Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
1:35 It’s sa. Sam. It’s. It’s.
10:11 It’s. It. Sam.
10:17 Okay. Good afternoon. The May 6, 2025 board work session in rural development and first public hearing is now in order.
10:19 Paul, Roll call, please. Mr. Trent. Here.
10:21 Mr. Susan. Here. Ms. Wright.
10:23 Ms. Campbell. Here. Mr. Thomas.
10:43 Here. Please stand for pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States, United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible.
10:57 Doctor Rendell, can you address the board with the items on the agenda for today? Thank you, Mr. Chair. On today’s agenda, we have the following topics. First will be some proposed school board policy updates with rule development and the first public hearing for these policies.
11:16 Then we’ll have a short presentation on the 2025, 2030 strategic plan overview on operational efficiency. That’s the fourth goal area. Then we have a facilities planning update presentation by Sue Han and her team, and then board review and discussion of policy 0165.
11:25 All right, first on today’s agenda, we’ll have these policies for review. Proposed policy updates. Policy 3120.
11:59 Is there anyone present who wishes to address these items? Is there anyone present who wishes to address these items? Policy 3140. Anyone present to address these items? Is there anyone present to address these items? Policy 3430. Is there anyone present who wishes to address these items? Is there anyone present to who wishes to address these items? Next on the agenda, we have the 2025, 2030 strategic plan overview on operational efficiency.
12:17 Dr. Rendell. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’d like to ask Cynthia Rand to come on up to the table and whoever then she calls upon to come up and support her presentation, the board and the public may remember that we just crafted a new strategic plan that’s going to take us from 2025 to 2030.
12:25 There are four goal areas in the strategic plan. We have done a presentation on the first three areas. This is the fourth goal area, operational efficiency.
12:46 So I’ll turn it over to Ms. Rand as to not steal any more of her thunder. Okay. Good afternoon, board for Chair and Dr. Rendell.
13:01 Well, you know, here we are, we’re at the last goal of our strategic plan. Super excited to kind of share this last but really important goal. You know, this goal encompasses four of our nine divisions.
13:18 It certainly is not the encompass near what they do, but they tried to distill it down to things that really had to do with operationally Efficiency. Efficiency. Okay.
13:36 As Dr. Rendell said, we have four goals, and today we’re on operational efficiency. And the goal of operational efficiency is to ensure efficiency within district operations that contributes to the success of academic excellence. So we have six objectives in this goal that we’ll start out with.
13:50 Ms. Han will start out in overview on objective one, then Mr. Wilson will go on 02 and 03. Ms. Linsky, 04. Mr. Wilson again back to with 05.
13:59 And finally we’ll wind it up with Mr. Cheatham in 06. So I’ll just turn it right over to Ms. Han. Thank you.
14:25 Good afternoon everybody. I’ll be talking about the facilities world and literally we can measure anything and everything. So I could give you, you know, lots and lots of stuff here, but we try to capture a performance indicator that kind of gives a sense of we’re doing better and improving preventative maintenance versus reactive maintenance and primarily in the H Vac realm, although I think we’ll be getting there with some of our other traits as well.
14:52 So that’s our overarching performance indicator to try and continue to keep up our H Vac systems that we are able to focus on preventative versus reactive maintenance. But the three strategies that we’re using are not wholly within the H Vac realm, but they do contribute to good financial stewardship. Which is what Ms. Lusinski is going to talk about later today, specifically around reducing our energy consumption.
15:40 And that’s about a 15ish million dollar operating expense that if we can do better in our, you know, in our building systems and seal our building envelopes, do LED lighting, do some things we can perhaps do better. So we’re starting to do some better work around analyzing our energy consumption data at each school and looking at, you know, these are our heavy users on like a per student basis or a per square foot basis and trying to find the outliers on both the, the good end and the bad end to see where we can perhaps replicate good practices or figure out what’s causing this to behave well and then transition those practices to other schools or identify outliers on the other side that we need to give some attention to. So anyway, we think we can be impactful.
15:53 It’s just a slow process, you know, redoing windows, redoing LED lighting. It’s resource intensive and it takes time. We’re also looking at retrofitting LED lighting in all our schools.
16:08 That is a Surtax funded project. The cost of LED lighting has gone up dramatically since we initiated that in 2020. So we currently have a pause on that project while we revisit our strategy for getting that done.
16:29 So we’re looking at different ways to do that a little bit more cost effectively. And then our third initiative relates to the classroom conditions. And you’ve seen on your board agendas we’ve done some pretty robust classroom renovations over the last couple of years, primarily funded through surtax and to some extent through capital and ESSER funding.
16:56 We have four big projects coming up this summer, and we’d like to do a few every year, but these are typically about $2 million projects when we redo all of the classrooms. And the nice thing about that type of project is we can work with educational technology, we work with the chief of schools, and we try to leave school with a completed classroom that isn’t just facilities, but that takes in some of these other aspects. So these are three strategies.
17:20 I literally could have a thousand strategies that we’re working on, but those are kind of three that will give you a sense of how we’re doing with our energy consumption, how we’re doing with our classrooms, and how we’re doing better with being more predictive and proactive in our maintenance approach. So I think that’s all unless there are questions on. On our objective and performance indicator.
17:25 Okay. All right. Now for Objective 2.
17:38 To transport students safely, efficiently and on time. This objective is near and dear to my heart because if we don’t get the kids to school, they’re not learning. And we have three strategies under this objective.
18:03 The first one being to maximize the use of our routing system, which is a year old, the Athena routing system, and Reaxiom, which is a couple years older, but to maximize the use of that. So that will enhance the efficiency of getting our kids to school on time. And the metric reduced average bus Travel time from 66 minutes to 60 minutes.
18:27 Now, with that being said, we factored in, we removed the alternate routes because those routes were making those routes, those particular routes were increasing the time to and from school. With those alternative schools no longer in play, we’re hoping that will assist in the minimizing of the to and from aspect of school. Strategic to strategy to.
18:40 Excuse me. Analyze ridership data in relation to bus capacity to identify trends and areas for improvement to optimize route planning. Again, we want to be more efficient with our route planning.
19:05 I think think the more efficient we are, the more precise we’ll be within getting our kids to and from school in a great time. Strategy three, secure an adequate annual budget for fleet renewal to facilitate timely acquisition within the replacement cycle. Right now we’re at like a 9.
19:33 87 years for our buses. That’s. We want to be under 10.
19:52 So we have to continue to secure funding to get the 29 to 30 buses per year so we can stay within that warranty time frame. With that being said, that also assists with the warranty because our shortage of mechanics, if we have the more buses we have on warranty, the less blow we’ll have from the mechanic shortage. Does that make sense? So we want to continue to secure those funds.
19:58 And our overall goal is to our regular routes, we want to increase the on time arrival time from 83.6 to 90% based on monthly averages by the end of 20. School year 2030.
19:59 That’s it for Objective 2. Unless there’s any questions. I have a couple questions I’m going to just ask real fast.
20:06 Yes, ma’. Am. Thank you.
20:14 So the average bus time, 66 minutes. Is that one way or is that, is that to and from? That’s to and from. To and from.
20:25 Okay, so that’s good to know. And then the, the route, the percentage that you have there, the 83.61, increasing it to 90, is that.
20:34 What time frame are we looking from? Are we looking from 2020 to 2025? Is that where you got that 83.61%? The 83.61 is where we are now.
20:37 Right. And then is that as a whole or is there like a chunk of time that you were looking at that was. That was for this, this school year? This school year.
21:01 Okay, all right. That was what I was trying to find out. All right, wonderful.
21:08 And then one of the other things that I would just love to see in this one, and this is just from some of my reviewing of things that we have going on in the district, is a performance indicator of reducing the amount of bus accidents that we see. So a lot of fender bender little things, nothing major, but I would love, love, love to see that go down. So if there was a way that we could figure out that, I think that would be tremendous for our district and obviously go training, continue to train, train, train, train.
21:26 That was discussed, matter of fact, at our last supervisors meeting, the different types of training that we can partake in. All right, thank you. Thank you.
21:46 All you’re doing with the transportation department. Thank you. I think part of it also is that when I was talking to them, because it’s been an issue now for a little bit, they were mentioning that there’s some other side things besides the training that in order to get qualified people in that we might be able to do which is extend to eight hour work days for some of them.
21:50 And because a lot of people who are current bus drivers may not be able to apply for home loans and stuff like that. So there might be some creative ways that are not huge dents into our budget to be able to attract the better and best of the community. So if you can ask Mark Rainey and some of the others, they had a whole proposal that they were going to bring to you.
22:12 I told them it goes to you and stuff like that. So if they can do that, that’d be great. Thank you.
22:22 Yep, I will welcome that conversation. Yes, just quick question on the S3, the funding source and I don’t know if anybody has this off the top of their heads, but we talked about what we’re going to do with bus patrol and everything and I know there’s a limited number of things you can do with that income. Is buying new buses part of what we can do with that.
22:27 And I know sometimes we can do like a swap out, but can we find that out? We can. Okay, thank you. Can.
22:38 All good. See. Thank you.
22:57 All right, the next objective. Embrace efficient procurement, distribution and food service solutions to redirect resources to schools. Again, we have three strategies.
23:09 The first one being achieve savings through strategic sourcing solutions and effective negotiations. Sean and his team have done a phenomenal job in that respect thus far. Maximize revenue from surplus materials through effective online auctions and recycling programs.
23:18 Surplus revenue is allocated to generate funds to general funds. Excuse me. We meet monthly and we have a goal set on the.
23:29 Is a million dollars. It’s a goal and we want to. We track how much money we’ve saved and I don’t know the number off my head but we’re in a pretty.
23:52 We’re short but we’re in a pretty decent. Pretty decent space right now from a procurement standpoint as far as saving funds. And it’s all started through our strategic sourcing solutions.
24:07 And the last strategy, Maximize revenue offerings, appealing healthy lunches, healthy nutritious meals that meet the USDA regulations that encourage students and staff participants participation. Kevin and his team have a goal to by 2030 to have saved $15 million. So we can continue on with our capital improvements in our cafeterias.
24:14 And we have several cafeterias and serving lines on the docket, freezers, et cetera, on the docket this summer to be completed. So. And that’s how we’re going to capture those dollars through the strategic sourcing and negotiating associations.
24:22 That’s all I have. Any questions? I’m not picking on. No.
24:28 I’m gonna go because, you know, I have questions. I just want to publicly ask them and just get clarification. So this, There’s a lot in this one.
24:50 So procurement, distribution and food services, that’s a lot to roll into one. Right. So procurement, there’s work to be done there.
25:08 We know that. And I know, I know Sean’s doing an amazing job there, and I know there’s a lot to undertake, but one of the things that we had seen with RSM and doing some of their internal audits on the procurement process, I think we just need to make sure we’re looking at this. I would love there to be a check and balance from when finance is cutting a check to pay one of our vendors to make sure that everything is in order in the file, that we have all the proper documentation before that happens.
25:19 So if there’s a way on the back end to create that, that way when RSM comes back in and looks at us and says, hey, is everything, every box checked for the procurement end of things to make sure that we’ve done everything correctly and that this is a, a good vendor in good standing and we’re good to pay them. That would be tremendous to have. Love the idea of the farm to fresh idea.
25:28 Like, sorry, farm? Yeah, farm to fresh table food idea. So some of our schools do an exceptional job with the gardening. And I’m like, if there’s a way to incorporate that and teach kids, that’s such a positive, positive impact.
25:35 I was at Coquina and they have this amazing garden going right now. I’m ready to get out there and like pick beets and tomatoes and all these things they have going collard greens. It was impressive.
25:41 So Kevin’s team does an amazing job there. If there’s a way to incorporate something like that, I think that be beneficial to teach our students and give them a life skill that they could use. So.
25:50 And that’s, I think, all that I have. Sorry, guys, I don’t mean to keep hijacking. No, start here, Mr. Chair.
26:09 Yeah. Just real quickly, quick question. I know that healthy nutritious meals and maximizing revenue might be conflict as far as getting kids.
26:15 If you’re going to maximize revenue, but you’re trying to offer healthy, nutritious meals, can you just kind of broad brush idea on how we market to the kids or how you plan to market to the kids and get them more interested in and having eating better and increasing what they’re buying. Yeah. Kevin and his team do a really good Job of marketing.
26:32 Again, that’s a, you know, if it’s not chicken wings. Right. It’s kind of difficult to market.
26:43 But we’re just going to continue to do what we’ve been doing. And because they do a really good job of marketing, it’s just the fact that due to federal regulations, our hands are tied as to what we can and what we cannot partake in. Yeah.
26:46 Let me give you an example. Yep. So one of the things that they’ve done in the last couple years is institute the camper, what it’s called, but it’s like a, like a mo Line.
27:07 Yes, Right, right. It’s the Chipotle line. Right.
27:19 Where the kids and I from, the schools that I’ve been to, that line is packed along every day because the kids can choose their, you know, choose their protein, choose their base, kind of like you would in a lot of the restaurants today. So that would be one example of ways that they’re promoting things to get more kids to participate and adults on campus trying to keep it healthy along while they’re doing. Right, right, Exactly.
27:23 And that’s, that’s been a real big hit. The Chipotle line, trust me, it’s been breaking me personally sounds pretty good right now. Thank you.
27:30 Only purchase from that line. I don’t know. I can find out.
27:46 I know you certain things that they can buy. So if you’re like, hey, you’re not buying actually every single. And remember, there’s a new system too.
27:53 So I’m not really sure what the system can and can’t do because it’s only been out of curiosity because I know, I know that a lot of families would probably entertain that, but they can’t control their kids when they go into there. And so like they say, oh yeah, mom, I went ahead and bought the Healthy line, but they’re actually getting the ice cream and everything else. The Wilson family, that would have been me.
28:02 The Wilson family struggle with that too. 13 year old chocolate. Living your best life.
28:11 Yes, sir. No, I was just going to say the, the Fresh line does that. And I, I think the Chipotle and Moe, those things have really have made your job a little bit easier to do that.
28:15 It has. It isn’t just hamburgers and fries and I mean from the marketing, the revenue side, you know, we’re seeing good results thus far. Right.
28:18 And you can charge for that. Absolutely. Keep it up.
28:36 Thank you, sir. That’s it. Okay.
28:54 Objective four, deliver financial management efficiency by building a culture of financial stewardship throughout the all district entities and the financial stewardship is a team sport. Everyone’s got to be on board. Everybody’s got to work together.
29:07 We have a financial responsibility to our all of our students, employees, and communities to be good stewards of our funding. To be successful, we must continue to foster the culture of cost awareness in everything that we do. And I love everything that I’ve heard here so far.
29:12 I mean, it’s from everything from turning off lights. So sue mentioned the $15 million utility bill. Florida Power and Light are going to have a 25% increase starting in January.
29:42 So. So the bill is going to go up. But just turning off lights makes a huge difference.
29:55 There’s unplugging vampire equipment from the walls, refining the bus route, saving diesel fuel, improving processes, and then sometimes just taking a breath, because I think, you know, that when you move too fast, you make mistakes. And making mistakes just causes you to go back, and it takes more time to fix the errors. And also just always being aware of what you’re doing.
30:25 You were talking about the, you know, driving the bus, driving and just people that are going out to the schools is very important. And safety, safety first. We should always.
30:37 People need to be in the right mindset and be fully attentive, because if you bypass the safety procedures or if you don’t have a good safety program, which our schools do, there’s going to be employee mishaps. And then, you know, our employees are our greatest assets. So we just need to make sure that we have this culture of savings in everything that we do.
30:44 And, you know, there’s also the fact that. That there are more wants, needs, requirements than resources than we have. And, you know, resources is funding.
31:02 We heard a lot about time. Time is a resource stuff. People.
31:19 Those are all resources that we have to manage and make sure that we’re using them to the best. The best way that we can to be efficient and to align dollars correctly. So one of the things that we need to focus and what I believe is the focus with.
31:49 Because we have a finite budget and we have so many wants, needs, but, you know, we have fixed costs to open the door, certain things that we have to do. However, there shouldn’t be budget winners and losers. There should be challenges and opportunities.
32:01 And if we focus on aligning our dollars towards student achievement, I don’t think we can go wrong, because that’s what we’re here for is student achievement and prioritizing those programs. And, you know, and one of the things that I want to say is, you know, efficiency is great. I have an example today I spent probably two hours because there was an error in a cell trying to figure it out.
32:13 And then if this, if just that check, right, that just makes such a big difference. But you can’t always be efficient. And I don’t think we want to always be efficient.
32:36 I think we want to be effective when it comes to education. We want a teacher that’s effective. Do you want an efficient teacher or somebody that actually teaches? And the kids get it and so it costs more.
32:57 So you have the extra support, you have to put things in place, you have professional development, you have teaching methods, you have all those extra things in order to be effective. Is that efficient? Well, I think it is because that investment yields gains in student achievement, extends beyond academic performance. It influences students self worth.
33:35 It influences their earnings when they move on and their career paths. So, you know, efficient, effective. But what we really need to do is when we’re making financial decisions and you know, it might be a tough year coming up, we really need to focus on student achievement.
33:52 In my opinion, our performance indicator is to main a financial condition ratio annually of at least 8% of the assigned and unassigned general fund balance. And that actually is, and it may not be something that intuitive to most people, but that really measures the health of a school district is their financial condition and their fund balance balance. It’s the best gauge and monitoring.
34:14 That’s what our, that’s how we’re rated. Our credit rating comes mainly from our fund balance, our financial conditions. So I believe if we can maintain and they also look at consistent, like if you go like this, and that means maybe you’re not that consistent.
34:45 If we maintain at least an 8% fund condition, then we can show that we can adjust to economic downturns, enrollment reduction, unexpected crises, and you know, also respond to if there’s more money coming. Right. But we have to be able to show that we can respond.
35:04 So if we can keep that 8% and it’s also a safety net, right? So if we do have a real bad year, you should always have a balanced budget. But if you have more in your fund balance, then you can afford to make some of those decisions in bad years as long as you’re consistent with that 8%. And then also it’s just all about the community trust and our financial stability.
35:13 Mr. Chair, can I ask a question? Absolutely. All right. Can you tell us what our current, our current fund balance percentage is? Right now? The current percentage is 7.
35:22 6. Okay. And the goal is to get up to at least 8%.
35:33 I would love to increase 0.5% each year and maintain at least a 9% by 2030. Okay.
35:35 And then I have one more follow up question, which actually is probably more of a Sue question based on. It just triggered my thought process. You mentioned that the lights being on is a huge expense, obviously when it comes to our electricity bill.
35:57 Have we looked at a cost analysis of possibly looking at. I know there’s all kinds of technology that automatically turns lights off, which can be frustrating if there’s not movement. I think everyone’s probably been caught.
36:10 We have that. I’ve been stuck in a classroom. Okay.
36:12 I was gonna say everyone’s been caught somewhere where you’re like dancing around trying to get it to turn. But have we looked at what it would cost to outfit a school with that and then just try to measure and see, like, hey, is this something that’s worth us exploring to reduce our electricity cost? So the direct answer to your question is no, we. We typically don’t do that for the reason that you described, Ms. Campbell, when we retrofit.
36:19 And I think some of our newer schools may have that just because of newer code requirements, but we’re not actively doing that. But Mrs. Wright, I’d have to take a look at and see if we’re. I know we have them some places, but not everywhere, so.
36:40 Okay. I would just be curious to see on. On our schools.
36:51 I’m sure you’re able to pinpoint and figure out which school is pulling the most electricity. I’m sure you can tell that based on your bill that you’re getting. So maybe it might be worth exploring to see.
37:01 Is this something that would save a significant amount of money and how much would it cost up front end, you know, and then in the end obviously pay dividends. One of the areas where we have seen some savings is as we’ve upgraded our H VAC equipment and our control systems that we have basically that system on controls. So it’s not running 24 7.
37:11 And it can run based on occupancy, it can run based on time of day, and we can make some adjustments. And we found that to be a bit of a cost savings when we keep our billings on controls. Okay.
37:25 So anyway, I can look a little farther, but some of our lighting is on controls, but certainly not most of it. Okay. And then window tinting is another option that obviously could save money with electricity.
37:48 So I know there’s an upfront cost there, but you’re looking long term. Is this expense worth having upfront to save in the long run. So that’s an enthusiastic yes.
37:53 We are actually working with district security because I think there’s two purposes in that arena. And so our priorities are going to be twofold. One is those windows that are public facing relative to security.
37:59 And then our second priority for us is those windows that are leaking. And so we’re kind of looking at both of those because a leaky building from water intrusion and then the air conditioning, the outside piece is never good. So we’re looking at that pretty seriously as kind of our next group of major projects, probably through the surtax renewal and to some extent in current projects.
38:04 You’ll see a couple window projects coming up shortly. Okay, that’s exciting. Thank you.
38:20 Windows are incredibly expensive, correct? Yes, ma’. Am. That’s a good way to put it.
38:32 As are LED lights. Like it’s. Yeah.
38:38 Cindy, would you give us just kind of the short form formula for when the companies are. Just because we have people who are listening for, for that financial condition ratio, what is the. The simple formula for to get that? 8%.
38:59 Yes, it. It’s the unrestricted and the unassigned divided by total revenue. Okay, thank you.
39:18 Good. Mr. Thomas. Got a question for you, Ms. Linsky.
39:28 So I’ve heard we, we throughout the year watch some of the accounts go from being large to small, back to being large or you know what I mean, increasing based upon salaries or wherever it is. Right. So at the beginning of the year we say, okay, we have an extra 30 units here, 50 units here throughout the year.
39:36 Sometimes they get used up and then they fall to the bottom line at the bottom. What is the percentage that you guys go for for changing of an actual line item? So like if budget line item for operational X is this how. What is the percentage that you change, meaning you spend.
39:51 If there’s $100 million, right. And we only spend $50 million of it, that would be a 50% change. Where that has to be transferred out that the.
40:08 It was budgeted for X, it ended up being Y. And there’s a difference percentage. It’s inside of our budgets.
40:20 Like every one of our budgets talks about transfers and how much that is and everything else. Do you guys have an actual. We try to be within this when we make the budget percentage.
40:43 Well, when we. What we’ve been doing for the last two years is actually estimating what we think lapse could be or would be and using that to. We’re using that as part of our.
40:57 Our budget. Right. So when we need a reserve unit in the past Two years ago we would have reserve units and if we didn’t need them, it would fall to the bottom.
41:28 But now we don’t carry any reserve units and we fund reserve units with our laps. So we’ve gotten pretty tight and with the best our ability, we try to predict and you know, our numbers are always not going to be, they’re not going to be exact or right. They’re going to be different, they’re going to come out different.
41:37 But you know, the budget is a plan of what we think the revenues are and what we think the expenses are. So I guess the short answer is I’d have to take a look. I don’t, we don’t plan saying I think we’re going to have a deviation of blank percent.
41:48 But if we do find that we over under budget, then the next year we try to correct that and figure out where that was that we were so off. So if we took a specific item, line item, and said, okay, let’s look at the last three years. In the last three years we’ve seen a 90% spend with a 10% over inside of those, you would then look at that and say, hey, we, we haven’t spent 10% of this for three straight years.
41:49 We need to adjust that down to the 90% total so that we’re not consistently over budgeting in this area. Correct? Correct. Okay, thank you.
41:56 But you don’t have a specific percentage you try to shoot towards to be inside of for each one of your budgets. We try to be as accurate. I mean we don’t say, hey, we want to.
42:20 No, we don’t do that. Okay. Yeah.
42:46 All right, thank you. You. All right.
43:02 Next we have objective five, provide comprehensive school safety measures to ensure the safety of students and staff. The indicator, performance indicator is to achieve and sustain 100% compliance with the Office of Safe Schools quarterly during the quarterly monitoring visits. We have four strategies that for this objective.
43:35 The first one being monitor the compliance with state requirements relating to school safety. We, as you all know, we have a gentleman by the name of Michael Timson who does a phenomenal job in that respect. And he has gone, he has visited every school probably at least twice and has been in communication with some three or four or five times about being in compliance.
43:47 And that’s totally separate from the actual state state visit. So he does a phenomenal job. His communication is clear, his expectations are clear and we still have a couple hiccups along the way, but nothing major, nothing that can’t, that haven’t been resolved.
44:03 And during his visit. So he has been a welcomed addition to the team in that respect. So I feel really good about us achieving and once we achieve, sustaining the 100% compliance and again the non compliance issues have been nothing major, minor like not having a hard corner up in the room or having the hard corner up but it falls down and you know, and just the timing of the visit, it’s on the ground or a shelf has been moved, it’s covering the hard corner.
44:24 So nothing major from a compliance standpoint. And he has done a phenomenal job getting to more importantly building relationships with our schools in that respect. So they’re working as a team and not in isolation.
44:49 So he’s done phenomenal. Strategy 2 Implement a phased approach to re fingerprint all staff to ensure state compliance. As you all know, there’s been a new mandate from a fingerprinting aspect across the state that’s been a heavy lift by district security.
45:19 We are starting, we have currently started that process here within ESF and then we will do a second phase during the summer with our 12 month employees and then we’re going to hit the schools starting in August. We already have a plan mapped out to accomplish that goal by 2027. June 30, 2027.
45:32 Our next strategy, this one has been interesting. Create a sustainable and diverse candidate pool of SROs and specialists. I say that because, you know, every summer we have about six or seven specialists since I’ve been in this role that have applied, pass the test, go through the training, but by the end of the year that 6 or 7 becomes 1 or 2 for various reasons.
46:03 Some retire, some seek higher paying jobs, some get picked up by law enforcement, enforcement, municipalities, et cetera. So our goal is to try to be creative in not only marketing to retain them to get them in, but to keep them as well. And the last but not least, the strategy Open gate weapons detection system in BPS high school, middle schools and elementary schools by 2030.
46:21 We had a successful implementation slash deployment of our high schools this past year. We started in October, we completed in March, I think March or April. March.
46:35 And the goal is to have every school. Have the goal is to have every school, elementary, middle and high have the open gate weapon detective system to help add another layer to our campuses for safety. The middle school because we, you know, the high school, you know, they have a lot of entry points, right? The high schools, the middle schools because most of our middle schools are presidential schools.
46:43 And it’ll be easier to create that single point entry and I think that will be Just as smooth with the, with the deployment of the open gate system. Now, the elementary schools, we have 57 elementary schools. We have a lot of different type of elementary schools.
46:56 There are some discussions, we’re still in discussions of what that will look like and, and how, but we have some time to work out those kinks. That’s all I have. All right, I’ll go first.
47:15 District security obviously, has been something I’ve been very passionate about since I got on this board. So I appreciate all the efforts. Mr. Timson’s done a phenomenal job.
47:30 I would be, you know, willing to bet that you’re probably pretty close to 100% right now with the compliance. I was going to say you’re probably 99%. I hear nothing but good reports when he comes out and, and gives, he gives back, you know, good feedback.
47:41 So the fingerprinting of the schools that we’re going to do when we go to our staff, one of the asks that I. I have got this a couple times since I’ve been on the board and I’m sure you’ve. Guys, if you haven’t got them, you will get them. Can we have mobile fingerprinting come to our school to help get our volunteers fingerprinted? So that comes up a couple times a year usually.
47:49 So I’m hoping that we kind of couple this when we’re going in to do the fingerprinting for our staff, that we maybe make this available to potential volunteers that want to fingerprint but can’t come down to Viera to get the fingerprints done. So that would just be a small asset. I’ll make just the school sites go and go ahead and put that out there.
48:04 That way they know it’s available to them. One of the other thing, when we talk about the open gate and this is probably a board discussion that we need to have as a whole. Middle schools, absolutely.
48:19 I think they need to be implemented in middle schools, elementary schools. I don’t know. I don’t know if that’s the right mentality for the elementary schools.
48:33 Because when we look at historically what has happened with school shooters and them being from the inside, so to speak, you’re not seeing that on the elementary level. Right. So my thought process with that would be it would be smart to have them in the front office right as they walk through.
48:47 But do we need to have every one of. Because you have the car loop line, most those kids, a lot of those kids are coming from the car loop. Then you have buses and just the logistics of all that getting into the single point entry is a little more challenging, I think, with the elementaries, but I think it needs to definitely go to the middle schools.
48:56 And then my ask too, of this would be some of ours are junior seniors. I think you guys all have junior seniors in your district, right? That they get extra units whenever that happens. So I know everyone’s gonna go, oh, they’re already all squared away because they’ve got them in there.
49:02 It’s a junior senior. But if you’ve ever been there in the morning and seen what happens for the open gate, they absolutely need the extra units because they’re processing more kids and they’re moving those things around all over the school site. So my ask would be that we keep it consistent across the board.
49:05 So whatever we do in the middle schools, even if it’s a junior middle, a junior senior, we’re going to give them the same thing as what we were going to do if it was a standalone middle school. So. All right.
49:12 And that, I think, is all that I have. Thank you for all that you guys are doing for district security. Keeping our children, our children safe is literally the most important thing.
49:20 Everything else we do, it doesn’t matter if our kids aren’t safe. Right. That’s.
49:36 That’s kind of the mindset that I have. So I want to make sure everyone’s children, mine included, go home at the end of the day. It is the number one priority.
49:49 The partnership with BCSO and BPS is a partnership like no other. It is. And we got to give credit where credit is due.
49:55 They do a phenomenal job assisting us and ensuring that our schools are safe. They do. And so, no, it’s a great partnership and we look forward to that enhancing and growing and just trying to make it as tight as possible.
50:00 I think this is a shout out to our sheriff. I don’t think there’s another vendor that we have that spends money to be a vendor within our organization. So I think he is the one that does that, which is, you know, he should be setting a trend for everyone around the state.
50:05 This is a community effort, right. To make sure that our schools are safe and our sheriff steps up and really. And all the municipalities as well.
50:08 So we’re very grateful for them and all the work that you do. Thank you. Just wanted to clarify.
50:13 It’s my understanding that our junior seniors, the middle school students on those campuses are already going through. Already going through. Yep.
50:15 I was going to. So they don’t need additional. Because they’re already doing it.
50:22 They do need additional. What I’m saying to you is that they’re processing more children, and so there’s a lot more that are coming in there. And so if you.
50:32 I wouldn’t. If you. You’ve gone, you’ve gone.
50:39 Have you seen a junior senior in the mornings or no. So number of students. So I’m just gonna beg different.
50:46 I mean, like, some of our junior seniors have anywhere from 1,000 to 1,500 kids, whereas we have high schools that have 2,000, 20, 100. So it’s the same number of kids. It’s the same.
51:04 So I, I don’t know that they need additional from what they already have. Edgewood looks different than Space Coast. Right.
51:07 From sheer enrollment. So the need at Space coast is more than the need at Edgewood. Right.
51:12 And so maybe that’s something that we consider as the board looking at our student enrollment. How many students are going through those every single day? Because when I’m watching their admin team literally lift these units up and bring them from the front office and carry them all the way over here to get them to that gate, and I’m thinking, man, it would be great if there was just a stationary unit that was there and they didn’t have. Have to do all of that.
51:23 And they. You have these other units. Yeah, sorry.
51:36 My, My, my. My point was that it’s. It’s not related to junior senior versus regular high school or middle school.
51:50 It has to do with the layouts of the campus and the number of entries and, and every campus that I’m seeing, they’re moving them because they just have to. Even the ones that have four. But start on, on that.
51:58 With the Open Gate and elementaries, I, I’m sharing those same concerns of the history historically, but also the way elementaries start their day. It is. And it’s necessary.
52:11 But one of the necessary evils of this process with Open Gate is we’re kind of messing up that beginning of the day routines. And I’ve heard from some of our administrators that it makes them sad. They understand why, but it makes them sad that they can’t have that normal interaction that they used to.
52:31 And, you know, some of you guys have been high school principals and, you know, that important relationship building, and they feel like they’re so rushed because. Hand me your laptop. Hand me.
52:37 You know, and they’re just. It’s changing the way elementary school, that’s such a different ball game as far as the culture thing from the very beginning. So I think it would be good to have them, whatever we end up doing.
52:55 We still have years away and the technology, I’m going to assume is going to continue to improve exponentially as technology does. And so maybe we even have a better solution by the time we get to 2030. But I think having one on each campus and it’s necessary for visitors is why, especially now that we’re all locked in on those front offices.
53:04 I think every elementary school campus that I’ve seen is. Is done. The front offices are done.
53:06 But yeah, I have reservations about doing for our elementary schools in the same way that we’ve done for our high schools. I wanted to ask about. Because the first point you talked about, we’re responsible for our charter school compliance.
53:08 Yes. So are we getting cooperation with our charter schools with Mr. Timson and the visits are we. Has that been positive? For the most part, we are.
53:11 Okay. Yeah. There’s been a hiccup here.
53:15 Hiccup there. Right. Nothing major.
53:31 Okay. But. But for the most part we are.
53:39 Yes, ma’. Am. They’re so independent and that’s the way they’re intended to be when it comes to security.
53:50 This is one of the. One of the areas where we really have to come in and I hate to say the word demand, but really require compliance because we are responsible for them following the rules on this as a board and as a district. So it’s one of the areas where we.
54:05 It really falls on us. So I just wanted to see how that was going. And then I. Ms. Wright took the idea right out of my brain about the mobile.
54:20 I was going to ask are we using the mobile fingerprinting units to re. Fingerprint everything, but I think the volunteer thing is a great idea. And if people can come, not that we have extended hours because now you guys are going to be moving those things all around.
54:25 But if we can say here’s your window and if you can get here, priorities on staff because obviously we have to get all those people through. But if there’s a. If there’s an additional opportunity for parents to come because we deal with the same thing in the south end as she’s dealing with in the north end.
54:33 People don’t want to come all the way to Viera because it seems so far away. It does. And Dr. Rendell has blessed us to hike some additional staff to assist with that process because we’re expecting that to be a tedious.
54:47 Just to meet the deadline. It’s going to be tedious to meet the deadline. So he’s blessed us to hire some.
54:51 Two additional people. If I’m not Mistaken. And the plan is, unless it changes to use the mobile units.
55:01 Right now when it comes to. That’s for faculty. Do we have the faculty and staff? So this new requirement, our volunteers don’t have that same because they’re already doing all the things that are required for that.
55:16 Right. This is just re fingerprinting employees. Correct.
55:29 Okay. So our, our volunteers that are coming in, this will just be an opportunity for them to do it for their initial fingerprinting thing. Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair.
55:37 I don’t have much more to add than what’s already been said because I sure everybody’s sentiments. But I would like to just tell you personally I think that you’ve done an awesome job with regard to security as well as Sheriff Ivey and Major Klein and his whole team. So much appreciated on that front.
55:49 On the elementary security. The only thing I would add is I’d love to hear what the best practices are from around the country. I know it’s not normal where things normally happen, but it has happened with external things.
56:06 People walking into schools and things. I just would love to see what the best practices are before we say yay or nay to how we move move forward with that. Okay.
56:31 Other than that, I think you guys are doing an awesome job. Thank you. So this is the last item in operational efficiency.
56:42 And you mentioned evolving technology. So this is the modernization of classrooms. This objective is modernize classrooms to enhance educational outcomes, boost student engagement and prepare students for a future future challenges in a technology driven world.
56:53 For the most part, this is just our continuation of modernizing classrooms, ensuring that our classrooms are flexible for our students and teachers to support the one to one device initiative that we’ve put in place previously. But just to make sure that we can continue to keep our classrooms competitive for the most part with the classrooms that you’d see in any other school at a high level. Just to talk about what a modern classroom is, it’s the flat panels.
57:01 It’s replacing the projector approach that we had in the past. You’ll see flat panels. Teachers will have more mobile devices, laptops in many cases, so they’re not stuck to the front of the classroom.
57:18 They can move around, they can engage with our students. We’re changing the cabling that’s in all the classrooms. So as the classroom continues to evolve, we can quickly evolve and change the classroom as well.
57:31 We’ve aligned some additional professional development for teachers. Also a couple things this helps us do. Teacher recruitment.
57:40 A lot of times you get a new teacher in a classroom in the past They’ve walked in our classroom like, what is this? What are we walking into? But with a modernized classroom, it’s a little bit more exciting for them. They can see that they can do a little bit more than just sit in the front of the classroom. They can pull out the.
57:48 We have. We have carts full of laptops, but the teacher can engage them. They can come to the front of the classroom, they can write on the flat screen board, they can move the board down to, you know, in some of our classes, we have little ones.
57:55 You can bring the board down to their size. They can kind of draw and do some of those things on those boards. So done a lot to just make the classroom more flexible, more engaging in this project.
58:20 It’s really taken on a pretty much a grassroots approach. We have a lot of schools that are trying to buy them on their own. We try to stop them.
58:36 Hey, we’re coming as fast as we can. Use those funds for something else. Let ET Come in and bring those devices to you.
58:48 One of our strategies is to ensure that we have the appropriate budget. We use surtax millage, a little bit of capital, but we use whatever we can to keep this project moving forward with the goal of having 4,500 classrooms by 2030. We conduct regular monitoring and progress checks on these classrooms because they’re aging.
58:58 The first one we did was South Lake, and South Lake was reopened quite some time ago. But we need to see how long those classrooms last, so we know how to refresh those classrooms as we move forward. And again, we will keep track of the device age, the condition and location of the devices.
59:05 Some of the other, I guess, bullet points I have. This year alone, we did about 400 classrooms. We already have 300 more on order, which include several classrooms ordered from the title one department.
59:17 I think about 75 in total. I think we have about 2100 classrooms district wide. So getting close to the halfway mark.
59:38 But again, schools are. Schools are asking for them every single day. So I think it’s something that schools are excited about.
59:42 We’re excited about the project, but we just got to keep moving, moving it forward. With that, I’m happy to answer any questions about our modernized classrooms. Just want to make a quick comment.
59:48 I will tell you that it had been about 15 years or so since I was in a classroom, and when I, you know, started making my tours and things, I must be lucky because every classroom I’ve gone into has been decked out. And that’s one of the things when I do talk in the Community as I always share that. It’s, you know, I think we stack up to any private school in town because we have, our classrooms are high tech.
59:51 It’s amazing what you guys have done. So just kudos to you. Appreciate it.
1:00:03 Getting there for sure. Promethean boards for every classroom. Yay.
1:00:06 Let’s have. We can make that happen at the elementary level. They love them, they use them.
1:00:15 They use them so well in the elementary level. So I know they’re very, very expensive. Is there any concern that you’re on your end with recent tariffs and things that are happening? Is it going to hit your budget? And I’m sure that’s probably a very loaded question for you.
1:00:32 Maybe, I don’t know. Is it going to impact your budget? Let me ask you that. Yes.
1:00:38 And it’s an absolute concern. Actually. We’re working with several vendors right now just to try to look into the future, seeing what they’re doing.
1:00:47 Some are moving where they’re making some of their products at to try to get around some of the price increases that we might see. We really stay active with our vendors just to make sure that we, number one, get the best price, but number two, that we’re. I don’t want to install technology that’s going to be outdated very quickly either.
1:00:57 So we try to look ahead. That’s the nature of the beast that you’re dealing with. It’s a tough one, but yes, it’s a concern.
1:01:05 I think it’s a concern for everyone at this table, at this whole table. It’s going to impact us all probably some type of way. Okay.
1:01:10 And then, I mean, I know that’s very hard to get things that are made in America, obviously. Obviously if we can get things that are made in America, that solves that problem. But it’s worth probably looking into or exploring a little more because you may have to pay more up front.
1:01:20 But it eliminates the possibility of a tax that’s going to come on. Maybe, I don’t know, just something to explore. I’m a little old school board in this.
1:01:29 I don’t love all the technology thing. It’s probably my age. I hate to admit that I like the hands on learning.
1:01:42 I love when I go into a classroom and see all the hands on stuff. But I also have seen the Promethean boards work really, really well with teachers. So I’m excited for, for, for those to go into elementaries at least.
1:01:52 Thank you. Ms. Campbell, did you have something you wanted to say? So do we have like a teacher that really Uses the Promethean board. That could be used as an example or something like that.
1:02:05 Do we have somebody every school? Pretty much. I was just wondering as part of the new onboarding for new school board member for Mr. Thomas, since the last time he was in the classroom, they didn’t have email and they used the overhead protector. Oh, man.
1:02:21 I was wondering if. Remember the old ones where they had the bulb that went and you hand wrote on them and stuff like that. He was talking the other day about how he needs an upgraded classroom.
1:02:34 So I didn’t know if there was something you could set up as part of the onboarding for new board members. You know what I mean? I thought that might be helpful. We’ll work on that.
1:02:48 But I can’t say enough about the partnership because we work with facilities as well as they’re refreshing the classrooms, doing their thing. We try to come in at the same time so we don’t tear a classroom apart twice in the same year or anything like that. We try to do as much as we can in the classroom all at one time across all the departments.
1:03:01 And we’ve really done. I think we’ve done a great job of doing that and giving a lot of time back to the teachers in the classroom so that we’re not. So that we’re, you know, not disrupting the class more than we need to.
1:03:15 So it’s been good. I’ll just make a quick statement on that when we’re out in the classrooms in the schools. And it’s refreshing to see at the elementary level that those classrooms now become those students classrooms.
1:03:19 They have that ownership along with the teacher because, you know, they can bring that board down, they can get close, they can write on it. They’re not falling asleep at their desk. You know, it’s an active classroom, which is very exciting.
1:03:32 I mean, the engagement process is so much easier when those students feel like it’s their classroom. And I can tell you, I don’t know of one classroom we’ve gone into that. These teachers have not embraced that technology to make that happen.
1:03:42 So that’s exciting. I, too, Ms. Wright, is. I’m old school on that.
1:03:52 Where there was a time, maybe even a couple years ago where technology, some teachers thought it was just slapping headphones and putting a tablet in front of. Of the students. But now with these boards, I, I rarely saw that this year.
1:04:02 And that was, that was impressive. That was a. You know, we’re grabbing these younger teachers too, that are being taught on this technology in the colleges and we’re We’re.
1:04:21 We’re not saying, okay, now you’re going back to, you know, Mr. Thomas’s years, you know, in the classroom, and you get in there having a rush over there. My goodness. But we’re.
1:04:30 We’re, you know, here’s the future, and it’s seamless. So thank you for doing that. And we’ve done a lot to try to build a program that supports our students.
1:04:37 Once they come in contact with this technology. The goal is that they don’t start with a modern classroom and then at some point run into a classroom that doesn’t have it. So we start working with the feeder chain so that once we have the K1 program, where we start with the iPads and we engage them that way, but then all the way through that feeder chain, we try to get that modern classroom all the way there.
1:04:51 Because the worst thing that can happen is you start, then you lose those technology pieces along the way. So we’ve been really active in making sure we go about it that way. Yeah.
1:05:08 Great plan. Anybody else? Thank you. Okay.
1:05:16 Well, I just really appreciate, you know, the time that you’ve taken to look at the strategic plan. You know, when I look and listen to everybody share it, there was an incredible amount of work that was. Was put into it.
1:05:30 It looks kind of simplistic when you see it on paper. You know, you see the objectives and you see the strategies, the performance indicators. But to distill it down, I mean, they have big things that they’re working on, and to distill it down and have it all tie in, it just took an incredible amount of work for these people and all the.
1:05:40 All the other goals. They work so hard, and you notice that, you know, all of the objectives, you know, have a performance indicator. Right.
1:05:50 And they all have strategies with metrics. So now for the next five years comes the fun part, because we get to meet twice a year. We’ll be meeting in July and in January, and we’ll be graphing everything and talking to those graphs and seeing if it’s working.
1:05:58 And our strategic plan is a living, breathing document. So if something turns out that it’s not working or things change, sometimes you have to. You have to change your strategic plan, too.
1:06:10 So we’ll do that. But I look forward to that. To be able to kind of see what’s happening and why it’s working or maybe why it’s not very good.
1:06:35 Thank you for all your effort. Yes. So next on the agenda, we have the facilities planning update.
1:07:02 Sue Hand’s going to be leading us through that. So. Good afternoon.
1:07:18 So Tom Prandtle was helping me get set up today and he saw this slide and he’s like, that doesn’t look like you at all. And I said, yeah, you’re right. But this presentation today is really just to check in mostly on the work session that we had on April 8th and just to kind of make sure that we and facilities are kind of going in the right direction and wanted to just touch base before we go full steam ahead.
1:07:48 And I really think this is, this is an example of something that we really do need to take our time on and kind of work through the processes that will affect all of these things that we talked about a month ago. So for me in facilities we’re trying some new things. So you know, I got some sort of tongue in cheek clip art here, but really these are a lot of things that are not wholly within my personal and facilities.
1:08:19 And so we need a lot of help from our friends in curriculum, instruction, chief of schools, food services, transportation. All of these great ideas sound really good in my head and on my desk. But you know, when reality meets the road, we really need to make sure that what we’re doing is good for students.
1:08:29 And that’s going to be kind of the front and center conversation with our school leaders and our educational experts to make sure that we are doing the right things for students. So my expectation for really all of these good ideas is that this is going to be an iterative process. You’ll see a lot of red lines where we’re checking back in with the board just to make sure that what we’re finding in our research and our collaboration is going to work good for students and make sense based on the board’s priorities.
1:08:40 So with that, I did want to say that on in April I did a poor job of neglecting to mention that we actually have policy around all of this. And I apologize. But I wanted to reiterate that today there are policies and procedures around boundary changes and we have a very robust and it’s basically the same type of iterative process where we do staff work, we check in with the board, the board says it looks alright, let’s check in with the community.
1:09:07 We may have have some changes as a result of checking in with the community. We kind of go around until we get it right. And so I did want to just make sure everybody knew that there was policy around this.
1:09:20 And it’s not a do it now kind of an event. It’s a let’s think about this strategically and Then let’s implement our process. And so this is an example.
1:09:42 This is actually an excerpt from the procedure for the attendance boundary changes. And the main point of this is to show that we start thinking about this in August and the process isn’t finished until January. So it takes a while to go through all those steps of getting the educational and functional experts involved, getting the community involved, checking in with the board, because there’s a lot of moving parts to many of these decisions.
1:09:57 So this will take a while to get through. So the next couple slides are just a check in on the projects that we wanted to start to look at. The first One is the K8 conversion pilot at Stone.
1:10:38 And that will affect potentially some of the elementary schools in that area in the feeder chains. But we are working on the Sunrise K8 project right now, and that in itself is giving us some insights into things that we need to think about. And so that’s, I think, a helpful warm up, perhaps, I would say.
1:11:05 And I know Ms. Stamp here has told us she has done some conversion work, is familiar with some. I think there’s been some done in Osceola. So we’ll probably do a little bit of research as to what other districts have experienced in this process to see if we can learn from their processes.
1:11:15 But we would start this and many other processes with just chatting with the people who know these schools, the school based administrators, the principals, Ms. Harris’s staff, Mr. Ramer’s staff, and just kind of walking around like, what are some of the pros and cons? What do we need to be doing here? Then bring this back to the board and say, you know, we looked at this and we think this is a good idea, this is how it might work, or, you know, this might not be a good idea, and get a check in with the board before we proceed with engaging the community. So my assumption is that we’ll get there with this. We will figure out a way that this probably can work.
1:11:32 And once we think about, okay, this is a good idea, these are the schools, these are the communities that are affected. Then let’s get the community engagement involved and we’ll probably bring in WXY as some of the remaining work on their contract to do some very targeted community engagement processes. My guess would be this will happen in the fall, somewhere between the start of school and the holiday break.
1:11:56 Just because I don’t want to do this, like during the summer. We can do our staff work during the summer, but I don’t think community engagement during the summer is the right time. So we’ll want to pick up some of that in the fall.
1:12:03 And then, you know, once we get some inputs from the community, then, like the hard work starts where we start to look at. All right, does it fit? Where does it go? How does the access to the school work? All of those logistical details. So many, many, many step process to get to.
1:12:24 We actually have a project for the conversion at Stone. So similarly with Dolora and Satellite, the idea was the 712, and we actually have a conversation scheduled with the principal later this week. And they have some ideas that they wanted to share with me about not only this idea, but maybe some other ideas that might help with balancing enrollment.
1:12:42 So we’re very open to that. And I think that’s, as I said, kind of part of the process. We might have better ideas that come our way.
1:13:14 And we’ll bring those back and check in with the board again before we start talking to families about, you know, we want to do a conversion project. We don’t want to do a conversion project until we are very clear that that is what’s best for students and that it will work. So we’ll be working on the staff work through the summer.
1:13:37 Expect to see me back sometime in the fall to kind of check in with you again on how we’re progressing with these. The McNair, Kennedy and Coco high school project. This one, the community engagement kind of happened in advance of the staff work.
1:14:05 And so that’s okay. And we heard a lot of good ideas. And this is leading us to think that let’s continue the community conversation a little bit more deliberately than what we’ve had thus far and get those good ideas on the table, vet those good ideas, shortlist those good ideas, and come back to the board with this is kind of the universe of concepts on how to balance enrollment among those three schools and others who might become engaged around the perimeter.
1:14:24 So my suggestion in this case is that we would in fact start by talking with the community. And by community, I mean the school community, the Cocoa Rockledge folks, and just start having those conversations before we get too far down the line in terms of. Of what we are recommending that we do to balance the enrollment.
1:14:44 So you will see a short list of options probably in the fall based on the inputs that we get from the larger community affecting those schools. And then the Cape Roosevelt Project, this one, I do want to see what happens with the legislature as to disposal of school district property. And that may impact, influence or will be a factor in the recommendations that we may bring to you.
1:14:59 But again, I think there’s a conversation with the principals and with the operational departments, like how is this going to work before we get too far down the road. So we basically will be starting with those conversations over the summer and then bringing this back to the board in the fall with a little bit more definitive. We think this will work.
1:15:21 We don’t think this will work. Work and a potential plan for community engagement. This is another one where I think we would likely use some of the contract capacity with WXY to do some targeted community engagement if we decide to move forward with this in the future, as well as the MCNAIR project.
1:15:56 And then there were a few other ideas. One that sort of came out was the South Area Choice elementary School. And again, I think we need to do some conversations around how that might work, which school, how that would affect boundaries.
1:16:07 But we can do the staff work, bring that back to the board for future discussion and then if in fact that’s a good idea, we’ll, we’ll look at community engagement before we do any sort of implementation. And then we had a few boundary changes in our presentation. Most of them were in the Palm Bay area as well as in the Viera area.
1:16:21 We will probably start doing some analysis of that and may engage with those of you who have an interest in those particular projects as well as talk to our school based administrators and try to figure out what’s the right approach on those boundary changes. So you’ll probably see a little bit more work on that towards the end of the summer, kind of in that August time frame to just kind of check in as to whether we want to take on those boundary changes. And then there may be a few others that are just part of our normal boundary change process that you might see in the fall.
1:16:46 So I think that wraps up the actual projects. But I wanted to talk a little bit about the time frame and the level of effort. So.
1:17:00 So you know, the speed of this work is going to depend on the resources available. And right now the resources available are kind of me and Dave and Karen. And so that’s going to be influenced by the other things that we have on our plate.
1:17:24 I’m very focused on getting the surtax renewal plan underway and ready for you all to see in the fall. So one of the things we’re proposing is a staff plan in the FY26 budget that could support this work in a little bit more deliberate and a little faster. Recognizing that we do have financial constraints and there’s a lot of demands on our resources.
1:17:57 I’m just mentioning that the level of resources applied to this work is going to dictate the speed. We also may come with some additional consultant support. But right now I’ve got pretty good capacity in the contract.
1:18:17 I’m not having them do big community wide meetings that were originally planned in the contract. I’m going to try to target those resources to specific projects once we decide what we’d like to do. Similarly with implementation, you’ve seen the framework on our financial constraints on the capital side.
1:18:34 So things like, like the stone conversion project, that’s a very capital intensive project and so the implementation will be dictated by the degree of capital resources we have available for those types of bigger project. And of course we’ll bring all that back when we get there. But again the implementation will be influenced by the availability of capital resources which may be in influenced by the operational resources that are dictated by the state budget that hasn’t been approved yet.
1:18:45 So all of that sort of in flux. And so just want to let you know that like we’re keeping an eye on that and things may shift once we get info from the state on their budget, how that impacts our operating budget, how that impacts our capital budget, that will impact all of this at some point. So that’s that.
1:19:07 And then I wanted to just give you a quick heads up on some of the other stuff that we’re working on. So these are the projects that we talked about several months ago and they are all underway. So Kennedy, I’m sorry, separate day school project at Kennedy.
1:19:34 We are under design right now. We have an RFQ that’s out on the street for construction services. So this is going to be the first one that comes to you all for some sort of financing.
1:19:46 So expect to see that probably two to three months. Westside classroom addition we have design and pre construction underway. We do have that funded and we’re also looking at the site design relative to the portables that we’re moving in that you will see on your agenda on May 20th as well as the transportation project.
1:20:00 So we’re looking it more of a master plan for the Westside elementary site. So we can make sure that we, if we need to build like a temporary fire road, we only build that once versus building a temporary fire road over here and then building an access to the transportation site, you know, a year later somewhere else. We’re trying to make sure we’re thinking about things that we need to think about to accommodate all those uses in the future.
1:20:34 Portable relocation you will see that on your agenda May 20. One of the very exciting things about this I, you know, I never. Well, I guess my friends will tell you I do get excited about restrooms out in the middle of nowhere.
1:20:51 But we are including in this project a pilot for it’s kind of you will see them in parks. It’s a self contained sort of precast concrete restroom building. The utilities are available on site.
1:21:04 You kind of put the building over top of the utilities, you hook them up, you turn on the lights and you have a bathroom. And we think that that’s a less expensive and better quality and level of service way to provide a restroom in a location that is kind of elsewhere on campus. So as long as the utilities are available, that’s potentially going to be a bigger solution for us for some of our other problems and projects where we have, you know, athletic events and the restroom is a mile and a half away kind of problems.
1:21:31 So anyway, this is lil pilot and it’s part of that contract and I’m really excited to give that a try. So we’ll see how that works. And then the, the other two projects, Bayside Classroom, the two story edition that is under design and moving along.
1:21:46 And the sunrise K8 is also under design and we’re doing very heavy duty collaboration work right now. So getting some good inputs from our other departments. So those are all moving along really well.
1:22:09 And then as I mentioned, working on our sales surtax plan, you see that hopefully in the fall, if not Sooner, working with Mr. Wilson and Mr. Cheatham to bring in the ET and the security pieces. So some of the the things that both of them talked about today will be part of that surtax renewal plan. So looking at new technologies and well, as well as like renewal of our assets in those two arenas as well as the facilities arena.
1:22:19 And then I just want to give you a little snapshot of what we’re doing on vacation this summer. So everybody else goes on vacation, we get some work done. And you’ve seen some of these on your agenda and some of these are coming on your agenda.
1:22:22 But this is just a little snapshot of the depth and breadth of construction projects that our team is going to be implementing with the help from our friends in finance and procurement. They do a great job supporting us and our team does a great job getting this all done. So really excited to bring some some new work to our schools and I think that concludes my presentation.
1:22:30 So, so thank you guys very much and if you have questions, happy to address them. Thank you sue, for all that you do. Mr. Chair, can I go first? Yes, I can.
1:22:50 Apologize. Just jumped in there. I appreciate that.
1:22:55 And I appreciate the fact that you said that you didn’t say anywhere in here that any schools are closing. Just want to reiterate that. So please reiterate that because.
1:23:08 No, I want to reiterate that because misconception gets up there. And then also. So, Lauren, you know what would help sue with her being able to get into classrooms sooner on classroom renovations? I’m just going to say maybe a modified calendar, but just putting that plug in there, and that’s all that I have.
1:23:18 Yeah. Or we can make more people like me. I don’t think so.
1:23:24 Can you go back up, like, three slides to the other updates page? Yeah, that one. Can you just remind me of projected start dates for. For the.
1:23:34 Some of these. So separate day school. Are we talking about 2627 or 2728? So not next school year, but the year after 2728 for separate day school.
1:23:36 Correct. West side, 2627. Okay.
1:23:39 Bayside, 2728. Sunrise is 2728. Dave is nodding his head back there because he actually knows the answer.
1:23:50 Okay. And then the portables are for next year, so. Portables.
1:24:02 We’ll do that over the summer. Okay, awesome. Thank you.
1:24:06 That’s great. Mr. Chair, just like to say I’m really excited about that Stone. The K project at Stone is moving forward and it seems to be high on the list.
1:24:18 So that’s awesome. And thank you for all your work on the stuff that’s coming up more currently as far as the renovations and expansions. So appreciate it.
1:24:22 Nope. No, just answered them all. Thank you.
1:24:43 Thank you so much for all your hard work. Doctor, this is the last presentation we have. The next topic on the agenda is policy.
1:24:49 Prudential policy revision. Two meetings. Policy.
1:25:07 All right, so we have the board review and discussion of Policy 0165. Meetings. Should have two.
1:25:35 You should have the procedure, which is the. Just the printout page. And then you should have the policy 165.
1:25:38 It looks a little more busy than it actually is because if you recall, at the last board meeting, we approved this policy from the previous revision. So this is the latest and greatest with all the changes that were made at the last board meeting. On the first paragraph, you see the underline section.
1:26:03 That is all that we’re changing now. So it’s just the one line, and it just allows for an invocation at the board meetings pursuant to the procedure, which is the document Mr. Thomas provided you previously all right. Board discussion whenever you want.
1:26:12 It probably will be. Probably will be. So.
1:26:25 All right, Paul, I have some questions actually for you on this one because I had some issues with the procedure and the way that it’s written here. And I just wanted to get clarification from you based on, you know, you issued the memo to us and kind of gave us some backstory here on the legal rules on why you felt the way that you did. But I was concerned with some of these procedures, you know, for the superintendent to compile and maintain a data database.
1:26:41 And it looks like your suggestion is for him to just search the Internet to create a database of churches. Yeah, you can do. There’s lots of ways you can do it.
1:26:53 This is was modeled after Miami dades policy. So Mr. Thomas just kind of took their procedure on how they went about doing it and then implement and substituted Miami for Brevard. So that’s how they went about it.
1:27:13 If you want, you can just open it up to, if you’re interested, send in an application and then we’ll put you in the queue to kind of go through. So there’s ways you can do it. It’s just kind of up to the board on which way you want to implement it.
1:27:32 And board. My concern with that procedure is that, you know, making sure that it is inclusive and it does not favor a specific individual. I think if we were to task the superintendent with doing a Google search, no offense to you, Dr. Rendell, I don’t.
1:27:40 That’s not saying that you’re going to, to be biased and any of that, but I just feel like that’s not the way to really open it up in the most free way. So I, I’ve had some concerns there that we could potentially walk ourselves into some trouble. And then I had a question on page two of four with your memo that you issued in the Williams the.
1:27:43 I guess it’s Williamson and Dundee. You wrote in here that school boards given school board meetings in Florida do not involve mandatory student attendance and in fact do not regularly involve student attendance. Is this going to pose any problems with students that come beforehand? No, those aren’t mandatory.
1:27:57 It’s still voluntary. And if parents don’t want their children coming to the board for their performance, they’re free to say no. Okay.
1:28:05 All right. So I wanted to ask that. And then, I mean, I don’t.
1:28:15 A couple things that I just saw from the procedural foreign that I did not want like, so I did not like the superintendent creating a list. I, I feel like it should be opened and people should be able to. To say that they would like to sign up for this.
1:28:24 And that way it kind of excludes us of, you know, kind of making out whoever’s going to be that person. I didn’t like the lottery to select the person. I feel like we could have a calendar to some degree and let people sign up.
1:28:44 I feel like that’s fair. And then we’re not. Not swaying the opinion or doing anything funky with any of that.
1:28:54 Like it’s. They’re signing up and it’s their choice. I wasn’t a fan of the part in this where it says that they can only give an invocation once a year.
1:28:58 Is there any reason or legal premise behind that, Paul? For Miami, I’m guessing they have enough churches to sign up to cover every meeting that they have. So they could probably limit it to one. It would have to be something we look at what’s the involvement in our district to see how many we have that once to whether it can fill up every meeting.
1:29:12 If it couldn’t, then you could probably possibly open it up to multiple. But they wanted to give everybody the opportunity that signed up to come before the school board. I got you.
1:29:15 Okay. All right, so. And then question.
1:29:21 Because on the must, the must not have section and here it says that they may not be reviewed or edited by the board or superintendent. Is there a reason for that that we’re not. Once you edit it, it becomes government speech.
1:29:29 Okay, not edited. Sorry. Reviewed the review portion of it.
1:29:33 Yeah. Again, you’re having input. So it becomes government speech and potentially blurs the line for endorsement.
1:29:45 Okay. And yours also, your legal advice is that board members themselves are not allowed to give the invocation. Is that correct? Yes.
1:30:01 Okay. All right. Those are just some of the things that I wrote that I didn’t care for.
1:30:15 So I’ll let everybody else speak in here on what their thoughts are on the procedure part of it. Mr. Chair. Yes, Chair.
1:30:22 I think those are valid points, Ms. Wright. As far as advertising, we should make sure we advertise advertising on our website side, on social media. And as far as it being a year, I understand the idea behind it, because I don’t.
1:30:58 I think the idea is to make sure everybody has equitable time to be able to. To apply for it and give it without somebody repeating, repeating themselves. But maybe we would want to look at nine months or six months.
1:31:15 I’m happy with the year. I’m fine either way. I’m just throwing it out there for discussion.
1:31:36 And the only thing I would add Just to the creation of this policy and I appreciate everybody’s attention on it. I’m sure it’s going to get some when it comes at the board meeting it’s going to get attention probably not dissimilar to what we’re already experiencing on some other issues. But I would say this is I don’t know if you guys recall but in November 2024, right after President Trump got elected, he said he created 10 things that he thought were crucial to rebuilding education in America and bringing back prayer in school is one.
1:31:47 And this is obviously not prayer in school but I think it’s a necessary or not necessarily necessary. I think it’s an important step for us to take. So I just appreciate your all’s consideration.
1:32:00 As far as the policy goes. It’s just that one sentence. I think it’s simple and and good and I, I’m for my part good with you know the way that the change was made and procedures according to the policy says adopted by the board for procedures don’t have the same like we have more flexibility with this.
1:32:21 Right, right. I’m incorporating it into the policy just like our drug free workplace. So if you don’t want it incorporated and allow the superintendent flexibility to make changes as he needs.
1:32:38 What if we have more than enough for the year then he could limit it to the once a year. If we don’t get enough he might want to change this procedure. So that I would have to amend if you want me to take it out of approved by the board.
1:33:06 I’m just trying to figure out the time because I think sounds like we we might want to make some changes to the procedures. We may not for my part may not have all the answers of how we want to do that yet. So I on that note, I think I don’t have a problem with the limit of once a year because we have 18.
1:33:27 We only do this at our regular evening board meetings. So we’re Talking about maybe 18, 19 of those total for the year and we’ve got well over that as far as people you know even from our just our PIE partners that are churches and faith based organizations. So I don’t think that’s going to be a problem.
1:33:39 But in thinking about how some of the like the city of Palm Bay and the county commissioners go about the invitation because you talked about the lottery. I think if I recall the way they develop who is going to do it is they will send out like once a year to all the organizations. Melbourne does it too.
1:34:01 And just saying hey here Whether it’s a email or an online survey or letter, hey, would you be interested in sometime doing it? And then if you, and then if you get a response then you’re, you’re on the list. And so you don’t, you don’t necessarily pick your time at that point. But you say I’m willing in this calendar year or fiscal year, however we want to organize it to.
1:34:17 I think we do calendar year because that’s where we do our meetings. But you know, in this calendar year I’m willing to. To give an invocation and then the you know, the clerk or whatever when it gets time will say hey, we have this open.
1:34:27 And, and in that case the randomizing is probably a good idea from the people who have already agreed to do it and say hey can you do the board meeting on January to whatever can you do? You know. And then I think the rest of it’s pretty clear just that way. We’re, we’re not repeating people in, in a short time frame.
1:34:42 But I think I got to all the ones that you mentioned Ms. Wright that were left over that Mr. Gibbs. But as far as that goes, I, I kind of take like to take a look at how the cities like I said, you said Melbourne does it. I know Palm Bay does it.
1:35:01 County commissioners think do it too. How they do that initial ask. And at some point just to do the initial ask you are going to have to use Google and But I don’t.
1:35:09 I think there needs to be some kind of not a. We’re going to put this out here and you random person who wants to come do it. I mean you have to be part of an organization, a leader of an organization to be a part of that.
1:35:13 Not just anybody from the community is the idea that how it’s listed a spiritual leader representative of a spiritual assembly serving the residents of Ravard County. So that would be my suggestion is that we make that change and how we. We do that.
1:35:28 An annual invitation. Just made me think of one more thing. Sorry.
1:35:40 That I saw. I think that in your procedure here and I’m trying to find where it’s at. But you had.
1:35:43 There’s something written in here that we would allow people outside of the county even potentially. And I, I feel like we have a strong enough spiritual leader presentation in our county to really limit it to our county. So that was another thought that I had on that mentioned before.
1:35:59 So I gotta find it. Sorry. And I thought there was something in your, in your procedure here that said something to the effect of their IRS like checking with it to make sure they’re actually a non.
1:36:17 For profit. Yeah. So it’s on page two.
1:36:25 So should the question arise. So that’s actually in this procedure, Ms. Campbell. If you look at the second to last page, letter D, it says in here that we can look at the Photogen Division of Corporations or the Internal Revenue Services to determine if those organizations are legitimately qualified.
1:36:39 So that would maybe be the qualification factor if there was a concern on that. I do think that there are some of our organizations that are. They are like their leadership.
1:36:49 Leadership would be like a. Somebody who’s an overseer, you know, like a diocese type thing. I mean, we certainly have plenty of those, like for example, the Catholic Church in the.
1:36:59 In the county. But some of those, the leadership is outside of the county, but they oversee. Does that make sense? Not to get too specifics into different denominations and religions, whatever, but I think that’s probably why they included that part about they.
1:37:03 They themselves may live outside of Brevard, but they’re actually responsible for the leadership of an organization within Brevard. I think that’s probably where it. Where it is.
1:37:08 I don’t know if. I mean, I. I don’t know if it matters to. For our procedure, if we allow it or don’t allow it.
1:37:10 Mr. Chair. Yes, Mr. Gibbs. I’m just.
1:37:21 I’m trying to remember from what. The research you did with the. The memorandum you got from Osceola County.
1:37:36 Osceola School board. Right. Was there.
1:37:42 What was. How did they go about. I don’t recall if it was in their thing on how they went about the initial gathering of the names.
1:37:46 Right. So I’m guessing it was along the lines of inviting or opening up an application process or a combination of that. Because if I recall, everything that they had in that memo is basically what Miami Dave had in there.
1:37:51 Right? Yeah. Everybody’s kind of followed the same path that the first ones out have done. So.
1:38:09 So we stick to what they’ve done pretty closely. We’ll be. We should be in.
1:38:41 Should be in shape. As I said, it’s unsettled. There’s not a direct.
1:38:44 This is okay for school board meetings. They’re modeling it after the county commissions and the city, you know, commission meetings and believe that it would. Will be okay for school boards, given it is a legislative function.
1:39:12 Anything else? Matt, you want to add anything? No. I mean, I agree. If you look at the last page, section B, it says uses.
1:39:19 Uses the opportunity to. This is your knockouts. Right.
1:39:32 Like, so if the person doesn’t actually follow the procedure it says uses the opportunity to deliver the invocation or mock or dispense the beliefs of others. It’s understandable. It doesn’t go in here to say actions or opinions of others also, and I don’t know if it’s inside that, you know, school board policy, it sort of touches, but it would be nice to say uses the opportunity to deliver the invocation or mock or disparage the beliefs, actions, or opinions of others.
1:39:38 It should be just to promote us in a positive way. That’s all. Does that make sense? Sense to you, Paul? Yep.
1:39:45 If I don’t, it’s. It’s just to add a little bit more to somebody getting up there so that if they don’t just say anything negative about the beliefs of somebody else, but they start attacking somebody while they’re doing it. You know what I mean? It just gives us the COVID to cover it.
1:39:49 That’s all. Just as an opportunity, Mr. Chair, if I may. Yes.
1:39:59 I, I. My vote would be to remove the procedure from this policy so that the procedure can be worked on. Additionally. I don’t.
1:40:15 With all due respect to Miami date, I don’t. I don’t know if they have any pending litigation. I mean, it s.
1:40:24 It sounds like the law just changed in 2022, so this is all really relatively new. So they were using that Lemon test before, and apparently that all just got overturned in 2022. I’ve been four decades old that.
1:40:34 That was their standard. So I think it would be wise of the board to remove the procedure from the policy, which is standard for what we do on pretty much every other single policy, and then work on the procedures to make sure that they’re revard. Specific.
1:40:43 We can definitely use some of the benefits that they. You know, some of that stuff in here is good. You know, what’s your thought on that? That’s fine.
1:40:52 I mean, it creates more flexibility. If you don’t want it tied to the policy, then I don’t have to run it through rulemaking every time. You can simply ask the superintendent to amend the policy.
1:41:05 The procedure, or if he’s running into problems with one aspect, he can amend it himself to fix that problem. Yeah, it makes. I’m all for that.
1:41:17 You’re saying to move forward with a. My, My vote would be to move forward with the. The policy being revised the way that it is and strike this procedure portion of this from the policy.
1:41:35 We don’t tie procedures to really any other policy. We have them in there. This is something that we were trying to do before because we had seen in some where sometimes procedures maybe circumvent a policy.
1:41:55 But I think on this one, because this is a six page procedure. Excuse me. And there’s a lot of things in here that I sounds like there’s people that maybe don’t agree necessarily with everything in the procedure.
1:41:58 It would be wise to just go with the policy the way that it is and then let’s work out the procedure, remove it from the policy. Can we still reference that in accordance with the. With the associated administrative procedures? You can still reference without the board approval piece.
1:42:10 Like our drug free is the other big procedure that the board approves and it is actually incorporated into the policies the same way. I agree with that. Okay, Is that it? Good on that.
1:42:22 I have some questions. All right. That’s what I was going to go with.
1:42:40 So Paul, if you could just review timeline. So for example, if we change the sentence in the proposed policy revision, it’s still on for the next board meetings as the first public hearing. Right.
1:42:44 So that’ll be at the end of May and then the first meeting in June will be the final public hearing for approval. And then the policy will be in place. It’ll be a matter of implementing at that point.
1:42:48 So I’m guessing at least 60 to 90 days for either compiling a list of or inviting or getting applicants in place and set up on some sort of rotation. Correct. So while the policy itself goes through the rulemaking process, we can be developing the procedure.
1:42:56 Absolutely right. Yep. Want to make sure.
1:43:20 Yep. Very good. All right.
1:43:40 Any board member have anything further to discuss? Okay. I’ve been talking a whole lot today. Okay.
1:44:08 Dr. Mandel, I spoke to you about this briefly yesterday. I know you had said that Mr. Rmer had worked some of these things out before and I wanted to just have this discussion publicly with you because I’m sure you are hearing things in the community the same as I have with the concern over closing the and what that’s going to look like. And we were gracious enough to have Ms. Bland and Mr. Raymer bring us in and set us all down and to kind of talk us through what their thought process was and what we were doing for the next school year.
1:44:23 I think it is extremely important that that be a forward facing conversation that we have together as a board in case. I just think we should hammer that out together and make sure we’re all on the same page and that it’s in front of everyone so that the community knows. That way our principals can go back and look and see what the clear direction was on everything.
1:44:35 So my ask is, would you be willing to put this on a board agenda, Mr. Chair? Possibly maybe for a workshop in the near future so that we can just make it public and forward facing so everyone knows for next school year this is what it looks like and the board can have discussions back and forth on it. Right? Anybody? Yeah, I. I just want to clarify what exactly it is that you want us to hash out because we. The direction of, the direction of no more ALCs.
1:44:39 Go through. Go to the online. Whatever that’s called that I can’t remember the online opportunity or you know, diversion plans.
1:45:09 That was clear, right? What. We haven’t had a conversation specifically as hammering out the details, but that’s not our role. So I’m trying to figure out exactly what you want us to.
1:45:18 What you want to accomplish in that. Perfect. I’ll share with you.
1:45:24 So I think every one of us went through this presentation individually and I think when we don’t hear each other’s opinions about what we are thinking with this presentation, when it comes to certain things that will come out in our student code of conduct on whether this will be level four or a level five or whether this will be a consult with the district or principal, make a decision. That was my biggest concern is I wanted us to talk about that together so that we as a board made that decision and not. It sounds like they’re taking feedback from each one of us, but I think it needs to be done publicly.
1:45:31 My concern is the principals aren’t hearing those one on one conversations. So they’re not seeing that. And then we’re going to get delivered a product at the end.
1:45:50 And I think it needs to be done publicly is what I think with this one. Okay. That’s, that’s, that’s clear.
1:45:58 So you want, you’re talking about taking the presentation that we got individually. Yes. And just walking through it.
1:46:00 I know they’ve made some tweaks to it. Mr. Amer had left me a message, they made some tweaks to it. So this all might be already all squared away, but I think the public wants to know and I definitely know our administrators want to know at the school site and if we, we have a workshop about it that will clear up any of that confusion.
1:46:05 Anybody opposed to or can put on the next one for timing? Okay. Well, it’s the will of the board. Okay.
1:46:19 Everyone’s okay with it. Thank you. Sorry.
1:46:25 I know, I’m. Yeah. I mean if we, I mean, I’m fine with it.
1:46:32 Because honestly we do have, we have if we’ve got the time to do it and it’s now that that’s not necessarily going to change the student code of conduct because we’ve set the code of conduct coming to us, but it’s going to be the. Basically the administrative procedures of the code of conduct. Correct.
1:46:42 I think the, the conversation is about how do we implement this new way of work. Right, right. Right.
1:46:52 So no more ALCs. Right. We made some changes to the code of conduct on some level fours and some level fives.
1:47:00 Some are automatic expulsion, true expulsion. Some are. Well, it could be if it’s this or it might not be if it’s that.
1:47:08 And so that’s the discussion that was had, you know, individually with each board member as to how we’re going to move forward. But we can certainly share that information in a public facing workshop. Absolutely.
1:47:21 Yeah. And it might, what I was thinking was it might be beneficial for, for the few who are still. And maybe there’s more than just if you.
1:47:30 Who are, who are still at the point where they’re thinking that we’re, we’re giving everybody a pass, we’re just going to make it easy. Right. It probably would be good to just walk through that that through.
1:47:32 Because one of the things that that presentation did was look at what a, A diversion agreement. Stipulation. Thank you.
1:47:40 A stipulation agreement might actually look like in this case because what we do have is the drug diversion program. But not as many people familiar. And this is different because.
1:47:43 That’s correct. The time frame is shorter and all that. Yeah.
1:47:48 So we took the time to share that with each board member. But yeah, I think share it with the board. For those people who are still worried about it, it probably would be a good idea.
1:47:52 I’m in favor. Absolutely. Thank you.
1:48:15 Okay. I spoke at four schools recently and all the faculties were asking questions about it. So it’s worth it.
1:48:31 Thank you. Got a quick one for you real fast. Sure.
1:48:38 Mr. Gibbs went ahead and engaged. So Viera High School’s principal requested to move forward with taking in, taking their logo and making it official to where nobody else can utilize it for sales. So Paul, doing his due diligence, reached out to one of the local people that do trademarking, Mr. Malik over there at Malaw.
1:48:55 And he came back with a very, a good, you know, here’s how much it would cost for each school. It would cost basically. And Paul, if I get some of these numbers off, if you can restate, it cost about $3,000 for the filing and then about another three to four thousand dollars to cover the process.
1:49:29 Right around seven per school. He was guessing just on the cost alone. An estimate is three grand per logo.
1:49:39 And depending on the issues, he didn’t give a firm number on the attorney’s hours are needed. And he gave a for instance like Mel hi is the Bulldogs. Uga, University of Georgia are the Bulldogs and they have trademarked the Bulldogs.
1:49:53 So there might be more negotiations involved for schools where they have to go out and contact UGA and say, hey, we have a high school in Brevard county that would like to trademark the Bulldogs so that they can, you know, make sure they’re not utilizing their name locally. So he said there, there’s going to be some of those. And he knew that one was going to be an issue because the NCAA schools tend to go after high schools pretty hard for the use of their logo.
1:50:10 So, yeah, that’s what I told him. We got some, several that are going to be in there that are going to be in that category. So he didn’t know exactly how much effort it would take.
1:50:22 But he did note that for some of those schools, I understand Viera just changed their logo, which is their big push. They want to do it whether the district does it. Anyways, I told the principal, hold off until we get guidance from the board.
1:50:43 So if the. At 3,000 per filing, there are some that may just be able to get, go through and it’s just going to cost, you know, basically the time to fill out the paper paperwork. So what I proposed was, I said, okay, so there’s two, two components to this.
1:50:58 There’s the official trademarking that we’re, we’re talking about a process. And then there’s like, I forget what it’s called, Paul, if you have the technical name for it, it’s like a common law. Yeah, it’s common law protections, which we have already.
1:51:11 Right. So we technically, just so the board understands, can issue a common law trademark right now for all of our schools to Walmart, Target and those guys to say, hey, stop everything, because this is literally a trademark and it holds up in court. Now we don’t, we want to go eventually and officially go through it.
1:51:56 But what I would like to suggest is two prompts. One to work with Paul, bring back an official statement that we would send out to all of these individuals saying, hey guys, let’s, let’s talk about it. Not going to tell them that, hey, you’re a horrible person or anything.
1:52:21 Just, hey, here we’re Getting ready to trademark everything. Have our district communications come in and discuss possible business partnerships and what those would look like with each one of them if they want to engage in selling our stuff. And then through that common law trademarking.
1:52:24 And then the second part is I would like to ask if we could do a trademark pilot project with Viera to find out how much much it would actually cost through the process and then utilization of our legal school there that they have and actually try to offset future costs with future filings. Because it’s legitimately, once you make one filing, you can just copy and paste the logo into another filing, pay the fee and go. And if it’s something that after a pilot project would be a high school, we can do where it’s the legal, you know, it’s the legal academy over there, could just do a couple more, then we might be able to reduce cost and it becomes a school project for the rest of the children.
1:52:34 So that would be my request is one, let’s get that common law together so we can stop these people from printing our things until we’ve negotiated with them. And then two, start a pilot project with Viera where we would cover the cost of the logo from the district post funds of roughly $3,000 and and then utilize that as a plan moving forward for the rest of our school. That’s what I wanted to bring up.
1:52:41 Mr. Chair. Yep. Just a question for Mr. Susan.
1:52:49 Just to clarify, you’re talking about trademarking the logo itself, not the name. So not the Hawks or not the Bulldogs or not the. It’s more of the design of the logo and it has to be different.
1:53:02 Yes, sir. Okay. And just so you know, in many of the our schools, the reason for this is this is pushed by our principals.
1:53:07 We no longer have the ability to print T shirts because it’s been decimated by every cvs, Walgreens and everybody else around. I go to go to the Walmart in Cocoa. They’re printing out Cocoa Tiger stuff.
1:53:30 I go to this Walmart over here, Target, they’re printing out stuff. So you know where the whole banner that used to have resold stuff, they don’t do that anymore. And that’s revenue loss to each one of the athletic programs.
1:53:43 That’s all. So I just to wanted hear your thoughts. Yeah, I was trying to figure out to what end because, you know, if.
1:53:50 So if they tweak the logo a little bit, if they have a different bulldog, you know, and it still says Mil High, you know, I, yeah, we can chase everything down, but you’re saying just the idea that we could potentially be revenue sharing from that. So if does share one with our logo, if the school gets a. Is that the idea? That’s.
1:53:56 Yeah, we would engage. What we would do is have Dr. Rendell officially send out the common law statement and then have them engage directly with communications through our PI programs and say, hey, like this is what we’re gonna. This is what we’re offering.
1:53:58 It’s a good plan. It’ll bring more revenue into the school district and I think that it’s a good opportunity for our athletic programs. That’s all easy peasy.
1:54:08 I. And we might be able to leverage it to. To obviously gain some business partners for our schools that. That maybe haven’t been supporting the school.
1:54:10 So I don’t. I’m not opposed to doing that. I don’t.
1:54:13 I don’t think it’s a bad idea. I think anybody else that that’s has a logo typically trademarks that logo and, you know, receives some kind of funding from using it. Just stop the bad actors.
1:54:16 I think it’s a good idea. Thank you. We’re all good.
1:54:19 You guys. To move forward with it. Yeah.
1:54:25 Ms. Candle, you good? Y. Okay. Thank you, everybody. I was going to bring that up tonight, but I thought it’d be better to do it now. So thank you. Sure. And Mr. Thomas, you had something. Okay, good. As you’re known for the business. This meeting is adjourned. Sa. It.