Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
0:00 Ready, Gavin.
0:11 Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome into the Brevard County High School, uh, the Brevard County School Board Forum. Today, we have a great opportunity to be able to get to know the candidates here today. I’m Zach Clark with Space Coast Daily. With me, I have Vanessa Skipper, the Vice President of the Brevard Federation of Teachers.
0:30 With education being the cornerstone of progress, we’re honored to have each candidate here tonight to join us in sharing their visions, their insights, and their plans for shaping education landscape in Brevard County. Tonight, we have the District 3, where we have our candidates, where we have Amber Yance, and we also have John Thomas with us.
0:52 All right, so we want to talk about a little bit of audience decorum. Um, I see a lot of teaching faces in the audience, so all of my educators, uh, you can help me do some audience management tonight. I know we’re sitting family style, so that kind of lends itself to, um, side chatter. We’re going to ask you guys not to do that.
1:16 Um, side chatter in the audience is very distracting to not only the candidates that are up front, but it makes it hard for everybody else to hear. We also have the expectation, um, that not only are you going to be quiet and respectful while our candidates are talking, but there’s not going to be shouting out or any other behavior that would detract from the audience here or the audience at home.
1:38 We would like to, um, set a model and a bipartisan example for all of our students, Brevard Public Schools. Anyone in the audience who is being disrespectful to candidates, Moderators or fellow attendees will be required to leave the event. We hope we do not have to do that. Um, and so all of my teachers out there, with, uh, your classroom management skills hats on, please.
2:04 Um, and audience members, thank you for being here. But, um, let’s set a great example for everybody in the room and everybody watching at home. Tonight, we’re live streaming on Space Coast Daily TV on the Facebook page, also on the YouTube page as well. We want the community to also get involved in the conversation as well as this is a really important topic regarding education in our community.
2:27 So if you are tuning in on a live stream, go ahead and leave a comment. Let us know where you’re watching from. Also, if you have an opinion or you think somebody is winning the debate, go ahead and voice your opinion on our comments section on Facebook. Facebook or YouTube. Now tonight, each candidate is going to be allotted two minutes to respond to each question.
2:46 For your questions two through five, an additional one minute response time will be allotted if needed and available. If you go over on your time, the time will simply be subtracted from your next response window. A time reminder will be provided 15 seconds before your time ends so that you have the ability to wrap up your statements in a timely manner.
3:08 This is strictly a subject debate and there will be no naming of your opponent during your responses. It is important that we follow this guideline to maintain decorum in the bipartisan environment that we are seeking. Questions will alternate each round on first response opportunity to ensure fairness to each candidate.
3:28 So without further ado, here we go. We’re going to get started here. We’re going to start with each candidate introducing themselves. Provide us why you’re running and what uniquely qualifies you to be suited for this position. What you believe the expectations of an elected school board member should be.
3:45 And we’ll start with Amber Yance. Hello everybody. My name is Amber Yance and I am a mother of five children, school age children. I’m also a realtor, so I’ve been in this building for the past eight years. Um, I would like to say what makes me qualified for the school board is I’m a big advocate for public education.
4:11 I, A lot of you in here know first hand that I spend a lot of my time within our schools, whether it’s volunteering, um, I’ve volunteered to go on very many field trips, um, even decorated for school dances, um, I’ve also made sure that every, um, game our football players have the chance to sit down together and have a meal together before every game every week, um,
4:42 that’s pretty much it. John. Well, thank you to the Brevard Federation of Teachers and Space Ghost Daily for hosting this. Um, my name is John Thomas and, uh, what, the reason why I’m running is the last several years I’ve heard from many friends that were either teachers or spouses of teachers and just heard the horror stories of what teachers had been going through and that either they were counting the days to retirement or they had already left.
5:10 Uh, or they’re trying to find another job. So that was kind of always in the back of my mind. The seat opened up and it made me do some serious thinking. Um, I know in this, uh, community we have done an outstanding job of attracting businesses. Um, here from all over the world. Um, but those businesses in 10 or 15 years won’t have a workforce to sustain them if we don’t do something more with our education system.
5:33 So that is, uh, a big piece of it because I’m a big Space Coast guy. I’ve grown up here. I’m a lifelong, uh, citizen here. Grew up in Indiana, attended Hoover Middle School, Melbourne High School. Um, and Brevard Community College for you old timers. Um, so anyways, my, my roots are deep here and I’ve always, um, you know, I care about this community.
5:53 Uh, and last but not, definitely not least is I have six grandkids. And, uh, three of them are in Brevard Public Schools and I have three more on the way. And if my middle son gets to work, I’ll have some more beyond that. So, uh, I just care about this community and I care about the school system. And I know that there’s some issues that need to be addressed and I look forward to hopefully having that opportunity.
6:14 Awesome. Thank you very much. I did forget to give a reminder to please silence your cell phone. So if you have not done that, please do so. Um, for this question, we will start with you, Mr thomas. Like many districts around the state of florida, brevard public schools is facing a severe teacher and support staff shortage.
6:33 Florida ranks 50th in average teacher pay and brevard’s teachers are being paid less than the state average. Where will you find the money to address this disparity? Well, that’s a million dollar question. Um, but to be honest with you, I have, uh, we have a 1. The million dollar budget. That is 1. 4 billion budget, excuse me.
6:59 But that is, you know, where that money comes from. I will tell you from serving on the Melbourne City Council, I was elected two terms. Back from 2006 to 2014. And I will tell you. Going into that office, I had all these grand plans. I was able to, you know, I thought I knew exactly how the budget was going to work.
7:14 And I can tell you don’t know what you don’t know. So I will tell you, it’d be disingenuous for me to tell you I have this great plan that we’re going to be able to cut here and do this and be able to give you, you know, give huge raises right away. I will tell you this. I grew up, I raised a family on a limited income being a police officer.
7:30 I understand the demands that are placed on a family, on the teachers. I was a member of the police union. I’ve worked with the police union as a city manager, I mean as a city council member. Um, I’ve been endorsed by our, both of the unions over with the police and fire when I was on the city council. So I understand the dynamics.
7:46 And that being said, I do think there’s some money this year, the state, um, the state of Florida had a sales tax surplus. And we’ve had it for the past three years. I think it was 1. 2 billion dollars, uh, this past year. Um, the governor did give back money, uh, to the, to the citizens in various ways. I’d like to, I don’t know why we don’t do this now, but I’d like to see all of our school boards unite and, and see if we can’t, um, ask the governor to give some of that money back to the, to the teachers, especially the teachers, uh, that are experienced, where that compression has been, you know, we’ve raised the, the, uh, pay for, first, you know, for new teachers, but the experienced teachers, there’s a, a huge gap.
8:27 So I like to see how, if we can get money to do that. And I think that the, the key to that is, is that we will keep, uh, keep us, allow us to keep our millage rate down. So asking for sales tax, which is provided from usage, from not only us, you and me, but also from tourists and people visiting our state, is a great way to try to, to fill that gap.
8:47 That’s, you know, I’m a, you know, off a cuff. That is my, my response to that. I just don’t want to, to give you a, tell you I have a grand plan and have a change, so thank you. Amber, that was a long question, so either of you let me know or let us know if you need us to repeat one. Okay. So, I think that perhaps we should start paying teachers an actual livable wage.
9:11 Um, we need to pay them as the professionals that they are. And, um, One thing that I’ve learned recently is that, that I didn’t know before, is that the teachers here on our space coast, they actually receive 2, 000 less than the Florida national average for teacher salary, which is crazy. Um, how does our school board, um, um, want to change the statistic.
9:36 They need to make sure that they pressure the state legislature to provide more funding for our teachers. Uh, we need to provide accurate funding for a livable wage. Our current board did not bring up any of the issues for teacher pay during any of those meetings. So, we need a school board that’s willing to stand up for our teachers, put pressure on our state, and make funding more available.
10:01 Thank you very much, Amber. After the senseless tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018, where 17 students and school staff members were murdered, legislation was passed to make Florida schools more secure and a massive initiative to strengthen BPS security and address the mental health needs of students was implemented.
10:21 What are your thoughts on the progress in the area of school security and addressing the mental health needs of our students? Specific to your role as a board member. How would you address these areas? We’ll start with Amber Okay, so recently our school district received a glowing review from the office of safe schools The overall impression impression was unannounced From this visit was an unannounced visit and their only complaint was that Actually, there wasn’t any complaint the only Complaint There was no complaints.
11:01 The only thing that they said was that they felt safe, which is great news. So if the school board needs to focus more on mental health, mental wellness, and our students and our teachers, we need to secure funding to increase the number of social workers and support staff for our teachers. And we need to reduce the stress.
11:21 John.
11:26 Well thank you. The, uh, my background, um, is that I’m a 14 year law enforcement veteran, so this issue is very close to me and close to heart. Um, I will tell you that I think from, um, I think what we’ve come a long way over the last 10 or 15 years addressing mental health and security in schools, but we can do a lot better and I will tell you there’s a big difference between mental health and mental illness just like there’s a big difference between physical health and physical illness.
11:52 So the more The more vibrant mental health program we have, the less mental illness issues we will have. Uh, and so that’s on the mental health issue, on the mental health side, I think that we can improve significantly by making sure that our resources, you know, we have a limited number of social workers that are in the schools.
12:11 And I think, as I understand it now, they are divided evenly among the schools. And not all schools have the same number of mental health issues. There are some students that are faced, especially in economically disadvantaged homes, that they have more stresses, more family issues, more things that need to be addressed.
12:28 So I think if we adequately deploy our resources, our social workers, to where they need to be used, not necessarily to be equal time between schools. I think it would be a more efficient use, and hopefully we’d get better results. On the security side, you haven’t hit in one minute yet, so. Um, on the security side, I think Sheriff Ivey has done a really, truly an outstanding job trying to, Uh, make sure our schools are safe.
12:53 He I know it’s first and foremost on his mind. Um, a couple of things that I would like to see addressed is I think that every summer the local police departments and the that are surround the schools. Uh, they’re in the school’s neighborhood that they every summer have a walkthrough of the campus, uh, that they work with the S.
13:12 R. O. S. Of that campus. So they understand where things are. Mhm. Uh, where the buildings are, where the potential hiding places are. And so nobody’s walking in blind if there was an emergency. Uh, the second thing I’d like to do is to see teachers, um, you know, there’s a big push for, you know, shooting. And, and shooters, on campus shooters, you know.
13:31 The, I think there also needs to be a push for training teachers. How to de escalate situations, and how to handle a situation if they’re physically, uh, confronted. So that’s more of an issue, I think, than anything. And that’s something that we need, that needs to be ongoing, whether it’s a semester, whatever we can do every semester, or at least once a year, have a refresher where teachers, uh, can gain an understanding how to protect themselves and how to de escalate situations.
13:56 Thank you.
13:59 Uh, so we’ll start with, uh, John. Um, since 2020, BPS has seen a significant drop in student enrollment with parents choosing alternative options outside BPS to educate their children. As a board member, do you feel that it is your role to attract these families back to BPS? If so, what would that look like for you?
14:22 I believe it’s, um, every person who’s employed by BPS and every school board member’s job to make BPS the very best it can be. And I think that, um, the culture is a huge thing. I see a dysfunction between the culture, between the school board, and the BPS administration, between the BPS administration and the teachers.
14:43 So I think there’s a huge, a huge issue of culture that needs to be resolved. Once that’s resolved, and we’re all moving in the same direction, we’re all rowing, you know, towards the same goal, I think that, um, that parents and students will want to come back to BPS. So, to answer your question, yes, it’s the school board’s, um, it’s the school board’s role, but it’s also everybody that’s involved with BPS.
15:07 So, I believe BPS needs to remain competitive with other education providers, and how we do that is we provide the best facilities, the best teachers, and the best curriculum. BPS and FLVS have a great partnership together and they work with homeschooling programs.
15:33 Thanks guys. As a board member, you will be responsible for managing a billion dollar budget. As a candidate, do you believe there are areas of the budget that are currently problematic? And if so, how could the funds be put to better use? We’ll start with John. Well, a 1. 4 billion dollar budget is a huge budget, uh, to, to, to manage.
15:58 And I will tell you that I have not gone through with a fine tooth comb this next year’s budget. Um, but I will tell you that I think that we need to look, keep student, uh, student success as a top priority. Teachers. Uh, right behind them, 1A and 1B, and then we have, uh, staff and facilities. Those are all things.
16:17 Anything other than that, any expenditure outside of that, we need to be looking at managing every penny with a fine tooth comb to make sure that we are being efficient and that every tax dollar is being used wisely. Amber.
16:34 The funding for school district budgets are about 100 percent earmarked by the state through regulation and laws. The state will even tell the school districts exactly how much money to spend and even who to spend the money with. Another prime example of the good old boy corruption system at work. The school districts in Florida only have control about 2.
16:55 5 percent of the discretionary budget to work with. And that is determined by the state. School districts can’t even make cuts to most programs, even if they wanted to, because of state laws and regulations. For The only thing school districts can do is cut personnel and raise local taxes. This is a system that our current state legislature has created and controlled for the past 25 years and hopefully that will change.
17:22 Okay, um, so we’ll start with you, uh, Ms. Jantz. Please tell the voters why they should cast a vote for you on August 20th.
17:37 So I believe that people should cast their vote for me because I am truly up here As a concerned parent. And I believe that we need to bring change to our school board. There is a whole theme of political drama and theater that’s lurking over our school board. And it really needs to come to an end. We need to pay our teachers a livable wage.
18:03 We need to show respect to all students. And I believe that we can do that together. Thank you. Mr. Thomas. Well, I don’t disagree with Ms. Yance. Um, I would, I would share with you that, um, I not only look at the issues that are confronting our schools from a concerned grandparent or parent, but also through the lens of a law enforcement officer, through the lens of a high school administrator.
18:32 I was a high school dean and high school administrator for 12 years. I was a high school football coach, varsity football coach. I was an associate vice president at Florida Tech. I worked my way up through the ranks at Florida Tech. And I’m also the CEO of the Home Builders and Contractors Association dealing with vocational issues.
18:50 So I think I have a diverse background, not to mention that I was a two term, elected two term city councilman. And I’ve worked with the Police Athletic League as the executive director, working with at risk youth. That was quick. Anyways, so that being said, I think I have a diverse background. I want to use my experience to be able to help the community and help Brevard Public Schools be the best they best they can be.
19:12 Thank you. On behalf of the Brevard Federation of Teachers, I would like to thank both of you for being here and for sharing your reasons for making the very real choice to run for school board. I also want to give a shout out to our audience members. You guys have been amazing. Um, so obviously we have one more district to go.
19:38 So I’m going to turn it over to Zach. Thank you for everybody for tuning in here today.
19:51 You can watch replay of this candidate forum on spacecoastdaily. com. We’re going to have district four that is coming up next here. We’re going to get started in about 10 minutes, but we want to make sure we thank the candidates for coming out here and letting us get to know them a little bit more. And like Vanessa said, you guys were a great audience.
20:09 We are going to get started here in about the next 10 minutes for District four. So take a quick break and we’ll be right back here on Space Coast Daily dot com. And if anybody needs restrooms, you go out the store and take a right.
20:41 Good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome into the Brevard County School Board Candidate Forum brought to you by Space Coast Daily and the Brevard Federation of Teachers. Tonight as we embark on an essential journey of discussing our future of education in this community, I’m Zach Clark alongside Vanessa Skipper of the Brevard Federation of Teachers.
21:17 Together we’re going to be guiding tonight’s conversation and we’re honored to have each one of the candidates here tonight for District 4 and tonight we’re going to be talking about Their visions and how they see the school board and how they see education going forward together in this community.
21:34 And tonight we’re going to have a great conversation here today and I’m thankful for all the candidates for showing up here today. And thank you for the audience for having a great attendance out here tonight at the Space Coast Association of Realtors building. Absolutely, and I just want to do a quick reminder, you guys were fantastic with our audience decorum for the District 3.
21:55 Uh, candidate forum. And so we’re just asking for the same, um, bipartisan, uh, example to be set for this one as well. So, uh, please refrain from talking at your table again. I know that it might feel like it’s a quiet conversation. It’s not can be distracting for audience at home. It can be distracting for our candidates on stage.
22:19 Um, also, if you haven’t silenced your cell phones, please take the time to do it. And please be respectful to the candidates, be respectful to the fellow attendees, and if there are any shenanigans, we are going to ask you, um, to leave. So, I don’t think that’s going to be an issue, because you guys were already phenomenal the first time around.
22:40 So, looking for, forward to another great, um, Well, I mean, we were almost there. We were almost there. It’s alright. It’s alright. Take two. Take two. But again, let’s set a great bipartisan example for our students, our teachers, our fellow citizens, and everyone that cares so much about Brevard Public Schools.
23:03 We are also live streaming here tonight on spacecoastdaily. com across Facebook and YouTube. So if you want to be able to tune into this later, or if you’re tuning in right now, welcome in. We are going to have a great conversation here. And if you want to be able to leave a comment, we want the community to become engaged in this.
23:19 If there’s something that you want to weigh in on. Go ahead and leave a comment either on YouTube or on Facebook and have a conversation. This is a very important topic regarding education in our community. We want to make sure everybody has a voice to be able to make their voice heard. So let’s uh, let’s get started with some of the rules that we have here tonight.
23:37 Each candidate is going to be allotted two minutes to respond. To each question for questions two through five or and again, give an additional minute of response. Time will be allotted if needed and available to that candidate. If you go over on your time, the time will simply be subtracted from your next response window.
23:55 A time reminder will be provided 15 seconds before your time ends so that you have the ability to be able to wrap up your statements in a timely manner. So we’re going to get started.
24:11 We’re going to start with each candidate that’s going to introduce themselves. And, uh, Each candidate is going to provide why you’re running, what uniquely qualifies you to be suited for this position, and what you believe the expectations of an elected school board member should be. We’re going to start on the very end, and we’ll start with Crystal.
24:32 Good evening, Brevard County. It is so nice to be here this evening, and I do see a lot of familiar faces, so that’s wonderful. My name is Crystal Casey. I am running for District 4 School Board because I have witnessed The accomplishments and seen some of the failures of District 4 leadership in the last few years, which has made me very concerned as a mother of two teenage boys that attend Vieira High School, whom I love dearly.
25:05 I’ve also advocated for other parents children at school board meetings. When they have been too afraid to speak up and speak out about things that have happened to their children. I am a fierce advocate for children and I will be if I am elected to District 4 School Board. I do have experience with safety security as I am an 18 year flight attendant.
25:34 I am retired, but I would love to use my communication skills to better foster of an environment of inclusiveness, collaboration, and above all, safety and security within our school district. Once again, it’s my pleasure to be here this evening, I welcome your questions, and I want to be the kind of candidate that is approachable, that students, staff, parents can come to me, I will listen.
26:04 And I will respond. Thank you. Max. Good evening, everybody. Um, my name is Max Madel. Um, what qualifies me as a candidate is I am currently a student at Viera High School. Um, I have been in Brevard Public Schools since kindergarten, so the past 13 years. Um, I come from a mother who is an educator. She’s been teaching for 27 years now.
26:30 Um, so a little bit why I’m running is I’d like to provide the student perspective onto the board. That’s something Brevard County has never seen before and I think it would be really great to diversify the viewpoints on the board with a mixture of former teachers, business owners, community members, and now a student.
26:49 So, uh, that’s why I’m running. Matt. Hello. Thank you. My name is Matt Susan and I’m your current school board member for District 4. I’m also a proud husband and father of five children, two of which are currently in BPS and two of which are well on their way. One of the things that makes me very unique to be qualified for this position is not only what I’m about to read you.
27:14 Which is all of the things that I’ve done over the last 20 years as a part of an educator and other things inside our school district. But it’s how you do that. It’s not just being an educator that I was for nine years. It’s also being on the insurance advisory committee and driving down the cost of health care so that you can provide more for the benefits for the other side.
27:34 It’s also knowing how to be a coach and win. As a county wide coach of the year for the county, I took a wrestling team undefeated. You don’t do that. By just being a coach. You also, I sat down and I was also a part of the many sponsored clubs. We talk about mental health later on. One of the things is to provide options for many of the children so that they have an opportunity.
27:59 As a board member, I was on the state board of directors for the Florida School Board Association. I was also the advocacy chairman for the entire state of Florida as a board member. That’s in charge of legislation and all other items for all other school boards in the state. I’m also a business owner currently.
28:16 And I have been for the past four years. I’m appreciative of everything that you have, everything that you’ve given me over the last seven years as your current board member. But I wanted you as you go through this conversation to understand that one of the things that uniquely qualifies me to be the board member tonight is the fact that the way that you lead and the way that you fight for your experience is how it determines you to be different from others.
28:39 Thank you.
28:43 Good evening. Uh, thanks to BFT and Space Coast Daily for having us. I’m Dr. Evanice Taylor, but I go by Ava. The best way for me to tell you my why is to tell you how I, how I got here. We’re a military family. I’ve been in the Navy for the last 17 and a half years. So for me, why I’m here, sometimes as a sailor, you don’t get a chance to choose your duty stations, but I had a choice between Texas or Space Coast.
29:10 And I decided to choose the Space Coast because my family is about a couple hours away. This has been the closest I’ve ever lived to them since I’ve joined. And we’re also a divorced family. So for me, what that looks like is when I deploy, my son goes to live with my ex husband in another state. And when I’m on shore duty, like I am now, he lives with me.
29:31 So I chose this for stability for my son because he’s never been able to stay with me. So I wanted him to have that structure for high school, but unfortunately I had to change schools for him again due to him being the victim in the hazing incident that happened at Vera High School. So during that time, I was going to school board meetings, going to BIPOC meetings and things of that nature, but I wasn’t consistent.
30:00 But after that, that lit a fire. And what it lit a fire in doing was making sure that, hey, I need to be active and actually go and do these things that I say I wanted to do. I wanted to be a mentor, so I actually went and did it and became a mentor. And then I started going consistently to the school board meetings, at least in the afternoon ones because I couldn’t make the daily, the daytime ones.
30:18 And I’m just a person of action. I’m not just going to sit here and complain. I want to do something about it. And that’s why I chose to run for Brevard School Board. District four. What uniquely qualifies me is that I bring a unique perspective from what my experience in the military. I’ve been able to work with people from a very diverse background all over the world, and we unite to finish and we unite to accomplish the mission.
30:47 All right. Thank you very much. Um, and we are actually going to start with you for the next question. We’ll go back down the row. Like many districts in the state of Florida, Brevard Public Schools is facing a severe teacher and support staff shortage. Florida ranks 50th in average teacher pay, and Brevard’s teachers are being paid less than the state average.
31:12 Where will you find the money to address the disparity? I guess that’s the billion dollar question. This budget is complex, I’m not going to lie. I don’t have a billion dollars in my bank account. Just if you were wondering, I don’t. However, I think that as a school board member, you have to be able to look at the data.
31:34 Where can you pull money from? How is it going to affect certain different things? And you got to make hard decisions. Yes. Is that talking to the CFO, talking to other, uh, school board district, school district people and personnel, but. But the reality is you got to make tough choices because as you noted, Brevard, we’re under the, under the, uh, the average teacher pay by like over 2K.
32:00 And if you’re going to support the students, you got to support the teachers. Now trying to find that, that’s hard. And I don’t, and I’m just looking at those budget, the, uh, the negotiations for the BFT. I was like, wow, they came up with 12. 7 and they said they came back with 1 percent and that was hard to find.
32:17 Uh, so what do you do when the state is not fully funding our public schools? We put in a situation where it’s almost like a lose lose, where our teachers are not able to make a living wage. And I don’t know about y’all, but when I go to the grocery store, I’m looking at what did I get? Where, where, where, where, where is, what’s going on here?
32:36 So I think teachers are doing the same things. So I think that there’s no perfect answer, and I don’t think it’s a. It’s a magic solution to this, but I will do my best to work hard to trying to find the money to make sure our teachers get paid what they deserve.
32:58 Thank you. So when you’re talking about locating money, there’s multiple ways to do it. There’s one going and finding the money. So one of the things that we’re going to bring forward this year for the first time in Brevard County history is zero based budgeting. That’s where the department has to come forward and lay out everything that they’re going to spend the money on for the first time.
33:17 So that means that any of the extra money that falls to the bottom line in March, that ends up being spent and rolled over, will be caught. That’s the first thing. The second thing that we have a problem with here in Brevard, which not many people talk about, is that we have a lot of federal land. And we receive a small portion of money reflective to us having federal land in the offsets of the cost.
33:39 So right now if you go to any of the other school districts in the state of Florida, many of them don’t have a massive amount of federal land that doesn’t receive taxes. Because we don’t receive taxes from that, our basis for giving the money to the teachers is not there. So there’s an advocacy that I will do this year to increase what’s known as the federal land in, um, tax piece that allows us to get money offsetting because we lose that.
34:02 Just so you know, Kennedy Space Center, Space, um, Patrick Air Force Base, and other places around here don’t pay any taxes. And we should be offset that so that we can then pass that on to our staff. The other piece is, is that we used to do this. This year I’m going to advocate for this. We’re going to do a 10 percent budget cut.
34:20 Not because we’re going to do it, but because we only do it when it’s time to have a budget cut. If you ask to have a budget cut, then you can find the areas that staff is willing to take a look at in order to reduce cost. The other component is, is to control the cost of insurance. Today, right before I came here, we were looking at a 16 percent increase to our members and their insurance.
34:43 So it doesn’t matter how much you throw at insurance. A raise if you’ve gotta pay for it on the other end. So I was battling inside that committee today to bring forward different options so that you could lower the cost of healthcare. There’s multiple different ways to attack this, and by saying that you’re gonna attack just by looking at the budget or going here or there, those are great, but it takes a whole lot more to take a look at rather than just, we’re gonna cut the budget or we’re gonna go do this.
35:11 It’s multifaceted. It’s taking in the revenue from the state and advocating up at the state level. It’s taking and cutting your budget or looking at the areas that you can cut. It’s also taking a look at how you can control costs like insurance and other things. Thank you. Go ahead, Jack. So, teacher pay is a complex issue.
35:34 Nobody disagrees with that, at least you shouldn’t. Um, and it’s no surprise that our teachers are underpaid in Brevard County. Um, as was said, our average is 2, 000 less. Um, than the state. So not only do they work the seven and a half hour long day, they bring all of their work home. Well, not all of it, but assignments they need to grade, tests they need to grade, they even have to make lesson plans at home.
35:59 So realistically, their day is longer than the seven and a half hours. One way that I would impose, Um, like Matt said as well, um, a teacher raise is budget cuts. We need to find what is being overfunded in our budget currently and we need to focus on the necessities instead. So by cutting down what’s overfunded and funding the necessities such as teacher pay, such as resources for students, things that our district really needs to succeed, we can make that happen together.
36:32 Thanks. Thanks. Thanks.
36:39 Well, ladies and gentlemen, our teachers are the heart and soul of our public school system. And I’d like to reference Mr. Colucci’s speech last night at the school board meeting, if I could, if that’s okay with you, sir. As I watched Mr. Colucci speak, I realized that he was exactly right. Raise for our teachers is insulting, is absolutely ridiculous.
37:19 We can do better. And I know that my fellow candidates are talking about different ways to increase teacher pay. I propose a reallocation of money looking at a fiscally responsible way to reallocate from, say, athletics. To direct that money where it belongs, to our teachers pockets. I’d also like to add, that in addition to pay, we’re also seeing an increase, according to Mr.
38:00 Colucci, of our teachers receiving letters in their files, as opposed to admin receiving just a verbal warning. We need to support our teachers, first and foremost. And I do not believe that there should be a disparity between admin receiving a verbal warning for the same offense versus the teacher receiving a letter in their file.
38:27 So I propose a reallocation of money where it belongs. This would be a first priority for me. If I were elected to District 4, I would definitely be supportive of teacher staff and support staff. In addition to that. I would say that mental health resources will help to curb a lot of the violence that we are seeing with the discipline numbers in Brevard Public Schools.
38:58 We can get into more discipline functions later, but with regard to teacher pay, I believe that Mr. Colucci hit the nail on the head there with his speech last night, and I really appreciate your participation in the school board meeting, sir. Thank you very much. And before we go on to our next question, just for the audience at home and the teachers in the room, it is an eight hour contract.
39:21 But you’re right, Mr Mato. We work way longer than those eight hours. But you know, somebody is gonna latch onto that talking point. So eight hours, but way more than eight hours. Thank you to all the candidates for their responses on that question. Great answers, guys. We’re gonna move on to the next one.
39:38 We’re gonna talk about school security and mental health. And, uh, after the tragedy of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018, 17 students and school staff members were murdered. Legislation was passed in to make Florida schools more secure and a massive initiative to strengthen BPS security and address mental health needs of students was implemented.
40:00 What are your thoughts on the progress in the area of school security and addressing the mental health needs of our students, specifically to your role as a school board member? How would you address these areas? I’ll start with Crystal down there. Thank you very much for the question. This is definitely, um, priority.
40:20 I myself, as a parent, have experienced the failure of Brevard Public Schools with regard to school safety, as my son’s life was threatened at Vieira High School last year. Um, as a school board member, I feel that it is imperative to respond to parents who are frightened about the safety of their children at school.
40:41 In my instance, my emails were not returned. Mr. Susan, we are not going to be naming candidates in it. That’s part of the decorum. So please, um, keep your answers, uh, not naming your opponents. Thank you. Yes, ma’am. My apologies. I will refrain being a flight attendant for 18 years. I will say that there are things that I can’t share with you regarding safety and security measures.
41:08 about that particular profession, but what I can tell you is I take it extremely seriously. Every flight, every day, every time I stepped on an aircraft, I promise you my first priority was the safety of my guests or my passengers. I didn’t treat anybody differently just because they dress differently or, you know, they came from a different background, they had a different culture.
41:35 I wanted to welcome them as my guests. And I would tell you that if a parent came to me and they were afraid for their child’s safety, I would listen to them. We would coordinate with district security. We would implement a safety plan for that student. We would do everything that we could do to ensure that that student could continue their education in a safe manner.
42:03 I can tell you from my own personal experience that there’s a lot of implementation of safety features This that I would promote. And there’s definitely room in the school budget to do this. So my feeling on this matter is that safety is of utmost importance, our law enforcement, our school resource officers, and our district security do a phenomenal job at keeping our threats at bay.
42:33 But there is so much more that we can do to protect our children. And I believe that if I am elected your school board member, I’m going to do everything in my power. As a flight attendant, history, and a parent who has experienced some failures at BPS to do better for the security and safety of our children.
42:56 Thank you. Max. When it comes to school safety, Brevard County is doing, I’d say a decent job. Um, but number one, we need to make sure that our faculty and staff are abiding by the safety policies. I stress this all the time. Most of the time when an intruder enters a campus is because a door or a gate was left open.
43:20 We need to start taking accountability for this and when this happens, excuse me, um, we need to ensure that All entrances onto a campus are closed during the school day and the only way somebody would be able to get in is through being buzzed in through the front office and getting a yellow sticker.
43:43 When it comes to the mental health, there is no doubt there is a current mental health crisis going on nationwide. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 40 percent of our students right now are stressed out and dealing with mental health issues. I hear so many times every single day when I walk the halls of Vier High School.
44:05 different phrases that students say that should require immediate mental health attention. Our shortage of social workers has only made this problem worse. Currently, we’re not paying a competitive salary for the position, and a lot of our schools right now are looking for social workers. But social workers can go off and work for a private company and make a lot more money.
44:30 So we need to pay social workers a competitive wage just to help out our students. But not only our students, our teachers and staff are struggling as well. Whether it be the stress from a normal school day, or any other external life obligations they have going on. They need support, and if we’re not supporting them, they’re not going to be there for us.
44:59 And that is one of the reasons we are currently having our teacher retention issue. Matt. Thank you. Many of you are aware of 2000 when when MaJory Stoneman Douglas occurred and the massive amount of security that we put into our schools in order to make our students safe. We went to single point entry in every school.
45:24 Right now. If there’s a gate open or a door open, the Office of Safe Schools is alerted and there’s an issue where it comes down where the administrator and the teacher are put on to a disciplinary process. That is the level that we are at to keep the doors locked. We also brought in 4, 000 plus cameras.
45:43 We also brought in security specialists to the schools that didn’t have SROs. Many people didn’t know. But our elementary schools in two major municipalities didn’t even have an armed response at the school in the event that something happened. So we had to move quickly to create a security specialist piece that goes into that.
46:02 We also brought on therapy dogs for the mental health. We also went to canine units to identify any of the drugs and other things that are inside the classroom. And then we started many of the supports for the students for the mental health. Now, I will tell you security. It’s solid, but it could be improved.
46:19 We all know that. Moving to mental health, it’s been indicated already by other candidates, 100 percent have to pay a living wage to our social workers, our mental health counselors, and others that are related to that field. Now how do you do that? Because what happens is when you go in to negotiate, you have to identify certain people for raises and other people not.
46:40 So what I would do is, is currently in some of the areas that you have. We have teachers, classroom teachers that are needed for science or other positions. You take those and you give them an opportunity with a higher stipend or a higher raise. We have tried to match a living standard for, um, mental health counselors and others.
46:59 And we should try to do it again. The problem is, is that we don’t have enough of them. And where we fail is going to recruit them to come to this county. So one is the pay, but two is also recruiting them to come to the county. The other thing that I wanted to mention is, is that many of the things that go on as far as mental health is not only providing those stipend, but then also providing a system to get the students the right care.
47:23 We’ve had a long process of identifying students with needs that haven’t been able to get those needs and TSS processes and others. Our current system, we moved. All of the people from ESF that are in charge of the, um, exceptional student, um, programs and we’re putting them into the schools and we’re reducing the amount of time that it takes to identify each one of those issues that you have.
47:47 There’s a lot of components to mental health. There’s one, the pay, two, taking care of the teachers inside of the classroom through having programs like that, and then three, giving them the respect that they need through a strong discipline process. Thank you. Yes, as has been stated, BPS is doing well when it comes to the physical security of our schools.
48:10 Um, I think they have a good working relationship with the sheriff’s office and the police departments and in saying that, I know there’s a lot of discussion about expanding that guardian program and arm and support staff. Um, I am a supporter of the second amendment fully. I just don’t believe that support staff should be armed.
48:39 We don’t. First of all, they don’t get paid enough to do the job that they’re doing and then let alone to add this element when we talk about mental health, which I’ll get to because what are you going to do is you have to have to pull that trigger. Somebody who’s trained and using weapons, guns, It’s a different thing and especially a different thing when you have to pull the trigger, you pull the trigger erroneously and you make that mistake.
49:05 So what about the liabilities there? So I just believe that the physical security of our schools and the people that need to be armed is best, better served for law enforcement. Now we talk about mental health, uh, for me. My background and educational experience, I got a bachelor’s in psychology and master’s in counseling, a Ph.
49:27 D. in general psychology. Randomly, I’m an electrician in the military side. I got a trade. So I’m kind of all over the place, but mental health is very important, not only for the students, it’s important for the teachers. I mean, it’s a lot of talk about money and money seems to be the recurring theme around here and not having enough.
49:50 We can’t recruit you. And get social workers because there’s a lot of vacancies. When I talk to teachers and I talk to principals, they’re saying, we’re losing our social worker. We’re losing our guidance counselor. They having to pull those duties to be the guidance counselor. And it’s almost just like me being a senior leader in the Navy.
50:06 You got to be somebody’s mama, you got to be the counselor, you got to be a lot of things. And especially when your teachers and the people that work in these schools, I know it’s not about the pay. They’re there because. They want to be there and they want our children to be successful. But when you add in all of these things, I mean, we are at a, it’s almost like a ticking time bomb.
50:28 Like we’re waiting for something to happen and we really don’t have, we keep talking about all these things, but what are the actual solutions and what are we really going to do? And a lot of it is really with that budget. So we’ll see what happens. And hopefully we can, there’s money in the budget to hire these individuals, but where are they located?
50:47 But one thing I did see was that there was a program with Florida Tech with their PsyD students that they’re going to assist in trying to bridge that gap in working with some, with some students. So I’m going to turn it over to Dr Taylor to talk a little bit about BPS. All right. Thank you very much. Um, since 2020 BPS has seen a significant drop in student enrollment with parents choosing alternative options outside BPS to educate their Children.
51:14 As a board member, do you feel that it is your role to attract these families back to BPS? If so, what would that look like for you? Dr Taylor, we’ll start with you.
51:27 Well, we’re in an age of competition and I talked to a lot of parents and some of them just didn’t come back after COVID. And some of the things that they cited was they just were not confident in what the board was doing. They lost trust. And how do you get people back? You got to earn their trust. And you’re definitely not going to earn the trust with some of the decorum and some of the things, uh, and the way that people are treated, just not being treated with dignity and respect by some board members, just to the community.
51:58 So there’s no way for you to build trust when, if you can’t talk to me and treat me the way that I want to be treated and vice versa, we don’t have to agree politically because that shouldn’t have anything to do with what’s going on in the school board anyway. But I should be able to have a conversation with anybody, no matter what side of the political aisle that you’re on.
52:15 So I think that’s a way to build trust. Let’s get some dignity and respect on the dais. Just simple stuff. I don’t think a lot of the things that we talk about, like, is that hard to get a budget. Okay. But just treating people right, that’s simple. And I think if we can display that from the top down, maybe people will come back.
52:37 Thank you. Mr. Susan. Thank you. And many of the, um, There’s a multi faceted reason why parents don’t come to BPS or that they stayed home over. The one of the rises, the key rise is going to be your homeschool students. And many of the issues that the homeschool students have found, Is a curriculum that is open for them that they don’t have to be tightened up and they have to be inside the walls of a classroom.
53:00 They also have the freedom of doing different things throughout the day. So the idea that we have, this old idea that we’re going to bring those students back to the classroom for a full day. It’s going to be part of it, but where we really are starting to win is to attract those homeschool students to come back for a part of the day.
53:16 So let me give you an example. We just moved with many of the, with a two star general and others in an organization called ECAC that we put together to try to attract many of the homeschool students back to our schools for various programs. Homeschool students now can come back and they can be in career and technical programs.
53:33 They can be in ROTC. So many of them may have religious beliefs that keeps them out. They may have beliefs over different issues, but if we can identify what those issues are and provide an avenue for them to come into our schools, we win. We also should beef up, which is one of the hardest parts, is our Brevard virtual school.
53:50 Our virtual school could be stronger and attract many of those individuals that are at the Florida virtual school. If we offer more programs there, we will attract more students to it. Now many people don’t know, but you have about 8, 000 plus dollars that comes to the district per parent, per student.
54:06 But if they come full time to our schools, but if they hit our Brevard schools, um, Brevard virtual, it’s about 5, 000 plus. So, what happens is we don’t beef up that, we lose revenue to the virtual school, which when you look at the offset of costs, it’s definitely a positive for our school district if we’re able to attract them into there.
54:22 Those are two of the issues that you have. The other part of it is, is that we have done a poor job inside of our schools. As far as allowing the parents to come into the schools to have lunch with their children and stuff like that. And that’s not because of us, that’s because of the state rules and regulations that have held us in the security coming down from the state.
54:40 So meaning, many times before many of your parents were able to come to the school and they could have lunch with their child, they could do different things. Now, because of the way that the laws are written, we’re not allowed to allow them to be by themselves with their children, which stinks. So what I would like to do is advocate this year to allow to go back to the way that we were before, because many of the parents don’t want to be part of the schools because they don’t have that connection to the schools like they used to.
55:04 There’s a wide variety of issues that come up when we go to do those. The other piece is a competitive curriculum. I will tell you right now, Being homeschooled is great, but you don’t have the opportunities that you have inside of our BPS schools. And that needs to be advertised more, and that’s another way to do it.
55:19 We have some of the most amazing robotics programs and other things that are funded through our school districts that are not taken advantage of by many of these homeschool students, and they find there’s a lack there as they get older. So I think that those are some of the areas that we can go attract and start bringing some of those students in.
55:34 Thank you. Mr. Madoff.
55:42 So when it comes to homeschool students, in my opinion, if that is the option that a parent feels best for their child and the child agrees, then that’s completely their choice. Now, when it comes to bringing in a competition between home education and Brevard Public Schools, I 100 percent believe that we need a competitive curriculum.
56:06 We need the best of the best. We need the best teachers. We need the best support staff. We need everything top of the line that we could possibly get. One thing that we do see a lot is a lot of homeschooled students coming in to Brevard Public Schools to participate in extracurricular activities.
56:22 Whether it be sports or clubs, anything that really interests them. This is amazing and without it, we would lose the well roundedness of all of the students in our community.
56:43 That’s all I got.
56:49 I was excited to hear more. When it comes to, um, homeschooling, I can understand. Why parents choose this or children choose that because there may be many reasons why that is a better fit for them. Lately I’ve talked to some ESE teachers and there has been some clustering going on with ESE students.
57:16 Gifted students, perhaps the 504 isn’t being honored. Perhaps the school or administration is not hearing. The parents plea to go over that 504 to provide for that child, to provide the mental health resources for that child to succeed. It is entirely possible that we can meet the need of our ESE students so that they are not relegated to homeschooling because a lot of these kids need the socialization.
57:50 Trust me. Working on aircraft, it’s all about. Being social, learning how to reach that individual is, and so I believe there’s many different factors. Um, I’ve heard a lot of really good answers about this from Max and um, also from Ava by May. Okay, we’re not naming candidates again. I really don’t want to have to stop the debate and ask people to leave.
58:18 So please don’t name candidates. I do apologize. That was a compliment. I do agree. If you’re complimenting, please do not name candidates. Yes, ma’am. My apologies once again. Um, I do believe that the respect is necessary between the admin and the parent, and I’ve noticed that the communication sometimes is lax there, where maybe the parent is reaching out and they are really trying to find a solution for their child.
58:49 They’re really trying to make it work with the resources that are available, and they do try to communicate, but maybe they’re ignored. So, I do believe that communication is key, and it just so happens that that is my strong suit. I love to communicate. I love to work out problems. I like to talk one on one.
59:13 I will talk to any parent that would come to me and say, Look, my child’s 504 is not being honored. And now, that ESC gifted student wants to be at home. When in fact, they should be at school. Because they’re a social individual. And that would make them A more well rounded student. So to wrap this up, since I have 15 seconds, I’d like to say that this is an area where I feel that my communication skills would definitely assist parents to decide to give us another try.
59:52 Thank you.
59:56 As a board member, you will be responsible for handling a billion dollar budget. As a candidate, do you believe that there are areas of the budget that you find problematic? And if so, how could the funds be best used? We’ll start with Crystal.
1:00:17 Well, ladies and gentlemen, I believe everything is wrong with the budget. Um, where do I start? I believe that we should start with a forensic audit and not by RSM. We’ve already had some trouble out of them. Um, for those of you that follow The, um, so called audit that recently occurred last year. Um, there are deficiencies here.
1:00:42 And we passed the millage. We don’t know where all of this money is being spent. I would like to find out. I would like to get down into the nitty gritty of it and find out why our teachers are being paid a 1 percent raise, which is abysmal. I’d like to find out why we can’t have a social worker in every school to be there for our kids so when they are bullied.
1:01:08 They have a professional to talk to and they can work through it. I want to know, why is it that we cannot afford a water purification system for those students Beachside, Satellite Beach, where we know the water is a real problem with contamination? This is an area where federal grants are available. So if you’re talking about budget and funding, we can find the money.
1:01:40 I will find the money to put the water purification systems. So at least these students can drink clean water while they’re at school and they don’t have to worry. About cancer water, cancer ice. They will be drinking purified water. We’re going to balance this budget. And I want to look into this to see if there’s mismanagement of funds.
1:02:07 Part of fiscal responsibility is also managing waste, fraud, and abuse. I’ll give you an example. The book committee. If we’ve got two individuals in the book committee that are not going to show up to that meeting, maybe they should give some advance notice so that the taxpayer isn’t on the hook for 1, That’s a total of 2.
1:02:30 5 million dollars overall for the book committee. Is that money well spent? Not if the board circumvents the book committee altogether and makes their decisions without input from that book committee. So I do feel that there are many areas where we could be more fiscally responsible and I intend to do that.
1:02:51 Thank you.
1:02:56 When it comes to the budget, the 1. 4 billion dollar budget, one drive that I really want to press forward is the debt. An amazing thing we could do is put more percentage of the money we get on our annual budget and push that towards the debt to slowly climb us out. We can’t do it all at once, although I wish we could, but we don’t have that kind of money.
1:03:19 Um, and a way to do this is we need to focus on the necessities. What do we need in our schools to help our students and staff succeed in their positions this year? By only focusing on those and cutting out all of the other frivolous overspending, we’ll be able to focus on that button, uh, that budget, that debt managed budget.
1:03:45 Additionally, what we could do with that money is give teachers that extra couple of percentages that they really do deserve. 1 percent is pretty sad. I come from the household of a teacher, so I, I’ve seen it. Um, that’s all I got. Thank you.
1:04:06 Thank you. One of the, I’ve already given the ways that I would go and cut the budget. Here’s where it is. When I was a teacher, I started in 2005. In 2008, they made the decision to freeze our pay. Then they took away the steps. I was part of a group of people that was literally working on my third year salary in 2008.
1:04:27 While people were coming into the district in 2010, 2011, 2012 and were getting paid three, four thousand dollars more than I was. And they were right next door to me. There’s also the fact that when we tried to make those compensations, we just couldn’t get there. I was a building rep for Brevard Federation of Teachers.
1:04:47 I fought those fights as a teacher. So, every time I sit down and we’re going to battle for raises, for retention and recruitment and other things, I know the feeling that those teachers have of not having enough money to get to the beach that weekend because you don’t have enough gas money to get there.
1:05:06 I used to teach seven straight classes. I gave up my planning. Then I used to go coach, and then I taught night school, and I made 52, 000. You want to talk about embarrassing? I gave up my entire life to do that. So when we sit there and let me correct something, when the district, not the school board comes out and says that they’re going to give a 1 percent raise, be careful because that’s not where we’re going to be.
1:05:35 This gets quoted a couple of times and I have to say that didn’t come from us. We did not meet with the district ahead of time. They decided to offer that across the table without our meeting. So understand I have fought from not only a position of telling people I’m going to fight, but from a position of actually living that life.
1:05:54 The other thing besides raises that you have to have is we have to put money towards retention and recruitment because respect is something also the teachers need. We did a lot of that with discipline. We’re still cleaning some of that up, but there needs to be a respect level for many of our teachers.
1:06:12 They have to be able to walk into that building and understand that that administrator has their back and that the school board has their back. That needs to happen. We’re moving in that direction, but it’s not there yet. That’s another piece. And then the last piece that I would say is the training and support that those new teachers need.
1:06:30 There’s a recent fact that came out last night that 299 of our teachers, 95 percent of them are retained, and that is an amazing program. We need to do more. When they decided to have retention teachers go out and support through working with our new teachers, I advocated for eight teachers. I lost that battle.
1:06:50 We only brought four and we were able to get to 299. If we would have gotten eight, I would have been able to take 600 of them because that’s the way we win is we cut the budget and we put it into those pieces so that our teachers can do a better job. Thank you.
1:07:09 Well, if the state is not going to fully fund the school, it’s like we’re talking in these circles about all these hypothetical things, but if the money is not there, are we doing the best job that we can do in putting the pressure on the state to fully fund our schools? So I’m not sure if that is true or not.
1:07:35 And if it’s, there’s strength in numbers, and if This district and board can fight, why don’t we just get with other school districts in Florida? I mean, at the end of it, I mean, it’s all over the media, the bottom, pretty much the bottom outside of what maybe West Virginia. So clearly there’s something going on in Florida that maybe we all might need to get together and put the pressure where it needs to be.
1:08:02 And putting the pressure on, I get it, the, whether the district. Or the board or whether that’s not the same entity. I mean, we got to get our communication strategy good. First of all, because if the district is putting out 1 percent and that’s not what the board believes, that’s not true. And they would never contact it.
1:08:22 It’s kind of strange to me, but who am I? Uh, but I mean, the things that we are talking about, we talk about retention and recruitment, the money that’s being put into. Recruitment. Well, if you have you retained the teachers, you don’t have to worry about recruitment because they’re happy to be here.
1:08:42 They’re happy to do other things. Hey, come with me because this is a great place to be, but it’s not for them because if you can’t, if you Can’t pay your rent. You struggling. I mean, I’ve talked to a teacher that’s been in the game for about 15 years and if you’re making the same amount as a teacher that’s just starting out almost or close and where do you see the finish line?
1:09:05 Like, where do you go? How are you motivated to really stay when you really love the kids, but it’s not making dollars and cents at home? How do you do it? And a lot of people, a lot of the teachers are really considering going elsewhere. This is the space coast. It’s a lot of jobs and opportunities that are here.
1:09:26 And for teachers to have to be faced with making those kind of challenges and decisions for their family and leaving the students that they love. This is hard. It’s hard decisions that are, that are being made on, on all different levels. Uh, but it’s, it’s really sad when I talk to teachers and that’s what they tell me.
1:09:45 I mean, for me, I’ve been in the Navy 17. 5 years. I plan on retiring at 20. So I see the finish line. I can go on and have another career. But if you put 15 years of something and you don’t have anything you can’t, what do you have to show for it? If you can’t even make a living wage? All right, in one minute or less, please tell the voters why they should cast a vote for you on August 1st.
1:10:15 I’m going to start with you, Dr. Taylor. Well I bring a unique perspective. I’m a mom, I’m a sailor, I’m a community servant, and I’ve been blessed to be able to work with people all over the world from different backgrounds in being able to accomplish the mission. And I’m mission oriented and that’s what I’m going to bring to the table, is always being focused and putting that at the forefront.
1:10:46 Of treating each student with excellence. And so for me, I understand that no school board or or school is perfect. And neither am I. I’m a middle ground candidate focused on keeping our kids safe and supporting our teachers. And I want to move BPS beyond the distractions and stay focused on the things that matter most.
1:11:11 So, I serve my country honorably and I plan to serve the students and the teachers in this county honorably. Mr. Susan. Thank you. When I look at a problem and they bring it to us, I have first hand knowledge of how to fix it. When they say that they’re going to bring us a 16 percent raise for insurance, I know exactly where to go to start to try to battle to reduce that.
1:11:36 They’ve already brought back a 13 percent raise, and we’re pounding away to get it even, or increasing the insurance. We’re trying to pound away to bring it down even further. When you talk about retention and recruitment, I actually went to Escambia County to interview their STAR program there to figure out how a program from Harvard was able to drive teacher retention into the 80 to 90 percent back in the day.
1:12:01 I tried to bring that to the district, but we didn’t have the votes. But there’s those knowledge of understanding the how. You can push out the why. You can understand all of those things. But unless you have the how to do it, how to cut the budget, how to cut the insurance, how to go back and get the raises, how to get the retention and recruitment you need, it’s a very difficult situation when they tell you and they look at you and they say that that’s all we have.
1:12:26 Thank you. Mr. Madel? When it comes to why voters should vote for me, I would say the explanation is pretty simple. I have been a student in Brevard Public School since kindergarten. That was 13 years ago. I’ve seen our students. I’ve seen them post COVID. I’ve seen what they’re struggling with inside of our schools.
1:12:55 Additionally, I come from a household with an educator inside of it. She was raised by an educator as well. So not only have I seen the student side of these issues, I’ve also seen the educator side. Thank you very much. Ms. Casey?
1:13:18 The reason that I’m going to ask for your vote on August 20th is because I feel that That I can bring attributes to this position that perhaps you haven’t witnessed at the school board meetings of late. I believe I can bring decorum, I can bring negotiation, communication skills with my experience as a flight attendant working in a very safety sensitive job.
1:13:47 I am a mother of two students, and I’ve experienced some failures at BPS, and I have some ideas about how we can resolve those failures. Additionally, I do believe that I can be the number one advocate for our teachers, our staff, and our students, and I would like for Brevard to have another choice come August.
1:14:14 If you have an issue, I promise you, you will have my ear. I will listen to you, and I will work to resolve whatever problems that you have, you have my word on that. Thank you. Okay, before I hand it over to Zach to wrap us up this evening, I would just like to, um, give some thank yous, not only to all of our candidates running for District 4, but we have some amazing timekeepers up here, so I would like to give a shout out to, uh, yes, we’ll clap for them.
1:14:46 Um, we’ve got, um, Hope Shibian, who is one of our Brevard Virtual Schools, uh, teachers. We have Michelle McCormick, who serves as our political coordinator for BFT and is a teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing at Meadow Lane Primary and her wonderful daughter, Sarah, that is sitting next to her. Um, and then the president of the Brevard Federation of Teachers, Anthony Colucci.
1:15:11 So I want to say thank you to the candidates. Thank you to the Space Coast Realtors, to Space Coast Daily for being a partner with us and getting this out into the community for a larger audience to see. And on behalf of the Brevard Federation of Teachers, I want to say thank you to the audience because you guys did a fantastic job.
1:15:29 You showed that we can maintain decorum in a room without shouting at people on the stage. So I appreciate that. And now to Zach. Thank you very much to the candidates for coming out here today, and thank you for everybody here in the audience for coming out and being able to engage in it in a conversation and in a way that would be able to impact people.
1:15:49 Education is so important in our community. Being able to be involved is very, very important for everything. Today’s live stream was also broadcast on spacecoastdaily. com on Facebook page and also on YouTube. So if you want to go back and watch it, you can watch it on spacecoastdaily. com. And like we talked about earlier, the 2024 primary election is set for August 20th and the general election is November 5th.
1:16:12 So it’s going to be here before you know it. But, uh, we at Space Coast Daily Want to be able to reach out to you guys and, um, let you know that we offer a great platform for political coverage and everything else regarding news and information and space and sports. Um, once again, thank you to much of everybody.
1:16:31 This is a great success and we want to make sure we also think the Space Coast Association of Realtors for providing a great facility here and the great hospitality that they provided to us here today. And we thank you for everybody for coming out here today and have a great night and drive safe.
1:16:45 Thank you. It was
1:17:08 nice meeting you.