sure okay go ahead mr
1:57:13 you look like you wrote down a few things he’s been anxiously
1:57:16 ready to hit this button uh as former
1:57:18 teacher uh great schedule i i really like this i think uh this
1:57:22 is almost a modified modified schedule
1:57:25 because it’s not quite a year around because they’re that large
1:57:27 right so you may be asked to keep it this
1:57:30 way but it’s it is nice uh and it isn’t just set up that maybe
1:57:34 we could take more different time of
1:57:39 the year and vacation which does lead to different experiences
1:57:42 for children and i understand that
1:57:44 but it’s in hopes that we increase student achievement and at
1:57:47 those times in between that we could provide
1:57:49 some services and and uh you know everybody’s a little bit
1:57:53 better after that little bit break there so
1:57:55 uh if it takes a little bit of uh extra funding or creative
1:57:59 financing to uh help uh student achievement
1:58:03 i’m all for that but i i really think i say it’s not my area you
1:58:06 know those people a little bit
1:58:08 better than i do but i i i can see a waiting list as well at
1:58:11 other schools i i really uh uh i had hoped
1:58:15 we would do something like this you know with you know during
1:58:18 the campaign we talked about turning
1:58:19 education on its ear this is part of it is you know let’s look
1:58:23 at our schedule let’s look at our calendar so
1:58:25 uh i’m excited so you know where i’m headed so we’re good is
1:58:28 that a yes move forward and do good
1:58:29 work or what absolutely let’s get it going okay all right is
1:58:34 there any other additional questions
1:58:36 or do you feel like you have clarity on we do on direction
1:58:40 all right hearing none does any other board member have anything
1:58:44 further to discuss today
1:58:49 hearing none uh this meeting is adjourned thank you guys
1:59:02 you