Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
5:14 Good evening. The January 21, 2025 board meeting is now in order. I’d like to welcome my fellow board members and the public. It is encouraging to see the public active and participating in the local governance of our school district.
5:28 We ask the public to help our board meetings go more smoothly by following a few simple housekeeping rules. The public’s opportunity to address the board is during the public comment portion of the meeting. I ask that the public refrain from speaking loud disruptions, distractions or other forms of communication that hinder the business of the board.
5:46 Mary Jo, Roll call, please. Mr. Trent. Here.
5:49 Mr. Susan. Mr. Thomas. Here.
5:53 Ms. Campbell. Here. Ms. Wright.
5:55 Here. Join us. At this time, the board would like to hold a moment of silence.
6:01 I invite the audience to join. Please welcome Peyton Thompson from Vera elementary, the lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Please rise.
6:31 I’d ask you to please remain standing after the pledge for the national anthem. Attention. Salute.
6:39 Pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Oh, say can you see why the dawn’s early light what so proudly we hail at the twilight’s last gleaming Whose brush eyes and bright stars through the carol for the raining and the rockets red flare the bumps bursting in air Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there O Satan, has our spirit thankful and I am well for the land of the free and the hope of the brave. Welcome all January’s here Wishing you a safe and happy new Year.
8:49 Welcome all. Welcome, all. Welcome.
9:13 Make new friends but keep the old ones One is silver and the other cold make new friends make new friends. Snow is falling Whirling, twirling all around Snow is falling Gently to the ground Snow is falling Dancing, prancing up and down Snow is falling all without a sound See the snowflakes hurry scurry as they wander to and fro Dashing, crashing, flitting, flashing on and on they go Happy snowflakes standing, tripping on a winter holiday Seem to be inviting us to come and play Snow is falling Snow is falling Swelling, twirling all night Snow is falling Scowling to the sprawling snow races all night Dancing praises all around all without a sound now the snowflakes dress the hills and downy drifts of wine Snowmen stand in every arch to make the season bright Snow is falling Snow is falling Scrolling, twirling all around Scowling twins growling scouting Twins growling Scouting Whiskey up and down Scouting racing up and down All Without a sound. Melting, calling, laughing, calling on and on they go Noises singing laughter ringing melody Bells from far and light To a nature wonderland of falling snow Snow is falling Snow is all round Shouting snow to the.
11:56 St all without a sound all without a All without a All without a sound. New frost is falling and dusting the trees Snowflakes are forming and lakes start to freeze Time to say goodbye to fall to fall old My winters come to call With a cold snap With a cold snap north winds are blowing and chilling the air Chilling the air. Now it’s time to winterize For a cold snap For a cold snap Blue lips, red cheeks stub nose shit Shiver, chatter teeth Sore throats can’t speak Shiver, shatter teeth.
13:56 Deep snow is drifting and covers the hills Icicles hanging the need for those hills Stay inside where it is warm so warm Safe from nature’s bitter storm and the cold snap and the cold snap and the cold snap and the cold snap. Thank you for that awesome performance. Please welcome Byron Rosenthal and Cooper Combs to the podium, please.
14:55 All right, at this time, I’ll give the board members. Wow, that was so much fun. Thank you, guys.
15:04 Did you guys know that they actually. The weather, it. It went in line with your song It’s Snowing in Florida Today, which they must have done that just for you.
15:12 So which one of your songs was the favorite out of all the ones you sang for us today? I think I can agree myself and most of our chorus, probably Cold Snap. Cold Snap. Yeah.
15:23 That was such a fun song. How long have you been in your chorus program for? I personally have been ever since third grade, and now I’m in the sixth grade and you’re in sixth grade. And when you go off to middle school, do you think you’ll continue on with chorus? Definitely.
15:35 Oh, awesome. Well, thank you so much for performing. It’s so fun to start our board meetings with you guys here.
15:39 Gives us a lot of cheer and reminds us why we’re here doing what we’re doing. So thank you. I have a question for Cooper.
15:48 So first of all, you guys were awesome. Really, really good. And I was just curious, how did you prepare to perform tonight? Did you anything special? We rehearsed a lot last week.
16:01 It was. It took us some time to figure out the songs and. But then we just practiced, like, all last week after school, before school, and I think we got it.
16:13 Yeah, you did. Yeah, you got it. You guys were amazing, each and every one of you, and thank you for performing tonight for us.
16:24 Ms. Kim. Very good. Very good.
16:27 So I loved when you guys were singing the national anthem. There’s somebody’s little brother up here on the front row. Who? Ms. Hasker.
16:35 He’s ready. He’s ready to be in the chorus because I can hear him. He did so good.
16:39 All right, so let me ask you a question first. Then I have to brag on you guys a little bit more. So how many of you are sixth graders? Raise your hand.
16:49 Fifth graders. Fourth graders. Wow.
16:55 Do we have third graders in here? Just fourth, fifth, and sixth. Fantastic. Fantastic.
16:59 Okay, so do either of you, as you go off to. And you are. You’re a sixth grader too? Yes.
17:04 Okay, so are you going to do choir, band, orchestra next year? What’s the plan, man? I think me personally, I want to do both band and choir next year. Love it. Love it.
17:16 What about you? I’m definitely going to do choir. I’m really into theater. Very good.
17:23 And maybe band. I’m considering it. All right.
17:27 All right. Well, you got some time. Just a couple months.
17:29 Well, I don’t know the rest of you guys know, but Ms. Hasker, for the Haskers, like BPs, music is a family business. BPS is a family business. Because Ms. Hasker, first of all, I just have to say she has had an influence on my own children musically.
17:45 And they are all doing music things too. But her oldest son is the music teacher down at Columbia elementary. And then her daughter is actually a kindergarten teacher, second grade teacher at VR elementary in her second year.
17:59 So she’s here. Oh, there she is. She’s on the floor.
18:04 She’s. She’s also the paparazzi. So it’s a whole family business.
18:07 And Ms. Hasker’s had a positive influence on her whole county. Elementary school music has been a leader for elementary school music teachers for years. And I very much appreciate you.
18:15 Do you guys know how lucky you are to have her? You are amazingly lucky because she’s one of the best. So super excited. Your tone was great.
18:22 Your dynamics were awesome. Give you all those musical words, but you guys are amazing. I was so glad to hear you.
18:31 All right. That was just awesome. So, I mean, we’ve all heard there’s power in numbers.
18:36 You guys sounded amazing. It was really good. How often? I gotta ask.
18:40 Either of you can answer. What’s the practice schedule? How often do you guys practice together? We normally practice on Tuesdays and Fridays in the morning from 7:20 to 8. Wow.
18:52 Give yourself a hand for knowing those songs and sounding so good and just practicing twice a week. That was really good. I think Ms. Wright said it.
19:02 Your timing couldn’t be better with those songs. As you guys know, it’s snowing in Florida today, so that was great. If we bring you back in the summer, I would expect some beachy songs, right? Something like that.
19:16 We appreciate it. This time of the meeting just reminds us how lucky we are here in Brevard county of the music programs, the participation from the parents to the teachers, to the dedicated students. We just want to thank all of you and we’re so proud to represent you guys.
19:33 Thank you for coming out. What do we think? The picture now? Okay, let’s do a picture. Can we do a photo.
21:49 At this time? I would like to offer. Or. No, we’re not going to do that at the end of the meeting.
21:53 Okay. That brings us to the adoption of the agenda, Dr. Riddell. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
21:59 On this evening’s agenda, we have administrative staff recommendations, 37 consent items, 2 public hearing items, 3 action items, and 3 information items. Changes made to the agenda since release to the public include the following revised were A5 Entertainment, Vera Elementary School, C8 administrative recommendations, F12 instructional staff recommendations, F20 investment performance review, i54 textbook adoption, K12 science. That’s it.
22:29 All right, Do I hear a motion move to approve? Second. Any discussion? Mary Jo, Roll call, please. Mr. Thomas? Aye.
22:39 Ms. Campbell? Aye. Ms. Wright? Aye. Mr. Trent? Aye.
22:42 Mr. Susan. Sorry. All right, we are now at the administrative staff recommendations.
22:50 Do I hear a motion move to approve? Second. Any discussion, Mary Jo, Roll call, please. Mr. Thomas? Aye.
23:00 Ms. Campbell? Aye. Ms. Wright? Aye. Mr. Trent? Aye.
23:04 Mr. Chair, I’d like to take a moment to recognize those in attendance this evening who are promoted. So we need to celebrate some promotions. First off, promotion of Yvette Cruz to position of Director of Communications and government and community relations.
23:16 Congratulations, Yvette. Come up to the PO. Board members and Dr. Rendell, thank you so much for this opportunity.
23:28 This has been a long road, and I’m really, really excited to take this on and continue sharing all of the fantastic things that we do here at Brevard Public Schools with everyone. I’m so lucky to be a part of this BPS family, which is what everybody here has become since day one. I’ve had so many people just.
23:49 Just love and support me through everything, and I’m so appreciative for everyone that has done that. I definitely wanted to take a moment to praise someone that has really been in my corner since she started, and that’s Janet Moynihan. She started in July and has absolutely done wonders in our department and has supported each one of us.
24:10 And her mentorship and leadership with each one of us has just been. Been amazing. And I can’t wait to keep learning more and more every day from her.
24:20 So thank you and all of our amazing team members that are here. They. We have such a great team and there’s so many exciting things to come.
24:32 I wanted to take one minute to recognize that my family is here. My husband, who’s been here less than a week after being 19 months serving overseas, so, so really happy that he is home. And my two babies that helped me hold the fort down till he got home.
24:48 So thank you. Thank you so much. Next, we’d like to also congratulate and recognize the promotion of Myleah Briley to position of Assistant Principal 12 month at satellite High School.
25:05 Congratulations. Come to the podium. Good evening.
25:13 I have an affinity for all school leaders for whom I have worked. I’ve worked for Carrie Nash, Samantha Allison, Adrian Schwab, who is the principal of that amazing little choir we just heard. But I never really thought about leadership until I moved into the arena of secondary education and I worked for Mr. Ramer and Mr. Pruitt.
25:32 I then followed Mr. Pruitt to satellite and met Ms. Lundy, who I truly believe is the heart and soul of Satellite High School. I’ve also worked for Mr. Solomon and Mr. Barton over at Eau Gallie. There is something special about educational leaders.
25:47 They grow leadership in others. I am so grateful for this opportunity and I would like to extend a very special thank you to my family and my friends for whom without this venture would have been impossible. I wish to thank the board, Dr. Rendell and Ms. Bowman who have placed their faith in my leadership abilities.
26:05 I will not let you down. And I’m confident that with the team we are building at Satellite High School, if we are not already, we will be the best traditional high school in Brevard County. Thank you.
26:17 Congratulations. Couple quick photos. Yeah.
26:24 Sounds. Two. We are now at the public comment portions of the meeting.
28:45 We have 12 speakers, I believe, and each will receive three minutes. Our attorney will call the speakers to the podium in the order in which they signed up to speak. Mary Jo, Ashley Atwood.
28:57 Maria Gray. Steven Tutino. No, we need to make changes.
29:03 We need to make changes. Yeah. Before we start.
29:06 Yeah. You want to make a motion? Yeah. Hold up.
29:10 So, ladies, hang on just a second. We got a board has to make a decision really quick and then we’ll call you guys up. So, Mr. Chair, if it’s okay.
29:19 Absolutely. We’ve had we had some conversation last week at our workshop about changes we might make in response to the decision by the Levinson circuit. So one of the conversations because we want to follow the ruling but also maintain decorum.
29:32 And so we had had the conversation, we’re going to work on changing the policy, but in the meantime, the board can vote to make changes if we wanted to, for example, separate out agenda items from non agenda items and put the non agenda items at the end which we we have not a whole lot of business this evening. Of course, we’ll still have separate public comment time for the the two things that are separate like the charter school application, things like that. So I didn’t.
29:57 I guess I could. I don’t know how the vote will go, but put forward a motion that we go ahead for this evening and separate agenda items from non agenda items and put the non agenda at the end of the meeting. And I’m going to leave it at that for right now.
30:14 And if anybody wants to make any additional changes about the cameras, we can have a additional motion, but for right now just to separate them. Okay. Matt seconded it.
30:25 Yeah. So discussion. I already did my discussion.
30:29 Yeah, we talked about the reason is, is that because of the lawsuit that we wanted to separate agenda from non agenda because of the situation plus because we want to let them speak and tell us everything that they needed to that at the end of it. The reason for the spend this the difference between the agenda and non agenda is we just had a lawsuit that said that we’re not allowed to allow people to speak at certain times. Speak it.
30:53 We’re allowed to let them speak the way that they feel and they’re allowed to say certain things that we don’t feel lines up with what we have on our cameras. So what we’re going to do is separate the agenda with the non agenda, put the non agenda at the end and then allow them to speak. But we turn the cameras off is what it is.
31:11 And that’s per a lawsuit that we had just to just to. Oops, sorry to clarify. Never mind.
31:23 I lost my train of thought somewhere in the middle of that. But so my motion wasn’t necessarily to turn the cameras off. So we’ll need to add that motion.
31:31 All right, so I make that motion or add it. Amend it. Amend it.
31:35 Yeah. Mr. Chair. Yep.
31:37 I’d like to ask our attorney what the advice of our attorney in this matter had advised. Okay. There you go.
31:45 Okay. The advice of the attorney was to bifurcate the two different non agenda versus Agenda and then take the non agenda to the end and not televise. That was the advice of the attorney.
31:59 Right, okay. Sorry. I didn’t say it so eloquently like the attorney said.
32:03 Should have just turned to her. Thank you, Mr. Thomas. I was just trying to make sure that we didn’t have that adjustment.
32:08 So thank you. We’ll need to. I will second Mr. Susan’s amendment and we’ll need to vote on the amendment to have the cameras off separately.
32:20 And just I think we. Without going into the details of the lawsuit. I think it’s worth mentioning.
32:26 It’s not. What it has to do with is, you know, in specifics and everybody can read the decision. The judges were saying people can get up here and cuss and not just from reading books, but just cuss.
32:40 They can personal. Yeah. It can be personally directed comments or whatever.
32:47 They could mention a teacher’s specific name, whether it is true or not or whatever. And so that’s. We’re trying to still maintain some kind of decorum and the law does not require board members to broadcast our meetings at all.
32:59 We want, we want to allow. And the law doesn’t require us to actually have off agenda comments. But I think the desire of.
33:06 My desire and the desire of this board is we have this conversation is we want to allow the public to continue to come and share any thoughts they have with us about school board business. Don’t come in and talk about the weather. We can’t control that.
33:18 But you know, we want to continue to hear that. But we want to have it in a way that is, you know, we’re not broadcasting whatever. So that’s.
33:31 I think that’s why I just want to have a little more explanation as to why we’re doing what we’re doing. Just to clarify. So obviously the lawsuit has put a hindrance on the ability to maintain the policy the way that it is.
33:44 And we are going to revise the policy. That’s what the board has discussed. But unfortunately policies take time to revise and the intermediate.
33:51 We are kind of stuck and between a rock and a hard spot on what do we do until we get the policy revised. So in the nature of upholding the. The honor of the lawsuit and making sure that we are complying with the law, I think this is probably the best thing to protect the board at this time.
34:04 And then we’ll get the policy revised and get it back on track. But until then, I think we’re going to have to. To do something so temporarily.
34:11 Right. Okay. All right.
34:13 So there’s a motion on the floor right now for an amendment for the cameras. We’ll have to vote on that first. Right.
34:19 Per the attorney’s advice. So are we ready? Yep. Okay.
34:24 Mr. Thomas, I. Ms. Campbell. Aye. Ms. Wright.
34:27 Aye. Mr. Trent? Aye. Mr. Susan? Aye.
34:30 Okay. Okay. And then it leads us then to the original motion.
34:36 The original motion. Right. I think we’re ready to go.
34:39 Mr. Thomas. Ms. Campbell. Aye.
34:41 Ms. Wright. Aye. Mr. Trent.
34:44 Hi. Mr. Susan. Aye.
34:48 Okay, so does that change who you call her? Yes, it does. So that’ll. Yeah, that’ll change.
34:54 So marriage up. Okay. You might need to take.
34:59 So we’re gonna. Bernard Bryan and Amy Kinesi Canisi. Oh, that agenda.
35:06 Yeah. Okay, perfect. I’m a little bit confused, so.
35:18 But anyway, I just would like to say thank the board. I just want to thank the board for a couple of things. Dr. Rendell and this board, thank you for putting together the WXY consultant plan to review the capital.
35:36 I’m sorry, is this the right. Just one second, one second. What.
35:40 What agenda item did he had put down? This is G48. This is an agenda. Okay.
35:46 Yeah. So right now is to speak specific to the agenda item that you put down, which was g. The charter school.
35:53 Yeah, the charter school amendment. And then afterwards. Mr. Bryant, you have more than any right to speak again on anything else.
36:00 I can speak on that now? Yes, sir, Absolutely. Thank you. Sorry about this.
36:03 It’s just. Sorry. We got it.
36:05 You’re good. Thank you. This is a very big concern for us what’s happening in reference to state funding going to private education.
36:20 So the community is very concerned about that. We’ve learned that there are $4 billion of government funding or state funding that are going to charter school vulture schools as well as home schools. So I noticed that Everett Academy was one of the schools that are being considered tonight.
36:44 But here’s my concern about that. When you look at funds that are being diverted from the public schools that are going to private schools, in 2022, there were only 12% of state funding that we’re moving. In 2023, it went up to 14%, and in 2024, it went up to 20%, and in 2025, it went up to 23%.
37:16 So the fundings that are leaving the public school system is really causing our public schools not to have adequate funding. Matter of fact, I believe the public school will starve itself to death if monies continue to be taken away from public schools. So my question to this board, since we represent public schools, you know, do we Have a strategy in place? Is there an up to date strategic plan? How can we deal with these external threats? And I’m just concerned.
37:52 I’m a public school guy and a lot of my family went, went into public school arena. But if we lose public schools, it impact a lot of students, no matter what demographics you are, no matter what side of the track you grew up on. But our public school needs the fund.
38:12 And I think since this board represents the public school system, I think you need to share with us what is your strategic plan to make sure our public schools stays afloat. And I do understand, you know, what the law says about, you know, a parent has that choice. But I’m not on that side.
38:34 I’m on the public school side. I serve a lot of kids that are in public schools and I’m just concerned. Yes, the law says that, but it’s almost like being in the super bowl, right? I mean, you are competing and you can’t compete without having a solid strategic plan.
38:53 So that’s what we’re asking this board to really let us know. What is your plan? How are you going to combat this external threat? What is your SWOT analysis so that we can make sure that we are putting our best foot forward. So that’s what Mr. Bryant is concerned about.
39:11 We don’t want to see our public schools starve out of existence. And I think to not have a plan, at least share with the community, you know, what can you do to help us get that done? And you know, we do everything we can to help fight. And I’m not trying to deprive our parents of right.
39:31 But the public schools serve a lot of kids that are marginalized, that doesn’t have the opportunity to really pay these high costs. Because the law says now that no matter how much what your income is, you can always request that voucher to really send your child to school who probably don’t need the money. So that’s kind of where my heart is.
39:55 So I’m hoping that you will share with the community what is your plan to fight this threat? And I’m not saying, you know, a child is a threat, but the child, the children that need help the most need people to fight for them. So I have no children in the system, but I work with kids every day. And I’ll leave you with this last comment.
40:16 I saw a child who was trying to improve himself, but he said, Mr. Bryan, I don’t have any clothes to wear. I don’t have a bike to get to school. My wife said, go Find that boy what he needs.
40:28 So that’s what I’m asking this board. What can we do to find those kids that need help the most? The help they need. Thank you.
40:35 Thank you, Mr. Burn. Where did it go, though? We cleared it here. Right? There you go.
41:05 Ready? Y. Good evening, Amy. Nisi.
41:09 Been a long time since I’ve been here. I’m going to follow up with what Mr. Bryant said. I’m here to talk about two field trips that are on your agenda tonight.
41:20 The first one is F28, Titusville High School, 72 students to New York City. There are a lot of field trips on there tonight. The majority of them are very legitimate.
41:30 This One is for 72 students to go to New York City. I’d like to remind the board that Brevard Public Schools is not a Travel agency. Like Mr. Brighton said, there are students here in our schools that don’t know where their next meal is going to come, that don’t know where they’re going to get their next set of clean clothes.
41:50 But Titusville High School, under principal Jennifer Gonzalez, signed off by Chief of Schools James Reimer, expects students to pay $1,750 to go to New York City for three days. Let me repeat that. $1,750.
42:10 They also plan to take with them 17. 17 people. That would be five employees, 14 volunteers.
42:18 And nowhere in the documents did I see where those people were going to have to pay for themselves to go. And part of the trip is going to be on the New York City subway. Huh.
42:29 Wonder how safe that’s going to be for Brevard students. Hope they bring a fire extinguisher and a few bodyguards with them. So this isn’t a field trip like with the ROTC going to Parris Island.
42:41 That’s on there tonight. Or with science field trips. This is going to New York City to take in a site.
42:48 There’s a second field trip under i53 that’s listed under a musical field trip. That’s for 25 minutes. It’s two days worth of skiing, snowboarding, tubing.
43:02 I sure hope that Risk management is taking a look at this. Talk about the haves and have nots. Mr. Bryant has been up here every board meeting talking about getting help for students to read, to write, to do math.
43:18 But Satellite High School, under the leadership of Courtney Lundy, approved by Rashad Wilson, tonight is going to spend $48,000 to take kids to skiing, tubing. They’re going to go have a great time. I haven’t been skiing so they can be in a.
43:38 And if you go to the website, the word music festival and competition is in quotations. Most of us know when it’s in quotations, it’s meant as a joke. Now, come on, board members.
43:52 What’s really important with Brevard Public Schools? Are we a travel agency? Are we a school? And by the way, you’ve spent a million dollars now on litigation for free amendment. How much more are you going to spend? That concludes our public comments. We thank you to taking the time out of your schedule to address the board with your concerns and suggestions.
44:27 I remind the public that the board is accessible for further conversations outside of our business meeting through scheduling a meeting, which means phone calls, emails and such. We’re now at the consent agenda portion of our meeting, Dr. Rendell. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
44:44 There are 37 agenda items under this category. Thank you, Dr. Rendell. Does any board member wish to pull any items? Mr. Chair, I wish to pull F24, the independent citizens Committee for Millage Oversight report.
45:00 This was supposed to be in the area of presentation, so it was actually filed incorrectly. So since this is a report to the public, I’d rather us pull it off the agenda tonight and put it on the February 11 agenda in the proper place. Okay.
45:15 I’ll entertain a motion. Accept the consent agendams. Second, Mr. Thomas, Ms. Campbell.
45:25 Have discussion on the rest of the consent agenda. I did want to say something. Okay, sorry.
45:29 Sorry to get us out of order because something was said that I just want to make sure it’s clear for the public that the field trips that were mentioned in public comment time, there’s specific. Actually says on the agenda. There is no cost to the district.
45:40 So it is done through fundraising from the families. And that just needs to be clarified that the school district. Neither the school district or the schools are paying for the students to go on these field trips.
45:48 Just wanted to clarify that. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay.
45:52 Mr. Thomas, I. Ms. Campbell, I. Ms. Wright. Aye. Mr. Trent.
45:57 Mr. Susan, I. Do you need a motion to postpone the number 24? He just pulled it. He just pulled it. Just pulled it.
46:08 Pulled it. Consent so. Correct.
46:10 We just pulled it. And we’ll need a motion. Okay.
46:13 No. All right. So where are we at now? The public hearing is open.
46:21 Okay. We go straight to the public hearing. Yep.
46:26 The public hearing is now open for public comments. We will in accordance with Florida law, except the speakers and in the following order. The first item for public hearing.
46:37 Oh, yeah. Go ahead. All right.
46:40 Is G48, the charter school application recommended for approval At Everest Academy Charter School. Is there any individual would like to address this item? Is there any individual that would like to address this item? Do I hear a motion move to approve? Second, any discussion? I do have some discussion because I had a couple questions, and I’m not sure if Dr. Mayers is here. So when I look through this application, there are parts of this application that were partially met for the standard.
47:12 The recommendation from our staff was still to approve this application, but because we don’t get a whole lot of these, this will be, I think, my first one that I’ve done at this point. Just wanted to possibly ask her for clarification on when it’s possible. Partially met, not fully met.
47:29 Is there guidance given from the district or are there any kind of remedial plans from a charter to address these things that could be considered deficient, so to speak? Would you put the. What page numbers you’re seeing? The partially. Oh, I see it.
47:42 Sorry. You want me to go through. There’s a couple of them.
47:44 So the biggest one that I’m. I mean, there’s several that I’m concerned about, just. But there’s one that specifically addresses ese.
47:55 Page 7. Page 7. So we have an entire committee that evaluates this application.
48:02 So what we do is we all look at our parts and we make comments. And then when they. When the.
48:08 The people who are applying for the charter, they come and they have an interview. Right. So in that interview, we ask them the questions that they may be deficient at, and that ranking may change.
48:20 So we kind of look at it as an overall, even though there’s separate parts of it. So overall, we’re putting forward to approve because none were completely deficient. Just a couple that were partially.
48:36 So do you have specific. The one that. Page seven.
48:39 So the esc, I think it’s under. It’s under ESC students. So staffing plan incorporates a director or coordinator of ESE to oversee the program that says partially met that standard.
48:52 And then when we go down to page, I think it was 11. Yeah. And there’s certain questions that are there addressed for you as the deficient.
49:02 So that’s what we ask them in the interview. Okay. So you know what they’re.
49:08 They may have been partially deficient in. Okay. And just for reference, whenever we look at these applications, is it pretty typical for a charter to have partially deficient? Yes.
49:19 That’s standard. Yes. Okay.
49:21 So if you look back at previous ones, the ones that we have denied have been deficient. And of course, most applications have some that Are partially. So this charter application had much less deficient, like partially deficient than most.
49:39 Okay. All right, thank you. Thank you for the clarification.
49:44 I don’t have any other further questions in regards to it. Thank you. Just.
49:47 Just a comment for discussion. I. It was. It was Mr. Bernard mentioned his concerns.
49:53 I just wanted to clarify. This is not a private school. This is a public charter school.
49:58 And I know the differences sometimes are confusing, but just because. And I. The vouchers or the scholarships that can be considered funding drawing away. But you know, when we talk about the plan, I consider our strategic plan that the superintendent and his staff have developed as part of the plan.
50:18 When we have excellent schools here in bps, we have excellent traditional public schools. That is how we maintain. And so when we talk about having an excellent workforce, having more and more opportunities, our CTE programs are really unmatched in the county.
50:35 I personally think our fine arts programs are unmatched in the county by other opportunities that students have. That is our plan. And when we talk about money being drawn away, money doesn’t.
50:47 Isn’t drawn away unless students are drawn away. So we have everything that our government community relations program does to advertise our programs and to promote what’s being done, promote our great staff and opportunities for students. Everything that we do, everybody in the district has a part to play in that.
51:04 And I think there may not be one hang on to the money plan. But to me, that’s. That’s narrowly focused.
51:12 It’s everything that we do to improve our school district is the plan. And so the greater opportunities, the greater our schools are maintaining that A and continuing to get better and having even more A schools, having our purple star schools so that we’re military friendly. And it’s known that we’re military friendly to all those families that are coming in.
51:32 To me, all of that is part of the plan for not just holding on to dollars, but holding on to students. But then I have to just say I’m a choice advocate too. And so if a family realizes that the best option for that particular child is another option, whether it’s home school, virtual school, charter, private, whatever it is, I believe those families should have that option.
51:53 But we want to continue to put forward because we know the majority of our students in our county will be in our schools. We want to have the very best schools and keep those doors wide open. I believe also board that part of our way.
52:06 We. I can’t even say combat this, but we attack this, is that we make sure the doors are Open for the people who have, for example, the scholarships or who are homeschool students, that we are homeschool and scholarship friendly. So that if families who do either traditional homeschooling or do the scholarship type of homeschooling, if they want to come in and take a CTE course, they want to come in and be a part of ROTC.
52:32 And I know Mr. Susan has talked about this before too. If they want to come in and be in our choirs or our bands, because they can’t find that anywhere else that we open the doors, that we figure out how, you know, I think we’re already doing it some, but letting our home schools, I know we do this, letting our homeschool students come in and take a class, we get an FTE for that. We get funding for that if they come take algebra 1 or AP calculus or van with us.
52:53 But also for our scholarship students to be able to take a one off class because there are opportunities that they, that we have in bps that nobody else has in our county and they won’t find better options for certain things. And so that’s, that’s part of the way we handle it. So this, to be quite honest, this charter school is likely to land in my area of the county and an area that we just talked about this afternoon has huge growth.
53:20 And it actually will, just, to be quite honest, kind of take some of the pressure off of some of the growth we’re facing in that area because we can’t, we won’t be able to build schools fast enough for some of the areas in the south end of the county. And just to be quite honest, this will help take some of that pressure off, similarly to how when the Pineapple Cove campus, they took some of the pressure off of the Meadow Lane schools and those areas that were starting to burst at the seams so we can all be a happy family in Brevard. And I think after hearing the presentation that Everest did a few weeks ago, I guess a month ago now, I think that this, this could be a good fit for our, for our county marriage.
54:05 Roll call, please. Mr. Thomas. Aye.
54:08 Ms. Campbell. Aye. Ms. Wright.
54:10 Aye. Mr. Trent. Mr. Susan.
54:12 Aye. All right, the next item for public hearing is G49 attendance boundary change proposal proposal. Is there any individual that would like to address this item? Yes.
54:32 Yes. Okay. Thank you.
54:35 I haven’t had a chance to study it, but I do have a question. When I look at your report in the agenda, I only saw two things. That the reason why it was being changed is because 2 parent requested it.
54:50 So that’s just what I saw. Okay, that’s, you know, looking from the outside, you know, there may have been some discussion at the board level, but from a community guy, the only thing I saw was two parents listed there. So I don’t understand from that report that’s on the agenda, why was the boundary changed? The community can’t see that.
55:15 So that’s all I’m asking. At least transparency for us. Because if that’s the case, based on what I saw in your document, I can go grab two parents and say, let’s change this boundary.
55:27 So I just want to make sure that there’s transparency with this. It’s just not in. It’s just not on the agenda.
55:35 So that’s what Mr. Bryan is asking. Sue, did you want to address that? Absolutely. Look at that.
55:41 We get you answers right away. Good evening, everyone. Thank you, Mr. Bryan, for your comment.
55:48 I’m sorry, the agenda package wasn’t quite clear. Those are comments about the rezoning. So we’ve had this on the agenda.
55:56 This is, I think, the third or fourth time as a concept. So it goes through a rather lengthy process for a rezoning of any type. There’s policy and procedure around that.
56:06 This is the last part of that process, and we have had a survey up on the website. And so those comments are reflective of survey comments that we received from the public about the rezoning. Okay, thank you.
56:19 Thank you, sir. They’re here. Motion move to approve.
56:24 Second roll call. Mr. Thomas. Aye.
56:28 Ms. Campbell. Ms. Wright. Aye.
56:30 Mr. Trent? Aye. Mr. Susan? Aye. All right.
56:34 Public comment portion of the public hearing is now closed. Dr. Rendell, will you please let us know about the items under the action portion of tonight’s agenda? Thank you, Mr. Chair. The first action item is H50, department and school initiated agreement.
56:46 Do I hear a motion move to approve? Second discussion, roll call, please. Mr. Thomas? Aye. Ms. Campbell? Aye.
56:54 Ms. Wright. Aye. Mr. Trent? Aye.
56:56 Mr. Susan. Aye. Dr. Rendell, will you please let us know about the items under the action portion of tonight’s agenda? Next action item is H51, procurement solicitations.
57:07 Do I hear a motion move to approve discussion Roll call, please. Mr. Thomas, Ms. Campbell. Ms. Wright.
57:15 Aye. Mr. Trent? Aye. Mr. Susan? Aye.
57:18 Just for clarification, I was seconded it. Mr. Thomas had the first motion. Okay, you got right.
57:27 Yes. Doctor. Re.
57:41 The last action item is H52 charter school contract renewal with Pineapple Clove, Classical Academy at Lockmar. Do I hear a motion move to approve second, any discussion, roll call, please. Mr. Thomas? Aye.
57:44 Ms. Campbell? Aye. Ms. Wright? Aye. Mr. Trent? Aye.
57:59 Mr. Susan? Aye. All right, we will move on to the information agenda which includes three items for the board review and may be brought back for action at a subsequent meeting. No action will be taken on these items tonight.
58:20 Does any board member wish to discuss these items? Okay, now we’re at the board members reports. This is where we can take time as well to recognize anyone in the community. Any shout outs who would like to go first? I’ll go first.
58:27 All right. All right. We celebrated ocean breezes 60th anniversary last Friday.
58:49 And so, so just wanted to give a shout out to the former principals that were there, former students and even teachers. It was always fun to recognize the teachers and staff who went to a school and then they’re working there later. And so happy birthday, Ocean Breeze, and many more years to come.
59:08 Also on the same day, we had a small delegation from Citrus county who came over to see Mr. McGinnis at Oak Valley High School and see the aviation program because they would like to potentially copy that program if it can be done. You can’t, you can’t duplicate Mr. McGinnis. That’s the thing.
59:26 And I told him like it’s, you ought to find that special person. But there is, there’s plenty to go around because as Dr. Rendell shared with them that, you know, the workforce and Mr. McGinnis shared too, the people who are wanting the kids who have those qualifications, there just aren’t enough of them graduating. You can’t graduate them fast enough.
59:45 And so if another county on the other side of the state would like to duplicate that kind of a program, it would be exciting. So it’s always nice when we can show off what we do really well here in Brevard. So thank you to Mr. McGinnis and everybody at Oak Alley for showing off to the Citrus county delegation.
59:52 Saturday board are our all county concerts. Band, choir, orchestra. I hope you’ll get a chance to attend one of those.
1:00:01 There’s such a great music weekend. It’s one of my favorite weekends of the year, even though this year it will be the first time in a while. I haven’t actually got a child in one of the concerts, but I will be there for all three.
1:00:15 And then finally, I wanted to challenge all of you, if you haven’t already signed up for the Space Coast Wellness Challenge. Now, unlike any of the other challenges that I have poked you guys into, and this is your first one, Poke Poke. Pokemon.
1:00:27 This is not a BPS challenge. This is Space coast wide. And you had to have at least 40, like all the big companies, you had to have at least 40 participants, I believe any organization to participate.
1:00:43 And so we actually as BPs are competing as a team altogether kind of against all these other companies and organizations outside. And so the kickoff is Saturday morning. But even if you can’t come to the kickoff, you should have have gotten a couple of emails in your inbox that will say Space Coast Wellness Challenge.
1:00:58 If you want me to, I’ll find one, I’ll forward it to you. I’m planning on participating and, and I’ll be there on Saturday for the kickoff. We want BPS to, to show the Space coast how it’s done because we’re used to these kinds of things and it’s about exercise and, and moving and things like that.
1:01:07 And so I’m super excited about it and I’ll be giving you guys updates as we go along through the, through the, the time. That’s all I have. Mr. Chair.
1:01:16 Yes. First of all, I take offense that you’re calling me fat. Yes.
1:01:28 I just have one shout out and that is to congratulate Paul and Deborah Gibbs on the birth of their son, David Richard Gibbs. Woo hoo. Yay.
1:01:30 And that’s it. That’s it. All right.
1:01:36 That’s right. I have a couple shout outs to give thanks. So want to thank the Tied Together organization.
1:01:52 I had the opportunity to attend this event at THS and it was done alongside of Junior Achievement JA as well, but spent a lot of time in the gymnasium tied together and just absolutely blown away at how that event ran. It was just so wonderful. It really was.
1:02:09 So the whole concept of breaking out into small groups and watching these students learn how to tie a tie and that doesn’t really seem so significant. But I think what ends up happening there is that every one of those students goes and sits in the bleacher and they’ve now established a relationship with a strong leader in the community. And shout out to Mr. Poole, he’s not in here, I don’t think.
1:02:18 But he was one of the strong male leaders that was there. And that room was silent. They were so engaged, paying attention to what these men said.
1:02:28 They all defined. They gave one word, they picked a word that really represented something they believed in or felt passionate about. And just hearing their stories and their why and their word, it was just really exceptional.
1:02:32 So thank you so much. Tied Together. I hope that is something BPS remains to do.
1:02:38 If we, if you’ve not attended it, I would encourage you to make sure. You go to those. And then I also want to give a shout out to our team here.
1:02:44 The strategic plan process has been happening. Board. I shared this with you, but I want to share it publicly because I don’t know that everyone was there when that was taking place.
1:02:56 So we, we have this heavy lift of bringing our district back into a top 10 district. That’s really what we want to see come out of Brevard County. And the strategic plan is really the how, you know, that’s the what is we’re going to get to top 10.
1:03:11 The how is the strategic plan. And I just want to thank all the teams that put in so much work on figuring out how are we going to get there, because it’s a heavy lift, but it’s work that I think we can do. And if we stay on track and we keep measuring it, I believe that we really, truly will get there.
1:03:18 Also want to remind my North End people. So the Space coast association of Realtors always has a prom closet every single, single year. It’s a huge event.
1:03:29 So much fun. It’s organized so well and just really, they knock it out of the park. But what I’ve heard from the North End is it’s really hard for us to get down to Pineda because we’re so far north.
1:03:46 And I know that’s a central location for some people, but for the very far north people, it’s very hard to get to. But the Titusville Chamber is working on creating a prom closet as well. So for anybody in the North End who is looking to donate any kind of fancy dress attire, they can drop it off at 2000 S.
1:03:52 Washington Ave. And they will be collecting these things before March 29. And then there will be a prom closet that will happen.
1:04:01 And we’re going to try to make something available to our North End kiddos. So that is all that I have. Thank you, Susan.
1:04:28 Yeah. First off, I’m not sure if anybody knew this, but Brady Hart from the Cocoa Tigers, the quarterback there is known as the Mr. Football Fans for the Dairy Farmers for 2024, and I don’t know if everybody understands that is the number one football player in the state. And if you go a little bit further and you see that it’s eight, he passed for 8,244 yards in his career as a football player here in Brevard and 82 touchdowns.
1:04:39 It’s incredible. So I want to take a second and thank him for being a part of our school district and part of our schools, and that’s Cocoa Tigers, which we know won there title and everything else. I just wanted to say congrats to that.
1:04:47 Also we have another thing that’s going on. So we have 30 plus elementary schools that have signed on to play the flag football. So you guys know that’s growing.
1:05:12 The main reason I want to tell everybody is is that not only was that a direction that the school district took, that’s really starting to pay dividends, both with some discipline, but also just with kids getting involved in their schools. But the other thing is, is that we’ve had Alex Delhagen from Walmart completely funded all of the soccer balls and stuff like that for the soccer season. And Walmart has come forward to say that they’re going to fund the flag footballs too.
1:05:27 So this is good community effort together so that everybody understands that, you know, that this is a really amazing program. And I appreciate all the schools that signed on, the elementary schools that did sign on. The other thing I wanted to say is thank you to Ms. Anne Wire.
1:05:45 She’s with the East Florida Women in Agriculture. And what we did was about six months ago, Ann said, hey, I read about what you guys are doing in Brevard with the agriculture, and I’m with Women in Agriculture. She said, I would like to bring aquaponics systems and all kinds of like raised beds.
1:05:54 And I was like, well, bring it on. So I naturally, the last thing it need to do is let the school board member do anything. So I handed it right off to our Rachel Rutledge and she got to work on it.
1:06:10 And they just installed last week 10 systems inside various schools as a pilot project to bring it forward. And they’re also coming in to do raised beds. And they’re also going to be doing some other things where they’re going to be tying agriculture to our students in our schools in different ways.
1:06:19 And I think it’s pretty incredible because a lot of kids, when they go to the grocery store, have no idea where that came from. They go up to there and they say, yeah, that’s chicken, that’s meat. But they don’t understand where it comes from.
1:06:25 They don’t understand where the vegetables come from. So this is going to be a good opportunity to bridge that gap. So that’s all I had to say.
1:06:35 Oh, wait. I did want to say thank you to the Titusville Chamber because you mentioned them because there’s something special. I was able to go to their installation dinner last Friday and they are a special chamber.
1:06:50 And the fact that they are the only active educational chamber as far as, like, they have our PI coordinators in the installation there, and one of them from Space coast sat in between Mr. Thomas and I all night long. She was. I’m not sure who she was.
1:06:53 Yes, yes, that’s her. She was a force to be. I mean, she’s amazing.
1:07:04 Mr. Flores got a really special person there. But I did want to say shout out to Titusville Chamber because you guys have done such an amazing job for our north. And I saw that and I did not know that.
1:07:08 And I think that you guys have something special up there. So that’s it. That’s all I got.
1:07:23 Thank you. Dr. Undell, do you have anything further to add? I do not. All right, Well, I. I do, just because when this hits, you know, I don’t want people to think it’s over because we said we’re going to have public comment at the end of our meeting.
1:07:33 It will be after we adjourn. For those of you that are here for that public comment portion, we didn’t forget about you. We appreciate you sticking around, walking through that.
1:07:41 This situation with us. This isn’t something that we just thought of. We actually asked around.
1:07:57 You know, there are 66 other counties in Florida and there are other multiple counties that do their public comment this way. We were going to have to change the way we were conducting public comment anyways. So we’re trying it this way.
1:08:06 And I see a lot of positive coming out of this. For one, you get to speak multiple times in a board meeting. Mr. Brian, you’re going to love that, right? And.
1:08:13 And we love that, too. We’re actually going to give you double the time to speak. I actually.
1:08:32 I think it’s really important at the end to not be videotaped because you’re speaking to us. And some parents have told me, look, I don’t feel comfortable coming up and being broadcasted on YouTube with my child or, you know, I want to talk about a sensitive subject. And this gives you that opportunity to do that to.
1:08:42 And to speak to us right here in front of us. It’s a little more personal rather than the other avenues. So is this policy? No, but we’re going to be making the changes.
1:08:53 So thank you for being a part of this. Thank you for being patient. Probably thought you were going to come in early and speak and be able to go home, but this is still a really early night for us, so thank you so much for doing that.
1:08:57 So we are going to. If there’s no further business, we’re going to adjourn this meeting. And.
1:09:02 And then I’m going to continue to speak. There’s no further business. This adjourned. And then public. Okay, Sam, It.