2025-06-10 - School Board Meeting

0:04 We’re now at the adoption of the agenda. Dr. Undell, will you read what is on the agenda this morning? Thank you, Mr. Chair. On this morning’s agenda, we have administrative staff recommendations, 28 consent items, 2 action items, and 1 information item. Changes made to the agenda since it was released to the public include the following revised for F15 specialist safety, security, support personnel, F11, termination of employee, F12, termination of community coach, F19, the 25 interim financial statements and G22, a short and long term disability proposal removed for F12, termination of an employee, and F23, the Tasville High School baseball and softball field Construction Management Services project.

0:51 Do I hear motion? Second. Any discussion? Follow. Roll call, please.

0:56 Mr. Thomas? Aye. Ms. Campbell? Aye. Mr. Trent? Aye.

0:59 Mr. Susan? Aye. Ms. Wright? Aye. We’re now at the administrative staff recommendations.

1:05 Do I hear a motion move to approve? Second discussion. Paul? Roll call, please. Mr. Thomas? Aye.

1:12 Ms. Campbell? Aye. Mr. Trent? Aye. Mr. Susan? Aye.

1:15 Ms. Wright? Aye. Dr. Undell. Thank you.

1:17 Mr. Chair, we have the opportunity to appoint what you just did appoint 13 administrators to new positions. A couple transfers, but others beginning their first time in an administrative position. So we’re going to call them all up and give them a chance to say a few words.

1:33 Then after that, we’re going to have an address by an experienced administrator, and then we’ll take a picture. So when I call your name, you come up to the podium and give us your brief remarks. So first, we want to congratulate Shannon Sajak, who’s been appointed to principal at Stone Magnet middle school.

1:51 So, Mr. Sajak, come on up. Good morning, everyone. I’m honored to stand before you today as the newly appointed Assistant Principal of Curriculum at Stone Magnet Middle School.

2:10 I would like to extend my gratitude to Ms. Ferrante Williams, Mr. Ramer, Dr. Rendell, and the board and the members of the school board for affording me this opportunity. To say I’m excited would be an understatement. This is an opportunity.

2:25 More than just a professional milestone, it’s a calling. I dedicated my career to empowering students, supporting teachers, and building bridges between families and schools. Joining the administrative team at Stone Magnet Middle School allows me to serve at a higher level and contribute to a shared vision of excellence, equity, and growth.

2:45 I look forward to building strong relationships with students, families, teachers and staff, and celebrating successes, as well as tackling challenges side by side. Lastly, I would like to thank Misty Bland for her leadership, guidance, and mentorship over the last 10 years. I also want to thank my wife, Elizabeth, for her continued love and Support.

3:06 Thank you. Congratulations, Mr. Sajik. Mr. Sajik.

3:10 Stay there for a second, guys. Normally, I don’t do this, but Mr. Sajik oversaw the area, our ALC, for a long time. And many people don’t understand the stress that a lot of people had during COVID and many of the other things, but I work inside of my housing projects along Aurora.

3:32 And during COVID I am not kidding you. He was going door to door to make sure those kids were safe and that they had their computers. And I’ve never seen anything like that before.

3:42 The commitment that you had to our children. And I just wanted to take a second and say thank you. It’s well deserved, and I’m looking forward to seeing the next level.

3:49 So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Susan. You beat me to it.

3:52 But I also wanted to thank you for your work over the last few years at the alcs. Because of the times that I’ve come to visit for one of the toughest populations that we’ve had across this district. Every time I walked in, I knew that you loved every single one of those kids, and you led the team there at the South ALC.

4:11 And I appreciate Ms. Taji and her work. Now that we’re, you know, saying goodbye to those. Those buildings, I’m so glad we’re getting to hang on to you.

4:17 But I just. I know that you’ll do the same thing at Stone, but I just want to express my gratitude for the way that you led that campus with. With care and compassion for students who are really struggling.

4:27 So. So thank you. Thank you, Ms. Campbell.

4:35 All right, so next, we’d like to congratulate Christy Brusilla for her appointment to assistant principal at Anderson Elementary. Christy, come on up. Thank you.

4:47 I’d like to say thank you to Dr. Rendell and the entire board for appointing me and entrusting me in the responsibility of caring and supporting for our students and our staff and our families at Anderson. I’d also like to extend a big thank you to the warm welcome I received by the staff at Anderson that was just so wonderful to come in today as a new member in Brevard County Public Schools and receive such a welcome. And finally, I’d like to thank my husband, Tony, who has been so supportive and wonderful and loving to me all along the way.

5:27 So thank you so much, and I’m ready to work. So next, we’d like to congratulate Christine Snow on her appointment to assistant principal at Lewis Carroll Elementary. Christine, come on up.

5:42 Congratulations. Thank you to the board and Dr. Rendell. I will definitely and surely miss Tropical elementary, but I’m very excited to be moving to Lewis Carroll and working side by side with Ms. Minor.

5:57 Thank you. All right, So next we congratulate Lauren Austin on her appointment as assistant principal at Coquina. Lauren, come on up.

6:13 A little bit nervous. First, I want to thank Dr. Rendell and the board for giving me this opportunity. I’d like to thank Principal Stewart at Cocoa High School for all of her support, Principal Middleton at Johnson Middle School for giving me the job as a TOA last year, and Principal Story for giving me the opportunity to be the new AP at Coquina.

6:37 But most importantly. Sorry. I would like to thank the parents and students in the community of Cocoa High School.

6:47 I owe them a debt of gratitude because without them, I would not be the educator and the leader that I am today. I’m looking forward to continue to serve Brevard County. Thank you.

7:05 So next, we’d like to congratulate Kimberly Walling, who’s going to specialt Holland Elementary. Congratulations. Good morning.

7:17 Thank you, Dr. Rendell and the school board for appointing me system principal of Holland Elementary School. To begin, I’d like to thank God for my gift of teaching and leading. I’d like to express my heartfelt appreciation to my parents and family, especially my son Sawyer, who’s with me today.

7:35 You are my heart. I’d like to take a moment to take to thank some special West Shore Wildcats, Glenn Webb, who’s here with me today. Thank you for being my mentor and for investing in me.

7:38 I’d like to thank Bert Clark for answering all my questions and coaching me through the process. Sarah Perry for taking me under her wing and teaching me about the roles and responsibilities of an assistant principal. I’d like to also thank my previous administration, Rick Fleming and Kathryn Holbier, for their leadership opportunities.

8:10 And finally, I’d like to thank Samantha Allison and Dr. Ivory for this amazing opportunity. I am dedicated to working diligently, bringing my best to serve the students, families, and Holland community with excellence every day. Thank you.

8:32 So next, we’d like to welcome to the podium Rebecca Bach, who’s going to Jupiter Elementary. Congratulations, Rebecca. Good morning.

8:43 I have been with Brevard public schools for 23 years, and all 23 of those years have been spent at Jupiter Elementary. When the AP position became available, it was a sign that I was meant to stay at a place that I have called home for so long. Many people have helped me get to the place I am today.

9:00 I would like to take a moment to recognize and thank my previous administration, Ms. Sherry Troisi and Ms. Amber Willette. I worked beside these ladies for 10 years. They are the ones who saw leadership qualities and strongly encouraged me to go back to school and obtain my master’s degree.

9:16 When they both decided to retire last year, I wasn’t sure I would continue to pursue a career in leadership. Then came Ms. Nelson and Ms. Carvell. They both quickly recognized the same qualities and supported me in the past year as I continued to grow my leadership experience.

9:32 I thank them and my entire Jupiter family for their continued support as we begin this journey together. I would also like to thank my husband and children for their understanding and support through the long hours and many weekends that have been spent and will be spent working. Finally, I would like to thank Ms. Hudson, as well as Dr. Rendell and the school board for giving me the opportunity to serve as the assistant principal at Jupiter.

9:55 Congratulations. So next we’d like to call up Atiya Batul, who’s going to Sable Elementary. Congratulations, Atia.

10:18 Good morning. My name is Atiya Batul. I am truly humbled and grateful to be appointed as the assistant principal at Sable Elementary School.

10:27 I’d like to thank Dr. Randell and the board for appointing me today. I also want to thank. I also want to thank the directors who sat with me in many interviews, Dr. Ivory and Dr. Reed, and challenged me with very difficult and meaningful questions.

10:45 Thank you, Ms. Hobson, for a warm welcome to your school. I am very excited to be part of our school community and ready to make meaningful connections with our families, students, and staff. I will always be grateful to my Nova family back in Broward county, and I have worked there for 20 years, and I have had many mentors that helped me and supported me in my leadership journey.

11:08 So I just want to make sure that I do extend that thank you to them. Last but most important, I want to thank you, my family. I want to thank my family, my husband, Arif, my son, Arib, and my sister, Kapsha, who are here celebrating me and my success and have supported me in every way possible.

11:28 Thank you, as I could not have done it without you. And I would like to end with dedicating this moment to my father, who has been a great proponent of women’s education. And I want to make sure that I honor him and thank him for raising me as a confident person who can pursue her dreams against all odds.

11:49 Thank you, Brevard County Public Schools. I am ready to show you what I’m made of. Thank you.

12:01 So next, we’d like to Congratulate Kira Lang, who’s joining Javier at Saturn elementary. Kira, come on up. Okay.

12:14 I’m in great company. I’m just loving everybody’s speeches. Like, for real? For real.

12:18 Okay. Thank you, Superintendent Rendell, esteemed board members, district leaders, district staff, my colleagues. I just want to say I’m truly happy, honored, and humbled to continue serving BPs you as I transitioned from Stone Magnet Middle to Saturn Elementary School.

12:36 And I want to say to you all, thank you for continuing to believe in my ability to lead, to grow, and to serve in this new role. And just thank you for your support and vision towards student success, because it does inspire me. Okay.

12:36 I want to give a shout out to my friends and family, near and far special shout out to the coalition. Yep. Woo.

12:56 Woo. I want to say thank you all for being my constant source of strength, love, laughter, resilience. And I just know that I’m standing on the shoulders of giants with every day, every battle that I encounter.

13:10 And it’s their unwavering support and leadership that’s honestly carried me through every single challenge. And to be honest, if they stuck with me through all these early mornings, long days, my obsessions with color coded things, they kind of deserve their own awards. So thank y’ all to my Madison and Viera family, some people here in the audience, thank y’ all for your continued and unwavering support.

13:33 To Ms. Vega and Ms. Sorry, Ms. Vega and the entire secondary leadership team, thank you all for your steady guidance, uplifting encouragement, intentional investment in my growth, because your leadership has helped to shape my confidence and just is preparing me for this next chapter. To Principal Williams and Ms. Bowman, I want to say thank you all because you’ve given me room to grow and the honest courage to lead with boldness. I’m grateful for the trust that you’ve placed in me to take on meaningful responsibilities and to blossom as a leader like legit.

14:06 You saw my potential and you offered me grace and you modeled for me a new kind of leadership. And I will carry those lessons with me to the Stone community. Thank y’ all for the incredible journey, the collaboration, the commitment towards the students.

14:21 Because the privilege to work with you was all mine. Now to Principal Alfonso and the Saturn elementary community. Hey, y’.

14:29 All, I’m excited to partner with you, to lead with you, to serve with care and intention. And as Colossians 3. 23 reminds us, whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord.

14:41 Thank y’ all again. All right, next, we’d like to welcome to the podium and congratulate Rebecca Porter, who’s been appointed an assistant principal at Tropical Elementary. Rebecca, come on up.

15:09 Good morning. I want to thank the school board and Dr. Rendell for entrusting me with this opportunity. I also want to thank my husband Jonathan, of 25 years, who is truly the best man I know and very tolerant of me.

15:28 I would love to thank my leadership team at Jackson, Jennifer Shockley and Jennifer Rosado, who have taught me how to put out fires creatively and quickly. And lastly, I want to thank two women here at the ESF whom I believe embody leadership, and that is Lisa Hyam and Dr. Jennifer Clark. Lead, kindness, conviction and vision.

16:02 Thank you all. Well done. Next, we want to congratulate Stephanie Tishless on her appointment to assistant principal at Viera Elementary.

16:14 Stephanie, come on up. Good morning. I would like to thank Dr. Randell, the school board, and the entire leadership team for this incredible opportunity to serve as your assistant principal.

16:27 I’m truly honored and excited to be a part of a district that values excellence, collaboration, and student success. To my family, thank you for your continuous support and encouragement. You’d help me grow into the educator that I am today.

16:42 Principal Schwab and Assistant Principal Matkowski. I look forward to working with you, your amazing staff, students, and the community at Viera Elementary. Together, we can build a safe, positive, and thriving school environment.

16:56 Thank you again for trusting me with this role. Congratulations. So now we want to call up Prashonda Leonard, who’s moving to Jackson Middle School.

17:09 So, Prashonda, if you can, come on up. Congratulations. Good morning.

17:20 I would just like to say good morning. And I would like to say thank you to the board, Dr. Rendell, Mr. Ramer, Ms. Wybelt. Also my husband Richard, who is here with me today, who always puts up with my early mornings and late nights and all of my shenanigans.

17:38 He’s always there for all of them. I also like to say thank you to my family that’s watching at home. My daughter Ashley and my son Richie and my mom and all my cousins.

17:48 Everybody that’s watching at home. Also, I would like to say a huge thank you to Mr. Joe Flora, who was my principal at Space coast, who gave me my first opportunity, and who mentored me, who gave me every opportunity that he can think of to get every experience that I needed. And also thank you to Ms. Shockley for bringing me back home to Jackson, and I am ready to get to work.

18:10 Thank you. Congratulations. Now we want to congratulate Vic Schasecki, who is going To John F.

18:21 Kennedy Middle School. Vic, come on up. Congratulations.

18:32 Good morning. This step forward into leadership is a testament to the power of hard work, perseverance and most importantly, faith. I am profoundly grateful for those who have supported me along the way.

18:44 I want to thank my beautiful wife Kate. From the days as an unpaid intern down at the U to this very moment, you have always supported my dreams and goals. Without you, I would not be the man I am today.

18:55 You, along with our beautiful children Noah and Dakota are my greatest motivation. I also want to thank my parents, my grandparents and my in laws. Your encouragement has been a constant source of strength and I am truly blessed to have such an incredible family.

19:10 To celebrate this milestone with Dr. Rendell and the rest of the school board, I am honored to step into the role as assistant principal at Kennedy Middle School and deeply grateful for the trust and confidence you have placed in me. Your leadership and vision for guide our schools. And I look forward to serving every student with excellence and positively contributing to the continued success of Brevard Public Schools.

19:31 Mr. Ramer, you have been an incredible inspiration. There have been many interact. There have been few interactions throughout my life that stand out to me.

19:40 One being sitting in your office going over the reason behind switching. Making a switch to the PE department wasn’t in the best interest of the school of the students. I didn’t realize it then, but I do now.

19:52 Thank you. That that no or that closed door led down a new journey of leadership and inspired me to make an even greater impact throughout our community and our schools. Without that no, I wouldn’t have heard the yes from Mrs. Wybelt who I am so excited to learn from and work alongside an effort to contribute to the continued success of Kennedy Middle School.

20:11 And for that I am forever grateful to to Ms. Lubbers and the rest of the leadership team at Merritt Island. I am thankful for the opportunities given to me to help learn, grow and sharpen my leadership skills. The pride, tradition and family of Merritt Island High School always hold a special place in my heart.

20:30 To Mrs. Owens and the Kennedy Panther family, thank you for believing in me. You are gaining a leader who puts others first, whose relentless work ethic and contagious positivity will resonate throughout the school each day. I promise to lead with passion, integrity and unwavering commitment to our student success.

20:49 I’m excited for this new chapter and I’m eager to serve with dedication and purpose. Thank you and God bless. Congratulations.

21:03 Now we want to call up Michelle Avey who’s going to Merritt Island High School as an assistant principal. Congratulations, Michelle. Come on up.

21:14 Good morning. Over the last 10 years, I have seen myself as a performer, someone comfortable on center stage with a microphone in hand. I’ve seen 1500 students walk in and out of my chorus room, taken students to perform at Disney’s candlelight processional on six occasions, and even taken a group to perform at Carnegie hall in New York City last year.

21:37 My professional identity has been as a choral director. However, I have been so blessed to have a number of people in my personal and professional life who have seen more in me than I have seen in myself. They have shown me that the skills that I have honed as a choral director are transferable to a leadership role.

21:55 That I can provide students with a rigorous education in an environment where students feel safe to be themselves and make mistakes without fear of judgment. And that I can do this by teaching teachers how to do it. First and foremost, I need to thank my family, my wife, Amanda, for pushing me to begin and complete my master’s, believing in and supporting me every step of the way.

22:19 To my kids for cheering me on through my interviews, even though they’re a little upset there may not be as much singing and dancing on the next take your child to work day. Sorry, guys. To my in laws, David and Donna, for their love and encouragement, and to my parents for raising me to respect others and give my best effort to everything I do on a professional level.

22:43 I have worked with and for some incredible administrators that I have learned from Robert Spinner, Sylvia Majeskovic, Michael Waller, Andy Papsinski, Jennifer Williams, all of the current Space coast administration, and of course, Mr. Joseph Flora, who has mentored and shaped my path so much over these last four years. To Mrs. Lubbers, thank you for this opportunity. I can’t wait to contribute to the amazing things already happening at Merritt Island High School and to be a part of your team.

23:14 I want to thank Lisa Hyam, Bobby Pruitt, James Ramer, and all that were involved with developing and implementing the Brevard Leadership Academy. The program was highly informative, uplifting, and engaging. Thank you to Megan Wright for supporting music in our schools and sending both of your daughters through my program at Space Coast.

23:35 And finally, thank you to our wonderful school board, Dr. Randell, for the work that you do on a daily basis to make Brevard county schools a great place to learn for our students and a great place to work for our staff. Thank you. So congratulations to all the new assistant principals and the ones in new positions.

24:00 We’re going to take a break shortly and do a picture. But first, how appropriate that we finished up with Mr. Avey, who’s going to Merritt Island High School, as I’d like to call Gary Shifrin up to the podium at this time. Gary Shifrin, for those who don’t know, and I don’t know how anybody in this room would not know who Gary Shifrin is, but he’s a longtime educator in Brevard County.

24:20 Retired from actively serving as an educator, but kept serving as the president of vasa, the Brevard association of School Administrators. And he is now leaving that position, or has left that position and wanted to share with the board and the community some parting thoughts as he finally retires from serving in a role in public education. But Gary has been serving the students and families in Brevard county for, I believe, over 40 years.

24:49 54. 54. That’s over 40.

24:52 And I look young. I understand. Well, for all of the young assistant principals out there, this is someone to aspire to be.

25:02 So, Gary, the floor is yours. Thank you very much. First of all, on behalf of the Brevard association of School Administrators, congratulations to all of you that are going to new schools, new journeys.

25:15 It’s a wonderful thing and you’ll thoroughly enjoy it. Dr. Rendell, Chairman Trent. School board members, good morning.

25:25 For 42 years, I was employed by the Brevard School Board as a teacher, a coach, athletic director, dean of students, assistant principal for facilities, assistant principal for curriculum, middle school principal, and my last 10 years as principal at Merritt Island High School. So to say I’ve experienced just about all of the school based jobs would be an understatement. In addition, for 23 years, I was the commissioner of the Cape coast conference.

25:54 Then in 2013, I retired. In retirement, I’ve continued to stay connected to the school system, having served on numerous committees, including the committee that created the school Supply Zone, the Capital Outlay Committee, was the chairman for seven years on the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee, and for one year, I was the chairman of the Millage Surtax Committee. In addition, for the past 12 years, I’ve been the executive director of the Brevard association of School administrators.

26:29 So for 54 years, my life has been consumed by the Brevard county school system. Having said that, I can say without reservation that my life and education has been one of great pride. And having served this school system has been a lifetime love affair and commitment.

26:51 But now the time has come to fully retire. And yes, I’ve said it before, but I really mean it. This time, I have left all my committee obligations and I am in the process of working with our new Executive director, Eileen Hair, who will assume her new role as BASA Executive Director in July.

27:12 I have no regrets and look forward to my new life at the age of 76. So tonight I’ve come, or this morning I’ve come to you for two specific reasons. First and foremost, I want to thank the this board on behalf of all the boards that I have worked with for your leadership and making hard decisions for the betterment of our schools, our teachers, our administrators, our support employees.

27:43 That is not to say that I’ve always agreed with your decisions, but it’s like a family. We have to do what’s in the best interest of the family. I also want to thank Dr. Rendell and all those superintendents whom I’ve also worked with over the years, names like White, Green, Collingsworth, Sowers, Bingley, Sawyer, Dupatri, Mullins, as they too have provided amazing leadership governing our schools.

27:53 I also want to thank the many mentors I’ve had over the years, starting with Lloyd Sowers, who recently passed Ed Lowe, Hank Smith, Lee Berry, Jane Chaney, Marge Everspock, Sandy Demon, and so many others. And of course, there were so many fellow teachers and administrators who helped guide my career. So thank you for allowing me to take this time to thank all of those influential people in my life.

28:33 And of course, I want to thank my family, including my wife Kathy and daughter Courtney and son Ross, for allowing me to do my thing being an educator in this school system. And the other purpose of my being here this morning is to comment on the state of the Brevard association of School Administrators. Let me first say that this district is being led by the most amazing school leaders.

29:15 And our communities should know that our students are being provided with excellent education they deserve. Our membership continues to stay involved and their expertise is beyond reproach. Having said that, I do have a few concerns as I prepare to leave.

29:35 There has to come to a point that we must ask ourselves, how much more can we ask of our administrators as well as our teachers? Our educators do an amazing job, but when you have to put in so many more hours doing the job, then you will be getting diminishing returns. The stress with added responsibilities is contributing to educators leaving the profession in droves. Instead of driving these highly professionals away, we should be doing all we can to recruit and retain more.

30:11 Over the years, BASA has changed tremendously. During the early years of my directorship, we never had any problems Getting administrators willing to serve on our board of directors or attend the functions we would have during the year. For example, one of our major events is our scholarship gala that we have that raises money for scholarships.

30:35 Up until recently we used to have close to 150 members attend and our fundraising was over $5,000 over the past few years. We’re lucky to get 45 members attend and our fundraising obviously has shrunk. If it was not for the generosity of former Brevard administrator Dr. Daniel Scheer, we would not still be giving out close to $10,000 in scholarship as we did this year.

31:05 So the question has to be asked as to what has caused this lack of participation on the part of our members. I think there are a number of things that have occurred that has contributed to what has taken place. First of all, our administrators and other non bargaining personnel are being asked to do so much more.

31:23 And that has taken a toll on their extra time and willingness to serve and participate. And by the way, this is not meant to be a downer for all of you wonderful people that got into administration. That is number one.

31:38 The other reason I’ve determined is that there are so many issues pertaining to the political climate. There are now so many laws related to what schools, teachers and administrators can and cannot do that there is a genuine fear among our personnel that they might not only lose their jobs, but they could potentially lose their license. Now if you were to ask any administrator whether they were fearful, they are way too professional ever to admit it, but they are.

32:12 I believe that BASA is an important organization that should continue to have a seat at the table and provide valuable input for the issues that impact our system. I would like to encourage Dr. Rendell and this board to give BASA the importance that is necessary for productive advancement in spite of all the noise that is surrounding our system as well as education in general. As I indicated, our next executive director is Eileen Hare.

32:41 Eileen had a 43 year career in education, most of which was spent as an administrator at Satellite High School. In addition, Eileen is active in our communities and currently serves on several boards for nonprofit organizations. And Eileen has been a member of BASA since 1990.

33:03 She is the leadership that we turn this over to. But also joining her is our current president, the principal of Astronaut High School, Krista Miller. And she’ll be staying on to do that.

33:15 And my final thoughts are. Education is about compassion. Education is about caring.

33:17 Education is about making a difference in the lives we touch. And education is about making common sense decisions because we know it is the right thing. Again, thank you for the opportunity, and thank you for allowing me to.

33:40 To live out a dream when I came to Brevard county in 1971 to hopefully make a difference in those I taught and later on, those who I was able to leave as a school administrator. And finally, I leave you with a quote that I hope fits my career. They may forget what you said, but they will not forget how you made them feel.

34:03 Thank you again for this opportunity, and good luck. Well said. Good morning, Mr. Trent.

34:29 Members of the board and Dr. Rendell, thank you. Thank you so much for the opportunity to recognize Gary Shifrin today. On behalf of the members of basa, the administrators and affiliates, we would also like to thank Gary for his commitment and leadership while serving not only as an educator in Brevard Public Schools, but for leading BASA for the last 13 years.

34:54 As the incoming executive director, I look forward to our continued work, wonderful working relationship with Dr. Rendell, Mr. Dufresne and members of the school board. I thank you very much. And we have a plaque that we would like to give to Gary.

35:11 And so I’d like our board members that are here to come up. This is with our deepest appreciation. We are proud to honor Gary Shifrin with this award in recognition for your many years of guidance, leadership, and unconditional commitment as executive director of the Brevard association of School Administrators.

35:40 And from all of us, Gary, thank you. Mr. Chair, if we could take a short recess to take some pictures, that would be awesome. Absolutely.

35:59 Okay, We’re now at the public comments portion of the meeting. We have 12 speakers, and each will receive three minutes. Our attorney will call the speakers in order in which they are signed up to speak.

45:34 I want to take this time to warn those in attendance, if you cause a disruption, you will be asked to leave the premise. If you continue to cause disruption and or fail to leave the premise, you are in violation of Florida State Statute 87 or 877 13, and you will be committing trespass. And the board will enforce those rules.

45:55 I would say. Mr. Gibbs, please call up the first three, but I’m going to take a minute. Our timer is.

46:10 Yeah, there we go. All right. All good.

46:13 All right. Bill pearlman. Gabriella diaz.

46:16 Vendrell. Jennifer hopkins. Good morning.

46:24 I’d like to address item four on the agenda, instructional staff recommendations. And I’d like to ask if you think you’re creating an inviting culture and climate within bps that can lead to fewer vacancies and more filled positions. How can we work together to make BPS a great place to work.

46:48 Well, it’s not by rescinding the contract of a highly qualified teacher because she called a student by their preferred name. It’s not referring that teacher to the State Department, Department of Education so they can investigate and determine whether she should ever be allowed to teach again. That creates fear among teachers.

47:11 If you think you’re doing a great job, you wouldn’t have so many vacancies. And if you want to shrug that off as a national problem, think about what you’re doing to exasperate this problem. Are you aware that St. Lucie Public Schools is calling hundreds, perhaps thousands of our teachers and asking them to go to their job fair this week? Why do they think our teachers are so readily poachable? I think I know why.

47:44 You pay your staff poorly, you treat them with disdain, and you embarrass our community frequently. Like when you do dumb stuff like place a teacher who’s out on bail for child neglect into a classroom. Mr. Trent, you embarrassed us when you defended a principal that hosted an underage, alcohol fueled party by saying things happen.

48:09 Mr. Susan, you’ve embarrassed us when you called our students idiots and snots. Your words and actions send a chilling message to all of your staff. You shouldn’t be surprised that teachers are walking away from our district because they see you silencing them as professionals.

48:30 Every vacancy puts more pressure on those who stay. You’ve demonstrated that even the most effective teachers are not safe here. When leadership retaliates instead of supports, it erodes trust and morale.

48:47 I think actually Mr. Thomas understands that, but I see no evidence that the rest of you do. Students are paying the price for the dysfunction of this board. Larger class sizes, more substitutes, disrupted learning.

49:06 Brevard deserves better. I stand with Calhoun students before politics. Gabriella Diaz Vendrell.

49:21 Jennifer Hopkins. Leanne Cheney. Good morning.

49:26 My name is Gabby Diaz. I am a Florida resident and a graduate of Florida schools. And I’m going to be commenting on item four, instructional staff changes.

49:36 And more specifically, I want to share what’s at stake with these 16 teachers resigning and what Brevard School Board district, what I implore you to do more. So with my own experience in 2020, my teachers in my classroom saved my life. My classrooms, my teachers, my books were my refuge from the challenges that I faced outside the classroom.

49:57 At 14, I learned the lesson that not everyone’s going to accept you as you are. And I naively came out and learned the lesson that through social media harassment in my sophomore year, that lesson followed me through broken family relationships. By my junior year, that lesson found me as a slur etched on my car door at homecoming.

50:13 And by my senior year, I felt so numb and defeated from having to defend my existence and my humanity day in and day out that I withdrew from my social activities, my friends, my family. And on December 10th of 2020, I attempted to withdraw from my life completely. And what actually prevented me from going through that ideation was the fact that I’m a nerd and my AP Lang teacher.

50:37 I actually remember turning to my AP Lang homework and actually reading Ta Nehisi Coates words in between the World and Me and having a teacher in which she cultivated a classroom of intellectual creativity and learning that allowed for me to actually engage. Had it not been for my teacher and had it not been for the classroom that she curated, I may not be at this point podium right now speaking before you. And so when we see trends that are happening in Brevard, where we have 16 resignations and zero hires, where we have teachers being fired for recognizing and respecting the dignity and their existence of all of our students, like Mrs. Calhoun, we have to put it into perspective.

51:09 This will cost Brevard students their lives and their futures unless you act in the interest of the students rather than the interest of politics. Brevard in Florida deserves better than this. So when it comes to the measures that you take, I implore you, for the sake of our future generations and for our students, that you put them first.

51:26 And if not, I do want to call into attention that elections are coming and Brevard is watching. Thank you. Jennifer Hopkins, Leanne Cheney, and India Miller.

51:59 Good morning. My name is Jen Hopkins. I’m here as a concerned parent and a member of this community.

52:05 I’ll be addressing item agenda four, instructional staff changes. I’m speaking today because we have a crisis. Not just a teacher shortage, a teacher exodus.

52:14 And it’s not because people don’t want to teach. It’s because they don’t want to teach. Here in Brevard county, due to decisions made right here in this room, good educators are being pushed out.

52:25 This month, you reported the loss of 16 more teachers. There are currently 95 open instructional positions on Beacon. The reasons these teachers give for vacating their positions include personal and relocation.

52:38 Not only are teachers choosing to leave, they’re very likely fleeing this county and possibly this state out of fear. Where can we lay the blame for the situation that we are currently facing? I think we all know the answer to that. We can lay the blame Right here in this room, in front of this dais, in front of this board.

52:56 Every open instructional position hurts our students. Especially when at least one of the open positions should be filled by an excellent apartment teacher with above average pass rates. Teaching in Brevard county is not attractive to candidates when they can see that this board’s close minded actions result in unmanageable class sizes and less support for our students.

53:15 Every time this board chooses politics over students, fear over acceptance and control over collaboration, we lose another educator. Someone who could have made a difference in a child’s life. The message is clear.

53:29 Do what we say. Stay silent or leave. So guess what? They’re leaving.

53:35 This is unacceptable to us because this is not the message we want to send to our teachers. We cannot afford to continue losing educators. We cannot afford to cultivate this climate of intolerance and hate.

53:40 We cannot afford for this board to continue putting their own interests above the students they are here to serve with excellence as the standard. We’re here to demand that you find a better way to manage the deficit we’re facing. We have had, we’ve heard no real solutions.

54:02 And clearly what you’re doing now is not working. There is a million dollar plus being spent on banning books. $300,000 being spent on lawsuits that involve Matt, Susan and moms for Liberty.

54:16 $750,000 evaporated into sales, salary and vacation payouts while the board tried on superintendents like shoes. Couldn’t much of this be redirected and to recruiting and maintaining excellent teachers? We expect better. Our students deserve better.

54:34 Our community deserves better. Brevard deserves better. Thank you.

54:41 Leanne Cheney. India Miller. Greg Ross.

54:50 Hello, I’m Leanne Cheney, a community member for over 30 years and I’m speaking on agenda item number four. As you know, Brevard Public Schools has a shortage of teachers. As you know, Brevard Public Schools has a shortage of teachers not renewing Ms. Calhoun’s contract.

55:13 An extremely qualified teacher whose students scored well above average on their AP exams added to this problem. It made the work environment even more unfriendly. It was toxic.

55:25 Really. I personally know teachers who left as a result of this toxicity, and I don’t blame them. Working in a state of fear is horrible.

55:36 We’ve heard from teachers at Satellite about the eroding morale since you made the poor decision not to renew Ms. Calhoun’s contract. Unfortunately, our students are the ones who are paying the price. It’s time for you to put these students before politics to make their education a priority.

55:54 That is what we are paying you for. Our students deserve qualified and consistent teachers. They deserve better.

56:04 Brevard deserves better. Better. For the record, I continue to stand with Calhoun and with the right of a student to know and be who they are.

56:17 India miller. Greg ross. Ava wolfenkohar.

56:30 Good morning. I was going to say good afternoon, but my name is India Miller. I’m a graduate of Winter Haven High School and Florida resident and I came here today.

56:41 I worked in global education as an executive for eight years with the world’s largest education company. And I managed their strategic relationships like the Fulbright Scholarship program and iie. And I’m very concerned that, you know, I worked in 200 something countries and so I’m very familiar with staffing and staffing issues and different cultures and corporate cultures.

57:06 You have a culture issue. You’ve lost 16 teachers and not one teacher has applied to work here. And I want to look at why.

57:17 I think that what happened recently with you firing a well respected teacher for doing their best to respect a student. And I can’t imagine I try to put myself in the shoes of these teachers. My mom was a teacher.

57:32 Like, how do I work within the legal system of Florida, the laws that we have in place, which are unjust and will be overturned? And I want to remind people that sometimes following the law isn’t the right moral or ethical thing to do. I wear the pink triangle, which is a problem symbol, but it’s a pride symbol because it’s what we wore in the Holocaust. In Nazi Germany, queer and trans people were identified so it could be mocked and humiliated in the streets before we were sent to the concentration camps where we died and all the people that killed us were following the law.

58:09 I can’t imagine what that’s like for a teacher. I know the indignity I just felt when I had to go use the men’s restroom and walk past men, men using urinals. I came out as a Trans woman In 1989, before the Internet, before hatred, before politics.

58:25 And you’re putting politics before the students here. And your students deserve better. Your teachers deserve better.

58:35 You’re not preparing your students for the world that they’re going to live in. Because I will tell you, I’ve been to over 70 countries and there are LGBTQ people in all of them. You are not preparing your students to compete on a global level.

58:50 What are we doing? We’ve lost the plot. You know, Brevard deserves better. Our world deserves better.

58:57 We know that the suicide rate amongst these students increased from 7 to 72% when moms for Liberty and other organizations pushed these anti LGBTQ laws forward. Every 45 seconds, a trans or queer youth is trying to end their life. What are we doing? We have lost the plot.

59:21 Brevard deserves better. These students deserve better. And we deserve better from all of you.

59:29 Greg Ross, then Ava Wolfencruiter and Chris Higginbottom. Morning, school board, thank you for this opportunity to speak. I too, I’m going to address the instructional staff recommendations.

59:44 Let’s just talk about the numbers, right? Sixteen instructional staff resignations and only two appointments. But let’s go back to the last school board meeting back in May, right? Same story, same trend. 26 instructional staff resignations and only 14 appointments appointments.

1:00:01 A troubling trend, right? 191 openings this week at Brevard Public Schools. That averages about 140, give or take. I’ve got the data.

1:00:12 I hope you, I hope you look at it too. But the point I want to get to is very much what Mr. Shifrin got to, right? Public schools are a giant oil tanker. You can change the captain and the whole crew and it’s still going to take a long time to turn that ship.

1:00:29 Right? That’s what we’re seeing here. You guys are definitely making changes. Changes that a lot of people, including me, don’t like, right? That’s fair.

1:00:36 You guys won the election. You can do that. But the thing you guys don’t talk about is the side effects from that.

1:00:42 You can change policies, you can change the direction of things, you can change how students are treated. But what happens is, as somebody else pointed out, the teachers are paying attention. They’re not coming.

1:00:56 Heck, they’re getting picked off by St. Lucie Schools right now. Is my understanding that’s how bad Brevard county is, Right? We have five educated people up there and nobody wants to come work in Brevard county, the Space Coast. I wonder why.

1:01:10 Side effects. Side effects and what you guys do. You know, for every action, there’s a reaction.

1:01:17 And that’s what’s happening here now. It’s not just your actions that are a problem. Your words are definitely a problem.

1:01:24 We’ve been telling you that for a long time. Your actions are a problem. But for me, it’s the lack of leadership at this point.

1:01:32 Public schools have a huge problem coming up. Lack of funding. Right.

1:01:38 The state’s going to have, is going to have a shortage in their budget within two years. BPS will scrape by this year, but we know you guys are going to be hurting next year, right? But Are you guys up here talking about that? No, I don’t hear nothing about that. Right.

1:01:52 Are you talking about the teacher shortage? No, we don’t hear nothing about that. Right. Are you guys going to the state? Are you guys talking publicly about the lack of funding in public education and how that voucher money is hurting public education and hurting Title 1 schools? The lack of funding that may come if the federal government cuts Title I funding, where approximately every school in the county, 17% of their funding comes from the feds.

1:02:20 Right. Lack of leadership. You guys are not talking about the things you should be talking about.

1:02:25 Do better. Brevard deserves better. Thank you.

1:02:31 Ava Wolfenkohler, followed by Chris Higginbottom and Christine Go. Sorry. Hi, I’m Ava Wolfencaler.

1:02:44 I graduated from Satellite High and attended Brevard schools my whole life. I’m speaking on items three and four today on the 36 staff and 16 teacher resignations, which is crazy. And it’s a direct result of this board creating an environment where these teachers don’t want to work.

1:03:05 There’s already hundreds of job openings in this district. And firing Ms. Calhoun sent a message that respecting students gets you punished or even fired. All of my favorite teachers, the ones who made an impact on my education and life, are resigning this year.

1:03:24 This board has put politics over kids again and again, and it shows. Reinstate Ms. Calhoun because Brevard deserves better. Chris Higginbottom, followed by Christine Goss and Amy Raub.

1:03:46 Good morning. I just wanted to take a moment to say that Brevard County Schools is already a great place to work. And that’s my opinion.

1:03:56 What is right is not always popular, and what is popular is not always right. I understand that I’m here having a different point of view than most people in the room. I’m a father of three.

1:04:06 All three kids go to Brevard Public Schools. So I’m addressing agenda item 4. When I send my.

1:04:13 My kids to school, I got to trust that you guys have made the recommendations for the people to not only follow the rules and that you made the rules in accordance with the law, and you guys have followed the law. You guys making this decision are supporting people like me who I believe in the parents right to choose and parents right to know. So I do appreciate that my son is here.

1:04:41 He’s seeing this. He likes to come to the school board meetings and see everybody speak. And I do appreciate the.

1:04:47 The ability to speak freely. With that being said, we can’t have teachers choosing which laws to follow and which laws and that’s everybody. What laws to follow and which laws not to follow and rules and policies and procedures.

1:05:05 Give an example. Good things, because my kids tell me it was overwhelmingly negative at the last school board meeting. And.

1:05:12 And I try to keep things positive, and I try to teach my kids to be positive and to look for the positive and everything. Ryan Dufresne, who is in hr, he is making this place better. He’s doing a great job.

1:05:26 He came up with a new system where teachers feel supported with the abc. I don’t know if you guys are aware of that, but it saves a lot of time, a lot of paperwork for the administration and for the teachers. And so I don’t even know if he’s here today.

1:05:41 I haven’t necessarily saw him. How you doing, sir? But that’s the kind of thing that we should be talking about. The positive that’s going on in the school, in the school board.

1:05:51 What’s making a positive change for the people in the audience? I would challenge them as I would challenge my kids to stay positive, to look for the positive. And that’s what I try to teach my kids and have my kids do. But that’s it.

1:06:14 Thank you for your time. Christine Goss. Amy Raub, then.

1:06:20 Paul Raub, good morning. My name is Chrissy Goss, and I stand before you not only as a concerned citizen, but some. Someone who believes deeply in the power of education to change lives.

1:06:35 Today I’m speaking on behalf of Ms. Calhoun and all teachers who have created a classroom where every student is seen respected and safe. I have to address quickly that gentleman’s comment because he said, you guys are following the law. But it was illegal to arrest people during the Holocaust.

1:06:55 So sometimes we have to go against the law for what is right and good. She’s facing termination not for misconduct, not for incompetence, not for violating the core values of education, but for using a student’s preferred pronoun. You’re punishing a teacher for showing compassion, dignity and respect to a young person who likely already feels vulnerable in a world that too often tells them they don’t belong.

1:07:21 And this is more than a pronoun. This is about protecting the rights of students to be who they are and the right of educators to meet their students where they are. When a teacher honors a student’s identity, they affirm that student’s worth.

1:07:36 Isn’t that the essence of education? To help students grow, not just academically, but emotionally and socially? We cannot claim to support student mental health on one hand, and then penalize the very actions that promoted, according to the Trevor Project, youth that are affirmed by the adults in their lives, especially educators. Mr. Trent, who are affirmed by the adults in their lives, especially educators, are significantly less likely to attempt suicide. I noticed that.

1:08:08 When you have somebody that’s for you, you look up, but you don’t look up at all the other people who don’t like you. I. I don’t care. You look right up at that gentleman, but you’re not paying attention to the rest of us, even though we’re the majority.

1:08:22 Let’s not forget Ms. McCallhoon at the heart of this. By all accounts, she is beloved by students, colleagues, and effective in the classroom. Finding her sends a chilling message to every educator in this county.

1:08:35 Is hate the legacy you want to leave for your children, for your grandchildren, because believe me, they will learn what you do at this moment and either respect you for your decision or disrespect you because of what you’re doing here. I urge you, do not let fear or ideology, silence, compassion. Do not let one parent speak for all of us.

1:09:04 You know, it’s funny. They always said the silent majority. No, we.

1:09:08 We’re the silent majority. And now you’ve woken us up. We are going to.

1:09:13 And I find it very disrespectful that Mr. Trent laughs at people speaking. You don’t belong in this position. Your mission behind you says, look at it.

1:09:24 To serve every student with excellence as the standard. And you don’t follow that mission. Mr. Trent or Mr. Susan.

1:09:35 Have a great day, sir. There is an extra name. Hi.

1:09:43 Amy Raub. Raise your hand up there if you attended Brevard county schools at all, or are you all new here? Just one. Oh, no, not me.

1:09:53 You went where? Titusville High School. Just high school? Nope. All through.

1:09:58 So we’ve got two that actually. Okay, just want to clear that up, because, Katie, you like to, like, be like, oh, you’re not my constituent. And like, that went out the fucking window.

1:10:09 Hey, Mr. Chairman, can you pause the clock, please? Can you please remind the speaker of the rules of decorum and warn her if she violates them again, she will be asked to leave. Thank you. No, you can’t.

1:10:26 Not here. Just some decorum. We have no problem listening to you.

1:10:31 Okay, so let’s see. What is your job up there? And do you think you’re doing it well with the huge teachers? I’m going to stop that again. Just go ahead and.

1:10:43 You’re speaking to an agenda item. Stay on the agenda item. I don’t think on the agenda item is our job description.

1:10:48 Do you want me to just repeat the words agenda item? Second one. I’m getting there. So if your mission was to run off teachers and defund public schools, which I think it.

1:11:01 It is, you’re doing it great. I don’t know how you would do it differently if you weren’t trying to do that. Like, how else would you run teachers off with, like, lowest pay in the country? You.

1:11:19 You are making them. You’re turning them into Nazis. You’re making them pull children out of classrooms and interrogating them about nicknames, about preferred names.

1:11:36 So you don’t want teachers. Right. You like the deficit.

1:11:40 You’re trying to defund public schools. Okay, sorry, I’ve got crazy notes here. Yes, the.

1:11:52 You. You’re not my constituent. On December 15, 2023, the Moms for Liberty chair, Jennifer Pippen drove up here from Indian river county and banned 11 books from us.

1:12:05 Why? Where was that? Mr. Chairman, please pause the clock. You remind the speaker to stay on the agenda item. Would like to understand how this is going towards an agenda item.

1:12:16 Please state this will be your final warning on the agenda item. Now you’re going to have to give us the time. So the 11 books banned, that was fine.

1:12:24 All right, that’s not on the agenda. But when people are coming to give us backup for our fascist board, we’re going to go ahead and end your time. You’re nowhere near any of our agenda items.

1:12:32 I would encourage you. I’m sure you’ve signed up for non agenda item, and you’re going to have your three minutes there, but that was your third and final warning. We’re.

1:12:39 We’re done with this. Thank you. Yep, All around.

1:12:58 Oh, soap wave. Yeah. I’m here to speak on agenda item 4 and some of the factors that may be contributing to the situation there.

1:13:12 I’ll repeat that periodically if it gets lost. Teachers will teach somewhere. Teachers want to teach.

1:13:23 It is a mission, it is a calling for them. But they’re going to choose where they do that on a number of factors, some of which you have some control over. Pay.

1:13:33 There’s some leeway there. The community, the curriculum, the leadership. The leadership and what that says about the kind of work environment and quality of life a teacher is going to have working in a school district.

1:13:49 And, You know, part of the. Part of the culture that is instilled right now is culture of fear of speaking out is fear of being honest, fear of treating students with respect, fear of being anything other than deferential to whatever is Coming on, coming out of your mouths out here. But teachers are afraid and frustrated and worried that by doing their jobs well, they may lose them.

1:14:15 And so why would you choose to work in that environment? You know, and calling what you guys do leadership is something of a misnomer. Leadership is about enabling, empowering, clearing obstacles, helping the people that answer to you do the best job for the students, which is the only thing that matters. The students matter.

1:14:38 The education matters. The teachers do the job. You guys shouldn’t interfere with it, but it’s kind of what you do.

1:14:45 Posturing isn’t leadership. Creating and allowing a climate of fear is not leadership. You know, spending money that could be spent on education, on facilities, on many needed improvements, fixing actual problems in the district and having that money go to lawsuits instead, and always trying to conjure up new ones.

1:15:08 Saw the draft of the. What is it? Credentialing credible media sources policy, which is, I guess, modeled after the White House policy where we don’t want CNN, but Joe Bob’s High Tea podcast is going to get credentialed, including in that the line about conservative viewpoint is a gift to the First Amendment lawyers who will cost you a lot of money. Baking the viewpoint descript.

1:15:31 The viewpoint discrimination into the policy is just a gift. Maybe throw the whole thing in the fire. I’m sorry.

1:15:40 Definitely throw the whole thing in the fire. If you want good teachers, if you want to attract good teachers and keep them, make this a place where they might want to work and teach. Brevard deserves better, you little cowards.

1:16:03 That’s what we say in the last second. Paul. Is that it? Yep.

1:16:21 All right. All right. Well, that concludes agenda items only.

1:16:26 Public comment. Thank you for taking the time out of your schedule to address the board with your concern, concerns and suggestions. I would like to remind the public that the board is accessible for further conversations outside our business meetings through scheduling a meeting.

1:16:40 We’re now at the consent agenda portion of our meeting. Dr. Rendell. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

1:16:45 There are 28 items on the list under this category. Thank you, Dr. Rendell. Does any board member wish to pull any items? Just trying to make sure I’m.

1:16:58 Mr. Chairman, can you just give me one second? Sorry. I’m trying to pull it up on the system that we are all learning through. This is a growing learning.

1:17:03 Discover the full page where you can make it. Where? All right, give me half a second so I can get on the same page as you are. Okay, I’m good.

1:17:11 Go ahead. Thank you. All right, I will entertain a motion to accept all right.

1:17:17 Second. Any discussion? Paul, roll call, please. Mr. Thomas, I. Mr. Ms. Campbell? Aye.

1:17:21 Mr. Trent? Aye. Mr. Susan. Aye.

1:17:23 Ms. Wright. Aye. Dr. Undell, will you let us please know about the items under the action portion of today’s agenda? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

1:17:30 The first action item is G1 procurement solicitations. So I hear a motion move to approve second discussion. Yep.

1:17:38 Gotcha. To pull G1 22279 from that group. Okay.

1:17:49 Sorry, which one is it? G1. G1 222279. Does it have a letter? It’s the first one of A. Okay.

1:17:56 Yeah. Number 1A. I’m sorry.

1:17:58 G1A. I apologize. Okay.

1:18:03 All right. The Employee Benefits Management. Yeah.

1:18:06 And if you guys second it, then I can tell you why. Okay, I’ll second half. I think.

1:18:10 I think we already. You already have a second. Yeah, but I’m.

1:18:14 I’m going to pull it. Changing. But he’s changing, so I’m pulling it.

1:18:17 So I needed a second. We’re in the middle of it. Yep.

1:18:19 Discussion. So, basically, this is a great company. They’ve worked out great for us for many years.

1:18:24 We are in the process of onboarding a new ERP system that has a lot of capabilities, and on top of that, there’s some other capabilities that our IT department does. So what I would like to do is, is have our IT Department, who’s in the middle of that erp, rfp. I’m sorry, to just take a look at it, put it back on the agenda for the 28th.

1:18:43 It’s within the window of them having their renewal and just have our staff look at it to see if there’s any opportunities for us to improve or do a better job. And that’s it. So I think our next meeting’s the 28th or the 24th.

1:18:58 24th. 24th. That’s it.

1:18:59 So the 24th gives them plenty of time before the renewal date. And it just gives an opportunity to take a look at it from our IT department to see if there’s any way that we can save in that area. That’s it.

1:19:10 Okay. Just a clarifying question. So this.

1:19:18 That we don’t have that yet. Would you consider. We do have it.

1:19:23 It’s under renewal. No, no, I’m talking about the erp. Right.

1:19:28 So are you suggesting that if, depending on how that goes, that we would. Can. That we would need it, Maybe do this, but it’s like a shorter contract, some.

1:19:37 That could be a possibility. I’m not in the frame of understanding where that ERP system’s at. I Just I just wanted to be able to have it review it for in case shorter contract, any other opportunities that they have there.

1:19:50 And if there’s something else, great. If not, put it on the 24th. They’ve been a great company for us.

1:19:54 We’ve had great times with them and stuff like that. That’s all. Yeah.

1:19:58 So I am, I’m going to vote no to remove it this time because of, because of the. Because I also know, if I correct me If I’m wrong, Mr. Gibbs, that we do as part of our renewals and our contracts we can actually, with an effort warning we have written into our contracts where we can end the contracts if we get to the place where we have the new system. And it is something that is working that we feel like our staff with the new system because it also is staff.

1:20:24 I mean that means that we may have the new system but we may not have the staff in place in HR to do all the things that that vendor does. And so I think it might take a little time to do that. And so.

1:20:38 But if we do and we have the staff, we find cost savings coming then I would suggest that at that point we could cancel this contract renewal. Am I correct? The, the actual contract itself is not on here. This is just the renewal.

1:20:52 I would have to go check the actual contract terms. Sometimes they are for the year and we have to provide notice by the end of the year and you can’t con or cancel them midterm. Right.

1:21:02 So I don’t know what the terms. And I, and we’re, I don’t think we’re in a place where we could do it for this open enrollment. It’s just coming in October.

1:21:09 Right. Which we’re just a few months away. So I, and I, if we’ve got input from Mr. Dufresne, Dr. Wendell, would that be appropriate for or should this hang on? Because I just hate to move forward without any kind of input from staff.

1:21:23 So let me refrain it. So it’s not only what you’re looking at, which is a possibility of actually going to just change it for a year. Sometimes three year contracts come up with, yes, if we have it for three years, we have this discount and all that stuff.

1:21:37 It’s also in the event that it and in many other instances has been able to develop programs that are similar and be able to store the data. So I just wanted to give them the two week window so that they could take a look at it. I do know from, I do know that this is definitely within the window of doing open enrollment, which is not going to be until October, and it’s not going to be for a renewal until January.

1:21:59 So we are within the window of open enrollment. We are within the opportunity of them renewing the contract by the time that this contract would come up. And I think it does our due diligence as tax abiding, you know, board to take a look at and see if there’s an opportunity for us to save in this area.

1:22:15 If there’s not, with a good company, we continue it. If there’s another opportunity, we go on. That’s it.

1:22:20 I’m going to. You look like you want to say something. I don’t need to.

1:22:24 No, please do so, Mr. Chair, if I could. I believe what Mr. Susan is asking is just to put off approval of the renewal until the next board meeting so that we can review and make sure there’s no duplication of effort. If the new ERP or our other ET operations can perform this service and we don’t need to contract for this company for another year, we could do that.

1:22:48 Now, I would assume that our staff has already looked at that and said, you know, we need this for another year, but we will take this back and review that to make sure. Okay. If we postpone it service on that two week period.

1:23:02 All right. In that case, that’s fine. I, I, I just, I know it’s.

1:23:05 You’re bringing up a department that is already stretched very thin. Yep. Thank you.

1:23:11 Two departments. HR so, Mr. Gibbs, procedurally, do we need to go ahead and vote on. Because he pulled the one.

1:23:17 So we need to vote on that one separately, standalone. So we need to vote on the others. You’re gonna vote on his and amended.

1:23:23 So he’s pulling a from G1. So you’re going to vote on improving the pulling of it. And you’re going to vote on G1 as amended without it.

1:23:33 Yep. If, if it fails, then we need a separate vote to table that. So he’s just pulling it and then Dr. Rendell can put it on for the 24.

1:23:43 Okay. Yeah. Okay.

1:23:44 Okay. If we’re done. Roll call.

1:23:50 Roll call, please. Mr. Thomas, on the motion to pull letter. Aye.

1:23:54 Ms. Campbell? Aye. Mr. Trent? Aye. Mr. Susan? Aye.

1:23:58 Ms. Wright? Aye. Okay. And then I need a motion.

1:24:01 Yeah. For the rest. Yeah, go ahead.

1:24:06 Okay. So now we have an amended motion to. With the newly amended.

1:24:09 So I make the motion. Need a second. Second.

1:24:13 All right. Any discussion on that? Roll call, please. Mr. Thomas? Aye.

1:24:15 Mr. Ms. Campbell. Aye. Mr. Trent.

1:24:17 Aye. Mr. Susan? Aye. Ms. Wright.

1:24:24 Aye. Very good. Dr. Rendell, will you please let us know about the items under the action portion of today’s agenda? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

1:24:33 The second action item is Department of School initiated agreements C through E. Do I hear a motion move to approve? Second. Any discussion ball.

1:24:36 Roll call. Mr. Thomas? Aye. Ms. Campbell? Aye.

1:24:37 Mr. Trent? Aye. Mr. Susan. Aye.

1:24:49 Ms. Wright? Aye. We will move on to the information agenda, which includes one item for the board review and may be brought back for action at a subsequent meeting. No action will be taken on this item today.

1:25:03 Does any board member wish to discuss this item at this time? I would like to offer my fellow board members and Dr. Mandel an opportunity to recognize students, staff, and members of the community. Is right. All right.

1:25:08 All right. It feels like it’s been forever since we were together. That’s just what always happens when there’s a three.

1:25:13 Three weeks span. So lots has happened. I want to give a shout to the adult Ed graduation that took place.

1:25:21 That took place after our last board meeting. And I. I didn’t recognize the impact of watching that graduation. All graduations are so special.

1:25:45 They really are. But when you watch somebody who comes back to school after they’ve made a life choice to go a different path, and maybe that’s taken them, you know, somewhere good, different, difficult, but then come back and really pursue achieving their education, it was so powerful to watch grown adults that have now have families and have their families come hug them and embrace them because they went back and accomplished this goal. So I want to give a shout out to Ms. Benjamin and the amazing work she did there.

1:25:51 It was their first graduation at their facility. So, board, if you get next year, I’m saying everybody should be on that stage. It is a huge, huge.

1:26:01 It’s just, man, it makes your heart feel good. So good stuff there. Also, want to give a thank you to Career Source BREVARD and again, Ms. Benjamin, we’re gonna go back to her and Ms. Han.

1:26:22 She. They had a meeting last week about how can we partner with CareerSource Brevard, because a lot of what our adult education does, their next step is, hey, let’s achieve the education, and then the next step is job placement, right? So Career Source is having some reorganization that’s happening, and we have found a way, I believe, to really strike a good partnership that will help those students, all of our students, really, but especially our adult Ed students. So I’m excited about that.

1:26:29 That partnership. Sue, thank you so much for facilitating lining all of that up. That was a lot of work to schedule that many people all in the same time.

1:26:36 So I appreciate you for that. Couple of friendly reminders of things that are coming up. So board, I’m sure you’re getting all the emails.

1:26:41 File your Form 6. Don’t forget to file that before, before the 1st of July that is due. So very important.

1:26:46 File that. The Ascend Conference is happening this week. I know that kind of coincides with you guys have FSBA at the end of this week.

1:26:55 So I’m sad you’re not gonna get to go. I will go and report back and let you know how amazing it it is because I heard nothing but positive things last year after the Ascend Conference. So thank you to the team that’s put that on.

1:27:04 I’m sure it’s going to be nothing less than wonderful and perfect. If you are back on Friday, the Brevard Schools foundation is having their golf tournament. It is Friday the 13th.

1:27:13 I think there’s probably some kind of theme going on there with that. I just want to remind you so if you’re back and I know we have several golfers up here come out to the golf course and represent. So that would be good.

1:27:20 And that is all that I have. So we’ll move on to the next one. Mr. Susan, Mr. Thomas, go ahead.

1:27:36 I just wanted to give two shout outs. One was to follow up on the graduation. This is my first opportunity to get to attend several graduations and the thing I was most impressed with was the students true respect and love for the staff and the principals of all the schools that I attended.

1:27:49 It was kind of, it was good to see kudos to all the staff and the principals for how they set up the responsibility. Their graduations, they were all ran seamlessly. It was an awesome, awesome to be able to be honored to play a part of that in those.

1:28:12 And then I also want to thank Misty Bland for setting up the tour of the Magnolia Separate Day School and Silver Pines Academy. I know you guys have already been over there in Orlando, but I hadn’t a chance to go and Ms. Wright also went with me. So just appreciate the staffs over there as well as Misty for all for making those tours, setting them up and making them so successful.

1:28:30 That’s it. I too had some wonderful, a wonderful week of graduations and it was really wonderful. I do have to say Adult Ed is continues to be one of my favorites and I have to tell just a little story we had.

1:28:46 They always one of the things that’s special about Adult Ed because they have a smaller class and because they have such A unique place population. They always invite students from each campus to share their story. And we had a 62 year old.

1:29:07 62? 68, yeah. Grandmother who took eight years and literally passed her last test that morning and walked across the stage and she was one of the ones who had asked to speak and I don’t know if she threw it together this quickly or she kind of knew she was going to pass. She spoke the whole thing in verse, even had a little stanza for each teacher and it was amazing and so encouraging.

1:29:35 And then one of my other favorites was the 47 year old dad who dropped out at age 16 because his words, he didn’t want to be a deadbeat dad. He wanted to be present for his kids and through the years realized that he needed to get that accomplished. And so he said when he missed the opportunity all those years ago to cross the stage with his twin sister and so they had arranged for her to have a cap and gown for them to walk across the stage together.

1:29:50 And it was so moving and such an incredible. Our adult ed department is doing great work and they’re doing great work for our community. It was wonderful to be out on the track that we’re going to be using to train CDL drivers coming up very, very soon.

1:30:20 And so it was just kind of a high point to me of that week. I wanted to thank everybody who was involved with our audit committee meeting that we had last week, week before, whenever it was particularly we had a follow up on the discipline audit and I thanked some people that day but I want to thank them publicly and I also left someone at a department out. We want to give huge shout outs to the work that Student Services has done under the leadership leadership of Pam Dampier.

1:31:01 The work that the District Security and Operations has done with our contracts with law enforcement and with the chief of school’s office in enforcing and applying the changes. But also I want to do a huge shout out to Educational Technology because without their support in pulling that data and in helping us to make focus to utilize it in the fullest way, we wouldn’t have been able one to get gather the data for those reports and for RSM and our auditors, but also to make it more user friendly for teachers, for administrators, for the people at the district so that we can make sure that we’re doing things in a timely fashion, shortening up those times. All of that involved Educational Technology.

1:31:25 So I wanted to give a big woot woot to Russell Cheatham and his team for their work in that last week on Tuesday Take Stock and Children through Brevard Schools foundation have their mentor luau and I wanted. It was, it was a fun time. And they thanked all the mentors that have been supporting our Take Stock and Children students through the year.

1:31:37 But one particular person, and I did not get his name, but I’ll send it to you later. He’s 90 years old and he has been just sharp as attack. He’s been mentoring Take Stock and children for 18 years.

1:31:59 He’s had six different students over those 18 years and he’s going strong, has no intention to stop. So I’m telling you, board, nobody has an excuse if you can be 90 years old and you’re still mentoring students. That’s one of the reasons why I started a couple years ago because we had one of our teachers, or I think it was administrator from a school come and share at a moment and she’s got three kids, single mom, teacher, and said she’s mentoring kids.

1:32:07 I’m like, okay, I’m pretty sure I can do this. And it’s been a joy. My mentee is a pleasure to meet with and such an encouragement to me.

1:32:20 In fact, she just texted me the other day, you know, how’s your summer going? So it has been a mutually beneficial. Just a joy. We had a couple of retirements that went under the radar today.

1:32:36 And I’m telling you what, our data gurus, we’re saying goodbye to nada. Francis was on the list of administrators and so definitely want to thank her for the work she’s done. But John Carr is a name that doesn’t get mentioned on often and he is like the spreadsheet king.

1:32:42 And I know he’s not in the room, but y’, all, y’ all tell him we’re. We’re giving him. We’ve got smiles and nods going up here.

1:33:05 John Carr is who I would call the data guru for the district and has been for a long time and I just want to thank him for his service. And I notice on the list of instructional staff that he that he is retiring and I’m well deserved but big shoes to fill and just want to thank him in particular for the work he’s done through the years. Last is more of a means of a report than anything.

1:33:27 You know, we each have our champion areas in the strategic plan and mine is community relations. And so had I’m having every other month Board and I hopefully are able to do that too, at least bimonthly. Meeting with Janet Moynihan and they’ve got this big giant whiteboard with all the goals and how they’re working towards them and really are making.

1:33:36 I just to want. Wanted to report back that they’re making some great progress towards those goals. And one of the things they’re doing is getting kind of a baseline in the response, in the crisis response.

1:34:09 How fast can we turn around from the time that something happens? Obviously, the administrators on the ground need to be focusing on their building, but how fast can we get that message out to parents and how can we shorten that? And they’re really doing good work in all of the areas, but that one in particular wanted to highlight. So if you haven’t met with your champion area recently, make sure you touch base with them and just get an update on how they’re going with the strategic plan, because great work is happening. I know we’re going to get an update on that probably when we get the superintendent’s evaluation, But I just wanted to report that things are going really well on the community side.

1:34:20 Thank you. Yeah, I wanted to take a second. That last couple of weeks is actually a flurry of things that we were doing, and one of them being the graduations that we attended.

1:34:32 And I’m not sure because, Ms. Campbell, you probably remember when we went through Covid for those graduations, it was a different feel. Like people were so segmented people. The energy levels were not as good.

1:34:48 And we’ve slowly been coming out of it. And this year, And even better than what it was prior to Covid, I saw for sure the faces that they have of their kids up in the stands. That was a little bit last year.

1:35:02 And this year seemed like there was a. We had a lot of excitement for the right reasons. The kids that were speaking were speaking not to like, you know, pontificate, but actually straight to the people that they were.

1:35:09 That they were representing and stuff like that. It was just overall great feel. And then afterwards, if you sat back, I hope that you guys had this opportunity.

1:35:24 On the football field graduation ones, it was just like the whole stands came down and they were all in there and it was just like. And it’s happened in the past a little bit, but it has never been the level where everybody came down and was there for like an hour afterwards and it didn’t rain. Yeah.

1:35:28 Yes. And it was just. It was just a really cool opportunity for all the graduations.

1:35:33 I mean, satellites was cool. Vieira’s was good. And then the energy inside the King center with.

1:35:42 With Eau Gallie. Those are just some great graduations. So I did want to Say, I’m just so proud of our district and the positivity of the kids that are coming across and everything else.

1:35:54 I also wanted to tell you guys just real quick on the healthcare piece, seems to be a lot of discussion and stuff like that. We’re, we’re starting to get calls about it from different things. I’m moving with the Osceola.

1:36:18 There’s a gentleman in Osceola, maybe you guys have seen it before, where we get a spreadsheet of the costs from each one of the other districts and stuff like that that’s held by a gentleman that’s in Osceola. And I spoke to him and I said, look, I said, you put together this thing and, and is there an opportunity for you to expand a little bit of it? Because it would be nice because there’s a lot of factors that go into, okay, they pay less or these people pay more and stuff like that that we need to be attributing to. And he said, absolutely.

1:36:42 So two things happened. He agreed to contact the other schools to try to pull together more resources so that we can get an evaluation of how we’re doing. But then the other thing is, is that the Florida alliance for Healthcare Value, it’s a massive organization that’s run in Orlando, has like Miami Dade schools, has Orange county schools inside of it and other ones, and Disney and a lot of other major organizations and all they do is innovate in the healthcare solution.

1:37:00 I asked them if they would work with this gentleman and I on creating like a, like a corridor group of our public schools so that we could collaborate and come up with best innovative ideas, which they already do. So the Florida alliance for Health care value agreed. Ms. Karen was excited to kind of work through it.

1:37:16 So to be continued on top of the work that we’re doing internally, also looking at some sort of a collaborative effort between a lot of the other school boards. I contacted some of the other school boards just from a 30,000 foot view, the members, and they said absolutely, however we can help it. It is our second largest cost in our budget.

1:37:22 So just wanted to kind of give you the updates on a little bit of that stuff. And that’s all I got, man. Awesome.

1:37:53 So yeah, the last few weeks, wow, graduations were just wonderful. I mean that week we had a board meeting and then, you know, I had the honor to do four straight graduations and just sitting back looking at the different ways the community, their graduations, it’s an honor to be on my side to see going from cocoa to Cocoa beach to Edgewood. And then it Saturday evening with Merritt Island.

1:38:06 You know, I’d like to say, you know, it was the. It was the kids and the students that made the highlight, But I think Ms. Campbell stole it. When we got no rain, that was really the highlight because then they can do what they wanted to do.

1:38:17 But no, honestly, it was. Somebody else mentioned about the speeches, the maturity level of these students that got up there. We, you know, you can imagine I had a senior myself this year.

1:38:41 So, you know, I’m picturing when I came to Brevard here, he’s in fourth grade and the maturity level that he’s at, at senior. But seeing these young men and women ready and able to tackle the big world out there, and then chuckling, thinking they know what they’re going to be doing next. But it was exciting to see that they had plans, but they uplifted everyone in the stands.

1:39:07 It was like as if they were telling everyone there, you know, thank you for, for supporting us, but we have this now. But they constantly reflected back on the important people in their lives, which was really nice to sit there and to meet every single one of them, to see the excitement from the valedictorians to whomever else on there, they all shared that same excitement for the night. So it was great.

1:39:15 But the shout out, really, to the administrators, boy, did they put in a lot of effort. I see Ms. Lubbers still here. Thank you so much for all you did.

1:39:27 You had what, like, how many did we have in that senior class? It was large. Yeah, 363. So, you know, which was better than a couple years ago when we did it in a downpour and we stayed there.

1:39:32 But this one was. It was great to see that. Or a smaller 100, 150 students.

1:39:43 It was very exciting. None can match the electricity and the excitement of being on the football field in cocoa. So shout out to Coco’s community and the Stewart.

1:40:08 That’s always my favorite night there in the Cocoa graduation. So also, end of the year, I always have to give a shout out to the teachers and the staff and all the testing that we have to do at the end of the year and the students for getting all that extra sleep and the extra studying that you do did for your finals and your EOCs and all your testing. You pulled it off.

1:40:14 So thank you. You get a little bit of rest, administrators, and I’m sure you’re right back at it. And teachers, of course, get that little bit of rest.

1:40:23 And I’m sure you’re reflecting back on what went well and what you’re going to do differently in the next school year. The testing leads me to. Yep.

1:40:28 The big shout out to Nada. Nada. Francis, if it weren’t for her, probably wouldn’t be.

1:40:36 I probably wouldn’t be here myself. She was a wonderful leader in the testing area in Brevard. She.

1:40:54 I mean, you talk about herding cats. If you’re ever on a zoom call with all the testing coordinators around the county, it is an amazing job to try to, you know, have all of them, you know, focused. And, you know, it’s not as if these testing coordinators have a big staff.

1:41:15 They have to beg, borrow, bribe, and steal the minutes from the staff that they have there. So thank you, Nada. You know, with wonderful leadership, I’m sure I’m speaking for all the testing coordinators and principals and the assistant principals that you taught them and showed them.

1:41:23 Doesn’t matter how big the fire is, that you’ve got this under control. So a shout out to her. So, Dr. Rendell.

1:41:29 Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do have a couple corrections. You can’t choose a favorite graduation.

1:41:33 You can say one of. That’s what we’re all. One of my favorites.

1:41:40 And the administrators are not really getting any time off. No. In fact, it is summer.

1:41:44 The graduation season was awesome. It was fantastic. I did get to go to six, and it was just.

1:41:54 It’s special. And it’s summer. And most people think educators take the summer off, and some educators do take the summer off, but we have summer school going on right now for those who need it.

1:42:08 And we also have summer enrichment camps all up and down the county at many, many of our schools. And so I want to thank the curriculum and instruction department for the heavy lifting that put all that together. The summer school programs, but also the summer enrichment programs.

1:42:40 And then a huge thank you to the schools that are hosting those, to the teachers that are working in those camps, summer school, to the administrators that are working those camps and summer school, to the maintenance staff that is working around those camps and summer schools as they try to do all the work that we try to do over the summer. So it is summertime, and we do think that all of us take the summer off, and we don’t. And a lot of people are working very hard to provide more learning opportunities for our kids, even during the summer.

1:42:47 Summer. So I want to thank everybody who’s involved in putting the summer programs together and carrying out those summer programs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

1:42:52 Great. Okay. All right. We’ll take a short recess to to prepare for the non agenda item public comment portion of the meeting. Sam. It.