Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
4:19 It. Sa. Sam. Good evening.
8:20 March 25, 2025. Board meeting is now in order. I would like to welcome my fellow board members and the public.
8:23 I would like to take this opportunity to remind the public that the appropriate place for public participation in the meeting is during your individual public comment opportunity as identified on the agenda. Outside of your individual public comment opportunity, your role in this meeting is as an observer. Paul.
8:44 Roll call, please. Mr. Trent. Here.
8:47 Mr. Susan. Here. Ms. Wright.
8:49 Here. Ms. Campbell. Here.
8:51 The board would like to hold a moment of silence. I would like to invite the audience to. Thank you.
8:53 I would like to invite Chloe Fisher Hayter to the podium to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Please rise. 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.
10:06 Tonight, performing for us, we have the Melbourne High School concert choir. I would like to introduce Mr. Kirk, principal, and Ms. Natalie Taylor, director of the Melbourne High Concert Choir. Before we begin, I just wanted to.
10:41 Number one. Thank you for being here today, and thanks for having us. And after our first song, we would like no applause, just for the sensitivity of the song.
10:49 So after our second song, you are more than welcome to clap. Thank you. Memory so.
11:41 And my soul finds primal and. Comfort me. Honorable.
12:42 Bring God, bring me. To. Touching me all love and passion Pain and pleasure Touching me.
14:02 On the crown. Hold me, comfort me Bring me to God. Sing me sam.
14:55 Sa. Jo. I am glad I will sing to the trees I will sing to the stars and the sky Sa.
16:16 Shout sa. I. Sa. I. Sam.
20:26 Thank you. That was a wonderful performance. We’d like to invite these students, Julian Vasquez, London Davis, and Christina Morancy, to the podium, please.
20:39 Board. I’ll go first. Sure.
20:43 Oh. Oh, my goodness. You guys are amazing.
20:48 Like, sitting where we’re sitting and listening to your voices. Let me just start by saying, oh, my goodness. What a way to open up our board meeting.
20:55 So kudos to you and all the wonderful talent that you have there. Let me ask you guys. All right.
21:00 So how many we. We take. Tend to ask this question.
21:02 I don’t want to steal all the questions, but how many of you are seniors? Okay. All right. How many are juniors? Okay.
21:11 Sophomores. And do we have any freshmen? No? Okay. I just want to thank you guys for honestly starting our board meeting on such a positive note.
21:20 What happens when music is. When you guys are singing, you can see joy in the room, which is very fitting for the song that you picked. So I could see Smiles on, faces going on in the audience.
21:29 And you just sound absolutely magnificent. So thank you so much. We really appreciate you guys coming today.
21:35 Thank you. Oh, my goodness. I’m going to take a few moments of personal privilege, not just because Milhi falls within District 5, but there’s people in this group that I’ve known since.
21:52 Well, I didn’t know them since before they were born, but I knew of them before they were born. A few in the men’s section particularly, and a couple I’ve known since elementary. They were in elementary school.
22:03 I wish that the audience at home. I’m sure the recording is going to be amazing, but there is nothing like being in the room. There are certain harmonies that you guys hit that there was.
22:12 Did you feel it more? It, like, resonated in your chest. You could just feel it. And that is a sign of great.
22:20 Not just vocal production, but great work and just cohesively coming together as a team like any other subject, any sport, any music. You guys are just fantastic. Super fantastic.
22:34 I do have to recognize somebody in particular, Ms. Betty Jo Couch, who is one of the. Oh, I know y’ all give a big. So what.
22:46 Ms. Betty Jo, one of my. Is a friend of mine, and I’ve had to fill in for her. And I’m telling you what, like, I don’t know what size her shoes are, but they’re big shoes to fill if you ever have to fill in.
22:55 So I hope I don’t ever have to do that again. But Betty Jo probably accompanies for more things in this county than anybody ever has. And do you have, like, a number? Like, how many years have you been playing for BPS schools? Since 1992, I think, was my first year.
23:14 92. So we’re. Yeah, like 33 years that she’s been accompanying for schools across, especially the south area.
23:21 But, like, solo ensemble weekends, everybody just follows Betty Jo around because she just goes. She plays for everybody. She’s super amazing.
23:28 So. All right. So for our three people over here, we haven’t asked you anything yet.
23:32 I know, sorry. So at least one of you give me, like, the highlight of your time in choir at Mel. Hi.
23:40 Give me one of your favorite moments. The rehearsathon. It was the best time ever.
23:47 Rehearsathon. Okay, so what is it? Rehearsathon. Get right into front of microphone so we can hear you out.
23:54 Video. In YouTube land, the rehearsathon is when all the classes have a day where we get together and we all rehearse for Candlelight. It’s when we go to see, sing, and perform at Disney, in between our rehearsing.
24:09 Rehearsing. We play games, we do activities, and we eat lunch. And it’s really fun.
24:15 We get to know different people from different classes that we haven’t seen. We all get to practice the music together, so it’s not as awkward in class or at home. And it’s a really fun time.
24:28 I love that. I love that. Anybody else want to have a.
24:31 Share a favorite memory? Okay, I have to say, just, like, I don’t really have a favorite moment. It’s really just every day rehearsing together, seeing familiar faces. Like, every time I walk into the chorus room, it’s always just like, I feel protected, I feel secure.
24:50 And like, knowing all these different people and just making music together is really. I think music is what really makes us human. And that’s why I’ve decided to pursue it as a career.
25:00 And honestly, these people, like, they’re my favorite moment all the time. Oh, oh. All the heartstrings today.
25:08 Okay, I want to show you something bored. Because I actually know the answer to some of these questions. And, Mike, if you can get a camera on the choir where they’re sitting over here, because I’m going to ask some questions, because people who are in music are also super involved in other things.
25:22 How many of you are in the IB program at Milhigh? Raise your hand if you’re involved in ib. Okay. How many of you are taking AP classes? There’s both at Milhigh.
25:34 Right. How many of you are in a CTE course? Okay, not too many. Right there.
25:39 All right. How many of you are in a sport? How many of you are also in band? How many of you are also in orchestra? All right, what am I missing? How many of you are also involved in theater? All right, dual enroll, right? Oh, how many are doing dual enrollment? That is really challenging to do dual enrollment, to keep going through the arts all four years. So lots of involvement in other activities.
26:05 So I love to see that, and I hope that we maintain the ability to be a district where students can pursue the arts and all the other things, because we don’t ever want the other things that we’re adding in to take away from this because of the family. Y’ all didn’t say use the word family, but the family, that. That happens here, that gives students a place, a sense of belonging.
26:28 So they want to come to school and learn all the other things that they’re there to learn. So thank you for giving me a couple extra minutes. I just wanted to say thank you.
26:37 Many of you may not know, but years ago, the board that was here before made the decision not to have students come up, play in front of. And a lot of it had to do with COVID and some of those things. And it was Dr. Rendell’s direction, along with some of the board, that we would bring you guys and the performances back to our school board meeting.
26:55 And what it means for us parents is that we get grounded before every meeting to see what the true purpose and what we’re supposed to be doing up here is, is the students. And sometimes that can be forgotten when you have competing theories and stuff like that on different stuff. But that’s grounded.
27:10 So I just want to say, from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for all of you taking the time out of your schedule to show us such a beautiful moment and being here. And I want to say thank you to the parents for giving away the time that you guys give and the dedication, because I know tonight’s one night, but then all the other times that you’ve put in so that they can sound as beautiful as they do is also on your backs also. And I wanted to just say thank you to that.
27:28 And I wanted to give a shout out to your principal, Mr. Kirk, because he runs a really good show over at Melbourne, and I’m always so proud of everything that he does. And he told me tonight, he’s like, you better watch these kids because they’re going to rock you. And you guys did.
27:42 So. Thank you so much. I truly appreciate it.
27:44 Thank you. Yeah. I don’t know how to add more than that.
27:48 That was great. You guys are awesome. That’s why we have no problem letting Ms. Campbell just continue to talk whenever we have performance here, because she knows what she’s talking about.
27:59 There are some things that we don’t have here at the beginning that I could probably talk a little bit more about, like math, you know, or some sport, golf. Thank you. But this.
28:10 You guys just knocked it out of the park. I mean, again, this is an eagle tonight. This is.
28:16 You guys were amazing. Now I know it wasn’t just me that felt. Felt that.
28:22 And you’re supposed to, because you did what you were supposed to do on your end. That was great. It only takes all the practice that you put into it and, you know, more than just the time.
28:32 You gotta love what you do in order to sound like this, to make things work. And it’s obvious that you guys do. So thank you.
28:39 And, Matt, when you mentioned about allowing the students to come to perform to ground us and just remind us of what’s important and why we’re up here. And it’s for this opportunity, not just you guys, because some of you are gonna be seniors and you’re gonna leave, right? So it’s the opportunity to give that to the next group and then the next group. So very encouraging.
29:01 When I saw those hands continue to go up for the multiple things that you’re involved in, it’s amazing. Busy people are the best people. You’ll always find times to do things that you love and that you have interest in.
29:14 So continue to be busy when you move on to the next level. Whatever you’re doing after high school, just continue to be busy and search out other busy people because those are the people that get things done. So I want to thank you and thank you parents for allowing their.
29:30 Their talents to flourish like this. So it, it, it takes a combination of all that to come together for this to happen. So again, blown away.
29:38 Thank you so much. So, Mr. Chair, if I could real quick question for Ms. Taylor. Please tell me there’s an opportunity for the community to see that, hear them perform one more time before school is out.
29:51 Is there a spring concert? Is there something coming up? Could you come up to the microphone and make sure? Because we got the treat tonight, but I want to make sure if there’s any performances coming up that someone else could hear what we heard tonight. So actually this group got straight superiors at MPA at our district level. So they are going to state MPA in Lakeland on April 28th.
30:16 So we will be performing there those same two songs plus another one at 2:20pm and then our entire choir concert is doing a spring concert on May 2nd. And the theme is a night at the Red Carpet. And so it’ll be a more like fun.
30:32 And all songs that have won awards is kind of the theme. And It’ll be at 5:30 and 7:30pm at Milhi. Here we go.
30:39 All right, good. So May 2nd, put it on your calendar. Outstanding.
30:43 Thank you. Thank you guys so much. Can we take a photo with you guys? Yeah, but let’s take a photo if you don’t mind.
30:52 Come on, back up. This brings us to the adoption of the agenda, Dr. Rendell. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
33:44 On this evening’s agenda, we have administrative staff recommendations, 26 consent items, five action items, and one information item. Changes made to the agenda since it was released to the public include the revised for A5 Entertainment C7 administrative staff recommendations, F19 field trip. Palm Bay Magnet High School to the NASA Hunch program in Houston, Texas.
34:09 And F22 Head Start non competitive five year grant. Do I hear a motion move to approve? Second. Any discussion? Paul, roll call for the vote, please.
34:20 Ms. Campbell? Aye. Mr. Trent? Aye. Mr. Susan? Aye.
34:24 Ms. Wright? Aye. We’re now at the administrative staff recommendations. Even though we don’t have anybody in attendance.
34:36 Right? We do have some on the agenda, but. Yes. Yes.
34:38 Good. Do I hear a motion move to approve? Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please.
34:44 Ms. Campbell? Aye. Mr. Trent? Aye. Mr. Susan? Aye.
34:47 Ms. Wright? Aye. Paul, how many numbers? One. One.
34:54 All right. We are not the agenda items, only public comments portion of our meeting. We have one speaker and they’ll receive three minutes.
35:03 Our attorney will call the speaker in which. In the order in which they signed up. Mr. Gibbs, please call the first speaker, Crystal Casey.
35:22 This evening I’d like to speak on agenda and non agenda items and specifically for F10 student expulsions, primarily. First. First and foremost, there was a wrongful termination May 28th of 2024.
35:39 There was a student named Thomas Benson who was expelled by this board last year and approved by Dr. Rendell as well. Thomas Benson was the of rape. Hold on.
35:53 Just stop one second. Pineapple Cove. I stopped your time.
35:55 You can stop for a moment and I don’t. Okay. Please do not interrupt my constitutionally approved speech.
36:01 I am permitted to speak about these students. I can pause you for a moment to have discussion with my attorney. Thank you.
36:07 Is this on the agenda, Paul? I don’t see the name. And if it was in 24, it should not be on tonight’s. I’d have to go through.
36:15 All I have are numbers right on the agenda. So I’d have to go through all these to see. But I don’t recall the name.
36:23 So if it’s not on tonight’s agenda, then you can’t discuss that specific one. If you have an expulsion on tonight’s agenda, during agenda comment, you can address that specific expulsion. Attorney Gibbs, could you please confirm that the expulsion is not on tonight’s agenda? I’ll wait.
36:42 Yeah. What’s. What’s the kid’s name again? What? The last name.
36:48 That’s the only way I can confirm it is. I’ve been paused. So it’s up to you, sir, unless you have a student number.
36:52 Do you have a student number or case number? No. Once again, my time has been paused. It is up to you, Attorney Gibbs, to confirm or deny.
37:00 I’ll wait. Okay. So, Mr. Gibbs, I would also say that it’s in reference to a charter school, which I’m not sure how that works.
37:10 Yeah, the school board does expel charter school students under their got. So. So there aren’t any.
37:16 I can tell you because I just looked at very recently double checked them today. There aren’t any charter school exposure. That’s correct.
37:23 My suggestion would be that it’s not on tonight’s agenda to move to the non agenda and she can say whatever she’d like. At the end she did cite she had another agenda item she wanted to address. But if you don’t have an agenda item on expulsions.
37:36 Would this board like to censor me on the other agenda item that I wish to speak about with my time tonight? Your time is going so you can speak to another agenda item. Ma’, Am, are you permitting me to speak now? Yes. Please advise if you are censoring me or not.
37:54 No, you can. You’re free to talk about other agenda items. Could you please refer back to 2 minutes and 33 seconds? Thank you.
38:00 I’ll wait. No, ma’, am, your time is going. As soon as you spoke again and I said your time was going.
38:06 The other agenda item that I have to speak about is F17, which refers to the coaching certification of community coaches. Please refer to F17 which is a current agenda item. I’d like to Refer to page 10, legal aspects, number one, section B.
38:32 Understand the constitutional rights of students, athletes. Identify ethnic or other discrimination. Identify appropriate disciplinary techniques, decision making strategy in eliminating athletes from the team.
38:50 This refers to training for your coaches, for the entire school system for Brevard Public Schools. And I’d like to reference a meeting with respect to this agenda item that I had with Dr. Rendell last year about discrimination practices at Viera High School regarding several students, myself and two parents were in attendance. Maybe you recall this meeting, Dr. Rendell.
39:20 That’s okay. I’ll refresh your memory. I was in the company of two parents whose students were also discriminated against in the athletic programs at Viera High School school.
39:31 And as everyone knows in this town, there has been no consequence for any administration. The principal, the staff at Viera High School, coach, Doty, senior and junior. So these provisions have been violated.
39:53 What do you plan to do about it? Are you going to wait to get sued? Do you care? Isn’t that just an insurance thing for you? You write it off, you have a settlement. What if it was your child? There may come a day where it is your child that is adversely affected and I’ll be here to witness that all right. Thank you for your time, Ms. Gracie.
40:20 That concludes the agenda items only. Public comment. We thank you for taking the time out of your schedule to address the board with your concerns and suggestions.
40:28 I would like to remind the public that the board is accessible for further conversations outside our business meeting. We’re now to consent agenda portion of our meeting. Dr. Rendell? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
40:41 There are 26 items under this category. Thank you, Dr. Rendell. Does any board member wish to pull any items? Okay, I’ll entertain a motion to accept the consent.
40:54 Second. Second. Any discussion? Paul, Roll call, please.
40:59 Ms. Campbell? Aye. Mr. Trent? Aye. Mr. Susan? Aye.
41:02 Ms. Wright? Aye. 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 H36, Department and School initiated agreements.
41:15 Do I hear a motion move to approve? Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Ms. Campbell? Aye.
41:20 Mr. Trent? Aye. Mr. Susan? Aye. Ms. Wright? Aye.
41:25 The next action item is H37, procurement solicitations. Do I hear a motion move to approve? Second discussion, Roll call, please. Ms. Campbell? Aye.
41:34 Mr. Trent? Aye. Mr. Susan? Aye. Ms. Wright? Aye.
41:39 The next action item is H38 book challenges in review. Title Breathless by Jay Niven. The committee’s recommendation is to remove the title.
41:48 Move to approve. Second discussion. Paul.
41:52 Ms. Campbell? Aye. Mr. Trent? Aye. Mr. Susan? Aye.
41:55 Ms. Wright? Aye. The next action item is H39 book challenges and reviews, out of Darkness. The committee recommendation is to remove the title.
42:05 Do I hear a motion move to approve? Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Ms. Campbell? Aye.
42:11 Mr. Trent? Aye. Mr. Susan? Aye. Ms. Wright? Aye.
42:16 The last action item is H40 book challenges and reviews. The title is the Last Night at Telegraph. The committee’s recommendation is to remove the title.
42:24 Do I hear a motion move to approve? Second discussion, Roll call, please. Ms. Campbell? Aye. Mr. Trent? Aye.
42:31 Mr. Susan? Aye. Ms. Wright? Aye. We will move on to the information agenda, which includes one item for the board review and may be brought back for action at a subsequent meeting.
42:43 No actual action will be taken on these items tonight. Any board member wish to discuss this item. All right.
42:52 At this time, I would like to offer my fellow board members and Dr. Rendell an opportunity to recognize students, staff or members of the community. Like to go first? I’ll go first. All right.
43:07 Have so many things that we’ve been doing, but there’s one in particular that’s starting to happen and I wanted to let everybody know that’s really exciting, is that Ralph Williams Elementary School has started to work with a Go Kart race team. And so they’re gonna. The Go Kart race organization’s gonna come in, do a facility use agreement.
43:25 But because of the way Ralph Williams is set up with a road course running through and then a oval course in the back, it looks like they’re going to start what is the first ever elementary school Go Kart racing for elementary schools. And so I, you know, started this process by talking to some of the kids. And all of a sudden, now your microphone’s off.
43:45 You guys keep talking to. All of a sudden. Now all of a sudden what we’re seeing is, is that I got invited to talk about it at one of our.
43:53 One of the big car shows that’s coming up. And F1 racing in NASCAR now starting to say, hey, we’d like to maybe possibly sponsor it. And I did not know that this is true.
44:02 Cape Canaveral Hospital association used to have Go Kart fundraising, and they had. It was one of the biggest fundraisers inside the county. So Congressman Posey is excited about it.
44:13 And what we’re going to do is, is it’s. It’s not a Brevard schools like, function. They’re going to allow the race league to come in and then host it, but then allow the teams from each one of the schools to come in.
44:23 And it’s going like wildfire. I mean, I’m already hearing from other schools that the kids are starting to get ready to sign up for it. And I don’t know if you guys know this, but a lot of the Formula One racers and the NASCAR racers came from Go Karts.
44:33 It’s pretty intense. So hats off to Ms. Schroeder for saying yes to this idea. And thank you, Dr. Rendell and Sue Han and everybody else who’ve been working on making it a reality.
44:44 So it’s gonna be a cool thing. So we’ll let you guys know. You do.
44:48 Why don’t you come over and do one? They’re doing some tests tomorrow. They’re doing tests at 10 o’ clock on the course, and then they’re gonna try to get a race off before the end of the year. So I’ll let you know.
44:58 We see. Get over there, get after it. All right, thank you.
45:01 Awesome. I’ll go next. Since we’re doing, like, recognitions and reports at the same time.
45:08 Cause mine are kind of interconnected. Last week during spring break was FSBA day in the legislature. So I first want to do a shout out to our delegation members, who I didn’t meet with any staff members this time like it was all representatives.
45:21 So I got to meet with Representative Monique Miller, Representative Robert Brackett, who sits thankfully, somebody from our who represents the south end of the county as well as Indian river on the Pre K through 12 appropriations subcommittee this year. So I had a good conversation with him. I met with Representative Tyler Sheroy who is the majority leader this year.
45:38 I met with Senator Randy Fine and Senator Tom Wright didn’t get to meet with Representative Mayfield because she had to leave early suddenly. But I just wanted to give a shout out to all the delegation members. And also, even though he doesn’t represent our area, Senate President Benjamin Albritton who came and spoke to all of us together and just, just a fantastic leader, super excited about the direction that he’s trying to lead the Senate in and the way that they work together.
46:12 So I wanted to give you guys a couple updates while I’m on that topic. Things that were happening last week and that we were able to speak to. One House Bill 1403 and Senate Bill 1470 are the school safety bills.
46:25 They are both moving along in both chambers and we should see. I think Brevard probably has an advantage because of Mr. Timpson with the exceptions. You know, the law came out last year like every single door and gate has to be locked no matter what, even if it’s a welding classroom that really should be open because we need to be ventilating it.
46:43 According to the law, everything had to be closed and locked. And so we had those exceptions. But there were districts who were scared to make those exceptions.
46:51 And also it was causing extra financial problems and everything. So those are both moving that are basically going to fix those problems and allow those exceptions. And so they’ve heard us with all the problems at last year’s bill.
47:06 It was good intentions, but they’re trying to look more realistically at things like, like I said CTE bay doors and things like that. So that’s moving along. Well, there are Senate Bill 938 and House Bill 1367 are about attendance and I know we’ve really done good work and thanks to leadership of Student services and to Mr. Gibbs for moving us along with our Trinity Court.
47:28 But there has, there’s not a statewide definition of attendance or chronic absenteeism and every district is doing it differently. And sometimes in some districts, even school to school, they are treating attendance differently. Like how many periods do they have to be missing before they are counted here or before they are absent? And so just try to get that around there.
47:49 And also I Don’t know if you guys remember we’ve had this attendance discussion, but every 90 days the count starts over. So if you missed nine days in a 90 day period, but then the next day you’re absent on day 91, it’s not the 10th day, it starts over day one. So to try to make that more uniform so that we can start putting proactive measures around students who need that help and families who need that help, we can do it earlier.
48:13 So. So those are moving along nicely. Senate Bill 166 by Senator Simon is also moving along on the Senate side.
48:21 That is the administrative efficiency bill. And that has to do with some teacher certification things and some other things that will really be beneficial to school districts. It’s part of the, it’s kind of like deregulation last year.
48:33 Right. I think I mentioned this one to you last time. I don’t think they have anything really moving in the House yet, but maybe when we get to the final things they’ll work that out.
48:41 And I just wanted to touch on a couple things relating to the budget. They actually had a meeting this afternoon. I was trying to listen to it.
48:47 It was very glitchy. But at 3:30 I’m going to go back and finish it when we leave on my way home, they just handed the budget to the House appropriation subcommittee, their first first round, not the governor’s budget but the House’s budget for education. And also they’re talking about the scholarship issue and some of the fixes on that look very positive.
49:08 One of the things is to issue a student ID number for every student who takes a scholarship, just like the students in the public schools and the charter schools have an ID number. That way when we come to these counts they’ll be able to do a more enhanced cross checking to see if there was a student who was reported as a scholarship student and a student who was reported as one of our district school students. There won’t be duplication.
49:32 They’ll be able to get to that quicker and deal with it more efficiently. And also putting deadlines into the applications for the scholarships because right now they can do it at any point, but having a hard deadline for them to apply and get the scholarship so that we’re not going back and forth. There’s still some work to be done, but I think it’s looking better.
49:55 So just some things that if you keep an eye on, want to reach out to your favorite state rep or state senator and say hey, we like that. Move along or slow down on that. I will tell you one thing that people were concerned about this afternoon, the part of the meeting that I did get to watch, one of the things they’re talking about is reducing the wait for certain programs and that included cte.
50:19 Now, if you’re so in like layman’s terms, quickly as I can explain it, every student gets one, right? If they’re a full time student, they’re one in the unweighted. But if you’re in a CTE program, you get a little, you earn a little more funding because you’re in a program that is very expensive to run. And so they’re looking at cutting all the weights by 50%.
50:41 So, and I’m just going to pick a number. So if it before, if it was 1.2, then it maybe would only be 1.
51:01 1. That would be a significant funding loss for some programs that are very expensive to run. And I did hear the chairman of the subcommittee today talk about if your district has data to show how much that you’re spending that fund.
51:11 You know, here’s. Because that’s what they’re looking at. They were looked at some districts and said, you’re getting, let’s say, $13 million for this funding, but you’re only spending certain of it on instruction and then the rest is going to other.
51:25 And they didn’t think that was justified. If we As a district, Dr. Rendell can show, hey, this is how much we’re spending on some of those programs, they’re looking at cutting the weights of. I think that would be good to send to the committee because they’re really trying to take a good look at that.
51:41 But that is, that is something that’s a little concerning. That cape, the CAPE program, CAPE finding programs are, like I said, a lot of them are super duper expensive. So that is my update on legislative things.
51:44 Thank you, Mr. Chair. All right, thank you. Thank you, Ms. Campbell.
51:47 Always informative. That’s great. I know that’s right.
52:00 I don’t have a whole lot. So we’re coming back from spring break and so I think, you know, trying to get back in the swing of things. I don’t, you know, visiting schools, doing all the fun things we have Destination Moon is coming on again this week, so hopefully board, I don’t know if you’re participating.
52:12 If you’re not, I encourage you to stop by. We also have, we have a classroom reveal happening that’s going to be very exciting. So I’m hoping that’s on your calendar because I got the opportunity to attend this last Year, it’s at Endeavor.
52:15 So please, please, please, if you can come. It’s. It’s a really big event.
52:18 It’s very exciting. It’s really neat. That’s something I’m looking forward to as well.
52:21 I had one small ask. That’s really not. It’s not a board report.
52:28 It’s not really. This is kind of in a gray area. So as you guys know, I have been championing the modified calendar.
52:36 We’ve heard a thing or two about that. Right. So one of the things that, that, you know, I’m hearing from a lot of families and I’ve told you guys this again, we want to delay it by year.
52:43 We like it if it was district wide. Those are some of the common threads. But one of the other things I think is very important is that we communicate to our families.
53:01 So I have prepared a letter I gave to Dr. Rendell to send to the Port St. John families that have already come to, like the town school events and done the survey and things of that nature. So I just want to run it by the board because obviously these are board decisions. And so I want to make sure that you guys are comfortable with, with us sending out this letter rather than just myself sending it out.
53:04 So I’m going to give you a copy of that. You’ll have that as well. I’m going to pass it down.
53:23 One of the other things I thought, you know, this hadn’t occurred to me before, but, you know, we have lobbyists. Our district has lobbyists. I have been lobbying myself for some legislative changes, which we all know that’s very challenging when you’re here in Brevard and it’s all happening in Tallahassee and we’re all very busy, but I wondered if the board might have an appetite for the.
53:44 This one that, you know, this one piece of legislation that says school cannot start, it has to start on or after August 10th. Would the board be entertained even regardless of whether or not we move either direction. But maybe having our lobbyists look at this as an initiative and saying, hey, we want to move that start date for school, and if the board is in favor of doing that, then that’s something we could work with.
53:55 Not this legislative session. It would be probably next year, but just really need to get consensus on. Does the board support that idea? So I do.
53:56 Yeah, absolutely. You do. Okay.
54:02 I got one, too. Ms. Campbell, thoughts, feelings, talking about for next legislative session. Yeah.
54:06 Which is always good to start as early as possible. Yes. Let me.
54:21 Let’s do some more thinking and Looking. And I have had the question all along. I don’t know if everybody’s been able to give me a solid answer, sir, because we do already have schools that are, that are on a modified calendar, if that.
54:39 If they were grandfathered in, like our charter school in the south area, that’s Royal Palm, that runs on modified calendar. And the ones in Charlotte, they were already running a modified calendar. So I just, I just don’t want us to spin our wheels trying to lobby for something that may already exist.
54:43 But I don’t know if I’ve gotten any. A solid answer on that. I have not gotten a solid answer on it.
54:56 And it doesn’t seem like I can get one from anybody either when I ask that question, because I’m like, how is Charlotte county doing this? And there are other school districts that are running on it. And all I can say is sometimes other districts do things that maybe, you know, I don’t know. I’m not sure.
55:10 So I don’t, I don’t really want to wade into those waters too much. But I will tell you, for me, obviously, the legislation saying that you can’t start school on or before, it seems like now’s a good time to really approach this because there’s so much talk about school, school start times. This kind of coincides a little bit.
55:26 It’s a start date, not a start time, but it seems like it would be a good kind of piggyback off of it and going ahead and open that door for the lobbyist point of view. So. And this is regardless of if we do it or not, right? Like, this is just something I think that makes sense overall for the state to look at.
55:31 So if you. It sounds. Mr. Trent, you’re in favor? Mr. Susan, you’re in favor.
55:45 I’m obviously in favor of that. Just to go ahead and approach them and say this is something that we would like to see them start to work on for us and then we can decide later on once we start serving communities, you know, if calendars are going to change things of that nature. So.
55:57 All right. And that is all that I have, Dr. Mindell. So I don’t know if the viewing audience can see the walls around the room, but we actually are surrounded by art tonight.
56:08 We have an art show here tomorrow night. So Wednesday, March 26, starting at 5:30pm we’ll have an art show in this room. It’s high school art from around the district.
56:27 And if you have been here, some of you have been here and seen it, it’s incredible. If you haven’t and you have time tomorrow night and you’re an art person, you might want to come to the art show here at ESF tomorrow, which is Wednesday, March 26th, starting at 5:30. Really impressive art by a lot of our students around the country.
56:31 County really worth coming to see. That’s it. That’s it.
56:44 Great. All right. Well again, coming off of the the break, I hope everybody, especially our staff at this moment, I like to speak to them is re you know, their batteries have been recharged.
57:02 The students got plenty of rest. I’m sure they slept a lot during the break so they’re all excited to get back into school. But again we this is where we we really count on that staff, those teachers right now we know you’re going to be preparing your students for all the tests that they’re going to be taking and we appreciate you and we know your administration does.
57:23 And as a parent also, we appreciate that all that you’re putting into preparing our students for the next, you know, X amount of days before they’re done with this school year. So just hang in there, not too long and then we’ll be enjoying our summer. But that’ll take us to where we’re going now.
57:47 We’ll now take a short break in order to prepare for our non agenda public comments portion of the meeting. Paul, how many do we have? Two. Two speakers and each of it we’ll get three minutes but we’ll come back in just a few minutes than. Sam, It.