Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
0:00 Thank you.
6:00 Good afternoon, the August 13th, 2024 board work session is now
6:16 in, I’m sorry, and public
6:21 hearing is now in order.
6:22 Thank you.
6:52 All right, Dr. Randall, can you please address the board with
6:55 the items on the agenda for
6:56 today?
6:56 Thank you, Madam Chair.
6:59 On today’s agenda, we have rule development and first public
7:04 hearing on two policies and
7:07 one board member requested topic.
7:08 All right, rule development and first public hearing on the
7:12 following two policies.
7:14 The board members, the board members, the board members, the
7:18 board members, the board members, the
7:20 board member requested topic is the FSPA 2025 legislative
7:24 platform.
7:25 Thank you, Dr. Randall.
7:26 So the first order of business will be the rule development and
7:29 first public hearing for board
7:31 policy, three, one, two, zero, employment of staff.
7:34 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
7:40 Seeing none, I will open the floor up for discussion board.
7:43 Any discussion on this policy?
7:46 No.
7:47 Thoughts?
7:48 Changes?
7:49 None of that?
7:50 Okay.
7:51 All right.
7:53 So the second order of business will be the rule development and
7:53 the first public hearing
7:54 for board policy, 7217 weapons.
7:57 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
8:04 Seeing none, I’ll open the floor for board discussion.
8:07 Are there, is there any board discussion in regards to this
8:10 policy?
8:11 From anybody?
8:12 No?
8:13 Thank you to the staff for making the small minor changes that I
8:15 had asked for, for transparency
8:17 and clarification.
8:18 All right.
8:20 All right, so we are now onto the first topic of the agenda, the
8:24 only topic of the agenda,
8:26 which is the FSBA 2025 legislative platform.
8:30 Ms. Campbell, I’m going to kick this over to you because you are
8:33 our liaison in this role.
8:34 So I’m just going to go ahead and let you tell us what it is you
8:37 want to hear from us.
8:38 All right.
8:39 Sorry, I was getting my, um, I was pulling open our legislative
8:45 agenda from last year because
8:47 I thought that would be a good launching place.
8:49 So there’s not a, um, a minimum or a maximum that we can submit.
8:54 It’s just whatever, this is all the ideas from every board
8:57 across the state.
8:58 We’ll go to, um, the legislative committee and they’ll, you know,
9:02 sort through and kind
9:03 of, you know, combine ones that are similar and see if any of
9:06 them aren’t aligned with,
9:08 um, our overall platform and see and, you know, put things out
9:11 there.
9:12 Um, so any that we want to put, um, that, you know, the, one of
9:16 the caveats is it can’t
9:18 be specific to Brevard.
9:19 So, you know, we’re not going to put things on there that we’re
9:20 going to put on our personal,
9:22 uh, agenda, but I would just pulling up last year’s we had, um,
9:26 number one was allow retired
9:28 staff to return to the school district quicker.
9:30 Um, that was, uh, actually they can return right after six
9:35 months.
9:35 So that was a huge win.
9:37 Um, second, our allocation requests, um, by the way, if you want
9:41 to look at these, this
9:42 was on the school board meeting from October, um, you know, a
9:49 second, what day, October the
9:52 24th of 2023, um, down, um, if you wanted to take a look, uh, H38
9:57 is where I’m, where I found
9:59 all those.
10:00 And so, um, sorry, you said October the 20, October 24th, the
10:06 board meeting, the board
10:09 meeting, and then H38, um, there was a specific allocation
10:16 related to the Brevard adult ed.
10:18 So that one, you know, and we got that, uh, or we actually, we
10:21 didn’t get that.
10:22 Um, but we, you know, that’s specific to Brevard.
10:25 Number three was real world work experience, um, related to that,
10:28 allowing our students to
10:30 take on, on the job training while they’re still working towards
10:33 their diploma.
10:34 And actually there was huge movement in allowing more students
10:38 into more fields this year in
10:39 the legislature.
10:40 So I’m gonna take that as a win.
10:42 Um, wage compression, number four had to do with wage
10:45 compression, giving school districts
10:47 greater flexibility in determining the performance salary
10:51 schedule.
10:51 And I actually think we found that as well.
10:54 Um, and that’s all those are those four.
10:59 So really we were kind of, we did pretty well last year.
11:04 I’m looking to see if I missed something on the other docu.
11:06 Oh, no, sorry.
11:07 One of them, one of the first attachment had more bullet items
11:10 had to do with pre K teachers.
11:12 Um, and I think that’s something Mr. Susan’s talked about for a
11:16 really long time.
11:17 We’re still, we’ve still not ever made it very far to ask for
11:20 the study for them to really
11:22 look at the differences between pre K teachers and other
11:25 classroom teachers in the K to system.
11:29 So that’s something if you’ve got that, uh, on tap, Mr. Susan,
11:33 if you want to address that.
11:34 Um, what else am I missing?
11:39 Um, we talked about, um, the deregulation items.
11:42 Um, and I think we probably need to, um, I don’t know how we put
11:49 this number five.
11:50 I’m going to just read number five from last year.
11:52 Okay.
11:53 Work to streamline the implementation process and expectations
11:56 of new statutes and board
11:57 of education rules.
11:58 Deregulation of items would enhance the education experience of
12:00 Florida students by allowing school
12:01 staff to focus on teaching.
12:03 An example includes the permission slips needed for every event
12:05 that a student participates
12:06 in outside of a regular class and work.
12:08 I’m not sure what we want to do with that.
12:10 Um, but that was something we’ve had last year.
12:13 And then, um, we talked about, um, district property regulations
12:17 when it comes to charter schools.
12:20 Loving the playing field.
12:22 The legislature absolutely did that.
12:23 I think we could put something in general just supporting the
12:25 continued deregulation if we
12:26 have some specifics we want to put in there.
12:28 Um, so if y’all got something, I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a
12:33 notebook and I will take the
12:35 notes and make sure we get those submitted to FSBA.
12:39 We’ve got about a month, but as I said last week, this is our
12:42 only work session we have before
12:43 we have to get them all turned in.
12:45 Okay.
12:46 Thank you, Ms. Campbell.
12:47 I have a couple written down that I, and I don’t know if anybody
12:48 would like to go first.
12:48 Or if you want me to jump in and go first.
12:49 I don’t mind going first.
12:50 I could just real quick talk about the pre K just because that
12:52 has been a thing.
12:53 So we made a big push with a lot of pre K teachers from across
12:58 the state, um, prior to COVID and
13:03 the state said there’s so much to this.
13:06 So like we met with, I met with, uh, education committees and
13:10 worked behind the scenes in Tallahassee
13:11 for weeks and, um, what they said was because of the different
13:17 laws and because of the different
13:18 layers, there needs to be a study.
13:20 So for instance, right now, pre K teachers that teach pre K,
13:23 even though there’s, they’re
13:24 in our schools, they’re part of our employees and everything
13:27 like that, can’t get, um, their
13:29 loans forgiven.
13:30 If they’re in a title one school, they don’t get retirement.
13:32 There’s all these issues.
13:33 And they said that they, you know what I mean?
13:35 To just turn it and say pre K teachers are classroom teachers.
13:39 There’s so many ripple effects that they wanted to make sure
13:42 they had.
13:42 So I was promised prior to COVID that they would start a
13:45 commission by some pretty high
13:47 from the commissioner on education.
13:49 And so what happened is this COVID hit and everything else.
13:52 Then we came back to it and they said, okay, yeah, we’re going
13:55 to do it.
13:55 So here’s what it is.
13:56 I’d like to have a commission move forward with looking at the
14:00 pre K to find out how to
14:01 make those classroom teachers whole and that’s it.
14:04 That’s it.
14:05 And then bring that to the next legislative session and then
14:07 pass it as a law.
14:08 Cause there’s a lot to it.
14:09 That’s all that was.
14:10 So I’d appreciate it if we could continue that one this year.
14:12 I’m going to get loud about it.
14:13 Yeah.
14:14 I think it’s a great idea.
14:15 Honestly, I don’t think there’s a district in the state of
14:17 Florida who doesn’t have a pre
14:17 pre K program to some degree that I’m aware of.
14:19 So I think it needs to be.
14:20 Well, it’s interesting because a lot of the pushback is that the
14:23 private sector has
14:24 those pre K programs and there’s some like competitiveness and
14:28 stuff that we ran into.
14:29 So I think having a study, identify where they are and then
14:32 seeing what the impact is and
14:34 then moving forward is the proper process.
14:36 I’d appreciate it.
14:37 Would you be okay if I just borrowed the language from last year?
14:40 Cause it was pretty detailed on that one attachment cause it
14:43 talked about the federal loan
14:44 forgiveness and the extended drop and all of that, that they don’t
14:48 qualify for.
14:48 Absolutely.
14:49 So if you, okay, I’ll just like copy paste that into.
14:51 All right.
14:52 I’m looking at federal loan.
14:53 I feel like federal loan forgiveness changed just so you don’t
14:57 have to add it.
14:57 Okay.
14:58 I’m going to triple check.
14:59 And this, if you want the statute, the one that we have listed
15:02 is 10, 12.01.
15:03 That’s state statute.
15:06 Okay.
15:08 And if you can add to the end of it, any other issues that, you
15:13 know what I mean?
15:14 Like, because there’s other issues that have come up since.
15:17 Right.
15:18 I’ll just put for example.
15:19 Yep.
15:20 Right.
15:21 It’s a great one.
15:23 Okay.
15:24 Um, anybody else?
15:25 Nobody’s jumping all up and saying that.
15:26 Okay.
15:27 Ms. Jenkins.
15:28 No, I didn’t.
15:29 I wanted, I wanted to, that’s why I was going to go in there and
15:34 give a couple.
15:35 All right.
15:36 Um, something that I’ve run into and talking to other school
15:39 boards around the state is
15:41 the difference between having an appointed and an elected
15:43 superintendent and the issues
15:45 that causes within a school district on really trying to have
15:49 ideas or thoughts carried
15:51 out.
15:52 We’re very fortunate.
15:53 We’re very blessed in regard.
15:54 We don’t have that issue.
15:55 So let me go ahead and say that right now.
15:56 Superintendent has been nothing but wonderful on, on helping us
15:59 on different things.
15:59 But around the state, it seems to be that that’s not always the
16:02 case.
16:02 And a lot of times it seems that they’re, it’s because their
16:04 superintendent is elected.
16:06 And so boards are receiving pushback from an elected
16:08 superintendent who’s not following
16:09 the direction of the board because there really isn’t the feel
16:12 of accountability.
16:13 Now we understand there’s accountability when it comes time for
16:16 an election.
16:17 That can, that is your kind of accountability.
16:19 But, um, I think it’s probably worth at least talking about why
16:23 are they different?
16:23 Why are they not uniform?
16:24 Why do we have some appointed and some elected?
16:27 I think from the state’s point standpoint, it would be a million
16:31 times easier if it was
16:32 uniform on, on who do you go to on certain issues or things that
16:35 are happening, right?
16:36 Um, and I don’t know if that’s something FSBA wants to, to
16:39 really put polls out to their
16:41 members.
16:42 I’m sure they know which ones are elected versus appointed.
16:43 And, and this could go back to the charters and those counties.
16:45 And I, I don’t really know the legality of how all that changes,
16:48 but it’s something that I
16:50 think would be beneficial to look at for the state.
16:52 If it was all the same, either all elected or all appointed.
16:54 And I don’t have preference one way versus the other.
16:56 Um, I will say I like, well, actually that’s not true.
16:58 I, I like our version here.
17:00 So, uh, I, I guess I would prefer the appointed, but, um, board.
17:04 I don’t know what your thoughts are or miss Campbell.
17:06 Have you thought about this or talk to other members in, in
17:08 different counties?
17:09 I would, I mean, yes.
17:11 And some has worked well for and someone hasn’t.
17:13 And I, my, my hesitation on that would be, I’m a firm believer
17:17 in as much local controls
17:18 we, we have, we would have.
17:20 And the state, unfortunately, over the last few years has for,
17:23 in different ways and
17:25 different reasons, limited that local control in a lot of ways.
17:29 And when it comes to the voters, um, being able to choose how
17:32 they want it, every
17:33 county has the ability to choose.
17:35 Um, because for example, when, uh, I think it was Lee County is
17:40 one of the last ones.
17:41 In order to switch it, the legislature can be the one that instigates
17:45 a vote in a county.
17:46 Um, and so they, that happened recently in a couple of counties
17:50 over the last couple of sessions.
17:51 And then the county voters chose, for example, Lee County to go
17:56 back to an elected.
17:57 And so that for the state to come down and say, okay, I don’t
18:00 really care what any of you individual
18:02 counties the way, if you liked your system, if you don’t like
18:04 your system.
18:05 Now you all have to do it that way.
18:06 I personally, I wouldn’t be in, in favor of that.
18:09 And I don’t think FSBA because we’re representing so such a
18:12 diverse, uh, tiny counties and big counties.
18:15 And usually it is Lee would be the exception.
18:17 Now I think they’re probably the largest, um, elected, uh, a
18:22 superintendent.
18:23 Uh, I think Pasco was the other one.
18:27 Yeah.
18:28 Lee is the largest elected.
18:29 So, you know, generally it’s more of the small ones, but the
18:33 majority of counties actually are elected, not appointed.
18:36 I don’t, I don’t know the exact number.
18:38 I think the last time I looked at it, it wasn’t, I don’t
18:40 remember.
18:40 It was pretty close to half.
18:41 But the only thing I was just thinking about this is like the
18:43 state sets standards and expectations
18:45 of us and the local rule doesn’t get to really dictate that.
18:48 I mean, that is, that is the way it goes.
18:50 And so I’m just thinking from a state standpoint, if, if I were
18:53 at the department of education,
18:54 I’m one of those wonderful things, right?
18:55 How do you make this easier on who you’re going to hold
18:57 accountable when something is
18:58 or is not going well?
18:59 Is it the board?
19:00 Is it the superintendent?
19:01 Yes.
19:02 Should be yes and yes.
19:03 Right.
19:04 Um, but then, then who is the highest?
19:07 I don’t know.
19:08 That’s, that’s one of those things where it just gets a little
19:10 funky.
19:10 And what I’m hearing from a lot of people that have, or a lot of
19:13 the school board members
19:13 who have the electeds as they are running into a ton of issues
19:17 with the superintendent,
19:19 just carrying out wishes that the board is giving them and
19:21 direction that they’re giving
19:22 them.
19:23 And so that puts the board in a compromising position because
19:24 quite frankly, all they can
19:25 do is a call your superintendent out or, or actively campaign
19:28 against them when they’re
19:30 running again over the thing.
19:31 So it’s just not really the best scenario, right?
19:33 I don’t think, I mean, that’s my personal opinion, but.
19:35 Well, I, I, I hear their problems and I would think that their
19:38 recourse would be to
19:39 go to their legislators, which like the people in Lee County did.
19:42 Well, that’s what this is.
19:43 That’s what I was thinking.
19:44 No, their legislators, their legislators to cause a vote in
19:47 their county.
19:48 Because honestly, as a big county, one of the bigger ones and
19:52 who hasn’t appointed for
19:54 us to come down the side of, we think everybody needs to be like
19:58 us or to have the DOE come
20:00 down and say bureaucratic, bureaucratic control.
20:03 And whether you like the head of our DOE or not, it’s still
20:06 bureaucratic control, whether
20:07 they’re conservative or not conservative or whatever.
20:09 It’s, it’s not, that doesn’t go to the people.
20:12 The people don’t have any direct control over the Department of
20:14 Education.
20:15 So any, any kind of major shift we have where the DOE, first of
20:18 all, I don’t think they would
20:20 do it.
20:21 I think this is dead in the water.
20:22 So, but again, I, I go back to local control.
20:25 Um, I w I wouldn’t support that.
20:28 I mean, any, just, and just so you know, the FSBA platform, we
20:31 can submit things as a board
20:32 altogether, things that we’re all on board with.
20:34 But if any individual members, of course you’re not a member
20:37 this year, you can also submit
20:38 individually, um, your own item and, and it’s, it’s open to
20:42 individuals or boards as a whole.
20:45 So it can be done either way.
20:46 So, well, again, like I said, the board may not be in favor of
20:49 doing that.
20:49 I something and I can work on it on other ends of it too.
20:52 It’s just something that I’ve heard from multiple counties that
20:55 this is a struggle they’re facing.
20:56 So I think, I think that in general, because we’ve seen both
21:00 from the appointed and from
21:01 the elected side, um, some accountability issues, you know what
21:05 I mean?
21:06 And then, so I think where your intent is, is there.
21:10 I, I, I believe in what you’re saying as far as trying to find
21:12 an accountability model that
21:14 works and is, is, is there.
21:16 Um, I’m not against it.
21:18 I think more about the conversation wrapped around, um, how, if
21:23 it does not seem that the
21:25 superintendent is moving on what the board’s wills and wishes
21:28 are, there’s some sort of recourse for that.
21:30 Right.
21:31 And what is that?
21:32 Because in an elected, if it, if they are in our world, it is
21:36 that, um, you know what I mean?
21:38 Dr. Rendell could lose his job, right?
21:41 But in the world of the elected, he’s just there.
21:44 You just tell him pound sand and keep going.
21:46 So maybe there’s something that we can do in that regard.
21:48 Maybe Ms. Campbell’s comments are, um, you know what I mean?
21:52 In line with probably a larger of the majority of the voters at
21:56 FSBA.
21:56 So maybe the idea is, is some sort of a trigger on the elected
22:00 superintendents that allows
22:01 that the board feels that he’s not moving in the direction that
22:03 they are, that there’s
22:04 some sort of a trigger to maybe cause for a special election.
22:07 So in some of the other election places, there’s, um, you know,
22:11 for like prime ministers and stuff
22:13 like that, you call for a, uh, a vote.
22:15 A vote of no confidence.
22:17 And then a vote of no confidence triggers into something.
22:19 Yeah.
22:20 So maybe there’s a way.
22:21 So maybe the idea is, is that maybe an overt, like straight unilateral
22:25 thing across the board,
22:26 but maybe the legislature can put something in, in the event
22:29 that there’s an elected official
22:30 that’s not doing the will of the board.
22:32 board I don’t know of course the governor has not backed off
22:35 from removing
22:35 superintendents over the last few years he’s done that a couple
22:38 of times am I
22:39 correct dr. Riddell yes I believe so yeah the governor has the
22:44 already has power
22:45 to remove a superintendent if he wants to an elected
22:48 superintendent but just for
22:52 your knowledge governor DeSantis and Education Commissioner Manny
22:55 Diaz
22:56 support elected superintendents intentionally because of the way
23:00 maps
23:01 are drawn so that certain people will be elected so it is dead
23:05 in the water if
23:05 it’s going to be proposed the other way because it’s just
23:07 completely against what
23:08 they’ve been putting out publicly and again like I said when I
23:11 when I bring
23:11 this conversation up this is based on conversations from other
23:13 school boards
23:14 all around the state and just trying to figure out how do you
23:16 fix this problem if
23:17 it’s there things are facing so it’s probably something the
23:19 state should look
23:20 at and and that’s okay if we don’t if I as a board were like hey
23:22 we don’t like
23:22 this that’s fine we can we can move on to the next one I have so
23:26 let me just sorry
23:27 oh mr. right not to interrupt you but since we did talk about
23:29 the loan forgiveness
23:29 just to write I’m quickly researching it’s not deep deep details
23:34 but I I can’t
23:35 find proof that the teacher one changed they would qualify under
23:39 public service
23:40 loan forgiveness but that’s a 20-year program the teacher one is
23:43 10 so I would
23:44 keep it on there just in case because I can’t find proof that 10
23:46 changed okay
23:47 just keep it on there just because it’s never been found out
23:50 there so okay thank
23:52 you one of the other ones I had wrote down was the CTE
23:55 instructors being exempt from
23:57 the general knowledge exam and I Ryan’s looking at me in the
24:00 back so I don’t know
24:01 I sent you an email about this so I was trying to read through
24:03 Florida statutes
24:04 on is there a clause in there I know we’re updating the work the
24:06 policy that we
24:07 have and it’s going to give more time but when we’re looking at
24:10 specialty CTE
24:11 instructors like welders or if they have their welding license
24:14 is there is there a
24:15 way to exempt them from that general knowledge exam portion of
24:18 that we can
24:22 make right good afternoon thank you no worries yeah so I have
24:26 the document for
24:27 you I can provide it to you it is housed in the Bureau of
24:31 Education’s partnership
24:32 manual okay it’s only accessible to district approved
24:35 certification
24:35 specialists okay but I do have it and I can provide it to you
24:38 okay perfect I would
24:39 love to see that approach to that okay so that might that might
24:42 so does that mean
24:42 that they are exempt well he’s I literally just sent this email
24:46 so he’s
24:46 like give me more than but I think this is a broader
24:49 conversation because this has
24:51 affected a few employees so our CTE teachers are locally they’re
24:55 they’re
24:56 locally certified they’re not state certified right they’re
24:58 certified with the
24:59 district so they’re not taking the same courses as our regular
25:03 teachers are so
25:03 they’re also we the the general knowledge exam is the one that I
25:07 think and I
25:08 don’t know if they are not but even outside of CTE we’ve had a
25:10 couple of
25:11 problems this year because this the legislature put in some
25:14 exemptions over
25:16 the last few years the general knowledge exam is only required
25:19 for people who
25:21 don’t graduate from a college in the state of Florida correct so
25:25 for example I
25:26 had this conversation with dr. Rendell dr. Rendell had already
25:28 been teaching and
25:29 certified outside the state when he came down to Florida he had
25:31 to take the
25:32 general knowledge exam and that means people who are like
25:35 English teachers or
25:36 history teachers whatever have to go back years after they’ve
25:38 taken for
25:39 example algebra and have to pass an algebra exam when they’re we’re
25:43 actually
25:44 wanting them to come and teach history English you know whatever
25:48 it may be
25:48 pre-k pre-k right pre-k so so we’re kindergarten whatever it may
25:53 be so we’ve
25:54 had quite a few instances over the last few years we have
25:56 teachers who were
25:57 excellent teachers highly effective you know had just great
26:01 results
26:02 but we almost had to lose them because they couldn’t pass the
26:06 that’s separate
26:06 from the professional exam but that general knowledge exam so I
26:09 think we need
26:09 to have a we need to put something in here about having to take
26:12 another look at
26:13 the what testing requirements at the state level should actually
26:18 be required
26:19 for teacher certification and what flexibility can they give
26:22 school
26:22 districts when we have a successful teacher and some of like the
26:25 ones that
26:26 we’re voting on to this policy that we looked at today but I
26:29 think it’s gonna have to go
26:30 beyond that because even the policy we’re looking at today that
26:32 only gives them another
26:32 five years correct correct correct so at some point they’re
26:36 still running into they have to
26:37 take they have to pass those tests and at that point they might
26:39 have 10 years of
26:40 successful teaching behind them and yet we have to say goodbye
26:44 it’s not something we can do
26:45 outside of state parameters though right so it’s the state
26:48 statute that we’re just trying to line it with this is an item
26:50 that we I think we can all get behind yeah and I was looking at
26:54 it for more of the CTE aspect of things because I selfishly I’m
26:57 going to use my my welding instructor which we have I’m
27:00 I know we have a new one but I’m a little partial to the one
27:02 that was there for a long time phenomenal welding instructor who
27:05 is placing our kids and jobs right away the day
27:07 they graduated if they went through his welding program they
27:09 were walking into a job that’s $60,000 a year right off of
27:13 graduation so but would not take that general the general
27:17 knowledge exam didn’t want to do it just because he’s like hey I’m
27:19 a welder I’m licensed by trade I’ve done this for 30 years I don’t
27:23 need to I don’t need to teach this class quite frankly I’m
27:24 giving back to the community so my thought was hey if the if we’re
27:24 looking at CTE instructors that are teaching a specialty skill
27:24 or trade talk or something in the legislation that says if they’re
27:24 licensed in that
27:25 that skill or trade that maybe that gives them the exemption
27:41 from the general knowledge exam portion you just said a phrase
27:41 that triggered something for me too so when I first got hired by
27:41 BPS I was told I had to take the general knowledge test which
27:41 was the year that there was like mass chaos because clearly
27:41 something was
27:42 knowledge exam portion you just said a phrase that triggered
27:45 something for me too so when i
27:47 first got hired by bps i was told i had to take the general
27:50 knowledge test which was
27:51 the year that there was like mass chaos because clearly
27:54 something was up and like 70 of people
27:56 were failing the essay but they wouldn’t tell you why um and
28:00 then i found out after taking it three
28:03 times um that i never needed to take it in the first place
28:05 because as a speech language pathologist
28:07 i’m licensed by the state so it is for certain areas so that
28:11 would be something that would be
28:13 palatable to probably if it’s long as long as they hold a state
28:16 license they have some way of um
28:18 accrediting that person in their profession so that’s that’s
28:21 probably the tagline that that would
28:23 work okay board are you in favor of that one going before fsba
28:27 yeah and income in combination with that
28:30 at some kind of uh expanded reciprocity because we have florida
28:34 has so few states that we have
28:35 reciprocity with so if you you could be a 25 year teacher in
28:39 certain states and move to state of
28:42 florida and you you have to am i getting that right also yes ma’am
28:45 and you have to do all the things
28:47 and that is when we have so many people moving in and we’re in a
28:49 teacher shortage that’s an easy fix
28:51 to allowing more teachers in wasn’t it the case with our
28:54 counselors as well if they had a
28:57 like they had to take a content test even though they’re a
29:00 counselor but their original degree was in
29:03 math and you know they haven’t touched it in x amount of years
29:06 so that was i had a counselor
29:08 like frantic about that so but i think the reciprocity issue
29:11 could take care of a lot of
29:13 yeah a lot of things um i think i hate to throw it too much at
29:16 them but you know i’ll try to keep
29:18 it broad and maybe toss something out to you guys it’s not
29:21 necessarily something we have to vote on so
29:23 paul is it something if i get something drafted that i can send
29:25 out to the board and they can say yay or
29:27 nay i recommend you just bring it up at the next board meeting
29:31 okay all right i will i will okay
29:34 because we we do have another board meeting at 27th i’ll try to
29:37 send something to you guys between
29:39 uh now and the 27th okay um all right and that was thank you all
29:43 right i have one more and it’s kind of
29:46 based on a unique situation that took place last school year um
29:49 and it has to do with the state’s
29:50 definition oh my mic is off sorry uh the state’s definition of
29:53 an unaccompanied minor uh so ran into
29:56 a situation with a high school student we i have you know
29:58 teenagers and i think so you know most of us
30:00 here have raised teenagers so we understand that sometimes they
30:03 can be a little unruly uh but we had
30:04 a situation with a teenager who ran away from home quote unquote
30:07 ran away uh because his father wouldn’t
30:09 let him go on a field trip he wanted to go on and so he was mad
30:12 and so his solution to this was to run
30:14 away from home uh which triggered him to now become an unaccompanied
30:18 youth because he was couch surfing
30:20 basically in essence uh which in turn triggered a lot of other
30:25 things that happened um we’ve we
30:27 followed the law we followed the law 100 so everything was done
30:29 correctly from the district standpoint
30:31 but where it became a little a little uh disheartening is when
30:34 the parent reached out and said
30:36 hey what’s going on here i told my son he couldn’t go on this
30:39 trip i’d use that tool as a punishment
30:41 because he was not doing well in a class and his solution was to
30:44 run away and say i’m homeless and
30:46 now all of a sudden all these other things start coming into
30:48 play where the student gets basically
30:50 what he wants because he was manipulating the system so my
30:53 thought on this and i get this is a
30:54 slippery slope because there are students that are that this
30:58 works for very very well and we need that
31:00 to stay but that there be some type of wording within that
31:04 definition that gives parents the ability to
31:07 object to them being considered an unaccompanied youth if that
31:12 makes sense sure and i mean someone
31:16 in the back might have to answer this question but so if they’re
31:19 identified as an unaccompanied youth
31:21 does that then take away the parental permission forms yes so no
31:26 yes and no so or like is there a time frame
31:29 for that i guess so like at what point do they like they’re not
31:32 great question they’re not wards of
31:34 the state at that point so how exactly do we get around them not
31:38 having permission so they they become
31:40 on it well in this case and so i’ll pull it up just so i can see
31:43 i’ll i can send you what i got emailed
31:44 to me from the district personnel and again everything was
31:47 followed the law was followed on this but the
31:50 frustrating part was that uh this one was just written in a way
31:54 that it’s not very good so we need the parent
31:57 needs to have the ability to object so if a student decides they’re
32:00 mad at mom and dad they don’t like
32:01 what mom and dad says that they’re not going to let them go to
32:03 homecoming because they’re failing
32:04 their math class uh that the kid doesn’t run away and now goes
32:07 to their counselor and says hey i’m
32:09 i’m sleeping on couches i’m an unaccompanied youth and now all
32:12 of a sudden a garden guardian or legal
32:14 somebody you know basically whoever’s couch they’re sleeping on
32:17 can now sign off on forms for
32:19 them which is what took place in this situation and it was
32:22 within the law so um i’ll send you what i have just so you can
32:26 see it
32:27 uh it was a very very bizarre situation but i’m just thinking
32:30 hey if there was something written
32:32 in the law where the parent can object to this so if a student
32:34 is running away because they’re choosing
32:36 to do so and the parent saying hey i’m a good parent i want to
32:38 be involved they’re rebelling against me
32:40 because they’re teenagers i can object to it and the parent
32:43 still has a say and what’s happening as
32:45 far as because their educational rights don’t transfer until
32:47 they’re 18 years old but it gets a little
32:49 weird when they become an unaccompanied youth so and then and
32:52 then do they lose are they were they not getting it
32:54 that’s right because are they not getting like focus access and
32:58 parents focus access cut off
32:59 immediately wow so there has to be i guess i don’t know if
33:02 someone in the back can answer this question
33:04 because there would have to be some kind of legal process taking
33:07 place to where that transfers to
33:08 someone else there’s no way like just they just get labeled and
33:11 then anyone can have access to making
33:13 permission that doesn’t make any sense i can look into it yeah
33:17 it’s super specific yeah i haven’t
33:18 looked at it i know this is a very yeah it’s an extremely
33:21 specific situation and again when we
33:23 looked at this before and we talked i talked to several people
33:25 at district i’m like oh my gosh this
33:27 is kind of scary because as a parent of a teenager i’m going if
33:30 my daughter rebels against me and decides
33:31 she’s going to go sleep on her best friend’s couch does that
33:33 mean now all of a sudden i no longer have
33:35 access to any of her educational records i no longer have the
33:37 authority to give permission for field trips
33:39 and no longer have a say whatsoever in what’s happening with
33:42 their their education so i just
33:44 feel like that it would be smart for the state to consider a
33:47 clause that gives the apparent the right
33:49 to object when a student is identified as an unaccompanied youth
33:52 so that they still have the parental
33:53 right to have a say and a role in their education so that was my
33:56 other one and again that was a specific
33:58 scenario that happened but it it scared me as a parent and i’m
34:01 sure it would scare other people as
34:02 parents if that were to happen uh to them so that was one of the
34:06 other ones sorry good i know i went on a
34:08 soapbox here no that’s good that’s a good one can you add that
34:11 one kitty um yeah um and if you’ve
34:14 got specific okay send an email to us and if you’ve got specific
34:17 language that you want to put in it
34:20 otherwise i’ll um or if you have the statute link to i will send
34:24 it give something specific
34:26 even if we don’t say this you know this is how it needs to be
34:30 changed that we can say specifically this
34:33 part needs to be changed or refined gotcha i’ll send it all to
34:37 you guys what the statute is and all
34:39 that fun stuff okay all right those are the three that i had
34:42 written down so anybody else want to go
34:45 so i can quit talking i got a couple okay but i’ll wait
34:48 everybody else can go i’m sure mine go ahead
34:54 okay miss campbell did you have any um my the teacher
34:58 certification piece which i kind of dovetailed
35:00 into what um miss wright said just broadening that the reciprocity
35:05 also that’s all you have yep okay
35:09 gene you got anything not good uh well i’ll go um so one of the
35:14 problems that we we have is is that we’ve
35:18 created all of these extra pieces around the certification for
35:22 teachers but we haven’t really
35:24 ever really dived in and fought against that test of the student
35:27 that they have to take
35:28 the general knowledge test when i took it and some of the other
35:31 individuals that have taken it
35:34 have said and commented multiple times that what the questions
35:37 that are on there are not pertaining to
35:39 what they’ve been taught and that they feel and this is not it
35:43 is just an accusation that there’s a
35:46 robust effort to try to have them not pass so that they have to
35:50 keep taking it and paying right and
35:53 i don’t want to throw anything under the bus but i had a
35:56 personal experience with the um a push when
35:59 i was teaching that a majority of the um questions that were
36:04 taught that year or requested that year were
36:07 not on the um on the syllabuses and stuff like that that they
36:10 had given and i wrote them all down and i went
36:13 and got myself in trouble by arguing against it and stuff like
36:16 that but to have a series of questions
36:19 that are never looked at is not right and so what i’m going to
36:22 do i’m not asking you guys to do this
36:25 because this is kind of hairy area i’m just letting you guys
36:27 know i’m going to go to war with that test
36:29 because i think that i do believe that it’s i do believe that it’s
36:33 not um maybe transparent enough to
36:37 see for us to believe that it’s there because we have too many
36:40 people pat failing that general knowledge
36:43 test and some of those others and holding back kids from having
36:46 great teachers and that’s all so
36:48 i just wanted to let you guys know that’s just one thing okay so
36:51 did you have any other items you
36:54 wanted to add no i think we pretty much got it i mean our when
36:57 are we going to have our
36:59 dr rindell do we have an area when you’re going to bring forward
37:02 some of the legislative requests
37:03 you know what i mean yeah some of the funding requests yeah
37:07 those will come at a later date
37:10 i mean staffs formulating those but that won’t be part of the
37:12 legislative platform right necessarily
37:15 and then we have our little legislator since we’re talking about
37:18 it yeah no i i think that’s a good
37:19 because you know we do have a later session but we don’t want to
37:22 wait too too late to start
37:23 we’ll start talking about it now um dr rindell did you have any
37:28 suggestions that you would make on your
37:30 end i did yeah thank you mrs campbell so looking at the fsba
37:33 platform for last year um there was
37:36 some things that were on there that were actually asking for
37:39 continuation of some of some things for
37:41 example in the area of funding one of theirs was support the
37:45 workforce development capitalize
37:47 capitalization incentive grant program workforce cap is what it’s
37:50 called and expand eligible programs to
37:53 include elementary and middle school cte programs currently only
37:56 secondary and post-secondary cte
37:58 programs are eligible for that funding so i would love it if we
38:01 had a state in a statement in there
38:03 very similar to that workforce cap is a way that we are looking
38:08 to maybe capture some of the funding that
38:10 did not make it through the last legislative session so
38:14 workforce cap for example is something that
38:17 we might use to try to fund the ag program at astronaut you know
38:21 so it’s another round of
38:23 funding that’s available to us you know not inside the
38:26 legislative session but so but to have on the
38:30 legislative platform our statement requesting that they support
38:34 the funding of workforce cap okay so
38:36 are you so are you good with the language from last year yep
38:40 okay anything else that was it
38:43 okay i appreciate that um so i’ve got some of the ones we were
38:48 all on board with the pre-k teachers language which
38:52 i will pull off of last year um the teacher certification and i’m
38:57 going to just kind of wrap
38:59 several things around that specifically related to general
39:01 knowledge i’ll specifically mention cte teachers
39:04 and the professional ed exam also reciprocity between the states
39:07 when it comes to teacher certification
39:09 um the state’s definition to be refined of an unaccompanied
39:15 minor and then that item off of last year’s fsba
39:20 the platform related to the workforce cap expansion funding okay
39:25 did i get it all anybody else have
39:28 anything else and i’ll put in there and if you don’t do this one
39:30 thing matt susan’s going to go to war
39:32 yeah he’s coming well i just you know when i was at it’s a tallahassee
39:36 and i have to
39:37 i just have to say when it comes certification i realize this is
39:39 a fine line i don’t want to be here in
39:40 the public to think that we’re we’re going too far because you
39:44 do want highly qualified teachers
39:46 and but the truth is some people are terrible test takers the
39:49 truth is some of these tests are terrible
39:51 it falls both ways the truth is it’s there’s absolutely no
39:55 fairness and someone who has great
39:58 credentials and experience from another state having to come and
40:01 do something that a brand
40:02 spanking new teacher straight out of college didn’t have to do
40:04 because they graduated from uf
40:07 you know so that experience we we want we want to acknowledge
40:13 whether it’s one year two year five
40:16 years 25 years people coming from out of state with all the kids
40:19 moving here and families moving here
40:20 we’re going to need the teachers that are moving here too so i
40:23 think that’s that’s just that fine line
40:25 we want to walk we don’t want to ask the doe get rid of all all
40:29 standards and we’ll just do a y’all come
40:32 you know come join the teacher workforce um but you know the
40:36 state has also over the years given us
40:38 a lot of flexibility in letting go of teachers these annual
40:41 contracts that we we can only do annual
40:42 contracts we have the ability to if a teacher is just not
40:45 cutting it we support them support them support
40:47 them but they’re just refusing to you know whatever it’s not
40:51 going to work we have the ability to let
40:53 them go so i think when we have teachers who are excellent and
40:56 have shown have a proven track
40:58 record of excellence whatever they can do to give school
41:00 districts a flexibility to keep those people
41:03 hired i think that i think that’s not i think that’s running
41:07 falling on the safe side of that fine line
41:09 yeah i’d like to just say a little something there yeah um it’s
41:13 absolutely true that we’re not trying
41:15 to dumb down a test what it is is when i went up years ago this
41:19 district made made the initiative to make
41:22 rotc a career pathway we’re the only county in the state that
41:25 fought for it we got it right
41:27 that battle that we were in i was in tallahassee going to
41:29 breakfast and i was there for another issue
41:32 and all of a sudden i got a call from the education committee
41:35 staff and they said hey just to let you
41:36 know your bill’s going to die and they’re um the the
41:39 representatives are going after it so if you go back
41:42 to that film you’ll see me speaking to it and then all of a
41:44 sudden half of them they’re going back and
41:46 forth debating it now the team that came out against me the
41:49 group that came out against me was the testing
41:51 group part of the bush foundation and what they were doing is is
41:55 they were upset because the career
41:57 pathway for students to take rotc would take away from some of
42:00 the tests that some of the kids would
42:01 be taking for their stuff true statement and so the there is
42:05 there is a layer of things that are up
42:08 there that um i don’t want our teachers and i’m not saying it’s
42:12 that that’s this is what it is i’m
42:14 just gonna say i’m gonna get into it and um you know i’ve got a
42:17 pretty good background in test taking
42:19 and stuff like that so i’ll take a look at it i just wanted to
42:21 let you guys know if you see it and
42:23 moving around that’s what’s happening that’s all sounds good all
42:27 right i sent you guys the email
42:29 just so you know that gives you the state statute and the
42:31 definition of an unaccompanied youth uh so you
42:33 have all about that as that as well um can we also invite if any
42:37 of the staff are paying attention to
42:39 our conversation and they’ve got some wisdom and how to handle
42:42 any of these particular issues
42:43 looking at you mr defrayne um for clarification on the making
42:47 sure we’re using the right language
42:48 you don’t have to come to the microphone now but you know in the
42:50 next week if you guys have any
42:51 language that you think would be helpful to help me write it up
42:54 correctly i’d appreciate that or
42:56 related to the unaccompanied youth which paul if you’ve got
43:00 something out looking that would be
43:01 appreciated all right thank you and uh dr rindell do you have
43:05 anything else no ma’am i do not all
43:07 right does the board any board member have anything further to
43:10 discuss yeah i just i want to um before
43:12 this i don’t know if anyone’s watching and there’s no one in the
43:15 audience but before it turns into a
43:16 thing i just want to i want to triple down on the general
43:19 knowledge testing i appreciate you bringing
43:21 that up because just for the public to be aware this test is
43:25 like it’s literally like an sat it’s not
43:27 specific to the career of teaching um and and it’s it is not an
43:32 accurate way to judge whether or not
43:35 somebody can be a teacher and just i speak about this loud and
43:38 proud because i’m embarrassed by it
43:39 because it was a thing all that entire year i have a master’s
43:43 degree in communication sciences and
43:45 disorders and i failed their writing essay three times um it’s
43:50 just a random decision-making tool
43:53 sometimes unfortunately and so it’s it’s frustrating because we
43:55 do we get people who freak out when
43:57 they walk in that room because they hear about failing so i’m
44:01 all for that thank you all right
44:04 any other discussions from anybody hearing none of this meeting
44:18 is adjourned
44:20 so
45:02 you