Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL

2024-09-10 - School Board Work Session

0:00 Thank you.

1:06:28 more of a like 60 40 70 30 where we’re going to be focusing on

1:06:17 over here and the academic side

1:06:19 this isn’t oh great now we can transport you know the team to

1:06:22 all of the games so we can do this

1:06:24 um whenever i talked with principals like the world of

1:06:28 opportunities just became like

1:06:30 immense and the ideas that i had were tripled by the ideas that

1:06:35 they had with

1:06:37 absenteeism and saturday testing and making sure that students

1:06:41 have equal access to some of our

1:06:43 summer programs and are able to you know get home after you know

1:06:47 the tutoring opportunity that’s

1:06:49 after school so you know hopefully that answers some of the

1:06:53 questions but just that’s why we pick

1:06:56 two vans priority would go to you know the academic and

1:06:59 assistance programs and school-based activities

1:07:01 for example on monday i would pretty much assure you that

1:07:04 everybody that participates with the

1:07:07 academic team would be taking one of the vans up here with their

1:07:10 68 academic team members

1:07:12 on tuesday you know that would probably be another club or sport

1:07:17 and so on and so forth so i apologize

1:07:19 for not having you know like a mock calendar of a week or a

1:07:23 month but all the ways that we could

1:07:25 utilize them and multiple of those come up daily of how we could

1:07:29 do that we did put social workers at

1:07:32 every school so if those social workers took the transportation

1:07:35 it’s a great way for them to get out in

1:07:37 community and get the students that are struggling or at risk

1:07:40 that are absenteeism and working

1:07:42 through that school-based administrators doing the same thing so

1:07:49 there’s really a really wide variety of

1:07:50 options for schools to use and we would be watching them i

1:07:54 already talked to kevin robinson and i met he’s

1:07:57 our district athletics and activities coordinator and we talked

1:08:01 about monitoring if this was to happen to ensure

1:08:04 that schools are utilizing them and make sure that schools are

1:08:07 utilizing them in the right capacity so we’ve already have

1:08:09 started the conversations of what this would look like on the

1:08:11 backside

1:08:12 but haven’t finalize those conversations because you know we

1:08:17 have to make sure that the front side happens before the

1:08:19 backside can exist

1:08:19 thank you thank you for the clarification i have one ask just

1:08:23 based on something that you had just said so i would love to see

1:08:27 a calendar exist obviously that shows who’s using it but i would

1:08:30 also like to see who was attempting to use it so maybe like a

1:08:33 waiting list so to speak for a date

1:08:34 so we can really see how it’s getting used or days that it’s

1:08:38 heavily utilized or days that it’s not used at all and and that

1:08:42 might help

1:08:42 this conversation if there is any issues moving forward sorry i’ll

1:08:46 turn it over if anybody else has

1:08:47 questions all right go ahead um so i gotta clarify some things

1:08:53 because it’s

1:08:54 we’re making a really expensive decision and saying things that

1:08:58 aren’t really super accurate

1:09:00 um this is not a non-reoccurring expense this is absolutely a reoccurring

1:09:05 expense it’s it’s it’s a vehicle

1:09:07 it’s more than just oil changes and gas i mean it’s just

1:09:11 maintenance period just like any other vehicle

1:09:13 so and again then there’s the replacement cost at some point too

1:09:17 to that commitment so this is absolutely

1:09:20 a reoccurring expense um so that’s just that’s just inaccurate

1:09:24 and and i understand that choice

1:09:26 busing went away for many many reasons one of which the lack of

1:09:29 bus drivers absolutely that is a correct

1:09:30 statement um but we’re not in the same position that we were in

1:09:35 but also back then we weren’t legally

1:09:37 allowed to use these vans in the first place right and so we did

1:09:41 have giant school buses going out

1:09:43 to pick up students way out of route or making the routes longer

1:09:47 in order to get them to these choice

1:09:49 programs but now these vans are able to be utilized so it is

1:09:52 different it’s shorter routes it’s a

1:09:54 completely different conversation it’s a much lower cost for

1:09:57 choice busing than when we were using

1:09:59 generic size school buses so my question is have we even reassessed

1:10:05 what the cost of academic choice

1:10:07 busing would cost us nowadays with this as an option and

1:10:10 opportunity um and if we haven’t i think it’s

1:10:14 really irresponsible of us to move forward with this program

1:10:17 without knowing that answer because

1:10:19 we could have an either or situation and i think it’s important

1:10:22 for us to know what’s on the table

1:10:24 um because my gut feeling is that it might be close to the same

1:10:29 cost and if it is we need to have a

1:10:31 conversation about that which one do we think benefits the the

1:10:34 community more what are we

1:10:35 prioritizing um so i’d like to address that yeah the corridor

1:10:41 busing is something we have considered

1:10:44 we’ll do a deeper dive into that to show you how much that would

1:10:47 cost if we were to reinstate what

1:10:48 we had before um but you’re going to be transporting a larger

1:10:52 number of students so you would need buses you

1:10:55 wouldn’t be doing you know these wouldn’t be a solution for that

1:10:58 um the this is not the same

1:11:00 the corridor busing is every day to and from school large

1:11:04 numbers of students you know buses and drivers

1:11:07 and that kind of thing these are not additional drivers this is

1:11:10 not a solution for corridor busing

1:11:12 are we not paying these people who are driving these vans we

1:11:15 haven’t you know considered that most of them

1:11:18 are going to be people who get a supplement already so if it’s

1:11:21 the coach for the team or the sponsor for

1:11:24 the team or club or something like that they’re already getting

1:11:26 a supplement okay so these are like

1:11:28 this is what i’m talking about though because like this is

1:11:30 really important information that should be

1:11:32 be solidified before we give a thumbs up to move on a program um

1:11:37 you know i’ve heard before and i’ve

1:11:40 heard it today of you know it’s a liability if a student gets

1:11:43 into an accident well well the reality

1:11:46 is that’s actually that actually isn’t a liability of the school

1:11:48 district we’re not making that child drive

1:11:50 the vehicle to to that place i mean no one wants a kid to get a

1:11:54 no car accident i’m not saying that but

1:11:56 that isn’t a liability for us a liability for us is putting our

1:11:59 staff members or volunteer in a van

1:12:01 driving the kids around that’s our liabilities we’re actually

1:12:03 increasing our liability not reducing it

1:12:06 um and so yes yes of course we have to pay for drivers for

1:12:10 corridor busing and choice busing

1:12:12 absolutely but we’re not going to get away with not paying the

1:12:15 people who are driving kids in a van

1:12:17 and increasing the liability of the school district that’s a

1:12:19 cost too so i i feel like there’s too many

1:12:22 question marks out there for numbers that were we don’t even

1:12:25 have answers to to to talk about this

1:12:27 and and i’m not comfortable with it’s yes it’s going to cost a

1:12:31 lot more because we haven’t even reassessed

1:12:34 what it what it would cost for us to do choice busing so how

1:12:37 much someone in here know how much

1:12:39 it cost us the last time we ran choice busing for our schools

1:12:43 and again that’s using full-size buses

1:12:46 long routes paying overtime to bus drivers because we didn’t

1:12:49 have enough of them do we have that number

1:12:51 i don’t think anybody has it today right now but we will get

1:12:54 that or guesstimate obviously i don’t i

1:12:55 don’t need it to be exact but but i think that’s important

1:12:58 because again one of the things i remember

1:13:01 time and time again our assistant superintendents talking about

1:13:03 when we had to get rid of that

1:13:05 program and there was like a gentle conversation of potentially

1:13:08 bringing it back and we just couldn’t

1:13:09 obviously coveted and everything um was the fact that we weren’t

1:13:13 allowed to use smaller vehicles because

1:13:15 that actually would benefit that program so again i’m just i’m

1:13:19 really uncomfortable with us making

1:13:20 generic statements without data and facts um i i think it’s

1:13:24 really irresponsible of us and i think

1:13:27 if the community you know when this gets on a board agenda

1:13:30 eventually when the community hears about

1:13:32 it like the people who want that choice busing back are going to

1:13:34 be really really upset uh that that

1:13:37 wasn’t a conversation that we had before we made this decision

1:13:39 all right mr right if i may um i think

1:13:45 there’s there’s there’s when we cut the choice busing it was one

1:13:49 million dollars which was what the

1:13:51 savings was and it was significantly higher than that and that

1:13:55 was the operating that did not include

1:13:57 the purchase of new buses that did not include a lot of the

1:14:00 other costs that are in there so the estimate

1:14:03 was around 1.5 million dollars to estimate it estimate the cost

1:14:06 for that corridor busing when you take a 1.5

1:14:10 million of an op reoccurring expense over and over again and you

1:14:14 say okay we’re gonna go ahead and do

1:14:16 this in four years say for instance that’s gonna get that’s

1:14:19 gonna get up to six million dollars when

1:14:21 you’re talking about 39 automotive vans which if you buy a new

1:14:25 set of tires for them every year do new

1:14:27 oil form you’re talking about 2500 in cost each it’s a

1:14:31 significantly different cost um the reoccurring costs

1:14:36 for that i was thinking the other day when i was talking to uh

1:14:39 one of the um communications people is

1:14:41 that you can wrap these vans for the cost that would offset for

1:14:44 the reoccurring cost of the vans

1:14:46 oil tires everything else but i think it’s i don’t think it’s

1:14:50 fair to say that if we did this we could

1:14:52 do the other one because you’re talking about a purchase of 1.9

1:14:57 within the first year of the op the

1:15:00 reoccurring budget on the other side it’s going to cost about

1:15:03 that because that’s what we’ve reduced it

1:15:04 to it’ll be close to two million dollars of a reoccurring cost

1:15:07 for the buses to do the transit

1:15:09 for a choice busing then you have that every single year and

1:15:13 that’s a deeper dive conversation to say

1:15:16 that this piece right here could pay for that is not fair it’s

1:15:19 not a it’s not the same it’s apples and

1:15:22 oranges now could you say that there’s a little bit of money

1:15:25 could be used for maybe one year

1:15:26 possibly but when you go to commit to that you have to have a 10-year

1:15:30 plan and i don’t see the funding or

1:15:32 the source the resources for that now i think dr rendell said he’s

1:15:35 going to look at that but i

1:15:36 i think to say that we’re going to purchase 39 automotive vans

1:15:40 and instead of doing that we

1:15:41 should be doing choice busing ahead of that i don’t think it’s

1:15:44 that’s a correct statement to look at

1:15:46 and i wanted to say one other thing when we talk about the

1:15:49 liability and transport of the individuals

1:15:51 i almost lost a student at ogali high school because he was

1:15:54 riding with a friend back from a basketball

1:15:56 game got into a car accident for 11 months was inside the

1:16:00 hospital and i’ll never forget that

1:16:01 night i’ll never forget the night when the student was driving

1:16:04 another student i’ll never forget that

1:16:06 night and that’s the reason when i talk about the liability i

1:16:08 didn’t want to bring it up but those

1:16:10 are the things that go on inside of our schools right now is

1:16:12 that they drive home with people that

1:16:14 may not be as credible as a person that goes through a 40-hour

1:16:17 course or somebody that goes through and

1:16:19 has certification or works for the school district and it puts

1:16:22 our kids in a liability whether we get

1:16:24 sued or not it’s not good practice so thank you i just want to

1:16:29 jump in you know in the proposal the

1:16:32 school staff will complete the necessary training the drivers

1:16:35 will be people that are already getting

1:16:38 paid they’ll be your sponsors they’ll be your coaches they’ll be

1:16:41 your people involved within that activity

1:16:43 you know they’ll be somebody obviously we’ll have to bridge the

1:16:47 gap a little bit with some after

1:16:48 school tutoring um you know pretend potentially of where that is

1:16:53 but we’ve been able to bridge that

1:16:55 with some funding sources and things of that nature so a lot of

1:16:59 times it would be you know specific

1:17:03 school-based personnel um majority of which would already be

1:17:07 receiving a supplement or some sort of

1:17:10 secondary income for uh sponsoring or being a part of that

1:17:13 program all right uh yeah hopefully they would

1:17:17 have this i mean that’s that’s going to be the and and it is it

1:17:20 is part of their activity i mean these are

1:17:24 activity buses so and again it sounds like two different

1:17:28 conversations going on there’s no way you could run

1:17:32 these every day as a school bus um then then you would be

1:17:36 replacing them often uh i’ve seen this in action

1:17:39 it it the athletic director you know controls the calendar you

1:17:45 talked about a calendar but at the

1:17:48 beginning of the year it’s very simple all activities um you

1:17:52 know get your schedules in if you need a bus

1:17:55 for an away game get it to me quickly you know the time gets

1:17:58 filled up uh they’re going to be fighting over

1:18:00 two trust me there’s boys and girls sports there’s different

1:18:03 activities going on uh there’s only so

1:18:05 many times they’re going to need these throughout there but it’s

1:18:08 crucial i mean if you’re going to a

1:18:09 an activity at the north end of the county you’re going to

1:18:12 really want to have a bus and uh or a van

1:18:15 and instead of saying hey kids just find your way there um so

1:18:19 again these will be used it of course it has

1:18:22 to be google docs are great uh but i believe uh i mean they’re

1:18:25 they’re looking for something like this

1:18:28 the athletic directors activity directors they’re going to be

1:18:31 handling this um you know professionally

1:18:33 and and these these sponsors they’re going to want to get their

1:18:37 dates in quickly it’ll it’ll be in in

1:18:39 the summer probably even you know before the end of the school

1:18:43 year the previous school year of knowing

1:18:45 their schedules their their events um on when they’re going to

1:18:49 want to reserve a bus uh or a van

1:18:51 so uh in action this will be this will be a wonderful thing for

1:18:56 the uh for the schools it is 2024 uh this

1:19:00 is something that i i just can’t believe it’s taken this long

1:19:02 for us to realize the need for this

1:19:06 yeah thank you mr trent okay um again i i think i kind of i am

1:19:12 in support of this i i think it’s very

1:19:14 hard for us to say this is not a good idea when so many

1:19:17 wonderful ideas are coming around how we can

1:19:19 support students that maybe wouldn’t have access to some of the

1:19:22 summer enrichment camps the the saturday

1:19:24 testing the tutoring the there’s just a lot of opportunity there

1:19:27 uh and when our staff is jumping

1:19:29 up and down saying yes please do this this will help us at our

1:19:32 school site i think we have to be

1:19:33 responsive to that i don’t mission because i hear what you’re

1:19:36 saying as far as the choice goes i think

1:19:38 the other part to consider is when the choice busing was

1:19:40 eliminated it wasn’t the same climate for choice

1:19:42 school as it is right now and so that those choice vouchers

1:19:46 weren’t open up universally to everyone

1:19:48 without income limits that am i wrong yeah so let me let me

1:19:52 clarify that word is it is it has two meanings

1:19:56 and it’s used differently but that’s that’s not what i’m talking

1:20:00 about um sort of the answer to what

1:20:02 you just asked me is yes sort of it actually already did exist

1:20:04 but that’s not what i meant

1:20:05 what brevard county has always been a choice school district

1:20:09 parents always had a right to choose a

1:20:11 school um but also we have choice schools right west melbourne

1:20:15 schools science challenger seven um

1:20:17 i’m sorry freedom freedom seven uh west shore yada yada that’s

1:20:21 that’s what i’m talking about i’m not

1:20:23 talking about i thought i’m not talking about bussing kids to

1:20:25 private schools no no no no no no that’s

1:20:29 okay it’s the same word but it’s oh i hate that they use the

1:20:31 same word okay that’s all right well

1:20:33 that’s my misunderstanding so i i hear i hear the concern there

1:20:37 and i if there was i think these are

1:20:39 these are two separate conversations so um as far as moving

1:20:42 forward on this you you have my support i

1:20:45 think this is a good idea i think this serves our students very

1:20:47 well i think it’ll serve our schools

1:20:48 very well and ultimately um as a parent who has children in

1:20:51 sports who is frequently having to transport

1:20:54 multiple children because families can’t get them to a different

1:20:58 venue um that i can see the benefit

1:20:59 of this honestly wholeheartedly i can so i believe at this point

1:21:03 you have you have three of us that’s

1:21:05 on like they said move forward is that fair to say miss campbell’s

1:21:09 not here obviously um miss jenkins

1:21:11 you’re not in favor of this right now it sounds like no no i’m

1:21:14 not and i i want to acknowledge i can

1:21:18 i i want to acknowledge something mr susan said like i mean i

1:21:20 hear what you’re saying you’re accurate

1:21:21 i get it like i get what you’re talking about that’s a

1:21:24 commitment going forward if we did choice

1:21:26 busing i’m not i’m not saying that it isn’t um what what i am

1:21:32 saying though is we only have so much

1:21:36 money right and this is a millage initiative that voters voted

1:21:39 for so i think it’s important for us

1:21:41 to consider all of the options for the community that voted for

1:21:45 it that’s really what i’m saying yes we

1:21:47 would be making a commitment going forward to finding those

1:21:50 funds year after year if we did

1:21:51 choice busing totally understand that but i i’m just really

1:21:54 uncomfortable that we haven’t reassessed

1:21:57 how much it would cost us because it would be significantly less

1:22:00 money now that these are an option

1:22:02 i just think that that that has to be done i think it needs to

1:22:05 be done especially when we’re utilizing

1:22:07 millage funds um yeah year after year we’re gonna have to pay

1:22:10 for it i totally understand that but

1:22:12 this it’s a huge chunk of money to put towards something without

1:22:16 knowing the other side

1:22:18 can i ask real quick mr jenkins are you saying that we would use

1:22:24 the buses for the vans for the

1:22:28 transportation what was that that last piece that you just said

1:22:31 that was legitimately a conversation

1:22:33 before it was legal for us to even do it because a lot of the a

1:22:37 lot of the routes that were picking up

1:22:39 students for choice um were not being utilized to their full

1:22:44 capacity they didn’t need a giant

1:22:46 school bus for those routes and so the conversation from our

1:22:50 assistant superintendents was we wish we

1:22:52 could have little tiny vans but we’re not legally allowed to do

1:22:55 that so that’s what i’m talking about

1:22:57 is like we don’t even know what that looks like and what that

1:22:59 would cost to run a program like that

1:23:01 it would obviously be cheaper than a school bus but we don’t

1:23:03 know because we never had that option back

1:23:05 when we had choice busing it wasn’t allowed so just as a point

1:23:10 of clarification um i

1:23:13 significantly remember when we were transporting kids a lot of

1:23:16 them were utilized for like the edgewood

1:23:19 and west shore choice programs and stuff like that um it would

1:23:22 be very difficult to purchase these use

1:23:25 these at a school and transport them around but i just think

1:23:27 that what miss jenkins is trying to get

1:23:29 at is is there’s some definite positive to us looking at going

1:23:32 back to choice busing i don’t

1:23:33 think anybody here disagrees with making that evaluation every

1:23:37 year because we have one of the

1:23:38 problems we have is we’re 72 miles long we have great programs

1:23:42 in certain places but kids don’t have

1:23:43 access to it one of the things that we did notice when we were

1:23:46 doing the choice busing was that the

1:23:48 majority of kids that were trans that were transferring to some

1:23:51 of those choice programs not the edgewood and

1:23:54 west shores but the down tickets like the aviation program at ogali

1:23:57 and stuff like that they were

1:23:58 actually staying local there wasn’t much that were kids from

1:24:01 like astronaut were trying to transporting

1:24:03 down there so i think that’s a good um request miss jenkins i

1:24:07 think that’s something that we all agree

1:24:09 with taking a look at and moving forward with an idea of

1:24:12 possibly doing it i just don’t think that we

1:24:14 should stall this to try to say that you should look at that

1:24:17 because the significant increase

1:24:20 for programs and everything else here being the fact that those

1:24:23 other other issues that are bus

1:24:25 drivers and other pieces that we have to put into that puzzle

1:24:28 are going to be needed as part of

1:24:29 that conversation and i don’t think we’re right there yet but i

1:24:32 think we’re close so i appreciate

1:24:34 you bringing that up and i appreciate those those aspects but i

1:24:37 just wanted some clarification there

1:24:39 thank you and i i want to clarify i don’t i’m not trying to make

1:24:42 it a perception that this board doesn’t

1:24:45 care about choice busing that’s not what i’m saying at all what

1:24:48 i’m saying is even if we

1:24:49 consider it after committing two million dollars to this program

1:24:52 that money is just not going to

1:24:54 exist this is this is free this is not free money but this is

1:24:57 money that we don’t have strings attached

1:24:59 to where we get to make the choice to utilize and to me it’s

1:25:02 important for us to know how much it costs

1:25:04 okay all right thank you mr jenkins thank you mr susan sounds

1:25:07 like you had great conversation here

1:25:08 i’m excited for the potential in this i’m going to ask if we can

1:25:10 just take a five minute recess before we

1:25:12 go into all these wonderful policies if that is okay dr rindell

1:25:14 do you have anything you want to add to this

1:25:16 conversation beforehand well two things i’m taking away from the

1:25:18 conversation this

1:25:19 this morning number one is they the board is interested in

1:25:22 getting a true picture of what

1:25:25 restoring corridor busting would look like and how much it would

1:25:28 cost so we will do that we’ll prepare

1:25:30 that for the board while also getting direction that we should

1:25:33 move forward with this project as it

1:25:35 stands so we’re going to do both things and as soon as we can

1:25:38 get an accurate picture of what

1:25:40 restoring corridor busing would look like and how much it would

1:25:43 cost we’ll present that to the board

1:25:44 thank you dr rindell so if we can take a five-minute recess and

1:25:46 then come back at 10 50 i would appreciate

1:25:48 Thank you.

1:25:49 MS ORTAGUS: Thanks.

1:25:50 I’m going to turn it off.

1:25:51 I’m so proud that I’m –

1:26:18 Thank you.

1:33:02 All right.

1:33:05 So, Ms. Campbell sent in hers, correct?

1:33:08 Yes, I have her thing.

1:33:10 She made comments on three of them.

1:33:11 I’m going to pull one.

1:33:13 Which policies are you going to pull?

1:33:14 Yeah, which one?

1:33:15 Just the 154.

1:33:16 Okay.

1:33:17 I’m going to go to the next one.

1:33:39 Okay.

1:33:40 Wonderful.

1:33:41 What is the next one that you’re pulling?

1:33:43 I’m not pulling any others of hers.

1:33:45 She just had comments on them.

1:33:47 There’s two other policies that she had comments on.

1:33:49 Okay.

1:33:50 Sorry.

1:33:51 I’ll just read in what her comments were.

1:33:52 Okay.

1:33:53 Perfect.

1:33:54 Sorry.

1:33:55 I thought you were pulling them.

1:33:56 All right.

1:33:57 Do you have any that you’re pulling off for any reason?

1:33:58 Nothing else.

1:33:59 Nope.

1:34:00 Okay.

1:34:01 All right.

1:34:02 So let’s start going through them.

1:34:03 I know it’s been a while since we’ve had the fund policy review.

1:34:06 So we’ll start going through.

1:34:07 Does anybody have anything that they want to add, discuss, or

1:34:10 possibly consider changing

1:34:12 in policy 0131?

1:34:13 And that was just mainly a Neola opinion.

1:34:18 Nope.

1:34:19 Okay.

1:34:20 All right.

1:34:21 How about next policy?

1:34:22 0147.1.

1:34:23 Travel and expenses.

1:34:26 Ms. Wright, you might be able to just ask everybody what ones

1:34:31 they wish to change.

1:34:31 You might be able to just skip all.

1:34:32 You don’t want to go down each line?

1:34:33 You can if you want.

1:34:34 Listen, I’m here.

1:34:35 I don’t have any questions until 2260.

1:34:38 Until, I’m sorry.

1:34:39 Which one?

1:34:40 2260, which is the next page.

1:34:41 2260?

1:34:42 Okay.

1:34:43 Somebody else, you know what I mean?

1:34:44 I don’t know if Ms. Jenkins or somebody’s got any.

1:34:46 All right.

1:34:47 How about this?

1:34:48 Does anybody have any questions, concerns, or recommendations

1:34:51 for anything on the first

1:34:52 page of our, yeah, I’m like, I know this is, it’s a lot, so.

1:34:56 How are we going to go through?

1:34:57 All right.

1:34:58 Yep.

1:34:59 I had one and I was just, this is more of an administrative

1:35:03 procedure asking for that to be updated

1:35:05 in 0169.1 to lay out, we added a new section of this.

1:35:11 This is a public comment policy in regards to individuals that

1:35:13 have been trespassed, so

1:35:14 I’m just asking for an administrative procedure to please be

1:35:17 listed on the website that coincides

1:35:19 with that policy.

1:35:20 That was the only one I had on that page.

1:35:26 Jean, are you good on that page?

1:35:28 Yes.

1:35:29 If you have anything.

1:35:30 Okay.

1:35:31 Are you saying add one or not?

1:35:33 We, we need to, yeah, we need to add one.

1:35:38 Understood.

1:35:41 All right.

1:35:42 Yep.

1:35:43 Next page.

1:35:44 Mr. Susan, you indicated 2260 as one that you had.

1:35:47 Yeah.

1:35:48 So in 2260 subsection 11, it says the requirements, the

1:35:53 requirements of the informal resolution

1:35:55 process, including the circumstances under which it precludes

1:35:58 the parties from resuming

1:35:59 a formal complaint arising from the same allegations.

1:36:01 Okay.

1:36:02 So it’s just like mumbo jumbo about the processes of the

1:36:05 complaint.

1:36:05 But one of the things I just wanted to make sure with Mr. Gibbs,

1:36:09 and maybe it’s a follow-up

1:36:10 question is, is that one of the things we dealt with in the

1:36:13 discipline issues that we had

1:36:14 in the past, was that when a Title IX investigation was

1:36:18 implemented at the same time as a discipline,

1:36:20 meaning it almost put that discipline could not move forward at

1:36:23 the same time and we would

1:36:24 have to complete the Title IX prior to the discipline.

1:36:26 That’s correct.

1:36:27 And so that’s not the current policy, is it?

1:36:31 Yes.

1:36:32 If students being investigated for Title IX under the 2020 regs,

1:36:38 or the changes in 2020,

1:36:39 they cannot be disciplined until the Title IX investigation is

1:36:43 completed.

1:36:43 And if a discipline, if the Title IX investigation is not able

1:36:47 to move forward for whatever reason,

1:36:49 do we then move forward with the discipline?

1:36:53 If it’s a Title IX, then there’s no reason why the investigation

1:36:57 wouldn’t go forward.

1:36:59 So here’s an instance, okay?

1:37:02 There’s a fight between two males and one of the males hits the

1:37:08 other male in the genitalia.

1:37:10 It triggers a Title IX investigation for that.

1:37:14 This is a case that actually happened in the past.

1:37:17 The Title IX investigation was not able to move forward because

1:37:20 of one thing or another.

1:37:21 The kid that punched the other kid was not able to move forward

1:37:23 with the actual discipline.

1:37:26 Can you kind of walk me through how that would happen?

1:37:28 There’s a physical fight between two people.

1:37:30 Title IX’s brought up.

1:37:32 You see what I mean?

1:37:33 I don’t know what they were told at the time.

1:37:35 Yeah.

1:37:36 I would have to get into the facts more.

1:37:38 Okay.

1:37:39 What if, go ahead.

1:37:41 I know we cleaned up a lot of the procedures last year.

1:37:44 Yeah.

1:37:45 And we put specific procedures in place.

1:37:47 We put protective measures.

1:37:49 Like when there is an issue, we separate the kids, put those

1:37:53 protective measures in place.

1:37:54 And we’ve speeded up the process where before it was taken a

1:37:58 long time.

1:37:59 Right.

1:38:00 So we’ve reduced the time by actually putting more efficient

1:38:06 procedures in place.

1:38:08 Okay.

1:38:10 So this is something that I can, I can meet with Ms. Dampier

1:38:13 after.

1:38:13 And if it’s an issue that arises, then I can bring it back.

1:38:16 There’s some more specific ones that I’d like to bring to you so

1:38:19 that you could look at them and rest assured that they’re not.

1:38:20 Is it current?

1:38:21 No, they’re from the past.

1:38:22 Okay.

1:38:23 But I just need to make sure that these aren’t going to happen

1:38:24 again.

1:38:24 That’s all.

1:38:25 Absolutely.

1:38:26 And it’s not worth talking about it here.

1:38:27 Okay.

1:38:28 And just, Mr. Susan, just so you know, too, like there was a

1:38:32 solid two years where this district had, even if we had

1:38:36 procedures in place, they weren’t really able to be followed

1:38:39 super well because we didn’t have like a staff member for it.

1:38:41 And then it was given to someone else.

1:38:43 And then it moved to another person.

1:38:45 And it was, it was a disaster.

1:38:47 So just, it’s probably going to be the answer, unfortunately.

1:38:52 But, by the way, Ms. Dampier, thank you for making that a

1:38:56 priority when you got here.

1:38:57 Yes.

1:38:58 Thank you.

1:38:59 Yep.

1:39:00 All right.

1:39:01 Thank you.

1:39:02 Anybody else have anything else on this page?

1:39:06 Okay.

1:39:07 Moving on to the next page.

1:39:09 All right.

1:39:12 Does anybody have anything on this page?

1:39:15 Oh, I have, okay.

1:39:19 So on page 53 of the policy, I think this is a technical error.

1:39:24 Hold on.

1:39:25 I think it’s 53.

1:39:26 Let me make sure.

1:39:28 Number nine.

1:39:30 Yes.

1:39:31 Okay.

1:39:32 Number nine, that first paragraph.

1:39:33 So it looks like we’re changing it to, sorry.

1:39:36 It’s page 53, policy number 2421.

1:39:41 In my packet online here, it would be under section nine.

1:39:47 I don’t know if you’re looking at the attachments.

1:39:50 So we changed it to 150 hours.

1:39:53 And it looks like the very last sentence says 135 hour threshold.

1:39:56 I think that’s a technical error.

1:39:58 It should say 150 hours.

1:39:59 They don’t match.

1:40:00 Is that correct?

1:40:01 If you’re looking at the first page, or it’s just a technical

1:40:07 error.

1:40:07 So we didn’t change the 135 at the bottom to match the 150 that

1:40:12 we changed it to.

1:40:12 So.

1:40:13 Okay.

1:40:19 Does anybody else have anything else on this page?

1:40:22 Don’t all jump at once.

1:40:23 Okay.

1:40:24 All right.

1:40:25 Next page.

1:40:26 Which just covers three policies.

1:40:27 And I have notes made.

1:40:28 So let me see what I.

1:40:33 Ms. Campbell has 2522.

1:40:38 I have 2522 too, as well.

1:40:41 I think I had something that was just more of a question of

1:40:53 consistency.

1:40:56 Because of changing the word shall to may, which we did in

1:41:03 another policy when it came to recouping cost associated with

1:41:07 some of the curriculum.

1:41:08 We didn’t change it on F1.

1:41:11 We kept it.

1:41:12 I think we should change it from shall to may.

1:41:15 So we’re consistent because for the fees charged.

1:41:18 Hang on.

1:41:19 Sorry.

1:41:20 I’m trying to find where it’s on here.

1:41:21 F1 is what I wrote down.

1:41:22 Okay.

1:41:23 F1 for the replacement and purchase of instructional materials

1:41:27 by students.

1:41:27 On policy 2520, we changed that verbiage from shall to may and

1:41:34 we kept it shall here.

1:41:36 So I’m like, I think just we either we’re going to collect it or

1:41:38 we’re not going to collect it.

1:41:39 So maybe not.

1:41:40 We’re going to collect it this time, but we’re not going to

1:41:42 collect it that time.

1:41:42 So for consistency purposes, I think on this policy, we should

1:41:46 change it to may.

1:41:47 And that will make us consistent throughout what our policies

1:41:51 are.

1:41:51 That makes sense.

1:41:53 Okay.

1:41:54 All right.

1:41:55 What did Ms. Campbell write in regards to 2522?

1:41:59 On section 87.

1:42:02 She says, it says the committee shall be established at the

1:42:06 beginning of each school year.

1:42:08 And she was asking whether we should put something in to clarify

1:42:12 when a new board member comes

1:42:13 in, such as this, this November, to add for them to select to

1:42:17 their committee members,

1:42:19 because it’s not in there right now.

1:42:22 Okay.

1:42:23 I think that’s a good idea.

1:42:28 I had in here, this is a really funky one, because we put the

1:42:31 procedure on the policy and

1:42:32 we don’t have procedure written in policy anywhere.

1:42:34 So my recommendation would be to remove the procedure, seeing

1:42:38 how this is such a fluid process

1:42:39 right now.

1:42:40 And it’s changing all the time with legislation and board

1:42:43 members and all that, that my recommendation

1:42:45 would be to remove the procedure out of the policy and put the

1:42:49 procedure in the procedure

1:42:50 category.

1:42:51 So I have a question.

1:42:57 We’ve gone over this policy so many times, so I really don’t

1:43:02 remember.

1:43:03 So for our board appointees, is it listed somewhere else where

1:43:09 they serve like a year term?

1:43:12 Or did we have that listed somewhere?

1:43:16 Like I know some of them, like when I came on my, I don’t even

1:43:23 want to say which committee,

1:43:26 because I’m going to get it wrong.

1:43:27 But one of them was like, this person serves this term.

1:43:30 It was, it was a term limit basically.

1:43:33 Some charters, like I want to say ICOC and ICCMO may have terms

1:43:37 on in their charter document

1:43:40 that the board approved, because those committees recommended

1:43:43 their replacements, not board member

1:43:45 representation.

1:43:46 Like the audit committee has board member representation.

1:43:49 The review committee has board member representatives.

1:43:52 Okay.

1:43:53 So those.

1:43:54 I’m not, I’m not opposed to it.

1:43:55 I just, because there’s supposed to be appointments of the board

1:43:58 members.

1:43:58 But I just, just want to make sure we make sure that that doesn’t

1:44:01 exist somewhere else.

1:44:02 I don’t, I’m looking to make sure that I don’t see it anywhere

1:44:07 else.

1:44:07 It’s usually been a standing thing that if somebody new comes in

1:44:13 that they reset all of their appointees.

1:44:15 It’s probably worth the board taking the initiative of making a

1:44:18 appointee policy for anybody that,

1:44:21 any board member appoints, we need to make sure they’re

1:44:24 consistent with who’s in office at that time.

1:44:27 Because if you have a new person, they’re probably going to want

1:44:30 to appoint their own people to different committees, which is

1:44:32 fair.

1:44:32 And, and that’s what I was getting at.

1:44:35 I, I guess, I guess really just really for new board member

1:44:38 orientation, that’d be really helpful.

1:44:39 Um, cause there was a sub, there’s a couple that you can’t

1:44:42 because they literally do have a term limit.

1:44:44 Um, I mean for this one, I feel like it’s obvious it should be a

1:44:48 board when the board flips, but just curious if it’s written

1:44:51 anywhere.

1:44:51 Um, it’s always been standing policy that whoever comes in reestablishes

1:45:00 who they want.

1:45:01 And if charters like.

1:45:02 Unwritten policy.

1:45:03 Right.

1:45:04 The charters.

1:45:05 Unwritten policy.

1:45:06 The charters, but.

1:45:07 Right.

1:45:08 So Mr. Gibbs, would that be something that you would like to the

1:45:11 initiative on, on, on writing a policy for appointees?

1:45:13 Yeah.

1:45:14 Of board members?

1:45:15 Board member appointee.

1:45:16 Yes.

1:45:17 Okay.

1:45:18 And board, are you comfortable with us removing the procedure

1:45:21 out of the policy?

1:45:22 I don’t want to flip that and say backwards.

1:45:24 Okay.

1:45:25 Yep.

1:45:26 Can I, um, just interject cause 2522 is new for us.

1:45:30 It was, um, in Neola last year.

1:45:32 And basically, um, we made some, uh, we didn’t change the

1:45:36 content, but we put it within the policy.

1:45:39 Because now we’d have three policies.

1:45:41 One is about the instructional materials program.

1:45:44 And then the second one includes, uh, the adoption and selection

1:45:49 process with the hearings and all

1:45:51 that go.

1:45:52 And then now 2522, that speaks specifically to the objection

1:45:57 process.

1:45:57 Are we okay with adopting 2522?

1:46:00 Um, as a policy that speaks as before in our policies, whether

1:46:06 it was instructional materials,

1:46:07 uh, policy or the selection and adoption, we had the objection

1:46:12 process language kind of all

1:46:14 in both of those policies.

1:46:15 So with the addition of 2522 being a policy specific to the

1:46:20 objection process, are we okay

1:46:22 with, um, bringing on 2522?

1:46:26 Uh, to me it, uh, for all of our stakeholders, it makes it clear.

1:46:30 This is how we adopt.

1:46:32 And this is the process for selection and how we appeal during

1:46:37 the adoption process.

1:46:38 That’s a separate process than the objection process for adopted

1:46:42 materials.

1:46:43 They’re two separate processes that we go through.

1:46:46 That sounds good.

1:46:47 Are we, are we legally required to have the procedure in there

1:46:51 too?

1:46:51 I feel like that was a conversation in the legislature.

1:46:54 With the procedures, it’s, it’s about having clarity.

1:46:57 I, I believe I’ll defer to you, but our procedures also are very

1:47:02 different than NEOLA just as a whole.

1:47:05 And so if we can put them in as procedures, we’re happy to take

1:47:10 them out of policy.

1:47:11 We, we have to have procedures delineated.

1:47:13 I’d have to double check the exact language to see if it says in

1:47:16 policy or not, or if it just

1:47:18 says the board must have a procedure available to the public.

1:47:22 I want to lean toward, I believe it says procedure available to

1:47:26 the public and post it on our homepage and all that.

1:47:29 And as you’re reviewing these, um, three, I just want to, um, we

1:47:36 just September, 2024, the state updated the objection form.

1:47:40 So everywhere in the policies where you see 2520.

1:47:43 Yeah.

1:47:44 Um, F2, that’s going to be replaced with a new form.

1:47:47 That’s going to be called 2522.

1:47:49 F1.

1:47:50 Okay.

1:47:51 And basically the changes in form, um, include that if I am just

1:47:57 a resident of the county and I’m making an objection, I can only

1:48:01 do one per month.

1:48:01 Right.

1:48:02 You know, there’s a limitation.

1:48:03 Okay.

1:48:04 I mean, I just, the only reason my recommendation was to remove

1:48:08 the procedure was it, it just doesn’t seem consistent with what

1:48:12 we do for everything else.

1:48:12 Since we have procedure and a policy manual that’s attached

1:48:16 online.

1:48:16 Uh, and this changes so much, unfortunately something.

1:48:20 And every time you want to make a change, we’re going to have to

1:48:22 go back to policymaking.

1:48:23 And that’s a whole process that takes a long time, uh, versus

1:48:27 changing the procedures, uh, a far simpler process.

1:48:30 So board, what’s your appetite for that?

1:48:33 Are you okay with that?

1:48:34 As long as we’re legally in compliance, you’ll check that out.

1:48:38 I’ll double check and if we can pull them out, if we can’t, I’ll

1:48:41 let staff know.

1:48:42 But if you want to pull them out, if we’re allowed to, that

1:48:45 would be the board’s call.

1:48:46 All right.

1:48:47 Well, that would be what my ask would be.

1:48:49 Anybody?

1:48:50 Yeah, I’m not, um, as long cause as long as we make sure, cause

1:48:55 I feel like that was something wacky that came up.

1:48:56 And as long as it’s clearly very easily accessible on the

1:49:00 website for everyone, no going through 55,000 links to find it.

1:49:03 Um, I’m okay with it.

1:49:04 I agree.

1:49:05 It would be, it’s going to change and it’s not just going to

1:49:07 change based on the board members switching.

1:49:09 It’s going to change every single year the legislature meets and

1:49:12 it’s going to be really frustrating to update that constantly.

1:49:14 So.

1:49:15 Yeah.

1:49:16 Okay.

1:49:17 Mr. Susan, Mr. Trent, are you comfortable?

1:49:18 I’m good.

1:49:19 Yep.

1:49:20 All right.

1:49:21 Anybody else have anything else on this page?

1:49:22 No.

1:49:23 All right.

1:49:24 Uh, next page.

1:49:25 Does anyone have anything on this page?

1:49:26 I have something and I just want to look at it real fast before

1:49:27 I say it out loud.

1:49:27 Make sure that it’s the same policy that I think that it is.

1:49:28 Okay.

1:49:30 Does anyone have anything on this page?

1:49:33 I have something, and I just want to look at it real fast before

1:49:38 I say it out loud.

1:49:39 Make sure that it’s the same quality that I think that it is.

1:49:43 Okay.

1:49:48 Sorry, bear with me.

1:49:56 It always takes a minute to get there, because there’s just so

1:49:59 many wonderful pages here.

1:50:00 Okay, I asked Mr. Gibbs this, and I think he clarified it, but

1:50:13 on Policy 5114, we’re adding

1:50:16 the fact that our students with J-1 visas and F-1 visas may not

1:50:21 graduate from high school

1:50:23 or receive a diploma, and his explanation was that that coincides

1:50:27 with our student progression

1:50:30 plan?

1:50:31 Is that accurate?

1:50:32 That is accurate, and I can tell you we’ve done quite a bit of

1:50:35 research around this, and

1:50:37 that is, in all districts, that is the case.

1:50:41 Okay.

1:50:42 All right.

1:50:43 It just made me go, why, when I saw that?

1:50:45 And I couldn’t find it in the student progression plan.

1:50:46 I was trying to find it this morning, but I didn’t have enough

1:50:48 time to really devote to it.

1:50:49 So thank you for the clarification.

1:50:50 All right.

1:50:51 Does anybody else have anything else on that page?

1:50:54 No.

1:50:55 All right.

1:50:56 Moving on to the next page.

1:50:59 Does anybody have –

1:51:01 3-1-2-1?

1:51:02 Is 3-1-2-1 on this list?

1:51:03 Oh, what?

1:51:04 Sorry.

1:51:05 No, we’re – 3-1-2-1 we just passed.

1:51:06 That was the previous page.

1:51:07 So that’s criminal background.

1:51:08 Yes.

1:51:09 I apologize.

1:51:10 Criminal background and employment history checks.

1:51:11 The one thing I was going to ask is that there seems to be a

1:51:17 series of people who are – they

1:51:21 come and they say, hey, I had this thing flagged.

1:51:24 I think we’re working on one right now.

1:51:26 And there’s not like a clear area for them to say, hey, I’m

1:51:30 having an issue or to let us know.

1:51:33 It just seems like something that keeps coming up.

1:51:34 And then they say, well, I would like to appeal it, but I don’t

1:51:36 know where to appeal it and stuff like that.

1:51:38 Can you give some guidance to that?

1:51:39 So that’s exactly what this change is, right?

1:51:41 There’s no appeal process at all.

1:51:44 Right.

1:51:45 And I can’t violate board policy.

1:51:46 So when they say they don’t disclose something, whether it’s a

1:51:49 bad check from 25 years ago, they didn’t disclose it.

1:51:52 I’m required to file a board policy and say, sorry, you’re not

1:51:54 eligible to work for us now.

1:51:56 With this change, it’ll allow us to have an appeal process where,

1:52:00 you know, I can – it’s – to me, right?

1:52:02 I’ll look at it and say, is it a disqualifier?

1:52:05 You know, go through the things.

1:52:07 If it makes sense that we take a second look, we’ll take a

1:52:10 second look.

1:52:11 Okay.

1:52:12 One of the things it does is it mentions in there that the

1:52:15 superintendent would be notified.

1:52:17 Or designee.

1:52:19 Is there a way to notify the board chairs of that?

1:52:21 Or do you guys care to do that?

1:52:23 No?

1:52:24 Okay.

1:52:25 All right.

1:52:26 That’s all.

1:52:27 I think we could be in the weeds on that one.

1:52:29 All right.

1:52:30 Just a question.

1:52:32 As long as there’s a process that they’re going through.

1:52:33 Correct.

1:52:34 I think the problem we’ve had in the past is that they’re like,

1:52:35 where’s the process?

1:52:37 Because I know we’ve spoken about this and we wanted to be able

1:52:39 to give them an opportunity

1:52:41 to, you know, to file some sort of an appeal.

1:52:44 But it may not have ever gotten into the policy.

1:52:46 So that may be the issue.

1:52:47 That’s exactly what this is.

1:52:48 And I think that that’s why these things are bubbling up right

1:52:49 now that I’m dealing with

1:52:51 a couple of them.

1:52:52 So thank you.

1:52:53 And Mr. Susan, I’m sure you’re like all of us.

1:52:54 We all get reached out to by somebody who maybe has been disqualified

1:52:57 and didn’t have

1:52:57 the opportunity to appeal.

1:52:58 And I can understand why you’re like, well, do we want to have

1:53:00 that there?

1:53:01 But I think we should let this should be your job.

1:53:04 Mr. Dufresne.

1:53:05 So we would love for you to have that appeal.

1:53:06 Right.

1:53:07 Just making sure.

1:53:08 Thank you, sir.

1:53:09 All right.

1:53:10 Wonderful.

1:53:11 All right.

1:53:12 Onto the next page.

1:53:14 Okay.

1:53:19 Any questions, concerns, recommendations for this page?

1:53:24 Nope.

1:53:29 All right.

1:53:30 On to the next page.

1:53:33 On 5505, I think we had a lettering.

1:53:35 This is more of just a technical error.

1:53:39 Academic honesty, which is a new policy that I am very much in

1:53:43 favor of.

1:53:44 But the numbers get – I think it’s letters, actually, is what I

1:53:47 wrote on here.

1:53:48 The lettering was off.

1:53:49 They got a little out of whack.

1:53:51 Yeah, they go A-X-A-L-L.

1:53:53 Yeah.

1:53:54 And I’m like, why did we stop at H instead of going – so that’s

1:53:56 just a technical nothing

1:53:59 major.

1:54:00 All right.

1:54:02 Nobody else has anything on this one?

1:54:04 Nope.

1:54:05 All right.

1:54:06 Next page.

1:54:07 Does anybody have anything on this one?

1:54:08 Hearing none.

1:54:10 All right.

1:54:11 Next page.

1:54:11 Does anybody have anything on this one?

1:54:15 Hearing none.

1:54:18 All right.

1:54:19 Next page.

1:54:20 This is all financial services.

1:54:22 Does anybody have anything on this one?

1:54:23 Hearing none.

1:54:37 All right.

1:54:38 Next page.

1:54:39 This is all financial services.

1:54:40 Does anybody have anything on this one?

1:54:41 I just wanted to highlight one that I think it’s very good

1:54:46 and I’m excited about it and that’s 64, or sorry, 6114.

1:54:53 I love that we’re being held accountable to market prices

1:54:58 rather than gouge prices for government, which sometimes seems

1:55:02 to happen.

1:55:03 So I’m very happy with this policy.

1:55:06 We must act with credence when it comes to government dollars.

1:55:12 I think that’s always a good thing.

1:55:14 All right.

1:55:15 Does anybody have anything else on that page?

1:55:17 Nope.

1:55:18 All right.

1:55:19 Going to the next page.

1:55:21 Are you on?

1:55:23 We’re on starting with 6152.

1:55:25 Yep.

1:55:26 Got it.

1:55:27 Okay.

1:55:28 All right.

1:55:31 Guys, we’re doing so much better than I thought.

1:55:36 I thought we were going to be.

1:55:39 All right.

1:55:40 Nothing on this page?

1:55:41 Nope.

1:55:42 Not on that page either.

1:55:44 All right.

1:55:45 On the next page, 7440.

1:55:46 74, 7440, which is the small unmanned aircrafts.

1:55:51 Yeah.

1:55:52 It’s related and I like it because it gives us control over all

1:55:56 of our, you know what I mean, it adds a little bit here

1:55:58 and there, but one of the things that inside of it that it doesn’t

1:56:01 recognize is the students using them.

1:56:03 It just says they’re not to be used.

1:56:06 And I just wanted to make sure that we were okay to have our

1:56:09 student clubs doing stuff and everything else.

1:56:11 This was one of those ones that was really funky because they

1:56:13 changed the legislation on making sure that they are not

1:56:16 anything

1:56:17 with, I think it was Chinese owned or something like that.

1:56:19 Right.

1:56:21 And it ended up killing a lot of those clubs because

1:56:24 unfortunately

1:56:24 the ones that are made in America were so much more expensive

1:56:27 that it wasn’t feasible for them to use them.

1:56:29 It just talks that an operator should have to have the license.

1:56:33 Right.

1:56:34 And a lot of our students, if they are flying those race drones

1:56:38 and stuff like that are under the size and the size isn’t signified

1:56:41 inside there.

1:56:42 So basically, it’s basically requiring anybody that flies a

1:56:45 drone inside of our schools to have this.

1:56:47 You have to be a licensed FAA, you know what I mean, pilot.

1:56:52 And what I just wanted to make sure was that our clubs and our

1:56:56 activities and stuff like that can continue to do that.

1:56:59 And they’re not required.

1:57:00 That’s all.

1:57:01 It’s just one of those cleanups.

1:57:02 You know what I mean?

1:57:03 If we need to add something to it.

1:57:04 Paul, can you check just to make sure that we’re okay?

1:57:06 It authorizes anyone authorized by the superintendent to

1:57:09 operate on our school grounds.

1:57:10 So that would include our staff that are authorizing it.

1:57:13 I know.

1:57:14 We did have an incident at a school where this might come in

1:57:17 where somebody was flying one over one of our elementary

1:57:20 schools and nobody knew who it was.

1:57:22 And it was getting down like height level.

1:57:24 So we wanted to make clear that no one.

1:57:27 Yeah, we have.

1:57:28 What’s the process for that?

1:57:29 Like if that were to happen?

1:57:30 We notify SRO and have the SRO try and find who’s flying it.

1:57:34 Shoot it out of the sky.

1:57:35 Because they’re not allowed to be on our school.

1:57:37 They have those nets that you can shoot animals with.

1:57:40 There’s your slingshot when you need it, right?

1:57:42 Oh, man.

1:57:43 Okay.

1:57:44 Yeah, they have a lot of football and sporting events

1:57:46 where people just try to come bring their drones.

1:57:48 And I like when we shut them down.

1:57:49 Yeah, and they’re not supposed to be doing that.

1:57:51 Yep.

1:57:52 I mean, it’s a liability.

1:57:53 If you don’t know how to drive one of those drones

1:57:54 and you drop it on somebody’s head.

1:57:55 Yep.

1:57:56 Or their car causes significant property damage.

1:57:58 Yep.

1:57:59 Thank you.

1:58:01 All right.

1:58:02 Anybody else have anything else on this page?

1:58:05 All right, on to the next page, starting with 8405.

1:58:18 All things school safety.

1:58:20 I see our…

1:58:21 No, you’re good.

1:58:22 I don’t have any questions, Rashad.

1:58:23 You’re coming up here.

1:58:24 He’s ready to go.

1:58:25 I don’t have anything written here, so I’m good.

1:58:28 Anybody else have anything on this page?

1:58:31 Nope.

1:58:34 All right.

1:58:36 Next page, starting with 8420.

1:58:39 Ms. Campbell has 9800.

1:58:42 Which one of these?

1:58:43 9800.

1:58:44 9800, sorry.

1:58:45 Ms. Campbell made her last comment.

1:58:47 Okay.

1:58:48 What does Ms. Campbell have written for me?

1:58:51 The comment was, in the event that an existing charter school

1:58:54 contract provision is found

1:58:56 to be inconsistent with this policy, the charter contract

1:58:58 provision prevails.

1:59:00 Is this referring to the school safety requirements section

1:59:04 showing as XLBI point D?

1:59:08 Or is it saying, in general, the whole policy?

1:59:11 And how does that work when things in the policy reflect current

1:59:14 Florida law?

1:59:15 How does the charter contract trump the policy in that case?

1:59:20 How does that work when things in the policy?

1:59:38 How does that work when things in policy?

2:00:08 As inconsistent with statute statute always prevails over

2:00:11 contract language.

2:00:12 So they have to follow the law just like we do.

2:00:15 Okay.

2:00:16 And I know with our current even saying this,

2:00:21 we work very closely with district security with our charters

2:00:24 to ensure that they’re in compliance with all of the safety.

2:00:27 Yes.

2:00:30 All right.

2:00:35 Now the rest of these are grayed out because they are no changes

2:00:38 or we are not adopting them.

2:00:40 Does anybody have anything that they’re concerned about with the?

2:00:44 Yeah, those were, we’re marking those as reviewed on.

2:00:48 Right.

2:00:49 But they didn’t come to the board.

2:00:50 So these are all the ones that no changes were recommended by

2:00:52 staff

2:00:53 and you guys had referred to staff.

2:00:54 Okay.

2:00:55 So they came back with fine as is.

2:00:57 So unless you guys have an issue you want to raise now,

2:00:59 those are just going to be marked reviewed on.

2:01:01 Good deal.

2:01:02 Wow.

2:01:03 I am honestly impressed.

2:01:04 I thought we were going to be here.

2:01:05 I was going to tell you guys before we started,

2:01:06 I have a time certain stop of 3:00 PM today.

2:01:07 But we’re doing well.

2:01:08 I thought we were going to be.

2:01:09 All right.

2:01:10 So.

2:01:11 Any other discussion or concerns or anything about the policies

2:01:13 that we just went over?

2:01:14 All 253 pages.

2:01:15 All right.

2:01:16 So the last topic is the Neola template policy 6490 legal

2:01:20 services for employees, officers,

2:01:23 and public officials.

2:01:24 Let me pull it up real fast.

2:01:25 Yeah.

2:01:26 And this was directed to me by the board when we went through

2:01:29 all of them.

2:01:29 And there’s some options on there that I can’t really make

2:01:34 selections for.

2:01:36 Okay.

2:01:37 I made selections for the ones that I thought I could answer for

2:01:40 the board based on its direction,

2:01:42 but the board is going to need to direct on some of those.

2:01:59 Okay.

2:02:00 So.

2:02:01 Who wants to weigh in first on this one?

2:02:14 I’m sorry.

2:02:15 You mean – okay.

2:02:17 You made the option choices of one and two.

2:02:19 Yeah.

2:02:20 At the top where you were –

2:02:21 Which one are you asking for us for a direction?

2:02:23 I believe it starts on page two where it says option one.

2:02:27 Oops.

2:02:28 That’s as far as I could go.

2:02:30 And these are like – I didn’t know which options the board

2:02:33 wanted to select here.

2:02:34 Because there’s – you can designate to the superintendent or –

2:02:41 on some of these.

2:02:41 Got it.

2:02:42 So I don’t know where you want to go with it.

2:02:44 Okay.

2:02:45 All right, board.

2:02:54 So what is the board’s desires?

2:02:56 And we want to jump out there with which one they want to go

2:02:58 with.

2:02:59 And then particularly at the bottom of page two where there’s

2:03:02 monetary amounts that are needed to be filled in.

2:03:09 Okay.

2:03:10 Thank you.

2:03:10 Have you looked, Mr. Gibbs, and – to any other surrounding

2:03:15 districts on what they have as far as a policy that’s similar to

2:03:19 this, what surrounding counties are doing?

2:03:22 I have not seen if they have – I’m assuming NEOLA districts

2:03:25 either adopted NEOLAs or not.

2:03:27 But I can reach out and try and fill it in.

2:03:29 Again, this is not on the advertised schedule yet.

2:03:31 So it’ll have to come back anyways.

2:03:32 Okay.

2:03:33 So if you want to see what other districts are doing.

2:03:35 I feel like I would like some more information to be able to

2:03:37 just see what’s consistent for practice, so to speak.

2:03:42 So I have – I have an opinion here because – because just

2:03:46 before going in the weeds of it all, like, the main difference

2:03:50 between option one and option two is requesting reimbursement of

2:03:55 your fees versus asking for them to be paid.

2:03:59 My personal feeling – because all of this is when it’s in your

2:04:02 official capacity.

2:04:04 All of them say that option.

2:04:07 My opinion is option one should be the choice.

2:04:13 Because if you’re going to get sued as an elected official in

2:04:18 these tumultuous times for things that eventually are deemed not

2:04:24 to be your fault, you have to put that upcoming expense up.

2:04:28 And if it’s in your official capacity, I think that’s ridiculous

2:04:32 of a burden to put on somebody, an elected official.

2:04:37 It’s not like that in any other elected office.

2:04:39 That would never happen.

2:04:41 And it’s not a guarantee with option one, but it is May.

2:04:47 I think where this gets a little hairy – oh, sorry, are you

2:04:53 done?

2:04:54 Because the one part that’s like – the one part that would be

2:04:57 weird is, like, if you go with option two and you’re expecting a

2:05:02 regular person in elected office to pay attorney fees up front

2:05:06 to defend themselves of serving in their official role, and then

2:05:11 it says May, at the end, the school board, for whatever reason,

2:05:18 says, “Nope, we’re not reimbursing those.”

2:05:21 But technically, then that person then can sue the school

2:05:23 district, no?

2:05:24 To say this was my official capacity.

2:05:25 That’s correct.

2:05:26 Yeah.

2:05:27 And so I feel like that is a legal litigation disaster waiting

2:05:31 to happen.

2:05:33 Because isn’t there a state statute that protects the elected

2:05:36 official?

2:05:37 There’s – in their official capacity.

2:05:38 Right.

2:05:39 In their official capacity.

2:05:40 Yeah.

2:05:41 I’m only talking official.

2:05:42 There are provisions that say they can be reimbursed.

2:05:44 And that’s where they would sue the district, say, “Hey, it was

2:05:47 – I defended it.

2:05:48 It was in my official capacity, and I prevailed, so pay me what

2:05:52 my attorney’s fees are.”

2:05:54 Right.

2:05:55 Mr. Gibbs, I think it would be good if you came back with some

2:05:56 more information on what the other surrounding counties are

2:05:59 offering.

2:06:00 I – this gets very hairy as to what is considered official

2:06:03 capacity and all that fun stuff.

2:06:05 Right.

2:06:06 So I think it would be good and beneficial to have a little more

2:06:08 information before we move forward on this one.

2:06:12 So I have a question, too, because – and you’re going to have

2:06:16 – I would – you’re going to have to clarify this, so when you

2:06:19 come back.

2:06:20 But my understanding is that official capacity would be

2:06:22 determined by the court.

2:06:24 Yes.

2:06:25 Most likely it would be in there.

2:06:29 Right.

2:06:30 So – well, that’s a safeguard is what I’m saying.

2:06:33 It’s not determined above the people here to say, “That’s my

2:06:35 official capacity.

2:06:36 It doesn’t matter.

2:06:37 The court has to determine that.”

2:06:38 Okay.

2:06:39 That would most likely be a threshold question in the litigation.

2:06:42 If they were sued in their official capacity and it was

2:06:44 something in your personal capacity, we’d most likely move to

2:06:47 dismiss the district and everything.

2:06:50 Right.

2:06:51 So here’s the other thing that you need to consider as well.

2:06:53 It’s just – it’s just inappropriate, in my opinion.

2:06:56 I mean, I know you’re going to come back, but it’s inappropriate

2:06:58 to not – to not do it.

2:06:59 Because there’s a reality.

2:07:01 There’s people whose names were mentioned on litigation who aren’t

2:07:03 even on the board anymore for things when they were on the board.

2:07:07 And that’s insane.

2:07:08 So you yourself will be taking liability for the rest of your

2:07:11 life because you served on this board.

2:07:14 It’s just crazy.

2:07:15 You’re serving in a public capacity.

2:07:17 And then, again, I would like to know about the state statutes,

2:07:20 too, that protect elected officials in that, because it’s not in

2:07:24 here.

2:07:25 I think this is definitely an interesting conversation.

2:07:27 It’s one that I would like more information on, and I think we

2:07:28 should bring this one back with – when you can give us a little

2:07:31 bit more on what is out there, Mr. Gibbs.

2:07:35 All right.

2:07:37 Does any other board member have anything further to discuss?

2:07:42 I had one thing.

2:07:44 Mr. Gibbs, I mentioned this to you because it was mentioned to

2:07:46 me that we don’t have – your evaluation is not currently online.

2:07:51 And that – there’s a holdup of some sort.

2:07:54 Can you –

2:07:55 Yeah.

2:07:56 Mr. Susan had said he was reviewing his evaluation piece and

2:07:58 asked me not to sign it yet.

2:08:00 So –

2:08:01 Mr. Susan, are you – are we comfortable with going ahead and

2:08:04 having to sign it so it can be published and put online?

2:08:06 It needs to be – I don’t – the evaluation is done.

2:08:08 So I don’t know.

2:08:09 At this point, I would assume it has to be published.

2:08:11 Mr. Susan is free to ask the board to reconvene if he wishes to,

2:08:17 but –

2:08:18 Okay.

2:08:19 All right.

2:08:20 Well, I don’t really feel like we have clarification on this.

2:08:22 So is it going online then?

2:08:23 Is that what you’re – I mean, you want to have a look at it.

2:08:26 I’m just trying to understand what’s – what.

2:08:29 So I talked to Paul about looking at the evaluation and I hadn’t

2:08:34 had a chance because we had talked before about how some of

2:08:40 those that were on there would have been able to possibly be

2:08:44 changed based on some of the stuff that we were talking about

2:08:46 inside there.

2:08:47 And I talked to Paul the other day and I said, hey, I don’t

2:08:49 think that this changes anything from what your evaluation would

2:08:52 be or anything like that.

2:08:54 That’s all.

2:08:55 So –

2:08:56 But is it holding up as evaluation completion, though?

2:08:57 That’s the concern.

2:08:58 I don’t know.

2:08:59 If I can take a look and get back at the next board meeting for

2:09:01 you, that’d be great.

2:09:03 If you could – yeah, just have it resolved by the next board

2:09:04 meeting.

2:09:05 I think it needs to be published and put out there for the

2:09:06 public.

2:09:07 Oh, okay.

2:09:08 That’s what I was saying.

2:09:09 I have a question about that.

2:09:10 So yours is published publicly.

2:09:13 It’s not, right?

2:09:14 Currently, it’s not.

2:09:15 Well, no, I’m sorry.

2:09:16 I mean, it can be.

2:09:18 But that’s the one that we – that’s the one that was

2:09:21 individuals were going posted to.

2:09:24 I think that’s what we determined.

2:09:27 The reason I’m asking is because if Mr. Susan’s only looking at

2:09:29 it as an individual and it’s not getting posted anyway, then it

2:09:32 shouldn’t be delayed.

2:09:32 No, I was going to say the group one should be the one that’s

2:09:34 published.

2:09:35 That’s what we did for Dr. Rendell.

2:09:36 That would be consistent.

2:09:37 We discussed in the room that the individual was getting posted.

2:09:39 That’s why I’m asking.

2:09:40 So if we’re not doing that, then it shouldn’t delay it.

2:09:42 If we’re not going to do that anymore, then it shouldn’t delay

2:09:43 it.

2:09:44 No, I did not think that that was not my understanding, that the

2:09:45 individuals were being posted.

2:09:47 I thought the group one was the only one being posted.

2:09:49 The individual ones are available if somebody were to public

2:09:51 records request and they could get them.

2:09:53 But we’re only going to post the board’s evaluation of the

2:09:54 attorney, not individuals.

2:09:56 I promise you that was our determination because it was

2:09:57 different than what we discussed with Dr. Rendell.

2:10:00 Because Dr. Rendell’s contract clearly states it’s only the

2:10:03 total.

2:10:04 That was a decision that we made.

2:10:09 But my point is if we unmake that decision, then it doesn’t

2:10:13 delay posting it.

2:10:14 If Mr. Susan’s individual isn’t going to be posted anyway.

2:10:17 I didn’t think the individual ones were being posted.

2:10:19 Let me take a look at it.

2:10:20 Let me go back and look at my notes too as well.

2:10:22 But yeah, by next meeting, let’s get it resolved so we can make

2:10:25 sure it’s transparent out there.

2:10:27 Okay.

2:10:28 All right.

2:10:29 Perfect.

2:10:30 Dr. Rendell, do you have any other questions?

2:10:32 What board do you consider?

2:10:35 We have a board work session on the schedule for November 12th.

2:10:40 That’s the week after the election and it’s the week before the

2:10:45 new board is seated.

2:10:47 So we don’t have any business on the agenda for the workshop

2:10:52 work session on the 12th.

2:10:55 So I was going to ask the board if we could consider canceling

2:10:57 that.

2:10:58 It seems it would be a little awkward to have one board sitting

2:11:01 in a work session when that’s not the board that’s going to then

2:11:05 meet on the 19th.

2:11:06 100% agree.

2:11:08 I think that’s a good idea to cancel it.

2:11:10 Ms. Jenkins is a yes.

2:11:12 Mr. Susan, yes.

2:11:13 Mr. Frens, yes.

2:11:14 All right.

2:11:15 So Mr. Gibbs, since that’s a calendar change, would we need to

2:11:17 bring it to a formal vote at a business meeting?

2:11:19 Correct.

2:11:20 Okay.

2:11:21 All right.

2:11:22 That is all.

2:11:23 All right.

2:11:24 As there’s no further business, this meeting is adjourned.

2:11:26 adjourned.

2:11:56 We’ll be right back.