Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
2:07 Sa. Foreign. February 25, 2025 Board meeting is now in order. I would like to welcome my fellow board members and the public.
4:11 I would like to take this opportunity to remind the public that the appropriate place for public participation in the meeting is during individual public comment opportunity as identified on the agenda. Outside of your individual public comment opportunity, your role in this meeting will be as an observer. Paul.
4:32 Roll call, please. Mr. Trent. Here.
4:33 Mr. Susan. Here. Ms. Wright.
4:35 Here. Ms. Campbell. Here.
4:36 Mr. Thomas. At this time, the board would like to hold a moment of silence. I invite the audience to.
5:15 Thank you. At this time, Finian Adams is at the podium and he’s going to rise or he’s going to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. If we will rise, please.
5:31 I pledge of 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. Tonight we have Eau Gallie High School Chamber Choir to perform. I would like to introduce Mr. Barton, principal of E Gallie High and Ms. Patricia Peltz, choir director and the chamber choir.
6:15 It. Sam rain. Sam, Sing the enchanted.
9:02 Now is best pleasure to take our flesh. And scare me back Ain’t nobody lacking let’s spare no treasure to live in flesh. Sa.
10:27 Demo. Sa. We feel like we don’t.
11:50 We’ll end our portion with a song about time. Something we never have enough. Time you can spend it when you spend it then you’re running out of time you can save it but to save it is to take a little time in a minute when you’re in it can you feel the passing time? There’s illusion, there’s confusion when tell him now it’s time to get older.
12:21 Time to work. 11:32am to dinner time. You can spend when you spend you’re running out of time.
12:44 You can save but to save it take some time. In a minute you’re in it Feel passing Time is illusion, confusion they tell you now it’s time to get older, to work, time to waste. There’s no time left to bore Time to tell him oh, there’s no time.
12:58 3 to 11 2am dinner time not to kill Said I will till it flies. Old time, Save it take a little time minute can you feel passing? It’s an illusion it’s time to get older. Work, waste.
13:49 There’s no holder teller feel this time 1:30 dinner time heal we’ll still fly. Old time you can spend it when you spend it then you’re running out of time. You can save It.
14:01 But to save it is to take a little time. In a minute. When you’re ready, can you feel the buzzing time? Sam? Well, thank you for that wonderful performance.
15:05 I’d like to invite Marlee Johnson and Victoria Hicks to the podium for questions. Okay. Board.
15:20 Ask away. All right, you want to go first, Ms. Campbell? I’ll go first. Okay.
15:24 Let me just say, you guys are amazing. We could hear you practicing while we were grabbing a quick bite to eat before the board meeting. And I was going, oh, my goodness, they sound amazing back there.
15:33 So I have to ask, is it harder to learn a song when you’re having to do movements with it, or is it easier? To a degree. It helps you keep the actual rhythm while you’re singing it, and you can correlate the movements with the words you’re singing. I kind of thought that that might be the case.
15:47 Out of the songs that you sang tonight, what would you say your favorite one is? My personal favorite would be Time. Time. I think we all can relate to that song.
15:56 But thank you so much for coming this evening and performing for us. It’s always a wonderful note to start on, and you guys were an exceptionally wonderful note to start on for us tonight, so thank you so much. I would actually talk, but Ms. Campbell is the biggest fan of the arts, so she’s crawling over here.
16:11 So, Ms. Campbell, it’s all you. So excellent job, you guys. Oak Alley has had excellent music programs for years, and it’s always good to hear you again.
16:21 I’m curious if I can get a show of hands. How many of you are also in orchestra at Oak. Anybody? Oh, okay.
16:30 So none of them are here tonight. Okay. Okay.
16:32 How many of you are also in band? Anybody doing drama? You guys, Drama, theater, arts program. I can see a few hands. How many of you are in art also? Okay.
16:43 I just wanted to demonstrate. There’s a lot of these kids are involved in multiple things. And you guys still have the arts academy.
16:49 You’re one of our arts Academy schools. Excellent. So we talk about CTE a lot around here.
16:55 We had a workshop session. Then we talk about transferable skills. So if you’re learning welding, for example, in one program, it can transfer to another job that might have welding, But I think there’s also transferable skills in music.
17:08 So if you think about some of you are not going to be professional musicians, right? But can you think of something like, what do you think that you’re already experiencing because you’re in choir that is making you better in other areas of your life? I would say math, because you have to do a lot of counting when you’re singing and to keep on time. So, like, if you wanted to do something like physics or maybe be a teacher or science, any of those careers, you do have to know a lot of math. And singing really helps with that.
17:35 Learning music helps. Good. What do you think, Marley? Anything you would add? I would say being in front of people is a very important skill to learn, and it lets you learn it very easily.
17:48 Yeah. And as you know, as an adult who has to talk in front of people a whole lot, I will tell you that is probably one of the most important transferable skills, because there are a lot of people who are adults who still get terrified if they have to stand in front of people, much less open their mouth and speak or sing. So I encourage you guys to keep going with it, because that’s really important.
18:06 Glad you have that insight. Thank you for sharing that with us. Yeah.
18:11 So I was with your principal the other day, Mr. Barton, and he was talking about how you guys are all inspired by the fact that. That he’s such a good singer also. So he said that he might be willing to, if you guys all asked him to, to actually come up and sing a very strong solo.
18:25 How many of you. I know Ms. Campbell was surveying you guys for all the other things you do, but how many of you guys want to hear Mr. Barton actually come up and spin? All right. All right.
18:36 Mr. Barton, I know you may not have had the vocal cords ready tonight, but maybe you can do something special for him at another time. Maybe we can do. Maybe we can do that.
18:43 And if he doesn’t, you guys just let me know, and then we’ll ask him to come in forward, and we’ll bring you all back to the board meeting. You can sing solo in front of it. So.
18:50 No. I used to teach at Eau Galley. I love you guys.
18:53 You guys are salt of the earth. All the individuals and families that are part of that school. It’s one of the best schools that I’ve ever been a part of as a teacher.
19:02 And you guys showed us tonight exactly how well that program’s working and how well you guys are still what I thought you guys have always been. So thank you so much. And for the families that came to support them, thank you for being there so that they can do what they do tonight.
19:15 It’s a big deal. I know that you guys came here and you support them to do these kind of things, and I really appreciate it. So thank you.
19:21 That’s It. That’s awesome. Yeah.
19:23 I don’t have a whole lot more to add after all these great questions and input. You guys were awesome. That’s the last thing I should be doing is critiquing or even commenting much on music.
19:36 That’s why I have Ms. Campbell right here and then Matt for everything else. But it was good, Victoria, that you said math. I’m an old math teacher, so I like that it might be transferable from music to math, but not math to music.
19:50 So I play the radio and that’s it. You guys were fabulous. We love this portion of the board meeting.
19:59 It’s just another reminder of the talents that we have here in bps and thank you guys for agreeing to coming out and the parents that support you and bring you to places like this. It just shows the talent that we have here in bps and it makes us proud of you guys. So thank you so much for what you’re doing.
20:26 Mr. Chair. Did you want to get a picture with them? I think it’d be great. Come on up.
22:24 Tonight we welcomed Terry Barlow, Assistant Director, Brevard Public schools head start. Ms. Barlow is here tonight to recognize the recipients of the Florida Head Start Association Region 4 Teacher and staff of the Year. Hi, Good evening.
22:40 Good evening, board members and Dr. Rendell. I’m truly excited to share this news with you. Today, it is my privilege to announce that Janice Smith, Head Start teacher at Enterprise elementary, has been named Teacher of the year for Region 4 Head Start.
22:57 And Michelle Dale has been named Staff of the year for Region 4 Head Start in recognition of her outstanding, outstanding work as an instructional coach. I’d like to tell you just a little bit about each one of them. Janice Smith has dedicated over a decade to Brevard Public Schools Head Start, starting as an instructional assistant before becoming a teacher in 2015.
23:19 A veteran with 11 years of military service, her degree in hospital administration and a bachelor’s degree in business administration and later. She later obtained her Florida teaching certificate in pre kindergarten through third grade. Janice’s exceptional teaching is reflected in her class scores and mastery of the class framework, which helps her students, which helps her create a student centered, positive classroom environment.
23:45 Her commitment to both professional growth and student success is evident in her efforts to support both students and families. She initiated a project to provide 100 gym bags filled with essential items like blankets, books, and health supplies to her classroom families in need. Her colleagues admire her passion for teaching and her ability to foster to create a nurture, nurturing learning environment.
24:09 Her ability to foster a nurturing and Stimulating environment that paves the way for meaningful experiences is remarkable. She is a true passion. She has a true passion for teaching, said Kelly Dufresne, principal at Enterprise Elementary School.
24:24 She loves what she does, and we are proud to have her as part of the Head Start team. Janice’s dedication and leadership exemplifies excellence in education. She was truly deserving to be recognized as the teacher of the year by both the Florida Head Start association and the Region 4 Head Start Association.
24:41 Janice, come on up. Okay. All right.
24:55 Give Janice a chance to speak though. Oh, thank you. Let me first say, I’m much more comfortable talking in front of three to five year olds than I am adults.
25:08 But we have many dedicated, hardworking Head Start teachers in both this county and the state. So I’m really honored to be chosen. And we have next Michelle Dale, who holds a associate’s degree in early childhood education, a bachelor’s degree in business administration, and of course, her Florida teaching Certificate in early childhood.
25:39 She started her career nine years ago as a Brevard Public Schools Head Start teacher. Michelle’s passion for early childhood led her to become an instructional coach in 2018. Her dedication to mentoring new coaches has been a key factor in the success of our organization.
25:55 Michelle has also led district level literacy courses, the HITS training, high impact reading interventions, and targeted supports designed to enhance instruction for early childhood teachers and improve family and improve family services practices. HITS has not only elevated Head Start teachers effectiveness, but has also benefited kindergarten teachers, ensuring a smooth transition for children from Head Start to kindergarten. Michelle is recognized as a systems leader.
26:25 And Cindy Kyer, our education manager, notes that Michelle is considered an instructional leader not only for the Head Start program, but throughout the district. Her leadership and innovative approach has had a lasting impact on the educational community. Michelle’s dedication and leadership exemplifies excellence in education.
26:44 And she is truly deserving of being recognized as staff of the year for both Florida Head Start association and the Region 4 Head Start Association. Michelle, This is so much easier for the little ones. I agree with her.
27:08 Well, thank you. A. Thank you for offering the HITS program because when we dived into that, it just kind of broadened our horizon in early childhood and realized where we need to start from. So I think you guys will really enjoy what we put together for that for the district, but thank you for that.
27:24 It’s a. It’s. We don’t like being recognized for this stuff, but we appreciate it immensely.
27:36 No, I’d like to ask him questions too. Okay, man. Come on, Ms. Dale.
27:44 So I. I just wanted to say thank you. Many of you may not know, but Ms. Dale’s a friend of mine and anything to deal with Head Start or any of those preschool programs, I’m always. I call her and within 10 minutes she calls me back and gives me the information.
28:01 And I’ve watched you do some amazing things, and I don’t think we did a service to how big this award is. We just kind of said area, whatever. But how many other individuals are a part of this? It’s in the thousands that you came over the top of.
28:14 And what you guys have both done is incredible. So why don’t you tell me a little bit about how many people, how big of an award they this is? Because I just want to do. I want to have.
28:23 Your husband’s in the crowd here and he’s filming. So. But I know when we first got elected for Florida, that’s quite a few.
28:32 What do we say? 91. 91. 90.
28:36 91 people that we went against in the state of Florida because per county. And then when we went to go get that award, they let us know we got region four, which we’re like, what’s that? And they’re like, oh, it’s eight states and it’s Kentucky. She’s got the name of office.
28:53 Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, Mississippi, and yeah, Kentucky. So it’s like there’s like eight states. So I don’t know how many.
29:06 If you average 900 per that. So that’s quite a lot of people to go against. And so, yeah, we went to the one in Atlanta.
29:16 Thank you for letting us go to Atlanta. That was a huge. A bunch of people that we got to get up in front of.
29:23 And that was very generous and very sweet for them to acknowledge us in that manner. And the reason behind that, the reason behind that is the phenomenal job that you and your co workers do on a regular basis. Some of the stuff that you guys did through Covid was stories will never make it to us and they’ll never make it to it to the general public.
29:41 But what you guys did to get through that, to be on the front lines and battle there was something that I’ve never seen before. And you know, this award that is amazing and I had to make you talk about it, is nothing compared to what you deserve or any of your co workers and everybody else. I just, I wanted to tell you from the bottom of my heart, thank you for being on the front lines.
30:00 You set the tone for the rest of our school district. You’re the one that gets them into the schools and gets them ready and gets them going before. And if you don’t do a good job, then every teacher for the next 12 years is going to really hate their lives.
30:12 I compare us. I tell Janice all the time we’re like the army. When the kids come in, we’re the battlegrounds.
30:19 They got to go through that with us. And by the time they get to kindergarten, that might be maybe the marines, but maybe the air force. Sorry.
30:29 You guys might be the drill sergeants of the school district, but I do want you to let you know that not only the. The homeless bags that she made for her kids, we ended up delivering 25 of them to DCF for their. When they have to take the children out of the homes, they have actually something other than a garbage bag to put their stuff in, and it gives them a book and.
30:47 As well as a little teddy bear, whichever we put in there for them. So her homeless bags went to a lot more people than what we acknowledged for. So that’s why she’s amazing.
30:58 That’s why she got it. Thank you so much. Am I done? I believe so.
31:06 Thank you guys so much. Yes. We’d like to have a photo with you.
31:08 I have to ask a question. Is it ever. Is it common for both of the winners to come from the same school district? So it’s not a package deal.
31:17 So we won both. Yeah. From Brevard.
31:20 And it’s not common for a school district to be recognized at this level. And we. All the way to the.
31:27 You guys are amazing. That’s so awesome. Yay.
31:29 Yeah. Hopefully we’ll continue with all our wonderful staff to keep being recognized in that level. That’s our plan, right? Well, I’m sure they will with your examples.
31:39 All right, great. Let’s get a picture. All right, that brings us to the adoption of the agenda, Dr. Rendell.
33:36 Thank you, Mr. Chair. On this evening agenda, we have one presentation, 22 consent items, two action items, and three information items. Changes made to the agenda since it was released to the public include the following added was F17 job description specialist ESC support revised was H34 procurement solicitations and removed with C8 administrative recommendations.
34:01 Do I hear a motion move to approve second? Is there any discussion? Paul, roll call, please. Ms. Campbell. Aye.
34:08 Mr. Trent? Aye. Mr. Susan? Aye. Ms. Wright.
34:11 Aye. I’d like to turn the presentation portion over the meeting to Mr. Susan. I have the honor of introducing some of our most amazing partnerships and partners inside of our community.
34:25 We have a couple of special individuals here with Mr. Brown or Mitchell Brown, Mr. Sealy Lance, and Mr. Terry Ford, the CEO of Health First. We want to hear from you, Mr. Ford. Tell us exactly what partnerships we have today.
34:40 And just from the bottom of our hearts, say thank you. I want to give you the floor to introduce your teams and everybody else, and then afterwards, I’m going to say some really nice things about it. So welcome.
34:50 Welcome, Mr. Ford. Good evening. It’s great to be here and thank you for the opportunity to join you.
34:59 I have just a brief video I’d like to queue up first and then I have some introductions. What does it mean to be a community? Is it simply being born somewhere. Or is it growing and learning together? What about creating connections.
35:35 Or striving to be better every day for one another? At Health first, we’re dedicated to delivering more than we are committed to Brevard, to growth, to connection, simply to you. I appreciated looking at your mission statement as I was watching the previous presenters. To serve every student with excellence as a standard, Health first also has a mission very similar.
36:17 We exist to advance the health and wellness of the communities we serve, and we do that with excellence as well. And so this evening, it’s an honor to be here representing Health first and celebrating our partnership with Brevard Public Schools. Health first and Brevard Public Schools are two of the largest employers in our region.
36:38 However, beyond that, we get to make a positive impact with the people that we serve every single day. And together, we share responsibility to prepare the next generation for meaningful careers. And that’s exactly what this partnership does.
36:54 At Health first, we believe that a strong community is a healthy community. When standards and students are met with the opportunities career paths support, they are empowered, they become engaged, and they become better prepared for the future. Tonight, we recognize two outstanding programs.
37:17 Blast, which stands for Brevard Learners Achieving Successful Transition, and CTE Career and Technical Education. One of the most rewarding aspects of this partnership is seeing students thrive and succeed. It’s now my pleasure to introduce Mr. Josh Cryer Jr. A graduate of the BLAST program at Bayside High School, Josh has completed multiple rotations at HealthFirst, gaining hands on experience in environmental services and plant operations.
37:51 These are critical roles that help keep our hospitals running 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and keeping our patients and our team members safe. Please welcome Mr. Josh Cryer. Hello, my name is Josh Cryer.
38:16 How are you doing today? So I’d like to start off with. I am a Project search intern from Palm Bay Hospital at this current time and I My first I’ll explain the three rotations that I am in. Well that I have been in, which is transport, environmental department and a plant operation.
38:47 So transport I do clean stretchers and beds and I bring them down to the stretcher and bedroom to where they need to be cleaned. In plant operation I change oxygen chains, I paint, And I use a leaf blower to blow leaves off the sidewalks. I’ve also learned to write a resume, practice interview skills and I’ve grown in maturity over the time.
39:31 With Product Search with and Withheld First. Another success story is Johanna Bungee, a CTE program participant in the Office of Clerk Intern in Health First Project Management Office. She’s gaining real world skills that will help her launch her career.
40:08 Please help me welcome Ms. Johanna Bungee. Good evening everyone. My name is Johanna Bungee.
40:21 I am honored to be here this evening. Last year, during my junior year at ths, I attended the BPS CTE Internship Program Career Fair and out of curiosity, I discovered Health First. My interview and orientation process were amazing experiences for my first real job.
40:40 Health first was flexible when it came to my education and after interviewing with my two current co workers, I knew it was the right job for me, especially since the remote nature of the position allowed me to balance work and my dual enrollment classes. Working in the Project Management department has been transformative. I’ve learned about various projects, how to efficiently solve problems, manage my time and multitask.
41:09 Facilitating meetings has also improved my speaking confidence. My next step is to attend UCF this fall to complete my Bachelor’s in Accounting. This experience, along with job shadowing and finance, has prepared me for my future career in accounting and a potential long term job at Health First.
41:27 I highly recommend Health first as an internship opportunity. If it weren’t for my curiosity, I might have missed this chance. And I’m grateful I didn’t because this experience has been more enriching than I could have imagined, especially at such an early stage in my career.
41:53 And so tonight, on behalf of Health First, I’m honored to present to you funding for $280,000 to continue this great work. This funding will support career readiness programs for the 2024 and 2025 school year. This is not just a donation, it’s an investment in our students, our future, our workforce, and most importantly, making the difference in the lives of the people we serve.
42:20 This year, Health first celebrates 30 years of serving Brevard county just as we are investing in the future of health care. Like with projects at Cape Canaveral Hospital. We’re also investing in the next generation of our workforce.
42:35 We are proud to stand alongside Brevard Public Schools and building a stronger, healthier community. Thank you to the board, educators, and mentors who make this possible. Together, we can shape a better future.
42:48 Thank you for the opportunity. Mr. Ford, would it be okay if I have the gentleman that spoke about his job program come back up to the podium real fast? I just want to kind of tell them a little bit of an experience that I had and talk about some of the other little projects. I wanted to tell you how proud I am of you as an individual because you embody everything that we want in our jobs program.
43:13 I went to this hospital. Mr. Mitchell Brown over here. Can you raise your hand real quick? He’s the coordinator for the.
43:19 For the entire program. And what you’ve done, sir, is just anything short of amazing. Like the kids that are inside there working, it is like its own jobs program.
43:30 I had one student came down and told me about how the shift before him is not doing their job, so he’s going to get mad about them. I also found out that you had said they had mentioned a bunch of other times, everything that normally goes on inside of a job. But I will tell you, you work harder than the majority of kids that are your age.
43:48 And I wanted to give you that honor tonight. And I wanted you to come up because you are dedicated to that, that organization, and I know that they give you a good structure to do so. But when you.
43:57 Your work ethic that I saw inside of you and your lot of your co workers, one of them is an individual that’s back there right now that I saw. But I wanted to say thank you because if we could take what you’re doing right now and what Mr. Brown is doing for this jobs program and replicate it across our county, we would do some things that is amazing. So I wanted to take a minute and honor you for your work, tell you how great of a job you do.
44:19 And I just wanted to say thank you for making RBPS look real good is what I’m saying. So thank you. Anybody else want to ask a question? You know, we just had a workshop.
44:30 Thank you. Thank you. Good job.
44:32 We just had a workshop this afternoon about CTE and Ms. Rutledge asked us to come up with partners. And, you know, I’m glad that you spoke about your internship because when people think about internships with Health first, they might be thinking about medical related career fields, but as an employer, Health first has a lot more going on than that. So thank you for opening up those doors for internships across a broad variety of programs that we have from north to south, top to bottom.
45:01 So it’s exciting to see that there’s, you know. So hopefully our other employers across the county will be inspired by what has passed tonight and to maybe offer internships of their own across various fields. Because if you’ve got a career, we probably have a CTE program at some school that relates to a facet of your business, business owners.
45:25 So jump in there. We’re looking for you. Mr. Brown, could you come up and introduce your people that are here real quick and just talk about Project search for about 30 seconds? Because I’m going to get myself in a lot of trouble here.
45:37 With us tonight, we have Mackenzie Hill, which she’s going to be the instructor down at Palm Bay starting next year. Year. Because we’re starting our foresight.
45:46 We have Josh, we have Linda Shuker, we have Angie Wynn, our job coach. We have Nick Zolo, and we have Eileen from Cape Canaveral Hospital. And she has actually went through the BLAST program, Project Search, and now Health first has hired her as a nurse support associate.
46:08 So she went through the whole program and got hired by Health First. That is awesome what you do every day. I’ve never seen a network of kids working, you know, postgraduates working like that, like I’ve ever seen before.
46:20 I just want to take a second to say thank you, man. If we could get more people like you to do what you do, it would be amazing. Thank you.
46:27 All right. Thank you. Can I jump in? I just want to thank you so much for the partnership with Health First.
46:31 There’s no doubt that our community obviously is feeling. Feeling some challenges right now from a hospital that’s going to be closing down that’s in Brevard County. So I’m sure Health first is going to be an amazing partner that’s going to step in and.
46:42 And really fill the gap there. And I just want to thank you so much because I believe that this will be a good thing for us and our county moving forward. So thank you.
46:49 Absolutely. Mr. Ford, can you come up for just a second so I can talk about a couple more projects and then we’ll be done, I promise you. I know you guys don’t like the spotlight as much as you do, but one of the things that he didn’t mention is that they are funding the Light Up Viera and satellite, where we have parents.
47:06 Parents as part of a larger initiative that we have is that. That we’re going to turn the lights on at Viera High School and Satellite High School in the evening twice a week for two months to get people out of their houses and get them moving. So one of the problems we have is that families go home, they sit back, they eat their food, they sit around the table and they go watch tv.
47:25 So we’re going to give them the opportunity to get out and walk on our brand new turf, just foamed up tracks that we have up there. And we’re going to do some great things. And I wanted to say thank you for that.
47:38 The jobs internship program. And then he also has a farm to table project that he’s working with, with the agricultural groups to bring healthy foods into our communities and inside of our schools. So the scope of what you’re doing right now, sir, is beyond just a normal check.
47:53 Like a lot of places come up and they give us a check. You and your organization have done so much between jobs, between nutrition, between all of the opportunities you’ve given us. And I just wanted to say thank you.
48:03 Thank you. It’s an honor to be part of that. It’s important for a healthy community.
48:05 So we’re excited. Thank you. Anybody else have anything for the CEO? No, I believe that’s.
48:10 That’s it. I think you’ve. We’ve covered all the bases.
48:13 We appreciate everything you do and we look forward to continuing the partnership. Thank you. Thank you.
48:17 Mr. Ford, can I grab it? Yeah. Guys, I just, I wanted to take a second. I think we’re gonna do pictures too.
48:26 Oh, yeah, you want to do pictures real quick and then we’ll do it. Yeah, let’s get a picture. Pressure.
50:43 Mr. Susan, I think you had one more. Yeah, you guys, I wanted to give an opportunity. We had some special guests that came tonight.
50:44 I wanted to give Mr. Orocho an opportunity to come up. Many of you may not know, but we’ve been working behind the scenes with an organization called ecac, which is an or military group that comes together to support getting students involved in STEM and utilizing some of the federal defense to programs to come down and provide a lot of the stuff that we do with Civ Mill and everything else. So, Mr. Rocha, you had an announcement to make tonight, and then we have you coming back in two more meetings.
51:16 But it was such a pretty good announcement that I wanted to give you a second to kind of tell us what’s going on. Thank you. Thank you.
51:22 I want to introduce first my partners, Sergeant Beatty and Sergeant Moore. Sergeant Moore have a great information. I want to share thank you for having us.
51:30 I’m Staff Sergeant Moore. I’m with the Rockledge recruiting station here in Rockledge. We’re under the Tampa Battalion here.
51:35 Go Gators. Gator battalion. That’s our Gator, but that’s our model.
51:41 But I would like to announce that, yes, we are absolutely on pace to have one of our greatest cycles here in the Brevard county area. So thank you all for continuing to pour into the youth, getting it prepared for those that’s willing, young men, young women that are looking for to join the United States military, not just the army, but we’re all on pace, and we just want to thank you for continuously pouring in them and the amount of students that are on pace for being, you know, recruited for the military service is so large that we’re going to request and talk about it later on about having its own separate graduation and stuff like that that we can do. It’s going to be something special.
52:16 So we’re really as well. So. Yeah.
52:19 So I really appreciate you guys. Mr. Rocha, do you have anything you want to say real quick before we go, man? Basically, he said, for me, I really appreciate it. I’m a little shy, but with going with the idea, I’m very good with that, you know, taking care of the everything but speaking bully, you know, language thing.
52:34 Yeah, I’m a little shy, but yeah, that is the main idea. That is the main idea. Yeah.
52:38 Thank you. Thank you. I really appreciate it.
52:39 We appreciate you guys. We appreciate you. Thank you.
52:43 See you back. Thanks, guys. Thank you.
52:45 Yeah, we’ll see you guys in two workshops. See you guys. All right, we’re now at the public comment portion of the meeting.
52:53 Ms. Campbell. Y. Mr. Chair, I’d like to make a motion that we separate the public comment into agenda and non agenda, giving each time three minutes, people, three minutes at each time.
53:08 And that we. When we do the non agenda at the end of the meeting, that we do that without the cameras on. Seconded.
53:18 Paul, Roll call, please. Ms. Campbell? Aye. Mr. Trent? Aye.
53:22 Mr. Susan? Aye. Ms. Wright? Aye. All right, well, I’d like to take a brief recess so we can gather the information for our speakers.
53:30 We’ll be back within just a few minutes. It. We’re now at the public comment portion of our meeting.
54:23 We have how many, Paul? Zero. We have zero speakers, and they will each receive three minutes. Our attorney will not be calling those zero speakers up.
54:34 That concludes our agenda items. Only public comments. We will now be moving on to our consent agenda.
54:42 We are now at the consent agenda Portion of the meeting. Dr. Rendell? Thank you, Mr. Chair. There are 22 items on the list under this category.
54:53 All right, thank you, Dr. Rendell. Does any board member wish to pull any items? I’ll entertain a motion to accept, move to approve. Second.
55:03 Any discussion? Paul, roll call, please. Ms. Campbell. Aye.
55:07 Mr. Trent? Aye. Mr. Susan. Aye.
55:10 Ms. Wright. Aye. Dr. Ondell, will you please let us know about the items under the action portion of tonight’s agenda? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
55:17 The first action item is to approve travel to Florida’s National Summit on school safety conference H33. Do I hear a motion? Move to approve? Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please.
55:28 Ms. Campbell? Aye. Mr. Trent? Aye. Mr. Susan? Aye.
55:31 Ms. Wright? Aye. Dr. Rendell, please let us know about the items under the action portion of tonight’s agenda. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
55:40 The last action item is age 34, procurement solicitations. Do I hear a motion? Second discussion. Paul, Roll call, please.
55:49 Ms. Campbell? Aye. Mr. Trent? Aye. Mr. Susan? Aye.
55:52 Ms. Wright? Aye. We will move on to the information agenda, which includes three items for board review and may be brought back for action at a subsequent meeting. No action will be taken on these items tonight.
56:04 Any board member wish to discuss this item. All right. At this time, I would like to offer my fellow board members and Dr. Nordell an opportunity to recognize students, staff, or members of the community.
56:22 I just have two quick things. One is a recognition and one is a report. It was a joy to be at Ralph Williams elementary school for their 25th anniversary last week or week before.
56:33 One of the things that was exciting was the family of Mr. Ralph Williams Jr. Was. There were so many members of his family there, and it made it special for the students, and so was it. Thank you to Ralph Williams for including all of us on the invitation.
56:47 And then I wanted to share board that yesterday I was able to have a meeting with Second Harvest Food Bank. You know, I know Ms. Wright went with us and some of the staff members when they had their grand opening. They opened a very large warehouse in the West Melbourne area.
57:00 So they’ll be able to serve Brevard even in a more significant way than they have before. They wanted to meet to find out how they can expect expand into more of our schools they’re already serving. I’ve got a list of the schools here in Brevard that they’re already partnering with the food pantries.
57:17 We’ve got Astronaut High School, Endeavor, Madison Middle, both ALCs, a couple of the. One of the charter schools, and Space Coast Junior Senior High. And so I shared that information with Dr. Rendell and we’re going to share with our staff.
57:33 But and I shared with them some of our high schools in the south area since they’re so close that also our area of high needs. And so they’re excited to partner with us some more and even if there are grant opportunities that come up. And so.
57:48 But they are definitely there to support the schools that have food pantries that were or I guess would like to get them started. And so another great partner for our community. And thank you, Dr. Undell, for, you know, helping us move along that way.
58:01 But it was exciting to me to see that we already have schools that are doing good work with them. And that was all I have. All right, I will go next.
58:11 A couple things I wanted to thank. We had a special SRO, so our SROs are our heroes that are in our schools. And we had one that stepped in and went above and beyond and stopped a student from making a poor choice that would have resulted in the student harming themselves.
58:23 And so I don’t want to disclose too much about that situation, but I just want to say to that sro, thank you, thank you, thank you for going above and beyond and really being there when someone needed them there that way that that student was protected. Also, I want to thank, you know, we had our last day of the skilled trades at space day. So Mr. Susan, you were able to join on that one as well.
58:42 That happened the day after our last board meeting. And I just want to thank the Astronaut Memorial foundation for putting on a wonderful event that really gave our students a behind the scenes exposure to what’s going on out at the space of and are in different career paths that maybe they hadn’t been thinking about and they got to hear from an astronaut, which was amazing. So very good stuff that was happening there.
58:58 So I am very thankful to them, to Mr. Altman. Thad Altman helped us with that. And then he has Isabel, who’s amazing.
59:04 She’s a wonderful speaker. So she gets up there and gets all the students to listen to her. It’s pretty amazing to watch a woman who is probably Ms. Campbell’s size, maybe, I don’t know, captivate a room of 400 teenagers and get them to be silent.
59:15 That’s a pretty big task. And she does it phenomenally so. And then board.
59:19 I wanted to give you an update. So, as you know, I have been pushing the modified calendar. I say pushing lovingly.
59:24 So this idea of the modified calendar, I’ve. I’ve taken it to each of the schools in the Port St. John community. Because originally, as you’ll remember, when I brought this forward, I was like, hey, let’s go all in on the district, right? And board had expressed, let’s move a little slower with that.
59:37 We don’t like all in on the district. Let’s look at the Port St. John community because it made the most sense with challenger 7 being there. So I just want to give you guys some feedback of some of the things that I’m hearing from the community.
59:46 I’m sure you’re getting emails as well. People always tend to send messages when they object to things, but not so much when they’re favorable to them. So I laugh about that, but I’m like, okay, that’s fine, but just want to let you know.
59:57 So I have gone now to Atlantis, to Space coast and to Enterprise, all three of those schools. And there’s a few things that keep on being said and keep on coming up. And I feel like the board, I have to say this to you and all folks, transparency and moving forward on how we look at this.
1:00:12 Number one, the. The families seem to be a lot more supportive. And I had them fill out a little questionnaire if it was district wide.
1:00:19 So I have several sheets with emails and phone numbers. I’ll give to you if you would like to have those that say, we like it if it was district wide. If it’s not district wide, we don’t like it because they might live in Viera, have children that go to school in Viera, but they teach at one of the Port St. John Schools.
1:00:32 So now it’s going to become a conflict again with scheduling. So that was a common thread that came up from several people was, hey, if it was district wide, we like this. Another common thread that came up from some of the people who were in opposition of this was the timing.
1:00:47 And so they said, I need, we need more time. Like we, they were not prepared for 25, 26. It’s too fast for, for the community.
1:00:53 The community’s response was, hey, we already have vacations booked this summer. And so in full transparency, like I was ready to, oh, let’s go with it. But I, you know, we have to respond to the community when they come to us and tell us those things.
1:01:03 And so, you know, I want you guys to know that as well. That was another thing. There are several hurdles that still have to be worked through.
1:01:09 So I think this is probably something that we should bring up at a, at a workshop and kind of really dive into this. If this is Something that the board has an appetite for pursuing. It’s funny when the survey data that’s come back, which it’s still open, it’s not closed yet at this point, it’s like 50 50.
1:01:24 And so it’s funny to me because I tell people, hey, there’s people who love it and there’s people who hate it. Neither one is right or wrong. It’s just a difference of opinion.
1:01:33 So that is one of it. There. There are other challenges or things that I’m working on as well.
1:01:38 So I. I’m sure you’ve received an email in regards to legislation and how the pilot program started and what happened there. And those are all hurdles that I’m working through right now to have a solution for which would be ready for the 2025 or 25, 26 school year, I believe. But I don’t.
1:01:53 I think we need to be. I feel like we need to respond to the community saying we’re not prepared to move that quickly. So I just want to give that information to you.
1:02:00 When the survey closes, I will obviously forward that all over to you guys. Literally right now, it’s 50.6 that want it and 49.
1:02:13 4 that don’t. And so I’m like, it is. It is 50, 50.
1:02:32 So just want to give that feedback to you and ask if you’re okay with it that we put this on a workshop that’s coming up in the near future to really discuss in detail some of the other hurdles that have been addressed. Some of them have been in emails that you guys have received. And then some of them are notes from my meetings at the schools, which those actually went a lot better than you expected, despite what social media says.
1:02:50 Social media is just not our friend when it comes to a lot of things. But it was a good Q and A and being able to talk to the families and hear what their concerns were. So just wanted to give you guys that Update and ask Mr. Chairman if you’re okay with that being a topic that we added a future workshop to really kind of talk about some of the challenges.
1:03:02 Can we. So I haven’t seen anything on social media on this topic. Maybe it’s because I live in the South End, but I would like, because of the response that I’ve been giving to the people who are filling up our inboxes, is that this.
1:03:07 We’re in an interest information gathering phase only. So I think it would be good because a lot of the ones I got were assuming that it was a done deal, that it’s going to be voted on very soon. Soon.
1:03:28 So I think it’s really important to make clear with everybody, families, teachers also, because we have that the board gave approval for asking the question. Right, right. And that that’s where we are at this point.
1:03:32 We’re not trying to figure out how to make it happen yet. Yeah. We’re just trying to gauge interest.
1:03:44 So if we can make that very clear to the public into that area. I have made that very clear at every single one of the events that we’ve gone to. And I want to thank Ms. Harris, Mr. Ramer, even Kevin Robinson came out.
1:03:53 Dr. Rendell came with me as well. So it’s been good to just have those open conversations and I’ve told them all that like the board has not decided. Even though people are like, you’ve decided? I’m like, no, we haven’t.
1:04:03 Like part of this is hearing what the community has to say. And it’s not what I want, it’s what the community wants because we represent the community. So, yeah, we absolutely have not decided to move this one way or the other.
1:04:11 Survey’s still open. We’re still in the discovery phase of this. And seeing, I think it poses a lot of really, really good benefits that are there for.
1:04:21 For our students, for our staff and for our families, for our facilities. A lot of different things. So just want to throw that out there if I can tail it too, just like you did, Ms. Kim.
1:04:28 Is that okay? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So I wanted to tell you that as part of it, I agree with you. Let’s look at it.
1:04:41 I’m going to deep dive into my district and start talking to people. The people that I speak to, we have a close group of about majority of teachers that are friends of ours and they love the idea. And that’s exactly what they said is.
1:04:58 Is that the only way that they would like to do it is if it was district wide because of the situation. Now, my small group of scope of people is probably, you know, not a very good judgment of the rest of the area, but they are very good at what they do and I do appreciate that. And I wanted to tell you some of the no’s that you may be receiving.
1:05:05 Maybe because we haven’t educated enough. And I’ll tell you why. There’s some people out there that are saying like the sports.
1:05:13 Sports are going to be an issue. Absolutely not. I mean, as a former coach, I coached through wrestling through Thanksgiving and Christmas break and it actually works out better.
1:05:24 We had some of the most amazing practices because I could actually deep dive into it. And I know for a fact that football coaches would love to have those days off in between four. They could even put together two a days and stuff like that.
1:05:34 So there’s, there’s great opportunity. I think we just need to do that. I would say that one of the things we need to look at when we bring back is what the achievement levels look like and what we’re doing with those.
1:05:51 Because it’s such a new program, we want to look at what the achievement levels are based upon it. But at the same time we want to also see what are we doing to engage that achievement level in between. Because when we did this, I’ll be honest, I sat down and I said to myself, okay, this is Megan’s big deal.
1:05:59 I’m going to give it an old college try here. We’re going to go. And then after it wasn’t, I don’t even know if it was like three weeks, it just started.
1:06:22 It was like, holy cow, the potential on this thing is amazing. So the question is, first is like where are we at with achievement levels? But the second piece is what were we doing to get those achievement levels? So one of the things I really liked about it was is that in between the sessions you had like two weeks off to three weeks off. That gives, I mean like my wife said already like the, the break that you have between for the students but then also for the travel.
1:06:29 You’re not traveling on all the same days. You have an opportunity to reinforce some of the education, break it down. I mean there’s just some phenomenal opportunities.
1:06:35 So I engage. I like the idea of moving forward. I’ve got some, you know what I mean, some questions and I’ll start working on my staff to bring it back too.
1:06:44 So. Okay, I know we’re going to bring it back in a workshop, but again, yeah, good points. Education matters.
1:06:52 Educating the, the public and that, you know what? It’s not, it’s not year round school. I mean that’s one thing. We’ve recoined the phrase modified calendar.
1:07:01 That’s what we’re trying to get out there because well, everyone says year round and that sounds bad but I’m like it’s still a six week summer. Like it’s the same amount of time in school. It’s not additional time in school.
1:07:14 So yeah, so some of the things, just looking at it as well, I’ll start asking more. I may even respond to some emails with something other than your personal cell phone. Thank you for that.
1:07:41 We’ll start doing our due diligence in our districts. But I think it’s. Once you look into it, yes, I think that it’s such an opportunity to have that time in between the sessions where I look at as you know, the catch up time for students, the amount that we can help in our, in some of our schools that could utilize that time for teachers to identify students that, you know, may need that little bit of time to catch up.
1:07:51 And if we can provide some of that for half that time or something in between, that’d be wonderful. I think it would be. And a competitive edge against charters and our transportation department.
1:08:05 You know, it was just a theory before, but now it’s in play. So maybe we can bring some of those successes to the podium, maybe during a workshop of actual as a teacher or as a parent. This is what I thought it was going to be.
1:08:14 This is what it was. This is what it is and this is why I’m for it. So just further educate and then we can put it out there.
1:08:16 But thank you so much. Thank you. All right.
1:08:21 Mr. Susan, you’ve got your. Yeah, I’ve got a couple of quick things. And then I had one other thing too.
1:08:29 So you were right about the Ralph Williams celebration. There were some announcements that were made there that we just got approval for. So it’s going to be quite exciting.
1:08:42 But the other thing is, is that one of the really good stories is the principal that’s there, Ms. Schroeder. She has turned that school around to an a school district and is doing a phenomenal job. So thank you for coming all the way from Palm Bay for that.
1:08:46 That was really cool, like having you there. I know, I know. But it’s close.
1:09:00 It’s close. But anyway, so I really appreciate you coming up there and I did want to mention I spoke to it earlier. The ECAC is the organization that put together the Passport program for the museums.
1:09:08 They put together a huge website with resources and stuff like that. Free STEM equipment for the students to go to. I mean there’s just some amazing things.
1:09:24 And whether you are pro military, anti military or whatever, these are just programs that are STEM opportunities for students that you can take advantage of. Also, I wanted to do a shout out. We have a Holland anniversary, 60 year anniversary this, this coming Friday.
1:09:45 I think that if you guys get an opportunity to make it over there, it’s, it’s pretty amazing that we have a school that’s going to be 60 years old and is still ticking and doing really well. I wanted to give a Shout out because there’s a special program going on that’s really cool. The Viera High School wrestling coach decided that he was going to expand wrestling all the way down to the elementary school.
1:10:10 So when I. And I’ll be truth be told, I brought my son there and I will tell you that his program has no less than 35 to 40 kids in elementary school wrestling on a regular basis. And the moms all come and they’re standing out laughing because they don’t know what to do with the energy off of some of their sons and daughters. But when they’re in there and yes, I said daughters because there are a lot of females that are wrestling and they’re beating the boys, which is awesome.
1:10:14 So there’s, there’s just some. A really unique program. He makes no money off of.
1:10:20 Of it. It’s not for his recruiting because a lot of the kids are from other areas. There’s kids that are traveling all the way from West Melbourne and stuff like that for it.
1:10:27 But a phenomenal job for the. That program and everything else. I did want to say thank you to the XYZ meetings that I think we’re having.
1:10:41 There’s a meeting that’s coming out with some information. It was a deep dive into our program as far as what we can use for capacity and some movements as far as K through 12s and. Or, sorry, 7 through 12 and some of the K through 8s and stuff like that.
1:10:58 But I just wanted to say thank you to that organization, thank you to Ms. Suhan for shepherding that and doing a good job. And then I did want to say, there’s one last thing that I wanted to say is that there’s a series of. During the year, this year, and this is a topic that I wanted to bring to you guys.
1:11:10 We have a series of parents that are just. That may need a little bit of help outside of the regular job, whatever, life. But they’re very negative to our teachers.
1:11:24 And what happens is that we have some parents that just literally, instead of being cordial and say, hey, here’s the problem. And coming forward, they’re lashing out in emails online and everything else against some of our teachers. And our teachers don’t deserve that.
1:11:34 Now listen, we all advocate like people email us, we research it and everything else. We’ve had people who have an issue with a school, they call us, they say, hey, here’s what’s going on. We get to work on it.
1:11:39 Parents and we always send them back. We have a process. But the lashing out needs to end.
1:11:59 And so there’s a way that we can do this. And what I would like to do, and I’ve talked to some of the Mr. Ramer and some of the others, I’d like to send it back to staff to try to develop something to bring back to us. But in the event that a parent is doing this, that what they do is their communication goes directly through the principal and the principal takes it.
1:12:07 They can still communicate to the school. The principal can communicate and take care of it. But there needs to be some kind of code of conduct and some sort of respect towards the individual.
1:12:17 So if you guys are okay with just sending it to staff to take a look at it and possibly bring it back for a discussion. But there needs to be an end to this. Some of the stuff that’s going on.
1:12:31 If I may. And there’s a. Pasco county has a, I haven’t looked at it, but they have a civility policy and it really relates to their board meetings, but it also relates to how people deal with front office and things like that.
1:12:39 So might want to take a look at Pasco’s policy. I, I, I think we’ve gotten our board stuff down. I’m okay with people coming to voices.
1:12:46 It expands beyond. So it’s, it’s for, so we might not use it for our board meetings because we’ve been dealing with that. But it has to do with, you know what.
1:12:57 I think those are some good ideas, but we might want to take a look at what they already have in place to reinvent the wheel. I think so. I think it’s just comes a respect level that we have and maybe it’s a civility thing, I don’t know.
1:13:07 But I did want to just say that I don’t know if that’s okay with you. Yeah, no, I, I think we have lost our way on how to, to be respectful and you can still disagree with someone and that’s, that’s sad. As society, we gotta do a little bit better.
1:13:18 But I’m okay with looking into it and seeing what it looks like and, and moving on it. Okay, that’s all I got. I had one more quick thing that I forgot to mention and I’m sorry, can I get, can I jump in really quick? I’m sorry.
1:13:22 So sorry. The Brevard Schools foundation. Every year we have a champions luncheon.
1:13:40 So we had our board meeting just last week and they, they are asking for some table hosts which basically just says, hey, we’re going to grab some business partners around have them come to the Brevard Schools foundation champion luncheon. It’s a great event. I’m sure you guys have been to it in the past, so I’m just asking board if you’re interested in it.
1:13:49 I’ll send you over the information. And if you’re willing to be a a table host, I would love to help support that organization because they do amazing work for our students in Brevard County. So thank you.
1:13:53 That’s all. All right. Doctor, would you like to add anything? I do not have anything.
1:14:02 All right, well, that’s. We’ll now take a short break to prepare for our non agenda public comments portion of the meeting. Do we.
1:14:08 Do you want to just go right into it? Well, we gotta cut the feed, but yeah, we can go straight into it. Yes, yes, yes. Okay. All right, so short break and be right back. Sa. It.