Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
0:00 Well, good morning. Welcome to the May 7th, 2024 board work session. It is now in order. Mary Jo, can you please call? Roll call, please. Here. Here. Thank you. Will you please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance?
1:36 Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with
1:49 All right, well, we are in for a treat this morning. This is not your typical work session with all these wonderful smiling faces across the table. Uh, so our first topic that we have is the education and citizenship, armed forces, citizenship of space coast. That’s another wonderful acronym. I’m going to turn it over to Mr Susan because I believe this is something you have been working on.
2:08 So I’ll go ahead and let you have the floor. Yeah, I just want to say thank you so much for everybody being here today. We’ve been working on this for a while and now, coming into the summer, we’re getting so excited for what we’re about to bring out. I wanted to, um, give an opportunity for the members of, of the organization to just say hi.
2:23 So, um, I’d start out with Mr. Mr. Dwyer Dennis. Hi.
2:51 We’re hopefully to go on the upcoming website that is being prepared on, and also, we’re excited for the presentation.
3:05 Real fast. Can we check microphones just to make sure they’re on so that the public can hear online? You’ll just, there’s a little switch on the top and you’ll pull it forward.
3:16 You’re on. Okay. Perfect. I saw someone back there. All right. Continue. Yeah, I’m Dean Schaff. I’m a late comer into this committee, but, uh, I brought a lot of friends with me, but yeah, I’m excited to be working with this, uh, uh, with this committee and, uh, and what we can get, uh, uh, for the mob. I appreciate it.
3:40 And Dean, just, just so everybody understands, this is the museums of Brevard, um, it’s a coalition of 21 museums that have come together to provide resources and education for our citizens across the county. What you’re viewing here is many of the museums that are a part of that. Um, I think Dean, you’re the vice president of the mob.
3:58 They call it the mob, which is pretty, pretty. Corinne here is, is our president of the mob. And you’re the president. Yes. And, um, and I just wanted to say you’re also the head of the Veterans Memorial Center. Correct. That’s it. So, okay. Thank you. Go ahead.
4:14 I’m Anita Full from Green Gables, and we’re happy to be a part of this and look forward to this summer and what’s going to come after that. Hi, I’m Marion Ambrose. I’m the Director of Education at Green Gables. And we are more than excited. Uh, we have classes coming all the time and, uh, we’d love to have more.
4:33 Thank you. I’m Ben Bedalik with the Vietnam War Exhibit and Education Center. Uh, very excited about being here and being on the ground floor of this, uh, of this program. I think it’s going to be a, uh, Uh, uh, uh, high point, uh, uh, and education here morning. My name is Jay Freeland. I’m here as the board president for the Liberty Bell Museum down in Melbourne, Florida, and also represent the mob as the treasurer of the Sam thrilled to be two for two on nonstandard meetings.
5:07 The last time I was here was when my son’s elementary school was singing. Uh, as you may all recall, so at some point I’ll come to a meeting where there’s no standard meeting. I don’t know what that is. Uh, I’m Greg Stoll. I’m a volunteer with the city of Cocoa representing their two museums, uh, both the Collins Museum of African American History and Culture and the Brevard Museum of History and Natural Science.
5:32 And we always enjoy having the kids come through and giving them a good time. Okay. Go back up two. Okay. Good morning. Um, I’m Donna Kare, I’m director of the Museum of Dinosaurs and Ancient Cultures in Cocoa Beach. And I can’t tell you how thrilled I am that we’re getting something formally together.
5:53 Working with, for years, the dinosaur store, not the museum, has worked with individual teachers here and there where kids have gotten credit for coming to the dinosaur store. But now we have the museum. Which is much larger, of course it’s a non profit. And, uh, with many school groups. And every child should know about museums.
6:14 I feel like the kids, like in the northeast, they live in museums. You know, in New York, New Jersey. And our kids don’t get that. So let’s get them all to museums and proper etiquette, um, and the learning and the resources that are there at all the museums. And especially with the great ones that we have here in Brevard, I’m happy to be part of the museums of Brevard too.
6:35 So thank you very much for all the time that everybody has spent organizing this. I think it’s fantastic. Thank you. Hi, good morning. My name is Corinne Braden. I’m the Historic Site Director for Field Manor. We’re a 45 acre homestead on Merritt Island, and we celebrate early pioneer life here in Florida and the repopulation after the Civil War.
6:55 We also focus on Brevard’s native past with the Ais Indians, um, with the wonderful exhibit that we have from a site on the Banana River. I am also the president, proudly the president, of Museums of Brevard, and I think this is a great program to kind of piggyback on what Donna was saying. Um, when you get children interested in museums as children, it’s something, um, you instill that in them and they bring it into adulthood.
7:20 And I think that they have a great idea of the world, not directly around them, but also the world around them. And so thank you for this opportunity. I’m Becky Zingarelli. I’m the museum director at the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse. Uh, we love having the kids out there. They love climbing the lighthouse. We can only go up to the fifth floor, but they still have a good time.
7:42 And it’s amazing how many kids in Florida don’t know how to climb stairs. So this is a real challenge for them. When you come out to visit the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse, it’s a challenge because it’s on the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, there’s security, uh, but we’ve got it all figured out, and there’s not a problem, and we can, we can accommodate everyone, and when they come to visit us, not only do they get the lighthouse, they get the Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum, and they get the Sands Space History Center, so you get a three for it when you come see us, so we’re looking forward to seeing everybody.
8:13 Hi, I’m Sally Shin. I’m on the board for Lawndale, which is a historical home in Rockledge on Rockledge Drive. It was actually the first school in Rockledge in the 1800s, and it’s a wonderful place for kids to come. We’re getting ready for them. One of the main things we’re going to do is to have games that were played.
8:31 It’s a beautiful outside environment, as well as an inside that’s fully furnished. And the kids are going to get to see an environment that was created so beautifully without electricity. And here is one of our most wonderful volunteers. Hi, everyone. My name is Mary Repass. Um, I started, uh, volunteering at, uh, at Lawndale when it first opened about two and a half years ago.
9:12 I, um, I’m a docent there, which means I give tours there. Um, most every Saturday, um, afternoon. I do a lot of the research and I’ve been digging up history that is just amazing. This town, this county is so rich with very, very interesting history, um, and, uh, we open our doors. We’d love to share it with you.
9:33 Um, please come and see us. Thank you, Mary. I did want to say I visited your, your museum one time and one of the beds that you had, one of the sleigh beds. Actually, there’s no like, uh, frame underneath it. It’s just rope that’s tied between it. So you literally have a mattress that gets thrown on rope and trying to explain that to my son was very interesting.
9:52 So these, and those are the things that not many people get when they don’t understand what’s our history was. That was very common back then and they need to understand that. So anyways, go ahead. Good morning, everyone. My name is Michael Bond. I’m with the Civil Air Patrol. We are a volunteer organization, and we serve as an auxiliary to the United States Air Force.
10:11 Hence, we’re allowed to, um, to wear the Air Force style uniform. Uh, we are nationwide. We have units all over the country, as well as, um, uh, all over the world. We have units in South Korea, Germany, Japan, Guam, and, uh, Puerto Rico as well. Um, we do a lot in emergency services. Uh, we have a cadet program which is very similar to Junior ROTC and uh, the reason why we’re here today is we also focus on aerospace education which fits into um, the STEM education.
10:43 So uh, we’re really happy to be here and uh, thank you for inviting us. Hi, I’m Lisa Wilson. Um, I’m with the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse Foundation Museum, um, which Becky Zingarelli makes go like you’ve never seen. We have a terrific, terrific team of docents out there. One of our many challenges is that, um, access to our museum.
11:07 Um, and by the way, most of our Brevard County residents don’t even know that we have a lighthouse. So did you know that we have a lighthouse? Yes. It sits on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, and so I’m the co chair of the education committee. We bring out on a regular basis. It’s primarily fourth graders, but other grades as well, for their state standards, which is history in most states, they, they read about their state history and so they come out and they get all, not just history of the lighthouse, as Becky pointed out, but history of the Space Force, um, when they ride the bus up to the lighthouse, they get the history of the Native Americans that occupied the lighthouse, um, the lighthouse keepers.
11:46 So it’s all encompassing. Um, And it is an amazing an experience for our students. Um, I think it’s about the get to know how that we’re out there and get them encouraged to visit all these amazing museums. So thanks. AT. Uh, good morning, everyone. It’s time for Splats at a Hotel with the U. S. Army. Uh, I’m the state’s commander in charge of the entire Brevard County.
12:09 Uh, it’s an honor and privilege to be here, uh, to serve our communities and serve our schools. Thank you for your time.
12:19 I’m Sauron Barshment, uh, with the U. S. Army. I’m a recruiter. Uh, I’d just like to say thank you all for having us. Um, you know, I didn’t know we had a lighthouse either. So that’s something, you know, I’m learning something new every day. Uh, I definitely have to take my daughter to it and check it out. Sounds like a great time.
12:36 Uh, I’m the recruiter primarily for Merritt Island. But, uh, I go to other schools as well. Thank you.
12:44 Uh, good morning. Uh, Staff Sergeant Sweat, um, U. S. Army, also the recruiter for Rockledge High School, mostly. Um, extremely happy to be here. I enlisted coming out of high school, so I do relate to a lot of the students. I do enjoy talking to them. Um, thank you again for having me and my teammates here. Much appreciated.
13:02 Thank you. So, with all those introductions, um, what we ended talking about is what is the ECAC, what are the goals, and what are we doing moving forward? So we formed this organization about a year ago and it all started with Tammy and Dwyer at a restaurant and he asked me to meet with them and he said, you know, we have this amazing organization that has some amazing awards, but we just don’t have access to the, to the schools.
13:28 And I said, you know, that’s a common theme and it’s not anybody’s fault in education. The issue is, is that I as a school board member should do a better job of connecting and bridging that gap that, that exists between there. So. Tammy, his lovely wife, um, took on the responsibility for organizing all this chaos and, um, has done an amazing job.
13:46 And Dwyer has taken the lead as far as, um, contacting many of the other, uh, organizations and stems and stuff like that. And, um, Dwyer, you never say that you’re retired military. Did you want to put that in there? Because that was, he’s you ever, you never say that you’re retired. Well, I re I retired from the air force in, in 2018 after 35 plus years in the Air Force, uh, so it’s been a while in the uniform and, um, and then we moved, uh, Retired out of Hanscom Air Force Base, which is outside of Boston, right between Lexington and Concord.
14:19 Another place of great history and a lot of museums and so forth. And so, moved down here and just excited to be part of the Brevard community and seeing all the opportunities here. And just, Matt, since I got the mic hot here, you know, um, So, you know, part of, part of what, uh, What Matt was sharing there is that, uh, just a specific, uh, uh, example.
14:47 Air and Space Forces Association, um, here in the local chapter here, has had a Teacher of the Year program for years. And in fact, last year in September, right, one of our teachers from Magali High, uh, won AFA National Teacher of the Year. Okay, and um, um, um, and so, what happened though is then we sent applications and we got no applications back the next year, okay?
15:22 And then I started talking to some other, you know, Uh, veteran groups and so forth and they say, yeah, we have scholarships that we never get an application for. We have teacher of the year, uh, recognitions and so forth that, and it’s just the, the difficulty in communicating and knowing and then especially the scholarships opportunity for students.
15:43 Um, we say, okay, well, how can we build something that will allow the parents, the students, the counselors, the school be able to. Uh, tap into that body of information. We said, well, let’s get together, form a coalition, find out what opportunities there are and start populating it. And so that’s kind Kind of, uh, in a nutshell where, where we’re headed and it’s just been really exciting for Dan and I to be, uh, to be, have a small part in helping pull this together.
16:14 So the main, main goal of the coalition is not to basically be any of those components, but be the connection between all those components so that we can drive children to the museums, we can bring in the STEM education, we can have the scholarships and the, um, recognitions applied for. So what we did was we established three major topics.
16:33 We identified them, we worked through them, and now I’m going to take a minute and run through all of those and then at the end We’re going to have an opportunity to talk about what we’re going to be working on next after these three. So, the first of them is to leverage museums to promote historical civic foundations for Brevard students.
16:51 Basically, we want to increase the attendance inside of our local museums. We want to increase students knowledge of our local, state, and national history through attendance at the museums, and we want to promote the students and their parents to visit the museums collectively, learn, and understand. Now, how do we as a school district support the museums?
17:07 So the coalition came up with this amazing opportunity that we would message out what’s known as the Museums of Brevard Passport. And many of you guys have it in front of you. What the museums have done is they’ve agreed to allow, um, the students to have this passport. And as they come to visit each one of the museums, they get a stamp from that particular museum.
17:30 And then the students will bring this and turn it in. And once they have at least ten of them, um, they will then get a certificate. And that certificate will say that they’ve attended ten of the museums. Um, I already know my wife and all of her friends have gotten together. The museums of Brevard, a little map that you guys have and all the breakdowns, which we’ll put as part of the communication, um, has just been, they’re excited.
17:57 And I think one of the issues is, is that there’s never been a bridge because you guys are so, you guys are not for profits and it’s difficult for you to build the media machine to communicate and then for us to drive to you. So I think this is going to be a marriage made in heaven. And so basically what you have is three main areas.
18:13 The students go and they visit, um, ten or more, they get a certificate. They visit the armed services ones. So there’s the Liberty Bell Museum, there’s the Tyco Airport, that’s a certificate. And then also, if they come and volunteer at least 10 hours at one of your museums or multiple museums that would be recorded through the Bright Futures, we would also give them another certificate.
18:34 Basically driving the children to not only come view, but then also spend their times inside your museums to volunteer. And I’ll tell you, um, many of you guys may have. We have rules and restrictions on age requirements for volunteers, but my son at eight years old can do a lot of different things, so don’t, try not to be dismissive of the young kids because they’ll be more interested in doing stuff, um, and everything else.
18:54 So the basic idea is that we create these three, uh, certificates and we will communicate by sending out right now between now and June 1st. Um, communications with the passport and everybody else through our communications department. And then once the parents see the passports and they find the materials that the county has already put together, then on June 1st, once school’s out, they can start to go visit the museums.
19:19 And then in August, um, in August, January, and May, we will have three different, um, board meetings where the students will come in and be honored. Um, I do want to take a second, Jessica, why don’t you come up here. Okay. She kind of hid back there. You can take Ms. Campbell’s seat over here. I wanted to take a second and introduce Ms.
19:38 Jessica Simpson, or Anderson, who has, um, who has developed this Museums of Brevard passport, and she’s also developing the other components to what we’re talking about and the certificates. I wanted to give you a second, Ms. Jessica Anderson, when you get a chance. Yeah, so, um, I go to Bexar High School. I’m a senior graduating this year.
19:58 Um, and they reached out and asked if I would help out to design the passport and the website and the certificates and everything. And I thought it would be a great opportunity and I’ve had a lot of fun so far, um, designing everything. And I’m very excited about it. I didn’t know we had a lighthouse. So, it’s been cool to learn about it.
20:15 I’ve been telling my friends. I was like, you guys, we have all these museums and all of us in high school, we don’t know about them because we didn’t get to go. I know I went to like the Kennedy Space Center in elementary school, but other than that, we didn’t really do any field trips or recognition of our museum, so I’m excited to bring more attention to them and let the younger kids experience that.
20:34 Ms. Anderson’s also the salutatorian for Viera High School. She’s going off to University of Florida, but wants to stay committed to creating this connection. So, um, with that, uh, is there any questions as to the program? We’re really excited to launch it off. Mr. Dwyer, did you have anything to say? No. All right.
20:53 Did you guys have anything to say? We’re gonna, we’re gonna continue on three. Yeah. Oh, I’m so sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. We’re workshopping so we can talk a little freely. Which is nice. This is amazing, honestly. One of the things that we do frequently is we approve field trips and a lot of times I’m recognizing we are taking field trips outside of our state, outside of our county to show our kids things and we have a lot to showcase right here in Brevard.
21:14 Let me ask you this just for clarification purposes for families or people that might be listening out there. Is there a cost incurred with attending the museum? And I think it’s going to be a lot of people in the audience. Should we know that ahead of time or is there something that There’s I think we identified two or three.
21:25 So some of the museums do have a cost, but like the Lighthouse, that’s a free museum. Um, but not all the museums are free. But, I think it’s just nominal. Um, city of Coco, uh, we are free. We’re supported by the city of Coco. Okay. Wonderful. And I’m just thinking for clarification purposes for our families, they might want to know that.
21:44 Um, I absolutely love this. I would love to see our school board really take the initiative of. Hey, we want to make sure our kiddos hit all these museums. I didn’t know, I’m born and raised Brevard County resident, and I am ashamed to admit that when you look at this and you look at all the museums we have, I have not attended all of them.
22:01 I’ve attended a lot of them, but we have a Florida Surf Museum. What? I did not know that. I’m not from Cocoa Beach, though, so you probably do know that. Uh, so we have a lot of really cool museums to highlight, and I’m really excited about this. I think it’ll be a really amazing thing for our students here in Brevard.
22:15 That’s all I have. You have anything, Jane? Yeah, um, thank you. First and foremost, thank you all for being here. Um, you know, the way to make progress in our school system is most beneficial when the community comes together and does it themselves, right? Because there’s clearly buy in from the people who are invested in providing this service to our students, but then that transcends into the community that you serve and the students that come into your buildings.
22:39 So thank you for that. Um, and also thank you for everyone for your service. You have served. Um, I, um, I’m excited. Uh, I grew up around the mob, but a different one. So, this one offers a really nice benefit. Um, my husband is a history teacher. He’s an 8th grade American history teacher. And he also grew up here in Brevard County.
22:59 And he is, um, also very embarrassed to admit that he hasn’t been to many of these places as well. Um, and we, we made a commitment saying we were going to take our daughter to them. So, Well, I’m being honest. We have it. So, um, but now thank you for making me saying saying that out loud in public so that I have to do it.
23:18 But no, I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you for dedicating your time and your passion and your true genuine service to our kids. Ms. Lisa Wilson, did you have anything to say? I did. Just to Ms. Wright, um, your point about how far we take our students. So, I will give you an example that I just found out. So, there’s a young family that lives across the street from me and their daughter’s, um, fourth grade class at Sea Park Elementary, um, in Satellite Beach came to see me.
23:42 And we have a lot of students that are going to see us at our lighthouse. And it turns out, I found out about a week ago, they’re also going up to St. Augustine. And the cost for those students is 95 for them to charter the bus. And they leave at like, o dark 30 in the morning to get up there. And they’re gone all day.
24:00 But we also had, as an example, um, a Title I elementary school down in Palm Bay that did not know about our lighthouse. And her students had never heard of it. Been on a field trip and she brought those students, found out that we were free, brought those students, but they would’ve never had the opportunity if they hadn’t encountered our other volunteer docent.
24:18 Yeah. And so I would really encourage our school, it’s been a very much a challenge for, um, I’m a co-chair with Kate Chase is, is my cohort in crime. Um, for us to get the teachers and not justice citizens, but just get the teachers to understand all that’s available to them right here in our community. Um, to bring our students as far as field trips are concerned.
24:40 And so, to Matt’s point, making it, making it very evident of how we are able to get the word out to our teachers that these museums are here right in our backyard and most of them don’t cost a cent. I love it. I’m a huge fan. So thank you. Okay. All right. So we’re going to move on to the other two stages.
25:00 I would love you guys to just hang out. The, the optics are awesome with you guys sitting at the table. So the second task that we had, we focused on enhancing the collaborative, the collaboration of veteran related civic minded organizations to provide opportunities such as scholarships, competitions, and recognition awards throughout the space coast.
25:17 Um, did you want to speak to this or did you want me to cover it? Well, I, I kind of took the mic earlier and, and, and talked about that and gave the example of the teacher of the year, but you know, recognition programs in general, and, and I think. To Lisa’s point, so much of it, right, is about finding the connecting tissue and being able to communicate that.
25:37 And I think through the website, through the mailers, as we put out the museum, it will create that, that energy throughout the community and an interest. You know, once they find out, they’ll start digging, right? Just like going to any other website, you start digging and say, okay, what else can, what else is out there?
25:55 So. So you have, so basically you have the American Legion has boys and girls state. They have a bunch of essays that are competitions. They have a bunch of challenges for students. Not many parents know about these challenges. They don’t know about the opportunities that are there. So what we’re doing is, is for all of those challenges and opportunities for scholarships.
26:16 We’re creating a website and that’s what Ms. Anderson is doing, is that on that website it’ll have each one of the links for each one of the American Legions, Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Civic Minded Organizations, the Civil Air Patrol and everybody else and what they’re doing by category. So if I’m a student that would like a scholarship, I go to this website.
26:35 If I’m a teacher that would like to nominate another teacher for recognition for what they do, I go to this website. And if there’s the other challenges and stuff like that, there’s going to be a third website. Ms. Tammy, did you want to speak to that? I saw you grabbing the mic a little bit. Did you? Uh, I can, I can.
26:51 If you, um, know of scholarship opportunities, you can email me the organization, The, a little description, if there’s a point of contact, that’s helpful for me personally. And then most importantly, I need the link that takes to the details. So that on the school website, you, you can go, Oh, it’s a scholarship from the Air Force Association and it encompasses this couple sentences of things.
27:20 I’m interested. Click. Thank you. And then you get all the details, it’ll take you right to the Air Force Association site. So that’s the kind of information I’m collecting, um, for any opportunity. It could be a camp, a competition, um, awards, all of that. And then I’ll be working with Jessica to, to get that on the website.
27:39 And I think many people may not understand the amount of when we first did this, we said, well, we’ll put them all in one thing. And then all of a sudden the list started to come. And it is stuff that I’ve never even seen. And I know they’re not anywhere near our school district or not anywhere near any of the opportunities for our students.
27:55 We have many students that would take advantage of many of these scholarships that they haven’t had the opportunity to. Many of the supports for the competitions and stuff like that. So there will be a website that the way we’re doing it is we’re developing the website on the back end. And then we’re going to post it on the website to the school district will have a landing page and we’ll be able to edit the link to that.
28:13 But it’ll be on the school district’s webpage. So. So with that, were there any other comments or concerns? So I, I think we’re still on task two here, but, but, uh, cause I, I really want this young man to talk about civil air patrol because it’s a great example of, of STEM resources and to, to, to this point about, um, all of us being connected.
28:38 One of the things that I think is interesting is just in, in our time, just like we’re learning about a lighthouse, right? There’s also organizations here in Brevard County, local chapters, that provide, for example, flights, orientation flights, for students and or for faculty. For free. For free. Okay, so, you know, we’ve had some folks that have joined with us, the EAA, the Experimental Aircraft Association, and so forth.
29:07 Other, Civil Air Patrol has orientation flights. And our teachers could be, I mean, talk about an extension of STEM opportunity and experience, right, to experience some of these activities. But as we get to task three, we need, yeah, no doubt. Michael is going to talk a little bit more about just some specifics that the Civil Air Patrol has relative to STEM education.
29:31 Absolutely. We had Don Weaver, who was supposed to speak about the Veterans Speaking Project and some of the other things that he does. Don’s an old friend of mine. We did the All American Flag Act together. And then we started the veteran speaking project, which is the largest veteran speaking project in the United States.
29:45 It’s here in Bavaria. And Don heads that through the Joe Foss Institute. And he was going to speak to some of the examples of what he was doing. Um, but that’s pretty much what we’re going to do is drive them towards the scholarships, the opportunities for, um, recognition for the teachers, and then also some of the challenges and, and essays and stuff like that for that one.
30:02 And, uh, task three, we’re going to facilitate the education and development of Brevard students across the STEM enterprise. Now this, this is the, uh, the big one that we’re putting together. So you have across the United States, you have. We have armed services and civic minded STEM opportunities that go unfunded, unused across the United States.
30:21 And it is sad because we as a school district would love to have that opportunity. Dr. Rendell just put a STEM coordinator at every elementary school in our county. And right now there’s going to be a major need for supplies and STEM opportunities. Which was one of the reasons we identified this as one of the tasks.
30:40 You have many programs with the Air Force. You have the Cyber Patriot. You have with the Navy. You have the Sea Perch that’s underwater drones. You have all of these programs that if we were able to bring them and all of their resources to our schools, those two are already in our schools. But the Civil Air Patrol and many of the other ones that we found.
30:59 So this is where we have an opportunity to listen to one of those organizations, the Civil Air Patrol. Tell us what exactly you have that you would be able to offer and it’s incredible the things that you have. So here’s your floor. Thank you, Matt. So um, Civil Air Patrol offers a very wide array of resources that are available to educators.
31:20 If they become what’s called an Aerospace Education Member or AEM. Uh, they get a, uh, uh, Civil Air Patrol identification number, uh, and a portal access, uh, that allows them to, uh, apply for various textbooks, um, STEM kits, and, uh, award programs that, um, are available for free. Uh, so, uh, Dwyer was kind enough to print out a, uh, a list of some STEM kits that are available on our website, uh, that we can pass around if anyone would like to, uh, to look at that.
31:54 Can you just hold that thing up? Oh, sure. Because not many people understand. Look at the amount of opportunities that just Civil Air Patrol has for our students right there. It’s incredible. So, it goes everything from, like, astronomy to hydraulic engineering, B Bot code and Go Mouse. So, it’s all different ages.
32:11 It’s from K through 12. Um, the curriculums and the kids are, are graduated from, from that perspective. What is unique about this is, is that you have funding that goes back decades. This is not one of the problems we have in school district is, is that we have these STEM companies come up and they say they’re going to promise all these things.
32:31 They charge us a ton of money. And then they usually end up falling apart or, or don’t end up staying through. You’ve had these opportunities for free for many of them for our students that go unused. So the idea is, is that when he’s talking about hydraulics, that may be a STEM opportunity for some of our machining and mechanical engineering programs that we have.
32:50 And then you have many of the other ones. So, what we’re doing is, is we’re identifying all of the different STEM opportunities and then we’re going to work to identify with the head of STEM that’s here, he’s been at every one of our meetings, to meet with us and find out where each one of these fit into the curriculum so that we can then hand that to the teacher.
33:11 Problem I had as a teacher was that when the American Legion would come in in March and they would say, we have all these scholarships available. We just need kids to write essays. And I said, okay, what’s the essay on? And they would say, it’s on the American revolution. I said I covered that back in August of last year.
33:25 There’s no way I’m going to stop what I’m doing to write an essay about the American revolution in my class. So along with those, along with the STEM opportunities, There’s a major curriculum that each one of our schools is going through. It would fit perfectly and be identified inside of that curriculum.
33:39 So that’s what we’re going to work with, with staff to go ahead and identify where these could be as an option for our STEM teachers to be able to take advantage of when they get there. And I think that once that becomes part of the opportunity, it becomes, it expands it. So I didn’t mean to cut you off, but I just want to kind of give that piece in there.
33:55 Go ahead. Thank you, Matt. So, um, uh, one of the program, well, I should probably speak about the textbooks. The, uh, these resources are provided, um, courtesy of the United States Air Force Department of Defense. Uh, so they are free. The textbooks, uh, the textbooks specifically are, uh, they provide up to six of them, hard copy for free, uh, to educators and, uh, again, becoming an aerospace education member is just a one time fee of 35 with free annual renewal.
34:24 So 35 gets you access to so many different resources that are just invaluable to you to educators and their students, um, and then, uh, they also provide lesson plans that are available and, uh, as was mentioned, the teacher orientation program, also called TOP, which is an opportunity for educators to fly in a Civil Air Patrol aircraft with a, uh, an experienced pilot and be able to connect what they teach in their classrooms to a real world scenario in aviation.
34:58 And often times this also involves, um, flying the teacher over their hometown, showing them an aerial view of it, as well as over their school. And some, some schools also take it a step further and they bring their students outside so that they can see the aircraft, they can see the teacher flying the airplane, and they can even set up speakers so that the teacher can, can call in because we’re flying low enough to where we usually get cell phone reception.
35:22 So it’s, it’s a really cool opportunity. It’s really cool. It encourages a lot of students to pursue, uh, a career in STEM and aviation specifically. And uh, we are really looking forward to getting more engagement from Brevard County. So is that just for students, or can Meg and I, and we get up there, because we want to do it too.
35:40 I want to fly right over to ESF and say, Dr. Rendell. So, uh, teacher orientation program is. It’s, uh, specifically for educators but students as well do have an opportunity to fly in the CAP aircraft. Uh, it’s a little bit more involved. Uh, they would have to become full CAP members as cadets and if they are below the age of 16, they are provided up to five, what are called, orientation flights, powered orientation flights, which means flying an airplane with an engine.
36:10 Um, they also get five glider orientation flights, uh, that are free of charge and that shows them the basics of flying an airplane. Uh, and basically, uh, the only thing they have to really pay for is the gas to get to the airport. Yeah. That’s for, you said under 16 or over 16? Under 16. Under 16. Wow. Okay.
36:30 I’m telling you, like, this, the stuff that we started uncovering as part of these STEM programs is incredible and they just get underutilized. Thank you so much for that. Did anybody else have anything to say to them?
36:42 Thank you guys so much for all coming. I’m like really excited about this, honestly. And is this, is this the finalized version? I mean, can I, they have to approve the finalized version. I’m like, and then we push it. Right. All right. Perfect. Well, I’m hoping that we can get this approved before summer. I mean, I know we have a break coming up and I, we would love to get our kids.
36:58 I would personally love to get my kids into the museums. I have not seen. Um, and then I have a 13 year old daughter that I’m like, she’s 13 so we’re, time’s ticking. We gotta get you over there. But yeah, no, this is very, very exciting. I would love us to, to be the missing link that’s, that’s been there and connect you guys with our students in our schools because I think, honestly, there’s amazing opportunities for educators and our students and I think it would be good for Brevard all the way around.
37:22 Watch out when she gets that Avgas in her bloodstream. I have a question. Sure. I have a question. Where can we access the information you has given us? That’s going to be the website. Yes. The, the website is, uh, ghost civil air patrol.com. And do we have a list of websites for today? I believe so. That’s what we’re putting together.
37:39 So this is one opportunity. There’s many others. Yeah. And we just wanted to, he, he’s probably the best out of all the opportunities. The idea is to be honest with you, I mean the resources you have behind it in your organization. No, I’m saying for STEM. For STEM. For STEM. There’s no other STEM here. Um, the issue is, is that you’re finding out about this for the first time.
38:01 We’re finding out about a lighthouse for the first time. That’s what this meeting was about and to launch. And it will be on one website so that you can take advantage of it. And this is also for homeschool students, private school students, and charter school students. This is not just for public school students.
38:14 This will be pushed out to all of those organizations too. Um, but thank you for giving that, that, that name. So go ahead. I was just going to interject. We do have three squadrons in our area off the top of my head, uh, Merritt Island Senior Squadron. Uh, there’s also Patrick Composite Squadron. They, they meet, uh, just down the road from Patrick Space Force Base.
38:33 And there’s also a Tyco Composite Squadron, which meets at the Titusville Airport. So we do have a number of squadrons in the area within reasonable driving distance. And Merritt Island Squadron has an airplane. So if we do. If you get any interest in anyone wanting to fly in a CAP airplane, they don’t have to drive two or three hours out of their way to get to the airplane.
38:55 We have it basically in our backyard. I think we’ll be coming to visit you for a tour. I want to fly over the top of stuff and talk to people. It’ll be fun. You want to say something? Yeah, the, uh, who do we work through for the, with the changes when we come up with this? That’ll be us and our, our ECAC and then we’ll get it approved.
39:10 Yep. That’s it. Um, but anyway, so in finalization, I just wanted to mention that we’re going to create the websites. So they’re single point entries. We’re going to work with the staff on where they identify inside the curriculum. And those are the first three tasks. Dennis, did you have anything that you want to say, Mr.
39:24 Dennis? All right. So then, those will be the first three tasks. The reason that the recruiters are here is the, just real quick, I know we’re a little bit over right now. Um, the last component to it is, is that we’re gonna be evaluating and working with Dr. Rendell on the next set of tasks, but one of the issues that we have right now is that 70 percent of our students that go into the armed services currently are not fit for duty, so they have to go to what’s known as PT school.
39:50 So, we have a workforce for our. That we have to fill for our recruiters, recruiters that actually has kids that are in shape and everything else. The other thing is, is that right now we have three or four ROTC instructors that are retiring and it becomes a difficult thing to try to fill those recruit, those ROTC positions.
40:09 So what we’re looking at is supporting the school district to find those extra ROTC instructors through connections with Mr. Dennis has at the bases. Um, also we’re looking to. Um, create a system where our students are in better shape when they get recruited so that they can not have to go to PT school.
40:28 And then also give our recruiters a little bit more access and expand the programs at the Junior ROTC centers. Have you guys feel pretty good about the way things are going here in Brevard or is there something that we can communicate and make better? Oh, no, absolutely. Sorry. Uh, we, we met with Dr.
40:42 Rendell a couple months back. Yep. Uh, we encountered those issues, we faced those issues head on and we’re good with our community. Absolutely. Dr. Rendell, being a former veteran, has been very supportive of the entire process, so, so we’re going to be looking at those. The other component is, is that with, I let Dr.,
40:58 or Mr. Dufresne know that we have a lot of, uh, uh, veteran spouses and veterans that are retired and also deploy, or active duty spouses that are here that we would love to have come work for Pravar. There’s a lot of teachers, former teachers that are a part of those, that group. There’s a lot of educators that are in there and other people that would just come up to drive a bus and other things to fill our position.
41:20 So we’re going to be working on the workforce component and on the ROTC component in the next coming months. I have one more question. Okay, go ahead. Um, do we have, do we have the numbers of students who have participated with, or another of kids who’ve gone to, to museums and can we calculate any changes that we make?
41:40 Meaning what the efforts are going on now, I think would be to our benefit. Yep. To find a way to keep track of how many kids are participating. Yeah. That’ll be through the, the certificates. We’ll be able to count. Okay. Other than that, it would be each one of you. I just wanted to make sure that we were showing your increase of students who came to you.
41:57 So if you have a count already, this would be the way it would be for you to count those. We would only be able to count certificates. Can I just advocate that we do that because I think it would show that its important and its very significant. It’s a great question and it’s always important to show the data and the effect and the change that’s been happening, but I also request if, um, the individual museums can also take You Take down what schools are coming to visit, right?
42:25 That way we can pay attention to what geographic areas are actually having access. So it’s not just the schools around that. That way we can work on always making sure that all of our students across Brevard County are getting to see everything across Brevard County. Yeah.
42:44 It has to be pointed to you. There you go. Um, it would be important to us, I don’t know if this is the case with all of the museums, But at the Museum of Dinosaurs and Ancient Cultures, we have, especially in the summer, a lot of tourists. And so, which is, which is fine, but the kids, if they know that when that child comes, we will be asking, um, we don’t need to necessarily ask their name, but what school and what grade, whatever we can, because then every, every child will be saying, I’m a part of that.
43:19 So, we kind of need to have a way, because they don’t have like an ID. Right? They do. The kids, they do have an ID? They do. I think what would be really good is if there was a way to tie it towards the stamp. That happens in the past. Yes. So if you were able to record it every time a stamp was given. That would be.
43:35 That would be. Well, we are, but you get, especially these days, you get families, parents, they don’t even want to, we collect zip codes, especially so we can track who’s in Brevard and out of Brevard. And some people, they don’t even want to give you that. And I’m thinking like, but. I know. So, so they will have to give up at least the school and the grade or something, whatever is, whatever is appropriate.
43:56 I think you’re gonna, I think you’re gonna have a lot more buy in than just walking through the door just because I think naturally as a parent, if I was to hand this to you, I would expect you to ask me, where does my child live? Will they have to hand, will they have to hand that? If they want a certificate, they’ll have to carry that with them.
44:11 If they want the stamp. Oh, okay. I get it. I And then obviously if they’re, they don’t want to, you’re like, just, it’s okay. We don’t want you having, getting in fights with people. You get such people, such a confidentiality, they get just nervous about everything. So, okay. Yeah. Since they’re children. All right.
44:30 Well, go ahead, sir. Yes. Uh, I’d like to mention that the, uh, 36th Annual Vietnam Veterans of Brevard Uh, the moving wall is here at Wickham Park this week, and the reunion is actually, uh, Thursday through Sunday with, uh, displays and vendors, uh, and entertainment, but the wall is there now and set up for anyone 24 hours a day that would like to visit the wall.
45:00 Thank you so much for that. Anybody else? We’re good. One last one. Yeah, uh, one last question. Uh, you know, you’re, you’ve asked us to kind of track what schools, what grades, et cetera. We just need this. That’s all we need. And, and when you report out on this, what would be advantageous on our side, since it’s only 10 or more, uh, the total number of certificates may not represent who actually came to our museum.
45:28 Right. So the data of, you know, there were 10 certificates and five of them came to us. Yeah. That would be advantageous to us. Yeah. We’ll, we’ll put the team together on monitoring those certificates. Okay. Go ahead. Sorry. Can I just say one more thing? So I’ll speak on this time as a parent. So I have a kid in elementary school, I have one as a senior in high school, Jessica, congratulations.
45:47 Um, I just want to say what you’re trying to do here is amazing because I didn’t know about the Liberty Bell Museum until we were searching for things to do during that short window that we got shut during COVID and they opened up the museum just for the four of us to come in and then next thing we know we were volunteering, right?
46:01 So, and my son, my older son, he went to Boise State last summer. He didn’t know about it in advance. He just, his APGov teacher said, Hey, this is in your wheelhouse. You ought to apply. He’s like, okay. So the fact that you’re trying to promote all of these and push more of it out there for people to know about, I think is awesome because it’s, it is not as prevalent as you would think that that information is not all out there.
46:21 So I think this is awesome. And let’s bring it back to what it really is about is that this organization was formed to help students. Yes. Become better citizens and understand their community more. And that’s what this is. And, and that’s the pure dedication of the group that’s here. And we appreciate everybody here because I think we’ve lost that connection.
46:40 Um, many people are talking about up north and everything else. I think we have, and this is going to help us bring BESS back. Ms. Tammy, you had something to finalize? I just wanted to throw out, if you do have a question on a specific thing that you heard today since the website is not up and running yet.
46:54 If you email me, I’d be happy to send you, for example, the link to Civil Air Patrol or if there’s something in particular you heard, I will do my best to get you, if I don’t have the information, get you to that information and to the point of contact that can be helpful to you. And so that everybody understands, websites, certificates, everything else will be available starting June 1st.
47:17 And, um, it should be finalized with the approval of the Museums of Brevard’s final chapter. So, with that, I wanted to thank everybody for coming. Does anybody else have anything to add? Yeah, Dr. Rendell, do you have anything to add? I know we haven’t asked you at all, so I’m not sure if you want to add anything to the conversation here.
47:28 I’ll say a couple things. Um, I want to circle back to the recruiters because they didn’t really get their due. Um, it’s not about, they don’t want access to our schools just to get future soldiers, sailors, and airmen. They actually do a lot of education. They have a lot of programs they bring into our schools.
47:46 that benefit all of our students, not just ones that are going to go into the military. I want to make sure that everybody understands that the access they’re, they’re getting is to, to do all of that. Not just to show up to try to convince people to join the military. It’s, they, they have a lot of educational components that they bring.
48:03 And we want to make sure that our students have access to that. Um, also, is, do they still do Young Eagles flights? Alright, yeah, my, my, my children participated in that when they were younger, so. It’s another way for people to get a, children to get a free flight. So just Google young eagles, you’ll probably find it, and they do it at some local airports.
48:21 It’s pretty cool. Thanks. Very good. Thank you guys so much for coming. We’re very excited about this partnership. I think it’s going to do amazing things for our community and our students, so we appreciate you. All right. Mr. Red, I’m going to walk now. Keep going. We’ll take a five minute recess real fast.
48:39 Uh, that way we can regroup for the next presentation. Thank you. You
1:00:56 All right, welcome back. We are on to our next topic on our agenda, which is the encroachment, the quick claim deed for 1790 Tropical Trail, Merritt Island, Miss Sue. We will turn the floor over to you. Thank you. Good morning. This is kind of an unusual situation and it is on your agenda for next week as an action item, but I wanted to introduce it to you today, give you a little bit more detail, and also offer Mr.
1:01:22 Street, who is here this morning, an opportunity to speak with you if the board had questions. The situation is such that everything that is outlined in red is owned by Brevard County School Board. And at one point in time, the property that’s outlined in blue, which is now owned by Mr. Street, was a part of that parent tract.
1:01:43 And the, uh, The party that dedicated the property in red to the school board also owned the property in blue. The property in green is owned by the Board of County Commissioners, and as you can see this property is used by, by Brevard County Board of County Commissioners under a joint use agreement with Brevard County School Board as a park.
1:02:14 And I’ll show you the detail and found that this area in green is actually part of the property owned by Brevard County School Board but the owner when he separated the properties Apparently missed a few feet on the legal description. So that Mr. Street’s property does not include that green shaded area.
1:02:42 Even though it has been like that since its inception. And so Mr. Street originally approached Brevard County. Since they, uh, To the person on the street, this looks like a county property. It’s County Park. Said, hey, can we work something out? Uh, the Brevard County staff sent him over to me. And we’ve been kind of working on this.
1:03:04 So he has had it surveyed, um, And confirmed that there is in fact an encroachment. There is an existing fence that’s on what would be the south side of the green shaded area. So to the average person, it looks like The property that we’re talking about is Mr. Street’s property. And so the fence that separates Mr.
1:03:26 Street’s property and the school district property that is being used as a park is actually, uh, 22 to 26 feet south of Mr. Street’s official property line. So we would like to clean all that up is kind of the bottom line. And, uh, what we’re proposing is a quick claim deed that would transfer ownership of the property that is in this green shaded area to Mr.
1:03:51 Street from Brevard County School District since we actually own the property. County has no objection or interest in, in the property so we’ve checked that as well. And so I just wanted to. Provide you this information because it is sort of complicated and hard to explain in a couple of paragraphs. And if you had questions for Mr.
1:04:09 Street, he is here this morning as well. Hello, Mr. Street. Miss Jenkins, you look like you’re grabbing your mic. Yeah, I’m just, what is, what is on that property there? The green. I think the photograph is a, it’s a, um, concrete pad with an RV on it in that photograph. Oh, okay. So it’s not like something we would have to remove or anything.
1:04:30 It’s, it’s Yes. Thanks. Hi folks. Hello. So yes, um, the property in question right now, that green is basically part of the driveway. It’s a RV pad, um, that the previous owner had installed, um, and, um, you know, basically all along that fence line was something that we had maintained, um, obviously since we’ve owned it and since the prior, um, owner who is the grantor of this, um, property, um, had owned it.
1:05:02 Perfect. I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t like some building we had to take care of or something and demolish. No, I don’t have any questions. Um, I’m, this is completely makes sense to me. I don’t have any objections to doing this. This is one of those fun things of cleaning up the way things are not always recorded correctly.
1:05:19 And that’s a good, fun thing to go take care of. Mr. Trent, do you have any questions in regards to this or any comments?
1:05:28 Yeah, clean it up. That’s it. Sounds good. Dr. Rendell? We just wanted to make sure you guys understood what was going to be on the agenda next week. And it’s not like we’re just giving away property or anything like that. Yes. It’s a tiny sliver of property. He’s actually been maintaining it. It’s inside what he believes is his fence line.
1:05:50 And it has been since he bought it from the previous owner. So it makes sense to clean it up. Yes. Let me ask you a quick question though. How’d you find out that this wasn’t actually yours? I’m sure there had to do with some kind of permit being pulled. I wanted to put up a fence. Oh, there you go. Okay. I figured my dog keeps running away on me.
1:06:05 So yeah, I wanted to put up a fence. And so I started going through the process and that’s when I pulled up the service and I thought, and I called the survey guys. I said, you guys, are you new? This is my, this is the property line. And they said, no. And then I was like, oh my goodness. So that’s when I started going down this path and figuring out, okay, I’m Why are we zigging and not zagging?
1:06:23 And I appreciate everybody taking time out of your day to look into this. Yeah, no problem. So looking forward to cleaning it up and getting it squared away so you can get a fence to keep your dog in. That’ll be nice. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Street. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. So our next topic that we have on our agenda today is the FNS update and proposed meal price increase.
1:06:44 I believe Mr. Wilson and Mr. Thornton will be coming forward to present that board. You’ve been given a packet as well. So we can follow along. Morning,
1:07:45 Board Chair, Woman, Board Members, Dr. Rendell. We would like to present to you today an update on our Food and Nutrition Operational Services update, as well as a proposed price increase for our business. Um, meals, uh, throughout the county and, uh, Kevin and his team have done a phenomenal job in, uh, painting the picture of the why, as well as providing you, um, with the updates.
1:08:16 So at this point, I’m going to turn it over to Mr. Thornton. Thank you so much, uh, Chairman, uh,
1:08:26 I would be remiss if I didn’t introduce my team here to be able to make sure that they’re well, they’re, they’re going to kill me after we get done here by making them sit at the big boys table. Um, so. That is going to be a thing I’ll have to deal with when we get back to the office. But to my left is Karen Trent.
1:08:41 She’s my operations manager. She handles all the operations, keeps us financially sound, and she does a marvelous job in making sure that we’re looking at every, every, turning over a rock, every, every element to be able to see where the money is, to be able to really stretch our budget, to be able to make it all possible.
1:08:58 To my right, I have, uh, Lori Conlin, she’s our lead dietician, she’s the dietitian manager, she’s the lead dietitian that takes all my crazy ideas and makes them in reality and being able to serve meals to the kids to be able to make that happen. But she is a great resource for us and very knowledgeable of the program and insight of being able to make sure that, understand that.
1:09:19 And then to her right is Karen Price. She’s a field operations supervisor that works within the office and supports the operation in house to make sure that we are all on, on board with regards to the operation. So, uh, very, very fortunate to have a great team that supports our operation. Today on the agenda, we do have a couple, just four things there.
1:09:43 I know the packet’s a little large. So, we will speedily go through that this morning for you to be able to take a look at. But we do want to provide you with an overview of our operation, just to have a sense, a glimpse of what we’re doing. Uh, also talking about some of the operational metrics that we have in place to be able to make sure that we are looking and analyzing our business accordingly.
1:10:04 We do want to talk about the community eligibility provision. We think we can expand that this next year to be able to include a couple more schools in that arena as well. So we’re hopeful that, uh, that will also take place, uh, this, for the 2025 school year and then talk about a proposed no price, uh, for next year as well because of the costs The program and the costs that we’re being incurring are increasing and we’re no longer able to sustain our current path.
1:10:31 As this paragraph really describes, it really describes our program as a whole. This is one of the things we do share with folks that are outside about the program. We know it is a complex business within the BPS organization. We currently operate seven federal feeding programs, actually eight feeding programs.
1:10:49 One is a vended site, but, uh, We do eight, uh, federal, uh, feeding programs within the operation. We hear to all federal, state, and local regulations that come into play because we’re regulated by three organizations, not just one. Uh, we have registered dietitians on staff that currently analyze the 14 menus to make sure we’re meeting the meal, menu pattern, uh, along with, we operate as a non profit group.
1:11:22 We also received no monies for Fund 100. It’s an important factor there that we pay all our utilities, our bills, our payroll, our supplies, equipment, capital improvements. All those little things are done within our organization, um, and being able to support the cafeteria operation. We go through multiple different audits, um, for compliance, um, for integrity, and also for physical responsibility.
1:11:45 So, you know, we do a great job with that, and then our audits actually show that case that because we’ve had exemplary audits throughout the 17 years within the time frame I’ve been doing this. Our brand mission and vision and promise to our parents is very simple. You know, we’re here to support the academic success of students, um, by providing healthy meals at an affordable price to our parents.
1:12:10 And I think we’ve done a great job over that and we’ll showcase that a little bit later in the presentation about how long it’s been since we’ve done a price increase. Our operation highlights, just highlighting some of the things that we did, or accomplished this past year. You know, we operate and navigate multiple feeding programs.
1:12:27 You know, seven of them are federal programs, which all have different rules, regulations, and requirements for us to be able to, uh, to, uh, to comply to. Last year we served over 10. 1 million mils. We’re on track to do even more this year with regards to our program. We’re very pleased with that. And we’re hearing to all the USDA guidelines as well when we go through our audits.
1:12:49 Again, we’re fortunate to have the dietitians that support the program, but also track all the allergens. You forget about all the allergens that we’re faced with, with regards to being able to make sure that we keep kids safe and the things that we’re serving. So Lori and her team does a great job of taking all that information and analyzing it and being able to make sure that that is in place.
1:13:08 We’re also very proud that we’re able to take Uh, time out of our day to be able to meet with kids to be able to see and do tasting taste taste testing with kids, uh, to be able to test new recipes and options like that for them to build a way in for it before it goes onto the menu. So we do pride ourself in being able to make sure that that has taken place as well.
1:13:26 We’re also pride ourself in that we have received eight USDA best practice awards. It highlights their program and talks about the The good things that we’re doing with our resources and our operation to make it highlighted at the state level. And did I mention that we’re financially sound and we’re self supportive.
1:13:43 I want to make sure that we’re clear with that. Last year we did give 6. 3 million back to the district through indirect or direct cost. So we are also funding back things to the district with regards to our operation. Currently these are the eight programs that we’re highlighting today. You’ll notice that breakfast, lunch is up there.
1:14:03 The community eligibility program is up there as well, which is at 46 sites that we currently have, where we serve both breakfast and lunch free of charge to the students. We offer fresh fruit and vegetable program at three of our most needy schools. We also do the Department of Health Child Care Food Program and being able to provide a during the day head start snack to the 12 sites.
1:14:24 Along with their after school snack program, which is really a supper program at 37 sites as well. So we’re doing that as well. We also support our before and after school program at 20 sites there with vending mills or vending snacks to them. And then, of course, we always have a good time playing and feeding kids during the summer time frame as well.
1:14:43 So, supporting the summer feeding program, uh, as well with the enrichments. Results from last year, again, 10. 1, but, you know, The reality is we serve 57, 000 meals a day. That’s an incredible amount of meals going out of our kitchen doors to feed kids during the school year. So, uh, we do take great pride in what we’re doing there.
1:15:03 The team works extremely hard. It’s focused on about 650 employees that work in our kitchen to be able to support that endeavor, uh, and being able to support us and being able to feed lots and lots of kids. Our total revenue is 47. 6 million and our expenses at 45. 1. And our total reinvestment back into our cafeterias, which is capital improvements, was 4.
1:15:23 9 million last year. Taking another deep dive into the different programs and the meals served and the reimbursements, you’ll see that certainly our lunch and our breakfast program are our two main revenue generating areas that we focus in on. Uh, and being able to do that, but you can see the different numbers, number of meals, number of snacks, number of, uh, items that we’re serving, uh, out to our students.
1:15:53 We would be remiss if we didn’t dive into our five buckets of revenue, um, this is our revenue sources. Uh, you can see that we have five main sources of revenue and then everything gets collapsed into one of those. You can see our federal state reimbursement, which represents 74 percent of our revenue at 35 million.
1:16:09 35 million. Our next, second largest bucket is our student a la carte sales at 4. 5, which is 10 percent of our revenue. And then we move into our commodities, which is at the top green, uh, at 3. 4 million at 7 percent of our revenue. And then our, uh, food sales type of revenue. Uh, a mill, which is our mill price that we charged, uh, for the paid and the reduced is 3.
1:16:34 1 million. That will be the area that we’ll be focusing in on with the mill price. That is the category that, you know, the mill price increase would be affected by. It wouldn’t be affected by the reimbursements because we received those from the state. Uh, it would be the sales of the mill that we would be talking about with the price increase.
1:16:51 So it’s a very small bucket, but it has meaningful value. regards to the operation. Again, it takes all five buckets to make this, uh, this food service program work. Here’s a six year glimpse of where we currently have gone. I mean, I just want to walk through this real quickly with regards to, um, you know, school year 18 19.
1:17:12 That was the year pre COVID, um, so that was like the normal year for us with regards to our operation. When we moved into school year 19 20, you’ll remember that was COVID in March 2020, so we all exited the building at, in March. And we did not return, but we were still able to maintain our fund balance and our operation through feeding out the back door for the back car loop to be able to feed kids.
1:17:38 So we did everything we needed to do to be able to make that sustain that and being able to make sure that we were able to sustain our operation and not lose any ground. In school year 2021 and 21 22, all meals were free. And you’ll see the spike in federal reimbursements at 84 and 85%. We were receiving the summer rate for meals being served, which is a little higher than what we normally serve through the National School Lunch Program.
1:18:05 And mainly everything else stayed pretty much the same other than there was no money being collected for the price of a meal because of them being all claimed as free. In 22 23, there was a return back to the National School Lunch Program. There was the push to go back to the normal operation and being able to put out applications and make sure that we were operating like we should be operating throughout the school year pre COVID time frame.
1:18:34 We were flushed with cash this year and we’ll talk more about that in that year with regards to being able to see there being additional funding being available. There was the Keep Kids Fed Act that provided additional funding for each meal served. And there was a supply chain assistant fund that was also being provided to the district in an amount of about 6 million.
1:18:55 And that’s really the gap that we need to talk about with regards to our lunch price. And then these are our projections. You’ll see that it’s coming down in our federal reimbursements and that’s due to us, um, you know, losing some of that additional funding, uh, to be able to do that. But, uh, we’re seeing a return of a la carte at 12%.
1:19:14 We’d like to get that pushed up back up to 15 percent with regards to our program. Um, but there are, you know, we’re looking and working on things to be able to increase those options. This is just a chart that shows our, where we got strong participation. You can see even during COVID, it didn’t fall to earth too much with regards to our number of meals that we were serving out, uh, to our parents or to our children, uh, during that timeframe.
1:19:41 You can see we’ve consistently served approximately about 10 million meals per year for the last six years. And you can see where we are projected this year. Those are actual projections for this school year where we are trending nicely with regards to increasing in participation in our lunch program.
1:19:56 So we are seeing some great results this year with some of the changes we made and reverting back to some of the things we were doing pre COVID time frame. One of the, also one of the great things that Laurentian does as well is, you know, all elementary is highlight a fresh fruit and veggie each month.
1:20:14 This is something we take great pride in and being able to be able to introduce opportunities for students to try something new that they may not necessarily see at home. This has been a great success story for us with being able to make sure kids are being able to enjoy things and maybe find healthy things that they can enjoy as they grow up and grow older throughout their life.
1:20:34 One of the huge success stories this past year is our customized mill line, which we call the Fresh Express. Um, made your way every day. It is at our secondary schools. Uh, we are seeing 11 percent increase in lunch participation at our school level in this arena here, which is extremely nice with regards to having kids return.
1:20:55 You can see that it’s similar to somewhat like set up like a Chipotle, where you have lots of fresh vegetables, ingredients, and being able to come through the line and actually pick what you want to add to your, your meal. It is where they come in and pick a base, a grain base being either chips, um, rice and a wrap.
1:21:14 And then they can pick their protein and then they can pick the toppings that go along with it. And then we have created special sauces for the kids to be able to enjoy. So this is a great success story. You know, we’ve even had to add a couple more lines at some of the schools because it’s been such a huge success.
1:21:28 So lots of fresh ingredients, but lots of fresh ingredients cost more money too. And that’s the other piece there that we need to realize as well. Just recently, just updated, just off hot off the press here is the USDA final rule on some nutrition changes that we are anticipating. It was released on April 24th of this year and the highlights are, I’m listing them below here for us to be able to just to talk through.
1:21:55 No changes for next school year, that’s the good news, but there will be changes coming in For multiple years in 28 for invitation of these, these changes. Big changes here are meaning, meaning added sugars. They are doing a reduction in added sugars for breakfast cereals, yogurts, and flavored milk. The good news is we’re already meeting those reductions already, so it’s not going to be a hard sell for us.
1:22:20 Uh, we are in compliance with milk and yogurt. Uh, we’ll need to look at the cereals, but, uh, we’ll look to see where those fall, but we always have picked, uh, low sugar cereals to be able to serve the kids. Um, the other change here is a sodium reduction. There is a planned sodium reduction here, a 15 percent reduction, uh, in lunch and a 10 percent reduction at breakfast.
1:22:41 And that will need to be implemented by 2028 timeframe for us to be able to meet that. Uh, The good news of this is, it’s only one reduction in sodium, instead of the three that were initially planned. So, that is, they are stopping there at this point in time and not requiring. Can I ask a question? Just because I don’t know this.
1:22:58 Um, when you say 15 percent and 10 percent reduction, is there a, I would assume there’s a base amount that you’re allowed to have, not so much, because if you were already low, you wouldn’t have to reduce it by 10 or 15%. You’re saying we are going to have to reduce ours by 10 or 15 percent or? We’re currently meeting the pattern from the guidelines of where it sits.
1:23:15 We would have to reduce it to reduction from the total. So if it’s like a thousand milligrams, it would be a reduction by 10%. Okay. All right. Thank you. That’s what it would look like. Okay. Um, and Lori certainly can talk more, more in depth about it.
1:23:42 If you want that information, we can give that to you as well, but I mean, it’s, there’s a detailed chart that actually goes through and actually looking at the different milk products. Okay. Thank you. Whole grains, no change there. We’re thankful for that as well that they’re not making any additional whole grain growth there with regarding increasing whole grains needs.
1:23:59 Milk, the change there is the sugar but we’re still able to offer flavored milk because that was on the table to take flavored milk out of the schools and so we’re pleased that that did not happen because that would be a huge, um, you know, hit to us from the kids participation in the milk arena. Um, we do expect some type of, you know, as Manufacturers are having to go out and reformulate items, you know, that does drive costs up.
1:24:24 So we are anticipating that there could be additional costs and items as we look to move forward through this, uh, and getting to the 2020 28 requirement for the reduction. Changing gears just so slightly here is looking at the, you know, what FNS has reinvested back into our cafeterias. We believe in keeping the operation strong by making sure we have working equipment in our kitchens to make sure that they stay in order.
1:24:49 This cap, this slide captures the capitalized, the non capital and the renovations of what we’ve done over the last six years with regards to the investment back into our program. So yes, we have money. Yes, we’re putting back. And in the six year time frame, we put 28 million back into the schools with regards to updating and refreshing and putting new equipment into the schools.
1:25:12 So, again, there’s lots of success stories there with regards to that piece. Just to highlight some of them, I just went back a couple years, um, summer of 2020 22. You know, we renovated Merritt Island and Satellite High, um, and being able to make that happen there. We, we also provided new dining tables and high tops and booths for Cocoa High and refresh the walls.
1:25:36 Um, we also provided three schools with new serving lines and six schools with new walk in cooler freezers. And then we did also replace equipment. We’re constantly replacing equipment as needed, uh, at failure with regards to the school of about 480, 000. In 2023, summer 2023, we renovated Rockledge and we also did a Roosevelt serving line update there with regards to moving the line into the cafeteria instead of them entering from the outside of the cafeteria.
1:26:06 We also, uh, replaced three serving lines at three different schools and then five walk in coolers and then again, replacing equipment as needed throughout the years. Summer of 2024 has got a pretty large list. We were actually being a very aggressive. We were able to lock in with Sue’s team to be able to help us with being able to get some of this work done and adding a couple more projects to be able to get completed.
1:26:30 This year we have on our books to renovate Bayside Edgewood Junior Senior and Mel High retouching the serving line there to make it more advantageous for kids to utilize the inside. The, we’re also replacing eight serving lines and six walk in coolers along with we have a four, a four project replacement being done at Heritage High because of the grout coming up and the water getting underneath the tile.
1:26:54 And then again, we’re replacing equipment as needed throughout the school year. We’re already talking about summer of 2025 and trying to figure out what our plans are because it takes a year to get all of this put in place, especially with the renovation projects. Uh, we are targeting Heritage and VR High for the renovation for the summer of 2025 and then we will continue to re renovate and replace serving lines and walk in coolers as needed and same thing with equipment.
1:27:19 One of the other things I do want to point out is we will be going out for an RFP for a new software for our front of the house, back of the house operation, uh, to be able to support the operation. Our current vendor is giving us notice that they’re planning on exiting the K 12 market. So that will be something that we will be going out for, uh, and looking for from a software support, uh, for the cafeteria.
1:27:42 And that won’t be cheap. Looking at our fund balance real quick, uh, you know, the green bar represents cash, you know, green stuff, and the red represents the, uh, expenses to our program, and yellow represents our fund balance for the past five years with our projection of our currently where we are for this current year.
1:28:01 You can see we’ve been flush with cash with regards to looking at our operation. Uh, the, the telltale sign here is what’s happening. This year and after that we need to be concerned about, you can see our fund balance is drifting south with regards to our operation and we are planning on running in the red this year.
1:28:19 So we do need to get ahead of the game with regards to where we currently stand and get our budget balanced. Just real briefly, we do want to touch base on the community eligibility provision. You know, this is where we provide both breakfast and lunch at no charge to all students whether While eliminating the traditional milk application at the school, it is a four year cycle.
1:28:42 It’s, uh, we schools are qualified based on the percentage of direct certified kids, so there’s no need for parents to submit an application. Students, uh, schools are reimbursed for meals by either the free reduced rate, the free or paid rate, and a combination of, uh, the direct, direct certification times of 1.6.
1:28:58 So it’s a calculation of being able to figure it out, to figure out how you can maximize. The, uh, the, uh, the reimbursements to work in your advantage. The school is required to participate in both, uh, the National School Lunch and Breakfast Program. Uh, to qualify, schools must operate a minimum of 25 percent or more of their students at DREC certified by April 1st and of the prior school year.
1:29:23 However, 62. 5 is the sweet spot that you can claim all meals free at that site. So, you’re targeting the higher percentage. And you try to bring in the lower schools into that equation by grouping the schools. So you can group schools. This is a current list of the sites that we currently have on provision of the ECEP.
1:29:45 We moved in 2022 23 school year, we moved from 28 schools to 46 schools, 35 elementaries, 8 secondary, and 3 alternative sites. It is our hope that we can capture another, you know, five more schools, six more schools this next year. So that is our hope with regards to our plans. At this point in time, I’d like to pause to see if there’s any questions about the operation.
1:30:08 And before we go into the next section, or do you have any questions thus far? I, I have one in regards to the, hang on, let me find the, I just got to find where it was.
1:30:29 Um, the software that we are going to be going out to, to bid, what, what was the time frame that was given on, on them exiting the market? So we learned of that last year. So we’ve, we’ve known about it, uh, for two years. Um, so the plan is that they will still support the software. So it’s giving us the luxury of being able to go out truly to market to find a new software.
1:30:52 Okay. Um, so we learned of that, uh, I think two years ago and we’ve now. No, just now getting to the point where we want to move forward with trying to find the software. Okay. And the new software that we are looking at, um, this is just a, a simple ask on looking to see. A lot of our kiddos are using Apple Pay, um, and I know being able to take credit cards, that’s been one of the things.
1:31:12 Obviously, we still don’t have it here at the district, which I, yeah. I know. We’re getting there. We’re getting there. But, um, those are just things that I would ask for families to be a little more user friendly because a lot of times it’s very frustrating when a child is like, hey, I can just pay for it right here on my phone.
1:31:27 And that capability doesn’t exist within our system. So. And we totally agree with you. Uh, we’ve actually have gone out the market to look at three softwares already. So we are laying the groundwork to find the software we want to, um, use. And then we’ll put the solicitation out that will support that.
1:31:44 And several of them do have the credit card readers, even at the school level, um, to be able to even offer that as well. Okay. And do you have any kind of idea of what we’re looking at there as far as an increase? Because I’m sure it’s going to, with more technology comes more cost, uh, so. So we’re currently budgeting around five to seven hundred thousand dollars in the cost of the software.
1:32:04 Okay. All right. Alright, thank you. Ford, do you have any other questions? No, you’re good? Okay, alright, continue on. So, now we want to talk about the why. Um, you know, the why of why we’re needing a price increase. And, uh, we want to explain that to, both from the revenue standpoint, and also from the expense standpoint.
1:32:25 And I think we, you know, we’ll show that case set in just a few minutes. You know, the big challenge is, is the, The flush with cash. You can see here the Keep Kids Fed Act, um, that we were, Congress approved back for the school year 22 23 time frame last school year, uh, equal to 3 million of additional cash coming in.
1:32:48 That was an additional payout for each meal served, 40 cents for each lunch, a 15 cent increase for each reimbursement, reimbursable breakfast. So that is since expired and there is no more of that money available. So that’s a 3 million swing. On top of that, the state provided the supply chain assistant funding.
1:33:10 Um, last year it was $3.1 million, so we’re looking at a $6.1 million shortfall from no similar money of like esser that was available to the district for our food service program. We have received 1.6. We believe that’s the last payout. There may be some straggling monies that they’ve, they, they will have that at the state level, but we’re not anticipating any funding for FY 25.
1:33:34 So that’s what we’re concerned about when we look at our, our, our revenue. Um, to our expense ratio at this point in time. You remember a couple of slides ago, our revenue was at 47 million. If you take, you know, the 6 million off that, you’re now at 41. 5 million. And our expenses last year was 45. 1 million.
1:33:54 So that’s the, the, the, the hardship that we need to get through.
1:34:01 The expense side, you know, We’re all filling it at the grocery store, you know, and go with the public’s now two bags cost you 100. I mean, it’s not like it used to be where you could get some deals out there, but we’re all filling the pinch with the groceries. Our food costs, if we’re comparing ourself pre COVID timeframe, our food cost is up 20.
1:34:20 6%. It’s higher prices, supply chain shortages and substitutions that we’re fighting against with regards to that piece. The other caveat there is our, The labor costs, 31. 2 percent when we moved the minimum wage to 15 an hour. We’re dealing with minimum wage increases and also compression to be able to work through that with the district.
1:34:40 So, and those are your number one and number two expenses for the program is your labor and your food costs. Supply chain supplies that we use in the cafeteria is up 33%. Um, it’s just escalating raw materials and limited inventory and we’re seeing that as well. But, uh, you know, that’s the, the changes that we’re seeing here.
1:34:59 So, you know, how do we deal with that? This, this chart just really gives you an indication of where we currently are. You can see by the graph there that, you know, we can see the different increases by each year. The alarming part is the current trend is still at 90. 4 percent increase. So we are still trending upward.
1:35:15 Not quite a double digit, but almost a double digit increase for just comparing last year to this year in our food cost. And then these are just some examples of some of the popular items of the kids from choosing, you know, from what they eat in our cafeterias. You can see some of the changes, some of the changes that we made internally because we wanted to move to the bone in chicken wings, uh, along with upgrading our chicken patty to getting back to the pre COVID offerings that we were doing.
1:35:44 So there are some things that we did internally, but we’re still seeing the pain of, of increased happening across the board with. Goods, and this is a comparison to just this year to last year labor. You don’t really need to say much more about labor. We know we are where we are. There, you can see that that line is pretty straight going from, you know, 2020, 21 upward.
1:36:08 It is on a spiral upward mount at this point in time, increasing each year. Our current trend right now from year to year is 8.5% increase in our labor costs. Uh, just over the, this, the last two years.
1:36:23 Hourly rates. This is what we were paying to where we are now. And then, you know, we anticipate, you know, there’ll be some type of increase for next school year as well. So that’s going to continue to increase. But you can see by the chart there what we’re currently paying, uh, our folks, uh, from our frontline folks that working in the cafeteria.
1:36:45 The supplies, um, up 33%. The good news is it’s trending flat, uh, which is a positive thing, just up 1. 3%. So that’s a good, good thing there that we’re not looking at a double digit increase. So that we are leveling out there. Um, and again, some of those things are because we’re able to get some things overseas and some things of that nature that can help drive costs down to be able to help support that piece in the supply area.
1:37:09 Bye. And here’s just some examples of some increases that we’re seeing just this year to last year. You know, again, raw materials are the premium and, and um, you know, Lori and team does a great job trying to find alternate items to be able to lower cost. And that’s what we’re always competing against to be able to try to figure out how we can reduce cost.
1:37:31 So that leads us to where we are with an increase. You know, So in the past 32 years, we’ve raised lunch prices four times. We’ve been very conservative with our lunch prices and only come when we need to ask for them. And we are here today to, uh, offset that because of the additional costs that we’re incurring.
1:37:51 It’s time to seriously consider that we need to move forward with a price increase for next school year. You can see the, uh, It’s a three year plan, but it’s actually increased four times because the last one that we did was a two year plan, uh, to be able to increase lunch prices, um, but, uh, you know, you see the great value that we are offering for the low price lunch price that we’re offering.
1:38:15 So this is our current lunch price. Breakfast is free to all students. Um, adult meal price is 1. 60. Our lunch price 10, secondary is 2. 50. It reduces always 40 cents and the adult price meal is 3. 10. So still, you know, very, very low when you look at the, when you opt to eat or go somewhere to buy a hamburger or cheeseburger or a chicken sandwich somewhere.
1:38:41 This chart shows you the federal reimbursement rate by student status plus how students are Uh, pay based upon their status, which equals the total funding received for each mill. Uh, so on the left side, you see the free reduced to paid, you see the federal reimbursement rates that we get for the mills served, and then you can see what the student actually are, is paying for those mills, and then if you work your way across the chart, you can see that we’re actually losing money for our paid students mills, 60 cents at the elementary and 30 cents at the, uh, secondary schools.
1:39:12 There’s another means to be able to look at ourselves, um, internally and seeing it so we’re not just utilizing one tool. Um, the paid lunch equity provision was mandated by the Healthy, Hungry, Free Kids Act of 2010 that ensures sufficient funds are collected and provided for meals, uh, served to students that are not eligible for the free or reduced price meals.
1:39:35 This ensures the schools are not charging less for school meals than it costs to produce the meals. It ensures the federal funds intended for the free or reduced paid lunches aren’t supporting the paid, uh, student meals. And it ensures the schools have funding available to support the, uh, serving nutritious meals to all students.
1:39:54 So, how it works is, is the federal reimbursement provided for a free lunch less the federal reimbursement for the paid lunch. Uh, so the free reimbursement for the pay, uh, free reimbursement for a lunch is 4. 35. The paid reimbursement is 50 cents. You subtract the two, we should be charging 3. 85. I’m not advocating 3.
1:40:17 85 that we move to, but that is the, the, uh, the guide there. Brevard’s weighted lunch price is 2. 32. That creates a gap of 1. 53 per mil that we’re serving. So that’s where we need to reduce. The next, uh, This graph just indicates where we are. This is the largest graph, uh, gap that we’ve had in the years that I’ve been here with regards to where we currently stand.
1:40:41 Again, this just showcased the need for us to be able to, looking and considering a price increase. We are experiencing, through our profit and loss statements that we supply each of the schools, a loss at several schools this year, around 20 schools that are showing in the red right now, and it’s due to them being low free reduced students participating in the program is driving that, uh, loss.
1:41:06 Here we just wanted to show what the impact. Again, it’s not a large bucket. It’s just where we got to have all the buckets coming together to be able to make the whole with regards to our revenue. A dollar increase to lunch prices generates a million five. A 0. 60 increase to our lunch prices equal around 935, 000.
1:41:24 A 0. 40 increase equates to 623. So again, it’s not a lot of dollars that we’re, you know, by raising lunch prices, but it’s how it all comes together as a whole to make the revenue work. We are suggesting, you know, providing you with three different options to consider for a price increase, uh, for next school year.
1:41:46 Option one is a one year plan, uh, which generates $752,000. It moves our elementary price up 40 cents, uh, from $2 and 10 cents to two 50, which generates $276,000. Our secondary price is we were asking for a 50 cent increase, moving it to two 50 to $3. And then the additional revenue that it generates is 433, 000.
1:42:12 The adult prices don’t have a whole lot of sway in that, but we do feel we need to increase them to be relevant with what we’re offering and making sure that they’re not cost leaders, lost leaders for us with regards to what we’re offering. The 1. 60 to raising it up 40 cents for breakfast to 2. And you can see the different, uh, you can see the big, big difference.
1:42:31 About 4, 000, excuse me, 4, 000 increase. Lunch 50 cents to 60 and 38, 000 increase here. If you look at the bar graph, you can see that, you know, we’re not increasing it enough to cover the red or the expense side of it. You can see that we’re balancing it out somewhat, but we still need a little bit more to be able to make it sustainable.
1:42:55 So, um, so. And you can see that we’re continually to draw down on the fund balance. One thing that we want to do is we don’t want to be drawing upon balance to cover the day to day operations. That should be used for, you know, investing back into the program. And that’s what we want to, to move forward with as, as we look to move forward.
1:43:12 Option two is a two year plan. The two year plan gives us, you know, so it’s not as, as, as a hardship for our families and being able to do a two year plan, but also be able to increase it gradually as we looked for a two year, uh, timeframe. Again, keeping with the 40 50 increase for both breakfast, excuse me, with lunch, elementary and secondary, it is adding another 30 cents on the second year, uh, for us to be able to increase it too.
1:43:38 And you can see the different, uh, uh, amounts that that generates. Here you can see we’re very close to getting it, uh, pretty close with the revenue and expense side of it in projection for 2026, uh, and we’re plateauing our fund balance to make sure that that holds true and then we can start investing from that point forward.
1:43:59 Option C is still staying with the two year plan. You know, it generates a million five. Um, and this one really brings us to, to, uh, equalization with regards to our fund balance. It, it does add another 50 cents on the second year, um, but just wanted to showcase that as for what that would impact because I think it’s important to see what it would take us to get us to be cost neutral.
1:44:26 Any of these are great values to our parents. You know, we got great value being offered to our parents with regards to what we’re offering. Uh, remember, breakfast is free at all sites. So, you’re really getting two meals for the price of one, uh, with regards to the operation. Um, so, you know, the change there that we’re looking for is just looking at the second year, adding the second year there to be able to make that, uh, you know, happen, and that we’re not having to come back next year to ask for another price increase.
1:44:56 But you can see the impact from parents. Again, you’re getting 20, you’re getting 40 meals, actually get breakfast and lunch. So it’s 20 meals, uh, break, uh, 20 breakfast and 20 lunches for that, that pricing there. It’s important that we also compare ourself to other school districts to see where we currently stand and what we’re doing.
1:45:14 You know, we are always down in that very, Fourth from the lowest, uh, elementary, you know, fifth from the lowest secondary lunch price, uh, for us to be what we’re offering. So, you know, we do very well with stretching our dollars to maximize them, to make sure that we’re doing the best that we can with those, um, and being able to make that happen there.
1:45:33 But you can see that they’re, some of our neighboring districts are much higher than what we are currently at. Just to recap, option one is a one year plan, however we choose that plan, we’ll probably be back the following year asking for another price increase, because we just, it’s not going to be sustainable, and that’s what we’re going to be probably having to do.
1:45:50 Option two is a two year plan that’s sensitive to parents budgets and wallets and provides, you know, a revenue lift for us. We can think, we can live through that, we can figure out where we are, and then we can determine, you know, how Three years, four years from now, coming back to be able to do another price increase.
1:46:05 Option C is a two year plan that’s a little bit more aggressive. However, it’s still great value even at that highest level compared to what other districts are charging. And with that, I’m gonna be quiet and see if you have questions for us. All right. Forward, I’m gonna turn it over to you First. Uh, Ms.
1:46:23 Jenkins, do you, do you have any questions or comments? No.
1:46:30 Yeah, um, so you’re looking for direction and guidance from the board of what option we prefer. So, um, I see that option C is obviously the most sustainable, but because it’s a two year plan and can be revisited, I’m more comfortable saying option B at this point, just so that there’s a realistic expectation that there will have to be a second increase that following year.
1:46:56 Um, but I think it would be wise to just have an update. Just to see where that need is. because realistically, even on option C, you know, your bars are, are fairly close together as it is. Um, so I think it would be wise to come back, uh, and see what that is, so that we don’t have you coming back of another three years, asking for another significant increase, right?
1:47:18 So if we’re going to increase that second time, I think it would be wise to, uh, do it all at once. But at this point, I think option B I’m more comfortable with presenting to the community that expectation. But I think it would be wise to revisit. Thank you, Mr. Jenkins. Mr. Trent.
1:47:44 So I know you’re looking for us to give you a thumbs up on an option here. And you’ve done an enormous amount of work. It’s amazing how much you’ve done. Thorough you guys are. So hats off to all of you guys. Um, spending some time in the restaurant business. I understand where you’re, where you’re coming from.
1:48:02 Um, I don’t see the prices going down anytime soon anyways. So where’s your thumbs up and down on A, B or C? I mean, if you’re on this side, my thumb would be looking at option B option B, uh, Uh, positions us to be able to, you know, we can go back, relook at our budget. It’s still not necessarily where we’re taking it to the extreme.
1:48:24 It’s still in a very, um, I think it’s a very, uh, manageable increase for our parents. Well, that’s, that’s where I’m at then. I mean, when you have right people in the right places and we, you know, we trust you in those making those decisions. Um, yeah, I think that would be, and if you compare where we are currently at from the I mean, I think it’s important to understand that we’re not just making a 2.
1:48:51 10, we’re making a 2. 50 for what we’re offering. Sure, it’s great value no matter what. Yes. Alright, any other questions for you? No. Okay. Um, I have a couple, uh, questions and comments, which, uh, you’re like, I know you are going to have some things said. It’s okay. Um, so when we look at slide number nine, this is where you’re talking about your total revenue here.
1:49:12 Yes, ma’am. Um, just want to look at this a la carte portion, uh, student and, and adult a la carte sales, uh, comprising of really 10 percent of your overall budget, so it’s a pretty significant chunk there. Are we looking at increasing the a la carte prices as well, because that should help offset Some of this, right?
1:49:28 That is correct. Every year, Elicart pricing is not part of the, the pricing that we’re asking for today. So Elicart pricing actually gets re evaluated every year. Okay. So we do make adjustments based upon cost of goods. Okay, good. All right. So that makes me feel good. So I was like, okay, well, I want to, I want to see that increase as well since we’re looking at this because we’re looking at, you’re saying the food sales type A, that 7 percent of your budget, that’s, that’s where we’re trying to make this up at.
1:49:52 Correct. It’s just harder now with Elicart because of the, you know. The, uh, smart snacks is very limited on what we can and can’t serve out of that area. So that’s the, that’s the challenge there. Okay. All right. Good. Um, I, I’m obviously, you know, I’m a parent, I buy groceries and I think everybody here obviously buys groceries.
1:50:13 And so you all can attest to the fact that groceries have cost a lot more now than they ever have. Um, so wonderful inflation hits everywhere. And I wonder how you guys afford to give, uh, my child likes those, uh, what are they called? The peanut butter and jelly. What do they call them? Oh, the Uncrestables?
1:50:28 I’m like, I’m drawing a blank. I’m like, I just packaged up like hundreds of them, uh, last week when I was working at the cafeteria. Um, but no, and honestly, a box of those, to get a box of those is about 10 bucks and there’s eight of them in there. And I’m like, that’s just one item in a lunchbox, you know, and so you need to have other things as well.
1:50:44 Um, so I’m not opposed to this. Obviously I’m, I’m cognizant of the fact that it will affect some of our families. So we want to. So, I’m going to be cautious there. How are you projecting out your cost? So, you said your ideal scenario is the two year increase. What happens if a year from now we look at this and grocery prices have run, you know, gone up again significantly?
1:51:06 How does that impact you? We’re hoping things are going to plateau. I mean, at some point in time, you know, we, we anticipate, you know, our costs to Being able to be manageable, a 2%, 1 percent increase from year to year, like we’re seeing with the supply costs. So, we are hopeful that that is going to happen.
1:51:23 Uh, we initially always plan about a 3 4 percent increase to our food costs each year. That’s our normal, um, plan. That’s what’s been planned for in those slides that we are doing there. So we are trying to be conservative with what we’re doing from an expense standpoint and also from a revenue standpoint.
1:51:44 Okay. All right. Um. That’s good to hear. I will say on slide 28, I was laughing over the bone in chicken wings. Uh, I will tell you that is an option that we have taken off of our menu because it is so expensive. So, I don’t think I would be heartbroken and I don’t know if the board would be heartbroken to take that off of the menu for our students just because they are so expensive.
1:52:02 When you’re looking at over a dollar a chicken wing, that’s not a sustainable item to feed. We will take a look at that. That’s why we limit it to one day a week type of thing. It’s just where we’re trying to drive participation into the program for kids to have a destination Oh, today’s, uh, Chicken Week Wednesday.
1:52:17 So we’ll play with it and see, I mean, we’re going to look at things, we’re, we’re currently out for bid right now with our, our full distributor bid right now. So, you know, we are anticipating to see what pricing is coming back. We anticipate that increasing as well because every time you go out for a bid for a large bid like that, uh, we normally do see a little surge in pricing because they’re trying to recapture, you know, the years that we didn’t able to, to increase the prices.
1:52:42 Yeah. And I might add, if we, if we do away with. Wing Wednesday. It might be a little revolt in high school. , how many wings are we selling on a Wednesday? I’m kind of curious on what’s happening there on how many wings are going out? It’s lot. It’s a lot of chicken. All I can say is a lot of chicken. We, I think we’re doing what, 19 trucks, loads of chicken a year is what we usually do for surveying our kids.
1:53:04 That’s all chicken products being one day week’s not well, but it has, it’s kind of our lost leader percent price increase. It’s loss leader to build a kitchen. Significant for the budget. If you’re looking at, they’re 72% more expensive than they were so. I’m not sure what happened there. The chickens got more expensive, but, um, obviously you, you, um, you have my blessing on, on moving forward with option B.
1:53:22 I know that this is going to be a bit of a stretch for, you know, it’s going to hurt some families, unfortunately, and I, I’m cognizant of that. But when you look at the overall price per week of saying, hey, We’re talking about 15 a week to feed a secondary student. I don’t know if anybody’s feeding high schoolers around here, but I can’t feed a high schooler for 15 a week, one meal a day.
1:53:43 That’s not correct. You can’t package for what we’re charging. No, no, no, you absolutely cannot. So, um, I’m going to, I’m going to move away from this and I want to just say This is something that I should have come to you about a long time ago and I want to just ask you this and you’re like, Oh, what’s Ms.
1:53:57 Wright going to say? So spending some time in our elementary schools and our secondary schools, one of the things that we see is sometimes, um, the fresh fruit option love this, right? Like we’re giving them the fresh fruit. They don’t always eat these items, um, or they don’t always eat necessarily what we’re putting on their tray.
1:54:12 Um, and I know that I’m weeding into an area where you’re like, Oh my gosh, I’m not going And the option to have some type of, I don’t want to say recycling, because that’s not really the right word for it, but to be able to take these unused items that have not been touched. And have a child be able to put that somewhere where we can repurpose that and somebody else can have that, I think would be very, very beneficial.
1:54:34 I hate seeing us throw away brand new stuff. It happens. Kids do it all the time. But if there is a way for us to kind of work with some kind of program or maybe starting a club of some sort, um, at the school that could take this initiative, I think it would be very, very smart so that we’re not wasting.
1:54:49 So pre COVID, we did have sharing tables out at our schools. We have pulled those back and we do plan to relaunch some of those that are, especially at the elementary sites and some of the, maybe some of the secondary sites. It just depends on the need, the want there. Um, but again, those do come with requirements of the program.
1:55:05 You know, if it’s something that’s cold, it’s got to keep cold. I mean, A lot of different things that come into play from a food safety standpoint that we’ve got to be cognizant about. Um, but we, we are going to be exploring that we do have several schools that do have the sharing tables. We re, we’ve rewritten our procedures on those and we will be looking at expanding those and offering those at the schools for next school year.
1:55:23 Yeah, that would make me so happy to see that in every one of our elementary schools specifically. And if a child eats, takes two bites of an apple or takes two bites of whatever it is that we’re offering, that’s a success story for us. So, you know, the waste is going to be the waste. If you’ve been in the restaurant world, you know that, you know, there’s a ton of waste with food, but, but, you know, from our standpoint, you know, it’s a success story for a child to try a pair that’s never tried a pair before, or, you know, finding, you know, uh, some other item that we’re offering.
1:55:48 So to us, it’s just really more being exposure and trying to get kids to participate and try something new. And I love it. Like, listen, grand scheme. I would love us all to have gardens and we could take these. that they took one bite of and you could compost it. We could use it for gardening. We could grow vegetables.
1:56:03 I, you know, that would be the great, uh, longterm vision, but I don’t know that we’re there yet. So if there’s a way to be able to save the ones that haven’t been touched and repurpose them for somebody else, I think that’s great. We will. All right. Thank you so much. So yeah, you, you obviously have full control.
1:56:15 Go ahead, go forth and do good work. I know you guys do amazing stuff in that department. I can attest to it because I was in one of your cafeterias this last week and Wow, I cannot the amount of meals that come out of each one of those cafeterias is really it’s impressive to say the least And I’m not so sure how much I help.
1:56:32 I think I slowed down the I’m trying to get the line a little bit. I’m trying to package things up. But they just crank them out. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of meals. And it’s really, um, some dedicated individuals that you have that are doing a phenomenal job. We appreciate your support as well.
1:56:44 We couldn’t do it without you all being supportive of the program. Along with being able to be the spokesperson for us being able to be in the cafeteria. So thank you all for the work that you do. Yeah. Thank you. Appreciate you guys. All right. So we are on to. Our next topic on the agenda, we’ll give them a minute or two to clear out, but our next topic that we are going to have is the planning services update, which is a separate day school in the district wide long term facility planning, which Miss Sue is coming back up.
1:57:17 I think up front for us and we have.
1:57:28 You want to try to get my on the phone. Okay. All right, so we’re going to try to call Mr season.
1:57:43 Hello. Hey, Matt. Can you hear us? I can. Thank you so much. All right. Perfect. So we have Sue and her team is coming forward to present to us the separate day school plan as well as the district wide long term facility planning. So they’re getting set up and we’ll roll here in a minute or two. Sounds good.
1:58:08 All right, you guys good? All right, wonderful. You have the floor. Okay. Good morning again. Um, so I’m presenting two topics this morning, but we’re going to start with Gardendale, and uh, WXY has been working with the board and with our staff and trying to figure out what is the right approach for the students that attend Gardendale to serve them better in the future.
1:58:31 And so we’ve had lots of ideas, lots of dialogue, lots of conversation, I’m going to ask our board. Our consultant WXY to walk through that process with you, but I also want to have everyone keep in mind that what you’re seeing today is conceptual. So we had to figure out like about how big and about where it can go.
1:58:51 And once we get a little bit more guidance from the board and have some conversation about this, then we can move forward and actually start designing and building. Developing the real structure. But today’s work is simply around about what we need based on consultation with our folks in student services and looking at sites and seeing what fits and what doesn’t.
1:59:14 So, um, I just want to caution everybody that the floor plans that you’ll see and those types of things, and the layout on the sites, this is just to see if it fits. It’s not the final design yet. So, good. So, um, we have with us today Adam Labinski, Principal with WXY, and Sarah Lee Morrissey, uh, the, uh, Consultant to WXY, Sarah Lee, uh, has been in my role at Volusia County, so she’s got some local Florida knowledge, and, uh, with that, I will also, Kim Bias from, um, Student Services is here this morning, so with that, I’ll turn it over to Adam, and go ahead.
1:59:51 Oh, your mic might be off. Yeah, that’s just a little button there. Yeah. Is that better? Good. All right. Starting again. Good morning and great to see you again. And, um, feel free to stop me as I go through these slides. Um, as Sue mentioned, um, this is really a process of, um, to help with decision making. So nothing here is meant to be a hard design.
2:00:20 Just to quickly take you through what you’re about to see, first we just want to outline the process we’ve gone through and the parameters that we were initially given by Brevard County Public Schools. And then you’ll get a kind of executive summary slide. Then we’ll dig in. Um, one of the important things about this work is that, um, we were aware that board members and staff had visited the Magnolia School.
2:00:46 That was a case study that helped us really peg, uh, what the needs were and, and working against that. That was very helpful as a starting point for us, um, and we’ll take you through how we arrived at that. Um, and then we’ll really take you to a final option that um, seemed like the strongest preferred option, and then look at sites where that facility could go as well.
2:01:11 Um, so, this process really began in mid March, although I will note that earlier in the winter I was able to visit Gardendale with Sarah Lee, so we spent a couple of hours with the director of Gardendale as well. Um, but we had a kickoff discussion, uh, which involved student services, also involved the director of Gardendale, Misty Bland, um, and we used, once again, we used Magnolia as a kind of starting point for that discussion.
2:01:41 We then, uh, developed, based on a target number of students, uh, for Brevard, we developed an initial breakdown of size, um, that was, uh, It’s perhaps larger than, um, than, uh, met the initial parameters given to us by the, by the school district. So we went back and had a really good conversation, which included Dr.
2:02:03 Bias, um, and, um, and Pam Dampier from student services, really going through like what is absolutely necessary here. And then we had a preferred option that we had a final review. And so that takes you, uh, to where we are today. So, uh, as we began in mid March, um, the initial target conversation was, uh, to design for a hundred students total, um, and that was based on a number of discussion points in terms of what’s at Gardendale today, what the projected need might be, um, and the way schools are typically built out as an expansion of, uh, approximately ten classrooms.
2:02:48 So that was our starting point. Um, which was to look at two student populations, uh, students with intellectual disabilities and students with emotional and behavioral disabilities. Um, there was an initial sense of what that target budget would be, um, uh, and that was looking at 12 to 15 million at approximately 450 a square foot, um, and so we had a budget that was initially based on 100 students.
2:03:18 Um, we also were accounting for some outdoor play space and parking as well. And so this is really a summary slide and we’ll be able to dive back into the detail. But just to set this out, we did, uh, result in a preferred option, um, for a number of reasons. We looked at a school that was 156 students, um, initially it was looking at 100 students with the potential for expansion of about 50 students, um, and that, uh, program looked at 60, uh, intellectual disability students and 96 students with emotional behavioral disabilities.
2:04:01 And, um, just to take you through briefly the results there, building a rough square footage was around 43, 500 square feet, um, with an average gross square footage of around 280, uh, square feet per student and a theoretical cost of around 19. 5 million. And, of course, um, the other options were smaller schools with fewer students.
2:04:29 But, uh, with economies of scale, they were more, uh, more expensive per square foot, uh, because of those economies. And so, it’s important to look at the Magnolia School as our starting point. I mentioned with, uh, the preferred option where we landed was about 280 square feet per student. Um, as our case study and our initial benchmark, Magnolia has about 470 square feet per student.
2:04:56 So, we’ll take you through that process.
2:05:06 And again, as I understood, the, um, the board did visit the Magnolia school. Good. So it’s a, hopefully it’s a useful reference point for this work. And so at that initial kickoff, um, we went through the Magnolia School, uh, in a very specific, uh, way, going through exactly the different program elements they had, the different classroom types they had, um, and reviewing the desires for, um, uh, for the separate day school.
2:05:35 Then, as I mentioned before, we circled back, uh, as a further review. So, this slide, um, is a, um, Really gets quite into the weeds. Um, so I can go through as much detail or as little as you would like. But in essence, when we had that second review meeting, um, we wanted to really look more critically at the program.
2:05:56 We, um, uh, we’re coming up with similar. Um, We’re looking at two hundred and twenty four million square foot. Gross square footage is as the magnolia school with the four hundred fifty square foot. Uh, cost, um, the numbers were quite high. And so we were looking for reductions. So we had, um, very extensive conversation about the needs.
2:06:18 Um, some of that was looking at ratio of students per class, for both the emotional behavioral students and for the intellectual disability students. Um, in both cases, we wound up pushing up, uh, that ratio. So right now, what you’ll see is really the maximum, uh, number of students you would want to see in those classrooms.
2:06:42 Um, so that wound up being, uh, 12, um, students for the IND classrooms and 6, I believe, for the, um, uh, EBD students. Can I ask a question? Sorry. Oh, yeah. I. Um, how you decided some of the, the programs that you would, what, did you consult with anyone in the district on these programs or was this more so about just square footage?
2:07:07 So, um, we used Magnolia as a benchmark. Okay. We went through. Thank you. Something quite similar to this, um, with, uh, the student services, uh, team and the director of Gardendale. So we went through all of these different programs. We actually looked at the plans of Magnolia too. Okay. Um, And so that was a benchmark.
2:07:30 So then the square footage that’s listed here is comparable to what Magnolia uses, is that correct? That’s correct. Okay. All right. Um, just, and as we go through this and we look at this, I think there are a few things that the board probably should discuss as far as, um, programs that I would, I would argue that they’re very beneficial for the school to have.
2:07:49 And so maybe just having those conversations, but all right, sorry, go ahead. No, I have to clarify. They did work with student services and the Gardendale staff. That’s good. So, in identifying the changes. Okay. Thank you. Yes. So, in essence, the boxes that you see there, um, are programs and square footages, um, at, um, uh, uh, Uh, the Magnolia School as a benchmark and there are cases in which, um, we didn’t include programs that they offer at Magnolia School.
2:08:24 So those are the boxes that are unticked. And then where we have modifications, there are places where we, uh, tweaked the program sizes of what they offered at Magnolia. So for example, For example, uh, the administrative private offices, um, there, we kept the same number as, uh, are included in Magnolia, which is a school for 150 students, so our preferred option is similar, um, number of students, um, but we reduced the square footage of those offices, uh, from what they offered at, at Magnolia, and again, this was really with an eye towards.
2:09:00 Uh, controlling costs. Um, but I think, you know, based on our judgment and the conversations we had with Sara Lee Morrissey, um, and Brevard Public Schools and Student Services, there was agreement that those were, um, uh, okay modifications. It wasn’t just, us off on our own, making those decisions. Ms. Wright, can I just jump in real quick?
2:09:22 Yeah, absolutely. Um, just cause I don’t want you to like, stumble away from this and then go back to this conversation. Um, so, um, I’m glad you brought that up, Ms. Wright. Cause one of the things that I would like to advocate for, and I understand that that would change everything. Um, but it would be important to me as someone from an ESE background and the students that we would be serving in these buildings to consider having a music room or program.
2:09:44 Um, Um, it could be tremendously beneficial, but it also could be beneficial for all the therapy services that are in there, um, as well, to be working with those students. I think the more, um, traditional opportunities we can offer these students, um, the better. Uh, so many of them can only access education in a certain way, uh, and I think that that’s one that kind of can pull everyone together, um, so I would love for us to, to consider that, um, as well.
2:10:13 Because, and I’m not advocating for getting rid of art by any means, but many of these students physically can’t necessarily participate in that or with ease. Um, so there could be something else that, you know, stimulates our students in an artistic way. Thank you. Okay, since we’re going to advocate, I’m going to go ahead and advocate for mine too right now.
2:10:35 Um, one of the things I think that was really cool about Magnolia was the, the gift in the card store. I think that that teaches so many really important life skills to our students that are in that population. Um, as far as entrepreneurial and then it kind of ties in the arts. Uh, they were creating all different things there and, and it gave them a sense of pride to be able to have their artwork on display and then potentially sell it and it generates income for that school as well.
2:11:00 Um, I think that one would be a huge one to have. It may be not 950 or whatever it was, yeah, square foot, but, uh, or square feet, I think, but some type of way, and it also, it invites the community in. Yeah. Uh, which I think a lot of times that is something that we desperately, desperately need. We need them to see and become a partner, uh, with this school to help.
2:11:22 And so if we had a storefront where they could come in and see our kiddos that are working and creating things, um, it would be beneficial tremendously. So ideally I would like to advocate for everything Magnolia had. That school was amazing. So, um. I have a question stemming off of that though. Yeah.
2:11:38 Because the way that I’m, I’m, I’m making an assumption here, so correct me if I’m wrong. Okay. Um, we have BLAST programs that are doing that. Do, do, are they doing that in Orange County? And is that kind of like why they have that in their Magnolia school? I guess is what I would be questioning. I don’t know the answer to that.
2:11:58 Okay. Dr. Bias, you don’t? I don’t know specifically about their BLAST programs, but with then Gardendale, it would be exactly like our BLAST and transition in all things related to the enterprise. Okay. So that is kind of built into the kind of layout, if you will. But I don’t know, I can’t speak to how they do their enterprises or their BLAST programs in Orange County at the moment.
2:12:19 I think BLAST is co located at Magnolia, if I remember correctly. Is that, am I remembering correctly? I guess, and not to chew down your idea or anything, but that’s, I’m just asking because I think that that’s why that might have existed there. Um, because I don’t know, I don’t, I’m not sure which one of the The labs would then generate that, I guess.
2:12:42 I guess we just got to make sure there’s like a connection if it exists because they had all the different programs that generated that shop. Right, right. Yeah, that is true. Okay. Yeah. All right. I don’t have anything else, Mr. Trent. Do you have anything that you’re on there that you saw on the list that you were advocating for?
2:13:00 All good. Would love to have all of it. Mm hmm. Great. So, um, happy to come back to this slide too if there are additional questions about the, the modifications. So before we leave the slide, um, the multi purpose room, right? Could music be offered in the multi purpose room? So, um, this multipurpose room as we’ve, um, um, pulled it together would really be a kind of cafetorium.
2:13:30 Uh, so the concept there, uh, would be a kind of stage setting and then, um, tables, um, or those tables can be folded up, you know, cafeteria tables can be folded up and used, uh, uh, for seating, for, uh, parent gatherings. So we see that as a flexible. Not a music room. Not a music room. It’s a little bit different than one.
2:13:50 Yep. I’ve seen a cafeteria. Yeah, and like the music options that would be probably provide, because I don’t, I don’t remember walking through the music room when we went on this tour. So I apologize. But, um, the options that will be provided will probably be larger items that kind of need to be out and stuff, because it’s not going to be your traditional setting.
2:14:12 The good old recorder, you mean? Bigger, yeah, instruments. Yes. Yes. I imagine. Xylophones and things like that. Yeah. Right. Alright. Okay, . So, um, and again, we can go back to look at it in more detail. Um, so in essence we had three options. Um, there were, uh, really, uh, constants, uh, throughout those three options.
2:14:39 The main difference, um, is that option A, which is the larger school. Um. Uh, really, in a way, insists on having four classrooms at the middle school and high school level. Um, so that, um, High school teachers and middle school teachers can have specialized classrooms. And that was a point which was raised by student services.
2:15:02 Um, they felt that that was critical, that that was important for recruiting teachers to understand that, that specialized subject teachers would have their own classroom. So that is really, um, the essential difference between the options, uh, which means that. The school based on the ratios that we were looking at will have, uh, the potential for more students.
2:15:26 So and, and just to be clear, that would be, um, 12 classrooms, uh, for emotional, uh, behavioral, uh, students, um, and I had the ratio wrong before that was, uh, so it’s, it would be eight students, uh, per class. That would be the maximum number, uh, per class for that. Um, So, in essence, um, that, uh, was strongly preferred by student services, which is where we landed with, uh, a gross square footage of about 43, 500 that, you know, we use kind of common multipliers for mechanical room space and bathrooms and storage and circulation.
2:16:09 Um, and so as I described, um, you know, we focused on those four classrooms, uh, for middle school and high school level and by extension, um, for classrooms at the elementary school level. Um, we were also told that there is a high demand at the elementary school level for the EBD program, um, and, uh, there are going to be some benefits to, uh, uh, operating at.
2:16:38 Scale at close to 150 students as opposed to 100 students. So you have you have some benefits there. If you have specialized classrooms and you have more students, it’s a more efficient use of space.
2:16:53 And this is not as it would be built, but just to give you a flavor for how the spaces align and You know, at Magnolia, you can see that there is separation between the IND and the EBD programs within the same building. This shows how those programs could be in the same building, but making common use of some shared facilities.
2:17:23 One point I would note, having just followed, uh, the food and nutrition discussion, um, is that, um, this does have a warming space instead of a full kitchen, um, and that is based partly on its adjacency to the recommended site where it’s, it would, uh, potentially share a campus, uh, with another school where they can make use of that kitchen.
2:17:45 That was, uh, in the discussion of space savings to do things that way. Um, And so we looked at two sites. Um, one, which is about 200 yards from here. Um, and this was not the preferred site. Um, but, uh, there are a couple of essentially parking lots. spaces that could be utilized for the school itself and for school parking, bus and traffic circulation.
2:18:16 Um, so that is, uh, just, uh, beyond the current parking lot where you are all probably parked. Um, one thing that this does not provide for, which is one key sticking point, um, is that it doesn’t have separate play space. Uh, the assumption would be that they would utilize, uh, shared play space with the other schools.
2:18:39 And then on to what was seen as the preferred, um, uh, site for this would be Kennedy Middle We didn’t do precise measurements, but from previous study, it looks to be a more centrally located location as well. Um, and this site, there would likely need to be a need for additional parking space beyond what Kennedy already has.
2:19:05 There’s actually fairly limited parking there. Um, and you can see that there is space for play space here. I’d like to chime in a little bit on some details on this particular site. We have been working with the City of Rockledge. They’re looking at expanding Eister Boulevard. And, uh, we have designed some additional parking on the Kennedy site already.
2:19:29 It’s kind of, um, south and to the east. East of the current parking area that’s right at the corner. So we’ve got a project that’s already fully designed for additional parking, and in talking with the City of Rockledge last week, uh, they are concerned about traffic circulation and parking, and, and, uh, that we could kind of work on a joint project with the development of this site as a separate day school, get our additional parking done for Kennedy as well, and then work in cooperation with the, the City of Rockledge on their Eister Boulevard improvements.
2:20:03 And then the other project that is, um, that we’re working on right now is, um, the, um, Good to know about is we are currently in the process of redoing the track at Kennedy. And we’ll be taking out the driver’s ed course that’s in the middle and creating a play space for the students at Kennedy. Is the, where they are currently.
2:20:24 Using their open field in the northeast corner of the site is kind of wet and Talking with the new principal. He was asking about you know making some improvements and providing some better Play areas for the Kennedy students, and we’re going to create that as part of our track project that is under design right now so the Kennedy campus will essentially be the west side of the campus and then the Um, the Separate Day School site will be the east side of the campus.
2:20:52 And the other reason I, I like the site is, as you all have suggested, some modifications to the building. There’s room to move things around a little bit and to orient things differently, um, as we get into the design process. And so, we feel like the site is, is really, uh, a better use of space and has more opportunities to do this well versus being overly constrained.
2:21:16 And
2:21:21 I, I want to say that I like this site, honestly, when you’re looking at the two of them, because a lot of our, our students that graduate from our schools are going to potentially go to bridges or Easter Seals that are right around the corner from here, so the proximity and familiarity with the neighborhood is very good and convenient as well.
2:21:40 All right, um, are you, continue on, I guess, our next one is. So that’s my slide. That’s your slide. Okay. We, we had them, uh, in a slightly different order than what’s on, posted on the agenda just because as, as we were going through, we realized we talk about the ESF site first and then conclude with the preferred option.
2:22:01 So, um, the next steps that, uh, we’d like to propose, uh, if the board believes we should move forward, you know, more or less as we have planned, uh, get some direction on which option. And as I. We have both mentioned we’re recommending option A. We’re in support in facilities, student services is in support of that option.
2:22:21 It provides enough opportunity for a little bit of expansion in terms of the number of students that we currently have. So the program can grow. I think the site is the right size. site for a variety of reasons. And so we would like to proceed. Um, what we haven’t fully worked out is the funding. We’re estimating about a 20 million project.
2:22:43 This is a typical classroom addition project. And so, you know, we have to both do the building, the site work, all of the things that we need for a classroom addition. And the um, funding strategies would include. Some, uh, use of educational impact fees, that’s typically how we fund our classroom additions.
2:23:03 Uh, we did meet with our Educational Impact Fee Advisory Committees, both North and South, at their last meeting in April, and kind of talked about the concept of this school being essentially on the border, and serving students from both the North and the South area. And they were receptive to the idea of even though it is in one district, it is serving It is clearly serving students from both the North and the South districts.
2:23:30 So the funding strategy when we get there will, will include some impact fees from both the North and the South areas. Uh, also, we’ll be looking at capital, uh, Um, potentially if this moves into the, um, time frame of the extension of the sales surtax it could be included in that conversation as well. Um, so those are just some potential funding options.
2:23:53 I feel relatively confident that we can get there in the time frame that it will take us to design this project. So um, but I did want to be clear that this is an expensive project and we’re estimating today’s dollars about 20 million. Um, The process, if the board would like us to move forward, our next steps will be to work on a design criteria package, which will then be the foundation for a design build request for qualifications.
2:24:21 And so, the next year and a half or so will be in that process of refining the foundation for the design concept and then moving actually into the design of the project. And so, I would see us, you know, in FY25 kind of Working through the design as our major initiative during, uh, 25 and then working through the funding strategies for construction in future years.
2:24:49 Thank you. All right, board. We only have, we lost Mr. Susan. I don’t know if we want to try to get him back on the line or not. Um, you can try. Okay. Just in case he wants to be part of the conversation here. Um, so thank you. Uh, obviously everyone knows I’ve been screaming from the rooftops since I got here about how inadequate our ESC services have been, um, and, and no fault to everyone who’s serving these students.
2:25:17 Um, this has been a long, long, long problem. Um, I agree with option A. Uh, I think it’s best to have the space available to service all of our students, uh, that have the needs. I, I trust your opinion on the Kennedy Middle School side. I just want to voice my. My dissatisfaction that we’re not able to make it work here, um, because I really thought it would send a significant message to the community that these students matter to us, um, and that they are, um, going to now be a central focus of what this school district, um, is serving, uh, but I understand the constraints of that location.
2:25:55 One of the questions I have. And I know that this isn’t an easy answer. Um, but I’ve often spoke about how, you know, Brevard is basically a red flag for the state with how many students we have with autism spectrum disorder. And it is a spectrum, every student who’s on it has very different unique needs.
2:26:17 Um, but we do have incredible people here who have advocated for increased services for certain students with that disability. Is there a way for us to potentially, before we are really like moving on this project, have a conversation with some of those people who have been advocating for those services about, is there some unique opportunity?
2:26:41 Um, or programmatic suggestion to utilize this building for. And I say that because some of our students with the most significant needs who are on the spectrum could really benefit from a setting like this. Um, and they’re struggling where they are. Um, and so having that sensory room available, um, having adaptive PE, um, having behavior therapists, you know, there are families who would love to have this opportunity for their student who aren’t necessarily, uh, in an EBD unit or, or VEB unit, sorry, um, or are, um, categorized as IND.
2:27:17 So I just think it would be really wise for us to take a look at that. Um, we also just. Speaking bluntly, um, it’s really, really common, unfortunately, where some of our students who, uh, should be diagnosed as ASD may be miscategorized in, in a behavioral unit. Um, and so if they had an opportunity to a setting that really met their needs, uh, their behaviors would significantly decrease and they would get a lot more out of their academic setting.
2:27:44 So, I don’t know what the answer is to that. Um, I’m definitely not the expert to provide that. Um, you know, I’m thinking of Dietrich Brown, you know, there’s people who have been advocating for this for like 20 years here in this district. If we could just kind of pick their brain of, you know, what, what do they think and what would, what are their hopes and dreams of being available, especially if we’re going to potentially go to this larger location that is able to be adapt a little bit more.
2:28:12 I would just add, um, our office has designed a school for students with autism. And so, we didn’t emphasize that too much as part of this work, but we brought that to the table. Also, Sarah Lee Morrissey brought on, um, a consultant who has, um, It’s a special experience working with students with autism. So that definitely was part of our thinking as part of this work.
2:28:36 And I think it’s clear that a school would need a series of design guidelines that really make sure it’s being developed to its fullest use. And I just want to make it very clear. I don’t, I don’t mean for our students who, who have autism to have to go to the site. I don’t mean that by any means. Um, it is a spectrum, but we do have students have very significant needs that are struggling.
2:28:58 I have parents reach out to me all the time. Um, you know, what do I do? I, I’m, I’m there. I don’t know how to help. I’m trying to get, you know, ABA in there. Um, and so I just think if we could consider, you know, a potential option for certain families who might want to make a choice. Thank you, Mr. Jenkins. Mr.
2:29:15 Trent.
2:29:19 Yeah, I’m sure you’ll be working closely with student services from here on out. Um, for any changes or suggestions and that’s expected. Um, yeah, um, it’s a bunch of thumbs up today. So, uh, option A is, uh, is, you know, looking at the numbers and the needs. It, it, it makes sense if you’re going to build something, you know, um, you don’t want to build something that’s, um, You’re probably going to outgrow before it’s built.
2:29:45 So, um, that’s where I’m at on that. Again, a lot of, uh, a lot of good work here. And I’m sure you’re going to look in a year and say, I can’t believe we forgot this or didn’t think about that. So, um, that’s, that’s on your plate now. Mr. Susan, are you with us? I am. Thank you so much. I could be very short like the option a feel confident, confident about it.
2:30:12 And that’s where I’ll land. Thank you. Thank you. All right. I, I too am with option a I’m just going to go ahead and go back and advocate again. I still would like to see that gift slash card store and I’m with Miss Jenkins. I think it needs to have a music room as well. Um, those are more of the fine details that come after the fact.
2:30:28 But, um, one of the things going over to Magnolia that that school is absolutely. It blew our minds. It really did. And now I’m like, this is everything that we want to have here. And, um, I’m looking forward to this, this being a part of what Brevard has. Because I think, honestly, our most vulnerable kiddos are in that school.
2:30:45 And, um, we can serve them in a better way if we had a better facility. And this is exactly what this will be. So, I, I am with the rest of the board on moving forward with option A. Thank you all, and I look forward to Bringing these back to you on occasion like well, this will be kind of an iterative process as we work through the exact scope of the project and I think we’ll, we’ll have some good stuff to bring back to you.
2:31:08 So thank you for your guidance. Thank you so much. So one last now that I see the sheet or the slide here. We’re, uh, under sports and recreation. There’s lots of good things here, but. Covered play isn’t we discussed that yesterday in Florida. I would expect to see that on the next iteration. Okay, let’s check.
2:31:30 Yep. Thank you so much. Dr. Rendell. I’m sorry. I didn’t I didn’t go back. No, I mean, I’m super excited about the possibility of this building coming to fruition for our kids. I think everybody needs to remember is this is several years away, right? So we’re going to service them at the current Gardendale location.
2:31:45 Try to improve their experience there as we go. Absolutely. We’re not just going to. We’ll wait for this to happen. We’re going to continue to try to make what we do at Gardendale better. So thank you. Absolutely. Thank you, team. Appreciate you guys tremendously. All right. Our last topic for today is the capital allocation plan.
2:32:05 I think we have Ms. Lesenski. Mrs. Wright, if I may, I wanted to just touch briefly on the long term facility planning piece of this. There’s a, there’s a second. Oh, sorry. I am so sorry. I was jumping ahead. Oh, that’s okay. This is really short. Okay. I just wanted to let you all know that. No grass. No grass.
2:32:25 That’s the long term plan. Okay. Well, anyway, yeah, so the, the Gardendale separate day school project was really a subset of kind of a longer, like larger facility strategic planning type project and program that we wanted to bring to the district. And so. So while we’ve prioritized that aspect of it, we still have the bigger project out there.
2:32:51 And so what you’ll see on your agenda for the 14th is a planning consulting contract to do the long term strategic planning process. And that includes a very heavy emphasis on gathering data. So there’s gathering data about what we have in terms of the school district. So they’ll be looking at our facility assessment work.
2:33:12 They’ll be looking at our condition assessments. Hey Megan, I just wanted to say thank you. I just apologize. They’ll be looking at our enrollment projections, our student accommodation plan, all the data It’s readily available from the district and then also doing kind of a search of the research. Like what’s, what’s out there in terms of best practices in facility planning and facility delivery for student learning and teacher success.
2:33:41 That’s kind of the baseline work. And then the, the center of that project is really all around collaboration. And so there, you’ll see in the scope of work, there’s a lot of opportunities for collaboration with the board, collaboration with stakeholders in a variety of different ways. So there are meetings, there are focus groups, there’s websites.
2:33:59 There’s surveys, there’s all sorts of ways that we will be interacting both with the board and with our stakeholders throughout the entire process. And then the end result of this will be a strategic facilities plan. And in my, my sense of what that’s going to look like is there will be recommendations for buildings that may be.
2:34:21 Um, need to be retired or need to be replaced. There may be opportunities to, uh, consolidate some aspects of our school district. Um, but if we are going to make those types of decisions, we’ve got to have good data analysis and collaboration with our stakeholders. It can’t be just, you know, One at a time.
2:34:42 And so we wanted to get the, get the landscape of opportunities on the table and start to vet those and then ultimately develop into a plan that can be used as we move forward in things like if we are considering renewal of the sales surtax, if we want to include some big capital projects. in the past, we could look to do that in the future.
2:35:05 Um, our, our, um, capital debt is going to be retiring in 33 and 36. And so if we have this long term vision as to what we want to do with our facilities, we’ll have some good foundation for when the opportunities come up in the future for funding. So, um, That’s the, that’s the vision of where we want to go and I just wanted you to have an opportunity if you had questions for either, um, Adam or myself about that process and that scope of work.
2:35:35 I’d be happy to talk to you about it. Any questions? Questions? What’s the anticipated time frame that it looks like to complete this? So, we’re, um, including the, um, funding for this in our facility’s FY25 budget request. And so, uh, we anticipate doing our work in facilities that get the data ready between now and July 1st.
2:35:58 We’ll get started July 1st and the end is May 25. So it’s a relatively quick project. The, um, bulk of the community collaboration type work will start after the first of the year. Okay. Okay. All right. Thank you. Okay. All right. Sorry. I didn’t mean to just shoo you along and miss the second part of this. We were just so excited talking about a separate day school.
2:36:23 All right. So, now, we actually are on to the last topic, which is the capital allocation plan. So.
2:36:50 Whichever microphone you want to land at. That’s right. You got options today. All the microphones are available. Oh, you’re bringing them. Wow. You got the whole entourage today.
2:37:04 She must have thought we were going to be hard on her or something. She’s bringing the
2:37:25 Okay, Madam Chair, I feel very safe all of a sudden. You’ve got a whole crew up there with you. Right. So, um, this is the, the capital budget, uh, proposed tax levy allocation that we want to go over today. Um, is this on?
2:37:51 So this is a slide that you’re going to see as we go through, uh, creating our budget for next year. Um, this slide actually is, um, FY 24 Adopted Budget Expenditures, just to give you an idea of all the different buckets. And there are six funds, and I also broke out the, um, ESSER dollars, because that’s going to sunset, and millage, because you can see that’s something that we’re going to have.
2:38:25 We have those two fall under the general fund right now. And I also showed you where the charter is, because that’s part of the money there. Um, but as we go through this, we’ll, we’re gonna attack all of these different, um, circles and with, you know, the proposed budget for 2025. But that’s for another day today, we’re gonna do the, um, we’re gonna focus in on the capital projects and also talk about the debt services.
2:38:55 Thank you.
2:39:01 Okay, so this is the capital. This is that orange circle, but it’s broken out a little bit more. And I just wanted to highlight, and I’m sure everybody understands this, but capital funds just make such a big difference on the, uh, the experience. for our teachers and for our students, um, and actually for, you know, everyone.
2:39:25 Um, and I found this study the other day, and I, I really found it very interesting, but it was like, do you want to boost test scores? Well, according to this, uh, and it’s a very, you know, very scholarly paper. It was just amazing of the people that work on it. But, you know, fixing HVAC systems, upgrading plumbing, roofs, furnaces, STEM purchase equipment, health and safety improvement, all those things really help test scores, and more so in the schools with lower income.
2:40:05 Up to like 10 percent increase. So that’s something that is very, very, very interesting. So it’s super important. And then you can see all the different breakouts. Today we’re going to focus on the tax levy. But I do want to show the percentages. You can see how big the sales surtax is. And if we were not to renew that, you see that green box and then the impact fees.
2:40:33 for joining us. I mean, it would really start getting pretty small, especially as we start sharing more with the charters with funds. And I do want to give Sue a major kudos, because she does a great job with those impact fees. She really utilizes those and goes for those funds, so that, it’s huge. Any questions on this one?
2:41:05 So again, we’re going to focus on the local capital investment. And it’s, it goes by so many different names. So I just put them all there in case you’re used to hearing one of those names. Local Capital Investment, LCI. Sometimes they just call it the 1. 5 mils. So, but that is the funding that we’re talking about today because we have a list of all the different projects that we propose for, uh, for next year.
2:41:35 Um, and then you can see here, uh, you know, what the projects can be used for. And, you know, The law changed last year that we have to share, in the past we didn’t share LCI funding with charters. And if you recall, last year it was 20 percent of the allocation, this year it’s 40 percent of the allocation.
2:42:00 Um, so, just wanted to point that out.
2:42:08 The allowable LCI expenses, there, there’s a huge list of all the different things that are eligible. Um, but then there, it’s, um, Winnie Knipple right here is the expert and she will, she, with the statute of what fits, what doesn’t fit, can we, can’t we, and you know, I don’t like to dance in the gray, so, um, we really do a, make sure that we’re funding the right things and not, um, funding something that can’t be funded by LCI.
2:42:44 One of the new things that the statute brought last year was payment of salaries and benefits for employees who job, duty, support activities funded by LCI. So that’s, it’s interesting. One of the things that they brought up or allowed was paying bus drivers. So that’s something that, uh, we really aren’t looking at, at this time, because, um, you know, in the future, if, if, if capital starts turning into more of a, uh, Fund 100 general fund, it, there could be a possibility of it going away completely.
2:43:25 So, um, most of the CFOs in the state are trying to stay away from those kind of things. Thanks.
2:43:35 In Brevard’s tax assessment history, the, the big takeaway here, um, and again, this is just, it’s a projection from the, um, the EDR, um, in January, but you can see that the double digit, uh, tax, uh, property assessment, uh, isn’t projected to have those double digits anymore. It’s projected to have 3. 5 percent growth.
2:44:00 Um, we’ll get, um, Uh, another estimate, May 31st, and then the final, um, amount from the tax assessor. Is it the tax assessor? Um, on June 30th. So again, this is a projection, but from this number, we calculate how much money we have for, um, projects. We do subtract out the debt service, and Sue had mentioned that.
2:44:32 Um, just a couple minutes ago about where we are in our debt service and this does not include the, the refinancing that we’re doing right now to, um, bring this down a bit. And that actually will come in May, May 28th is when we can bring that back to the board. And so this is the calculation. We start off with, um, you know, the, the 1.
2:44:58 5 mil, uh, multiplied by the, um, property assessment. Uh, we had an investment income of a million dollars. Then we have to take off the debt service. And then we maintenance transfer, property insurance, charter portion, and so that remaining dollar is 45. 5 million dollars that we have right now to, um, use for projects for the district.
2:45:28 Now, this number can change in as we, as we go along. Receive additional dollars we can go down the list and or add or so there’s time for revisions and Opportunities once we finally get the final number That is What the standard is, and that’s the way that the state looks at it. However, our tax collection is normally 97.
2:46:05 4. I was going to say ours is a little higher. Yeah, it’s a little bit higher, so you’re right. So there could be additional dollars that we could use towards projects. Okay. And we met the other day, and this is the committee. Um, I don’t know who’s who. On this slide. Um, but these are all the different considerations.
2:46:32 And I, you know, everyone talked about what’s, you know, there’s so many different areas to, that facility or the, um, capital dollars helps. It helps with the, the funding. The furnishings and the, the computers and all of the maintenance and repair. So there’s a lot of projects and all great things. And this list is not in order, but you can see what the requested amounts were and what the, uh, committee proposed.
2:47:05 Uh, there’s a couple that say not eligible. The number four, though, uh, Sue is able to fund that from sales surtax, from her, the safety amount that she has. And we’re looking at number five, we’re asking more questions on that one. And the number twelve, we have a safety grant that can fund that. So when we look through those, we also try to find other funding for those different projects.
2:47:38 But are there any questions? This is a recommendation to the board of the projects that they would like to do next year.
2:47:52 And now I can keep going down.
2:48:08 I just want to make sure the board understands that these. Um, this list was put together by staff, you know, and through several meetings, reviewing other options, other requests, and these are the ones that were kind of settled on. And so these are the ones we wanted you to, to fund moving forward. Can I, I have a question, um, if, so we talked about how it’s normally 97.
2:48:33 4, um, if there’s more that comes in. Will it be allocated to the ones that were significantly reduced from the proposed versus requested? That, that is the plan. Well, the like 63, 64, that’s something that probably could be funded out of surtax. That’s why that’s zeroed out because there was more requests than Then money, um, but yes, and if there’s an emergent, uh, emergent requirement that, uh, that has a higher priority, we’d look at that too, but we’d bring it back to you for review.
2:49:07 Okay. Yeah. Cause just like looking at the difference between the requested and the committee proposed, like obviously one of the biggest ones is educational technology for the modern classrooms. So is that a conversation we would have then if, if there’s a surplus of money coming in? Okay. Yeah. And I believe that’s kind of.
2:49:25 Similar to what happened with the track resurfacing that you had some additional revenue come in. Sue brought it to the board, said spend it there. Right. Yeah, so. I mean, it’s a priority for me, but I understand it’s also the biggest expense we could possibly have, so. Yep.
2:49:44 I was just really excited about the list. I guess nobody else is excited about the list. A lot of really good stuff on the list. There’s some outdoor classrooms on the list. There’s all kinds of stuff. No, I know. It’s like the dream list of all the projects you want to do. So, I’m really excited about the Titusville High Baseball Field relocation.
2:49:57 Obviously, I was, that one is, uh, near and dear and it’s been an issue in the north end with having to hire, So, um, it’s a good opportunity for police officers to really stand guard where they’re playing baseball and, because it’s just not a safe area unfortunately, or not the safest area in town, I should say.
2:50:12 So, um, that’ll be tremendous for that school. So, I’m very excited about a lot of these different things that are happening here.
2:50:20 Yeah. Board, do you have anything else to add? I know, I’m like It’s a great list. That’s it. Yes. All right. So, when the projected numbers come back in, you said you’re going to get a projection at the end of May. Is that correct? And then again in June. Yes. Okay, and you’ll, will you update the board of that for those numbers when they come?
2:50:37 Oh, we absolutely will because that’s very important in, in, uh, building the budget for next year as well. Okay. All right. Wonderful. Now, I think, um, these are all really good things that are going to happen around Brevard County in the next year. I mean, you’re projecting this for the 24 25, uh, school year.
2:50:54 So this is tremendous. Tremendous. Or do you have anything else that you would like to add or questions about any of the specific projects? No? We’re just so talkative this afternoon. I’m telling you what. It’s because it’s lunchtime. Got a lot of good stuff done today. That’s what it is. It’s lunchtime.
2:51:12 Everyone’s going, Oh, I don’t want to talk anymore. So, uh, no, thank you for, for the work that your team is doing. I think this is amazing. I think, honestly, it’s going to reflect in our facilities. And that is going to be tremendous as far as parents looking at Brevard County as being the best option to educate their child.
2:51:26 So, very, very exciting. All right, hearing nothing else, no further, any, any further things you wish to discuss, anybody? Hearing none, all right, there’s no further business, this meeting is adjourned.