Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
0:00 Thank you.
5:40 Good morning.
5:40 The October 1st, 2024 work session, rule development and first
5:44 public hearing is now in order.
5:47 Paul, roll call, roll call, please.
6:17 Thank you, Dr. Randall, can you please address the board with
6:18 the items that are on the agenda for this morning.
6:20 Thank you, Madam Chair.
6:22 On today’s agenda, we have these topics.
6:24 First, board policy revision recommendations from 2324 and
6:29 updates from Neola, volume 25.
6:33 Legislation updates, and then we’ll have a presentation on PM1
6:35 data, and then we’ll have a presentation on PM1 data, an update
6:39 for comparison from our 2425 data with our 2324 data, and then a
6:44 capital projects update from the facilities team.
6:48 Thank you, okay, thank you, thank you.
6:51 Thank you, thank you.
6:51 Thank you.
6:51 Thank you, thank you.
6:52 Thank you, Dr. Randall, so I will read the policy, and then I’m
6:53 going to ask if anyone would like to speak to the policy.
6:53 This is a little funky of a layout.
6:55 I’m sure you have noticed by now.
6:56 We have Mr. Gibbs up on the dice.
6:59 Thank you so much for being up there to run the clock in case
7:01 there’s someone who speaks, would like to speak on a policy.
7:04 So I’m going to go through them rather quickly, but this has
7:07 been a long time coming, Board.
7:08 I think we’ve been working on this for over a year now, so we’re
7:11 making our way through.
7:12 All right, so the first policy that we will be speaking about is
7:18 Board Policy 0131, Legislative Policymaking.
7:22 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
7:27 Seeing none.
7:29 Going on to Board Policy 0147.1, Travel Expenses.
7:32 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
7:37 Seeing none.
7:39 We’re on to Board Policy 0165, Meetings.
7:42 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
7:47 No.
7:48 All right.
7:49 Seeing none.
7:49 We’re on to Board Policy 0169.1, Public Participation at Board
7:53 Meetings.
7:54 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
7:59 No.
8:00 All right.
8:01 Board, just for reference, I sent an email on this specific
8:05 policy because I had asked for the
8:06 trespassing policy or procedure to be put into the policy just
8:10 to make it transparent for anybody
8:11 who may have a question for any future, you know, trying to
8:14 track down whether it’s a policy or
8:15 procedure.
8:16 So that will be coming forward just for clarification purposes.
8:19 All right.
8:20 We are on Board Policy 1242, Professional Development.
8:22 That’s a recent.
8:23 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this policy?
8:29 Seeing none.
8:30 On to Board Policy 2210, Curriculum Development.
8:33 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this policy?
8:37 None.
8:38 All right.
8:39 On to Board Policy 2215, Program and Instruction.
8:42 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this policy?
8:47 Seeing none.
8:49 On to Board Policy 2260, Non-Discrimination and Access to Equal
8:52 Educational Opportunity.
8:53 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
8:57 Seeing none.
9:00 On to Board Policy 2266, Non-Discrimination on the Basis of Sex
9:03 and Education Programs and Activities.
9:05 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
9:09 On to Board Policy 2271, Articulation and Access to Flourge
9:14 College Systems Institutions.
9:16 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
9:21 All right.
9:22 On to Board Policy 2340, Field Trips and Other Student Travel.
9:25 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
9:29 We’re going to be here for a while, guys.
9:30 I got a bunch of them to go through.
9:31 So I apologize since you’re going to get tired of hearing this.
9:33 All right.
9:34 We’re on to the next one.
9:35 Board Policy 2370, Educational Options.
9:38 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
9:42 Seeing none.
9:44 We are on to Board Policy 2370.01, Virtual Instruction.
9:47 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
9:51 Seeing none.
9:53 We’re on to Board Policy 2371, the Hope Scholarship.
9:56 Is anyone present who wishes to address this item?
9:58 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
10:00 Seeing none.
10:02 On to the next 2415, Tutoring for Credit.
10:05 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
10:09 Seeing none.
10:11 On to 2421, Career and Technical Education Program.
10:14 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
10:18 Seeing none.
10:20 On to 2423, School to Work Program.
10:23 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
10:27 Seeing none.
10:29 On to Policy 2432, Driver Education.
10:31 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
10:36 Nope.
10:37 On to Board Policy 2440, Summer School.
10:40 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
10:44 Seeing none.
10:46 On to Board Policy 2455, Dropout Prevention and Academic Intervention
10:50 Programs.
10:51 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
10:55 On to Policy 2460, Exceptional Student Education.
11:00 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
11:04 Seeing none.
11:06 On to 2520, Selection and Adoption of Instructional Materials.
11:10 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
11:14 Seeing none.
11:16 On to Board Policy 2521, Instructional Materials Program.
11:19 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
11:24 Seeing none.
11:25 On to Board Policy 2522, Challenges to Adoption or Use of Instructional
11:29 Library
11:30 or Reading List Materials.
11:31 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
11:36 Seeing none.
11:37 On to 2540, Audio/Visual Use which is Rescinded.
11:43 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
11:48 Seeing none.
11:49 On to 2575, Service Learning which is a readopted new policy.
11:54 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
11:59 Seeing none.
12:01 On to Policy 2623, Student Assessment.
12:03 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
12:08 Seeing none.
12:09 On to Board Policy 5114, Foreign Students.
12:12 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
12:17 Seeing none.
12:18 We’re on to 5130, Withdrawal from School.
12:20 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
12:25 Seeing none.
12:26 We’re on to 5330.01, Self-Administered Medication and EpiPen.
12:32 Whichever.
12:33 What do you say that?
12:33 The EpiPen.
12:34 Yeah, EpiPen.
12:35 Whatever the EpiPen is used.
12:36 Okay.
12:36 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
12:43 Seeing none.
12:43 We’re on to 5410, Student Progression.
12:46 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
12:50 Seeing none.
12:51 We’re on to 5410.01, Promotion, Acceleration, Placement and Retention.
12:56 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
13:00 Seeing none.
13:01 We’re on to 5420, Reporting Student Progress.
13:04 Anyone present who wishes to address this item?
13:06 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
13:09 Seeing none.
13:10 We are on 5460, which is Graduation Requirements.
13:13 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
13:17 Seeing none.
13:18 We are on 5463, which is Credits from Other Schools.
13:22 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
13:28 All right.
13:29 We are on 5465, General Education Development, which is your GED
13:33 test.
13:33 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
13:39 Seeing none.
13:39 We’re on to 5505, Academic Honesty.
13:42 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
13:46 Seeing none.
13:47 We’re on 5516, Student Hazing.
13:50 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
13:55 Nope.
13:56 On to 5517, Anti-Harassment Compliance Officers Complaint and
14:00 Investigation Procedures.
14:01 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
14:07 All right.
14:07 We are on to 5517.01, which is Bullying and Harassment.
14:10 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
14:15 Seeing none.
14:17 We are on to 5610, Removal, Out of School Suspension, Disciplinary
14:21 Placement and Expulsion of Students.
14:22 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
14:27 All right.
14:28 We are on to 5610.01, Emergency Removal of Students.
14:32 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
14:36 We are on to 5611, Due Process Rights.
14:40 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
14:44 All right.
14:46 We’re on to 5730, Equal Access for Non-District Sponsored
14:50 Student Clubs and Activities.
14:51 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
14:56 All right.
14:57 We are on to 5780, Student Parent Rights.
15:00 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
15:04 All right.
15:06 We’re on to 6107, Authorization to Accept and Distribute
15:09 Electronic Records to Use Electronic
15:11 Signatures and Make Electronic Fund Transfers.
15:14 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
15:19 All right.
15:20 We are on to 6107.01, which is Electronic Funds Transfers.
15:24 It’s rescinded because it’s in the policy above.
15:26 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
15:31 Nope.
15:32 6111, Internal Controls.
15:35 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
15:40 No.
15:42 All right.
15:43 We are on to 6112, Cash Management of Grants.
15:46 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
15:51 No.
15:52 All right.
15:52 We are on to 6114, Cost Principles, Spending Federal Funds.
15:56 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
16:01 No.
16:02 We are on to 6116, Time and Effort Reporting.
16:06 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
16:11 All right.
16:12 We’re on to 6152, Student Fee Fines and Charges.
16:15 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
16:21 No.
16:21 All right.
16:22 6233, District Budgets.
16:24 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
16:29 Seeing none, we are on to 66, or sorry, 6680, Recognitions.
16:34 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
16:38 Seeing none, we are on to Policy 7230, Gifts, Grants and Bequest.
16:44 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
16:50 Seeing none, on to 7320, Acquisition, Removal, Disposal,
16:56 Sale or Exchange of Major Tangible Personal Property.
17:00 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
17:05 Seeing none, we are on to 7440, Buildings and Ground Security.
17:10 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
17:14 Seeing none, we are on to 7440.01, Video Surveillance and
17:18 Electronic Monitoring.
17:20 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
17:25 All right, we’re on to 7440.03, Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems.
17:30 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
17:36 Seeing none, we are on to 74.55, Accounting Systems for Fixed
17:40 Assets.
17:40 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
17:45 All right, we are on to 7530, Lending of Board-Owned Equipment.
17:50 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
17:55 Seeing none, 7540.08, Mobile Computing Device Assignment and Use,
18:01 Resend.
18:02 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
18:07 No, all right, we are on to 7540.09.
18:10 District, is that supposed to say District It Incident?
18:15 Oh, IT, sorry.
18:16 Okay, I’m like the T should be capitalized and we always say ET
18:19 because educational technology, but yeah.
18:22 All right, District IT, E-T, Incident Response Policy.
18:26 I know, I’m like, is that supposed to say it?
18:30 I don’t think that’s supposed to be there.
18:31 All right, is there anyone present who wishes to address this
18:33 item?
18:34 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
18:36 Seeing none, we’re on to 7544, Use of Social Media.
18:40 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
18:45 Seeing none, we are on to 8405,
18:49 which is School Safety and Security Threat Assessment Teams.
18:51 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
18:57 Seeing none, we’re on to 8406, which is Reports of Suspicious
19:01 Activity
19:02 and Potential Threats to School, Facilities, Students, and
19:04 Employees.
19:05 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
19:10 Seeing none, we are on to 8407, which is Safe School Officers.
19:14 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
19:20 We are on to 8420, which is Emergency Management, Emergency Preparedness,
19:23 and Emergency Response Agencies.
19:25 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
19:30 Seeing none, we’re on to Board Policy 8600, which is
19:33 Transportation.
19:34 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
19:38 Seeing none, last one, guys.
19:41 Board Policy 9800, Charter Schools.
19:44 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
19:49 I have an item I’d like to address.
19:51 Okay, all right.
19:52 Which item, sorry, Ms.
19:54 Yeah, I thought you were going pretty fast.
19:55 I know, that’s why I was – go ahead.
19:58 I’d like to go back to 6800 Personal Meeting, Number 0165.
20:05 0165 Meetings?
20:07 Yes, ma’am.
20:07 Board Policy?
20:08 Okay.
20:08 Yes, ma’am.
20:09 Can you go ahead and go on out to the microphone?
20:11 Because he’s going to go ahead and run the clock for you.
20:12 Well, we’ve got a clock.
20:15 We’ve got – he’s got the clock, yeah.
20:17 So if you can hit a microphone for us, give me one second.
20:19 I’m going to pull the policy up because I want to be on the same
20:20 page as you as we’re talking about it, okay?
20:22 Is it on?
20:26 It can be.
20:27 Absolutely.
20:28 Policy is right.
20:31 Well, let’s see.
20:31 So you wanted 0165.
20:34 Yeah, I wanted to talk about the school board meetings.
20:40 One of the things over the last few years, many citizens,
20:46 community people have spent a lot of time
20:48 coming to school board meetings trying to share the ideas and
20:52 try to suggest opportunities for improvement.
20:55 And one of the things I hope the school board meeting will
20:58 develop into is to have a closed loop system.
21:03 And what that means is that many times you’re going to get
21:06 public comments.
21:07 Some of them will be what I call credible.
21:10 Some of them will be an opportunity to improve the system.
21:13 So what I’m asking for is that during the school board meeting,
21:18 if this board decides something
21:21 is actionable, that that items become an action item where you
21:25 can feed it back to the community.
21:28 Because we want to get our community more involved.
21:30 And what I think the community would like to see if they bring
21:33 up an issue from this podium,
21:36 that there’s a feedback system to close that item.
21:39 So if you will consider, you know, after your school board
21:42 meeting,
21:42 at least communicate to us as a community, what is an actionable
21:47 item that you deem that is actionable,
21:50 that it’s going to improve what that person or that citizen is
21:54 trying to express.
21:55 Because many times people are going to walk away.
21:59 Well, my voice is not going to make a difference.
22:02 So I would love to see a closed loop system.
22:06 If there’s something that is actionable by this board, that that
22:10 item has become an actionable item.
22:13 And it’s fed back to the community.
22:14 This is what the school board is going to do to really improve
22:17 that item.
22:18 So, you know, that’s my input.
22:20 I’ve had this discussion.
22:22 Thank you.
22:23 Just for clarification.
22:24 Just so I just pulled this policy up just to make sure we’re on
22:25 the same page.
22:26 So really what this policy is doing is adding the ability for
22:28 board members to be able to attend virtually.
22:30 So that is what the policy revision is.
22:33 But that’s great feedback for us just knowing as a board moving
22:35 forward.
22:36 So this just gives the ability because sometimes people have
22:39 things in their life
22:39 where they’re not able to attend.
22:40 So they will be able to participate.
22:41 I understand.
22:42 So I read the whole policy.
22:43 Yeah.
22:44 And not just the change.
22:45 So what I’m trying to give you feedback on how the community
22:49 input and how the board
22:50 could be more dynamic with the communities.
22:53 Because a lot of times, you know, you’re going to get feedback
22:56 from a voice, from a parent,
22:58 or from a partner, and they want to make sure that, hey, look,
23:02 you know, you guys are listening.
23:04 If not, so I read the whole policy.
23:07 So, and I know this agenda was for a specific item, but I just
23:11 read the whole thing.
23:12 Okay.
23:13 Thank you.
23:13 Thank you for your input.
23:14 All right.
23:17 That concludes the, wow, a lot of policies that we just went
23:24 through.
23:24 So I want to thank the staff.
23:26 I know that whenever the board took the initiative of going
23:28 through every single one of our policies,
23:29 that was a huge undertaking with a ton of work for staff to look
23:34 at these policies,
23:34 take the feedback that the board had given direction on.
23:36 As a board, I don’t know, I’ll speak for myself on this one,
23:39 but I think it was extremely beneficial for me to understand in
23:42 depth, very, you know,
23:44 intimately every single one of these policies and looking at
23:46 them.
23:46 And I’m not sure that every board member does that around the
23:48 state where they come through
23:49 and look at their entire section of policies, which is really
23:52 what we are as a board making,
23:53 you know, we’re making policies.
23:55 So thank you staff for all your hard work.
23:57 Super appreciate all that you have done there.
23:58 All right.
24:00 So thank you, Mike.
24:04 He’s getting our, our wonderful screen down.
24:06 All right.
24:07 The next item on the agenda for today is the PM data, sorry, PM1
24:12 data update from
24:13 2425 and the demographic data update for 2324.
24:17 So I, we’re going to be comparing the two, I believe, right?
24:21 Ms. Harris is going to have the floor once our screen comes on.
24:33 I just wanted her to be a nice delay.
24:45 Ms. Yeah, it’s okay.
24:46 It gives me a break after saying over and over and over again
24:49 what I had to repeat.
24:50 So obviously I am not Nada Francis.
24:54 She is unable to be here today.
24:55 So you are stuck with me to go over two sets of data.
24:59 So the first that we’ll be going over is our demographic data
25:03 from 2024.
25:04 That was just recently released.
25:07 So we want to share that.
25:08 It always comes out a little delayed.
25:10 And then the second piece of data is our PM1 data to previous
25:15 years PM1 data.
25:19 Two things before we dive in that I just want all of our
25:22 community to understand is PM1 data is on benchmarks
25:27 for that grade level.
25:28 So it’s the benchmarks that will be taught that year.
25:31 Right.
25:31 Thinking of it as a pretest of what do you already know with
25:35 that grade level content.
25:36 So when we go into our demographic data, I want to go over the
25:43 subgroups that we discuss and we review.
25:46 I am excited to share that student services and school
25:50 leadership and I,
25:51 in CNI, we have all come together with our principals.
25:55 And we spent multiple days with each principal sharing their
25:59 plan of action based on their overall data.
26:02 And something that continued to come up is if we have underperforming
26:06 subgroups,
26:07 what is your plan to move that student achievement?
26:10 So we are just coming off of that.
26:12 And it addressed many of the subgroups we’ll look at today.
26:15 So we’re going to dive right in.
26:18 And if you see on the left side, the darker green represents
26:22 everything from 2023.
26:24 So those are the state subgroup data’s around race that we’re
26:30 looking at.
26:31 So you see, obviously, an upward trend when you look compared to
26:36 2023.
26:37 The thing that we are always working to do is to close that gap.
26:42 So it’s great when you see increases.
26:46 But if when we’re looking at the black to white comparison or
26:51 the Hispanic to white or anything
26:54 compared to white, we’re looking to close that gap.
26:56 Something that we always speak to is sometimes it can present if
27:01 you’re just looking at percentages,
27:03 it can present as if you are closing a gap.
27:05 But it may be because the white is declining.
27:07 So that’s not that’s not what we’re looking for.
27:10 So we’re excited to see that we do show growth.
27:13 And we’re looking at with our team on how much growth because we
27:17 want that stretch growth of
27:18 if we’re looking to close that gap, we have to be strategic.
27:21 And if we were to continue on this trajectory, where will we be
27:26 at the end of 25?
27:27 - This is all grade levels combined?
27:33 - Correct, correct, correct.
27:35 - Correct, correct.
27:36 Three through 10.
27:37 - Right, three through 10, okay.
27:38 - Yes.
27:39 - Any other questions on this slide?
27:41 Okay, now we’re going to look in the area of math.
27:48 So again, you see some trajectories, you see some growth.
27:53 But again, we’re looking at, yes, within the subgroup, but also
27:57 comparing to the whole.
27:59 - So we actually closed gaps a little bit.
28:09 - A little bit, yeah.
28:09 - A little bit of this with this one.
28:15 Now we’re going into the subgroup of those students that are
28:18 considered in a subgroup that’s economically disadvantaged.
28:21 So our students that qualify for free and reduced lunch or other
28:25 direct connect services.
28:26 And while we’re on this slide, I also will let you know that our
28:32 Title I team is actively looking at,
28:34 our goal within Title I is to close that gap.
28:37 So we want to make sure that our students that are at Title I
28:41 schools, we’re looking to close the gap when compared to
28:45 students not at Title I schools.
28:46 We want to ensure that the supports that we’re putting into
28:50 those schools is allowing them to compete equally.
28:56 And I’m proud to say in some cases we’re exceeding.
28:59 So we’re continuing to look at that data point as well.
29:02 Any questions on this subgroup?
29:04 - So again, we’re going to go this subgroup and looking at math
29:10 data.
29:10 Now we’re going to look at students with disabilities.
29:23 This is one of those, you know, I was talking to you about
29:26 principals making plans.
29:28 And something that is important to remember is there are two
29:32 types of accountability systems.
29:34 So we’re all very familiar with the state accountability system
29:37 and that’s our school grade system.
29:39 But we also have our federal accountability system and that
29:42 looks at subgroup performance.
29:45 And so in those data comes that we’ve been having with schools.
29:48 Students with disabilities is a subgroup that we are continuing
29:53 to problem solve around.
29:55 What I am pleased to say last year and I don’t want to take the
29:58 thunder away from our student services team.
30:01 But we saw some exceptional growth within our student services
30:05 or students with disabilities subgroups.
30:07 So we hope that we continue along that trajectory that this gap
30:11 will close.
30:13 And looking at students with disabilities under the area of math.
30:25 And now we’re going to look at students that are identified
30:30 within our English language learner population.
30:36 This is again a population that when you’re looking at those ESSA
30:40 subgroups on that federal accountability side.
30:43 That we have schools really problem solving as Brevard’s
30:47 population of students that fall into this subgroup continues to
30:50 grow.
30:51 And one of the things that we continue to problem solve with
30:54 other districts that are showing some success.
30:57 That it may have a larger population of really what are those
31:00 strategies.
31:01 Again knowing that if we can tackle some of these subgroups it’s
31:05 good for all.
31:06 These are strategies that are good for all students.
31:08 But some that have research behind them that are highly
31:11 effective with students that don’t have English as their native
31:14 language.
31:14 This particular subgroup I know is challenging.
31:18 It was brought to my attention Dr. Rendell and I were visiting
31:21 schools last week.
31:22 Because we have some of our schools in the West Melbourne area
31:24 particularly I know they’re not isolated.
31:26 That are having an influx over the last couple of years of
31:29 students.
31:29 So this ELL it’s a constantly changing population.
31:33 One of our schools two schools had particular influx of Russian
31:38 speaking families.
31:40 And so that it’s not the same population as they had a couple of
31:43 years ago.
31:43 So it’s kind of hard with this one.
31:45 We can we I commend the work to continue to move around.
31:49 Because if we’re putting good practices in it’ll be good for the
31:51 students who just moved here.
31:53 And for the students who have been here you know for a while or
31:56 maybe a second generation.
31:57 But have you know another language spoken at home.
32:00 But this is a this is a challenging one.
32:03 So because it is a moving target of what the population is.
32:06 I don’t know that there’s what we what we do about that.
32:11 Well and I think why subgroups can be so challenging.
32:16 But specifically this one is we are pushed to go down to the
32:20 student level when we’re looking at data.
32:22 Because just because I fall into a particular subgroup.
32:25 It’s not the exact what worked for this child.
32:29 Just like students you know that are falling outside of students
32:32 with disabilities or ELL program.
32:34 But to your point the challenge with a student that’s native
32:38 language is not English.
32:39 Is are they literate in their native language.
32:42 And so when you look at some of our school populations.
32:45 Literacy is not strong in the native language.
32:49 So the strategies needed for that particular student are very
32:53 different than a child that may come.
32:54 That is has literacy in their own language.
32:57 And honestly on our next slide when we go into math.
33:00 That’s where you can see.
33:01 Have they had schooling that language is just the barrier.
33:06 Or are there is there more going on that language is presenting
33:11 as the issue.
33:11 But there may be some underlying academic issues as well.
33:15 And to that point we we are not able at this time.
33:18 To allow students to take for example the math.
33:21 In with any kind of translation correct.
33:24 Correct.
33:25 And and I know we’re not going over iReady data here.
33:30 But we do have some tools within that program.
33:33 That we can gather more data.
33:34 And so we’ve worked with student services with Mrs. Skinner.
33:37 We go student by student to say.
33:41 If we need more information.
33:43 We can turn on some of these functions.
33:46 So that we can say is it a language issue.
33:48 Or perhaps do they have a disability.
33:50 And it’s presenting.
33:51 We don’t want to miss miss supporting a student.
33:54 That may be more than language.
33:56 But we don’t keep that on all the time.
33:58 Because they don’t.
33:58 When they sit for that state assessment.
34:00 It is in English.
34:01 I just want to add to that too.
34:05 Yes.
34:05 When we have students whose native language is in English.
34:09 And we do suspect that there’s a disability.
34:11 Often it takes a lot longer to go through that process of
34:14 testing.
34:15 Because finding a translator to be available to be able to
34:18 qualify.
34:18 And test in that language is really difficult.
34:20 Yes.
34:21 And a lot of times many of those assessments don’t allow the
34:25 proper translation.
34:27 Because then you’re manipulating and skewing the data.
34:30 And so it makes it really, really difficult for ESC services.
34:33 And that is a challenge.
34:36 Because you don’t want to misdiagnose a student either way.
34:39 You don’t want to over-identify.
34:40 But you don’t want to miss something more that could be going on.
34:44 So now we’re to that same subgroup.
34:47 But looking at the math data.
34:49 To the instructional support student services.
34:54 And Ms. Dampierre.
34:55 I hope you don’t mind that I’m speaking so much about student
34:58 services.
34:58 But they have provided our schools with a instructional program
35:02 called Imagine.
35:03 That has really been a game changer.
35:06 And this was big for all of our schools.
35:08 Because it’s a tool that their students have.
35:10 That can really support them where they are.
35:13 And then as they acquire more of the English language.
35:17 They can kind of graduate into the iReady platform.
35:20 So it’s a continuum of services.
35:21 Any questions on the subgroup data?
35:25 We have.
35:27 So now we’re going to move into our comparative data.
35:30 So again this is beginning of the year.
35:34 So when we look at this.
35:35 I just want to be clear.
35:37 We are coming off of a banner year of student achievement.
35:40 On what should be the exact same assessment FAST.
35:46 It’s our progress monitoring tool.
35:47 So I’ve started having conversations in the last few days with
35:50 some other districts.
35:52 Because we have more students that left in the spring.
35:55 On grade level.
35:57 As dictated by FAST data.
36:01 Yet our PM data doesn’t represent.
36:04 We should have students coming in with a greater skill set.
36:06 On that saying.
36:08 You know like yes it’s a new grade level.
36:10 But one would predict.
36:11 As students are achieving at a higher level.
36:15 That they are higher.
36:16 They’re more prepared.
36:17 So what I can tell you.
36:19 Is other districts are seeing these exact same type of numbers.
36:22 So when we see this.
36:24 That’s what I’m always reaching out.
36:26 Because I want to know like.
36:27 Is it an S issue.
36:28 So I just.
36:30 I can’t explain the why of that.
36:32 People could.
36:33 Could it possibly be.
36:34 Because having a huge long summer break.
36:37 Is maybe not the most advantageous thing for a child.
36:40 I’m going to go ahead.
36:41 And just you know.
36:42 Same as we talked about right now.
36:42 Except that that’s been the case.
36:43 Every year.
36:45 For about 50 decades.
36:46 Also.
36:47 It’s because they changed the scale.
36:49 They changed the scale score.
36:50 So that’s exactly why.
36:52 So it’s intentionally deflating the scores.
36:55 For this PM.
36:57 So take a look at.
36:58 At the documents that were sent home to you.
37:01 From your child’s teacher.
37:02 You’ll notice there’s a little bit of a manipulation.
37:04 So and we were prepared for that last year.
37:08 Like when that was all happening.
37:09 We were just.
37:11 Brevard as well as most districts.
37:15 Were expecting that their 23 to 24.
37:18 Should show something.
37:19 We understood with the scales change.
37:21 How that would impact 22 to 23.
37:23 So we’ll just continue to update you.
37:27 On the data.
37:27 What I can tell you is.
37:28 This is the data we’re planning around.
37:30 So we’re not.
37:31 I always go back to.
37:34 Do what you want with scale scores.
37:36 Do what you want with cutoffs.
37:37 We are going to teach students.
37:40 The benchmarks that are required.
37:41 For each grade level.
37:42 And if we keep doing.
37:45 What we know is solid good instruction.
37:48 If the numbers do not go up.
37:50 Then that’s a bigger issue.
37:53 Than BPS.
37:55 And Ms. Harris.
37:56 I just want to say.
37:56 I know you’re aware of the scale score.
37:58 I just meant that.
37:59 For the board members to be aware.
38:00 And for any parents who.
38:01 Because a lot of people were freaking out.
38:03 That you know.
38:03 One of their documents was saying.
38:05 Their kids were significantly below.
38:06 And they didn’t understand.
38:07 And the red.
38:08 The red was scary.
38:08 And so it’s difficult to explain to people.
38:11 But the scale has been manipulated.
38:14 One other point while we’re here.
38:16 Is just because we have.
38:18 Parent stakeholders tuning in.
38:19 This is the time of year.
38:21 That parents get super concerned.
38:23 Because they have high performing children.
38:25 That come home with a parent report.
38:27 That shows a level one or a two.
38:29 And that can be very concerning.
38:31 Even for some families.
38:32 A three is concerning.
38:33 If they’ve been straight five.
38:35 So we always want to go back.
38:36 And say.
38:36 And this is more present.
38:38 As I flip to our math slide.
38:41 You will see.
38:42 Sorry.
38:42 This is secondary.
38:43 When I get to math.
38:44 You will see.
38:45 That math is even more prevalent.
38:47 And we explain to parents.
38:48 We they have not learned.
38:50 That content yet.
38:51 And so.
38:52 But when you see our math.
38:54 I mean our ELA for secondary.
38:56 You you don’t see.
38:57 As great of deficits.
38:59 It’s a different situation.
39:01 It’s still very interesting.
39:02 Because if you think.
39:03 In grades three through ten.
39:05 ELA.
39:06 We went up in every grade level.
39:08 Last year.
39:08 So just.
39:10 Some wonderings.
39:12 So now I’m going to flip to the math.
39:16 We’ll start with elementary.
39:17 So this is where.
39:19 Again.
39:19 I explained to our parents.
39:21 And we know that.
39:22 For our third graders.
39:24 This is the data point.
39:26 Where we’re moving.
39:28 We’re going into.
39:29 Like we’re looking at this data.
39:31 And we’re saying.
39:31 Okay.
39:31 What skills do they not have.
39:33 And we’re designing instruction.
39:34 Around that.
39:35 So.
39:36 But we hope that.
39:37 We should continue.
39:39 To continue.
39:40 To see.
39:41 Greater growth.
39:42 And I go back to.
39:43 At PM three.
39:44 If you didn’t like.
39:45 What the outcome was.
39:46 Of your school.
39:47 Or grade levels.
39:48 PM three data.
39:49 Yet you’re coming in.
39:50 At a lower data point.
39:52 Then we have to.
39:53 Gain more points.
39:54 Between one and three.
39:55 Right.
39:55 And so that’s important.
39:57 When we start looking.
39:58 At our PM two data.
39:59 We want to be clear.
40:00 That we’re not saying.
40:01 Oh.
40:02 Last year.
40:03 We made 20 points of growth.
40:04 I’m just throwing that out.
40:05 As an arbitrary number.
40:06 We made 20 points of growth.
40:08 This year.
40:09 We’re going to celebrate.
40:10 If we make 21.
40:11 No we won’t.
40:12 Because we’re coming in.
40:13 At some grade levels.
40:14 Lower than last year.
40:15 So if you didn’t like.
40:15 Your end point.
40:16 Last year.
40:17 We have to make more growth.
40:18 In that same time period.
40:20 Now we’ll move to the secondary.
40:21 And again.
40:26 I want to.
40:27 You know.
40:28 Remind you.
40:28 For our grade eight.
40:29 Those are students.
40:30 That are not in algebra.
40:31 Any questions on this.
40:37 Comparative data.
40:39 I know that we’re looking at this.
40:40 At the.
40:40 You know.
40:41 The total.
40:41 You know.
40:42 Conglomerate.
40:42 Whatever.
40:43 That’s the right word.
40:44 But.
40:44 Level.
40:46 I know you guys are looking at.
40:47 The school level to see.
40:49 Or.
40:49 Is it pretty consistent across.
40:51 Especially our elementary schools.
40:52 You know.
40:53 That everybody’s seeing this drop off.
40:55 Or.
40:56 Or we have some that are higher.
40:57 And some that are lower.
40:58 If it’s higher.
40:59 It’s very.
41:00 Insignificantly higher.
41:02 I’ll give you an example.
41:03 I was at a school.
41:04 A week or two ago.
41:07 Because what’s nice about this new tool.
41:08 Is we’ve got that data live.
41:09 Like.
41:10 At my school.
41:11 As soon as I am done.
41:12 I can see exactly where it is.
41:13 So it’s very live data.
41:15 And I was with the principal.
41:17 And had the data up.
41:18 And she says.
41:19 I don’t have my third grade.
41:21 I’m not putting their grade math up.
41:22 Because it was zero.
41:23 It shows zero percent of my students.
41:26 So we looked at last year.
41:28 And last year.
41:28 They were at like five percent.
41:30 So I reminded her.
41:31 You’re a smaller school.
41:33 So each of your children count.
41:34 More.
41:36 So.
41:36 Let’s talk about how many children less.
41:39 Are proficient than you started last year.
41:41 And you had great success.
41:42 By PM3.
41:43 So.
41:44 You know.
41:44 I don’t want anyone to be like.
41:46 Oh my goodness.
41:47 The sky is falling.
41:48 Now.
41:48 PM2.
41:49 That’s where we have to see a lot of growth.
41:51 But anything that is higher.
41:53 Is insignificantly higher.
41:54 So this just shows.
41:58 The ELA overall comparisons.
42:00 And again.
42:05 I go back to.
42:06 Grades three through ten.
42:07 ELA went up in every area.
42:09 Last year.
42:09 In the spring.
42:10 For math.
42:11 Everything.
42:13 Three through.
42:14 Six.
42:15 Went up.
42:16 So.
42:17 It’s.
42:19 We’re tackling.
42:21 Summerside.
42:21 We’re tackling all the things.
42:23 But we’re.
42:23 This is where we’re starting on.
42:24 Any questions.
42:28 Board.
42:30 Any questions or comments.
42:32 No.
42:33 I just.
42:34 I want to thank you.
42:35 Because like you had mentioned.
42:36 There was many parents.
42:38 You know.
42:38 Every.
42:39 Ever since they started bringing up the PMs.
42:40 Parents are freaking out.
42:42 Because it always scares them.
42:43 When it looks like their students.
42:44 Aren’t doing well.
42:45 So it’s always good.
42:46 When we can clarify that information.
42:47 So thank you.
42:48 Can I ask one specific ask.
42:52 Obviously.
42:52 Because I shamelessly plugged it.
42:54 And I’m going to again.
42:55 The year-round school model.
42:56 Can you send me specific data.
42:58 For that school.
42:58 Just to compare them.
43:00 Yeah.
43:02 Okay.
43:02 Thank you.
43:03 As I know.
43:04 We were only going to have.
43:04 PM1 at this point.
43:05 So.
43:05 As it comes forward.
43:06 And I just wanted to add.
43:08 You know.
43:08 Again.
43:08 Thanks for all the data.
43:10 And as a parent.
43:11 And as.
43:11 Somebody who is involved in.
43:14 Doing this.
43:14 Before this.
43:16 Position.
43:16 We’re still in the education process.
43:19 Of.
43:19 Educating our parents.
43:22 On what this test really represents.
43:24 I mean.
43:24 We’re giving the final exam.
43:25 On.
43:26 In the first month of school.
43:27 And it is just a.
43:29 A snapshot.
43:30 And there is still.
43:31 There’s issues out there.
43:33 There’s still an issue that.
43:34 Kids learn that.
43:35 This test doesn’t mean anything.
43:37 To the kid.
43:38 To the student.
43:39 And it really does for the teacher.
43:41 You know.
43:41 We really.
43:41 We need this information.
43:43 So.
43:43 That data is always going to be there.
43:44 It’s always going to be skewed.
43:46 A little bit.
43:47 But it’s great information for.
43:49 For the educator.
43:50 To drive.
43:50 For the teacher.
43:51 So.
43:51 You know.
43:51 Parents be patient.
43:52 You know.
43:53 This is.
43:53 This is good.
43:54 This isn’t PM3.
43:55 But like you said.
43:56 It gets ratcheted up.
43:57 The importance of this data.
43:59 Into PM2.
44:00 And PM3.
44:01 So this is kind of like the.
44:02 You know.
44:02 The preseason game.
44:04 Right.
44:04 Doesn’t matter.
44:05 If you’re 0 and 4.
44:06 So.
44:07 But you know.
44:07 We’ll.
44:08 This stuff works.
44:09 It’s really.
44:10 This is what we wanted.
44:11 As a teacher.
44:12 We wanted that immediate feedback.
44:14 So then we can.
44:14 You know.
44:15 Change instruction.
44:17 For individual students.
44:18 I think this is great.
44:19 So.
44:20 And a lot of our principals.
44:21 Have started that data chat.
44:23 With their students.
44:24 Putting it to the student level.
44:25 Because especially for students.
44:26 That may have scored a level one.
44:27 For multiple years.
44:28 You know.
44:30 If they have a good cause.
44:31 Or something.
44:31 They’ve been moving on every year.
44:32 And so they don’t always understand.
44:34 The connection.
44:36 That they have.
44:36 Can influence to that number.
44:38 So that score.
44:39 That’s coming out.
44:39 So those data chats.
44:40 At the student level.
44:41 Are very important.
44:42 For that reason.
44:42 And I know.
44:45 I can testify.
44:46 The fact.
44:46 That it’s happening.
44:47 All across.
44:48 Because you walk.
44:48 Into a principal’s office.
44:49 And they want to show you.
44:50 Their war room.
44:50 You know.
44:51 I call it the war room.
44:52 Or they.
44:53 Or their data board.
44:54 That everybody’s got one.
44:55 You know.
44:56 In a work.
44:56 In their office.
44:57 Where they’re looking at it.
44:58 Every single day.
44:58 Right in front of them.
44:59 In a related question.
45:01 But not directly related.
45:02 To district wide data.
45:03 You know.
45:04 When they.
45:04 Created the new test.
45:05 A couple years ago.
45:06 It’s adaptable.
45:08 Right.
45:09 How.
45:10 In your conversations.
45:11 With other districts.
45:12 And in our experience.
45:13 Now that we’ve had it.
45:14 For a few years.
45:14 Is there any disadvantage.
45:17 To students.
45:17 Who let’s say.
45:18 They get started.
45:19 And they miss the first couple.
45:20 Do they have the opportunity.
45:21 To kind of work their way back up.
45:22 Or they.
45:23 Does that kind of.
45:23 Put them on a trajectory.
45:24 Where they’re not going to be able.
45:25 To get out of the hole.
45:26 That they’re digging themselves into.
45:28 So beginning in third grade.
45:30 It’s adaptable.
45:32 But adaptable.
45:32 Within on grade level content.
45:34 Okay.
45:35 So to your point.
45:36 If they miss a few.
45:38 They’re just getting other items.
45:39 Still on grade level.
45:40 Okay.
45:41 In the K2 assessment.
45:43 It’s not that way.
45:43 When it goes adaptable.
45:44 Because remember.
45:46 When we start looking at that data.
45:47 How like some first graders.
45:48 Take this test.
45:49 And then some take this test.
45:50 So it gets really tricky.
45:51 Because that is very adaptable.
45:54 And it can go down.
45:54 To foundational skills.
45:56 But starting in third grade.
45:58 When it adapts.
45:59 It is only adapting.
46:01 Within the grade level domains.
46:03 And so.
46:05 Where the data may show.
46:06 Is if I miss a few questions.
46:08 That may be all.
46:09 Around a strand of benchmarks.
46:12 That I need help in.
46:13 And so it might be text features.
46:15 Or something of that nature.
46:17 Whereas I have other strands.
46:20 And that’s where that data.
46:21 Becomes very important.
46:22 But it doesn’t ever lower them.
46:23 Below grade level.
46:24 Okay.
46:25 So when they’re.
46:26 Because we don’t get to look at the test.
46:29 You know.
46:30 A kid comes home with a score.
46:31 And I see it.
46:32 But so.
46:33 So they’re.
46:34 They’re all going to have to answer.
46:35 From the same bank of questions.
46:36 Just in a different order.
46:37 Am I.
46:38 Is that.
46:39 Potentially.
46:40 Because I’m not able to look at the test either.
46:42 But yes.
46:44 That would.
46:45 That would make sense.
46:46 Is that they are all having items.
46:48 That assess.
46:49 I don’t know.
46:49 If they’re the exact same questions.
46:51 Or they’re just questions.
46:52 That address the exact same benchmarks.
46:54 Gotcha.
46:55 And what is helpful.
46:56 Is we do get.
46:57 The achievement level descriptors.
46:59 From the state.
47:00 That will say.
47:01 Here’s what a student.
47:02 Needs to be able to do.
47:03 To get a three.
47:04 And a four.
47:05 And a five.
47:05 And those are helpful.
47:06 Kind of to that point.
47:07 Since we can’t see the assessment.
47:08 Okay.
47:09 Good.
47:09 Thank you.
47:09 Ms. Wright.
47:11 Yes.
47:12 Go ahead.
47:12 I just want to say thank you.
47:14 As a former educator.
47:15 When we had these.
47:16 Pre-tests.
47:17 We called them back in the day.
47:18 Before they were PM tests.
47:20 And stuff like that.
47:20 That we.
47:21 We actually identified.
47:22 Where the weaknesses were.
47:23 With each one of the students.
47:24 And it was.
47:25 It gave us the road map.
47:26 To success.
47:27 And I think.
47:28 Having this data.
47:29 Not only for the student.
47:30 And for the teacher.
47:31 But also for the parent.
47:33 I think where.
47:34 There’s some real opportunity.
47:36 Is.
47:36 Is when the teacher’s able.
47:37 To reach out to the student.
47:38 Parents.
47:39 And say hey.
47:40 Here’s where your kid has some gaps.
47:41 Here’s where we’re going to be working.
47:43 So that as we move forward.
47:44 Throughout the year.
47:45 If there’s an opportunity.
47:46 For that parent.
47:46 To both support.
47:47 And help.
47:47 In those areas.
47:48 It’s a.
47:49 It’s a great way.
47:50 For all of us to work together.
47:51 As a team.
47:51 I love the data.
47:52 The pre-test.
47:54 As far as being held accountable.
47:55 To the rates.
47:56 That we see up there.
47:57 Is great.
47:58 And I just.
47:58 I wanted to say thank you.
47:59 For all the work.
47:59 That you guys are doing.
48:00 Because I know.
48:01 Just like Ms. Campbell was saying.
48:02 And everything else.
48:03 Our district is.
48:04 Highly focused on the data.
48:06 And making sure that the children.
48:07 Are held accountable.
48:08 And they achieve at the rates.
48:09 That we’re supposed to.
48:10 So thank you.
48:10 All right.
48:12 Thank you.
48:13 Dr. Rendell.
48:13 Do you have anything else to add?
48:14 Yeah definitely.
48:15 Because Ms. Harris is not.
48:17 Taking enough credit.
48:18 For her team’s work.
48:19 She did not.
48:21 The first eight slides.
48:23 Were about last year’s performance.
48:25 So the PM3 slides.
48:27 Is about last year’s performance.
48:29 And looking at different subgroup data.
48:30 Eight slides.
48:32 Eight different data analysis.
48:35 Every subgroup improved.
48:38 In every grade in ELA.
48:40 Every subgroup improved in math.
48:41 Every subgroup improved in.
48:43 The economically disadvantages.
48:46 Improved.
48:48 In ELA and math.
48:50 Students with disabilities improved.
48:52 In ELA and math.
48:54 The only data point.
48:55 That didn’t improve.
48:56 Was our non.
48:57 Our students without learning disabilities.
48:59 In math.
49:00 Slight decrease there.
49:01 And our ELA students performance.
49:04 In math.
49:04 Was our ELL students performance.
49:06 In math was flat.
49:06 Everything else improved.
49:08 We talked about closing.
49:10 The achievement gap.
49:11 And you close the achievement gap.
49:13 Every subgroup.
49:14 Needs to keep improving.
49:16 You know Miss Harris made the comment.
49:17 That you can close an achievement gap.
49:19 If the majority of students decline.
49:21 That’s not the goal.
49:23 The goal is everybody to improve.
49:24 And every subgroup improved.
49:26 Almost every single measure last year.
49:28 And I felt like we didn’t.
49:29 Celebrate that enough.
49:31 I mean that’s kind of a big thing.
49:33 We know last year was a really good year.
49:35 So then we turn our attention to PM1.
49:38 And you know that’s the first lap.
49:40 It’s not preseason.
49:42 It counts.
49:42 So it’s the first lap.
49:44 So after the first lap.
49:45 Let’s see where we are.
49:46 Compared to where we were at the end of the first lap last year.
49:49 And it looks like we’re not as in a strong position as we were
49:53 last year.
49:54 But then if you compare last year to 22.
49:56 We weren’t in a stronger position either.
49:58 And still finished in a much stronger position.
50:02 So she also didn’t mention.
50:05 She mentioned it.
50:07 But I want to make sure the board and the audience understands.
50:11 The principals have been challenged with coming up with a plan.
50:14 To improve in these areas.
50:17 In any area that really needs attention and needs to improve.
50:20 And when I was in the district years ago.
50:23 We were tasked with the same thing.
50:27 If we had subgroups or areas that weren’t improving.
50:29 We had to develop a plan.
50:31 And we had to present that plan to our area superintendent.
50:33 But nobody else.
50:35 And what the leadership team has tasked our principals with
50:39 doing.
50:40 And it’s happened over the last two weeks.
50:42 Is they’ve had to present their plan in front of their peers.
50:46 And it’s not a negative thing.
50:49 It’s a positive thing.
50:50 So they can learn from each other.
50:52 So I might have a subgroup that’s struggling in my school.
50:56 And I might have an idea how to move it.
50:58 And I might think it’s the best idea.
51:00 But if I hear from another, from a colleague, what they’re doing.
51:04 And it might even be better than what I’m doing.
51:05 And we learn from each other.
51:07 And we can get better together.
51:08 So, you know, I don’t know if you guys knew that was happening.
51:11 I know the audience probably doesn’t know that’s happening.
51:14 And I think it’s a really great thing that, you know, the
51:18 leadership team came up with.
51:19 And have challenged the principals to do.
51:21 I got to sit in on a few of those.
51:23 Not as many as I had hoped.
51:25 Because it was as we were preparing for our hurricane experience.
51:29 But just super impressed with all the principals and their
51:33 action plans.
51:34 But also the fact that they were learning from each other.
51:36 So we’re looking at data, as was stated.
51:39 And we’re developing these plans of ATT&CK.
51:41 But we’re doing it with district and schools working together.
51:46 I think it’s fantastic.
51:47 And Ms. Harrison, the school leadership team,
51:51 and student services are all working together.
51:53 So I think it’s fantastic.
51:54 And I just wanted you guys to know that background.
51:56 She just showed you the data.
51:57 And this was going to walk away.
51:58 And I wanted you guys to know about all that stuff that’s going
52:01 on.
52:02 Yes.
52:02 Thank you to your entire team.
52:03 You guys are doing a phenomenal job.
52:05 So give up the good work.
52:05 We appreciate you.
52:06 And I should share just our goal.
52:08 And we have shared commitment that we are going to get back into
52:11 the top 10.
52:12 All right.
52:12 So we’re calling it #Top10.
52:14 I love that.
52:15 So I saw that in the leadership team packet that you were having
52:18 this meeting.
52:19 So my first thought was, they’re going to do what?
52:21 Because, you know, how intimidating that would be.
52:23 But actually, I love it as you’re describing more of what was
52:26 going on.
52:26 Because we do have principals with amazing ideas that absolutely
52:30 should be shared.
52:31 And I know they have time to get together with their director.
52:33 But those are few and far between.
52:35 Just that opportunity to really just lay it all out there.
52:38 To be vulnerable with each other.
52:40 But I think I read in the memo, like, nobody else gets to be in
52:42 the room except for your
52:43 group of principals and your director.
52:45 And then you guys.
52:46 So kudos to you.
52:48 I’m glad to hear they’re going well.
52:50 And hope that continues to be a useful tool.
52:52 But yeah, it seemed a little intimidating.
52:54 Oh, they were meeting yesterday when I was in the district.
52:56 And they were all in there.
52:57 So it was good stuff.
52:58 It’s the, you know, Escambia County does that with their
53:01 teachers.
53:02 They have the same sort of closed group where they discuss best
53:05 practices and stuff
53:06 like that.
53:06 It comes from Harvard.
53:07 It’s an amazing, you know what I mean, synergy that they can
53:11 develop.
53:11 Yeah.
53:12 And thank you.
53:12 Hands off.
53:13 Well enough of each other’s strengths.
53:14 I love it.
53:14 So thank you so much for your team.
53:15 Appreciate you guys.
53:16 All right.
53:17 We are on to the last item on today’s agenda, which is the
53:20 capital projects update.
53:22 I think you have to share with the board.
53:27 How many pages, how many slides did you have originally when you
53:30 started?
53:32 When you began this venture, because there’s so many things that
53:34 are happening all the time
53:36 with the many buildings that we have all over the district.
53:38 So there’s a lot, a few.
53:46 I hope you don’t mind if I stand up.
53:53 I’m much more animated when I can stand up and I’m really pretty
53:56 boring when I sit down.
53:57 So hopefully this will be a little bit more interesting.
54:00 So I’m kind of honored to follow Ms. Harris because in
54:05 facilities we take the educational
54:07 mission super, super seriously as well.
54:10 We share good news, bad news in test scores, school grades, all
54:14 of that with our team
54:14 because that is part of our mission to support our educators.
54:19 And what we do really matters.
54:20 There’s research to support that and we believe it and we live
54:24 it.
54:24 So I also wanted to introduce my team today.
54:28 These are the folks that make that happen.
54:32 And you asked about the number of slides.
54:34 There’s a, it’s not in the presentation, but there’s 50 pages of
54:39 photographs of work that we
54:41 accomplished in 2024 that is a, I would call it a representative
54:46 sample of what these great folks
54:48 have done for our school district.
54:50 And I want to recognize them as Mr. Gerber, Ms. Gordon Taylor,
54:55 Mr. Griggs, Dave Lindeman,
54:57 Mr. Martin, Ms. Knipple, who is not a member of our staff, but
55:02 might as well be because she moves the money
55:05 for us. And Mr. Payne, these are our project managers. They make
55:09 it happen out in the field.
55:10 Many of you know, Ms. Black, she does lots of support in
55:15 enrollment projections and data.
55:17 So a lot of what she does helps guide our decisions.
55:19 But I just wanted to acknowledge and thank this team because
55:23 they do an amazing job.
55:24 Similarly, we have folks in maintenance. They have taken on this
55:28 work as well. So they’re
55:30 They’re doing projects for us, some of the smaller scale
55:32 projects that go across the district
55:35 and our environmental health and safety team.
55:38 They also work to support our projects.
55:41 So it’s really a full team effort.
55:44 And I do want to acknowledge our friends in finance and our
55:47 friends in procurement because
55:49 we move a lot of money through the system doing a lot of work
55:54 and our folks really need
55:56 them and they support us and they do an amazing job for us.
55:59 So appreciate all of the folks behind the scenes, both on our
56:04 team as well as finance and procurement
56:06 because it truly takes us all to get it done.
56:08 Okay, so this is going to be a bit like drinking through the
56:12 fire hose because there is a lot
56:14 of stuff.
56:15 So you’ve seen this slide before, but I think it’s important to
56:19 just acknowledge how big we are.
56:21 We have a lot of responsibility in terms of number of students.
56:28 I talk about, like, we serve more students than the population
56:31 of every Brevard municipality
56:33 except Palm Bay and Melbourne.
56:34 And that’s important because if you think about how big we are,
56:37 we’re about the size of a moderate
56:39 size city in terms of the functions we provide in facilities.
56:42 And, you know, on any given day, somebody’s house has plumbing
56:46 problems or air conditioning
56:47 problems.
56:48 So it’s the same thing in facilities and we have a great team in
56:51 place to try to address
56:52 those things.
56:52 But we are big and we’ve got a lot of stuff.
56:55 You’ve seen some of these slides before.
56:58 Just to remind everybody, we have a lot of things that we are
57:01 responsible for and those
57:03 numbers are growing.
57:05 So as we add more schools, as we add more playgrounds, as we add
57:11 more cameras, as we add
57:13 more anything, it’s more things that we have to renew every year
57:17 and more things that we
57:18 need to be cognizant of the impacts of adding more stuff.
57:24 Just another slide that shows the things that we have in our
57:27 asset inventory.
57:29 And I’m proud to say we actually know what’s in our asset
57:31 inventory.
57:32 So that’s been a big improvement over the years.
57:35 Since we’re talking capital, I also wanted to include some of
57:39 the other things we spend
57:41 capital money on.
57:42 And although this is not my world, transportation has done a
57:46 great job using our capital resources
57:48 to refresh our bus fleet.
57:50 So our bus fleet is in reasonably good condition because we have
57:54 been investing in our bus fleet.
57:56 Similarly with facilities, our chillers are in reasonably good
57:59 condition because we’ve been
58:01 investing.
58:01 So very proud of the work that we’re doing, not only in
58:04 facilities, but across the board with
58:07 our investments in fleet, as well as our investments in
58:10 educational technology.
58:11 That generally is using the same funding sources in terms of surtax
58:18 and capital to make sure these
58:20 things are happening.
58:21 And we’re supporting, again, our educational mission.
58:23 We’re getting our kids to school.
58:24 The air conditioning works.
58:25 The plumbing works.
58:26 And they have great devices in their classrooms.
58:28 And their classrooms are in pretty good shape.
58:30 So we’re really trying to support that educational mission with
58:33 what we do with our capital investments.
58:35 And then I just threw this in because Mr. Cheatham, when he sent
58:40 me this, he said,
58:42 we have 1.5 and it was PT of storage or PB of storage.
58:46 I’m like, what’s a PB?
58:47 So I had to look that up because, you know, when I went to
58:50 school, PB was the chemical symbol
58:51 for lead.
58:52 So I’m like, I’m pretty sure that’s not it.
58:54 So, okay, I looked it up.
58:56 Petabytes of storage.
58:57 Okay, what’s that?
58:59 So I was too embarrassed to call him.
59:01 So I looked it up.
59:02 And this is what it is.
59:06 And it’s kind of in the middle.
59:07 But it’s 1,000 terabytes, which is pretty big.
59:10 And I just had to help define this for me.
59:15 So anyway, that’s a lot of storage.
59:18 And as our district grows, you look at all the students we serve
59:22 and the technology that
59:23 we’re investing in, it really warrants big, big systems that can
59:28 support all of that, coupled
59:31 with all of the good stuff that we’re buying, the chillers, the
59:33 intercoms, the cameras, all
59:35 of those things go through Mr. Cheatham’s systems.
59:38 So a lot of that is now more technology focused than it ever has
59:42 been in the past.
59:44 So technology is a big deal.
59:45 So I just want to say we have been making great progress.
59:51 Like we’re doing pretty well in Brevard County Public Schools.
59:54 I’m proud of the investments we’re making.
59:56 We’ve done a lot of different improvements across the board.
59:59 So as I’ve mentioned previously, we can do preventative
1:00:02 maintenance now.
1:00:03 Like that’s a woo-hoo moment for me.
1:00:05 Very, very exciting.
1:00:06 There are not many districts, not many public works departments
1:00:10 that can say we actively do
1:00:12 preventative maintenance.
1:00:13 So that’s a big accomplishment for the district.
1:00:15 We’re doing lots of building system improvements.
1:00:18 Bus and technology assets are getting younger.
1:00:22 We are doing things to save energy, conversion to LED lighting.
1:00:26 We’ve been working through that in the classrooms.
1:00:28 This year’s capital program starts to do that in our athletic
1:00:31 field.
1:00:32 So even more savings.
1:00:33 So excited about that.
1:00:35 We’ve built a couple new schools.
1:00:37 We have some classroom building additions.
1:00:39 And we’ve done very well making sure that we have good data to
1:00:42 support the decisions that
1:00:44 we’re making.
1:00:46 So I’m going to talk a little bit about our capital resources
1:00:50 because it’s more than just
1:00:51 surtax and it’s more than just capital.
1:00:53 And just going to give you the landscape of the different
1:00:56 funding sources and how we make
1:00:58 some decisions.
1:00:59 So these are kind of the big ones.
1:01:01 We have state legislative appropriations, capital surtax, and
1:01:05 educational impact fees.
1:01:06 And then we have a handful of other ones that show up from time
1:01:09 to time.
1:01:10 So just to go through these real quickly, we do work for food
1:01:14 and nutrition services.
1:01:15 So Chris Payne typically does, I don’t know, two to three major
1:01:20 cafeteria kitchen renovations
1:01:22 every summer.
1:01:23 And those are funded through food and nutrition services.
1:01:26 We have a type of money called capital outlay and debt service
1:01:31 that is restricted by our relationship
1:01:35 with the state to HVAC projects.
1:01:38 And that’s about 2.6 million annually.
1:01:40 So we typically are buying chillers and air handling units and
1:01:43 things like that doing major
1:01:44 renovations.
1:01:45 Can you tell us what the cost of one chiller is just for
1:01:48 everyone to know approximately?
1:01:50 They vary by size, but probably in the $400,000 to $700,000
1:01:54 range.
1:01:55 Thank you.
1:01:55 Yeah.
1:01:56 We have an annual state security grant, and that is based on the
1:02:01 F-SAT.
1:02:02 And typically, we’ve been using that to support our intercom
1:02:06 projects.
1:02:07 So we’re doing communications upgrades in basically every school
1:02:10 except our newer ones.
1:02:11 And we’re probably about two-thirds of the way through that
1:02:14 initiative.
1:02:15 We had a federal legislative appropriation for drinking water
1:02:18 fountain, or we are expecting
1:02:20 one for drinking water fountain upgrades.
1:02:22 And then we also monitor grants for other opportunities where it
1:02:26 makes sense to apply.
1:02:27 Our state legislative appropriations have typically been in the
1:02:31 realm of adult education and CTE.
1:02:34 And you see on the screen there’s a number of projects that we’ve
1:02:37 been doing.
1:02:37 We just celebrated our Cocoa Beach Aquatics Lab.
1:02:41 We’re going to be doing a groundbreaking ceremony for our Edgewood
1:02:44 Robotics Lab coming up.
1:02:46 We did firefighter training.
1:02:47 Just really good stuff comes out of our relationship with our
1:02:50 legislative delegation and those resources.
1:02:55 Educational impact fees, these are very highly restricted funds.
1:03:00 We can only use them for new capacity.
1:03:03 And that would include things like classroom building additions,
1:03:07 new schools, and we can use it to pay debt service for new
1:03:12 capacity.
1:03:13 But there’s very strict rules around that, and our finance
1:03:15 department keeps track of that very carefully.
1:03:18 So we do use that occasionally, but mostly we are using those
1:03:22 resources for new capacity that you see coming out of the ground.
1:03:28 These fees are imposed by Brevard County government.
1:03:31 They’re not imposed by the school board.
1:03:33 And so they collect the fees.
1:03:35 They take a small administrative charge off the top.
1:03:38 We have a process that we go through based on our interlocal
1:03:43 agreement that includes all of our cities, as well as county
1:03:48 representatives, school board representatives.
1:03:50 And we collaboratively make recommendations as to how to
1:03:53 allocate those educational impact fees.
1:03:56 We do that quarterly.
1:03:57 You see that on your agenda.
1:03:59 And then once the board makes that recommendation, then it goes
1:04:02 across the street to the county commission.
1:04:04 They will consider our recommendation, and then the resources
1:04:08 come back to us.
1:04:09 So we do that process quarterly.
1:04:11 We have two benefit districts.
1:04:13 You have to spend these resources in the benefit district in
1:04:17 which the resources were received.
1:04:19 And so north of Barnes Boulevard, we get about $5 million to $6
1:04:22 million annually.
1:04:24 South’s 17 to 21.
1:04:26 But this will vary with residential growth.
1:04:29 So this is not a bondable resource.
1:04:32 So it’s kind of a cash flow type of situation, which has been
1:04:36 very good with our growth here in Brevard County.
1:04:38 But I’ve seen it over the years goes up and down.
1:04:42 So you have to be cognizant of that.
1:04:45 Can I ask a question?
1:04:46 The two benefit districts, is that something that the district
1:04:49 here decided that there was two, or is that mandated by
1:04:52 something else?
1:04:53 So we, it used to be four.
1:04:55 Okay.
1:04:55 And it was a little dicey trying to figure out all of that.
1:04:59 So that has been working pretty well.
1:05:02 I don’t know, Dave, this is about 10, 8, 10 years, something
1:05:05 like that.
1:05:05 I think we changed that about when I started here.
1:05:07 So it’s about been.
1:05:09 I just wondered.
1:05:10 Yeah.
1:05:11 We can, we can make those adjustments if we choose to.
1:05:15 Not suggesting that.
1:05:17 I just wondered where it came from.
1:05:18 Yeah.
1:05:18 Thank you.
1:05:20 Yep.
1:05:20 So these are some of the projects that we’ve done and are
1:05:23 planning to do with our educational impact fees.
1:05:26 And then I’m going to talk a little bit about capital.
1:05:31 This is our 1.5 mils property tax, and we do an annual
1:05:35 development cycle that you all see.
1:05:37 Typically, this comes in the spring.
1:05:39 It’s a very collaborative process.
1:05:43 We work with the finance department, obviously, and
1:05:46 transportation, chief of schools, educational technology.
1:05:50 We’re kind of the big users of the capital pot.
1:05:53 And so everyone submits their projects.
1:05:56 We all get together and try to figure out the best use of these
1:06:00 resources.
1:06:01 The funding comes in in December.
1:06:03 So in facilities, we typically will use either last year’s
1:06:08 resources or other resources to try to get ahead
1:06:12 and get ready for the big influx of capital money in December,
1:06:17 basically, when people pay their taxes,
1:06:18 and try to get ready so that we can execute projects in the
1:06:22 summer.
1:06:23 Because if we wait until December to start, we won’t be ready in
1:06:26 the summer.
1:06:26 So we’re kind of trying to get the preliminary work done so that
1:06:32 we’re ready for either December break or spring break or summer
1:06:37 break.
1:06:38 So I wanted to put this up here because I think it kind of
1:06:44 explains a bit about how we got here.
1:06:49 And if you look at kind of the fiscal year 13 to about 16, 17,
1:06:55 and you look at the tax assessment or the tax roll,
1:07:00 and you think about 1.5 mils assessed against that tax roll, we’re
1:07:05 in the $35 to $45 million range in terms of revenue.
1:07:11 So back in those years, our debt service level is about $38
1:07:15 million.
1:07:16 So what we had left was about $3 to $4 million.
1:07:21 So when I got here in January of 2015, Mr. Theodore had about $3
1:07:30 to $4 million to spend on capital projects,
1:07:34 which was almost nothing.
1:07:36 So it was a, oh my gosh, it’s broke, let’s fix it approach,
1:07:40 versus a, hey, we have a few million dollars, how do we best
1:07:44 spend it?
1:07:45 It was a very different environment.
1:07:47 And that is what led us to talking about sales surtax and trying
1:07:50 to get some additional capital resources
1:07:53 so we could do good things and good investments in our school.
1:07:56 But literally when I got here, if your playground broke, it was
1:07:59 too bad, good luck, do some fundraising.
1:08:02 Like that is not how we operate today, but this explains kind of
1:08:07 where we were back then
1:08:09 and why we had such draconian policies, similarly with our air
1:08:14 conditioning.
1:08:15 You know, you may remember that we had, you know, a much higher
1:08:19 set point and, you know, things were breaking.
1:08:23 It was very challenging.
1:08:25 And so the surtax has really been a game changer for us and has
1:08:29 done some really amazing things.
1:08:32 But also the change in property tax values over time has given
1:08:36 us some flexibility to do some better investments
1:08:39 and has made a huge difference.
1:08:42 So this is where we are in FY25, and you can see about $109
1:08:47 million expected capital revenue.
1:08:50 Out of that, the annual maintenance transfer had been $10.3
1:08:54 million in fiscal year 24.
1:08:56 The board, after working on this, had agreed to invest some
1:09:00 additional money in maintenance.
1:09:02 That has been a big deal for us.
1:09:04 So we are not out of money in maintenance this year where we may
1:09:07 have been last year.
1:09:08 So that’s worked great.
1:09:10 You see our debt service and our property insurance come off the
1:09:14 top.
1:09:15 And then the charter school share, which is growing every year.
1:09:18 It’s a glide path, I think, as the legislature described it.
1:09:21 So it gets a little bigger every year.
1:09:23 But basically there’s about $52 million left for projects.
1:09:29 And this shows you how we are investing our capital.
1:09:33 And part of the operations and maintenance, $4.7 million, part
1:09:38 of that is the additional resources
1:09:41 that’s going off the top to our maintenance department.
1:09:44 You see about $7 million for transportation services, about $11
1:09:48 million for educational technology.
1:09:50 You see a reserve for the ERP project under finance.
1:09:57 And then the other big pot is facility services.
1:10:02 So that’s about $25 million for facilities.
1:10:06 And then this shows you where that $25 million is being invested.
1:10:12 And this basically is approved as part of the budget process.
1:10:15 But we’ve got a wide variety of projects that do a lot of
1:10:19 different things.
1:10:20 And I want to just give you a sort of a philosophy where we
1:10:26 typically use data to drive our investments.
1:10:30 Now, you know, if we look at things like, you know, I’ll talk
1:10:34 about this a little bit later,
1:10:36 but things like the elementary school basketball courts, you
1:10:41 know, we need 30 of those.
1:10:43 And they’re a quarter million dollars a piece.
1:10:46 And so we could literally spend every bit of our $25 million on
1:10:51 one thing.
1:10:52 And we have a lot of those one things across the district.
1:10:55 So the philosophy is, okay, let’s see how big the elephant is.
1:11:00 And let’s try to allocate our resources across a variety of
1:11:04 needs that we have.
1:11:06 Because every school is different.
1:11:07 They need different things.
1:11:09 Also, even with good data, we also listen to our customers.
1:11:14 I spend a lot of time with the athletic directors, with our
1:11:17 chief of school’s office.
1:11:19 Our teams are out visiting schools.
1:11:21 So we also have things bubble up from like, hey, we need, you
1:11:25 know, astronaut press box is probably a good example this year
1:11:29 that ended up on the capital list.
1:11:30 And it’s something we’ve been talking about for a while.
1:11:33 I visited astronaut probably three years ago and went, ooh, that
1:11:37 looks bad.
1:11:37 It’s not any better.
1:11:38 You know.
1:11:38 And so, you know, we kind of throw that in the mix.
1:11:42 And as we are working through how to allocate our resources,
1:11:47 these things all come into play and try to do also a mix of
1:11:52 renewal and new projects.
1:11:54 So we also have, there’s probably 18 or so schools that have
1:11:59 absolutely, elementary schools, like no big play pavilion.
1:12:04 Those are $600,000 a pop.
1:12:07 And when I visit elementary schools, if they don’t have one of
1:12:10 those, that’s one of the first things, the principal, the AP,
1:12:14 you know, the cafeteria person says to me, like, we need this.
1:12:19 So we are starting to add those.
1:12:22 But keep in mind, as we add those, we’re also adding long-term
1:12:24 maintenance responsibilities.
1:12:26 So I try to do a mix of renewal and new projects.
1:12:31 This is the outdoor court condition for elementary basketball
1:12:36 courts.
1:12:37 And, you know, when I first started down this path, I thought,
1:12:41 you know, we’ll invest a few hundred thousand dollars.
1:12:44 We’ll get some rims and some backboards and things will be good.
1:12:46 And our folks went out and actually did a real assessment.
1:12:49 And I was like, oh, this is a little different.
1:12:52 So you’ll see in your capital plan that there was quite a bit of
1:12:55 money set aside for this.
1:12:57 But we’re probably only going to do two to four of these with
1:13:00 the resources.
1:13:01 And so it’s going to take a while to get through.
1:13:04 And the others that are not on the list are deteriorating as we’re
1:13:07 doing the ones that are on the list.
1:13:10 So this size list is going to be this size list probably for the
1:13:13 next several years.
1:13:15 So this is kind of a summary of the annual investments that we
1:13:19 try to just put in the plan every year.
1:13:22 The school-initiated project match program has been super
1:13:26 popular with our schools.
1:13:27 And it seems to be the right size.
1:13:30 We’ve been spending just about that much every year.
1:13:33 And generally speaking, we’ve been able to work something out
1:13:37 with our schools so that most everyone who applies ends up with
1:13:40 some resources.
1:13:41 So that’s been a really, really good program.
1:13:44 We also have a small projects implementation team in Dave’s shop
1:13:49 that works for Mr. Griggs.
1:13:51 And back in history, we used to charge our schools for that.
1:13:55 So if you wanted to move a little wall from here to there, you
1:13:58 know, you’ve got to go do some fundraising.
1:14:00 And we’ll send you the bill.
1:14:01 So this allocation in the capital plan allows us to do those
1:14:04 smaller projects for schools.
1:14:07 And we just go do them.
1:14:08 So that works out really well.
1:14:10 So anyway, these are the furniture, fixtures, and equipment.
1:14:14 We work through the chief of school’s office.
1:14:16 And we’ve probably close to tripled the amount that we’ve put in
1:14:19 there this year because our resources are better.
1:14:22 And we want to do good FF&E work in our schools.
1:14:27 But the cool thing we’re able to do this year is we’ve started
1:14:30 to work together where we’re doing a major classroom renovation.
1:14:33 We also pick up the FF&E.
1:14:36 So we’re working together so that we don’t have, you know, new
1:14:39 floors and new lights and all this great stuff and lousy
1:14:42 furniture.
1:14:43 Or we don’t have, you know, great furniture and lousy floors.
1:14:47 So we’re trying to start to do a much broader classroom
1:14:51 renovation type of approach.
1:14:56 These are some of our continuing projects.
1:14:58 And, you know, most of these are in the, you know, quarter
1:15:02 million to a million dollars a piece kind of, bless you,
1:15:05 renovation projects.
1:15:06 But we have these ongoing.
1:15:09 The pool renewal is new on the agenda this year.
1:15:12 We need to do some deck renewal.
1:15:14 And I feel like this is going to be one of those things where
1:15:16 once we literally stick our toe in the water, it’s just going to
1:15:19 get worse and worse.
1:15:21 So we’re trying to navigate through that.
1:15:24 But that’s going to be on your capital plan every year probably
1:15:27 for the next couple of years.
1:15:29 Our sales tax, I think everybody’s really familiar with this,
1:15:33 but approved by the voters in 2014 and then again in 2020, expires
1:15:38 in 2016.
1:15:39 Currently, we share 13.9% with charter schools.
1:15:44 I think Wendy’s going to be recalculating that this afternoon
1:15:47 just based on our new numbers, should be in that same general
1:15:50 vicinity.
1:15:51 We’ve had really great revenue.
1:15:55 And so that’s allowed us to not only do what’s in the plan, but
1:15:59 also expand either scope or cover costs.
1:16:02 But we’ve been doing more with the sales surtax, and that has
1:16:05 worked well through the ICOC process.
1:16:08 And you see a lot of those on your agenda as contract awards.
1:16:12 We do have a really good relationship with our Independent
1:16:16 Citizens Oversight Committee.
1:16:18 They meet every other month, and they do a pretty robust review
1:16:22 of what’s going on in the sales surtax world.
1:16:25 We also have a lot of data on our website, so if anybody really
1:16:29 wants the details, you can see, literally, if you want to know
1:16:33 what we’ve spent at this school over the life of the surtax
1:16:36 program,
1:16:36 it’s in the package every other month, so you can see it.
1:16:40 Or if you want to see, how much did we spend on air conditioning?
1:16:43 The allocation of 2020 is 70% facility renewal, 15% security, 15%
1:16:49 technology.
1:16:50 That seems to be a pretty good distribution.
1:16:53 I think that’s allowed us to do work that is commensurate with
1:16:57 the needs, so I’ve been pretty happy with that.
1:17:02 This is our website, so if folks are looking at this later on,
1:17:06 they can see how to find all of this information through the
1:17:10 website.
1:17:12 And this is our 2020 revenue.
1:17:14 Just wanted to kind of give you a sense of magnitude.
1:17:18 So we’re 42 months in, in 2020.
1:17:22 The 2020 program, that’s $224 million.
1:17:26 And as that goes through the process and the distribution for
1:17:30 facility renewal, that ends up at about $139 million.
1:17:36 This shows the change in the charter distribution.
1:17:39 And this is a graph that I keep up every ICOC meeting, and it
1:17:45 shows you, over time, our sales tax revenue.
1:17:49 So you can kind of see how the revenue has increased over time
1:17:53 and what the patterns are.
1:17:55 You see the spikes every quarter.
1:17:57 There is a quarterly sales tax payment that brings that revenue
1:18:02 up in those months.
1:18:04 But this kind of gives us a sense of trends, because I certainly
1:18:07 don’t want to get ahead of our revenue in terms of spending
1:18:11 money.
1:18:12 So really keep track of that closely.
1:18:14 This shows you how we’ve invested our sales tax.
1:18:18 This is the 2014 and 2020.
1:18:22 But basically, we have spent $145 million in air conditioning
1:18:26 since 2015.
1:18:28 So we should be doing better.
1:18:30 And so very happy with that.
1:18:33 The 2020 program is more focused on roofing and electrical.
1:18:38 So you’re starting to see those numbers creep up.
1:18:40 And the roofing number is going to be going up, because we have
1:18:43 some big projects coming up.
1:18:44 So you’ll see more of that as time goes on.
1:18:47 But we try to keep this information up so the public can really
1:18:52 see how we are investing the sales surtax revenue in our schools.
1:18:57 Okay.
1:18:59 So tying all this together, I have to say that it is challenging
1:19:06 to do literally anything at every school all at the same time.
1:19:13 And that’s been particularly challenging for us in the security
1:19:16 realm.
1:19:16 So I want to give you a few examples of opportunities to invest,
1:19:23 just to kind of give you a sense of why we can’t do it all at
1:19:29 the same time.
1:19:31 It just takes a lot of money to literally do anything.
1:19:35 And if we do anything across every school, the last bullet is,
1:19:39 if we did a $10,000 project at every school, you’re approaching
1:19:44 a million dollars.
1:19:45 So just a little thing, 85 times, takes time and a lot of
1:19:50 resources.
1:19:53 You know, we are trying to do things like upgrading classrooms.
1:19:56 And that’s a, if we do a whole school, it’s been about a million,
1:20:00 two, million, three to do an entire school of cabinetry, flooring,
1:20:03 lighting, the whole nine yards.
1:20:05 So, you know, it’s important work.
1:20:09 We have good resources.
1:20:10 Our community has given us great resources, and they’re being
1:20:14 invested.
1:20:15 But as we move forward and start thinking about, okay, what are
1:20:18 we doing in the next 10 years, these things are going to have to
1:20:22 come into play because it’s going to cost us, you know, 30 to 70
1:20:26 million to do a new school building, depending on, you know,
1:20:29 what’s in it.
1:20:30 But it’s a big amount of money.
1:20:33 So, also, I, you know, mentioned earlier, but you’ve got to just
1:20:37 thinking about, you know, as we add stuff, we’re adding stuff
1:20:42 that we have to maintain.
1:20:44 And, you know, I kind of use the security fencing as an example.
1:20:48 Back in 2014, 15, it’s like, okay, let’s make sure we fence in
1:20:51 all the schools.
1:20:52 But when I stopped counting, it was about seven and a half miles.
1:20:56 So, we’re probably, you know, in the 10-mile range of fence.
1:21:00 That’s 10 miles of fence that, you know, we probably should
1:21:03 start thinking about when we’re going to be replacing that.
1:21:06 So, you’re starting to see fencing in the security or in the
1:21:09 capital plan.
1:21:10 And it’s because we put fence in 10 years ago, and it’s time to
1:21:14 redo the fence.
1:21:15 So, you really are thinking about that.
1:21:18 And then, also, some of these things generate long-term
1:21:22 licensing costs.
1:21:23 They generate power costs.
1:21:26 They generate staff support costs.
1:21:29 So, as we’re adding more widgets, and that’s probably more true
1:21:33 in the technology realm where we have gone to one-to-one, we
1:21:36 have more computers, we’ve got to maintain those computers, and
1:21:40 we need humans to do that.
1:21:42 In our world, as we’re changing the type of work we do, so intercom
1:21:47 systems, chillers, building system controls, lighting, a lot of
1:21:52 that has technology components to it.
1:21:56 And so, the type of employee that we are going to need over time
1:22:00 is going to change, too.
1:22:02 Mr. Chidan and I have been talking about, you know, should we be
1:22:06 migrating some of our facilities team over to the educational
1:22:09 technology team?
1:22:10 And you will probably see that in a budget, if not this coming
1:22:14 year, probably the year after, because we’re trying to make sure
1:22:17 that we’re doing this right.
1:22:19 And the right people are in the right place to do the right work
1:22:22 in our schools, just like on the educational side of the house.
1:22:26 So, what’s coming up?
1:22:28 So, we have, as you know, there’s two things kind of ongoing at
1:22:34 the same time.
1:22:36 One of them is the facility strategic plan study, and you’re
1:22:40 going to be briefed on that December the 3rd.
1:22:44 We’ve got some staff briefing coming up based on their data
1:22:48 gathering phase that’s kind of happening now, and we’ll be
1:22:51 preparing for a December 3rd work session with you.
1:22:56 So, after that work session, we will be doing a public
1:22:59 engagement plan, and I think that there’s going to be a lot of
1:23:03 opportunities to really talk about some different options.
1:23:06 Because what’s going to come out of this analysis is, you know,
1:23:10 do we have schools that have, you know, they’re 70 years old.
1:23:15 Is it time to rebuild that school?
1:23:16 Is it time to change to the K-8 model?
1:23:19 Like, are there, there’s going to be big decisions to be made
1:23:23 about what’s next in the next 10 years?
1:23:26 And then, similarly, we are internally updating our facility
1:23:30 assessment data based upon all the work that we’ve done over the
1:23:34 last five to six years, analyzing our life of our assets,
1:23:39 and trying to develop a sort of a chiller replacement plan, a
1:23:44 panel replacement plan, a big stuff replacement plan that will
1:23:49 feed into our plans for the long-term facilities strategic plan.
1:23:55 So, all this is going to be working towards finalizing in mid to
1:24:00 about mid-2025.
1:24:03 So, you’ll probably see me a lot at the microphone in the spring
1:24:06 next year, because we’ll be doing this a lot.
1:24:09 So, we’re also working with security, educational technology,
1:24:14 talked about some of this stuff, and then just basically
1:24:18 building capital plan options for the board to consider.
1:24:23 And then that last bullet is pretty important, because whatever
1:24:27 we come up with in terms of the big plan, we have to figure out
1:24:30 how to fund that big plan.
1:24:32 And that funding strategy is going to dictate what can be in the
1:24:38 big plan.
1:24:39 And if you’ve looked at the budget presentation, Ms. Lasinski
1:24:44 talks about the debts schedule, and you can see that our $38
1:24:48 million of debt, that goes down in, let’s see, fiscal 32, I
1:24:52 think, is the last year that it’s $38 million, goes down to $16-ish
1:24:57 to $36.
1:24:59 So, our debt schedule is going to be changing at sort of the
1:25:03 back end of a 10-year plan, and we’ll have some decisions to
1:25:07 make about where we really want to invest and how big we want
1:25:11 our strategic plan to be.
1:25:13 So, that’s going to be important as we work through mid-2025 our
1:25:18 strategic facilities plan.
1:25:21 So, I think, hopefully, this was scintillating enough to keep
1:25:25 you guys awake, and if you have some questions, I’ll be happy to
1:25:30 answer them.
1:25:30 Thank you.
1:25:31 Thank you, Sue.
1:25:33 Board, do you have any questions or comments, or have you had
1:25:35 the opportunity to look at the 49 pages of slides that show the
1:25:39 capital improvement projects that have been done?
1:25:41 They’re very impressive.
1:25:42 I encourage the community to go on and click on those links and
1:25:45 look at those photos.
1:25:46 Sue, I just want to thank you as I leave, Sue, and I want to
1:25:51 commend your expertise, and I know I do this every time I get to
1:25:56 see you, but I’ll do it publicly as much as I possibly can.
1:25:59 I am so grateful that you made the decision to come to Brevard
1:26:03 Public Schools, and I’m so grateful that you don’t seem like you
1:26:07 have any intention of leaving, because I never question anything
1:26:13 that you present to us.
1:26:14 You are phenomenal.
1:26:15 It blows my mind.
1:26:16 I picture you having 10,000 file folders inside of your brain,
1:26:19 and the more I get to know you and the fact that you, on your
1:26:22 free time, like to do puzzles makes no sense to me.
1:26:25 You don’t want to watch garbage TV and turn your brain off, but
1:26:28 I’m so grateful for you.
1:26:29 And I’m also really grateful that when the community comes to
1:26:34 you with concerns or ideas and suggestions, you don’t even
1:26:39 remotely give them a sense that you’re too burdened to listen to
1:26:42 their concerns and to maybe change your plan and manipulate it
1:26:44 to accommodate that community and that school.
1:26:47 So thank you.
1:26:48 Thank you for all that you do.
1:26:49 Thank you very much.
1:26:54 Wonderful data as always, and I’m going to ask Dr. Rendell if we
1:26:58 can, this is just such good information.
1:27:01 It’s a summary of things that the board already knew a lot of
1:27:03 information, but is there, if we can like put something out, hey,
1:27:07 for a good update, just cut this part of the meeting.
1:27:10 And for the people who like the information, put it out there
1:27:13 because it’s such good overall review of where we’ve been, what
1:27:18 we’re doing now, where we’re going.
1:27:21 So great information.
1:27:22 I’d love for us to like get a little snippet of this for the
1:27:24 people who’d like to with the, with the cute PowerPoints and
1:27:27 everything.
1:27:28 Cause that makes it more fun.
1:27:29 So thank you for the average age.
1:27:32 It’s always a good data point.
1:27:33 You know, how old our buildings are.
1:27:35 I love that the bus, um, ages are going down.
1:27:37 I love that our computer, um, age is going down.
1:27:40 One interesting point for me is when we do our, every meeting on
1:27:45 our, um, we get the report of items that we’re getting read of.
1:27:49 And I see there’s always a whole bunch of laptops that are 14
1:27:52 years old, which doesn’t sound that old for it, except that it’s
1:27:55 a laptop.
1:27:56 And a 14 year old laptop is really old.
1:27:59 Um, anything technology that’s that’s old is probably too old.
1:28:02 So the portable age is the one that concerns me.
1:28:05 And especially knowing that we have some schools, particularly
1:28:08 in the south end that are growing by leaps and bounds.
1:28:11 And we don’t have portables good enough to move.
1:28:16 And so we really are going to, and we don’t have, we can’t build
1:28:20 a new school instantly.
1:28:22 So where are we on that?
1:28:24 Like how easy are they to get?
1:28:26 How expensive there are they running?
1:28:28 I mean, where are we in the ability, our ability to get those
1:28:30 purchased and placed where they’re needed, at least for the next
1:28:34 few years.
1:28:35 So a few years ago, um, back kind of in the COVID area era, we
1:28:39 decided to get a contract for new portables and lease portables.
1:28:45 Because we thought we might have to spread out.
1:28:48 Um, so we do have a contract in place.
1:28:50 It’s expensive.
1:28:51 And we’re going to try to weigh the, you know, drag an old one
1:28:56 temporarily, get a new one, put a classroom addition time versus
1:29:01 growth of students kind of thing.
1:29:04 Um, so yeah, that’s, that’s something that is weighing on my
1:29:07 mind as well.
1:29:08 That’s a decision that’s going to be coming up in South Brevard,
1:29:10 probably early spring.
1:29:12 Yeah.
1:29:13 Cause I just, the more that when we, when we do a school tour,
1:29:14 those are often the buildings we don’t go in, but every now and
1:29:17 then we do go in and it’s always amazing to look around and see
1:29:19 what a teacher can do with a portable.
1:29:22 But some of them are, you know, and you’ve sent us pictures of
1:29:24 ones that we’re, is it DCR?
1:29:25 Is that the right terminology?
1:29:26 Yes.
1:29:27 That we’re DCRing and they’re, they, you know.
1:29:29 Yeah.
1:29:30 I just want you to be clear.
1:29:31 Like we’re really not wasting money.
1:29:33 Right, right, right.
1:29:34 We’re not getting rid of a building that we really should hold
1:29:36 onto.
1:29:37 You wouldn’t put your, you know, your, your crazy cat ladies,
1:29:40 ants, cats in there.
1:29:42 You know, I’m just trying to pick something out of there.
1:29:44 Um, sorry to all the crazy cat lady ants.
1:29:47 Um, okay.
1:29:48 Uh, I’m, my notes are just in the order that I wrote them down
1:29:51 on this already coherent thought process.
1:29:55 So I apologize.
1:29:56 Um, when this decision making process, when it comes to, let’s
1:29:59 just say the elementary basketball courts, for example, you know,
1:30:03 you guys are going out and I so appreciate you doing, doing a
1:30:06 thorough review and that that facilities assessment, um, part is
1:30:09 so important, but how do the schools?
1:30:12 So if you come to a particular principal and you say, okay, you’re
1:30:14 next on the list, we see, you know, we’re going to replace, but
1:30:17 that principal says, I appreciate that.
1:30:19 But really what my kids are using, what we really need is a, a
1:30:22 cover for our playground, whatever.
1:30:25 Are there, and I know that sometimes we’ve had some flexibility,
1:30:28 but do we have the flexibility so that the school and the
1:30:30 principal gets the input?
1:30:32 Because maybe in their case where it’s located, whatever, nobody
1:30:34 uses that.
1:30:35 Um, maybe they would if it was nicer, but I mean, how much of
1:30:37 that input is affecting those decisions?
1:30:40 So somewhat.
1:30:42 So what we don’t do is say, hey, you’ve got a half a million
1:30:44 dollars, do what you want.
1:30:46 Right.
1:30:48 What I do do is, okay, next year we’re looking at doing a pavilion
1:30:51 or we’re looking at doing your courts.
1:30:54 Um, sit down with us, like, do we need to do eight courts?
1:30:57 Can we do four courts?
1:30:59 And then maybe you get, you know, a little bit of extra
1:31:01 something or other.
1:31:03 So we always will scope the work with a principal.
1:31:06 In fact, we met with one last week and had that exact
1:31:09 conversation because they, they have a, they have a cover play
1:31:14 area.
1:31:14 It needs some, some serious maintenance.
1:31:16 Um, but their courts are in kind of poor condition too.
1:31:20 And I’m like, well, you know, maybe if you guys do some
1:31:23 fundraising, we could do a smaller project sooner versus waiting
1:31:28 to do the whole project later.
1:31:30 So a lot of it is really around timing and we’ve had some
1:31:33 schools that are, have done some fundraising and we partner with
1:31:36 them and try to get their project done with a minimal district
1:31:41 investment.
1:31:42 If they’re really good at fundraising, we also tend to
1:31:45 prioritize our, I’m going to say title one schools, but our
1:31:49 priority schools, um, for lack of a better word.
1:31:53 So if we, we have schools that, you know, you’re pretty clear,
1:31:56 they’re not going to be able to raise their own funds.
1:31:59 We want to make sure that we’re not leaving them behind.
1:32:02 And so we tend to do those first.
1:32:05 Our surtax plan was developed that way.
1:32:08 Those schools generally got their resources first.
1:32:12 And so there’s a lot of different variables, Ms. Campbell, and
1:32:15 we try to be as flexible as we can.
1:32:18 No, I appreciate that.
1:32:19 And I appreciate the way, you know, as we were making this plan
1:32:21 that we were, we were intentional with, um, using those sites,
1:32:25 because I know even within district five, there’s schools that
1:32:29 can do, um, two years of fundraising and have enough money to
1:32:32 build a playground.
1:32:33 And I had a school that they, they raised money for 14 years
1:32:36 just to get enough money for us to match it, to buy a playground.
1:32:41 And so, you know, and it was, it’s a title one school.
1:32:44 So I appreciate that we’re doing, I appreciate the SIP 75% match,
1:32:47 um, or, you know, or, uh, for that we do that, that is all such
1:32:51 good things.
1:32:52 Um, and I, and I definitely appreciate the data driven approach
1:32:56 because it keeps out, um, that a couple of elements that can be,
1:33:00 um, you just received in the negative light.
1:33:03 One, that it’s just the squeaky wheels, that the squeaky wheels
1:33:05 are the only ones who are getting anything done because we’re
1:33:07 actually going out and ever seeing every facility.
1:33:10 And definitely the principals get to have their input, but it’s
1:33:12 not just the ones who yell the loudest and the parents who yell
1:33:14 the loudest who get the work done.
1:33:15 So I appreciate that.
1:33:16 But it also keeps out favoritism, like say from the board, if we’re
1:33:20 doing a facilities assessment, we’re doing data driven approach.
1:33:23 It’s not on, if a board member has a favorite school, we’re
1:33:26 coming to you and say, Hey, you need to get this done.
1:33:29 No, we, we’ve got a plan.
1:33:30 And so that kind of keeps that, that we get accused of, I’m not
1:33:32 saying it happens, but you know, get accused of every now and
1:33:34 then.
1:33:35 So I appreciate that.
1:33:36 Um, one of the things we have been asked by members of the
1:33:39 community, um, what are we doing for our, our low income schools?
1:33:43 And I hope that this was received, um, because I know, and when
1:33:46 those questions are asked, I’m like, I know we’re doing all this
1:33:48 kind of stuff.
1:33:49 But it’s not all visible because our community is not able to
1:33:52 come in and see these amazing floors and good furniture and
1:33:55 bathrooms, which seems like such a small thing.
1:33:57 But when a kid walks into a bathroom and doesn’t have the
1:33:59 graffiti all over the walls and the doors are falling off, they’re
1:34:02 walking into a brand new.
1:34:04 It’s just, it’s just like any of us.
1:34:06 If we walk into Walmart and they upgraded the floors, it’s like,
1:34:09 Oh, I got a new fancy Walmart.
1:34:10 You know, it just makes you feel better about where you’re
1:34:12 working, where you’re learning.
1:34:14 And I apologize for taking so long.
1:34:16 I’m getting somewhere.
1:34:17 I promise.
1:34:18 Um, that data point of 30 to $70 million for building new school,
1:34:22 honestly, the 70 million seems a little low.
1:34:24 If, especially if we’re looking at building a high school,
1:34:27 because what I’m hearing from my other district friends is it’s
1:34:30 like a hundred million, maybe building bigger school than what
1:34:33 we’ve been looking to build.
1:34:33 Cause we don’t have any schools that are bigger than like 2,200
1:34:37 kids, but that seems like a little bit of a low price.
1:34:40 It probably is.
1:34:42 Okay.
1:34:43 Yeah.
1:34:44 The triple digits on that bullet point seemed like a bit much.
1:34:46 So just, but it, you know, it, it gives you a sense of, this is
1:34:50 a big question.
1:34:52 Right.
1:34:53 So where I’m kind of leading all that to, um, is as we start
1:34:58 looking at 2026, when our current sales or tax renewal expires,
1:35:03 and we know we’re going to have these $37 million ish, uh, debt
1:35:07 payments all the way up to 2032.
1:35:09 Um, one, I hope that the, the community will see how it’s being
1:35:14 used, that’s being used responsibly and with great effect.
1:35:19 Um, and that we are going to continue to have needs, but
1:35:22 especially as we have the growth, you know, we don’t have to
1:35:24 have this conversation today, but I’m just going to go ahead and
1:35:27 put this out there to start having the conversation or to have
1:35:30 the ideas going in people’s head.
1:35:32 So I think it would be good for us to include it because I hate
1:35:35 the idea of us going into further debt.
1:35:38 I love the idea that our debt is going to continue to drop off.
1:35:40 But honestly, as you’re talking about our debt payments being
1:35:42 restructured and the schedule’s changing, what I’m seeing is, oh
1:35:45 my gosh, we’re going to have to be building three schools in the
1:35:47 next 10 years, at least if not more.
1:35:50 And at a price tag of 30 to 70 plus, possibly a hundred million
1:35:54 dollars a piece, there goes our debt payments up again.
1:35:58 And so I love the way we were able to build this new middle
1:36:01 school with the line of credit that hopefully we haven’t had to
1:36:04 dip into hardly at all.
1:36:05 And we’ll have that paid off with impact fees, but impact fees
1:36:08 aren’t going to keep up with our need to build new schools,
1:36:10 especially with these big projects.
1:36:12 So I’m just going to put it out there.
1:36:14 I think that we might want to consider in the next sales surtax,
1:36:18 including partial funding for some of the building of our new
1:36:22 schools, because, you know, you’re looking at those are big
1:36:26 ticket items.
1:36:28 I know I don’t want our district to go into any more debt than
1:36:30 they absolutely have to.
1:36:32 We want to get our facilities paid for, but I just I want to put
1:36:35 that out there that, you know, maybe not paying for a whole
1:36:38 school because it’s hard for the whole county to be honest.
1:36:41 It’s hard for the whole county to get on board with taxing
1:36:43 themselves to build a school in a city that’s 50 miles away from
1:36:46 them.
1:36:47 And I get that. But if we can put some of it, we can ask our
1:36:50 community, look, we’re growing, we’re going to need to build new
1:36:53 schools.
1:36:54 The choice is use some of this, you know, this tax renewal
1:36:57 towards building a new school or strap the school district with
1:37:01 hundreds of million dollars of debt again.
1:37:04 I know for me, I know which answer is is clear.
1:37:07 So I just want to put that out there that maybe we start
1:37:09 thinking about having part of the sales or tax renewal be
1:37:12 towards the building of new schools, which would have to be put
1:37:15 out to the voters.
1:37:16 Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Campbell. All right, Mr. Sidney. Yeah,
1:37:21 I concur with your sentiments, Ms. Campbell.
1:37:25 The growth that is coming will outpace our revenue to
1:37:29 effectively deal with the problem.
1:37:32 When I taught at Space Coast, we had 30 plus portables that the
1:37:35 seventh and eighth grade, that was where they all took all their
1:37:39 classes inside of there.
1:37:41 And it’s not ideal. Our teachers were pressed to the limits to
1:37:43 deliver because even hanging things
1:37:46 on the wall in a portable is very difficult, right? All the way
1:37:48 to instruction and restroom breaks and everything else.
1:37:52 But it is a solution that we need to have, but we need to work
1:37:54 towards the other side.
1:37:55 I think the other consideration is not only just the new school
1:37:58 consideration, but Ms. Suhan brought it up.
1:38:02 So, K through eight. There’s significant statistics going back
1:38:06 25 years that K through eights outperformed the elementary
1:38:10 middle model.
1:38:11 And it should be something that we look at for our growth and
1:38:14 for our distribution of students.
1:38:17 There are many cases where we can reduce, you know what I mean,
1:38:21 size of schools by moving into a K through eight model and in
1:38:25 utilizations in different ways.
1:38:26 So I think that was the most exciting thing that I think Sue and
1:38:28 I have been talking about for the past year is this new
1:38:31 innovation of what we’re going to do with our schools.
1:38:34 Are we going to be rebuilding schools? Are we going to be retrofitting
1:38:37 schools?
1:38:38 So what I would say is that verbiage should say new schools and
1:38:41 refurbishing and redirection of schools.
1:38:44 You see what I mean? Because there’s an opportunity to take
1:38:47 existing schools and turn them into something a little bit
1:38:49 different with some of that capital.
1:38:51 But there’s no doubt we are the only county in the state of
1:38:53 Florida that is supposed to outpace any kind of a recession
1:38:57 according to the Florida Chamber because of the space program
1:39:00 that we have.
1:39:00 So it’s going to be an incredible run for the next 10 years and
1:39:03 I agree with you a thousand percent.
1:39:05 I did want to agree with you also about the accessibility, Sue.
1:39:08 You are amazing.
1:39:09 Like I give you a phone call and I get like a text back, “Hey, I’ll
1:39:12 call you back in a minute,” and you do.
1:39:14 You know what I mean? And that’s consistent with everybody that
1:39:16 we deal with in the cabinet.
1:39:17 But I just deal with you a whole lot more, so I appreciate you a
1:39:20 whole lot more.
1:39:21 You’ve done such a phenomenal job as far as identifying all of
1:39:24 the things that we have and your team.
1:39:27 I know every time I say anything positive and I know the mic was
1:39:29 getting closer to your mouth because you were about to say, “It’s
1:39:32 not me, it’s my team.”
1:39:33 So and that’s what a good leader does.
1:39:35 But the other thing that I wanted to say is you touched on
1:39:38 something else and I appreciate you bringing in Russell Cheatham
1:39:41 and his team because when we talk about the student achievement
1:39:43 data, it’s everybody on the teams, right?
1:39:47 It’s you creating these classroom spaces that are phenomenal and
1:39:50 an environment that they can learn in.
1:39:53 It’s Russell Cheatham’s opportunity to go one-to-one.
1:39:55 I mean, him and I were talking about it the other day.
1:39:57 There’s actual statistics that show that when the one-to-one and
1:40:00 the computer usage is at a certain amount in the right direction
1:40:04 at each one of those schools, their achievement level goes up.
1:40:07 And the idea that we all have hands on deck is very rarely
1:40:10 spoken about.
1:40:11 And I appreciate you bringing that up inside the model.
1:40:13 I appreciate your work towards that.
1:40:15 And I did want to talk, because I know that’s a big deal for me,
1:40:19 that basketball for those kids, right?
1:40:21 If anybody has ever a question as to the impact that that
1:40:24 basketball courts will give to a school, just go ahead and look
1:40:29 at Basketball County in the water.
1:40:31 Prince George County 40, 50 years ago decided to invest, Prince
1:40:35 George County, Maryland decided to invest in basketball of all
1:40:37 things.
1:40:38 And what they did was they created a community environment where
1:40:42 students were able to come in, be part of a group, and succeed.
1:40:46 And they have the number one basketball players, the amount of
1:40:48 NBA stars and everything in the country.
1:40:51 And at one point for many years, they played, their all-star
1:40:53 team played the all-star team from the country and beat them.
1:40:57 And so the impact that some of those sports programs will have
1:41:00 is not only for, you know what I mean, sports, but also for
1:41:03 community, also for fundraising.
1:41:06 You can hold three-on-three basketball fundraisers on top of
1:41:09 those courts.
1:41:11 And when I talked to the kids at Sable the other day, I told
1:41:13 them, I said, hey, there’s an opportunity, you know, because
1:41:16 they were real excited about soccer.
1:41:17 Like they were off the charts.
1:41:18 I had a kid pull cleats out of his bag and put them on.
1:41:20 He thought they were going that day.
1:41:21 But the other thing is, is that they were so excited about
1:41:23 possibly doing basketball in a couple of years.
1:41:26 And they were counting.
1:41:27 The one kid says, oh, is that when I, before I graduate?
1:41:29 Like he was that excited that possibly in a couple of years he
1:41:31 might be able to play.
1:41:33 So just all in all, thank you.
1:41:34 And I agree with you, Ms. Campbell.
1:41:36 This need, we need to be able to push this out.
1:41:38 Because I think a lot of families would like to see what we do
1:41:40 on a regular basis.
1:41:41 So thank you, Sue.
1:41:42 Appreciate you.
1:41:43 Well, I believe we may be approaching our word limit on
1:41:48 responses to presentations.
1:41:50 So I’ll keep it down.
1:41:52 I can’t agree more with the fellow board members up here.
1:41:56 But you’re just the example of what true leadership can do.
1:42:01 And it matters.
1:42:02 I love the phrase leadership matters.
1:42:05 And it’s reflected on your team.
1:42:08 You know, when you surround yourself with the good people, it
1:42:10 makes everybody’s job easier.
1:42:12 So whenever I get a question and facilities comes up, I just get
1:42:15 a sense of ease.
1:42:17 Because I know I’m just going to say your name afterwards and
1:42:19 she’s going to get it.
1:42:21 And so I appreciate it.
1:42:23 Every time we’ve come to you with anything, even if it’s not a
1:42:27 yes, we come out with an understanding.
1:42:30 And I believe the principals get that, too.
1:42:32 I mean, there’s a lot of asks when we go out there.
1:42:35 But they just want to know, are we being heard?
1:42:38 Are we on the list?
1:42:39 Because I know Sue has a list.
1:42:41 And if I’m on there, then I’m all good.
1:42:43 So we appreciate your style.
1:42:46 And again, it’s amazing how much goes into these presentations.
1:42:51 So that mind just never stops.
1:42:53 So I don’t want you watching garbage TV because then the mind
1:42:56 might shut down.
1:42:57 So thank you for keeping going on the puzzles there.
1:43:00 So I just look forward to all these conversations.
1:43:03 Again, I believe we are heavily advantaged for being in Brevard
1:43:08 County.
1:43:10 And we’re going to have a wonderful future in education here and
1:43:14 the options that we’re going to be a part of and have.
1:43:17 So thank you.
1:43:18 Yes.
1:43:19 Thank you, Sue.
1:43:20 Your team is exceptional.
1:43:21 You are an exceptional leader.
1:43:22 I think a lot of times we hear the dollar amount that’s tied to
1:43:25 capital.
1:43:26 And the first thing you think is, oh my gosh, what are we doing?
1:43:29 That’s so much money.
1:43:30 But you don’t realize the vast amount of buildings and things
1:43:32 that are going on all the time.
1:43:34 That’s why I’m like this PowerPoint that you’ve given us for
1:43:36 that show the before and after.
1:43:37 I really hope the community can see some of these before and
1:43:39 after projects.
1:43:40 And the other thing that I, this was, I don’t want to say a
1:43:42 revelation, but a bit of a revelation,
1:43:44 because I’m married to a contractor who does no work for BPS for
1:43:47 the record.
1:43:48 But I’m married to a contractor.
1:43:49 And so when he goes to do jobs, it’s a little different than
1:43:51 what it looks like as far as doing a job through any kind of
1:43:55 governmental agency.
1:43:56 And so that’s been one of the hardest things for really me to
1:43:58 wrap my brain around and then the community as well.
1:44:01 Why don’t we just, you know, and it sounds so simple.
1:44:04 Well, why don’t we just whatever it is?
1:44:06 And it’s something silly, like move a, it could be move a
1:44:08 portable.
1:44:09 It could be install a scoreboard.
1:44:11 It could be things like this, right?
1:44:12 Why don’t we just?
1:44:13 But that requires more than just going out there and putting up
1:44:16 a scoreboard.
1:44:18 It requires, yeah, what’s that?
1:44:20 No, you can’t just go and just put it up.
1:44:22 You have to make sure everything is gone through all the proper
1:44:24 channels and every, every box is checked.
1:44:27 Every T is crossed and I is dotted.
1:44:29 So I appreciate the work that you do.
1:44:31 And again, I echo everyone else when I say we have the utmost
1:44:33 confidence in you as a leader.
1:44:35 You’re a phenomenal leader.
1:44:36 I don’t, I’ve never heard a single person speak an ill word
1:44:38 about you.
1:44:39 That is a reflection of your character.
1:44:41 So we’re grateful for you.
1:44:42 We’re very blessed to have you in Brevard.
1:44:43 I’m looking forward to seeing what some of our future projects
1:44:45 are, but I have no doubt you will, you will lead well in this
1:44:48 arena.
1:44:49 Dr. Rendell, do you have anything else to add in regards to this
1:44:52 presentation?
1:44:53 No.
1:44:54 Okay.
1:44:55 All right.
1:44:56 Wonderful.
1:44:57 All right.
1:44:58 Board.
1:44:59 Thank you.
1:45:02 All right.
1:45:03 Does any other board member have any further things to discuss?
1:45:06 Hearing none.
1:45:07 Dr. Rendell, anything further to discuss?
1:45:10 Actually, I would like to talk a little bit about the high
1:45:12 poverty supplement.
1:45:14 Okay.
1:45:15 Paid to principles.
1:45:16 There’s been a lot of discussion about this in the last several
1:45:19 days.
1:45:20 So a board member asked for some materials to be prepared and
1:45:23 distributed.
1:45:25 We prepared those materials and we’ve given them to each of the
1:45:27 board members this morning.
1:45:29 I did send you an email with an explanation about this matter,
1:45:34 like a description of the narration
1:45:37 of what has happened and not happened and that kind of thing.
1:45:40 So what I’d like to do for the public out there is go ahead and
1:45:43 read that email so that
1:45:46 they get all the information that the board members get and the
1:45:49 district staff and everybody
1:45:51 gets.
1:45:52 So in the email, for example, one of the documents in the
1:45:56 original memorandum from the superintendent
1:45:58 to school board members in 2003, in which the superintendent
1:46:02 outlines the recommendation from a salary
1:46:05 committee to pay a $5,000 supplement to principals of schools
1:46:09 with a high poverty rate.
1:46:11 High poverty rate was determined by 75% or greater of students
1:46:14 qualifying for free or reduced lunch.
1:46:19 Each year since then.
1:46:20 21 years.
1:46:20 In 2021.
1:46:20 The district leadership changed the method for calculating free
1:46:21 and reduced lunch.
1:46:21 And determining who qualifies.
1:46:22 That recommendation was approved by the school board in August
1:46:23 of 2003.
1:46:23 And has been in place ever since.
1:46:24 We have issued the supplement of $5,000 to principals of schools
1:46:29 with 75% or greater of students qualifying for free or reduced
1:46:34 lunch.
1:46:34 Each year since then.
1:46:35 21 years.
1:46:36 In 2021.
1:46:37 The district leadership changed the method for calculating free
1:46:37 and reduced lunch.
1:46:38 And determining who qualifies for title one.
1:46:39 I’m not sure if the school board was involved in that decision,
1:46:40 but you should all be aware.
1:46:41 That we switched to basing the figure on the community
1:46:45 eligibility provision, CEP.
1:46:48 The formula that is utilized to calculate the free and reduced
1:46:51 lunch number includes a factor of 1.6 applied to the base CEP
1:46:54 number.
1:46:54 When we employed the 1.6 factor.
1:46:55 That greatly increased the number of schools that registered 75%
1:46:55 or greater of students who qualify for free or reduced lunch.
1:47:07 This is not anything else.
1:47:08 I’m not sure.
1:47:09 Our staff did with any ill intent.
1:47:10 It is part of the formula.
1:47:10 Switching to the CEP as your base number.
1:47:11 So if the number of schools who had 75% or higher of students
1:47:14 who qualify for free or reduced lunch.
1:47:24 It is part of the formula of switching to the CEP as your base
1:47:29 number.
1:47:30 So if the number of schools who had 75% or higher of students
1:47:35 who qualify for free or reduced lunch increased greatly.
1:47:38 So did the number of principals who qualified for and were paid
1:47:42 the high poverty supplement.
1:47:45 We did give you in your packet a list of all the schools and the
1:47:48 principals who have been paid in supplement actually since 2003.
1:47:53 So in reality, this was not a mistake.
1:47:57 The chart that was used to determine who received the
1:47:59 supplements was accurate.
1:48:01 And all of the principals of schools with 75% or higher were
1:48:04 paid the supplement.
1:48:06 Staff were following board approved action that has been in
1:48:10 place for 21 years.
1:48:12 However, I don’t believe paying that many principals to high
1:48:15 poverty supplement was the original intent of the recommendation
1:48:19 made in 2003.
1:48:21 In that memorandum, the number of schools who qualified at the
1:48:24 time was five.
1:48:25 I believe this was a proper incentive at the time for leaders
1:48:28 who took on the challenge of leading those schools.
1:48:32 And I believe we need to continue to provide an incentive to
1:48:35 staff at our most challenged schools.
1:48:38 So moving forward, now that we have switched the methodology for
1:48:40 calculating free and reduced lunch percentages, we need to
1:48:43 review how we determine which schools and principals and staff
1:48:48 qualify for an additional supplement.
1:48:51 This is going to require some work with staff, the bargaining
1:48:54 units, and of course you all, the school board.
1:48:58 So I will schedule a work session in the very near future to
1:49:02 discuss this matter.
1:49:04 But I want to clear up some misconceptions, misperceptions out
1:49:07 there.
1:49:08 Everybody that was involved was doing their job, following the
1:49:11 rules that were in place.
1:49:13 When we switched to the CEP provision in 2021, we should have
1:49:18 seen the side effect or the impact of that, and we didn’t.
1:49:23 But everything that was done was done properly.
1:49:26 Thank you, Dr. Rendell.
1:49:28 All right, I appreciate the packet and the information.
1:49:31 I don’t know that we need to have further discussion about it
1:49:32 today because it sounds as though you’re going to bring it back
1:49:34 before us to have a more in-depth discussion.
1:49:37 So I appreciate the packet, the information, lots of good stuff
1:49:39 here.
1:49:40 Thank you, Mr. Dufarian, for clarifying.
1:49:42 So hopefully the community will understand a little better that
1:49:45 this was not a mistake or error or mismanagement of funds.
1:49:50 I appreciate you taking the time to do this.
1:49:52 So hearing no further business, this meeting is adjourned.
1:49:54 Thank you.