Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
0:00 Thank you.
4:59 I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
5:03 and to the Republic for
5:04 which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty
5:08 and justice for all.
5:09 Thank you.
6:08 let me pull up the policies real fast because this is mr gibbs
6:11 just to be correct i need to
6:15 state each policy and ask if anyone wishes to address this item
6:17 twice correctly correct all
6:21 right thank you all right so the first policy that we have is
6:23 policy three two four two
6:26 professional learning is there anyone present who wishes to
6:28 address this item
6:29 is there anyone present who wishes to address this item hearing
6:33 none uh is there any discussion
6:36 from the board in regards to this item no all right we are
6:40 moving on to the next policy
6:44 all right now we are on to policy 3362 which is the anti-harassment
6:48 for our staff is there anyone
6:49 present who wishes to address this item is there anyone present
6:52 who wishes to address this item
6:54 seeing none uh board i’m going to open this up for discussion
6:59 any core member have anything to
7:00 discuss in this policy no all right i had one thing that was a
7:03 little bit peculiar that i thought it
7:05 looks as though it was copied and pasted directly from our
7:08 student anti-harassment and it doesn’t
7:10 really pertain to our staff as much and so board i just really
7:13 want to get your opinion on this and
7:15 let me get to that
7:24 i’ll find that in a minute sorry
7:29 sorry this is on no we’re on 33
7:39 yeah sorry 3262 i’m going back and forth between two many
7:41 different things uh it’s it’s in regard to
7:43 the section i think it’s under the sanction section and it says
7:46 something um like the policy states
7:49 that it would sorry it looks as though it’s in in regards to
7:56 hindering an employee’s educational
7:59 outcome it’s literally copied and pasted from our student policy
8:02 i’m just trying to put my find it
8:04 give me one second it doesn’t really pertain
8:09 30 we’re on 3362 anti-harassment i know we’re all over the board
8:18 this morning it’s okay
8:21 it’s okay when you start oh uh 10 am i in the right column there’s
8:27 a sanction section
8:27 in section 10 okay yeah that’s on page 12 of the file
8:35 where the heck is it now i’m not seeing it and i was literally
8:49 just here i was i’m here working on
8:51 this this morning and i’m
8:51 okay under sorry it’s under it’s on page six um on item b under
8:59 harassment uh number two it says has the
9:02 effect of substantially interfering with an employee’s
9:05 educational performance opportunities
9:07 or benefits it just to me that’s more appropriate in the student
9:11 portion of the anti-harassment but
9:13 it’s not really pertaining so much to our staff and so i just
9:16 felt like it was probably copied and pasted
9:18 because there are similar policy but or what is your thoughts on
9:20 that should that remain in place
9:22 or do you think that that’s probably not the most appropriate
9:24 placement for that line
9:26 i wouldn’t think you would take out the whole line i mean if you
9:29 take out educational then that fix you
9:32 could say you know substantially interfering with an employee’s
9:35 performance opportunities or benefits
9:37 i mean perfect yeah that works but i mean if we take that out
9:40 right now then we’re starting all over
9:45 i can advertise after the fact it won’t go into effect for 28
9:49 days but okay okay so we can we can make
9:52 that one edit that’s a new device okay and still move forward
9:55 okay all right my vote would be to take
9:57 out the word educational that’s a good compromise and still
10:00 leaves the remainder of the sentence that’s
10:02 applicable to staff so or are you in favor yep yeah okay did you
10:07 find it yeah okay okay thank you sorry i was
10:12 struggling to find out there for a minute all right now we are
10:15 moving on to the next policy
10:16 oh my god paul you’ve taught me this trick and i’m i’m
10:20 forgetting my ways the little thing on the
10:22 side there okay we are on to board policy 5517.01 bullying and
10:27 harassment for students is there
10:29 anyone present who wishes to address this item is there anyone
10:31 present who wishes to address this item
10:33 hearing none forward is there any discussion in regards to these
10:37 changes or updates
10:40 hearing none all right and the last one that we are on to is
10:43 board policy 8405 school safety and security
10:47 threat management teams is there anyone present who wishes to
10:49 address this item is there anyone present
10:52 who wishes to address this item hearing none board any
10:56 discussion no all right so i think we are good
11:02 we’re going to move on to the next topic uh which will be our
11:05 budget update presentation from miss lisinski and team
11:24 can i make a public service announcement um that brevard aftercare
11:28 registration is now officially open
11:30 oh starting at 9 a.m this morning so make sure you get on there
11:33 and log on because some of our schools get
11:35 closed up
11:46 okay uh good morning madam chair board members dr rendell um
11:53 this is the uh general fund update
11:58 and i also want to introduce miss gran granhold and she is uh my
12:04 right hand person and if you guys want
12:08 to go deep into any questions she’s she’s the person to help so
12:14 um to get started
12:19 so what is a budget and i i say this every time but i think it’s
12:24 worth saying every time a budget is a
12:27 future-looking financial plan based on estimated revenues and
12:31 estimated expenses for a specific amount
12:35 of time so you know the key takeaway is we estimate what we
12:39 think revenue is going to be
12:42 we estimate what we think the expenditures are going to be and
12:47 then they have to balance but that you know
12:51 that is not money in the bank there’s we have to course correct
12:55 and you know there’s fact of life
12:58 changes revenue and expenditures can be impacted in the by the
13:01 global economy we have two wars right now
13:04 eastern europe and middle east um critical to enter energy
13:08 supply so there’s all kinds of things that
13:10 could happen on the national stage the state and local unknowns
13:16 so this is our best estimate as of today
13:19 and i really like yoga bears quote where it’s tough to make
13:23 predict predictions especially about the future
13:26 board priorities so the budget reflects your priorities and that’s
13:35 you know what’s most dear to the school
13:37 board clear understanding of focus areas and desired outcomes um
13:41 an excellent education is job one we
13:45 have to meet each student where they are touch their hearts
13:49 before we can actually reach their minds
13:51 we have to ensure that we are
13:54 incentivizing supporting and compensating our employees
14:01 we want the best employees possible in order to educate our
14:05 students and and run the school district as
14:08 efficiently as possible we have to maintain fiscal strength um
14:13 and protect the tax taxpayers interests
14:23 and then so here are some uh considerations that we also uh
14:26 think through for the budget and obviously job one the
14:31 most important thing the all the reason we’re all here is
14:34 student achievement um it we’re the budget is
14:38 also impacted by legislative changes you know it could be
14:42 positive or it could be you know unfunded mandate
14:46 uncertainty and enrollment are we going to stay flat grow those
14:50 kind of things health care costs
14:53 impact of inflation esser funding we’ve had for several years
14:58 now and september 30th is the end so
15:02 making sure that we have a soft landing and not a cliff that we’re
15:06 going to have to figure out
15:08 how we’re going to cover these expenses and then being
15:11 responsible we have to make sure that we have we
15:14 are solvent and have a responsible fund balance and that we have
15:19 a good credit rating
15:20 so again you know focus on student achievement and i think
15:31 everybody wins we really
15:33 looked at the budget really hard and scrubbed the different
15:39 areas
15:39 what do we really need and i have to say the cabinet members did
15:43 an amazing job
15:44 with looking at um who who they have what authorizations they
15:50 have and then what they need
15:51 and in making sure it’s the most effective um they were able to
15:56 reduce positions but actually gain
16:00 momentum and gain um um achieve gain um yeah outcome thank you
16:15 and so um again foster a culture of cost
16:21 awareness is everything um we need to strengthen collaboration
16:27 we have to move away from no that’s
16:29 that’s my budget to what is the best for the school district and
16:33 what is the best for uh the students
16:36 in order to get a excellent education and you know we have to
16:41 just take a look at the overall goal and
16:44 it’s not anybody’s budget it’s it’s district’s budget it’s it’s
16:49 the kids budget to make sure that we educate them well
16:54 uh you’ve seen this slide quite a bit um this is the slide that
17:03 shows the fte growth and i circled the 2021
17:08 year because that’s when we were you know affected the most by
17:13 the pandemic you can see that we had a drop in enrollment
17:17 and i also want to make sure that you see that this is broken
17:21 out by the district
17:23 charters scholarship and bevard totals so when you look at the
17:30 fefp or when
17:32 you look at what the state reports you’ll see the 82 000 number
17:38 of students
17:40 but you have to remember that the district uh projecting 62 772
17:46 students with charters
17:48 and scholarships so you have to remember that when you’re
17:53 looking at the fefp and when you’re looking
17:57 at the funding
18:03 and this is just a a graphic to depict the information a
18:09 different way
18:11 and what can be misleading is um the voucher the scholarship
18:22 portion
18:23 so impact of hb1 one year later um there wasn’t a mass exodus
18:29 like you know prior to um the new
18:33 legislation and you can see that at this is at a state level 78
18:39 of the scholarships distributed were
18:43 for students already attending private school so not you know so
18:49 the majority of students taking
18:53 scholarships are already in private school and would not have
18:58 come into our our district
19:00 12 of the scholarships were distributed for students entering
19:06 private school in kindergarten
19:08 now that one’s a little bit you know would they have gone to
19:11 public school or would
19:12 they’ve gone to private school in kindergarten there’s that one’s
19:16 a little bit
19:17 no really way to say that which way it would have gone but we
19:23 know a lot of
19:24 students would have gone to kindergarten private schools and
19:27 then 10 percent of scholarships
19:30 distributed for the students from uh for students from public
19:34 charter schools transferring to private
19:36 schools so that’s 10 percent of the total amount of scholarships
19:42 not 10 of our fte because sometimes
19:45 that gets a little bit confusing and then if a student
19:49 previously attended public charter money follows that
19:53 student and if the student already is enrolled in a private
19:57 school the voucher is a new cost to the state
20:01 so are there any questions on that one sometimes that causes a
20:05 little confusion i don’t have a question
20:07 but i just want to thank you for pointing that out because i
20:09 think that especially in the the
20:11 covid year when the vouchers were all starting to to expand but
20:15 i mean even if we just look i know you
20:17 said that state level but even if you just i’m not going to run
20:19 the percentages of my brain because i’m
20:21 not that smart but even if i just look at our our biggest
20:25 increase of the scholarships when going from
20:28 2023 22 23 to 23 24 there was increase of about 2 000 students
20:34 taking scholarships but yet our enrollment
20:37 drop was less than 500 so i mean that just you know it’s some of
20:42 those could have gone to other places
20:44 because there was also increase in charter but so that just kind
20:48 of shows even in brevard bears out you
20:50 know the majority of the people in brevard took those
20:53 scholarships absolutely were not already in our
20:55 system because we we didn’t get that many more kids moving into
20:59 the county in that span of a year
21:01 so i think that’s just a good point to make and then some of the
21:05 increases also um
21:07 parents in that send their kids to private school realized hey i
21:12 want to take this voucher so the next
21:15 next year they’re like okay and then when the cap was taken off
21:19 where anyone can get a scholarship so that
21:22 caused a a big increase as well um now one thing that isn’t
21:28 shown on here and i um is the the home school
21:34 the home school uh numbers were 6632 and families of that number
21:46 was 4759. i don’t have the information
21:52 of whether they’re taking the the pep scholarship but the pep
21:56 scholarship which is from the florida tax
21:59 credits is not part of our fefp i just wanted to so it gets a
22:04 little confusing so when you ask about
22:06 homeschooling that if they’re taking a scholarship it is not
22:11 part of the fefp the funding that we receive
22:14 may i just i want to just jump in there because i appreciate
22:18 this slide very much um much like miss
22:20 campbell said can you go back to the slide because we’ve been
22:24 referring to it we all have it on ours
22:26 but i don’t think no i’m talking about that one there you go no
22:29 no i’m talking about the other one
22:30 sorry yeah yeah this one um i think it’s i think it’s important
22:34 because we hear lots of chatter about
22:39 the benefits and the negatives of expansions of vouchers vouchers
22:42 and i’ve always said first of all
22:44 every state’s very different on how they handle it but one of my
22:46 arguments is i don’t have anything
22:49 wrong with parents making a choice for their kids to go
22:52 somewhere else and honestly especially in
22:54 our state that’s flourishing of a budget or flourishing um
22:57 economically i have no problem
22:59 with the state even paying for it but the problem is is that the
23:02 funding from the state is not meeting
23:04 that need and the reality is like we see here only 10 of those
23:08 scholarships left their public schools
23:11 only 10 of the scholarship number so when you look at the total
23:14 students of the state of florida we don’t
23:16 have that on this slide but it’s a very very small number of
23:19 student the majority of parents are
23:20 choosing their local community schools so when the pie is
23:23 getting eaten up by these scholarships that’s
23:26 the real problem so there’s nothing wrong with the choice there’s
23:28 nothing wrong with helping these
23:29 parents pay for these opportunities but the state needs to be
23:32 adequately funding it and that’s where
23:34 the problem lies it’s not that we’re fighting to keep our
23:36 students necessarily yes we want them to not
23:38 leave us that’s not really what’s impacting our budget
23:40 significantly it’s that the pie is getting
23:43 eaten by more and more people but the pie isn’t getting much
23:46 larger okay so this is the florida education
23:56 finance program the the conference report and you can see
24:00 through here that you know at first glance
24:04 it can be a little bit misleading like i mentioned before
24:07 because you have to understand that the
24:09 calculations include the charter and the scholarship fte
24:12 enrollment so it’s all commingled within the fefp
24:17 and then you need a rebecca to extract everything to tell you
24:21 what goes in what bucket and who’s earning
24:24 what and she’s amazing doing that um and so for the charters the
24:30 money flows through us we’re a pass-through
24:35 for the scholarships that that money never comes to us it’s just
24:40 taken off on the top so when you take a
24:43 look at this you have to realize this is the first you know
24:46 snapshot you would see for the conference report
24:49 and you would have to be able to know that okay this is going to
24:53 include district charter and scholarship i
24:56 so i wonder what our portion is is um what i do quite often um
25:01 and then our base fefp
25:03 equals our weighted fte times our bsa times our cost wage factor
25:11 and then also a small
25:15 district factor if we had one and bovard our cost wage factor is
25:21 one you know there is other districts
25:24 that have a one point something like you know monroe or high
25:29 cost areas to live so they have a higher cost
25:33 factor and then um some of them also have a higher property
25:40 value so the way the florida
25:45 fefp works is they fund all districts to the average um property
25:51 right and then so
25:54 if somebody is if a district is above that amount they’re
25:58 allowed to keep um the the portion that is
26:03 that discretionary the 0.748 so they the other districts can
26:11 keep that um we are under that uh average so
26:15 so we get a compression um to make us up to the average so i
26:19 guess my point is not all districts are
26:23 funded the same if you take a look at the ffp you can see that
26:29 um per student funding uh from
26:33 this calculation brevard is number 46 that’s something that
26:38 cannot control that’s just the way it is
26:42 um so i just wanted to point that out and then um also remember
26:47 that number the 53.2 million
26:51 uh because that’s the the difference from the third calc and
26:56 then to the conference report and so the next
27:00 slide i just i want to ask a clarifying question okay so you
27:05 said and you said this in r101 but i just want to ask a clarifying
27:10 question again too for the public to hear so you said per per fbfp
27:14 even though we’re the 10th largest
27:16 school district in the state of florida we’re technically being
27:19 fund as if we’re in the in the 46th place
27:21 uh fun if you take a look at per student funding we’re 46. right
27:29 i just i think that’s important for
27:30 people to hear thank you okay so this breaks out like i was
27:37 talking before and this is all um rebecca
27:43 doing this which is actually very amazing how she’s able to do
27:47 this so quickly um but it breaks out the
27:50 fbfp the the funds for bps schools the funds the charters
27:55 receive and the funds the scholarship receives
27:59 and um you know there there’s differences here and then you can
28:04 also see the state funded discretionary
28:07 down towards the bottom that is solely uh funds for scholarship
28:13 students so again you know it can be
28:17 misleading when you look at the total numbers you really have to
28:21 know how to break those out to
28:23 understand what is being funded um and then the the box over on
28:28 the right in previous years we had the
28:33 um fefp base and it was like our discretionary dollars we could
28:38 use that we wasn’t held to a certain
28:41 categorical last year that was changed and there’s these categoricals
28:50 that are listed are now part of our
28:56 our base fte or base ffp which mean and and it’s mandated that
29:02 we provide those dollars so that kind
29:05 of takes away you know we were supposed to gain flexibility but
29:09 in reality we haven’t but then
29:12 you have to really be careful to when you look at the growth
29:16 percentage on the previous slide it looks
29:20 like the bsa increased more that would be discretionary dollars
29:24 but it actually did not
29:26 so it gets a little confusing and as we you know go through this
29:31 it’ll be the norm and we’ll figure
29:33 out how how to proceed um but we’re still trying to understand
29:39 and pull and extract things to make
29:42 sure that we have the right numbers and that we can plan
29:45 correctly
29:50 oh and then the other thing i wanted to mention so uh they they
29:54 changed the name for tsia but i’m just
29:58 going to stick with tsia and the growth you can see for salary
30:02 growth that’s mandated for teachers
30:05 is the 3.9 million and then you know depending on how um it’s
30:11 decided to distribute those dollars if
30:15 you’re trying to um provide more dollars you know to for veteran
30:21 teachers or increase the um minimum base
30:26 what however you use it but if if you just take the 3.9 million
30:32 and go across the board at you know for
30:35 your average teacher it would be 770 so um back on this slide if
30:47 you see in far right on the group with
30:51 the green the 53.2 million that’s the number that i asked you to
30:55 take it you remember um so we start
30:58 with that number because that’s the that’s the difference that’s
31:02 the increase from the previous
31:04 calculation to the first calc and then we have to subtract out
31:09 all the categoricals so those all
31:12 those categoricals are meant for that purpose and we can’t spend
31:16 it on anything else so that equates
31:19 to 8.2 million and so you subtract that and then we have to take
31:23 out the scholarship adjustment which
31:26 is the 20.9 and then the charter growth which is the 9.2 and
31:31 then what we find that our increase
31:34 from last year um for for budget purposes is 14.9 million can i
31:39 ask a question to you sure on the
31:42 previous slide uh when you’re breaking down the categoricals the
31:45 salary maintenance that 20 million
31:47 what what would that encumber that so every year or for the last
31:52 how many years three or four since 2020
31:57 um you know governor de santos wanted to increase the uh teacher
32:04 beginning salary so every year when he did
32:07 that we have to maintain it because it would be recurring so
32:11 that that money is theirs to maintain all those raises
32:16 that’s the tsia okay all right thank you i messed up okay
32:20 okay so this is um a slide that shows that the increase was 14.9
32:34 million uh for for
32:38 the district and the first you know and so we have some unavoidable
32:43 cost increases the first one
32:45 is health insurance right now our actuaries are advising us that
32:53 we need to increase premiums by
32:55 eight million dollars the general fund portion would be seven
33:00 million dollars now this is
33:04 um you know this could be high you know the number this is the
33:09 number at a time that you know they
33:11 projected looking at the past um you know we could have things
33:15 that you know could change that number
33:18 but this is the number that was provided and so that’s the
33:22 number that i’m using here um workers comp rates
33:29 we have been uh funding workers comp from general fund because
33:33 we haven’t increased the rates
33:36 in several years so we making that right and then coming off esser
33:43 there’s positions that we’re
33:45 bringing back into the the general fund that are they’re
33:49 actually most of them are positions that used to
33:52 be funded from general funds and then we moved it to esser now
33:55 we’re bringing it back 2.1 million
33:59 and this is really if if you think about it over the last couple
34:03 years we’ve had all these esser dollars
34:06 250 million dollars and what we’re going to carry is 2.1 i think
34:12 that’s really um pretty good management there was no
34:15 large cliff to deal with uh other primary cost increases emergent
34:22 needs those are things that
34:25 we may not even know we have to have that yet we you know we can’t
34:29 uh predict what’s going to happen but
34:32 i’m sure there’s going to be something that we realize that we
34:35 have to to take care of um collective
34:38 bargaining we have to um incentivize and provide our employees
34:44 raises and and then also we had in our
34:49 our inflationary increases are two million um and that’s
34:53 utilities electric gas water and then below
34:59 there uh potential offsets um there’s areas that we can look at
35:04 to improve processes divest create
35:07 efficiencies there there’s things that we can work on and do and
35:13 we also
35:16 need to increase our fund balance to get it back to pre-covid
35:21 time where it was very level at a
35:25 financial condition of eight so we’re adding another 1.5 to that
35:30 fund balance that would get us back up to
35:33 about a seven um percent uh fund condition balance and moody’s
35:41 bitch are looking at that really closely and it
35:44 really affects our stability our credit ratings all those things
35:49 so it’s really important that we um
35:52 are responsible and and make sure we have the right fund balance
35:59 and funds
36:03 and this is the last slide and so general fund when the way the
36:09 cost report um codes the charter payments
36:16 that we provide to the charters they put it in purchase services
36:20 i don’t know why they do that but
36:22 they do so when you look at our budget book then you’ll see you
36:26 know well i thought salaries and benefits
36:29 uh were higher and then in a percentage-wise for for our um our
36:36 fund 100 but then when you take out those
36:40 those purchase services that really are charter you can see for
36:45 bovard traditional um salaries and benefits
36:51 is about 85.5 i mean that’s our business it’s all about teachers
36:55 and people and supporting so
36:57 uh when you look to reduce that that’s you know kind of where
37:02 where you are and then when you have to
37:04 realize that when we’re providing um incentives raises um
37:10 compensation we have a lot of people so
37:16 that is all i have if you have any questions or want to go back
37:20 to anything
37:21 thank you miss lisinski board do you have any questions i think
37:27 it’s
37:28 good for the public to know that we’ve already met with miss lisinski
37:34 we’ve already sat down with
37:35 her with this entire presentation and we’ve gone through it um
37:38 it is on i think i just may not have
37:40 been can you hear me now yeah karaoke just wanted to say that
37:44 thank you to miss lisinski um
37:46 i along with my other fellow board members have gone through
37:49 this presentation with you and asked any
37:50 questions that we had towards it and everything else we
37:52 appreciate you coming forward and being
37:54 prepared that’s all thank you thank you mr susan anybody else
37:57 yeah just go ahead and briefly
38:02 um appreciate the work that everyone has done across all the
38:07 cabinet to to do the scrubbing i know it’s
38:10 not fun um but it’s you know those increased efficiencies you
38:13 talk about that’s that’s where we’re going
38:16 to find them and um is looking at you know is this working do we
38:20 need to keep paying for it
38:22 you know if we do being able to justify it i know that’s part of
38:25 the process where they’re coming
38:26 back to you and coming back to superintendent to justify those
38:30 expenditures um so that discretionary
38:36 funding so back on the i don’t remember what slide because i don’t
38:38 have page numbers on this but the
38:40 one that you were talking about the discretionary funding so
38:42 this was you know i’ve gone through fsva’s budget
38:45 classes the first time it really hit me now back up one more
38:48 back up one more um that 0.748
38:51 every district has a different millage that the state assigns to
38:56 us because the way our funding comes
38:58 you know is the state determines the amount per student but it’s
39:04 all a little different because of
39:07 some of these factors but that 0.748 everybody has a 0.748 it’s
39:10 the same across all the districts so this
39:12 was the first time that it really hit me that that’s the part
39:15 that everybody gets to keep
39:16 and so why a monroe county uh has so much more funding per
39:20 student than we do is because of that
39:22 that 0.748 in addition and well that’s one of the reasons the
39:25 cost factor is the other but that 0.748
39:27 makes such a huge difference and as brevard that’s where you’re
39:30 saying we’re number 46 right
39:33 in the or is it is it in the per student funding or is it both
39:36 that was my question
39:41 um well it’s a it’s a reason for that okay because i believe um
39:48 my memory is correct monroe
39:51 actually um 22 million from the just the 0.728 for a much much
39:57 smaller district right but very um
40:01 property rich right so that 40 that number 46 that you’re saying
40:07 that is our poor our per student
40:09 funding is we’re number 46 correct okay that that helps put us
40:13 into perspective when we talk it when
40:16 we see the doe lists like where we are in teacher salary and
40:21 average salary began i mean all of that
40:23 that makes a it kind of clarifies that picture um because people
40:27 say oh we’re brevard and we’re you
40:29 know but we and if i think about that cost factor i know the
40:31 legislature changed that a little bit but
40:33 we used to be under one right so we used to actually have to
40:36 give money not really technically you give
40:39 money back to the state but we got our funding was reduced
40:42 because we were 0.98 whatever since i’ve
40:44 been on the board it’s always been below one and i know this was
40:47 a new formula but now we’re at one
40:49 so at least we’re not losing money uh to other districts um
40:53 because we you know lower cost of living
40:56 i guess um they would say in brevard so thank you thank you for
40:59 clarifying that um
41:03 so one other so on the final slide or the neck no two two slides
41:08 to the end where it had the
41:10 our 14.9 million broken down yeah that one um on so when you
41:15 talk about the fund balance it’s so
41:17 important because with build lots of building in our potential
41:20 building in our future we have to have
41:22 a great credit rating because these lines of credit we’ve done
41:24 loans potentially that we’re gonna have
41:26 to have to building these new facilities we need to have the
41:29 very best rates so we can get the most bang for
41:31 our bucks literally um but that that’s a one-time that
41:34 increasing is going to be a one-time um increase
41:38 right to get us back that 1.5 million okay right right so and
41:43 you’re saying that one time we’re going
41:46 to get hopefully from these efficiencies and what you know or we
41:50 budgeted in because it’s not necessarily
41:53 a because it’s not recurring it’s not necessarily a budgetary
41:57 thing so i know you’ve got it this plus
41:59 this equals this but do we already kind of have an idea are we
42:02 going to just start off the bat
42:03 take the 1.5 million out are we expecting at the end of this
42:06 year that the first 1.5 million
42:08 left over from either this year’s budget we just finished or
42:12 this coming one we’ve just entered
42:14 where’s that 1.5 million going to come from well right now the
42:17 way the budget is built the tentative
42:19 budget and that those it can still be changed until september 11th
42:24 um that it’s it’s in the budget
42:28 increased the fund balance right now just so as just part of the
42:31 budget we’ve calculated 1.5 million
42:34 dollars to go straight into unassigned um correct fund balance i’m
42:39 sorry okay thank you and that was it
42:43 for me all right thank you miss campbell miss jenkins and mr trant
42:47 do you have anything yeah just to
42:50 echo what matt was saying here is thank you for the time that we
42:54 spent uh on the one-on-one answer the
42:56 questions um the potential cost offsets uh you know that’s that’s
43:01 exciting to me that’s an interest
43:04 for always forever anyone has anything to do with budget items
43:08 uh is is increasing the efficiencies
43:10 if we can do things in a more efficient manner to save money we’re
43:14 always looking uh to do that uh
43:16 but also keeping and you mentioned that many times which is very
43:19 refreshing that you know this has
43:21 everything to do with student achievement so i i appreciate that’s
43:23 coming from from everyone here in
43:25 the district and it carries on through you know the bean
43:28 counters even that that’s wonderful so i
43:31 appreciate that um you know that’s what dr rendell preached from
43:36 the moment we started to interview
43:38 him that everything and everyone that works at district uh or in
43:41 this district it’s all about student
43:43 achievement so i i appreciate that thank you mr jenkins no you’re
43:48 good all right thank you so much for
43:51 the presentation appreciate it dr rendell do you have anything
43:53 to add uh no i think
43:55 uh echo though miss campbell’s comments i do have something i
43:58 guess um the fund balance is critical
44:01 we just refinanced some certificates of participation and saved
44:04 the district about five million dollars in
44:07 debt service and we were able to do that because of our strong
44:10 credit rating and one of the things they
44:12 look at is our fund balance and so we need to make sure we have
44:15 the appropriate fund balance so that we
44:17 can continue to be looked at with a strong you know financial
44:21 stability position if we have to borrow
44:24 money to build schools and things like that yes absolutely all
44:28 right well thank you guys so much for
44:30 the presentation we appreciate all the hard work that you put in
44:33 to that um we are on to the last item
44:35 which is on our agenda which is the climate survey data for
44:36 school year 24. i’m not sure who’s so we’re going to be
44:38 switching um power points and mr pool is going to be presenting
44:39 i don’t know if you want to take a short break
44:39 okay let’s take a five minute recess to go to the restroom and
44:47 then we’ll get everything set up okay come back at 10 15. thank
44:52 you
44:52 so
48:43 you
49:10 You
49:23 you
50:00 all right welcome back thank you so much so we have Mr. Poole
50:03 and Ms. Dampierre here to present the
50:05 climate survey data for school year 24 and we will go ahead and
50:08 turn the floor over to you
50:09 thank you i’m going to actually interrupt them sorry and and do
50:14 do a few disclaimers um
50:16 first of all i need to apologize to the student services
50:19 department because they’ve prepared
50:21 this presentation three times it’s a ton of information it’s a
50:26 ton of information it’s the
50:29 student survey it’s the parent survey and the staff survey and i
50:33 wanted them to do it
50:34 all in one presentation it’s a ton of information and they’ve
50:38 had to redo it three times because
50:40 we originally had over 200 slides and then we got down to like
50:43 175 and i’m not sure how
50:45 many we’re down to 77 so okay so what i want the public to
50:50 understand and the board especially
50:53 these are just some highlights of the survey just some snippets
50:57 of information from the surveys
50:59 there is a lot of information and we will give you the codes to
51:03 go in and check the survey out
51:05 completely i did tell the public we will share the information
51:09 with them so there’s a huge pdf
51:11 that’s being created that we will have a link to the website so
51:15 they can dive in there and see as
51:17 much data as they want and i know it’s in mr pool’s first slide
51:21 but we did use a company called
51:24 youth truth for the survey one of the reasons we chose to use
51:27 them for the survey is we’ve been
51:29 using them that company for the student survey for four years
51:33 and so we wanted to see some longitudinal
51:35 data see you know what our scores were over time in certain
51:39 areas and they also have a parent survey and
51:41 they also have a staff survey so that’s why we went with them we
51:44 are not sure more than likely we will
51:47 not use them next year they were not as um customer friendly
51:51 when we wanted to change some questions
51:53 or eliminate some questions there were some that they you know
51:56 they just didn’t we didn’t feel like
51:58 we would be treating customer first kind of thing um so we’ve
52:00 looked at some other vendors and we’ll
52:02 probably use some other vendors but the information we have we
52:05 want to share with you there are some
52:06 things that are you know good good things for us to learn over
52:10 time and some positive
52:13 highlights but there’s also some areas where hey this is
52:16 something that we need to work on so
52:18 it’s going to be uh 75 or so slides and a lot of information but
52:24 anybody who wants to dive deeper we
52:26 can provide you know an avenue for that so again apologies to
52:30 the student services department for
52:33 asking them to redo this three times and i’ll turn it over to
52:36 them so thank you
52:39 thank you dr rindell good morning everyone uh good morning madam
52:43 chair and board members
52:44 i’m going to go over our youth truth climate survey results um
52:48 this project we’re going to briefly
52:51 discuss as dr rindell said the process as you can see on the
52:55 first slide we we did change uh survey
52:58 providers and we did have some changes to the process we
53:01 actually had to get parental consent we did that
53:04 electronically through focus which was a new process and we
53:08 wanted to make sure we were in compliance with
53:10 our our new laws and we wanted to uh we changed the the audience
53:15 so instead of grades three through 12 we
53:18 surveyed we began the survey from uh grade grade five
53:21 okay so um this just talks about why you know the the purpose
53:28 and uh we wanted to gather stakeholder
53:30 feedback uh on how our family students and staff experience uh
53:34 brevard public schools you know
53:36 what their perception is and in turn we’d like to create a a
53:39 thriving culture based on that feedback
53:42 all right we have uh our student survey results that we’re going
53:47 to go over first
53:48 i’d like to note that uh when you see the questions we’re going
53:52 to have um each theme
53:55 and we’re going to have the the highest question indicated with
53:59 a green star and then you’re going
54:01 to see the lowest question with a red triangle okay we’ll have a
54:03 legend at the bottom of each slide
54:05 so each uh theme has its own set of questions um elementary
54:10 middle school and high school the themes
54:13 vary slightly but we’ve also indicated the highest rated theme
54:17 so for elementary school it was uh engagement
54:21 so keep in mind it’s a five point scale so anything above three
54:26 is positive but two and a half is
54:30 medium so excuse me dr vendell if i may for elementary students
54:34 it was the scale was uh from one to three
54:36 oh perfect it was one to three i was like oh so i wanted to i
54:40 want to point that out good thanks for
54:43 correcting me because that that’s good for our secondary schools
54:46 there is a scale of zero to five okay all
54:49 right that makes me feel better and if you have any questions
54:54 along as i go through please let me know
54:55 you see our highest rated question and lowest rated question for
54:59 engagement and the theme of engagement
55:01 uh for elementary talks about how students perceive uh their
55:05 engagement with the school and their their
55:08 education okay can i just put in for a second yes what what was
55:13 the what was defining zero through three was
55:15 is it sliding scale or did the numbers have okay so yes the
55:19 numbers do have meaning okay so a one would be
55:22 no hardly ever um a uh
55:25 A zero would be a non-answer.
55:26 A one would be no, hardly ever.
55:27 A two would be sometimes.
55:28 And a three would be yes, very much for elementary students.
55:31 Okay.
55:35 - These questions, did we get to pick these questions?
55:39 Let me just ask that question
55:40 because I’m looking at these going,
55:43 our highest and our lowest question is a little similar.
55:47 So that’s a little odd.
55:49 - This was a youth truth like tool they use
55:52 as Dr. Rendell stated before.
55:54 They did not allow much.
55:55 We couldn’t customize the questions
55:57 as much as we would have liked to.
55:59 And so what we did,
56:02 that was one of the reasons why we did change the age group.
56:05 - Okay.
56:06 All right.
56:06 - And on the next slide, we’ll see.
56:11 - Are you okay?
56:16 - I’m good.
56:17 - Bless you.
56:18 - We have some.
56:19 We do have some historical data
56:23 data of the students.
56:24 The student results are gonna be displayed
56:25 with some historical data at the top.
56:27 The years are indicated on the left,
56:28 and we have disaggregated it by grade.
56:31 - Okay.
56:32 - And again, our scale is from zero to three
56:35 for elementary students.
56:36 The next theme is academic challenge,
56:43 and this addresses how students feel about their learning,
56:46 and how challenging it is, and how relevant the instruction is.
56:51 And again, we have our information disaggregated by grade,
57:00 and we see the trend from 2020 to 2024.
57:03 - Yeah, this is where I have to go back and think about the
57:07 change
57:08 of audience, because when you have third and fourth graders
57:11 who are still more gung-ho about school, you know,
57:14 to me, we could look at that and go, oh my gosh,
57:16 this year was a huge drop-off in engagement and academic
57:19 challenge,
57:20 but then we’re losing those, you know, the ones who are still,
57:23 you know, life is sunny and rosy, and they’re not starting to
57:25 get into the…
57:26 - The idyllic third and fourth graders. - Hormonal years. Right.
57:30 Yeah, exactly. So we lost something with those. I understand we
57:34 did it, because third and fourth graders also don’t understand
57:38 as much. Right. So, but yeah, I’m not going to like set off the
57:42 alarm bells yet, because we lost some of our positive end. And
57:47 again, Mrs. Campbell, this is a snapshot. We do have a more in-depth
57:51 report available for everyone.
57:56 - Okay. So the next theme is on instructional methods, and this
58:00 is how students are describing strategies and approaches to what
58:04 their teachers are using in the classroom.
58:21 This is culture. And this describes how orderly and respectful
58:27 the classroom environment is, or they perceive the classroom
58:30 environment.
58:31 Okay. The last category for elementary students is belonging. It’s
58:43 pretty much self-explanatory. It talks about, it describes how
58:47 about their feeling of belonging in their school.
58:51 - Thank you. And this is one of the categories where we only
58:57 have two years of data, so we only have one year of historical
59:01 data to compare with. This question was added last year.
59:04 Oh, I’m sorry. One more. Relationships. This describes the, how
59:15 strong and supportive the relationships are with teachers.
59:20 And we have our trend data here. Okay. We move on to middle
59:25 school. And this is where the scale goes from, it goes to five.
59:25 Okay. This is where we’re going to go down.
59:25 And we have our highest theme is academic challenge. Okay. We
59:30 have our highest theme is academic challenge. Okay. The themes,
59:33 they’re slightly different for the, you know, for the most part,
59:40 they are the same.
59:43 Between middle and high school, they, there is one theme, which
1:00:02 is a college and career readiness. And we’ll, we’ll cover that
1:00:03 when we get to that point. And again, we have the same format.
1:00:06 Okay.
1:00:06 And again, the academic challenge definition, this theme does
1:00:17 evolve slightly. They, you know, students have more courses that
1:00:24 are offered in secondary schools. So this is related to how they
1:00:27 feel about their coursework, as well as the strategies their
1:00:31 teachers are using.
1:00:33 Okay. Okay. Next we have culture. This describes how students
1:00:45 feel about the way their school fosters a culture of respect and
1:00:52 fairness.
1:00:53 So I’m actually surprised at the green star on this, because as
1:00:59 if I recall from previous years, I remember this actually being
1:01:04 a low, a low mark, the one about students teaching adults,
1:01:08 treating adults with respect.
1:01:10 So I’ll be interested to see that, to dig deeper into that one
1:01:13 on this, this question, because I kind of remember that being
1:01:16 flipped with the second question.
1:01:19 Okay. So we’ll be able to see trend data on that. We’ll be able
1:01:23 to see trend data on that in the full report. Okay. Belonging
1:01:28 and peer collaboration describes the way in which students feel
1:01:33 welcome at their school and have collaborative relationships
1:01:36 with their classmates.
1:01:40 Okay. Okay. And on to relationships. For secondary, for middle
1:01:49 school that describes the, the support they receive and the
1:01:53 personal attention from their teachers.
1:01:55 The questions are a little bit more complex than the elementary
1:02:04 questions.
1:02:07 Okay. On to high school. Again, we have academic challenge as
1:02:10 the leading theme, this grade level.
1:02:14 Okay. And again, we have relationships. So we have our highest
1:02:42 rated and lowest rated.
1:02:43 We have our highest rated and lowest rated questions. And the
1:02:46 data is disaggregated by grade level along with our trend data.
1:02:59 Next we have our highest rated and lowest rated and lowest rated
1:03:00 and lowest rated and lowest rated and lowest rated and lowest
1:03:02 rated and lowest rated and lowest rated and lowest rated.
1:03:04 Next we have belonging and peer collaboration.
1:03:09 And our theme of culture.
1:03:14 Again, this describes how students feel about the fairness and
1:03:21 respect of their school environment.
1:03:26 And this final theme for high school students is college and
1:03:31 career readiness.
1:03:33 And this describes the degree to which students feel they are
1:03:36 equipped or have been equipped to pursue college and careers.
1:03:45 And again, we do have some increases in this area.
1:03:53 Ninth grade is, was particularly high this year.
1:03:56 And we, you know, we wondered if that were due, that was due to
1:03:59 the new CTE offerings, which, which could be, could be cause for
1:04:04 that.
1:04:05 Okay, next on to our, our family results.
1:04:12 Before you, before you jump into the next survey, you know, all
1:04:16 of this, Dr. Rendell briefly mentioned, but about the, with the,
1:04:20 with the consent, or you, you mentioned that that really changed
1:04:23 the factor.
1:04:24 I mean, I know the numbers are drastically reduced participants
1:04:27 from previous years.
1:04:28 So any big changes kind of have to be taken all of it with a
1:04:32 grain of salt.
1:04:33 But I just want to, I know, I already know the answer to this
1:04:35 question, but I asked that each school is using this data for
1:04:38 their specific purposes.
1:04:40 Right.
1:04:41 And if I understand when you had the lead conference several
1:04:44 weeks ago, along with their academic data, the leadership team
1:04:48 at each school was using this to try to make their decisions and
1:04:51 their plans for the coming year.
1:04:51 Correct.
1:04:54 Yes, ma’am.
1:04:55 The, this, this, the culture and climate data was provided to
1:04:58 every school individually.
1:05:00 And this was used when they were creating the culture and
1:05:03 climate portion of their school improvement plan.
1:05:06 So again, we, we discussed academics and we discussed our, our
1:05:09 culture and climate.
1:05:10 And this, this, this was used by school.
1:05:12 So, you know, I know this is the 30,000 foot view, but the
1:05:15 schools are able to go in and look at their own individual sites
1:05:18 and gather information from those reports.
1:05:20 From their own students.
1:05:21 Yes, ma’am.
1:05:22 That’s really important.
1:05:23 Thank you.
1:05:24 And just.
1:05:25 They did create a goal for a culture and climate with strategies.
1:05:31 And they did have all the stakeholders except students there to
1:05:35 create those strategies and goals to be able to monitor.
1:05:39 So this information was sent out to schools back in May, so they
1:05:43 could review it, dive deeper into it.
1:05:47 They had it in preparation for the ascend 2024, which included
1:05:51 stakeholders from their schools.
1:05:54 So they really had an opportunity.
1:05:55 We spent a day looking at this data in addition to discipline,
1:06:00 attendance to come up with a culture goal as well as strategies
1:06:06 that will be monitored throughout the school year.
1:06:08 So it just was an academic culture is important as well because
1:06:11 if the students are not there and if they’re not in the
1:06:14 classroom learning and if the environment is not suitable for
1:06:18 the employees as well.
1:06:19 We want it to be a positive learning environment and they really
1:06:23 delve deep into this particular strategy and goal for next year
1:06:27 because this was added.
1:06:29 This wasn’t previously a part of the school improvement plan, so
1:06:33 I would I just I want to echo the sentiments of Ms. Campbell and
1:06:38 Mr. Cole, Ms. Dampierre.
1:06:40 What I what I love is that the strategy was, like you said, to
1:06:43 tackle the culture and the climate, because ultimately,
1:06:47 regardless of how you feel like it’s going as an adult, if your
1:06:50 students have a perception that it’s not going the right way,
1:06:53 you’re going to have a decrease in academic engagement and
1:06:56 academic performance.
1:06:57 And all of those all the things that we care most about, but you
1:07:00 have to have that calm and supportive environment for them to
1:07:03 feel supported.
1:07:04 And I don’t I don’t know if this board was present for it and I
1:07:07 I don’t know time blends together.
1:07:09 I think it was two years ago at a superintendent summit that we
1:07:13 had a panel of students up there and kind of telling us how it
1:07:16 is and how it feels middle school students.
1:07:19 And it was just it’s such an eye opening experience because,
1:07:22 again, as an adult, you can perceive it however you want to.
1:07:26 And yes, you make the rules and they need to follow it.
1:07:28 But it is very interesting to see their perspective and how they
1:07:31 feel and how they would give suggestions of the most simplistic
1:07:34 things in the world to make them feel more comfortable and
1:07:37 supported by their teachers.
1:07:39 And a teacher may not realize that that they’re not they’re not
1:07:41 giving them that they might think that they are.
1:07:44 But I remember there was just one student who was saying, you
1:07:46 know, one of the things that would make make it so much easier
1:07:49 would be if I’m having a rough moment or a rough day to not tell
1:07:53 me like, oh, don’t worry.
1:07:54 Like it’ll go away, forget about it because in that moment that
1:07:56 middle schooler feels like, no, this is everything.
1:07:59 This is the end of my life.
1:08:00 Just hear that student out.
1:08:02 And I know that’s not the simple easiest solution in the world.
1:08:05 But it is interesting to kind of just hear from that student
1:08:07 perspective.
1:08:08 So I appreciate that we took the time to do that and to focus on
1:08:11 the thing that really creates a healthy foundation for all of
1:08:14 our kids.
1:08:15 So if you can go back one slide, just go back one slide.
1:08:20 So this was a list of questions as a high school principal when
1:08:23 we were using this use through survey data.
1:08:25 This was a list of questions that I paid great attention to.
1:08:29 So, for example, the highest rated question is my school has
1:08:31 helped me develop the skills and knowledge I need for college
1:08:34 level classes.
1:08:35 So they feel like they’re prepared, the ones that are going to
1:08:37 college at least, you know, feel like they’re prepared to go to
1:08:39 college.
1:08:40 But then the lowest rated question is my school has helped me
1:08:42 figure out which careers match my interests and abilities.
1:08:45 Now, we’re not necessarily a job placement service.
1:08:48 That’s not, you know, one of our things.
1:08:50 But we’re supposed to help prepare them for their future.
1:08:53 So that would kind of include helping them pick out their future
1:08:56 or career path or whatever.
1:08:58 And so I would look at these at my individual school and see how
1:09:02 my answers, how my students answered in these questions.
1:09:06 You know, if they feel like we’re getting them ready but we’re
1:09:08 not helping them choose, you know, then we got to look at what
1:09:12 are we doing.
1:09:13 So, you know, the second question there, one of the years I was
1:09:17 at Cocoa Beach, my school has helped me understand the steps I
1:09:19 need to take in order to apply to college was our lowest rated
1:09:22 question in this category.
1:09:24 So the highest was, again, they’re getting me ready for college.
1:09:28 But the lowest rated was they’re not helping me with the
1:09:31 application process and the steps needed to get to college.
1:09:35 So we revised some of the things we were doing based on that
1:09:37 information.
1:09:38 So know that that’s what the schools are doing.
1:09:40 They’re taking a look at this data, looking at their practices,
1:09:42 especially attacking their lowest rated questions.
1:09:45 There is a question in there that we went through that says I
1:09:48 feel safe in school and if that was ever my lowest rated
1:09:49 question, I knew I had to do something.
1:09:52 You know, you want it to be one of your highest rated questions.
1:09:55 There was an elementary question in the elementary section about
1:09:58 the teacher-student relationship that was actually the lowest
1:10:01 rated question for us as a district.
1:10:03 So I would imagine that elementary school principals are taking
1:10:06 a look at that to make sure that they are scoring, you know, the
1:10:10 feedback they’re getting from their students is that it’s a
1:10:12 positive relationship, not a negative one.
1:10:14 So a ton of information that we just raced through.
1:10:18 Every school has an individual report, especially for the
1:10:21 student survey data.
1:10:23 It’s four years worth of data they can check.
1:10:26 Yes, it’s a smaller sample size this year.
1:10:28 Yes, we changed it to only fifth and sixth grade in elementary.
1:10:32 But the data is still there, especially if you see trends.
1:10:35 If there’s an area that you’re not receiving positive responses
1:10:39 or as positive as you think, then you have to kind of reevaluate
1:10:43 what you’re doing.
1:10:44 So hugely insightful data if we take the time to break it down,
1:10:50 look at it, and learn from it.
1:10:53 So I think it was great that we required it as part of the
1:10:56 school improvement plan for climate and culture.
1:10:59 And this is one of the tools they were able to analyze to
1:11:02 develop their plan.
1:11:03 So really, really good stuff.
1:11:05 Now the family and staff surveys, it’ll be the first year we did
1:11:08 it with Youth Truth, so there’s no historical data.
1:11:11 But still good data that can provide us information about how we’re
1:11:14 doing.
1:11:15 So sorry.
1:11:16 Can I ask a quick question before we move on from the student
1:11:18 survey?
1:11:19 And you may not know this, but when you look at your elementary,
1:11:22 your middle school and your high school, what percentage of
1:11:24 students in each one of those separate categories would you say
1:11:26 filled out the survey?
1:11:28 So do we have?
1:11:29 So I do have numbers, Mrs. Wright.
1:11:34 So I have a comparison from this year to last year.
1:11:38 I can give you those.
1:11:39 So we have 3,919 elementary students compared to 17,071 students
1:11:45 this year.
1:11:46 I’m sorry, from 2023.
1:11:48 Middle school this year we had 2,724, okay, compared to 8,259.
1:11:58 And for high school we had 4,168 compared to 15,477.
1:12:07 Okay, and I know, and I’m only asking that, I know that’s
1:12:09 probably not like one of those things that we’re so super
1:12:12 excited about.
1:12:13 But I think it would be wise for that to maybe be a huge message
1:12:17 that maybe parents don’t want their students surveyed in this
1:12:21 manner.
1:12:22 And I’m telling you as a parent myself who has children in BPS
1:12:25 schools, I feel very much like I don’t want my child surveyed on
1:12:28 certain things.
1:12:29 I, as the adult in the room, would like to be asked the
1:12:31 questions and I’m happy to give the feedback.
1:12:34 But when it comes to children and data mining and surveying, I
1:12:38 think they’re already, that’s already happening whether we like
1:12:40 it or not.
1:12:41 And so those numbers are, I think, important.
1:12:44 They say something.
1:12:46 And just so you know, we do, based on statute, anytime we’re
1:12:50 asking students about their well-being, we have to get parent
1:12:53 permission.
1:12:54 And that is why we had to make sure that the parents gave
1:12:57 permission for the students to take the survey.
1:13:01 Yeah, absolutely.
1:13:02 And we will continue to do that.
1:13:03 Yes.
1:13:04 Thank you.
1:13:05 I want to point out one thing too.
1:13:06 If people are looking at these sides and seeing the lowest rated
1:13:09 question, to remember that that’s, we’re not putting the numbers
1:13:12 up there either, right?
1:13:13 So it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a really negative number.
1:13:16 It also, it literally just means it’s the lowest rated question.
1:13:19 So I just want people to be aware of that before they freak out
1:13:21 when they freak some of those.
1:13:22 It’s a really good point because sometimes it’s only a percent
1:13:24 or two lower than the highest rated question.
1:13:27 Right.
1:13:28 Like every question in that category might be getting a 3.5, 3.6,
1:13:31 3.7.
1:13:32 And it’s just the lowest rated question.
1:13:33 And just because it’s red and green, I wanted people to be aware
1:13:35 of that.
1:13:36 I also, I just, just, I want to, I want to be a little cognizant
1:13:40 of what Ms. Wright said.
1:13:43 Just, you know, it’s also an assumption to state that as well.
1:13:45 I mean, it’s statistically an impediment to require someone to
1:13:48 opt into something.
1:13:50 There’s always a lower response when you require an opt-in
1:13:53 versus an opt-out.
1:13:54 And there has been a lot of, a lot of conversation in the world
1:13:58 of the danger of the survey and stuff like that, making people
1:14:00 hesitant.
1:14:01 And so when people see the benefit of it and how it helps the
1:14:04 district plan and make positive changes for the students,
1:14:07 hopefully we’ll have a bigger turnout next year.
1:14:09 Thank you.
1:14:10 Okay.
1:14:11 So I’ll just go ahead and reiterate the, the point that this, we
1:14:21 do not have historical data as we wanted to have one company,
1:14:25 you know, provide the survey for all of our stakeholders.
1:14:29 And again, it’s the same format.
1:14:31 We will show you the theme and at the beginning of each grade
1:14:34 level, we’ll show you the highest ranking theme.
1:14:38 And for elementary, our, our elementary school families, it was
1:14:42 relationships, middle school families, relationships as well.
1:14:49 And for high school families.
1:14:51 So that, that was a, that theme was consistent all the way
1:14:54 through.
1:14:55 Okay.
1:14:56 So for our, our theme of engagement for family surveys, give you
1:15:04 a brief description of that.
1:15:07 It describes the degree to which families are engaged with their
1:15:12 school and empowered to influence decision-making.
1:15:15 And if you look at this chart, this is a little bit different
1:15:18 from the other charts.
1:15:19 We have, we still have the color coded chart green means that
1:15:23 was the highest rated question.
1:15:25 Red will be the lowest rated question.
1:15:26 And we have an E for elementary, M for middle school and H for
1:15:30 high school.
1:15:31 Sorry to interrupt you, but do you mind just for the, the one,
1:15:34 two, three, four, five saying what those stood for?
1:15:37 I’m sorry.
1:15:38 So, so for the last one, like two men sometimes, three men.
1:15:42 Oh yes.
1:15:43 Okay.
1:15:44 Yes, yes, yes, yes.
1:15:45 So this is, this is a standard Likert scale.
1:15:47 I’m sorry.
1:15:48 So one would be, I, I disagree.
1:15:50 I somewhat disagree.
1:15:51 Three would be, I’m neutral.
1:15:53 Four would be, I agree.
1:15:54 And five will be, I strongly agree.
1:15:56 Okay.
1:15:57 So this, this display is a little different.
1:16:04 We have all three levels displayed on one slide for you.
1:16:09 So for the engagement theme, again, our elementary schools were
1:16:14 the leading level there.
1:16:18 Okay.
1:16:19 Next we have relationships.
1:16:23 This describes the degree to which families experience positive
1:16:26 relationships in their schools,
1:16:27 based on respect, care, and approachability.
1:16:37 Okay.
1:16:38 We have our averages by grade level.
1:16:42 Next is culture.
1:16:46 This describes the degree to which families believe their
1:16:49 schools foster, shared goals, respect, fairness, and diversity.
1:16:54 Okay.
1:16:55 Next we have communication and feedback.
1:17:04 And this is, this details the, the openness and effective lines
1:17:09 of communication between families and schools.
1:17:13 And we have resources.
1:17:29 This describes the way in which schools deploy the necessary
1:17:34 resources to support all students.
1:17:38 And school safety describes the degree to which families believe
1:17:47 their school is a safe place for students.
1:17:51 That’s not fair with only two questions.
1:17:52 It’s either going to be a star or we have to be really close.
1:18:05 Yeah.
1:18:06 Because the averages actually aren’t bad.
1:18:08 Yeah.
1:18:12 I think that’s how, can you, how many families participated in
1:18:15 this?
1:18:16 Yeah.
1:18:17 Family participation.
1:18:18 So we had, I’ll go by level.
1:18:21 And we had 5,260 families for elementary, 1,930 for middle
1:18:30 school, 1,582 for high school for a total of 8,772.
1:18:37 And we do always notice a taper of, you know, from elementary to
1:18:41 high school seems like parents are more concerned at that, that
1:18:46 the children are younger.
1:18:49 I think it’s important.
1:18:50 I think these numbers are going to be more critical when you
1:18:52 look at the school level, honestly, for all of us, it’s really
1:18:56 more beneficial for the school level than the district.
1:18:59 But as a positive note, you know, none of these categories, all
1:19:03 of these categories, sorry, in every single grade level is above
1:19:07 neutral, which means a positive.
1:19:09 And it’s always frustrating when you have like a numbered scale
1:19:12 because it’s not a five.
1:19:14 The reality is it’s positive.
1:19:16 And that’s a good thing.
1:19:17 And when you, the reason I wanted to know the numbers too, is
1:19:21 because there’s such a stark, and obviously, like you said, it’s
1:19:24 expected to go down as we get higher in grades.
1:19:26 But the stark contrast between high school and elementary, it is
1:19:31 an assumption, yes, but one can assume there’d be more negative
1:19:35 feelings for the respondents.
1:19:38 Like they’re reaching out and responding because they feel more
1:19:41 negatively, I would think, at that higher of a level and to
1:19:43 still be on the positive side.
1:19:45 That’s a, that’s a good thing.
1:19:46 Again, once we, you know, drill deeper into the results, you
1:19:50 will be able to see the number, the percent positives, which,
1:19:53 you know, those numbers are probably a better, a stronger, you
1:19:57 know, indicator of what, what’s happening and how, how people
1:20:00 feel.
1:20:03 So we, thank you for providing those numbers.
1:20:06 Do you, I know it was a different survey, but do you have the
1:20:09 numbers from last year’s parent survey to compare it to?
1:20:12 So it was, I have the number of, of respondents.
1:20:16 I can, I can make that available.
1:20:17 I can make that available, but it was a totally different
1:20:19 platform.
1:20:20 And that’s where we had the issue, you know, when we had, we
1:20:23 used the survey monkey, as I, you know, stated before, which is,
1:20:27 it’s, it’s nice that we can customize that.
1:20:29 But, you know, it’s just, it’s different.
1:20:33 It’s different.
1:20:34 So I can’t provide the number of responses that we.
1:20:35 Higher, lower.
1:20:36 Can I get back to you on that?
1:20:40 Yes, yes, you can.
1:20:41 You can.
1:20:42 And part of it is, I know we, you know, I have two parents that
1:20:46 time of year, you know, I can’t remember, I think you shared it
1:20:49 one time.
1:20:50 There was a meme somebody made, you know, we’re, we’re reaching
1:20:54 out to you to contact you about your auto insurance, your auto
1:20:58 car warranty.
1:20:58 Or whatever.
1:20:59 And then somebody had slashed through that and put, you know,
1:21:01 your parent, BPS parent survey.
1:21:03 Because it was a joke.
1:21:04 Because we were getting so many texts the year before, last,
1:21:07 before this one.
1:21:08 And.
1:21:09 But like we, we hounded people.
1:21:11 And people are like, how do I opt out once I’ve already taken it?
1:21:14 But I mean, we, we want to get good survey data.
1:21:16 There’s a balance between not irritating people.
1:21:18 But so I don’t know that we did it quite that overboard this
1:21:22 year, but it was still, you know, anything we can do to
1:21:26 encourage that engagement is good.
1:21:29 Of course.
1:21:30 We all, we ought to share the meme ourselves next year.
1:21:33 That would be good.
1:21:34 Yeah.
1:21:35 Okay.
1:21:36 And as we move into the staff survey results, again, keep in
1:21:40 mind, it’s going to be the same
1:21:42 scenario as the family results.
1:21:45 We don’t have historical data as we, you know, we didn’t use the
1:21:49 same company in the past.
1:21:51 Can you tell us how many, how many participated in the survey
1:21:53 before we start?
1:21:54 Yes.
1:21:56 Of course.
1:21:57 So for elementary, we had 2,792, middle school 659 and high
1:22:05 school 946.
1:22:08 So this year we had a total of 4,403 compared to the previous
1:22:12 year of 3,343.
1:22:14 So we did increase there.
1:22:24 Okay.
1:22:25 So again, we have our themes for elementary school staff.
1:22:28 We had a tie for engagement and relationships with the staff
1:22:34 survey.
1:22:36 Our middle school, middle school staff survey engagement was the
1:22:39 highest rated theme.
1:22:41 In high school, this was our general theme, our overall feeling
1:22:49 about our school.
1:22:52 Okay.
1:22:53 Here’s a list of the general questions and the ratings by level.
1:22:58 Again, this is an overall feeling.
1:23:01 And we have it disaggregated by, by school level again, same
1:23:09 format.
1:23:11 So engagement, this, this theme describes the, the way that, or
1:23:18 how, how staff feel about their work and that they’re empowered
1:23:23 to influence the decisions that their schools make.
1:23:26 Okay.
1:23:27 So we have two pages here.
1:23:29 So I’m going to, if you need me to go back to, you know, between
1:23:38 page two and one, we had quite a few questions for this theme
1:23:42 for relationships.
1:23:43 So we can see our highest rated themes for, again, keep in mind
1:23:46 the H is for high school, M is for middle school and the E is
1:23:49 for elementary.
1:23:50 So I’ll give you a moment to look at the questions before I move
1:23:54 on.
1:23:55 And I’ll tell you about this theme.
1:23:57 It’s relationships.
1:23:58 It describes the degree to which the staff experienced positive
1:24:01 relationships in their school based on respect, care, and
1:24:03 approachability.
1:24:04 Okay.
1:24:05 Here’s the second page.
1:24:18 And our averages are average scores.
1:24:21 Okay.
1:24:22 Next we have culture.
1:24:27 This describes the degree to which staff believe their school fosters,
1:24:31 a cultural shared vision, respect, and effective communication.
1:24:35 And we, again, this is one where we had multiple pages.
1:24:45 So I’ll go back if you need me to.
1:24:49 And our average ratings.
1:24:56 Okay.
1:24:58 Professional development and support describes the degree to
1:25:02 which staff receive meaningful feedback,
1:25:05 have opportunities to grow professionally, and feel supported in
1:25:09 their work.
1:25:10 I’ll give you a moment to look at the first page.
1:25:16 And then the second page.
1:25:18 We have our average ratings.
1:25:29 Okay.
1:25:34 School safety.
1:25:35 This describes a staff member’s level of perceived safety for
1:25:39 themselves and students on campus,
1:25:42 as well as of the rules and protocols in place to address
1:25:45 violence at school.
1:25:47 I would like to note here, we see our lowest rated question is,
1:25:56 I feel safe from harm while at my school.
1:25:59 So for high school, we had a 76% positive rating, meaning that
1:26:05 they rated the question agree or strongly agree.
1:26:08 But I want to tell you about the range.
1:26:11 The range was from 3.38 to 4.13.
1:26:14 So it wasn’t even one point.
1:26:16 And you’ll be able to see that in the report.
1:26:17 So that range was very, very small.
1:26:20 And that’s something to keep in mind.
1:26:22 Okay.
1:26:24 For elementary, it was a 78% positive rating.
1:26:27 And the range was a little bit wider.
1:26:30 It was from 3.54 to 4.3.
1:26:34 So again, not one full point.
1:26:37 But still, you know, we want to keep in mind that that was the
1:26:39 lowest rated question.
1:26:41 And again, we have our averages by school level.
1:26:51 Okay, so the links to each individual report by level have been
1:26:56 linked to this page, but we are working to make one document
1:27:03 where we can just click it one time.
1:27:04 But, you know, we do want to have this available if people want
1:27:07 to go look at those specific levels.
1:27:10 Okay.
1:27:11 Were there any comment sections on the staff one this time
1:27:17 around?
1:27:18 Yes, we did have.
1:27:19 Like free comment, sorry.
1:27:20 Yes, we did have the, we have the comments, but they were, it
1:27:25 was a lot to put on this.
1:27:27 But we did receive comments from students, staff, and family as
1:27:29 well.
1:27:30 Are those on these links or no?
1:27:32 No, ma’am.
1:27:34 The comments are not on those links.
1:27:35 Can we get them?
1:27:36 And it’s not an emergency, but is that possible?
1:27:38 Yeah.
1:27:39 Yes.
1:27:40 Yes, we can provide those.
1:27:42 We have to make sure, we have to take, if we do, we have to take
1:27:45 out any identifiable information.
1:27:45 Yeah, we’ll have to take a look at a couple of them because they
1:27:47 have identifiable information in there.
1:27:50 Okay, yeah.
1:27:51 People’s names.
1:27:52 I’m interested in just, just because some of these questions are,
1:27:55 when you take them very literally, they might be interpreted a
1:27:57 certain way.
1:27:58 It’s just interesting to see like their outward response.
1:28:02 So, just going back to the student survey and the challenges
1:28:07 with that, I know that we’re going to use a different vendor for
1:28:12 all these, possibly different vendors for each survey, which is
1:28:16 fine as long as it’s, you know, high quality, you know.
1:28:19 So, I, we did, with our online registration process this year,
1:28:23 we took care, you know, schools had the opportunity to kind of
1:28:27 do a lot of that upfront, which we haven’t been able to do
1:28:30 before because it’s all electronic enrollment.
1:28:32 Did we, it’s been, I, I did mine the first week, the enrollment
1:28:36 was open, so I can’t remember.
1:28:38 But did we ask questions like this as far as participation in
1:28:40 the survey, are we going to, or is that something that we’ll do
1:28:43 later when it’s time for the survey?
1:28:45 So, we’ll do that when it’s time for the survey, as we have to
1:28:47 provide the questions for parents.
1:28:49 Yes.
1:28:50 They have to have that choice.
1:28:51 They need to, you know, be able to vet those questions.
1:28:53 Yes.
1:28:54 And make sure they take a look at what their, their children are
1:28:56 going to be, you know, reading.
1:28:57 Yeah.
1:28:58 We have to give them that, that chance to do that.
1:28:59 That’s really.
1:29:00 So, that’s not a part of the enrollment piece.
1:29:01 Yeah.
1:29:02 No, I appreciate that.
1:29:03 I know that’s, that’s good to clarify and good to know.
1:29:06 And, and just to know this year, I, you know, I think I have a
1:29:09 different take on it than you do.
1:29:11 I think this is, this is, I, yes, there are people who don’t
1:29:13 want their kids to answer anything.
1:29:16 But honestly, the drop in participation is, I mean, there’s no
1:29:21 way around.
1:29:22 You had to do extra work for your kid to do it.
1:29:25 And then you look at the middle school and the high school, the
1:29:27 parent could have provided the, the less engaged parents, which
1:29:30 are high school, middle school parents,
1:29:30 less likely to do it.
1:29:31 And even if the parent provided the, the survey, if the student
1:29:34 decided, I don’t want to do it, even if their parent, then we
1:29:37 don’t have that information.
1:29:39 And that’s, that’s totally up to them.
1:29:40 And we, we deal with the data that we have.
1:29:42 But what’s really important about this, making sure that it’s
1:29:46 appropriate.
1:29:47 And we’ve done, even with the youth through survey, we’ve done a
1:29:50 lot of work over the last four years that we’ve had it to try to
1:29:52 eliminate those controversial questions that might cause people,
1:29:56 you know, to be stressed out about it.
1:29:59 But there’s, there’s, it, we, it’s a delicate balance, but we
1:30:03 need student voice.
1:30:05 We need student voice.
1:30:07 Teachers and their classrooms need student voice.
1:30:10 And us as a district, as district leaders, the principals need
1:30:13 student voice.
1:30:14 Dr. Rendell values student voice.
1:30:17 And so he monthly meets with our student government leaders.
1:30:20 And that is his, I can’t remember what you call them, advisory.
1:30:24 Student advisory council.
1:30:27 But there, we, it’s one thing to hear from the parents and we
1:30:31 need to hear from them too.
1:30:33 And the student voice is not the be all end all.
1:30:35 It has to be balanced with what’s going, because they have their
1:30:37 perspective and they are, you know, their cognitive abilities
1:30:42 aren’t fully developed yet.
1:30:43 But that student voice is important.
1:30:45 And so whatever safe way we can do it with parent approval, I
1:30:48 believe we need to continue to find a way to get that input in,
1:30:54 in a way that’s anonymous.
1:30:55 And you mentioned the word data mining.
1:30:56 I want, I want us to be careful with that because I’ve answered
1:30:57 those questions many times when people, oh, there’s, it’s identifiable.
1:31:01 Because there was a time when someone said, oh, in the free
1:31:03 comment if a student showed that they might have been, you know,
1:31:07 suicidal or whatever.
1:31:08 Youth Truth had the ability, did they have the ability to go
1:31:11 back and track down an IPN address, which they would give.
1:31:14 And then there was, oh, then Youth Truth has access to that.
1:31:16 Well, no.
1:31:17 Then they could get it over to the school personnel who, if they
1:31:19 could figure out who took that survey on what computer could
1:31:22 maybe trace it back.
1:31:23 Because that’s a need.
1:31:24 But so then it was turned into it’s data mining.
1:31:26 I mean, I guess if you’re asking students their survey, I mean,
1:31:29 anything that’s, you know, and then it’s getting reported, you
1:31:32 could call it data mining.
1:31:33 But it’s not traceable back to the specific student so that they’re
1:31:36 in danger or that some outside company has access to their
1:31:39 personal and private information.
1:31:41 They don’t.
1:31:42 They didn’t with this one and we’re going to make sure with
1:31:44 whatever we choose in the future that that is the case.
1:31:47 But I just, I think we need to be careful.
1:31:49 We always need to be careful to make sure that our students are
1:31:51 safe, that their information is safe.
1:31:53 But again, I just can’t get past that student voice is important
1:31:56 in all the ways that we can collect it.
1:31:59 In all the ways, but in that personal, the teacher is getting
1:32:03 that input every day in their classrooms.
1:32:06 And, you know, and administrators are standing in the hallways
1:32:09 and students will come up to them and go, you know, about
1:32:13 whatever they’re complaining, you know, what to complain about
1:32:16 or rejoicing about.
1:32:17 But to have a consistent way that we can, we can get that voice
1:32:22 in there in an anonymous way where they can be honest and not
1:32:26 have to worry about, you know, who’s going to do something.
1:32:29 You know, if I complain about my teacher, what’s going to happen?
1:32:32 Is she going to give me a lower grade?
1:32:33 That may not happen.
1:32:34 But, you know, we’re humans.
1:32:35 We think that way.
1:32:36 I think that’s important.
1:32:37 Thank you.
1:32:38 Ms. Campbell.
1:32:39 Does anybody else have anything else to add about?
1:32:42 I have a question.
1:32:44 Forgive me, because you may have literally just said this, but I
1:32:47 was just processing a little bit.
1:32:49 So, and I don’t, like, there’s so much changes to the statute
1:32:53 that I don’t know anymore.
1:32:55 So, going back to the question about the enrollment paperwork,
1:33:00 possibly getting the permission then, they have to be able to
1:33:06 have access to it to approve first.
1:33:12 Like, that’s statute.
1:33:13 Yes.
1:33:14 Okay.
1:33:15 So, then never mind.
1:33:16 Then my follow-up question would not make any sense.
1:33:18 So, thank you.
1:33:19 But, so, okay.
1:33:24 There’s no way around that then.
1:33:26 Because we’ll never have this ahead of time before enrollment.
1:33:29 Unless we reuse the same exact questions from the following year.
1:33:31 Right.
1:33:32 If we settle on a set of questions that we’re going to use year
1:33:33 after year after year, yes, we could have it.
1:33:35 Yeah.
1:33:36 As part of the re-enrollment process.
1:33:37 Okay.
1:33:38 I just, I think it’s important, Ms. Campbell, you said something
1:33:40 that kind of just sparked my memory, too, is, you know, if we do
1:33:44 change vendors, if we don’t, whatever, regardless.
1:33:47 So, the next time this comes around, I think it’s really
1:33:50 important for us to articulate to the public exactly what you
1:33:54 mentioned about how, for the past four years, Brevard Public
1:33:59 Schools has, like, gone out of their way to eliminate questions
1:34:02 that people would find controversial.
1:34:04 Because we had the, we had the ability to do that.
1:34:06 And that, that in and of itself, just being, you know, open and
1:34:10 honest about that might drive a little bit more turnout, too.
1:34:14 So, okay.
1:34:15 Thank you.
1:34:16 And I’m just, I’m going to follow up, Ms. Campbell, to what you
1:34:18 said about student voice.
1:34:20 And I, I 100% agree that student voice is absolutely important.
1:34:23 I think this survey, and I think the legislator has also
1:34:25 identified the fact that the parents are the ones that are in
1:34:28 control, which is why the permission slip even exists to begin
1:34:30 with.
1:34:31 So, I, I want to hear what the students say, but there’s a ways
1:34:35 around.
1:34:36 This survey, to me, it is a bit irritating.
1:34:38 It really is.
1:34:39 And I, and I’m, this is no offense to you guys.
1:34:41 It was irritating to me before I was ever on this board.
1:34:43 And I spoke to many parents that feel exactly the same way.
1:34:46 But they don’t want their students asked these things because
1:34:48 the adults in the room should be making the decisions and kind
1:34:50 of steering the direction of how things go.
1:34:53 When we talk about student voice, I think student voice is very
1:34:55 important.
1:34:56 When we look at your advisory council that you have with student
1:34:59 government, that’s really important.
1:35:01 And guess what?
1:35:02 Parents are signing their kids up to be a part of that and, and
1:35:04 have that voice and speak there.
1:35:05 And I think that’s very, very important.
1:35:07 And it absolutely can drive the ship on how we do things within
1:35:10 our school district.
1:35:11 But when we’re talking, especially about our elementary kids, I,
1:35:14 I guess we’ll respectfully agree to disagree that I don’t think
1:35:18 our, our elementary kids should be surveyed.
1:35:21 I think that they’re there to be educated.
1:35:22 And I think that we can absolutely survey the parents on how do
1:35:25 they feel the education is going.
1:35:27 We can survey the teachers on how do you feel the culture is and
1:35:29 the environment is in your school.
1:35:31 But when it comes to asking a child a question that sometimes is
1:35:35 quite frankly, out of their grasp of really understanding the
1:35:38 magnitude of how they answer it or what they’re even answering.
1:35:41 I don’t know that that should be a factor that we look at and
1:35:44 say, okay, this is how we’re going to change X, Y, and Z because
1:35:48 a student said this and the student could be nine years old.
1:35:52 Do you understand what I’m saying?
1:35:53 So that’s where, that’s where I’m, I just differ on where, where
1:35:57 I land on this.
1:35:58 I do, but I, but going back, these, these questions are in here
1:36:02 and they’re leveled.
1:36:04 So, you know, looking at the actual questions that are here, one,
1:36:08 they’re not, we’ve eliminated the nine year olds because we’re
1:36:10 only doing fifth and sixth graders.
1:36:12 But questions like, do students stay busy in class?
1:36:15 Do students behave in class?
1:36:17 Do students from your class treat the teacher with respect?
1:36:19 Those are the culture questions that a 10, 11, and 12 year old
1:36:24 should be able to identify and express.
1:36:27 They’re not complicated.
1:36:28 And, and again, we’re not talking about a single student or a
1:36:31 single class of students or whatever responds negatively.
1:36:35 So we’re going to completely change.
1:36:36 When I hear, what I heard Mr. Poole say is each school got their
1:36:41 data from the students, from the parents, from the teachers, and
1:36:47 along with other things, not just this, they made a culture goal
1:36:52 for their school.
1:36:52 This was part of the equation.
1:36:54 So I hear you.
1:36:55 And yes, I, I believe you talked to lots of people who think the
1:36:58 same way as you do.
1:36:59 I believe you did.
1:37:00 But, you know, again, we’re not asking them, we’ve, we’ve
1:37:04 removed the things.
1:37:06 And, and, you know, the bullying questions from people, but we’re
1:37:10 not talking about gender ideology.
1:37:12 We’re not talking about, do you think your teacher cares about
1:37:14 you?
1:37:15 Honestly, I want our schools to know that because if schools
1:37:18 have a low score on that, I, those schools want to know, hey,
1:37:21 maybe the teachers think they’re communicating in a certain way,
1:37:24 but it’s not quite getting across.
1:37:26 So we, we can change how we do things.
1:37:28 If they were, you know, and again, I’m looking forward to the
1:37:31 new survey, because even if there’s some questions in here that
1:37:35 we’re like, okay, well, the rest of them are fine, but that one,
1:37:38 no.
1:37:38 We didn’t have the ability with youth truth is what you’re
1:37:40 saying to edit those one questions out.
1:37:42 We can pick the questions that will really give us the data that
1:37:44 we need.
1:37:45 And then parents can make that choice.
1:37:48 All right.
1:37:49 Thank you.
1:37:50 Does anybody else have anything else to add to this?
1:37:52 You go ahead.
1:37:53 Oh, you’re the vice chair.
1:37:55 You gotta wait.
1:37:56 So years ago, I proposed when I would go to Sarasota and I would
1:37:59 go to some of these other school boards, I proposed that we had
1:38:03 a student representative that sat on the school board like they
1:38:06 do.
1:38:06 They have a student that sits there and as you’re going through
1:38:08 things, the problem is, is that there was a disconnect.
1:38:11 And I agreed with that, that the individual that was sitting up
1:38:14 there didn’t truly represent the student body because they were
1:38:17 a single individual person, right?
1:38:19 What Dr. Rendell does where he meets with all of the student
1:38:22 government people and stuff like that gives a good culture of a
1:38:25 wide variety.
1:38:26 But what I do when I go into the schools is there’s, as a
1:38:29 teacher, I knew that you had two different perspectives.
1:38:32 You had one perspective that was from the student that was from
1:38:34 student government.
1:38:35 And then you had the other perspective of the kid that had like
1:38:37 C’s and B’s and was basically running through the schools and
1:38:39 doing different things too.
1:38:41 So what I always try to do is I try to go into each one of the
1:38:43 schools, talk to a class, and then pull some of the kids that I
1:38:46 can identify that are like that and just talk to them and say,
1:38:48 hey, what’s going on here?
1:38:49 And usually you can get a pretty good gist of what’s going on
1:38:52 inside the schools by doing that.
1:38:54 But I think that we could do a better job as far as student body
1:38:57 representations and stuff like that.
1:38:59 I think the survey is one thing, but the percentage of it being
1:39:02 so small, you know, doesn’t really give us the numbers that we
1:39:06 truly could see if we wanted to try to make change.
1:39:08 And the other thing is, is that the survey is a one time a year
1:39:11 type thing.
1:39:12 Sometimes when we’re moving through things like when we were
1:39:14 doing the guardian program, I pulled some of our dual enrollment
1:39:17 students that were over at Eastern Florida State.
1:39:19 I was talking to them about it.
1:39:20 It gives you an opportunity to kind of move through and get
1:39:23 those real time opinions.
1:39:25 That’s all.
1:39:26 I just wanted to kind of point that out.
1:39:27 That’s it.
1:39:28 Thank you, Mr. Susan.
1:39:29 And Mr. Trent, you were ready to go.
1:39:32 Yeah, I’ll just follow up.
1:39:33 And then, I mean, this kind of data is what it is.
1:39:40 I appreciate the staff’s comments.
1:39:44 I mean, that’s always valid.
1:39:47 I do agree with Ms. Wright with asking the elementary school
1:39:53 kids.
1:39:54 I mean, it’s there again, it is what it is.
1:39:57 When you look at the very first question, when your teacher
1:39:59 wants you to work your hardest is the highest question and value.
1:40:06 And does your teacher want you to work your best, do your best
1:40:08 is the lowest, which right there should pretty much take away
1:40:13 the comments there for forward.
1:40:17 Because obviously the elementary school kids, they just, they’re
1:40:20 just answering.
1:40:21 Let’s, let’s be honest on that.
1:40:23 And even the second one where, you know, does the work of your
1:40:26 class make you really think is the highest rated question.
1:40:29 Does what you learn in school help you in your life is the
1:40:31 lowest?
1:40:32 Well, I hope so because they don’t know what they don’t know.
1:40:35 What, what is it a day in an elementary school’s kids life?
1:40:38 You know, what videos to go on, what, what, what to watch, what
1:40:41 the, how to ride their bike and where they’re going.
1:40:44 So I hope we’re not making major decisions at any of the schools
1:40:48 based on this limited data.
1:40:50 I know it’s not coming from here, but you know, as they get
1:40:52 older, I think, you know, hearing from them is important.
1:40:57 It’s, it’s, it’s interesting.
1:40:59 And that’s, I mean, that the data is, the numbers are going down
1:41:02 on participation, but I still think it’s enough to get a
1:41:05 snapshot of, of, of, of, of where these students are getting
1:41:10 that information.
1:41:12 But again, if we didn’t have this from our elementary school
1:41:15 kids, students, I think would be just as well.
1:41:18 And we could take that time and, and, and maybe from this data,
1:41:21 have the teachers get to know the students a little bit more and,
1:41:25 and get on that on, on the curriculum rather than, you know,
1:41:28 putting this in front of six, seven, eight, nine, 10 year old
1:41:32 kids.
1:41:33 But that’s, that’s my two cents, but thank you for all the data
1:41:36 collection and putting it together.
1:41:38 That’s a lot of hard work.
1:41:40 That’s a lot of slides that you had to present and put together.
1:41:44 So thank you for doing your work.
1:41:45 And I know it’s going to be good as, as a whole and as
1:41:48 principals, they’re going to use that at the high school level,
1:41:51 middle school level.
1:41:52 There’s some very important information here, but.
1:41:56 All right.
1:41:57 So thank you guys for all the hard work that you put in on this.
1:42:00 I have a follow up.
1:42:01 Yeah.
1:42:02 Yes, of course I do.
1:42:04 Because it’s really important because when we, when we.
1:42:09 As board members talk about our opinions, we need to remember
1:42:14 that our opinions don’t always have to, or not valid enough to
1:42:19 be the deciding factor for the entire decisions that are made
1:42:23 for a district.
1:42:25 So when we talk about parental rights, that’s parental rights
1:42:28 for every single parent.
1:42:30 Yes, you have the right to say no for your child.
1:42:33 Having a conversation about why we shouldn’t survey the
1:42:35 elementary students.
1:42:37 First of all, it’s fifth and sixth graders.
1:42:39 They’re not nine and eight years old.
1:42:40 Remember the lowest rated question doesn’t mean it’s a negative
1:42:44 response.
1:42:45 It just means it was the lowest.
1:42:46 So that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily contradictory to one
1:42:48 another being highest and lowest.
1:42:50 And just alone, 5,260 elementary school families wanted their
1:42:55 children surveyed.
1:42:57 So the one opinion up here or the two opinions up here that we
1:43:00 shouldn’t survey elementary students.
1:43:03 Like remember, this is representative of the district.
1:43:07 Those families wanted it.
1:43:09 And those are the ones who are aware of it and opted in for it.
1:43:12 It doesn’t mean that the ones who didn’t necessarily didn’t want
1:43:15 their kids surveyed.
1:43:16 They may not have known about it.
1:43:18 They may not have responded.
1:43:19 They may not have been reached out to enough times.
1:43:21 So I think any and all information that our schools can have
1:43:24 when parents are willing to give that permission, go for it.
1:43:29 Let’s do it.
1:43:30 And I think it’s important to remember, too, you know, when we
1:43:33 are talking about elementary kids and if there is a
1:43:38 contradictory response,
1:43:39 that’s really important information for classroom teachers to
1:43:43 kind of take a step back as adults and realize what that
1:43:46 perspective is.
1:43:48 You know, do you think your teacher wants you to work your
1:43:50 hardest?
1:43:51 And they say, yes, I do.
1:43:52 I think they expect me to work hard every day.
1:43:55 Does your teacher want you to do your best?
1:43:58 And maybe that’s a little lower.
1:44:00 And as an adult, I would look at that working with little kids
1:44:02 and think, am I encouraging this student to the best of their
1:44:07 ability?
1:44:07 Or am I holding them to this highest possible standard that may
1:44:10 be too high for them?
1:44:11 And their perception might be, you’re not asking me to do my
1:44:14 personal best.
1:44:15 You’re asking me to work really hard.
1:44:17 And that’s just a different, it’s just really enlightening for
1:44:19 classroom teachers to kind of get a reset and a focus for the
1:44:22 new year
1:44:23 of how to maybe approach their little ones a little bit
1:44:25 differently.
1:44:26 All right.
1:44:28 Thank you, Ms. Jenkins.
1:44:29 All right.
1:44:30 So we are, at this point, have gone through everything that’s on
1:44:32 our agenda.
1:44:33 There was one email that went out Mr. Gibbs had sent out in
1:44:35 regards to the policy updates.
1:44:37 We, I think it was 123 left that we need to, to process through.
1:44:41 Yeah.
1:44:42 There’s 123 policies from the board’s review of the policy book.
1:44:46 And then we’re going to have any additional policies from the
1:44:49 legislative session that we have to update.
1:44:51 Okay.
1:44:52 And board, did you guys have a chance to weigh in and respond to
1:44:55 Mr. Gibbs so that we can start working on those and get those
1:44:57 knocked out?
1:44:58 That’s been something we’ve been working on for almost two years
1:45:00 now.
1:45:01 Yeah.
1:45:02 I feel like –
1:45:03 Yeah, let’s go.
1:45:04 The question would be – because I know you had sent us
1:45:06 yesterday like a timeline about the special meetings,
1:45:09 but consider the one that’s – the meetings that are going to be
1:45:11 the longest – I know we’ve already taken a look at these,
1:45:14 but some of them it’s been over a year.
1:45:15 Right.
1:45:16 Since we looked at them.
1:45:17 The meeting that’s going to be the longest is the work session
1:45:19 type meeting where we mean –
1:45:21 where there’s laws changed that are going to be addition to the
1:45:23 things we already talked about last year.
1:45:25 We’ve got new cabinet members in place in some of these areas
1:45:28 that weren’t in place when we were reviewing the policies
1:45:32 in the earlier spring of last year.
1:45:36 I think that meeting – for that – I don’t know that we can do
1:45:40 123 or more in a work session.
1:45:43 No.
1:45:44 So I think that – that’s where – I mean, when we get to the –
1:45:49 is there anybody here?
1:45:50 Is there anybody here?
1:45:51 I mean, those can be, you know –
1:45:53 Well –
1:45:54 Those probably won’t be long or controversial except for just
1:45:56 the amount that takes the chair to read through the script.
1:45:59 But I – I would like a little more time in the meetings unless
1:46:03 we schedule like a big long day.
1:46:05 Because that’s a lot of policies for us to – to work session on.
1:46:09 Or the other – the other recommendation that I had made was
1:46:12 possibly breaking this into –
1:46:13 to three or four and hitting them that way.
1:46:16 Because it’s going to be a lot all at one time.
1:46:18 Yeah.
1:46:19 If there’s deadlines – like the ones with the statutory updates
1:46:22 rather than like the little tiny references changes that we made
1:46:26 or whatever.
1:46:27 If we can – I know that’s a lot of work.
1:46:29 But if we can prioritize, obviously we need to hit those first
1:46:31 that are statutory changes.
1:46:33 I mean, is there – do you kind of have it – you know what I
1:46:38 mean?
1:46:39 Because some of the changes we made were so small.
1:46:41 It’s really not going to affect the daily function of the
1:46:45 district.
1:46:46 We can take a look at it –
1:46:47 But then again, those will be faster to move through.
1:46:49 Right.
1:46:50 If we’re splitting it in three or four, that’s three or four
1:46:52 separate processes.
1:46:53 So that’s going to be three or four, you know, timelines for
1:46:56 each of those.
1:46:57 Okay.
1:46:58 Which will probably push us beyond January.
1:47:00 Okay.
1:47:01 So could we – I mean, the day that you’re going to bring the
1:47:06 bulk of these to us,
1:47:08 we need to just plan on having – that’s the only thing that
1:47:10 happens on that work session.
1:47:11 And we’re here for a good amount of the day.
1:47:14 And we all do our homework really well before we get here.
1:47:17 So we can shorten that.
1:47:18 I just want to make you guys cognizant of the fact that –
1:47:22 if you do separate these and push this out, you’re going to have
1:47:27 potentially two new board members sitting up here.
1:47:29 Right.
1:47:30 So if you do that, then delay it a little bit because they’re
1:47:33 going to need a minute.
1:47:34 So like push it at least until December for some of those.
1:47:37 Like getting them in in November and asking them to do this the
1:47:39 next week is just unfair.
1:47:41 Yeah.
1:47:42 It’s not fair.
1:47:43 So just be careful.
1:47:44 So my – what I would prefer to do because of that, honestly,
1:47:48 the potential new board members that are going to come on,
1:47:51 I think we should schedule these alone just for workshops that
1:47:56 are going to come up and try to move through these as soon as
1:47:59 possible.
1:48:00 Could we do them in two settings?
1:48:02 Can we compromise and maybe meet in the middle and do two
1:48:04 settings instead of one setting since it’s going to be –
1:48:06 And then could we do the public hearing still altogether?
1:48:10 Yes.
1:48:11 I mean, we can split the work session part up assuming staff get
1:48:14 them done on time.
1:48:15 That will move their timeline up.
1:48:16 But if we get them in, we can bring them to work session, no
1:48:19 problem.
1:48:20 And then have the public hearings where there’s 123 or 140 or
1:48:24 whatever.
1:48:25 Those October dates that you gave?
1:48:26 I think –
1:48:27 Yeah.
1:48:28 And we’re all going to take turns saying –
1:48:29 Does anybody want to speak to the policy?
1:48:30 No, Madam Chair.
1:48:31 That’s your responsibility.
1:48:33 Because it gets very –
1:48:34 Hang on to the gavel.
1:48:35 All right.
1:48:36 So can we come up with a consensus on where we’re okay with
1:48:38 moving forward doing these in –
1:48:41 Two?
1:48:43 Settings?
1:48:44 Excuse me, workshops?
1:48:45 Workshops.
1:48:46 Yeah.
1:48:47 Sorry.
1:48:48 Yeah.
1:48:49 Just the ones – the ones for board review.
1:48:50 So –
1:48:51 For clarification purpose.
1:48:52 Sorry.
1:48:53 I’ve been skimming while we’re sitting here.
1:48:54 So – and it’s hard for me to read and pay attention at the same
1:48:56 time.
1:48:57 For clarification purposes, these are all ones we’ve already
1:48:59 gone over before.
1:49:00 But there’s been a couple of statutory changes.
1:49:02 We’ve got the Neola update recently.
1:49:04 So there’s possibility that there’s going to be some –
1:49:07 Like tiny –
1:49:08 Re-updates coming back to the board.
1:49:10 Okay.
1:49:11 In addition to the ones you’ve already reviewed.
1:49:12 Yes.
1:49:13 Okay.
1:49:15 So back to the question.
1:49:16 Are we okay with two?
1:49:17 Two?
1:49:18 All right.
1:49:19 And can we start it as soon as maybe –
1:49:21 September?
1:49:23 Yeah.
1:49:24 If we do break it in two, that does leave a little more wiggle
1:49:27 room in the work sessions
1:49:29 in case the superintendent and staff need to bring us something
1:49:32 else –
1:49:32 Right.
1:49:33 – urgent.
1:49:34 You know, because we – we can’t just do these for the rest of
1:49:36 the year.
1:49:37 Yeah.
1:49:38 Of the – you know.
1:49:39 So –
1:49:40 Okay.
1:49:41 All right.
1:49:42 So we have third direction on moving forward policies.
1:49:44 Paul, I think you’re – you’re good?
1:49:45 Yep.
1:49:46 I’m good.
1:49:47 All right.
1:49:48 Is there any other further business to discuss?
1:49:50 Dr. Wingo?
1:49:51 None?
1:49:52 All right.
1:49:53 Hearing none.
1:49:54 This meeting is adjourned.
1:49:55 All right.
1:49:56 Board, we’re in –
1:49:57 Great board, we’re in.