Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
0:00 Megan Wright: Good morning and welcome to the June 25th, 24 of 2024 board meeting and is now in order. I’d like to welcome my fellow board members and the public. It is encouraging to see so many wonderful faces in the audience this morning. We just ask politely that the public help our board meeting go more smoothly by following a few simple housekeeping rules.
15:45 The public’s opportunity to address the board is during public comment. And I ask that the public refrain from speaking loud disruptions distractions or other form of communication that will hinder the business of the board Paul roll call, please.
15:55 Speaker 3: That’s right here. Mr. Trent Ms. Campbell here. Ms. Jenkins here.
16:00 Mr. Susan
16:00 Speaker: here
16:01 Megan Wright: at this time The board would like to hold a moment of silence and I invite the audience to join
16:27 All right, please rise for the pledge of allegiance
16:53 Wonderful elusive microphone that turns on and off. All right. Um, at this time I’d like to welcome my fellow board members and Dr. Rendell an opportunity to recognize students, staff, and members of the community. Mr. Susan, are you okay if I direct to you first? I know, because I thought there’s a special guest, a special guest in the
17:09 Speaker 6: audience, so.
17:09 It’s also funny you did that because I was thinking, you know, sometimes I should have her come this way because you always ping Ms. Jenkins first. I know. I like to go first sometimes too, so. Alright, so hello everybody. I, uh, wanted to take a second and thank Ralph Williams for. Their summer enrichment programs.
17:27 I, um, was very surprised when I went over there to look at the STEM and reading program that they had in the library to find out that they actually have archery in the back. Um, and I walked back there and yes, there were kids with bows and arrows doing archery which is incredible when you sit back and think about some of the enrichment programs and um, many people don’t know but we have enrichment programs going on today, um, all across the district and they’ve started since the beginning of school.
17:53 And that’s for a couple of reasons, which is the one is to avoid the summer slide, but then also to get the kids to understand that our schools are part of what they do every day and have them learn something that may not be so tied to the Sunshine State standards and everything, but as much as it is to have them enjoy being a part of school.
18:09 The other group that I went to see was the O’Galley High School Aviation Program, and they actually had, um, They were doing rockets the day that I got there the day before they had built all kinds of drones. And it was just a really, really cool program. And after they had gone three days on the fourth day, they actually drove all the way out to Kennedy Space Center and were able to do some of the things that they had built out there at Kennedy Space Center.
18:33 So to say that these programs are amazing is an understatement. And I’m so proud of them. I also want to say to Bill Gary from the NAACP for meeting with me last week. Um, one of the things we are putting together is to put all the supports together for many of our students that are at risk. And I appreciated his time and energy that he talked to me about, where his perspectives come from, and I just wanted to say thank you to Bill.
18:56 And, one of the last pieces that I have is a very unique set of guests that we have today. Um, these are future problem solvers from West Shore High School, and we are honored to have you guys here today. for having me. With Miss Beavers because you guys took first in Florida and you guys have a little bit of a story to tell us.
19:14 So we’re really excited. Um, one of the things I would like to say is that the future problem, I’m not going to steal your, your energy, Miss Beavers, but I wanted to say your project is in line with what our main initiative is, which is reading with the children in the earlier grades and yours I think was first through third or second through fourth when I was watching that video.
19:35 So, um, but I’m really proud of what you did and I want to hear more about it.
19:43 Megan Wright: Do you want to, Ms. Beavers, do you want to bend the microphone down to where it’s?
19:56 Speaker 7: It’s not working. Ready? We’re going to watch a video first. Okay.
20:04 Speaker 8: Anything? Even without books, you read daily without thinking about it. Reading a text, patient instructions, food labels, or even something as important as a warning sign is so menial. Hit pause
20:16 Speaker 7: for a
20:45 Speaker 9: Oh, there we go. We have video.
21:07 Megan Wright: Our next future problem solvers will be our technology. All right,
21:10 Speaker 6: we need you guys. We need your problem solvers to figure out what’s going on
21:13 Speaker 5: here
21:15 Speaker: for
21:17 Speaker 5: us. Thank you. They’re like, we will do it right now. Here we go.
21:25 Speaker 8: Anything? Even without books, you read daily without thinking about it.
21:29 Speaker 7: Can
21:33 Speaker 8: you think of a day where you didn’t read anything? Even without books, you read daily without thinking about it. Reading a text, medication instructions, food labels, or even something as important as a warning sign is so menial, most people don’t think twice about it.
21:49 But for much of Florida’s population, it can be a massive daily struggle. Almost 20 percent of Florida’s population is completely illiterate. People who grow up without getting high level reading skills are more likely to be impoverished, drop out of school, become incarcerated, on welfare, and have worse mental and physical health.
22:09 In other words, if you want to help a community, you need to lead with reading. The key time to achieve age appropriate reading level is 3rd grade. By 3rd grade, every subject starts requiring independent reading, and students below grade level start to fall further behind in all subjects. and are less likely to ever get on reading level.
22:28 Unfortunately, 65 percent of third graders at Creel Elementary are below reading level. With our project, Leading with Reading, we focused on 1st and 2nd graders to get them back on track with proficient grade level reading skills. Our project had 3 parts. First, we leave our school twice a week, sacrificing our study hall and lunch time, to go to Creel Elementary and work with the students there, being their reading buddy.
22:55 Students are more enthusiastic to read because they enjoy being with their teenage partner. Second, we developed a letter system, exchanging letters with our students to encourage them to read and write outside of school hours at home. And lastly, we collected over a thousand books and donations from around our county, bookstores, publishers, and library sales to give to these students because many didn’t have any at home to practice with.
23:19 The most important part of our project was getting kids excited to read. The kids in our program had the same volunteer every week, and they got a role model who clearly enjoyed reading, which excited them to enjoy reading too. We had a large variety of books each week for the students to pick from.
23:34 This meant they got to own books they chose and enjoyed. By the end of our project, students had a clear enthusiasm for reading noted by their teachers and our volunteers. Our project actually raised the reading scores of the students in our program, which puts them closer to reaching proficiency by third grade.
23:54 What do you like about the project? I
23:55 Amy Roub: like being with my partner and reading with my partner.
23:59 Speaker 12: I’m actually the literacy coach at Creel Elementary, so they just wanted to let me tell you guys how important it was for our students. Our first and second graders loved them coming every Wednesday and Thursday, and on the few days that they couldn’t make it, our kids were truly upset.
24:13 We’ve also been tracking those students to see their fluency because that’s one of the things we’re doing and their word count per minute and their Accuracy rate for the students that they are specifically working with have actually gone up So we’ve seen improvements with them coming and actually working with our students twice a week.
24:31 Megan Wright: Oh My goodness
24:43 Speaker 7: So, um, what, what that video doesn’t tell you is how incredible this group of, of, of, that we have with us is. What, so what they did is, this has to be led by students. So this has to be thought up, investigated, and researched, and then put on and performed by students. There’s no parents hovering over them saying, you need to do this, you need to do that.
25:02 What about this idea? They have to look around their community, find the problem they want to solve, and then solve it. So, in, in doing so, they do a lot of research about what, what the problem is. They, they started off actually thinking they’re going to help with math. They thought, oh, math is something we all like, let’s do that.
25:15 Then it led to, why are math scores down? And that led to, well, if reading scores are down, math scores are down. And we let, went down the hole to, where does that start? Where, where is the main point that we can make a difference in? They found that first and second grade are the grades that you want to bring them up to level before third grade or by third grade, because that’s the main indicator is if they’re going to be successful in high school.
25:36 Thank you. They have a five time greater chance of failing high school and dropping out if they’re not proficient by third grade. So it’s a really big indicator about, you know, where our schools need to be. And these kids thought up the idea, implemented the idea, thought of ways to reach these kids outside of school, uh, letter writing back and forth, which was, um, a lot of these kids had never written a letter before, so it was, it was a whole new territory for a lot of them.
26:01 But I wanted to let you know, it’s not just the project, it’s the journey to get them there, and these kids are thinking outside the box and solving these problems. Want to say something? Oh, so,
26:11 Speaker 8: um, we’d really appreciate help in spreading the program to other schools next year?
26:16 Speaker 7: And they, they
26:17 Speaker 8: won first in state.
26:18 Speaker 7: Where’s our trophy? And we won. Second in world. Second in world. That’s incredible.
26:26 Megan Wright: That’s amazing.
26:33 Speaker 7: Do you guys have any questions for him?
26:35 Megan Wright: I’ll turn it over. I want to just, um, highlight the fact that when you think, okay, I was thinking nationals when you came up at first. I thought, okay, national, and then you’re going, oh, no, we competed against teams like, Singapore and Australia. And I mean, you had literally the entire world was there.
26:49 I think you said Australia had the biggest presence. Was there a team that you were intimidated by more than other teams that were there? Actually,
26:54 Speaker 7: there was another florida team. I think. That that that beat us. Really? We beat them. We beat them at state. We were first in state and they became first in world.
27:02 Oh, my goodness. They had more time to go back and research. Florida students winning again. Yeah. So, um, so that we were we were thrilled that they were they won too because they’re from Florida. Yeah. So, um, that was really cool. But, um, but they were one of the and then there was another team. Um, it was also a United States based team that was like the top.
27:19 I want to say three teams that I thought were good came from Florida. So, uh, that’s amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Mr. Susan, do you have something to
27:25 Megan Wright: add?
27:26 Speaker 6: Yeah, I just wanted to say, you guys were able to show the learning gains and get in and make an impact. The idea would be that if this is something that you continue to do, to expand it, to bring in more.
27:37 Um, students to support also because the larger of an impact you make, the greater our schools become. So thank you so much. And Ms. Beavers, thank you for all your work because I know as a school sponsor, um, how much work it is and selfless it is. So thank you for helping these kids go like all over the world to compete.
27:54 So thank you.
27:54 Speaker 7: Thank you. And, and they are asking for help to spread this to other schools. We really would like to make the impact for all of our schools that are struggling. Yep. So
28:01 Megan Wright: thank you. Absolutely love it. Congratulations. Good job. Thank you.
28:08 Alright, continuing on with recognitions, I will go to Mr. Trent. Well, I started down there, so we’re gonna. Yeah, yeah, that sounds
28:15 Matt Susin: great. Yeah, this is kind of exciting. Uh, yeah, same thing. Uh, students, thank you so much. I mean, just, I mean, give, Just start off by giving up a study hall in the lunch period. Uh, to do anything, uh, is, is a lot to ask of, of someone of your age.
28:28 So, we appreciate it. And, uh, hopefully we can, uh, uh, copy this on to the rest of the district and, and, and throughout. So, um, Thank you again. So, uh, no, other than a, uh, we’re starting summer, um, after, after this meeting, teachers, I know you’re still working diligently, uh, most of you daily improving what, uh, you, you thought was a successful year and it was, but we’re always looking to improve.
28:53 Uh, students, same thing. Uh, not that I’m speaking to any of you, I’m sure you’re still in bed, but when you watch our, uh, uh, tape of this, you’ll, uh, you’ll understand, uh, the importance of. Uh, taking some time in summer. Hopefully you’re still reading something, uh, you know, productive in the summer. Something that you want to read.
29:10 That’s what my challenge is to, to my, my kids at home and, and the students around us. Pick something that nobody’s telling you to read and, and, and, and read it. Uh, so, uh, it kind of fits in. And then, you know, spend some time with friends and family, same, same thing while our administration is working, uh, daily.
29:28 And thank you for doing what you’re doing when the teachers are away. Take care. Bye. Um, most of us as teachers, I’m sure we all do, we appreciate the hard work you put in the summers to make us, um, uh, you know, uh, successful, uh, during the school year. So, um, that’s about it. Get some rest. We’ll see you back here in July.
29:47 Megan Wright: Thank you, Miss Jenkins.
29:50 Speaker 13: So I had some family time the past two weeks, week and a half, but I just want to acknowledge some of our holidays that had passed. I just want to say Happy Father’s Day to all the father fathers in our community. It was definitely a A different kind of Father’s Day in our family this year, unfortunately, um, but it’s a really good time to acknowledge all of those men in your lives who support you.
30:10 And so thank you, you know, formally to our male mentors that come into our schools and our models for our students. That day is for you too. It’s not just for fathers. Um, and I just want to say happy Juneteenth to all of the people in our community who celebrate that. And thank you to the different cities and municipalities across Brevard County who had Um, for our African American community and for everyone to come and enjoy and acknowledge that we are one.
30:32 We are one, uh, community together. Thank you.
30:36 Megan Wright: Thank you, Ms. Jenkins. Ms. Campbell.
30:39 Speaker 5: We had another team from, uh, two teams that represented, uh, BPS in, at the national level, not the world level, they don’t have worlds for Junior Achievement, but, um, our two teams that we approved their, their field trip just a, you know, a few meetings ago, uh, ISCO, Team ISCO from Bayside High School and Team Jelly Buddies from Vieira, uh, both went to D.
30:59 C. to compete in the National Social Innovation Challenge for Junior Achievement, and Team ISCO from Bayside put together Um, and they placed third place in the innovation, social innovation challenge, and if you, I don’t remember, um, if I told you their project, but the project was like a sleeping bag that had a solar something on it, and it’s so creative, and so, uh, and they were our district winners, but they were one third place, and so, and both of them did excellent jobs in their presentations from what I, I have heard.
31:24 I also wanted to remind everybody that this weekend is the culmination of the Summer Fine Arts Theatre Workshop. The students who have been part of that are rising 9th through 12th graders who auditioned to be actors, and singers, and dancers, and musicians, and set builders, and all of that. Those performances will be this weekend.
31:45 Our website’s changed, so yay! I want to recognize, um, the educational technology and the rollout of our new website. Woohoo! Uh, but I, in the change of the website, I can’t find ticket information. So I’m gonna ask our government community relations, uh, staff if they would put it on social media again. Uh, if they haven’t already, to put where to get the tickets.
32:04 But the North show, uh, both shows are gonna be Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday afternoon at two. The North show is Shrek at Titusville High School. And the South show is Catch Me If You Can, which will be at Satellite. And I am looking forward to those so much. They’re always such great productions.
32:21 So check the website or the social media. I’m sure this week the tickets will be easy for you to find. But I do like the new website. So those are, those are mine for this
32:32 Megan Wright: week. Thank you, Ms. Campbell. Um, I want to remind all of our students that we have the summer passport program going on and I’m just going to brag about this for a minute because this is so much fun.
32:40 Uh, so we have partnered with several of the museums in Brevard County. There’s 24 museums in Brevard County, for those of us that don’t know. I’m born and raised here, didn’t know we had 24 museums. Uh, I’m ashamed to say that, but we have created a summer passport to really give students the incentive to go to each one of these museums and get a stamp.
32:56 stamp so that they can get a certificate of completion. But I just want to give a shout out to government and community relations because we had so much fun delivering the passports to these museum sites and for the North Brevard Historic Museum, they actually have yearbooks that go back to the 1940s.
33:10 So, for my North Brevard folks, if you want to go find, uh, possibly a parent or grandparent in a yearbook, you can go there if they graduated from Titusville High School and look at old yearbooks. A lot of fun walking down memory lane, so I’m just encouraging our families to get out there and go, go visit these museums over the summer.
33:26 And that is all that I have. Dr. Vendel? If,
33:28 Speaker 6: if I could give an update real quick to that. They started seeing all of the students actually coming to the museums, and they were so tickled. We had a meeting last Thursday with all the museums at my office, and they were talking about how the kids were in there excited, they were excited, and it’s just a good overall program, so I just wanted to say thank you for recognizing
33:47 Megan Wright: that.
33:47 Good deal. Dr. Rindell.
33:49 Speaker 14: Just to follow up on that, I encourage our students to put down the video game controller, get off the couch, and go visit those museums. There’s a lot of history, rich history. Right here in Brevard County and go to those museums and you’ll learn about it. And there’s a lighthouse here in Brevard County don’t have to go to st.
34:04 Augustine for lighthouse. So check out the program this summer
34:08 Megan Wright: Thank you. All right, that brings us to the adoption of the agenda. Dr. Rendell
34:13 Speaker 14: Thank You madam chair on this morning’s agenda. We have 27 consent items three action items and two information items Changes made to the agenda since release to the public include the following Added was F 22, Suspension of Administrative Employee, F 35, Tysville High School Roof and HVAC Renewal, Additional Construction Management Services, and H 39 2024 01, Live Local Act Property Exemption Resolution.
34:43 Revised were F 13, Job Description Athletic Trainer, F 26, Entitlement Grants, and And H 38 procurement solicitations.
34:52 Megan Wright: Do I hear a motion? Move to approve. Second. Any discussion? Hearing none. Paul, roll call, please.
34:58 Speaker 3: Ms. Jenkins? Aye. Ms. Campbell? Aye. Ms. Wright? Aye. Mr. Trent? Aye. Mr. Susan? Aye.
35:04 Megan Wright: All right. We are now at the staff, or the administrative staff recommendation.
35:07 Oh, sorry. I, I jumped ahead. We have people we need to recognize in the audience, and I don’t think it’s on here. Is that correct? Are we going to the administrative? No. Sorry. I’m going back and forth. We have, we are now at the Administrative Staff Recommendations. Sorry guys, it’s, oh, do I hear a motion?
35:20 Speaker 15: Move to approve.
35:20 Megan Wright: Second. Any discussion? None. All right. Paul, roll call, please.
35:25 Speaker 3: Ms. Jenkins? Aye. Ms. Campbell? Aye. Ms. Wright? Aye. Mr. Trent? Mr. Susan? Aye.
35:30 Megan Wright: All right. Dr. Rendell?
35:31 Speaker 14: Thank you, Madam Chair. So at this point, I’d like to recognize some people in attendance who just got promoted to different positions. So first, we want to introduce Janet Murnahan to our new Chief Strategic Communications Officer.
35:40 Yes, sir. Congratulations, Janet, if you want to come up to the podium. Thank
35:49 Speaker 4: you. It’s so nice to meet you all. It’s a wonderful opportunity. I love Brevard Schools. I’m a parent in Brevard Schools. I have a long history in communications, and I’m looking forward to working with each of you and just really doing a great job of accurately, um, and honestly communicating with the public and making sure our families are informed.
36:08 Thank you. Thank you very much.
36:09 Speaker 14: Thank you.
36:15 So next we’d like to recognize Katie Van Bibber, who’s been promoted to the position of assistant principal at Heritage High School. Come on up.
36:29 Speaker 16: Thank you to Dr. Vandell and the board for entrusting me with this awesome opportunity. I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to my principal, Stephen Link, for his constant support and belief in me. He constantly challenges me and encourages me to grow for professionally, and I’m really excited that he’s allowed me to join his incredible leadership team at Heritage.
36:47 I’m immensely grateful to my husband for his constant support and encouragement, understanding and love. And of course, my parents for the sacrifices they’ve made to help me get my education and get where I am. And I’m really excited to work with such a dedicated team of admin and teachers and staff at Heritage.
37:02 Um, go big blue.
37:08 Speaker 14: So now we’d like to welcome back Kim Humphries, the position of assistant principal at Vieira High School. Kim, come on up.
37:21 She’s got her green on, ready to go.
37:25 Speaker 9: Hello, and I’m glad to be back. I didn’t know I was going to have to come to the podium until I got here. So she did good. She prepared a speech. I should have done that. So anyway, it’s good to be back. Um, thanks for having me and I’m looking forward to working with Miss Legate.
37:43 Got that right. Yeah. Um, I thank her and her team, the time that they spent to meet with me and interview me and select me for this process or for this position. And my husband, he puts up with everything from me, so I appreciate him. All right. Good to see you.
37:57 Speaker 14: Congratulations. Welcome back.
38:03 Now we’d like to congratulate Glenda Muha on her appointment to the position of assistant principal at Westside Elementary School. Glenda, come on up.
38:15 Speaker 18: Good morning. Thank you for having me, the school board, Dr. Rendell, my friends and family who are here, and my new assistant principal, Mrs. Williams. Um, I would like to say thank you for being here. Um, I believe that every student should have a team of adults whose main priority is to help them be successful.
38:40 And I am just grateful and honored to start that journey with Westside Elementary School. And I also would like to thank my husband for always being there when I’m working all the time. And I would like to thank my current principal, Ms. Finstead, for just being the perfect role model for how to be a great leader.
39:03 So I’m very excited. Thank you.
39:12 Speaker 14: So last, we want to congratulate Ilia Trahan. for her promotion to the position of assistant principal at Manatee Elementary School down the street. Aaliyah, congratulations.
39:25 Speaker 19: Thank you so much. So members of the board, Dr. Endel, this is a very full circle moment, um, for me. So I’m excited to be back in Brevard. Um, I would like to thank my new administrative team for being here to support me today. I think that’s awesome that they are here and Shannon Daly for, you know, helping me out.
39:41 Seeing how great I could fit on her team and deciding I would make a good part of her team. I’d like to thank my friends that are like family to me for being here as well. And everybody else who’s been a part of my journey. Um, growing up as a product of Brevard and now administration in Brevard. And of course, uh, I have to thank my kids and my husband because, as you know, they are always our number one cheerleaders.
40:05 Um, my husband does so much, um, to help make sure that everything runs smoothly when I’m not there. We kind of take turns and tag team that, so I’m very appreciative to my family. And my awesome kids. My awesome husband. Thank you so much.
40:19 Speaker 14: Congratulations again.
40:23 Megan Wright: All right, we’ll take a short recess to grab a couple photos if that’s okay.
40:25 So we will reconvene at 10 o’clock. Three,
44:46 Speaker 20: two,
44:48 Megan Wright: All right. Welcome back. We are now at the public comments portion of the meeting. We have 13 number of speakers. Each will receive three minutes in an effort to remain unbiased. Um, I’m going to ask Mr. Gibbs to call him to the podium, but I’m actually going to control the clock. Uh, one of the things that, that had been taking place at our previous board meetings was that we had speakers that were speaking about things that were really outside the realm of our responsibility or duty as a elected official school board member.
45:11 Uh, so I’m going to remind the public of the public, uh, sorry, the, the board policy 0169. 1. All comments should be directed at the board or individual board members. Staff, members, or other individuals shall not be addressed by name. Abusive, obscene, or irrelevant comments will not be permitted. Orderly conduct is expected from all public comment participants, and the presiding officer may interrupt, warn, or terminate a participant’s public comment opportunity.
45:38 Mr. Gibbs, will you please call the first three speakers to the podium?
45:40 Speaker 3: Abby Sanders, Bernard Bryan, Andrea Williams.
45:56 Speaker 18: Hello. I
45:57 would like to address the members of the school board. First thing I would like to say is we don’t want guns in our schools. Look at these two things right here, which has killed more people. We hear all the time about people killed in schools with guns. Now tell me, has anyone ever been killed in school by a book?
46:17 Pretty sure no. Why have you spent the last few years banning books and attacking people who have every right to live their lives the way they choose? The right side of history never started with book bands and attacking innocent people. Why don’t you focus on thinking of ways to keep us safe? That doesn’t involve bringing more guns into the schools.
46:34 You don’t think a week into the school year, we all won’t know who these secret guardians are. Some of these volunteers have already been bragging about being one strong work. And the sheer amount of people who have already signed up is alarming, to say the least. Why is anyone so eager to have guns around students?
46:56 Why? What could possibly go wrong? Like the potential for a student who knows who it is and somehow manages to get the gun. Cops have been attacked and killed with their own guns. And you don’t think a person not fully trained in law enforcement is 100% able to make that not happen. I have kids. I personally know that are extremely violent and would find it cool or funny to try to grab a firearm.
47:21 The whole thing is so dangerous and ridiculous. Also, can you stop being so shady with these meetings? You know, most people can’t take off work to attend a meeting at 9 30 a. m. I realize nothing we say matters, but seriously do better. Can you assure us that these guns won’t end up in the wrong hands?
47:39 Nobody I personally know thinks this is a good idea. Can you please be reasonable and come up with a better solution? Thank you for letting me speak. Do better.
47:49 Megan Wright: Thank you. All right. Next speaker.
47:52 Speaker 3: Mr. Br Bernard Bryan, Andrea Williams, and Kelly Kerbin. I’d
47:57 Speaker 22: like to, uh, thank this board for allowing Mr. Bryan to be here.
48:02 I have my wife with me today, so, uh, I have some backup. I just want to say thank you for allowing me to speak with you. Again, my name is Bernard Bryan and I’m representing a lot of kids in the South Melbourne area. Uh, I just want to say thank you to those young, uh, students that were here, uh, teaching children how to read and, and basically do math.
48:23 So I just want to remind this board that reading is so important and I would like to thank Dr. Rendell and, and, uh, Dr. Harris for implementing the Seven Mighty Moves. We believe that is critical going forward in helping our kids to read. But I do want to remind you though, that VPK is so important. And I’m hoping that this board, this team, will put together a very aggressive plan in how to enroll our marginalized communities in VPK.
48:55 As you remember about three months ago, I shared with you, only 13 percent of marginalized students are enrolled in VPK. We, we are asking this board and this team to be very aggressive in that area. Um, not one or two students, but I’m looking for the whole south area to have a high, I’m going to say 100 percent participation of all students that are in the marginalized community to be accessed to, uh, to, uh, VPK.
49:26 We also had a chance to meet with some community leaders and one of the things that we have learned that has created this educational gap. is the chronic absenteeism. We’ve seen in some schools, absenteeism is running over close to 10%. And we understand that if a student is not in school, uh, that student cannot learn.
49:47 So we want you to partner with the community and see what we can do to reduce absenteeism, but not only absenteeism of students, but also absenteeism of teachers. And I think that area needs to be looked at as well. Okay. And that is why I am even more nervous. Uh, you know, we have teachers that have such a heavy plate of, you know, dealing with discipline, dealing with curriculum.
50:12 And as this young lady said, now they’re dealing with guns in the area. And I am very concerned about that. Our community is very concerned. And I hope that the school board look at other alternatives. And there are some other alternatives. When I went and read the bill, So, some alternative is look at more mental health.
50:32 Some alternative is, you know, using animals to, to detect, uh, weapons of, uh, weapons of guns and, and, and those type of dangerous weapons. So we just want you to really take a look at, you know, using data, analyze it, develop root cause and attack them from a root cause perspective. So, I want to shout out to that young lady.
50:55 And shout out to this board for what you’ve done by implementing the seven mighty moves. Thank you very much.
51:04 Speaker 3: Andrea Williams, Kelly Kervin, Rebecca McAllen.
51:14 Speaker 23: Hello, my name is Andrea Williams. I am a board member for the Democratic Public Education Caucus for the state of Florida. And I wanted to talk to our school board today because, um, my concern I see in our community with what we’re going on with projects, in particular with roofing. I live in the northern part of Brevard County, and there’s a lot of projects going on with the schools having new roofs put on, like Madison Middle School, etc.
51:40 I see it on the agenda. For Astronaut High School and Titusville High School as well. My concern in this in particular is, this is a huge project with huge costs, etc. And that is built into our budget right now. But once that hurdle is, um, we get past it, what are we going to be doing with these funding and resources that we have?
52:03 Because it will bring down the insurance rates for that building, etc. Are we going to see more funding going towards our teachers? In the future or towards resources in schools in the next one to three years. So I would like an explanation on that. But along with the fact that I noticed when you have these kind of projects in particular, you know, there’s safety concerns.
52:25 I see areas being fenced off from the children, et cetera. Is this reducing the areas that they can play in or have their PE activities? When I was in school, things would rain down, whether it was the asbestos or spraying installation from the roof over the cafeteria and lunch areas. How are our children being protected?
52:45 During the course of these projects, and I know we have to do them because the insurance rates are through the roof here. But once we get past this hurdle, I want to see the fiscal responsibility of what we do to put either more resources into the school or towards our teachers, which are at a hardship right now.
53:04 In the state of Florida, we’re 50 out of 50 states with the worst pay for teachers. I read an article in particular that said that teachers are often having to have a full time job. A couple side hustles and even selling plasma to make rent when they don’t have multiple incomes in their family household.
53:22 So I wanna see more resources being applied to either the teachers or into the schools to improve the education of our children in particular. And I also want to know about what’s going on to safeguard our children while these projects are occurring as well, which are absolutely necessary, but what’s being done to promote their safety?
53:43 Thank you. Thank you.
53:46 Speaker 3: Kelly Curvin, Rebecca McAllenon, Cassidy Nicholas.
53:56 Speaker 24: At the meeting two weeks ago, I brought a book to read because it was supposed to be boring. The vote for the Expanded Guardian Program was supposed to be today. Community members and media alike were told the vote would be pushed. Instead, Matt Susan, Jean Trent, and Megan Wright voted to ignore their obligation to the community and instead embrace shady and corrupt behavior while shutting the door on honesty and transparency.
54:19 Megan, as board chair, I have an expectation that when you open your mouth to speak, the words that follow have some semblance of common sense and are based in fact. Your comment about comparing the Expanded Guardian Program to air marshals is laughable. In 2023, the United States was estimated to employ around 4, 000 air marshals.
54:40 On any given day, the United States averages 45, 000 flights. No, there is not an air marshal on every single flight. Your pretend scenario of, quote, you don’t see them, but you know they’re there, end quote, is a fallacy. Statistically, they’re not there. You want more guns in schools for reasons that defy statistics and data, so just own it.
55:00 Using fallacies to justify poorly planned and rushed out expansions damages BPS’s already tarnished reputation. Speaking of tarnished reputations, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out who’s missing in this room. Obviously, I can’t say his name, but we all know who it is, and that became very clear two weeks ago.
55:18 First and foremost, a qualified and competent professional has been fired. And that person could have avoided all of the negative press. I know this because despite what most of you believe, he wasn’t my ally. In fact, him being so good at his job made it harder for me to inform the public on the shady behavior, bad governance, and corruption that comes out of this board on a weekly, sometimes daily basis.
55:43 But what is really spoken volumes is the poor communication that followed. A daily press release with questionable grammar and word salads does nothing to tell the community what is happening within BPS. The amount of negative feedback you’ve received while trying to promote positives within BPS should be eye opening to all of you.
55:59 Not to mention that it didn’t matter what online platform you were on, the amount of people who thought the Expanded Guardian Program meant arming teachers should give you pause. If this board was transparent and didn’t operate in the dark, citizens would know the facts, not the rumors. Again, a qualified professional would have helped.
56:18 Many, many meetings ago, I said I was trying to hand you all a fire extinguisher. You just had to take it. Instead, you’ve chosen gasoline while BPS burns. And the irony of this is I need BPS to succeed. I want BPS to succeed. But if all we have is ignorance, immaturity, corruption, and a lack of integrity, As the majority of this board, and in the chair of superintendent, we all lose.
56:42 Speaker 3: Alright. Rebecca McAllenon, Cassidy Nicholas, Amber Yantz.
56:58 Speaker 15: Thank you for allowing the public to have the opportunity to speak. As a stakeholder, and all the other things that I say every time I have to get up here, um, it’s disturbing that these, that can’t be different. Um, after last meeting’s glowing example of bad governance and shady moves with that agenda, I know I’m not the only one that has questions.
57:25 School safety officers are always going to be around people in schools and students. What happens if a volunteer or parent or any other person that’s in the school who may have prior experience with weapons and training such as prior military or former law enforcement or a hobbyist gun owner, what happens if they see the outline of this weapon or a holster that’s going to be provided to them for this weapon?
57:50 Does that parent or volunteer or student, do they, do they confront the person with the gun? Um, do they call the police? Do they, uh, I mean, are schools still actually gun free zones? Um, so many, so many questions, uh, about this program. Even though it’s in 40 other counties, that doesn’t make it a success. It just means it’s in 40 other counties.
58:13 Um, we’ve continued to ask, I’ve asked several times, please show us the data. Um, Gene says we’ve read all the data, but, None of that data is accessible to anyone else who is an actual stakeholder in this scenario. So whatever data there is that shows that this has actually stopped shootings or is safer, we’d sure like to see it.
58:32 That would be a great way to build some trust. As someone previously said, the guardians, they won’t be secret. There’s no secrets in a school. Will you be providing trainings or briefings to To the community about how this program will work more than just, here’s the memo of understanding or whatever it’s called.
58:51 Will you be talking to them about how to manage that? Oh, if you see someone with a gun, they’re probably a guardian there. Maybe they’re not a shooter. When, when you make these kind of moves without the public involved, that creates distrust. And really that’s kind of one of your jobs, important jobs. Um, and one last thing.
59:10 Every single meeting you have a very passionate member of the community, a mentor, an amazing man, Mr. Brian, who stands up here and spends at least a minute of his time praising you and all the things that are good in this school. And then the next minute asking you to work with him. work together with him and the, and the community that he represents.
59:28 Um, a few months ago, he presented information about how detrimental this program would be to children of color and he provided you data to show that guardian programs are worse for children of color. And to disregard that was really disgusting. And as I sat next to Mr. Brian last week when you voted on it, I could feel the pain.
59:48 We can do better to represent everyone and appreciate the people that are really are trying to do the right thing. Heroes like Mr. Bryant,
59:57 Speaker 3: Cassidy Nicholas, Amber Yantz Gregory Ross.
1:00:03 Speaker 25: I’d appreciate if my timer wasn’t started until all members removed their headphones and could give me their undivided attention. Thank you. Hello. My name is Cassidy Nicholas. I’m a fourth generation high school teacher, former Brevard County school student and current teacher.
1:00:20 I’m also a school shooting survivor. Guns are the number one cause of death for children and teens in the United States. More than car accidents, drug overdoses, and cancer combined. Between 1999 and 2022, there were 225 incidents with gunfire on school grounds. In 23 years, only two school resource officers stopped or disarmed a shooter.
1:00:45 Typically, the outcome would involve the SRO being outgunned or fleeing. Armed guards are not shown to deter shooters, as 68 percent of gun violence incidents at schools have an SRO present. More importantly, trained staff are not law enforcement officers. They have daily responsibilities that they are probably not being paid enough for anyways.
1:01:10 Instead of investing in actual security measures, such as metal detectors, you are putting students, teachers, and staff at risk. Armed staff are more likely to shoot bystanders and be shot by law enforcement during an emergency. The National Association of School Resource Officers strongly opposes the arming of staff as it poses a risk to law enforcement, students, and teachers.
1:01:33 73 percent of teachers and 63 percent of K 12 parents oppose arming staff, but I assume you knew the unpopularity of this program given the sneakiness of how this was voted on. Mr. Trent, I’d really like everyone’s undivided attention. I’m watching you
1:01:46 Matt Susin: right here, ma’am. Thank you.
1:01:48 Speaker 25: Teachers, students, and community deserved a chance to voice concerns before voting on something that has potentially fatal consequences.
1:01:57 Arming staff also increases the likelihood of student access to firearms. There have been numerous cases of students stealing guns from teachers or having found lost or misplaced guns from staff. Staff also have keys, which, guns and keys, that’s a very lethal combo. Given that 91 percent of school shooters are students and former students, 91%, this board should make it a priority to advocate for secure gun awareness for all families and actually proven security measures instead of bringing more guns into our school.
1:02:30 I’m disgusted by Brevard Public Schools. I stepped into the school system 30 years ago as a small child. And I, if I have anything to do with it, my kids will never step foot on a BPS school. I was encouraged, I was told by former teachers and district employees not to come back here, and I wish I would have listened.
1:02:49 This is the worst district, I, I, this is my hometown, this is my dream job, and that’s it. I can’t even list all of the incidences where SROs and security guards and teachers accidentally shot teachers, staff, and other school members. Thank you.
1:03:09 Speaker 3: Amber Yantz Gregory Ross, Paul Raub.
1:03:19 Speaker 26: Hello, my name is Amber Yantz and I’m the parent of five BPS students in South Brevard. I stood in front of you this last school board meeting regarding the Guardian program. I cautioned this board about making a rushed decision. Where, where is the data? I would love to see the data that you all spoke about when you made this decision.
1:03:45 The very next morning, the news headline on my phone was school district of Palm Beach County employee accidentally shot during training exercise. Is that the same program that our district is now using?
1:04:00 Right there is exactly why this is so dangerous. The fact that this program is using volunteers who are under disciplined and under trained is extremely worrying. This board was so deeply concerned about the welfare of our students regarding books. While you let a hateful group of extremists who make, who made so much noise
1:04:25 When we already had a process in place. They had a chance to exercise their parental rights and they chose not to.
1:04:34 If guns must be present within our schools, they must be carried and trained by trained professionals, not volunteers. Especially not by volunteers trained by an organization who cannot be held responsible for their rush training. I have never known a book to harm anyone. But I have known a gun too.
1:04:55 Where is my opt out form?
1:05:00 Enough with pushing political agendas. I am not ready to hear thoughts and prayers and neither should you. And I also would advise against snarred and rookie snarred and rookie comments as an extremely unprofessional
1:05:22 Speaker 3: Gregory Ross, Paul Raub, Amy Raub.
1:05:31 Speaker 27: Good morning board. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. Today I’m going to speak on a matter that influences the morale of BPS faculty and staff. It also sets expectations for how the public perceives the actions of this school board. Having seen the negative public reaction to the recent horrendous policies and blatant lying and deception of this school board, I can’t help but think of the Aesop fable, The Shepard Boy and the Wolf.
1:05:57 You know the story. It involves a shepherd boy who repeatedly plays a trick on the villagers by calling out, Wolf! Wolf! And causing them to run, uh, causing them to come running even when there is no wolf. When the wolf really does attack, no one pays any attention to the shepherd boy’s cries. Except in our real life story, the shepherd boy is our own school board members, or perhaps just you, Matt.
1:06:19 You have cried wolf so many times that just like in the fable, the public no longer has faith in you or the board to tell the truth or even perform as a board ethically. How many times has little shepherd boy Matt or his fellow shepherds Megan and Gene cried wolf? Let’s review. There was a time that Matt Susan went on media and claimed that no one on the school board had ever talked about banning cell phones.
1:06:41 Even though Matt, Megan and Jean all used the phrase no cell phones numerous times on camera during school board meetings, then there was the time Matt lied about directly taking a BPS, tasking a BPS staff member whom you have no direct authority over and lied about it from the dais after getting called out by Miss Campbell, a lie that was exposed by Superintendent Schiller.
1:07:03 Matt, you even lied about voting for Dr Schiller, even though your vote is in the December 16th 2022 meeting minutes. Matt, you then went on to lie about your conversations with the County Commissioner about redistricting process. Who is going to pay for the redistricting process, the actual reason for the redistricting, and are, to this day, still trying to prevent the release of public records about the redistricting process.
1:07:26 Not to mention the fact that your refusal to release those public records, as required by law, has cost Brevard taxpayers over 100, 000, and counting. Matt, you spread misinformation about BPS discipline rates and the true impact of this board’s minimal discipline policy changes. Funnily, you then shout, I call force!
1:07:48 As if that has some magical ability to wipe away the bad press you and the school board have rightly received. Lastly, you, the majority of the school board, and Superintendent Rendell purposely deceived the public about the fact that there was no need for more guns in our classrooms and that you can’t produce a single data point to support your position on that issue.
1:08:07 Board, you then used a sneaky process to get through an undercover vote on bringing guns into our classrooms. Thank you Ms. Campbell and Ms. Jenkins for at least having honesty and dignity about the process. As to the rest of the board, I say this. If you have to lie to get your policies through, perhaps your policies are more about politics than improving our schools for our students.
1:08:27 Do better.
1:08:30 Speaker 3: Paul Raub. Amy Raub. Julie Montione. Um,
1:08:42 Speaker 28: So let’s talk about risks. Uh, actual versus theatrical. Um, Um,
1:08:52 An easy way to get support or appear to be taking action is to promote, hype up, talk about a risk and then announce, I have the solution. We must do something, this is something, therefore we must do it. Uh, obviously we’ve seen this over the last couple years with books which are somehow dangerous. Um, but now, um, we have this assumption that we must, we must do it.
1:09:17 Bring more guns into the schools somehow, for some reason. Um, now everyone wants safer schools for our kids, but the jump to, therefore, more guns. Again, as everyone keeps saying, without supporting data. Um, and Ms. Campbell, in the last meeting, uh, you said that it was ironic that the people who, a few years ago, didn’t want any SROs or more SROs in our classrooms, are now saying, why not just do this with SROs?
1:09:42 That wasn’t the point that people are making. It’s not, hey, more SROs would be great. It’s, since the bloodlust is here, and we seem insistent on bringing guns into the school anyway, it would be better of the two alternatives if it were trained law enforcement personnel. The prevailing opinion still seems to be, how about we don’t?
1:10:01 How about neither?
1:10:05 If we’re really concerned about the safety of the students, there are a lot of things that could happen. Um, all manner of safety precautions. Everything from mental health to making sure that kids are, uh, making sure that kids are fed and, uh, feel safe in their schools. Making sure that hazing is taken seriously.
1:10:24 Uh, and not a slap on the wrist to the offending sports program. Um, gun reduction. There’s all sorts of policies that could be advocated for that aren’t particularly under control. But Are those attention getting? Are those votes getting? Are those donation getting? I guess not. Um, they’re not flashy. More guns!
1:10:43 And, um, leaving aside it’s been addressed well enough, the really sketchy way in which that vote went down, and we all knew which way you were going to vote anyway, but the shell game with the scheduling, uh, I don’t need to say anything about it. There’s no spin needed. Um, but
1:11:09 From the, let’s say conservative side that historically is anti big government and more local decisions and less control, what’s more local in a classroom than the teachers who really know their kids and who do not want this? What’s more local than the students who do not want this and their parents?
1:11:28 Nobody’s asking for this. You knew that. That’s why the vote was done in the dark. Please do better. Thank
1:11:35 Speaker 3: you. Amy Raub, Julie Montione, Ava Wolfenkohler.
1:11:42 Amy Roub: Should I wait
1:11:42 for Matt to come back? Should I wait for Matt to come back? I’m just gonna talk to him. Wait.
1:11:55 Megan Wright: Your time has started. You’re speaking. Go ahead. I’m
1:11:57 Amy Roub: here to talk to him. Where’d he go?
1:11:59 Matt Susin: It’ll be recorded. I’m paying
1:12:00 Amy Roub: him. I pay him. He works for me. Where’d he go? Alright, well,
1:12:10 does, uh, does Matt still write for Space Coast Daily?
1:12:22 Hey Megan, if something happens to a child because of your gun crazy, going with your gut instead of data decision, we’re coming for you.
1:12:33 Megan Wright: Is that a threat, Ms. Rob?
1:12:35 Amy Roub: If something happens to a child with one of these guns, I want you to be
1:12:40 Megan Wright: prepared. Ms. Robb, I’m going to pause you for a moment. I will make sure every a threat to an elected official, just so that you’re aware of what
1:12:49 Speaker 29: Do you understand the ramifications of making an offense?
1:12:52 You will have blood on your hands. Do you understand this? How dare you bring guns into the classroom with our children? Nobody wants this.
1:13:00 Megan Wright: Mr. Gibbs, am I allowed to have her removed for making a threat to a public official? Help.
1:13:04 Speaker 28: You yelling that
1:13:05 Speaker 29: it’s
1:13:05 Speaker 28: a threat doesn’t mean
1:13:06 Speaker 3: that it’s true. If she’s making a threat, then I would recommend warning her.
1:13:12 I’m warning you. If you make another threat, you’ll be remissed. I
1:13:15 Speaker 29: am warning you.
1:13:20 Megan Wright: I’m going to go ahead and ask for her to please be removed from the meeting.
1:13:25 Mr. Wilson, can you please help escort out Ms. Raub? Thank you.
1:13:33 Alright.
1:13:35 Speaker 3: Next speaker. Julie Montione, Ava Wolfenkohler, and Aiden McFadden.
1:13:52 Speaker 17: Good morning. Um, Just like so many here, I’m grateful for the opportunity to finally have a Tuesday off work. I’m not sure how that decision was made to start doing morning meetings, but I’m grateful for the opportunity to be here. I’m here today to speak about the Guardian program and my concern, dismay and even outrage.
1:14:15 I’m very concerned that we’re adopting a program that in Increases the amount of guns in school where we’re looking at surveys of people who approve it as data of efficacy. A survey of people saying all these people in different counties like it. That, that does not. indicate that the program works. Um, I also would like to know if we’ve done any, uh, studies on the impact to students to being in a war zone.
1:14:54 I mean, every headline is about how the kids are not okay and how mental health is such a crisis. And somehow you think that increasing guns in school is going to make students feel safe and better. about coming to school. What is the impact of that? My husband served in Afghanistan. Why do we want to replicate war zones?
1:15:24 I don’t understand. So those are my, um, concerns. My dismay, uh, has to do about ignoring the data in terms of more guns. I would love to ask you all of this. If more guns make us safer. Then why isn’t the U. S. The safest country on earth? Why do we have the highest rate of civilian gun ownership and the highest rate of gun violence?
1:15:54 I don’t understand how this is okay. I’m also dismayed. I spoke I don’t know how many months ago about the idea Working with Dr Rendell or anybody on sending out messaging about parents securing their guns. Why is that somehow completely ignored? La la la. We don’t hear anything about the importance. We can tell our parents, make sure to send your kid to school with a good breakfast on testing days.
1:16:27 But we can’t say, make sure your guns are locked up. What? I don’t understand. And then my outrage is in fact over the nature of this vote. The first time I came to a school board meeting was in November when Matt Susan was very dismissive of everyone. We’re not voting on guns. That’s not happening here.
1:16:51 And, and we didn’t that meeting, but clearly it’s always been something all along and then to have it on the agenda, not have it on, didn’t put it back.
1:17:05 Speaker 3: Ava Wolfenkohler, Aidan McFadden.
1:17:17 Speaker 30: Um, I’m Ava, and I was a part of the 2024 Satellite High School graduating class. Um, I’d like to say that I’m extra glad I graduated this year, now knowing that there’s soon going to be guns on campus. Um, I’m very disappointed in this board, and honestly, I’m scared for my friends and family that are still in Brevard Public School.
1:17:42 To all the fed up parents and students that are in here, please vote Amber Yantz and Avenice Taylor for school board in August. You’re
1:17:50 Megan Wright: not allowed to reference other people’s names when you’re at the podium, Ava. Thank you. Sorry, I didn’t know that.
1:17:54 Speaker 30: But, um, it’d just be great if we could get people on the board that actually listen to uh, student and teacher feedback.
1:18:02 Lastly, I’d like to say that I’ve never been here this early before. So thanks for ruining my summer. Sleep skedge. This is a great way to get students here. And also, Gene, is that a pride shirt? Happy Pride Month!
1:18:20 Speaker 3: Aiden McFadden.
1:18:35 Speaker 20: Hi, I’m Aiden McFadden. I graduated in 2022 from Satellite High School. Um, I just want to talk about the idea of being an elected official and being a representative of the teachers and the students and the, all the employees of Brevard Public Schools. When you are up there, you are supposed to be the voice of the people and the teachers and the students, everyone.
1:19:10 For your district. And what you’re doing right now is acting as a big boot and stomping all over the teachers and the students and the employees that work at Brevard Public Schools. You’re definitely not serving every student with excellence as the standard. You’re being disrespectful. Fascist. Thank you.
1:19:47 Megan Wright: Alright board, um, I’m going to go ahead and call a short five minute recess. We’ll reconvene back at 1035. Music Music Music Music
1:26:10 Music
1:27:32 All right, welcome back. We are now at the consent agenda. Dr. Rendell.
1:27:38 Speaker 14: Madam Chair. There are 27 agenda items under this category.
1:27:41 Megan Wright: Thank you Dr. Rendell. Does any board member wish to pull any of the items? I do. All right, which items?
1:27:45 Speaker 13: F13.
1:27:56 Megan Wright: That’s it. That’s it. Sorry. All right, I will entertain a motion to accept the Consent agenda items with the exception of the ones pulled.
1:28:05 All right, any discussion? You, we got a first. Are you approved? Did you second, Mr. Trent? Okay, thank you. You can’t, you can’t move to approve and second your own motion. Mr. Trent seconded. All right, any discussion? No? Paul, roll call, please.
1:28:19 Speaker 3: Ms. Jenkins. Aye. Ms. Campbell. Aye. Ms. Wright. Aye. Mr. Trent. Aye. Mr. Susan.
1:28:24 Aye.
1:28:25 Megan Wright: All right, and now we’re going to go back to F13. Give me one second, Mr. Trent.
1:28:35 All right, Ms. Jenkins, I’m going to go ahead and turn the floor over to you since you pulled.
1:28:40 Speaker 3: Motion to second.
1:28:41 Megan Wright: Oh, sorry, motion to second.
1:28:42 Speaker 5: Move to approve.
1:28:43 Megan Wright: Second. And discussion.
1:28:47 Speaker 13: Um, okay, so I have a couple of questions and then I have comments. So, um, my hesitation with this one is not for the actual, I don’t know.
1:28:58 Item itself. It’s more for the process and the procedure that I need some clarification for so with the I’m going to start with my question this our sales surtax Committee do they vote at all or do they just forward recommendations to the board? No, i’m talking about sales surtax on purpose for a second So
1:29:23 Speaker 6: the
1:29:24 Speaker 14: sales surtax sue’s really the one that works with them she can come up to the microphone It’s my understanding.
1:29:29 They’ve only been asked to vote when there’s additional monies And there’s a project that she is proposing that, that we do with the sales surtax. Um, but I don’t believe it’s actually in their charter or anything to vote. Okay. So Sue can. So yeah,
1:29:43 Speaker 13: Sue, if you can clarify when, when it’s additional meaning more than we projected, more than we had budgeted for.
1:29:50 Speaker 31: Right. So, um, basically we, when we are changing the surtax plan, and so when there’s, there’s more revenue than we anticipated, we’re adding projects, we’re adding scope to projects, we’re adding budget to projects. In that case, we ask them to make a recommendation. They are not approving. Per se, the board has that authority, but the ICOC is making those recommendations to the board.
1:30:14 So we bring that to them for their advice, basically, um, but they’re not an approving authority for use of the funds.
1:30:22 Speaker 13: Okay. And then if that process happens, where do those recommendations go? They go on your agenda. So it’ll say ICOC recommends, yada, yada, yada. Correct. Okay. I, I’m assuming I’ve seen these things.
1:30:38 I just want to know if this is the common procedure. Okay, so the reason I’m asking is because this particular, I’m sorry, That’s all I need. Thanks Sue. Um, the reason I asked about that was because this, this particular item was discussed at the Millage Oversight Committee. And so the reason I have a question is because Uh, apparently during that meeting, the majority of those committee members were not comfortable with this item.
1:31:05 And I don’t know if that was presented to the board, and I think that that’s something that should have been presented to the board if the majority of the members were uncomfortable with it. Again, they don’t have the final say. However, I think the intention of an oversight committee is it’s also supposed to be reflective of the community.
1:31:24 So if the majority of those members are not comfortable with it. And we want to go forward with it. I believe it’s our responsibility to know about it and it’s our responsibility to clarify that information to the committee because they’re representing the constituents of Brevard County who voted for that millage.
1:31:38 Um, so if they had questions about it or if they had specific reasons why they weren’t comfortable with it, I think it would be important for the board to know about that before they’re making decisions on things like this. Uh, it’s also my understanding that they were informed that it was going to, they were going to come back to them, uh, And that didn’t happen.
1:31:57 It came to the board for a vote. Um, so I’m uncomfortable with this because of the process. Um, I think we kind of need to clean that up and clarify. You know, it’s not a small number. It’s not chump change when it comes to that millage. Um, it is an item that wasn’t obviously spe not every item is going to be that we spend money on is going to be specified when people are voting for the millage.
1:32:17 Don’t get me wrong. But this isn’t one that was. Uh, and I think it’s our responsibility to make sure that we’re doing the right thing by the citizens so that they were aware, as well as the committee. These are members who are volunteering their time. If we start to tell them that their voice doesn’t matter, um, or they’re not being heard, um, I think that’s the wrong move to do here.
1:32:34 So I just wanted to make sure everyone was aware, and hopefully we can kind of clean up that process and procedure as well as a learning moment.
1:32:43 Megan Wright: All right, Ms. Campbell, you look like you’re ready to jump in.
1:32:46 Speaker 5: Yeah, just, um, just clarifying for the public as far as this vote, you know, we can’t do anything without a job description.
1:32:53 We can’t make any move forwards. And what we’re voting on today is just the job description. I don’t know that the job description would have gone to the millage, millage, millage Oversight Committee, but I appreciate that insight. My, my view on the Oversight Committee is similar to the Sales Surtax, uh, Oversight Committee is that their job is to make sure that we spend the dollars in accordance with the way we put it forward to the public that we’re going to, you know, we’re going to spend it.
1:33:15 The percentages, the, you know, the MOUs when it comes to millage and things like that. This, what we have discussed is more of what Dr. Rendell, um, has presented to us as far as the different things, um, That he’s proposed we do is, is, is that chunk that I think it’s believe 16 percent of the millage that was really undefined except for to say student programming.
1:33:36 And we’ve already designated that to go towards the media assistance, correct? Or we will be, because I think we used other dollars to do that this year, but um, media assistants, um, the IAs that we’ve talked about, and then now, um, this athletic trainer. So that’s where it’s coming from. It falls under student programming.
1:33:55 And so things that will support students in generic. I’m just going to say this. I believe that direction needs to come from the board giving the superintendent approval. And the oversight committee’s role in that would be to say, does that, does this, having athletic trainers to support our athletic programs, does that fall under, does it fit within the parameters that the, that the board presented to the public, which is that we’re going to spend that 16 percent on student programming.
1:34:23 And I believe it does because athletics, um, health, those things fall under student programming. So, that’s, that’s their role, not to, um, say yay or nay to the idea itself. That’s, that’s my perspective on the committee and their role and what their, if there, if it was a vote presented to them, um, one, it wouldn’t be the job description itself, but the actual expenditure of funds, um, proposed.
1:34:45 And I, I don’t think that they get a yay or nay in that idea, but just, uh, are we doing what we said we were going to do with the money?
1:34:53 Megan Wright: Thank you, Ms. Campbell. Does anybody else have anything further to weigh in on this? Nope, just a great job. Mr. Trent, Dr. Rendell.
1:34:59 Speaker 14: Yeah, Madam Chair, um, We moved on the direction of the board at the workshop.
1:35:03 Speaker: Mm
1:35:04 Speaker 14: hmm. When we presented this idea at the workshop, we got solid indication from the majority of the board that we should move forward with adding this job description and adding this position. So, that’s why we moved forward with it. That’s why we have a job description. Mm hmm. That’s why we plan on moving forward with it.
1:35:20 That was the direction of the board. We did share the information with the oversight committee. Some of the members that were there did not think that was the best use of the money, but the board makes that decision. And we were moving on the direction of the board on that workshop.
1:35:37 Speaker 13: So, I have a, just, I want to follow back for a second.
1:35:40 So, just to clarify the confusion here, because even Ms. Campbell, Ms. Campbell, I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but seems a little confused because this is just the job description. But yes, it has already technically been given the majority of support to move forward. So I just want to make that clear.
1:35:56 And so when it came to the oversight committee, it wasn’t some of the members, it was four out of five members.
1:36:01 Speaker 14: Four out of five that were in attendance that day. But
1:36:03 Speaker 13: so I, I think that that’s important for us to acknowledge. And if that happens at a minimum, it’s important for the board to be aware of that.
1:36:11 Because if there are concerns, then those questions are going to come to us, and we’re going to be blindsided by something that already has been moved and voted on. Um, so again, I’m not saying I disapprove of the choice that’s being made here for these athletic trainers, but we need to learn from the process that, that went down a little bit and clean it up.
1:36:28 And again, it’s a, it’s a newer committee, and it’s, you know, we’re going to learn as we’re growing and going, but I think the board needs to be informed of their viewpoint, just like we are for the sales tax. Thanks.
1:36:41 Megan Wright: Thank you, Ms. Jenkins. Any other further discussion on this? I’ll leave it alone.
1:36:47 Speaker 5: Is that something that can be sent to us when they meet?
1:36:50 Can the staff member of that just forward us the minutes of the meeting? We
1:36:55 Speaker 14: can certainly make sure that you get the minutes after they meet.
1:36:57 Speaker 5: Thank you. Thank you.
1:37:00 Megan Wright: No further discussion? Hearing none. Call, roll call, please. Ms. Jenkins. Aye.
1:37:05 Speaker 3: Ms. Campbell. Aye. Ms. Wright. Aye. Mr. Trent. Aye. Mr. Sousa. Aye.
1:37:11 Megan Wright: Thank you.
1:37:12 All right, Dr. McDowell, will you please let us know about the items under the action portion of today’s agenda?
1:37:18 Speaker 14: Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. The first action item is H37, departments slash school initiated agreements.
1:37:24 Megan Wright: Do I hear a motion?
1:37:25 Speaker 14: Move to approve.
1:37:26 Megan Wright: Second. Any discussion? Hearing none, Paul, roll call, please.
1:37:30 Ms. Jenkins. Aye.
1:37:31 Speaker 3: Ms. Campbell. Aye. Ms. Wright. Aye. Mr. Trent. Aye. Mr. Susan.
1:37:35 Speaker 14: Aye.
1:37:36 Megan Wright: Thank you. Dr. Rundell, will you please let us know about the next item?
1:37:39 Speaker 14: Thank you, Madam Chair. The next action item is H38, Procurement Solicitations.
1:37:43 Megan Wright: Do I hear a motion?
1:37:44 Speaker 14: Move to approve.
1:37:45 Megan Wright: Second. Any discussion? Hearing none, Paul, roll call, please.
1:37:49 Speaker 3: Ms. Jenkins. Aye. Ms. Campbell. Aye. Ms. Wright. Aye. Mr. Trent. Aye. Mr. Susan. Aye.
1:37:55 Megan Wright: All right. And Dr. Rundell, will you please let us know about the next item?
1:37:57 Speaker 14: Madam Chair. The last action item is H 39, a resolution of the School Board of Brevard County, Florida pursuant to section 196. 19787 paragraph 3 0, or 0, Florida statutes electing to not exempt certain property under section 196.
1:38:17 19783 D 1A. Florida statute referred to as the live local act property exemption.
1:38:25 Megan Wright: Do I hear a motion?
1:38:27 Speaker 6: Second
1:38:28 Megan Wright: any discussion So
1:38:32 Speaker 13: I did my best to educate myself on this issue the most Convoluted, complicating thing I could ever possibly get thrown in front of me. And I did my best to consume the Schoenberg annual report.
1:38:47 So I’m going to say something, and if someone thinks I’m totally inaccurate, please tell me and tell me why. But I, the only reason why I’m going to probably vote against this is I know we have the authority to do so based on some of the wording. But in that annual report, my understanding is it says 80.
1:39:07 80 percent of, um, the AMI, or the 120, or it’s a range, however it’s worded on there. 80 to 120. 80 to 120. Thank you. Um, and so I know that based on that report, we’re fine to do so with the 120, um, but I don’t agree that we are with the 80, and just, I would be more comfortable if it was within that, the range.
1:39:28 I don’t know if I’m reading something incorrectly and if someone wants to correct me, that’s fine. Um, or if it’s just. I’m just having a differing opinion, and that doesn’t matter either. That’s fine. But I just want to make it clear why I’m going to be voting no on
1:39:40 Speaker 5: this. Thank you, Ms. Jenkins. Ms. Campbell.
1:39:44 Yeah, it’s definitely confusing, and it’s kind of like, you know, I mentioned at our workshop last week, there’s some, seems to be pros and cons to everything. But when, I think the thing that made it most clear for me was I think actually was an attachment you forwarded to us. There was a chart that listed all the counties and it showed like inventory of available housing for that tax bracket versus people who were neat who are renting in that.
1:40:12 So, um, Well, this is this is the There was no, no, not that one. There was another chart that just listed like here’s so every all the counties that are not able to opt out have a negative of available housing in that range. So counties that can opt out. We have available housing in that range. So
1:40:36 Speaker 13: that’s what this is.
1:40:37 So in the 1 20, we do
1:40:40 Speaker 5: right now. Um, no, it was the overall. It was overall. So I it’s One, so one, a couple things, you know, like I said, it is, it is confusing and it’s a, it’s a lot to consume. And I saw that same thing. I was like, how are we able to opt out? But it was the total number of available units minus the people who were looking for that housing.
1:41:02 And there are counties, some of the counties that aren’t eligible to opt out are like in the thousands of ones behind Miami Dade and Volusia even. Um, so Brevard has enough housing to support the people who are looking for it. Is, um, basically what that number represents. Also, this is something that can be determined every year.
1:41:21 It’s the December. We may not qualify every year. Um, it can be determined every year. It can be voted every year. Um, so I think that’s where, um, I settled on there. Because I was like, Oh, no. We want to have more affordable housing for those median income people. But what the chart is showing is that we actually have enough.
1:41:37 It may not be, um, um, it may not be clear. Um, but that they, you know, the shim board report is actually doing all that data of how many were built. What’s available? What’s the price range? Of course, that’s that’s a moving target. That’s the other thing is probably going to redo the report every year because that’s a moving target.
1:41:54 Um, because the building projects as well as the rent, uh, rental level. So, um, And we, we do not have to go along. This is something that every taxing authority has to do individually. We don’t have to go along with the county. What they did a couple weeks ago exempts just their portion. We can do ours. The cities can do theirs.
1:42:14 But it does have to be done by July 1st. Um. So I think, I think this is a good, uh, move, because one of the things, we don’t know how much, uh, Ms. Lisinski, I asked this question a couple weeks ago, and she, she’s, you know, last week, she didn’t know exactly how much this would affect us, if we, how much income we would lose as a district, um, for that, uh, and it’s, again, a variable amount, um, but that is one of the, one of the downsides of Live Local, right, sounds great, but one of the downsides of Live Local, we could have the potential for people, and we could have the potential for people.
1:42:45 For it to change. of building or zoning into housing and actually put, bring students in without providing any additional income to support those students in an area that we might not have a school or we might not have a school that’s got space and so we’re not getting the income from that area but yet we’re still having to provide transportation and education, all those things for that.
1:43:08 So, um, it also leaves in there the exemption. We’re not opting out of any exemption for below 80%. Um, so if investors want to come in and build affordable housing for those that are below the, the median income, 80, you know, below the 80%, they still have that, and that’s 100 percent exemption, um, for that. So we still have that opportunity.
1:43:30 Um, so I don’t know if that made it clearer or less clear, but that’s my, My summary of what I’ve looked at.
1:43:38 Megan Wright: I so the one thing we don’t can. We all have just a chance. Oh, yeah. I’m sorry. Come back for him. Okay. Thank you. Um, Mr Susan, you look like you’re ready to go next. Yeah,
1:43:45 Speaker 6: I just wanted to say I was talking to Paul earlier and um, what I what this also gives us is is the opportunity that if somebody wants to present it to us to say, hey, I do feel that we should be able to get this.
1:43:55 They should be able to have that opportunity. So it gives us that double layer of support. So that’s all.
1:44:00 Megan Wright: Mr. Trent, do you have anything to weigh in on this one? No? Okay. Uh, and again, I sent that chart to, I want to weigh in a little bit on this one, too, because this one is a little tricky, and, uh, I believe in property rates for owners, and so part of, you know, I’m a little conflicted on this one, going, okay, well, you own the property, you should have the benefit that’s made available to you, but here’s where, where it gets a little tricky, is that one man’s tax benefit is another man’s tax burden, and as you explained, if we end up throwing up a huge apartment complex with an influx of children that we’re not collecting tax revenues on for the impact fees, um, We’re going to have to figure out how to how to eat that and basically build a school potentially.
1:44:35 And so in the other part of this, that’s a little disheartening to I think is just just for frame of reference. I’m going to go ahead and put these numbers out here, which are on the Internet. You can look them up and find them yourself. But for a three bedroom house in Brevard County, if you’re at the 80 percent.
1:44:49 So the low end of it, they’re still able to charge one thousand nine hundred and sixty five dollars a month in rent and be considered affordable. That’s a huge number for a lot of families. That’s not what I think most people consider affordable housing. So if you get to the 1 20 percent you’re able to charge 2, 950 a month for affordable quote unquote housing.
1:45:10 So, um, you know, it’s not. I think that’s that’s the part of it that makes me feel one way about it more so than another way. Uh, if that makes sense. So go ahead, Ms. Jenkins. You said you had something else you want to tie on.
1:45:21 Speaker 13: Yeah, and so my goal here isn’t to convince you guys to change your opinion on this.
1:45:26 And again, it’s like, it’s not that we don’t have the authority to do it. I’m not disagreeing with that. I’m just, I’m, I just want it on the record why I’m voting the way I am on this. The, the, and again, correct me if I’m wrong here, but the way I interpreted it was it had to be from that Schoenberg report.
1:45:43 Megan Wright: What do you mean when you say what had to be, uh,
1:45:46 Speaker 13: forgive me. So like making the decision to be to opt out of it had the numbers had to be determined by the Schoenberg report, or are we just choosing to use that report?
1:45:57 Speaker 5: That’s the law.
1:45:57 Speaker 13: Right. Yeah. Okay. So that. So for me, like this chart that you sent, isn’t that report.
1:46:03 I’m looking at it right now. I see what you sent me. So I’m not saying you’re wrong by any means, but I get it. So I’m just, I want to make it clear on the record why I’m interpreting the way I am. And I’m not trying to convince you guys, and I don’t think that we’re, we can’t do it. I just want it on the record.
1:46:17 Okay. Any other further discussion?
1:46:19 Speaker 6: Just for clarification, you said 80 percent was at what number? 1, 900. 1, 965. So basically any property that For a three bedroom. Right. For a three bedroom under 1, 900 is already going to be exempt. Anything over that, this gives us the opportunity to still charge.
1:46:33 Megan Wright: Mm hmm.
1:46:34 Speaker 6: I just wanted that for clarification, because some people may not understand that.
1:46:37 Megan Wright: Right.
1:46:38 Speaker 6: Thank
1:46:38 Megan Wright: you. Right. All right. Any other further discussion? Hearing none. Also, just, I
1:46:43 Speaker 13: just want to be clear too, it’s not a tremendous amount of units.
1:46:47 Megan Wright: No.
1:46:47 Speaker 13: Right.
1:46:47 Megan Wright: There’s only one potential development that right now this would impact from my research.
1:46:51 So, that’s
1:46:51 Speaker 13: also why I’m
1:46:52 Megan Wright: comfortable feeling the way I’m feeling. It’s not a significant impact. Well, and just to further add to this, this will be a discussion we’ll have to have every year because that report changes annually. So, it may qualify for this year, but. Every other year. Every other year. Oh.
1:47:03 It’s
1:47:04 Speaker 3: good for two years. Your exemption’s good for two for,
1:47:05 Megan Wright: okay, sorry. All right. So, we will have to have the conversation again in two years. Not every year, so. All right. Um, any other further discussion? Hearing none. Paul, roll call, please. Ms. Jenkins? No.
1:47:15 Speaker 3: Ms. Campbell. Aye. Ms. Wright. Aye. Mr. Trent. Aye. Mr. Susan.
1:47:19 Aye.
1:47:21 Megan Wright: All right. We are going to move on to the information agenda, which includes two items for the board to review that may be brought back for action at a subsequent meeting. Oh, sorry. Uh, no action will be taken on this item today. Does any board member wish to discuss these items? Sorry. That’s okay.
1:47:35 Speaker 5: Sorry. It, I just found it. It was something that Cindy sent me that I should have forwarded to the board. Also, I’ll forward it to you. Are we going
1:47:41 Megan Wright: backwards in time right now? No, no. Sorry. I do have a couple of discussion items if you’re ready. We’re not there yet. Um, no other, nobody wants to discuss any of the items that are going to be potentially brought back?
1:47:50 No? All right. So now we’re on to board member reports. Does any board member have anything further that they wish to discuss or report?
1:47:57 Speaker 5: I have a couple of things. Okay. Um, first, oh, what Um, the first thing is that there, uh, there is a, an opportunity, um, I, having attended the, Three conferences this year, some short, some long.
1:48:13 Um, I am almost done with my travel budget. But some of us use them and some of us don’t. Um, but there is a national conference. Some of you guys, if you remember, FSBA left NSBA a couple years ago and joined with several other states, a brand new organization, national organization called COSPA, the Coalition of State School Board Associations.
1:48:36 And they have an advocacy conference in September. It’s like on the federal. We don’t do a lot with federal, but there’s a federal advocacy conference where people are coming from all across the country and, um, um, Tim Brighton has asked me to be the advocacy chair for FSBA this year. I would, I would like to have the opportunity.
1:48:54 I’m not, I have to double check with my family schedule, but I would like to have the opportunity to that. But the reason why I wanted to bring it to you guys is it is, it’s an expensive conference. Um, it will cost me, you know, over 1000 to attend and that’s not included airfare, which I’m fine covering the airfare.
1:49:09 Um, but The registration and the hotel will be because it’s DC. It’s going to be like 1, 300 for a couple nights hotel and the registration So I wanted to check and I wasn’t clear was trying to check with Lena We’re if we pay for it before June 30th Can it count on this year because we haven’t we have quite a bit of money left over because several of us didn’t use All of it but even if we can’t and it goes into this coming year because the conference is actually in this this The next fiscal year.
1:49:34 We usually have some left over. So, but I didn’t want to ask Lena to make those reservations for me if the board wasn’t comfortable allowing me to use, um, because I’m probably going to come up short then at the end of the year if I’m going to continue to attend the things that I need to attend. So just wanted to get a feel for everybody before I.
1:49:52 Speaker 6: I’d like to weigh in. All right, go ahead. So all of our funds do roll over. It should have been rolling over. That’s been a common thing for a long time. So you’re okay there. All right. I feel that, um, being anybody that’s going to go to, I know exactly what you’re doing because I was the advocacy chair also, it’s going to be a great honor to have another Brevard person doing it.
1:50:08 And I think that part of the under, under your guidance will be foreign or, um, federal programs. And so I think that it helps you in working with that up there. So I have no problem because I mean, literally in six days, our budget rolls over and I don’t have a problem with it. So. I mean, if there’s somewhere you can do, I think mine’s probably at it’s near it’s end.
1:50:29 Um, but you might be able to, I just wanted to kind of clarify. Give a little bit of context to the position that you’re going to be holding. I think it’s great. And then, um, give that guidance from my perspective.
1:50:39 Speaker 13: Ms. Campbell, I, um, I haven’t used any of mine. I had given it to you. To you for other things on purpose.
1:50:47 Um, and I’m not planning on using mine. So, I mean, you absolutely have permission to deplete mine. And I think, I think it’s enough probably even to cover, honestly. And then if someone else needs to shift over to you, or if it rolls over into the 30th or whatever. But I think you’re, I think you’re good with that.
1:51:04 Because I have, I have 1, 500 for travel and almost 900 for dues and fees.
1:51:10 Speaker 32: We have to look at that budget anyway. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Okay.
1:51:16 Megan Wright: Well, we
1:51:16 Speaker 5: have we have a good relationship with our congressman, Congressman Posey, for the amount of time that he has left. Part of that will be kind of like day in the legislature.
1:51:25 It’s going to be some networking with other school boards across the state and, um, training. And then there’s a whole day set aside to go into the capitol and advocate, um, for, on behalf, you know, with the Florida team on, with as many representatives and senators that we can, uh, congressmen that we can get a hold of.
1:51:41 So, um, I appreciate you guys being here. So I’m going to take a second and I’ll work with Lena to get those reservations made. Um, the second Hang on. Hang
1:51:47 Speaker 6: on. Let me say something for you. You’ve done a great job at advocating for our school district at FSBA and I just wanted to take a second. You are organized.
1:51:54 You represent us very well and it’s uh, it’s been a great honor to watch you do that and I can’t wait to see you do the advocacy chair.
1:52:00 Speaker 5: Well, thank you. I appreciate that very much. Um, so the second thing I wanted to ask is, you know, we’ve been getting these emails from the Great, Greater Florida Coalition of School Boards, which kind of represents And we just started getting them and I’m like, Oh, okay, we’re getting them.
1:52:16 And then I, so I just thought, are we, all of a sudden I saw a picture and it includes Brevard. And I didn’t remember having this conversation. Maybe we did when Mr. Susan was chair. But I just asked, like, I had sent the email to Tom, who’s in charge, like, when are we officially in? And he said, yes. I’m like, are we paying dues?
1:52:31 The dues are 3, 000. And the one that we’re a part of already is the Central Florida School Board Association. It’s more just, like, informational sharing ideas. That it used to cost us like 100 a year just because that helped Orange County who was always the host pay for like breakfast and whatever things.
1:52:50 But now that we’re doing virtual, I think they’ve waived the fees for several years since we, since COVID and we started doing all the meetings virtual. So I’m not, you know, I don’t know. I don’t know. Plan to participate in that but I thought we should as a board before Lena gets a bill because he said he thought we Paid 1, 500 last year because I guess we jumped in last year.
1:53:09 I think it was mrs I can give a whole
1:53:11 Speaker 6: overview on the whole I
1:53:12 Speaker 5: I just I think we need to make that decision together before we’re gonna spend 3, 000 on a membership that But we may not all be partaking of.
1:53:20 Speaker 6: So this is the coastal, basically, school boards. And so property values, property taxes, advocacy, all of that follows along the same as what we do.
1:53:30 Central Florida is great, but many of the things that are challenged by the center part of the state and some of those rural districts do not represent what we do. Also, I’ve been asked to possibly chair it next year. And so I really think that that’s something that we should be able to be a part of.
1:53:44 And I thank Dr. Rendell. Actually takes it out of his, um, his budget.
1:53:50 Speaker: Okay.
1:53:50 Speaker 6: So I think, I just wanted to kind of let you know the reason for it is, is that there’s a lot more involved in, in line with what we do normally here. And so that’s what it was. And I appreciate you bringing it up. That’s all.
1:54:01 Speaker 5: Well, I appreciate that.
1:54:02 I did want to just have that discussion together because I think, if I recall, when it was mentioned, Hey, we could be a part of this, but it wasn’t like, Oh, and there’s a big price tag. And you know, um, I say 3, 000. I just asked you guys to give me 1, 300 to go to Washington D. C. Um, That, just so you know, my mindset is always like, I, I, if we’re going to be fiscally responsible with any budget, I want it to be our own budget.
1:54:23 I want us to be as tight as we possibly can with our own, so that every dollar, even though it’s not, it’s probably one of the smallest budgets. Every dollar can go back into our main goal and focus. So that’s where I was going with that. But if, if we’re good with, I just want to make it very clear, so we all know, now we’re going to be a part, or we are already a part of the Greater Florida Coalition of School Boards.
1:54:42 Speaker 13: Yep. Um, can I weigh in on it? I’m not, I don’t think we need it. I don’t think we need to be spending 3, 000 to be part of a coalition. No one knew we were a part of for an entire year. No one knew we paid for. Clearly it doesn’t have very much value and benefit to us. Um, I, I, That doesn’t make any sense to me.
1:55:01 I’m sorry.
1:55:02 Speaker 6: Uh, I would. Alright,
1:55:04 Megan Wright: any other further discussion?
1:55:05 Speaker 6: Yeah, I would kind of disagree with the closing comment that literally the things that they go through are the things that we deal with on a regular basis that is different than the Central Florida Coalition. And it works really well because a lot of those school board members collaborate on many issues with us.
1:55:20 And we see the same challenges. So, that’s it.
1:55:23 Megan Wright: Alright, um, Dr. Rundell, do you have anything further to report? So, wait, I need to follow up with that. I’m sorry. We’ll continue on, going on and on and on. I think I know. Well, Mr. Susan had two times to speak, so it’s my
1:55:32 Speaker 13: time, it’s my second time to speak like Mr.
1:55:34 Susan had. Uh, yes, he did. Yeah, he had
1:55:37 Speaker 3: two, so.
1:55:38 Speaker 13: So, So, No one on this board knew that we were being charged 1, 500 to be part of a coalition. No one knew we were a member of this coalition except for the person who made the decision themselves who just said they want me to be the chair. I have a problem with that.
1:55:54 If you can explain with specificity to the rest of the board the benefit of it other than they talk about different things, then you might change my mindset on it. But a 3, 000 price tag to be part of a coalition that we didn’t do anything with over the past 12 months, I have a problem with that.
1:56:12 Megan Wright: Thank you, Ms.
1:56:12 Jenkins. I, can I just ask Lena, can you send the board a copy of the invoice when it comes in? I don’t know if you’ve received it or not for that coalition, um, and then I think this is probably a conversation that we’ll have once we see that because I’m not sure even what that that invoice is. And Dr.
1:56:25 Rendell, it sounds as though this is coming out of your budget, so I’m assuming this is a coalition that you feel is a value to be a part of.
1:56:30 Speaker 14: Yeah, we paid for the initial membership last year. This coalition is all the coastal school boards and there are issues that we face that are different than some of the others.
1:56:41 Um, and I think it’s valuable for us to be a part of it. You know, the other superintendents, um, we have started to form a little bit of a coalition, you know, so I would appreciate being a part of that.
1:56:53 Speaker 4: Okay,
1:56:54 Megan Wright: thank you. Uh, Dr. Rundell, do you have anything further that you need to report? I do not. All right, being that there is no further business, this meeting is adjourned.