Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
0:00 It. Mr. Susan. Here. Ms. Wright.
0:33 Here. Ms. Campbell. Here.
0:35 Mr. Thomas. Here. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance.
0:40 I pledge allegiance. Doctor Andell, 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.
1:03 First, we have some rule development for board policy 0165. Then we have presentations. The first is the Behavior Diversion and Success Pathway Program.
1:13 A presentation on suggested changes to the code of conduct in relation to House Bill 1105. Presentation on our climate survey data for this past school year. Presentation on the personalized education program proposals.
1:26 Student comparison data for PM3. So we have a lot of student achievement data that we want to share with you. Then we have some board policy reviews, a discussion on the general Counsel’s evaluation, and then a discussion on FSBA board of Directors and advocacy committee.
1:41 I would ask also if we could add a a discussion about the timeline for my evaluation at the end as well. Okay. Okay, good.
1:50 Well, first up we have the board policy review and Rule Development Policy 0165. Is there anyone present that would like to address this item? Good afternoon, board. Thank you for this opportunity to speak.
2:08 I’m actually going to read something that I know was emailed to you guys. I think it’s important that the public hears this as well. This comes from Keith Becker.
2:16 He’s a licensed humanist, humanist celebrant and a humanist and atheist community leader. This is what he. I know this was sent to you, to the board about this specific policy.
2:30 I am writing you today on behalf of many of your students, parents and staff who wish to remain anonymous for fear of being intimidated, bullied or outed by voicing their opposition to this invocation policy proposal. We have many concerns. Why do you need this? How does this benefit kids? Why are you injecting religious belief and non belief into government? Meeting with children present? How do you choose who speaks and who doesn’t? How do you make it truly inclusive? How tedious is the process? What if you deny a speaker and you get into free speech issues? What grounds are speeches denied? Do you make an announcement beforehand so that anyone who wishes to not be subjected to an invocation they may disagree with to leave, all the while making their stance visible to all, especially if they are in the minority.
3:22 How much extra work is it in setting this policy up for staff, the lawyers and the board? How much money will this policy cost? How is this policy using taxpayer money wisely? How is this good for the district if the public objects to a certain invocation speaker? Do you ban them. How do you decide what is good material and what is objectionable material for an invocation? And who is the arbiter? If you unfortunately get sued, do you use taxpayer money to fight for this policy? The above is just a sample of the questions we have and would like answers to. If the policy does manage to be approved, myself and others will look forward to offering an inclusive invocation as part of the diverse equitable and inclusion policy.
4:04 Thank you. We look forward to hearing from all of you. Keith Becker, Humanist, Celebrant Satellite Beach I’m going to spend the last 50 seconds I have here adding my own touch to that.
4:14 I agree with everything he asked. When I look at this policy, it seems like it shifts off the work to some administrative procedure that is not defined. It’s not attached to the policy, it’s not in the meeting agenda.
4:30 So the real meat of what’s going to happen here is going to be some administrative procedure that isn’t even written yet. So the board is going to vote on this in a few weeks without an administrative procedure being established yet. I certainly hope that administrative procedure is established and the public gets to look at it before this board votes on it.
4:54 So, again, I think you know what my objections are, but thank you. Is there anyone present that wishes to address these items? All right, next we have the behavior. Oh, yep.
5:15 I didn’t know if you want. Sure, go ahead. I know, Board, that I said a couple months, months ago or a month ago that I wasn’t going to say anything else about this policy.
5:22 But I. The more I think about it, the more that I’m having a problem for completely different reasons than Mr. Ross, to be quite honest. And I don’t apologize for being exclusive, like I mentioned to you guys a couple times ago. I appreciate the intent that it was brought by Mr. Thomas, and including prayer, I think that’s very important.
5:43 But I will say again that prayer absolutely is part of our meetings. Whether it’s said out loud, it is just as effective. And the thing that bothers me is that we, and I’ve been doing.
5:53 I’m doing some reading about the different court cases, that we are absolutely legally able to do this. And those questions are legitimate, but they’re actually mostly answered except for the exact nuts and bolts. But we had all of these discussions in earlier meetings.
6:08 We absolutely have a right to do that. But that doesn’t mean that I want to invite into our meetings the negativity. And I say that lightly.
6:17 There’s other words that I could use that would come from inclusive practices which we would be required. The lawsuit that they had across the street back in 2014, 2016, I can’t remember what year it was where the commissioners were hand picking the people to come and pray. That was the thing that they were told they couldn’t do.
6:38 And so long as it was something general and anybody you know it was and other districts and city councils and things have had the same kind of legal challenges as long as everybody can do it. But I don’t really want everybody to do it just to be straightforward. And I will say this again, I don’t like the thought of having to feel like I am praying protection over the meeting and over your minds because of what we’re inviting in.
7:05 And so I when we get down to our vote, unless we make some severe changes the policy, if we’re going to do it, it was written fine. It says the board may, but in the moment, which means we can decide to not do it and we can change the policy and not have invocations anymore, but we won’t be able in the moment to say we don’t like who signed up. And so now we’re not going to do it because then a viewpoint discrimination.
7:32 I understand all the legal ramifications, but I would just as soon go on and have, you know, praying fervently during our moment of silence that we have at the beginning of meeting and not invite all the other influences in, to be quite honest. And I still hold that. And if we’re going to move forward, I will help craft the very best policy that can be, even if it ends up with me voting against it.
7:58 But I wanted to be very clear where I am on. On why. Thank you other board.
8:08 Thank you, Ms. Campbell, for. I understand and I would, I, I guess what I would say to that is that I believe that that is already in this room at times. The things that you’re worried about, are they going to come in here now, whether or not we give them a platform and a microphone to speak over the room is the, the major concern.
8:21 I do want to ask Dr. Rendell as far as the, the procedure goes, because that is the administrative procedure is really. Mr. Ross is correct. That’s.
8:29 That’s how it’s going to happen. Right. Could the board make the ask that the procedure obviously be tied to the policy and that is presented to us before the board votes on this policy? Absolutely.
8:40 The board can make that request. Okay. Board.
8:42 I would propose. Well, I would propose that the procedure is attached that this policy doesn’t move forward until that procedure is ironclad and we can work on it together as a board to make sure that we’re comfortable with it and we agree with what’s happening there. That would be my one ask with this, but I do think when you look around the state and you look at a lot of the meetings that are happening, you watch invocation happens at almost all of them.
9:06 It happens across the street. The good outweighs the bad, and we know that. Right.
9:10 As a believer, you know that. And so I understand your concerns of what you’re worried is going to come in here. I’m going to tell you, I wholeheartedly believe that that is already here here.
9:19 But let’s give the chance for the good to come into the room and maybe get some of that straightened out. So my one aspect I said board, if you support, was, hey, let’s make sure the procedure is tied to the policy before we vote on approving it so that we are ready to go the second that it is approved by this board. Mr. Chair? Yes.
9:39 I agree with Ms. Wright and think we should have the. The procedure ironed out before we move forward with the policy, but I appreciate the board’s consideration of this. All right.
9:52 Yeah, I concur. Sounds good. Okay.
9:59 I. I hear where you’re coming from, Ms. Campbell, and I’m. And it. We can move forward.
10:08 Obviously, we need the procedure attached, you know, to the policy. I think it’s very important. I have concerns and reservations on how this is going to play out.
10:20 I am selfish when it comes to my God and my prayer time. So I have concerns if it’s. Is it going to bring more distraction than we need to have here.
10:31 But of course, like you said, Mr. Wright, it’s happening all over the place, but doesn’t mean I shouldn’t have concerns about that. So let’s continue to move forward, But I’m just one out of five. And we’ll see the procedures attached to it and how it looks and how we can work through things.
10:49 So that’s just. I just had to say that. Anybody else for discussion? Okay.
10:56 All right. We just move on. Paul? Yeah, that’s it.
11:00 All right. Next we have the Behavior diversion and success pathway program presentation. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
11:06 Mr. Ramer, Chief of schools, is going to present information to the board about the Pathways program and the changes to how we deal with student misbehavior after the board took the bold step to eliminate the alternative learning centers. Mr. Ramer. So, good afternoon, everybody.
11:23 Very pleased to be able to Present to you the programs that we have created as we are making the move from the alternative sites to School Based Diversion and Success Pathways. I do want to let you know that our Director of alternative sites, Ms. Misty Bland, is unable to be with us as she is at a mandatory training for the Department of Juvenile justice over in Clearwater. So as I begin the presentation, I would like to ask that we can work through the presentation prior to any questions, if that’s okay with everybody.
11:50 Perfect. Perfect. So the two programs that we’re going to discuss today are School Based Behavior Diversion and Success Pathways Online program.
11:59 And we’re going to walk through the following items, the process that we followed in order to create these two programs, what behavior diversion would entail and look like inside of our schools, what Success Pathways Online would look like for our students, families and schools, level four and five offenses and how students would and how principals would work through the process of identifying which of these two programs students would be a part of. And then a staffing analysis of where we are currently with our ALCs and what we’re asking for in regards to make these programs the best we possibly can. So as we go through the process, we were, sorry, looking at the board off site meeting back in January is where we started the discussion.
12:40 And then we talked through a board workshop at the end of February regarding are we going to move in this direction from that point on, we really had a lot of robust conversations between myself, Ms. Blake Land, Dr. Rendell. But we brought in principals and we wanted to hear what principals had to say about the programs. We wanted to get their insight about what would make these programs impactful to the students, to the families, and what would ultimately hopefully change or modify student behavior.
13:07 So we did those meetings with principals to talk about potential program options. Then we met with them again. Once we were able to identify what types of programs we were looking at, we talked about the discipline levels and how we would look at levels four and five and what that would look like as their decision making occurred and the process that we would follow to ensure that students were placed in the appropriate program, but also making sure that they were following the guidelines within that program.
13:32 I got some feedback from our board members. So thank you guys so much as we walk through that one on one. And me and Ms. Bland went back and then, you know, took all that information and started revamping some of our areas to make sure that we encompassed everything that we discussed.
13:47 We went there to some DOE meetings. So we met with the Florida DOE to talk about the Programs. This is a unique opportunity for Brevard Public Schools as we move away from a brick and mortar alternative site and we go to something different.
14:00 So we wanted to work with the doe, what this would look like in Brevard, make sure we’re following state statute, make sure any school board rules are followed and, and that we’re able to make the programs the best we possibly can. So we met with the DOE multiple times via teams, and then we followed up with some more principal meetings and we held that to talk to them about where we were in the process. As we started getting feedback and as the weeks or months went on like, obviously principals were concerned with where we were in the process and the wondering started to happen.
14:00 So we wanted to make sure that we gave them the most updated information and that leads us to today where we’re at the board board workshop. So once again, we’ve had a lot of robust conversations between board members, Dr. Rendell, Ms. Bland, myself, principals, to make sure we built programs that would be the best for Brevard Public Schools, but serve students in the highest capacity and make sure that principals felt as supported as possible through this process. So the first one that we’re going to talk about is our behavior diversion.
14:57 So a couple things that we want to keep in mind is we were looking for academic continuity where students would actually remain at their home campus under the conduct stipulation agreement. So the conduct stipulation agreement would be in place identifying or outlining the expectations for students. We’d have access to support services, behavior development, some reduced risk of negative outcomes as we’re providing extra supports, and then positive identity and belonging.
15:22 Obviously, as we discussed, and then when we discussed with principals, sometimes the transition from the school over to the ALCs and then back, we lose a little bit of that positive identity. Students don’t feel as valued or supported as they work through that process. So this could curb some of those concerns that we see.
15:38 We’re going to add hopefully some supports to schools that have a larger number of students in the program. So as you know, some schools that maybe have no students in the program due to behavior and we’re going to have some student, some schools that have a larger amount. So, so we’re going some extra supports that we’d like to put in place for the schools with a larger number of students.
15:58 And in addition to the stipulation agreement and those supports, we have been working with an outside provider on an eight week Saturday behavior modification program where we would really work through helping students make better decisions. As they’re inside of the school and going through that process. So I’ll walk you guys through what that would look like also.
16:18 So for the behavior diversion supports and staffing, we would like to have two social workers that will prioritize schools with larger numbers. So if we think of Brevard public schools, we think of Pineda north, Pineda south. So envision that social workers would be tagged to schools that are north of Pineda or south of Pineda.
16:35 So they’re in the same geographical area and they would be spending large amount of time on the campus per day. So I don’t want you guys to think, well, windshield time, because they’re going to four different schools in a day. Basically, they would be assigned to different schools each day of the week so that they can spend a larger amount of time on the campus, make a bigger impact.
16:52 And I’ll talk you through some of the work that they would be doing while they’re on those campuses. And then 6 to 10 behavior text that would also serve schools with a larger number of students in the program. So we would split that, but we’d actually have to wait for numbers.
17:05 And why I say that is because our northern schools, we may not have large numbers in this program, but it might be in the south. So we would then allocate the supports to the south. But in a reality, we most likely see a split between our schools.
17:18 So we’d be able to have some of our behavior techs serve the northern part of the county and some of them serve the southern part of the county. Once again, assigned to schools by day, not by time. So that we’re not wasting an hour going from one school to the next stuck in traffic or anything like that, getting the most out of those behavior techs being on campus, we would like to start with 6.
17:37 I have 6 to 10 because the unknown of the numbers in the program. So we’d like to start with the six. And then if the numbers grow to where we may need to add one or two, that we would have the ability to put those ads out.
17:48 But we want to start at the low end of that and then work our way to the 10. So after talking with principals, here are some of the work that they would be doing on campus. So when we walk through one of the first meetings with principals, we asked them, what supports would you like to have in place and why would you like to have them? And this is where the social worker and the behavior techs came from.
18:07 So our behavior techs that we would hire would Assist with behavior intervention plans, help teach new skills and reduce challenging behaviors, Help identify antecedents that are going on in the classroom, really help record data. So they would track progress and record data on behavior and skill acquisition. So are our students showing data? Do we need to provide additional supports? Is that student somebody that we need to do more data gathering on? For a variety of reasons.
18:33 So that would be the work that they would be doing in schools, once again, assigned to schools really by the day or by multiple days in a row so that they can be in that classroom repeatedly gathering the appropriate data to help make the appropriate decision decisions for that students. So there would be more that behavior text would do. But we wanted to highlight that sometimes schools reach out because they’re struggling with the data gathering.
18:54 Right. Sometimes they’re struggling with intervening with the behavior plan because of staffing. So we wanted to make sure that we added some supports that could help them in those areas that they talked about.
19:03 But once again, our goal is to modify behavior. So if we can teach students new skills and if we can help them reduce their challenging behaviors and we get our end outcome, which is to modify the behavior of the student so that we don’t end up going through this process another time or two. Social workers work closely with teachers, administrators, and counselors.
19:22 They’re going to develop strategies. We all know that student engagement with the school is very impactful. So if we can help reduce attendance issues, help improve academic performance, we can assume that those two would tie into some better behaviors.
19:37 They feel more belonging at the school. They’re producing more academically, they’re attending school, and they’re having their areas that they gravitate towards, and they have their sense of belonging, which then in turn could reduce some of the behaviors that we’re seeing. So the social worker would help with this current school Social worker.
19:53 Right. So, once again, these supports are in addition to what the schools already have to help develop those skills and help work with students on a wide array. Not just behaviors, but some of the other items that will drive student behavior.
20:07 Support students through individual or potentially group counseling. So talking to students about their behavior, talking to students about how they can make better decisions, walking through what are some of the concerns either in that classroom or in the school? And how can the school and how can us as a district support the students to help make them make better decisions, and then linking students to community resources? So I know that we. We do that within our schools, but this would be another added layer where we could actually have additional support saying, hey, let’s get you with this community organization that can provide supports.
20:38 Sometimes behavior is driven by what’s happening in the home also. So this would be able to provide some of those supports to the home and make sure that families are feeling supported also as we work through this process. So when we talked with principals, these were the two positions that they felt would be most impactful and these are some of the reasons why they felt they would be impactful.
20:56 I do want to note one more time that any behavior techs that are currently on a school campus or current social workers, they would remain at those schools. We’re not taking them from those schools. This is in addition to those supports because sometimes that social worker can’t get to everybody continuously, or maybe they’re doing it every other week or something like that.
21:14 We can fill in the gap and then behavior techs really helping with that data gathering and making sure that BIPs are in place and the interventions are with fidelity and that student behavior can be modified and we can move forward in the most positive way. So those are the two positions that principals really work through whenever we first talk to them about making this change to Brevard Public Schools and our alternative sites. The outside provider program.
21:38 So this would be in addition to the conduct stipulation agreement and to the supports that we just discussed. So we’re working with an outside provider to have students attend eight Saturday session sessions, sessions focusing on behavioral reflection, academic enrichment, career exploration and self regulation. These four core help students make better decisions, would identify how they could make those better decisions and help them work through that decision making process.
22:06 So these would be in addition to everything else that we put in place in regards to the supports, the stip agreement, et cetera. We would ask them to attend the outside provider program. So, so think to yourself drug diversion that they go to counseling after schools on certain days of the week.
22:22 This would be the same similar, a very similar program, except it’s not counseling, it’s working on those four core areas that are identified. And it would be on Saturday instead of during the week. And we chose Saturday because we felt like we could get the most impact on those days.
22:37 So to the right are student hours. So our AM session with student hours would be in the north from 9 to 11 and then the PM session would be in the south from 1:30 to 3:30. It would be the same group of the outside provider.
22:50 So that’s why we have the gap in between. There’s not enough staff with the outside provider that we’re discussing this program With So they asked if we could split the students in half and have a north and a south site and they would travel from the north to the south each Saturday to make sure that the program was implemented with fidelity. We would ask the parent and legal guardian to transportation.
23:11 We do this also with the drug diversion and counseling. We ask parents to provide transportation to the. WITH agencies on securing opportunities to help with transportation if students don’t have that means or families don’t have that means for transportation.
23:32 So we are working with the other outside providers and agencies to try to secure some funding to assist in that capacity. So once again, outside provider program would be separate from the STIP agreement. It would be embedded in the stip, but separate right of the expectations.
23:45 It would be in addition to the supports that are already in place at the school, in addition to supports that we’re going to add to some of our schools with the behavior techs and the social workers. But it would really hone in on student behavior and trying to make the impact we’re looking for, which is simply to modify student behavior and to not end up in this situation a second third time. As we know, sometimes we do have that outcome, unfortunately.
24:12 So that’s the outside provider program that we are looking to implement and believe that it can be a very, very impactful side of the house when it comes to this program in its entirety. So for the school based diversion, behavior diversion, here’s a synopsis of really the quality areas that we would focus on. Obviously the eight Saturday sessions focused on improving student behaviors by the outside provider.
24:40 We would have the stipulation agreement which will be the same as the one indicated in our discipline manual. We may make some adjustments to that as we do that each year, but the discipline manual and the stipulation agreement that’s indicated in there would be what we use school based structured restrictions. So schools would be able to put in structured restrictions such as select seating escorts in between classes, escorts when students are on passes in order to help them make better decisions.
25:07 Sometimes idle hands lead to bad decisions. So a lot of our schools already have these things in place. So we would be able to ask schools to identify what would be successful based on their staffing and their campus and to put those structured restrictions in place at the school.
25:24 Continued school based support. So the social worker that’s already at the school continue to support all students, continue to support students in the program. The bips continue to put those in place and make sure that students are having that opportunity.
25:37 Our IPST, our MTSs, all the things that we’re doing at the school continue, but then we also look to enhance that with supporting schools with larger number of students, with behavior techs and social workers. And we believe that all of these things in its entirety will really build this program. Based on the feedback we received from you, based on the feedback we received from principals and that have the impact that we’re looking for, which once again is to change or modify student behavior so that they learn from this incident and that they’re better because of it.
26:10 And then we put parameters in place to help them make better decisions as they move forward. So those slides right there are our school based behavior diversion, essentially what we’re looking at building and would like you guys to consider allowing us to do so as we believe it will be provide, as I said, the most impactful opportunity for our schools, but most importantly, the most impactful opportunity for our students and families when students are in the school based behavior diversion program. Excuse me.
26:40 As we turn the page to Success Pathways, which would be our second program that we’re building. Once again, Success Pathways is our online platform, but it would provide academic continuity. The program that we’re looking at would allow students to be in their current class and then if an incident was to happen, they were placed in this program, they could be dropped in at that time, right? So if they’re in week five in, I’ll say English one and an incident happens when they go to the online platform, they would be able to pick up right around week five.
27:11 So it would be helpful for academic continuity to make sure that they’re plugging forward. As, you know, sometimes the online options set them back to the beginning and they got to work all the way back to where they were. So, so the program that we’re looking at, ingenuity, would provide that opportunity.
27:26 We could reduce negative interactions. Obviously the students would be online, so we’re hopefully reducing the negative interactions that maybe are happening on campus. Connect the students and families to resources, allow for reflection and growth.
27:39 And obviously this is a alternative approach to learning. Right. And something new that we’re trying here, just like behavior diversion, to make sure that students are, are able to continue with their academics, stay on pace with their cohort, stay on pace with their, like, age peers, and then make a seamless transition from the program back into the school or home site.
28:01 So they would be on their online program. We would connect families with resources to assist with behavior and other potential needs or concerns of the family. And progress of the students would be overseen by our teachers within our Alternative sites department when I go to the next slide.
28:16 This was a big ask by the principals and that was there’s a lot going on on campus. If we have to manage what we’re doing in the classrooms and we have to manage behavior diversion and we have to manage any student that’s in success pathways, that’s a lot to manage. Could we get some assistance to make sure that it’s managed as appropriately and as positively as possible? So when we go through the success pathway.
28:38 Staffing, this is what we would ask to have one elementary content area teacher that could cover the K through 6 threshold for students that are in the program. 4 secondary content area teachers are math, English, science and history to keep students on pace with their core academics. And we are talking about potentially adding an elective for students to be able to take so that they can continue to earn credits, continue to stay on pace with their cohort.
29:02 But we really want to emphasize the content area of math, English, science and history. As we know those are promotion requirements. We know, we know students need the four baths, the four Englishes, if they’re in high school to graduate.
29:13 So we want to make sure that they have those opportunities and don’t fall behind. Because we all know that students that are behind that come back into our schools, the behaviors usually ramp up a little bit or continue because they don’t see a way out, they don’t see an end outcome. So they act out at times.
29:29 Two exceptional education teachers. Obviously, we need to continue our services and accommodations for students. So we’d like to have two ese teachers that provide those to students who are on an IEP and make sure that we are following all federal regulations when it comes to IEPs and that students are receiving the services that they deserve and the services that are identified in their IEP.
29:49 And we have worked with Dr. Fontan to make sure that this was going to suffice as the way in which we could provide our services and accommodations. The part time custodians, not really big for the program, but I put that in there just because it is a staffing. Obviously we’re going to use these buildings for a variety of reasons, some of which will be to house staffing and make sure that it’s hubs and regional areas for some of our departments.
30:14 So we do need a custodian to stay around and clean both of those buildings. But we are going to make it a part time custodian which will help out with regards to the bottom line of when we’re looking at the staffing side. And we would like to further our discussion with district security about an sro.
30:32 As you guys know, whenever students come on campus for testing, these students would still have to go through progress monitoring, testing, retake testing, other opportunities. We need to have the SRO on campus anytime students are going to be there or, you know, a specialist. So we’re looking at the SRO side.
30:49 We’d also like them when students weren’t on the campus because there is no testing going on, to do some home visits. But also look at potentially offering some face to face or tutoring opportunities for our students to provide them the most supports possible. We’re going to have students that are in the program that are flourishing and doing great work.
31:08 And we have students that need just a little bit extra, you know, time and a little bit extra support. So the teachers that we would have would be willing to do some face to face tutoring, some face to face instruction to make sure that students are staying on pace with the work that they need to complete, student engagement, and then also connecting with community resources. So those are ways that we would look at utilizing an sro.
31:31 And then obviously, whenever there are no opportunities for the SRO on campus, meaning that students are not present, we would work with district security on reallocating that to maybe a school who has a call out or, you know, so maybe somebody is on leave or there’s just a support needed at another school. So this would be a flexible position that wouldn’t necessarily be housed at one of our sites full time, but would be able to work for the program success pathways and also to help out at schools as needed. As we know, there’s not always consistency at our schools with some of our SROs and some of our guardians or specialists just do a variety of reasons.
32:14 So we would like to continue to work with the secure district security department on, on that aspect of the program. So that would be the staffing that we would request in order to best build the program. And once again, those were the staffing parameters that we discussed as we talked with principals about what they believe would help us implement this as seamlessly as possible, but also help the schools have the supports needed in order for the success pathways to be monitored appropriately.
32:47 So all overall the core components of it would be online academic platform. As we discussed, the teachers that we just talked about with the staffing would support student learning and progress through virtual instruction, discussion, tutoring, making sure that students are staying on pace, doing check ins. We’d also like to further discuss the potential of face to Face instruction and or tutoring because some students will learn better in person.
33:11 We’re not talking about doing this, you know, every day or every week. We’re just talking about if we identify that there’s a need there for a student, that we would at least allow this before we started going down a different path. So we would work towards how those teachers would support students in a variety of ways.
33:27 Continue to connect the families and students with community resources is another way that the SRO would be a part of the program. But we would make sure that the teachers, Misty Bland and anybody in the program continues to work with families on what are needs outside of this. There might be something driving this decision making for the student.
33:42 There might be something in the home, There might be something that we can support or a community resource can support. How can we continue to connect you with that and make sure that we have that unified approach to providing students and families with everything they need? We’d have the stipulation agreement still in place, just like we talked about with behavior diversion and it would be the one that’s in the discipline manual. And we will be providing technology to students as needed.
34:10 So as students identify that they maybe don’t have Internet or don’t have a laptop or an ability to complete the work online, we have the ability to provide them those resources. And that’s something that we would have to do, you know, by state law anyway, to make sure that they have the necessary resources to be successful. So the requirements when they’re on success pathways, obviously our teachers are going to monitor student completion, completion of coursework, and the expectation is 6% of the four core subjects per week.
34:37 Once again, we are talking about adding an elective or what would enhance the program and what could we take on to make sure that students had the most credit and the most opportunities for success, assist with GPA, et cetera. So 6% over, let’s just say 18 weeks gets you to that 100% completion. So that’s really where the 6% comes from.
34:57 These students would potentially be in there for a full semester. Would you know, it may not be a full semester, but the 6% should allow them to come out of their home site and be put into the program in the appropriate area in which they are academically in regards to what week we’re in in the school year and then if they were to transition back into the school that they’re transitioning back in at the appropriate area or appropriate time frame. So for example, if they go out in week five and they’re in the program all the way through the semester that they have use the 6% per week and they make it to the end of the semester, complete that class, and when they return to their home site in January, they’re returning without having to continue the coursework.
35:37 So they’re ready to go for that second semester of the class. Students not making adequate progress would receive additional supports, I.e. home visits, sometimes being asked for face to face instruction, being asked for more tutoring opportunities, set time for tutoring, et cetera.
35:56 And then obviously students that are not participating in the program with fidelity, we would go back to the conduct stipulation agreement and continue to work through the discipline process. So just know that any student that’s in either of these programs, they’re on that stipulation agreement, which means that continued poor behavior or not following the stipulation agreement, we would then follow through with further behavior or further corrective strategies which would result in potentially an expulsion of the student if they don’t participate. Just like right now if they’re at the ALC and aren’t participating.
36:30 So our level four and five offenses. Just wanted to take a moment to walk through what this would look like as a principal on a campus. Once again, we work through this with a group of principals and then we work through it with pretty much all principals and kind of talk to them about what this would look like.
36:30 So our level four or five offenses are the ones that could result in behavior diversion, success pathways or experience expulsion. Drug diversion is going to remain separate from behavior diversion. There is conversation that maybe in the future we could have a unified diversion program.
36:57 So it’s not as complex, but we really like right now the counseling that goes with the drug diversion. And we really like this outside provider program that we’re building for behavior diversion. So we would like to keep them separate for now.
37:10 But we can always have the conversation in the future about merging those two diversion programs. And zero tolerance behaviors will still be in level five and would still be expellable offenses. So there would still be those opportunities for principals based on the behaviors in level five to make those decisions.
37:26 So I’m going to walk through now what level four would look like. And as a principal, how I would go through the decision making and then walk through level five. And as a principal, how I’d go through the decision making.
37:36 So for our level four offenses, we took the feedback that we had from principals. We took the feedback that we had in our one on one discussions. So all level four offenses will actually be Principal discretion, except for the following.
37:49 So these would be alcohol use possession and drug use possession. The first time offense, those would go to drug diversion as already specified in our discipline plan and our discipline manual. The four below that, chronic misconduct, drug sales, distribution, sexual offenses and sexual harassment, would go right to success pathways.
38:07 We would not offer the student the opportunity to remain on campus and behavior diversion. So our level four offenses would all be one of two things for the most part. Obviously there’s outliers where we’d have to make different decisions, but majority of the time it would either be behavior diversion or success pathways.
38:24 That would be what the principals would be making the decision based on. So the two at the top would still go to drug diversion. The four at the bottom, as I said, chronic risks like drug sales, sexual offense assessment, sexual harassment.
38:37 Those would be the only six where the decision doesn’t necessarily lie with the principal. The decision lies in. If it’s one of these six, this is the direction that you’re going to go.
38:47 For the other 13 to 14 level four offenses, the principal is going to use the tools that are at disposal to make the right decisions. So those would be informed decisions based on the code of conduct, based on the discipline manual, based on cessor definitions, past student behavior. Anything that would principal would need to take into consider to make a sound, informed decision for a student and the program that they’re going towards.
39:11 Whether it’s behavior diversion or success pathways. Ms. Bland will be a point of contact if the principals would like to reach out to her so they can reach out to her and just walk through, hey, I got a unique case or I wanted to just talk about this code of conduct definition. Can you walk through that with me? But ultimately, as it says in bold at the top, all level four offenses would be principal discretion.
39:33 Except for those six that we just talked about. We are going to expect principals make those well informed decisions based on the tools and resources that are at their disposal that student services and myself provide to them so that good decision making and uniform decision making is happening throughout the county. For our level five offenses, there is no behavior diversion on the table.
39:55 It would either be success pathways or expulsion. And as you guys know, level five offenses are our most egregious offenses, the highest level that we could look at. So these five would be success pathways or expulsion.
40:06 Once again, principals would be able to make informed decisions. When we walked through these five and talked with principals, these were the ones that we kind of pulled out of level five as we’d like to make A decision on these, because sometimes they’re not always like the other. So success pathways or expulsion would be the option.
40:23 Principals would once again work through the code of conduct, the discipline manual, the assessor definitions, past student behaviors. They could reach out to Ms. Bland for further information. They could reach out to myself, student services, if they need some clarity on something to make good, informed, sound decisions on these level five offenses.
40:41 So once again, level five has 14 offenses. These would be the five that are for success pathways or expulsion, which then would leave us to. No, actually 12 offenses.
40:54 My apologies. Level five offenses that would go to, unfortunately, a straight expulsion. And these would be your bomb threats, your explosives, things that we don’t necessarily see in the county often or ever, but they are in the discipline plan.
41:07 So we do have to identify where we would put them. But we looked at the nature of these offenses and we determined that the only option for students that fall into these seven categories would be these are expellable offense. And we would need to follow through with the expulsion for the student, as we do now for weapons possession and other, you know, items that are listed right there for students.
41:29 So when we walk through that, once again, these five would be success pathways or expulsion. So the principal could choose that. That was an egregious act that, you know, crossed the line.
41:40 And we don’t want to offer success pathways. That student should face expulsion. But they’d also have the option for these seven that are listed right here.
41:48 There wouldn’t be an option. That option would be expulsion. We’d be dictating that for them.
41:52 And hopefully we can all agree that those seven would be the ones that we’d really look at. Obviously subject to discussion, but that would be how we handle level four and five offenses. So just as a summary, level four offenses outside of alcohol and drugs, and then chronic misconduct, sexual offenses, sexual harassment, there’s one more in there.
42:14 Drug sales and distribution. Those would be principal discussion and principal decision making between school based behavior diversion and success pathways. Level five offenses for these five would be success pathways or expulsion.
42:29 And then level five offenses for these seven would be straight expulsion. So our staffing analysis, as we look at current versus where we’re trying to go. So our current ALC staffing, we have 20 instructional positions, 12 support, two AP positions, one of which we pointed today over to Stone and one of which decided to Resign, and then two SROs.
42:51 We would be asking for nine instructional positions, right? And that would be the elementary content teacher, the four secondary content teachers, the two social workers that we talked about in the earlier discussions and making sure that we, you know, fill those nine positions, six and a half to ten and a half support positions. So those would be the six behavior techs plus the part time custodian. That’s what makes us six and a half.
43:17 And we would build up to ten and a half as needed for the programs and then one for the sro. Once again, we’re going to need to have that presence on campus when students come in for testing. We’d love to be able to provide students in the Success Pathways program some face to face instruction or tutoring if that is deemed what they need in order to be successful or to get them going in the right direction.
43:39 And Nassero would support that along with home visits, community resources and you know, making sure that all safety requirements are in place, threat assessments, etc. That may occur or for students within the program. And in addition to this, transportation would also be able to reallocate buses and staff to traditional routes.
43:57 So we typically have during the year six or seven buses that serve our ALCs. So that’s six or seven bus drivers, six or seven buses that would be able to be reallocated to traditional routes to assist with some of the on time delivery, delivery of students to schools and to assist with some of the staffing issues that we sometimes see in transportation as we’re working through the school year. So that takes me to the conclusion of the two programs that we would like to put in place and open for any questions, concerns or any areas that you’d like us to go back to the discussion board on.
44:36 Thank you Mr. Amer for that very, very thorough presentation that I hopefully will inform not just us, but our principals and staff who are, who may have been concerned about what the future is going to look like for these students. And thank you for the conversations with the doe. It’s always good to know that they’re, you know, they’ve got extra eyes and that they support the decisions.
45:01 And I’m excited to hear that question about the Saturday program. Are we going to have we decided on a location for that? Yeah. So right now we have settled on the north and south alc as those are already locations that we could utilize.
45:16 But we have talked with principals, when we talk through the programs, we ask them, is anybody interested in housing this program? So we’re looking at accessible schools off of 95. So maybe like a small space coast, you know, potentially a larger school like a Mel High or something along those lines that would provide the necessary location for as many Students to participate as possible. So we didn’t want to put the burden potentially on schools as we know they’re going to have to have some of their own staff potentially there.
45:42 Saturday custodial cleanup, if needed, may incur some extra costs or just some extra work. So we are still going through that, but for right now we know we can use the north and south alcantara without concern or issue. Gotcha.
45:54 So the behavior texts that are they actually. So they’re actually going to be in the classrooms with the students on the day that they’re there? Yes, ma’. Am.
46:00 Okay, time frame. And for this one, I’m specifically talking about the diversion program. So will the timeframe.
46:10 So with drug diversion, it pretty much is that eight weeks. If they complete that eight week course and the drug test and all of that, then they’re actually. Because they’re still on campus.
46:20 Are we still. Would this, these stipulation agreements be the same length as the. What if they would have been expelled otherwise or is there potential to shorten it up? I mean, I don’t know.
46:29 Was that the intention or was it the idea? Is it still going to be the same length that they would have otherwise been expelled? Yeah. So we need to separate the Saturday courses from the stipulation agreement. So they will graduate from the behavior course, but the stipulation agreement will start still be in place for a longer period of time.
46:46 So for example, they go out week five or don’t go out, they stay in the school week five, they go have an incident, they go through the eight weeks. Sometimes it takes nine. Just because we got to get them into the program, start working with the family.
46:57 So that would take us to essentially week 14 or 15, but they’d still be under stip agreement all the way through the remainder of the semester. Okay. So they would still have those.
47:05 And we would mirror what we allow in the drug diversion just to make sure that there’s similarities between the two extracurriculars and the ability to search and things like that. Yes, ma’. Am.
47:14 Now, families. Families who. Let’s just say a family says I can’t do or don’t want to do the Saturday thing, they still, they’re still going to have the options to do homeschool or to go through FLVs, same ones they have always had, correct? Yes, ma’.
47:26 Am. So we’d work through the same parameters as we go to the discussions. This would be what we’d be offering the family.
47:32 So we’re going to offer the family based on all the parameters. That we looked at. We’d like to offer you the behavior diversion program.
47:38 And this is what it would look like. The family always can, you know, take on an option to pursue other types of academic settings that they deem most appropriate for their student. But this should be the one that allows the smoothest transition in and out.
47:53 So one of the questions, the last question I had was about the drug and alcohol. This wasn’t clear in the slides. I just want to clear it up for us.
48:02 On the drug and alcohol, the first, not distribution, but the first offenses have the opportunity to do drug diversion. Currently, if it’s the second offense, then you’re expelled. Now that we’ll have the opportunity for success pathways, if it’s a second offense, they’re still not on campus.
48:20 Right? You’re not coming on campus because you had your opportunity for drug diversion. It’s gone. But would we then go still do like we’re doing now and say, okay, you’re expelled, or would they have the opportunity to do this off campus? Success pathways program.
48:36 We would like the opportunity to offer them a success pathways program. If you guys recall, back in January of this year, we worked through the new STIP agreement which was strengthened. Multiple level one or twos moves forward, any three, four or five moves forward.
48:50 But we also talked about that you would be able to go to the alternative learning center 1 time k6 and 1 times 7 12. I know we went back and forth with that a little bit in regards to what was most appropriate for each grade band. But we would follow something very similar here.
49:04 Like they would give one opportunity in drug diversion. I would work with Dr. Rendell on do we want to give a second opportunity in behavior diversion? Because they’re two separate programs and then an opportunity and success pathways. And then at that point the student has pretty much exhausted the options that we would provide to them that is pending that the board was still interested in moving moving forward with that restriction of how many times they could utilize these programs.
49:27 Just like we were restricting how many times they could go to the alternative learning centers. Right. And I just want to reiterate to my thought along the process has been.
49:36 The closer we can get them to like, so they’re still graduating on time, then they’re launching forward. The longer that there is a delay, then the longer they have the potential to get in more trouble. Because students who are 19, 20 still in a high school or 15, 16 still in a middle school tend to be causing problems.
49:57 And so if we can keep them on track so they can Move on. That is good. But also, so giving them these opportunities is helpful.
50:05 I appreciate all the work you’ve done, and I support the decisions that you guys have made as far as which ones will have which opportunities. And I know that you and I have had conversations about, you know, I don’t. For me personally, I don’t like to see someone come to an expulsion.
50:20 We have in the past, you know, they’ve got a laundry list of things that they did@the ALC before we ever said goodbye. Right. So hopefully with the stipulation agreements we’re following up that’s, you know, we’re not going to get to that laundry list.
50:34 If they’re on a behavior diversion stipulation agreement and they’re causing. Continuing to cause problems every day in class, that was their shot. And now they’re onto success pathways.
50:44 Yeah. So we, as we work through any expulsions that you guys obviously review prior to approving, you do see a drastic reduction in the number of opportunities there, as we used to see quite a few referrals potentially at the alc. And I can confirm with you that all principals understand the direction and utilizing the STIP agreement as written, and that we.
51:06 The expectation is that if students fail to abide by the STIP agreement, that we start moving through the continuum of behavior corrective strategies. Thank you. Because I think that’s what’s going to make this workable.
51:17 Thank you. Let’s see over here. I just want to commend you and your staff for putting this together.
51:24 I think it’s well done and I fully support it. Thank you so much. All right.
51:30 Thank you. I appreciate you in the presentation. I had the opportunity to speak to several of the principals in the north end, and there was absolutely some concern over, oh, my gosh, the ALCs are closing.
51:38 What does that mean? What’s this look like? So this hopefully sheds a lot of clarification. I think it’s very. You did it wonderfully where you identified this.
51:46 This offense equates to this consequence. I think that’s where this gets a little gray, is we’re not really sure because we have a whole laundry list of options. And I don’t love that, but I know that’s a lot of work to undertake.
51:57 And Ms. Dampier is looking at me going, stop talking like that. I know what you’re saying. Wanted to ask you this for the behavior text.
52:03 You said six to ten or at the last slide, six and a half to ten and a half, which I’m not sure what the half is. Custodian. Point five was the custodian.
52:09 Oh, the custodian. Yes, sir. Thank you.
52:11 All right. What is the expectation? Because, I mean, if they’re going to serve the same population that we had in our ALCs and that was averaging, I’m just going to throw a number of 200 between the north and the South ALCs combined. What is the expectation for the behavior techs to sit with those students? How many times a week or what does that look like? Because that seems like it could be a large caseload.
52:30 Yeah. So a lot of this is going to be driven by numbers. But what we’d really like is we’re going to target schools that have, let’s just say, seven or more students in behavior diversion.
52:39 I’m throwing out a number there as we, you know, can’t predict exactly what will happen. So we’ll say 7 to 10. So the expectation would be that a behavior tech may be attached to.
52:48 We’ll just say three or four schools. And over the course of two weeks, they spend of time, the most, multiple days or multiple days in a row on that campus, really working through some behavior discussions, collecting data, making sure that BIPs are being implemented, working with staff on things that they’re seeing in the classroom that might be an antecedent to why that behavior is occurring, or it might be something that if we remove that stimulant, the behavior wouldn’t occur. So they would be able to do some things that we hear from our schools a lot that they’re not necessarily always able to do with the behavior collection or data collection, everything just due to staffing.
53:22 So it’s not going to be a perfect world. But as we work through numbers, we’d be able to say that, James, the behavior tech is going to serve Heritage High School Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. And this is the role that you’re going to have.
53:33 So it’s going to be very scripted into what they do and very scripted as to where they go. But we don’t want them to lose windshield time by going to your school and your school and your school. So they’re going to be on campus a full, you know, the full day for multiple days in a row in order to collect this data.
53:47 They will then be off site for a few days as they go to their other schools, are assigned to, and then they will be back at the school to check in on the discussions that they had prior to leaving the first time and then continue that process. And that’s why we’re going to start with six. But due to numbers.
54:01 We may go back to the table and say, hey, we need a seventh or an eighth, because we don’t want one behavior tech to have 10 schools and they’re there every other week or every three, three weeks. We want to make sure that the program is as supportive and robust as possible. So those are the goals that we have.
54:16 So that was really what my ask was about, was mainly just thinking, okay, does this Behavior Tech needs to make a commitment that they’re going to see every child in this program at least once a week or once every other week for an hour minimum, or some kind of standard that we’re setting there? Because otherwise that could get. It could range. Right.
54:31 You could have one kid that could. You need to be with them for four hours, depending on what it is, and you have another child that maybe you don’t need to see them every week. You could go.
54:37 You could go every other week. So it just seems like you might need to increase the behavior text. That’s all I’m saying is if this ends up being 200 students, that’s a heavy caseload for.
54:47 Remember, not all 200 will actually be eligible for this. Part of those 200 will be in success Pathways and not on campus. Well, and I guess this is.
54:53 Again, we’re all unknown because we don’t know what’s going to happen with this. But yes, you’re right. So depending on what those numbers look like.
54:58 And all I’m saying to you is if you see that, come back to us and ask us and talk to us and make us aware of that, because that’s something that we can definitely work through. One of the things we do see is there’s a large amount of our schools that on any given year may send zero to five students to the Alternative Learning Center. Those would be schools that wouldn’t get a lot of this support or any of this support.
55:15 Where we’d be supporting is the schools that have higher numbers so they’d be able to spend more time on those campuses. So if there’s school out there, and we told them this whenever we met with principals, if you traditionally send one or two students a year, just know that we’re going to be here to serve, support you. But adding additional support to your school probably won’t occur often, if ever, it’s really going to be the schools that can, you know, we can help get this under control.
55:38 And then as those numbers become more manageable at the school, then we can reallocate. But we will gladly come back to you for Any more resources. And I’m very appreciative that you guys understand the need for these two positions.
55:50 And don’t forget, the social worker will be visiting also to provide some of that counseling and walking, one on one discussions or group discussions. And they’ll also be able to go in classrooms and work hand in hand with a school social worker that’s already identified for that site. So the, you know, enhanced supports for the schools.
56:08 Okay. And then one other thing that you mentioned and I just wanted to ask you to if you can elaborate on the technology aspect of assisting students with that. You said that their state law was a part of that.
56:19 Can you elaborate on what we are required to do there so that I. I’m just not familiar. So. Yeah.
56:24 So when we worked with the doe, they actually sent us a wide array of questions to consider as we were building the programs. And I’m looking through my notes here as I brought those with me. But one of the things that they wanted to make sure we considered was that a student that doesn’t have technology or the ability to have it.
56:44 And they referenced statute 1002.45, section D, number three, and it actually is talking more about virtual instruction programs and how we would have to serve students who meet the requirements for free and reduced lunch with computer and Internet access. We don’t necessarily qualify for that, but we would want to support students.
57:08 So that’s the statute that they referenced when we met with the doe and they send us some follow up questions and after the first meeting, before we went to the second meeting with them. Okay. All right.
57:17 Other than that, I don’t have any other questions. I think it’s good to keep the drug diversion, I will say this, the drug diversion and behavior diversion separate because they are very separate in nature on how you’re going to handle those. Looking forward to behavior modification being the ultimate goal here.
57:30 We want these students to stay in the school, but they need to understand that there are expectations and rules. And so hopefully this will make it very clear that we’re going to hold the line on making sure that they’re a productive student and that we’re able to learn and all students can learn in the classroom. So thank you.
57:41 I appreciate the work your team has done. Thank you. Matt? Yeah.
57:46 I just want to say thank you. Appreciate it. Sir, a few words, just.
57:51 The main thing is, is that our principals still have the discretionary power to say yes or no to allowing children to either be expelled to one or the other. I want to make sure that that’s known. Yes.
58:01 And that was in there. That’s where we walk through the discussions and walk through with principals. If you remember some of our discussion, we had more in certain places and we started reducing that and we just reemphasized to all the principals.
58:15 You have the tools at your disposal. You have the code of conduct, you have the assessor definitions, you have the discipline manual. And you have the expertise to make sound, qualified, high informed decisions.
58:26 And we’re allowing you to make those decisions. Sounds good. Absolutely.
58:29 All right. I know we’re not used to Mr. Mr. Susan talking a whole lot, so this is fine. So I’ll echo that.
58:40 It’s a lot of work that you guys have really put in. And I just want to let you know that we understand that. We appreciate it.
58:46 We threw a lot at you multiple times. And I mean, this is a huge project for you to do on top of your daily job and do things when we close down schools and that you pay attention to not only what we think our needs are for the students, but going out as a former principal and talking to the principals out there because as like Ms. Wright said, they had a lot of questions and concerns. And I’ll ask you, are you feeling that you took care of those concerns? Yeah, actually I got several remarks after.
59:22 So we gave principals two options. They were able to come. It was a Tuesday or Friday, sorry to be our high school, or the following week on a Tuesday.
59:31 And we walked through it. And I got several remarks afterwards, text messages, etc, saying thank you for the clarity, we understand. Thank you for being very clear on what these programs are going to look like.
59:40 It was about a two hour presentation, so much longer than this one. Just really walking through what this is going to be. So we feel strongly that they have direct understanding of what, where we’re going.
59:51 We will also be presenting to them again at the leadership summit in July, presenting to APs in July and making sure that this gets off the ground in August as seamlessly and as positively as possible. Great. And you know, this answers a lot of questions that we’ve had in the public out there.
1:00:09 When we, when citizens talked about the ALCs, you know, that’s the dumping ground. And as we know, we try to do our very best, put our very best programs out there, teachers and that was a perception and I hope they realize this is a great chance, you know, once again for us to say, you know, to serve every student with excellence. And you know, as Ms. Campbell talked about, is any program that we can allow students to not fall behind and they’re going to have their up and downs, but as if they’re getting towards that graduation and not being without education.
1:00:49 It takes time. When we go to the alcs, they come back. They’re always, most always behind.
1:00:55 And that was a big issue with teachers because we really felt that we just took time out of their life. We didn’t really make our jobs easier, their jobs easier. This does.
1:01:08 And I’m extremely happy and pleased that this board had the appetite to ask you for this and the superintendent to understand where we were going even when it seemed crazy to do it so soon. But we appreciate that. Something I wanted to touch on was you obviously took feedback from teachers and staff and principals because the school board or school based restrictions.
1:01:30 As a teacher, that’s great. When the students in the behavior diversion program that we talk about, you know, even the seating of the student, if they’re in those programs, that’s huge. You know, that front row, we know where they’re going to be.
1:01:42 Right. It really helps. And then the passes and the out of class and the escorting them to places.
1:01:49 You’ve really thought through the whole program. So we appreciate it. Look forward to all the learning experiences that we’re going to get when we roll this out too.
1:02:00 It’ll be exciting. Like I said, we had two really good meetings with principals. We asked them all to come.
1:02:05 We had some deans that joined us or APs and everybody left, I think with a sound understanding and with an appreciation for the program. I had a lot of questions afterwards about, hey, how can we do this as a school and enhance some of the supports and all those. So they’re definitely thinking, I do want to go back to the staffing analysis.
1:02:21 I apologize. There’s nine instructional. When I walked through it, I left off the two ese.
1:02:26 So that’s the other two. So the four core at the secondary level, the one at the elementary, the two social workers and the two ese make up the nine instructional units we’re asking for. Absolutely.
1:02:36 No, it was clear. Thank you so much. Dr. Ndell, would you like to add? Yeah.
1:02:40 Thank you. Mr. Chair. I do want to commend the board for taking the bold step two years ago to put in place the drug diversion program.
1:02:46 And we had similar questions and there were similar concerns when we put that program in place place. And it’s been very successful. And so it kind of gave us the courage to move forward with this.
1:02:58 If you think about it, we’re giving kids an opportunity to remain on their home campus after they’ve made a mistake, a serious mistake. And if they want to stay on their home campus and access their seven classes, they have to follow the rules. And if they don’t follow the rules, then they’re going to go into one of these other alternative pathways.
1:03:16 And I think, you know, it’s a second chance. It should only be a second chance. You know, when they get put on the behavior contract, the stip, then they need to follow the rules and meet those expectations.
1:03:28 But I think the success of the drug diversion program shows us that this can be successful, but also, you know, setting some hard guidelines, too, on some things. These are non negotiables. These are full expulsion.
1:03:40 You know, it’s. The message isn’t that we’re getting weaker on discipline. It’s.
1:03:46 No, we’re still pretty strong on discipline. We’re just setting up a mechanism for students to maintain enrollment at their home school if they can then follow the rules. So I applaud the board for letting us try out the drug diversion program for two years and then letting us do this work as well.
1:04:06 I have no further question. Mr. Emmer, thank you so much for. Thank you, guys.
1:04:14 All right, next, the Code of conduct presentation. Dr. Rendell, you want to introduce. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
1:04:18 Mrs. Dampier is going to come up and her team and walk us through the Code of Conduct presentation. The board has already received a presentation on the Code of Conduct earlier this year. You may recall that Mrs. Dampier convenes a committee of lots of stakeholders that reviews the Code of Conduct every year and makes suggested changes that we bring to the board.
1:04:39 There was recent legislation that is causing another change to the Code of Conduct. So that is what she’s going to focus on in her presentation today. Good afternoon, board members and Superintendent Rendell.
1:05:12 Thank you for having For. Thank you for providing me the opportunity to review some of the legislative changes that impact our Code of Student conduct. I’ve had the opportunity to meet with each board member last week to review those possible changes, and I’m going to bring them forward to the board today so I can get direction as to how we move forward.
1:05:34 So House Bill 1105 states that a student may possess a wireless communication device while the student is on school property or in attendance at a school function. However, elementary and middle school students may not use a wireless communication device during the school day. That is the big change.
1:05:53 Moving forward. K8 are not allowed to have a wireless device during the school day. Our high school students may not use a wireless communication device during instructional Time, except when expressly directed by teachers solely for educational purposes.
1:06:10 And it states that a high school teacher can designate an area for wireless communication devices during the instructional day. So basically, in your packet you have a. In your packet you have option A, which actually has the statute, which is what I just read House Bill 1105 with that excerpt.
1:06:28 But you also have an artifact of what that would look like in our code of student conduct if we move forward with that option. Also, I’ve gone over with you with Policy 5136, what that change will look like. So basically, we would be amending the student code of conduct for K8 not to utilize wireless device during the school day and that our high schoolers during instructional time would have to be given permission by the.
1:07:00 For instructional purposes, by the teacher. Currently, all of our students can, you know, have access to a wireless device during the school day as far as utilizing for instructional purposes, they have to get permission from their school principal. So that’s the difference and that’s the caveat of the change.
1:07:18 So we have to make the change with K through 8. So that is what I would be bringing forward to the board on June 24th with that change. However, there is another section and House Bill 1105 that states that the Commissioner of Education shall coordinate with six school districts selected by the Department of ed, which represents two small, two medium and two large districts that for the 2526 school year will implement a policy for all district high schools that prohibits the use of cellular telephones and other personal devices, electronic devices during the entire school day.
1:08:02 So what this is saying, if you’re selected or we are selected, it would be no cell phones during the school day or any activities to pilot for net share for 20, 25, 26 school year. In your packet, we have what that would look like if we were to move forward with option B with the current 1105 House bill changes. At this time, I’m going to ask.
1:08:32 Are there any questions? I’ll jump in. No, I’m sure we’re. Oh, yeah, we have questions.
1:08:38 We do. So thank you, Ms. Stampier, for taking the time to go over both these, these options with us and Discussing House Bill 1105. One of the things I think that’s.
1:08:48 I don’t know if it’s unique to Brevard only, but we have junior seniors, which poses a real fun challenge. Right. If we’re saying, oh, no, no phones for middle schoolers, but we have middle schoolers that are in the same building as high schoolers, that are in the same cafeteria and the same Spanish class and whatever else.
1:09:02 So to me, Mr. Susan and I think this last time we didn’t win this one when we had this discussion, but we were both like gung ho on the no cell phones. And this policy has now been in place for some time and we were leaving it up to the discretion of of the site principal to give the permission to the teacher to allow the phones to be used in the classroom. I will tell you what I have seen when I walk the campuses and it is not phones being used for educational purposes.
1:09:26 That is not what they are being used for ever. Honestly, it really isn’t. I’ve never seen that happen.
1:09:32 Well, I shouldn’t say never. Kahoot. I’ve seen that Kahoot game, right? Never say never.
1:09:36 It’s used for that occasionally, but that is not the majority of them. So Board I’m going to go back to where I was a year and a half ago, which was I don’t think we should allow cell phones in the classroom. Bell to bell for all students.
1:09:47 There’s good reason to believe if they’ve already, you know, have this initiative, this is already passed for K through 8, that the next step is going to be to expand to 12. So I don’t know why we would want to do the pilot. I can’t see the benefit in that for us unless we’re trying to.
1:10:02 I don’t really. I can’t see a benefit at all. Honestly.
1:10:05 This board has the ability to say we want to make the change as a whole. We have to make a change regardless. And it’s happening with kindergarten through eight whether we like it or not.
1:10:14 Board I think it would be smart for us to look at expanding this and I know I’ll probably be the least liked board member by students with this suggestion. I fully understand that. But again, students need to learn and cell phones are distractions.
1:10:27 They’re distractions to adults, they’re distractions to children. So my ask and I guess would be, or would you implore the idea of looking at taking a really bold initiative that could benefit our students and our teachers in a way that would pay dividends big time. And I’ve had the opportunity, my team and I, to look at other districts and currently in the state of Florida there are seven districts that actually had it last year.
1:10:52 We had Orange county that actually had it for two years. All no cell phone all day, including hallways and lunch. We had Broward County 24, 25 school year all day, including hallway and lunch.
1:11:05 That Means they couldn’t have them at all. Palm Beach County, 2425 school year, all day, including hallways and lunch, unless the principal allows for middle and high school students. So that was the change for them last year.
1:11:16 Hillsborough county, the same thing as Palm Beach County. And we had osceola for the 2425 school year all day, including hallways and lunch. Pasco County, 2425 school year all day, but can use at lunch for high school only.
1:11:32 And then we had Duvall all day and cannot be on person at all. So we did have an opportunity to see the variances. But I can tell you we’ve looked at most of their websites and since House 1105, everyone’s like, put a pause on looking at how they’re going to implement this because you.
1:11:51 We do have to make a decision whether or not we know we’re mandated by K8, but if we’re selected as a pilot or like Ms. Wright said, if we go full force, what that would look like. And to be clear, I don’t suggest that we apply to be the pilot. I’m just suggesting we change our policy internally and say this is what we, we can do moving forward.
1:12:15 And when you name those counties, those are, those are our big counties in Florida and we’re close to one of those big counties. So I think it’s a. It’s appropriate.
1:12:22 But board, you’re going to have to weigh on this. That’s where I’m at with it. So it’ll take board majority.
1:12:26 Okay. Not a stretch. John, we’ll start down there.
1:12:28 Well, I’ll be the second least like school board member then, because I agree with you. I think we should be. I mean, as I understand this policy is for the option B.
1:12:41 It’s saying they prohibits the use. It can be on their person, but it’s. They just cannot use it.
1:12:46 And I support that in case there was an emergency. But I support all day, bell to bell, no use of cell phones, including hallways and lunch for all grades. I am going to have a different opinion.
1:13:01 I still have a different opinion. And part of it has to do with my experience of what I’ve seen our students use. I know when we’ve had this conversation before board members are brought up, you know what they’ve seen and they get to end of class.
1:13:14 But that is a lack of enforcement. And regardless of what we do, enforcement is going to be the key. Whether we say morning bell to afternoon bell, enforcement is going to be the extra burden, just to be completely honest, on our administrators who now have to chase down kids during lunch and passing periods.
1:13:14 But that is the problem. I don’t think when we’re seeing something we’re to going, going, people aren’t enforcing the rules as we already have them. So now we need to have a different rule.
1:13:40 No, we need to make sure the expectation is there. You’re not using this during instructional time, but let me give you some reasons why I think we still need to allow them to at high school only. Right.
1:13:51 And I don’t have a problem with a junior senior, because a junior senior, it specifically says elementary students and middle school students. And junior senior is a different animal. And until we get some clarification from the state, it would be practically impossible to have different rules for students on the same campus.
1:14:07 We would be implementing junior senior high school, that is a high school, so they would be following the high school. They’re treated as a high school in so many. Like, even when accountability, state accountability and things like that.
1:14:16 And here’s some of the reasons why as adults, and I think about the last time you went to a professional development thing, I just feel like one, we’re a couple things. One, we’re not preparing our students to be adults. Adults go to professional development and we see slides and it’s something we want to remember.
1:14:33 And what is, you know, half the adults in the room, they pull out their phones and they take a picture of the slides. Even when the people say, we’re going to send this presentation to you. No, I want to take a picture because it’s something.
1:14:42 I’ve seen people pull it out in church. Take a picture because that’s something I want to remember. Take a picture of the board.
1:14:47 We’ve got, you know, my son is in jazz band, and when he has permission, he likes to solo. And so he’ll put his phone on his music stand and when he’ll record his solo, he brings it home, he listens to it over and over and over again. He goes into class the next day and he makes some tweaks based on what he heard and gives his own feedback.
1:15:09 And then he records it again and he’s preparing for that performance. I know that’s kind of a unique situation, but we have students who are going around recording things for their digital design. Another class that we, we offer on many of our campuses, they’re using those phones to record footage that they’re going to make in videos for their CTE class.
1:15:27 They’re using them for yearbook. They’re using them to send reminders to themselves to Be quite honest. We have athletic coaches who are pinging them during the day, going, hey, practice is canceled after school today, or we’ve got a track meet and everybody needs to be on the bus at 1 o’.
1:15:42 Clock. I mean, if we put this in effect with, there’s absolutely no phones until the last bell rings at the end of the day, those coaches will have to change their patterns. They’ll have to just deal with it.
1:15:52 We’ll have to have more interruptions, we’ll have to do the announcements kind of thing. But I don’t think we’re preparing high school students in particular for adulthood. I see the problem and I know the problem.
1:16:03 I’ve got, you know, two teenagers in it and another young adult. I get it. But I think the answer is teaching them how to use it a little, allowing them to use it in responsible ways, enforcing it and making our teachers and actually enforcing it at the classroom level, but allowing them to use it in appropriate ways.
1:16:23 But if we do a morning bell to afternoon bell, none of those ways that students currently use their phones, none of those are going to be allowable because that means no exceptions. That means yearbook staff. And there’s other ways to get around it.
1:16:37 They can, we can buy iPads and all those kinds of things, but it will definitely be a hindrance to student learning in an age of technology. When we have said, we’re the Space coast, we want innovation, we want cutting edge, but nope, not in this way. And the other thing, and we go back to why this, to the bill, you can talk about being unpopular with students, but I believe this is my opinion, and from the things that I’ve heard, it’s not an uninformed op.
1:17:06 I believe one of the reasons why the legislature didn’t go whole hog either this time around or the last time they addressed this is because of parents. Because parents want to be able to communicate with their students. Now, parents, and if you’re listening to me, hear me say this, you should not be able to text your student in the middle of class and expect a response.
1:17:24 But you know what? If you have a little brother and your mom needs you to go change plans and go pick them up and they send it, and you can pick it up at 2 class, or you can pick it up during lunch and you can respond back. I mean, that’s what parents want. And parents are the ones who are breathing down the legislature’s neck saying, I need, want, whatever you want to call it, to be able to communicate with my child during the day and not Just if there’s an active shooter, that’s always a thing parents always do.
1:17:51 They want to be able to communicate with a kid if there’s an emergency, and they need to be educated on that too. But it’s parents who are going to come and not be happy. If they’re high schoolers in particular who have, you know, other responsibilities and things, they need to get ahold of them before that 3:30 bell happens.
1:18:11 They’re the ones who I believe are the reason why the legislature didn’t go all the way. Mr. Susan yeah, I agree. We need to ban them.
1:18:22 I think the key is, is that, and when you look at all of the studies that are coming out now between cell phone usage and academic performance, between cell phone usage and overall long term health issues, both mental health and other issues, you find empirical data across many of them that shows that there is definitely a correlation. And if we are going to be strong educators and if we’re going to say that the utmost, most important thing inside of our education is going to be that we want our students to learn and there are literal studies over and over again, it’s not just one or two that can be found and then there’s others against it. It is coming out in droves.
1:19:05 The effect that cell phones have, that’s where I fall onto. So I feel truly that this is again, we tried to do it last time and we fell short. And we said to ourselves, we all said we’re going to go ahead and send this back to the schools and if it is, we find out that it’s not being affected or effectively implemented, that we would then come back and say that we would eventually remove them from the classrooms.
1:19:31 I effectively went all last year to my schools, moved around and saw nothing but kids, especially in secondary, on their phones in the middle of classes. So when I brought this up to Dr. Rose Rendell over a week ago, Dr. Rindell says, hey, do your due diligence and call this, call the, call the principals. So I called my principals and I talked to them.
1:19:50 Every one of the principals that I spoke to in my district and outside my district said ban them. And the reason behind that was, is that they effectively are this year getting ready to start writing. You know what I mean? The teachers who are not effectively implementing them up and holding them accountable for it, it’s going to create an entire other layer of problems.
1:20:11 And they know that. They know that if they have to implement this into their schools, that if they, if they do not have that control over it, the Kids are going to be coming in on the phone, into their classroom, rolling in, sitting on it. It’s going to be in there.
1:20:23 There’s too many communications points. If those students know that when they walk into that school, it’s over. And at the end of the day, it comes back that is clean and we have it.
1:20:32 It also goes into discipline and everything else. But I wanted to real quickly talk about some of the things you talked about. Parents in the community, talked about athletic coaches, talked about contacting my parents.
1:20:44 I thought for sure, Ms. Campbell, that when this happened, that we were going to get a huge backlash, but it actually was the other way. The parents were appreciative, and many of them said, why didn’t you just get rid of them for the whole day? Because they’re having problems at home. Also in the control of the usage of the cell phone.
1:21:01 And so when the kids are accessible to it during the day and they don’t have control to say no. There is an overall movement among parents to try to start putting this under control. Whereas five years ago, people were like, oh, it’s not that bad.
1:21:14 It’s literally starting to show that it’s affecting children’s minds and children as far as their academic performance. So I would say that the parents who are going to try to text them during the day consistently and stuff like that, they’re also part of the problem when they’re going to be texting their parent, their child, while they’re inside the class. When we talk about communicating to the student.
1:21:34 We were all in school, we picked up the phone when our parents wanted to get us, they picked up the phone and they called the front office and said, hey, can you ping my student? I need to really get something to them. And if it’s an emergency, they did that. And I felt that that was, you know, that is still possible to do.
1:21:49 So we don’t need to have them ping their cell phones and stuff like that. And as a former coach, when we wanted to get something out to the students, we didn’t text them, we didn’t call them. And I know for a fact some of the.
1:21:59 They may use that as a thing, but there are so many other options that I feel secure that this is a good opportunity for us to move on and hold them and hold them accountable to where the athletic coaches. Yeah, outside of school, send out a group text. But while they’re in school, sending out a group text only furthers that situation.
1:22:17 I just feel really strongly about this. I have, you know, little ones that are Getting ready to get older. And I’m concerned.
1:22:22 And I feel like when I talk to a lot of the new parents, when I talk to the parents who have children that are in elementary school, they are a lot different when it comes to dealing with social media than the ones that are currently leaving school because they were in a different, almost different generation. So that’s why I stand where I am. Thank you.
1:22:42 Well, it looks like you have direction. However, I do want to throw a couple things in there, which it is kind of great going last because you hear all the great input and I’ll start from the last and go forward. When you talk about coaches contact, and we talked a little bit about this too, is you can come on campus with your phone until the first bell rings too.
1:23:10 So if I were in that position as a coach or an administrator, I would inform my coaches or any other clubs that need to contact students. You do it in the morning before the bell rings, and you do it right after the bell rings. So say three 7:30 to 3:30.
1:23:28 As an administrator, I don’t want a kid saying my coach texted me during the day. Right, let’s not do that. Clubs, sponsors and coaches, because I know they’re doing that.
1:23:37 Other schools, you know, anything before school, they can look, I’m sure, you know, if there’s a change in schedule, it can be done and contacted that student before school starts. So I think that that’s a big one. I would make sure.
1:23:49 Because as coaches, I know they have these apps and they contact the students all throughout the day, which is kind of silly because some of these coaches are not teachers, they’re community coaches. And I’ve been in the classroom where I’m like, what are doing you doing? Oh, so. And so coach has contacted me, you know, so that could alleviate that.
1:24:07 We did try. Right. I was the teacher advocate when you.
1:24:11 When it was brought up before, where I’m like, well, the policy says during instructional time, so we treated those instructors as professionals to do your job. That wasn’t always the case. And I will agree with, you know, some of the board members up here when, when you go into schools and classes.
1:24:28 I’ve had teachers contact me later explaining why their students are on the phones. And I’m like, it’s not why I’m here, you know, that kind of thing. But it’s hard to play that middle role as an instructor.
1:24:41 It is. So I think if there is a moratorium on cell phones, they can say, hey, it’s not me, it’s the administration. It’s the district.
1:24:52 It’s good cop, bad cop. And you know, all along, teachers don’t want the cell phones out. They’re not helpful in any way.
1:24:59 We’re one to one. We have laptops, we have things to use. So in a perfect world, I would like to, you know, be able to take a screenshot, a snapshot.
1:25:11 Pretty sure that’s still probably going to happen. Just gonna say that, you know, if it’s very vital in that, in that moment, it’s probably going to happen still. But again, it’s so important in getting back student teacher minutes.
1:25:30 So that’s where I’m going to fall on. If we can make a decision that gives that teacher and student another few minutes of time to connect and teach, parents are going to love that. They’re going to, they’re going to respect that.
1:25:46 Again, to serve every student with excellence. If I can give that teacher more teachable moments and minutes back, I am all for that. I think Mr. Susan said it right.
1:25:58 Hey, a few years ago, four, five, six, seven years ago, we didn’t think it was ever going to be a big deal and those studies were not there. We looked at it as this is going to add to the education experience. This look what we can do for our kids and the teachers and giving them at their fingertips.
1:26:14 But now we are one to one in our classrooms, in our libraries. We have technology everywhere. And I think it’s come full circle where we know the more we put the phone down, the more we’re able to learn and clear that mind so you can have that teachable moment with that student without them having to pull out their phone and look at it.
1:26:35 So one more thing we’re going to add to the table, but it looks like you have clear direction moving forward. I would like to propose a timeline for implementing this because of course we’re going to put this on the board agenda on June 24th and we have to put it out there for public hearing and it will be board approved on July 20, which I am proposing that we really utilize the month of August to do a media blitz to make sure our parents know we do training with our teachers, our administrators, our students to make sure that everyone is aware of the expectations and the new rules. I just want to make sure that that’s okay with the board because it would be very difficult to, to implement and do a turnaround time with school starting.
1:27:30 And I don’t think it would be fair to kids or our families if we didn’t have this time to really inform Them I personally. Can we put that slide on the screen? I don’t think the board members can see that slide on there. There it is.
1:27:44 It’s there. Ms. Dampier, can you see it? Yeah, I’m good. Ms. Dampier, I went a second level and asked all of those principals how they thought about that process because of implementation.
1:27:56 Does that give them enough time? Many of them expressed if they were allowed to hold it at the beginning and not give them a month, you know what I mean, where the kids are using the cell phones and stuff like that. So if by discretion of the administration at the building, the principal may be able to make the recommendation that they want to hold them accountable right at the beginning because they’re afraid they’re going to open up Pandora’s box and then try to put it back in. I think that you’re going to have some schools that kids will get consequences ahead of time.
1:28:26 And I just think that as a district, we need to say this is the time. So we are firm with the parents and everyone knows that we’re consistent afraid of opening it up. That’s just my opinion.
1:28:38 Ms. Stampier, you also researched this with the other counties that rolled this out to see what was the best practice on how this was implemented. And this, this was similar to what they did, right, in Orange County? Yes, they did an extensive. They did a media blitz.
1:28:49 They decided just like this summer and then they did a media blitz from August with school messenger training, letting parents know, being on the T, you know, just a lot of media on this. And then right after Labor Day it was implemented. And so it wasn’t like anybody didn’t know, you know, everybody knew what this expectations were and that gave us time to train and what this, all the frequently asked questions.
1:29:14 Because I’ve put together a frequently asked question document. Of course we’ll add more to that and you know, parents will have questions as well. So this will give us time because we will not vote on this until the 29th, and school will be starting two weeks later.
1:29:29 And we have a lot of training that will be, you know, making sure that our principal, parents, students, everybody is trained on this new expectation. So in that training, I know I’ve been in schools where we have the code of conduct and a calendar book, and it was by the orders of the principal that for two weeks homeroom, every teacher was going to go through a part of that code of conduct and expectations. I hope some of this training isn’t on just all on the administrative side, but also procedurally in the Classrooms that they spend time on the importance of having their classroom back, both for the student and for the teacher.
1:30:14 But in the classroom training for those two or three or four weeks, because I do have concerns, like Mr. Susan said, is this isn’t something where you have to change culture of say, dress code and we got to go out and buy new clothes and do things like this. This isn’t a device we just don’t want to see anymore. We know if it were in my house and I said no, no devices at the kitchen table.
1:30:37 It’s pretty simple. It starts today. Where, you know, if we’re talking a whole month, I do have concerns that, well, you let it go this far.
1:30:44 So I’m going to again give it up to the Like Ms. Wright said, the professionals that looked into it and I trust. Alright, so yes, we want to make sure that all of our stakeholders can give us some feedback as well. They may have questions and we want to make sure that there’s a clear understanding of what this looks like.
1:31:05 Give scenarios, you know, we’re saying that they cannot use them from bell to bell. That means when that first bell, you cannot use them. You should not have them out until, you know, the bell rings after the, you know, the end of the school day.
1:31:17 That means they can’t have them at lunch. That means they can’t have them during transition. However, our policy does say that they can have them on the bus.
1:31:24 So that still would remain and before school. So I do have again, kind of a compromise. If you have a principal that calls us up and says, hey, my school’s ready, we’re ready after two weeks, you’re going to possibly have to have that discussion with them.
1:31:40 So anyway, Mr. Chair. Yes. Just one last comment.
1:31:42 Not to beat a dead horse, but I think that the key to this policy working is going to be consistency. We can make whatever policy we want, but if the superintendent, the principals or anybody underneath from there doesn’t embrace it, then it’s not worth no more than the paper it’s written on. So I would just ask that if we can make sure that we train the principals and even not just train the principals, but make sure you did a lot of research speaking with Orange county and Osceola, if you can relate to, as we talked about the other day, the first year was the hardest and then now, for the most part, they love the policy, policy.
1:32:15 So if those reasonings from those other principles could be relayed, some even, you know, relayed to the, to our principles, what the benefits are, how they Perceive it. Now, I think that would be, it would, it would help, you know, ease the angst and also help them embrace the policy to enforce it. But all of those districts did have a district wide expectation.
1:32:34 It wasn’t like if the principal wanted to do it in two weeks or start early. They said this is we’re starting it on day one or we’re starting it on such and such date. So that would be my request, is to make sure that we’re starting on this at the same time for all of our schools.
1:32:50 Then we give everyone a fair shot. We do a lot of training, what that looks like. So when parents say we’re doing it before, we’re training them, we’re training our students, we’re training our teachers, we’re training our administrators because the turnaround time, the 29th, is very short.
1:33:07 And I say my comments just based on. It’s one thing for the principals to do it because they have to do it. And that’s another one for them to actually know that other principals have done this, have gone through the pain of doing it, but now they, now they believe in it, they can have a better understanding of why they should do it.
1:33:23 Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. Just want to throw my support behind the gradual rollout.
1:33:32 If you think about the fact that we had an extremely successful implementation of the open gate weapons detection system, it’s because we were methodical about our approach, making sure that everybody was trained on what the implementation would look like. And we took a great amount of time to educate each school community before we implemented that. So that’s why we need to do it this way.
1:33:58 Totally agree. Plus, Ms. Dampier gave me a look. Ms. Dampier, I want to be on the other side of that one.
1:34:06 We just want it done correctly. My team, we’re ready to go and we will assure you that we do a lot of training. We’ll come back with an update.
1:34:15 And just one more side note, parents that are watching this, that it might, you know, have some, some angst about the fact that they’re not going to be able to reach their child during the day. Absolutely can still call the front office to any school to relay a message. So if you need your child to pick up another child or if there’s a change in pickup plans or driving plans or whatever, you can always call the front office, relay a message that will get to your child in time, just the same as it was in the good old days when I went to school.
1:34:38 Well, this also could be the bringing back of afternoon announcements. Oh, My. How about that? Some of you realize that for coaches and clubs in.
1:34:49 We laugh. I talk. I talk to my children about waiting to find out if school was canceled from hurricanes by watching the news and having to see the little scrolling bar that comes across.
1:34:58 And you were waiting for your county and then you were celebrating. Yay. I’m like, nowadays, you get.
1:35:02 You get notified everywhere. Those were called snow days for me. Thank you, Ms. Stamper.
1:35:08 Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much.
1:35:10 Oh, she’s still here. She’s right. Are you doing climate.
1:35:14 You gotta do the rest of the sort of. I was going to say this is. She presented this to us.
1:35:18 Sure. Dr. Rendell, do you want to. Yeah.
1:35:20 Thank you, Mr. Chair. Next, we will have a presentation on the results of our various climate surveys. The board may recall that we do a student climate survey, a parent state climate survey, and a series of staff climate surveys.
1:35:36 So we’re going to go through kind of a high level brief review of those different survey results. Every board member will have access to all of the results. You can compare them by the schools in your district, you can compare them by grade levels and all that kind of stuff.
1:35:55 But today, just a general Overall review. And Mr. Poole, the director of student staff and community relations is going to present that information. Okay.
1:36:09 Greetings and good afternoon, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon, board members. Dr. Andell, I’d like to say thank you to my colleagues in student services.
1:36:19 I would not have been able to complete this without. Without their help. Okay.
1:36:25 As Dr. Rendell said, this is going to be a high level overview of the climate survey results. We’re going to kind of stay on the surface here at 30,000 Foot View. As you said, you will have access to the thought exchange platform where you can go in and make your detailed comparisons.
1:36:39 Again, just going to be a very broad view of the student, staff and family surveys and their experiences about Brevard Public Schools. Okay. Here we highlight the survey types and the participation rates.
1:36:55 We highlight the number of respondents. The numbers here indicate how many of our stakeholders had an opportunity to share their perspectives over five categories that we’ll cover later. Please note, the numbers of our student participation rates reflect the number of eligible students.
1:37:13 Okay. This. That number includes students that have parental consent.
1:37:19 Again, as required by Statute House Bill 1557, we had to make sure that those students were given consent to take the survey. We have 14,766 students take the survey, 4,979 and 10,811 families participate. Okay.
1:37:45 So we are going to highlight the increases we had an increase in the number of participants participants and that increase has come from a collaborative effort between our school leaders, several departments within student services and promotion of the survey through gcr. We had a few changes. We chose a different survey provider.
1:38:09 We used went with Thought Exchange which allowed us to again customize a little bit of the survey in terms of length. And we didn’t want to take the kids away from instructional time. I think we had almost 70 items that the students had to go through, which can be quite challenging.
1:38:31 Thought Exchange did give us the ability to add some other things. We wanted to add a CTE component to assess how we were doing there. We shortened our survey window from three weeks to two weeks weeks.
1:38:44 And again we reduced the overall number of survey items. We got it down to between 25 and 35 questions for the elementary students. We didn’t want to give them too many items.
1:38:57 Okay. Things that we didn’t change. Again, we required an opt in through focus through our school information system.
1:39:05 We did our best to keep the same categories. We shared in remote, received feedback from the board and we made sure we stayed in alignment with House Bill 1557 and 1069. Okay, we have the categories or topics here.
1:39:23 We decided to include professional development survey items within the academic challenge category. So that’s a little shift from what we did last year. And again the C CTE component was added.
1:39:40 Alright. Much of what we’re going to see today will be used by school leadership and planning to help with meaningful school improvement and student impact. We will see key findings and highlights of our highlights and some areas of concern.
1:39:55 We’re going to begin with elementary schools and to name a few of the key findings we have Teacher support and encouragement. I love this one. I’m constantly speaking to my colleagues about collective teacher efficacy.
1:40:07 Right. How much we believe in our students. And I think this is again, we had 78%.
1:40:11 As you can see, 78% of our elementary students respond favorably to teacher support and encouragement. You know, our elementary students feel they they’re being moved and pushed to do their best. This is evidenced by their.
1:40:27 Not just the responses, you know, the I agree or disagree but the comments that they entered as well. Sorry, school environment. Our students indicate that.
1:40:39 Our elementary students indicate they feel safe. Respect and recognition. 68% of our students responded favorably regarding respect and recognition.
1:40:47 As we see. Okay, we have some areas of growth. We’re going to talk about feelings of belonging.
1:40:56 52% of our students registered favorable ratings. You know, there was a split there. And 48% did not.
1:41:04 Again, that will, you know, just catching the wave tips of that category. So that can lead schools to other conversations to dive deeper into their own school data. Application of learning.
1:41:16 Again, this is another area that students almost split on and schools can look into their own information there. Peer relationships, school connections may need to be added to those focus areas so students have a feeling that they’re getting along with everyone. As we move to middle school, another high rating for how our students feel about teacher encouragement and the quality of their classroom experiences.
1:41:46 As is highlighted here, we had 68% of our middle school students respond favorably, respecting school safety. There are some celebrations here, but however, there is some concern about the remaining 20, the 26 students that indicated that they do not feel safe. Again, that’s a critical area that we probably need to look at right away.
1:42:12 And again, areas of growth. We have some hot button items that you see here. Feelings of, feelings of safety, real life application of learning and student relationships.
1:42:23 Feelings of safety is one that stands out. You know, we want our students to feel safe. That’s, that’s number one.
1:42:29 Keeping that in mind, this is a high level view. We’re only catching just the, you know, the beginning of that. And that’s another area I feel schools will, you know, dive deeper into.
1:42:41 Look at their comments and things of that nature. Okay. As we move into high school quality of education, we were Split again here.
1:42:50 49% of our students rated this favorably. And there are some that feel there’s a need to make improvements. Move over to classroom environment.
1:42:58 77% of our high school students rated this category favorably. Students feel comfortable and are willing to work with others. Teacher student dynamics.
1:43:07 Almost 60% of our high school students feel valued and respected by their teachers. Conversely, this category also suggests opposing views of respect between teachers and students. Some of the questions, if you look at them, you know, in detail, you’ll see how students feel about teachers and then how teachers feel about students.
1:43:27 And some of those kind of throw you off a bit. But again, that can lead to conversations within the school. And of course, make sure you check out the comments behind that.
1:43:39 Okay. School culture and environment. There are some indicators that students enjoy their classrooms based on their responses, but the data suggests there are opportunities for improvement around school culture and social environment.
1:43:54 Okay, Areas of growth for high school, respect and respect toward teachers among students. Almost 60% of our high school students feel. I’m sorry, I apologize.
1:44:06 What slide am I on? Oops, There we go. Okay. 43% of our students report that teachers don’t respect all Students and more than 65% of our students.
1:44:27 Wait a minute. Did I go the wrong one? My apologies. Okay.
1:44:36 Indicate teachers are not respected by students. Sense of belonging and acceptance. We had a high percentage of neutral responses.
1:44:45 Again, we have to. That’s another area that we need to dive a little bit more deeply into. Clarity of fairness and discipline.
1:44:51 I know we’ve done a lot of work with our discipline work groups and things of that nature. And this is an area that we’ve been focusing on. Hopefully we can make some improvement with the information that we got from those groups and that feedback.
1:45:05 Okay. As we move to staff, our staff survey. Okay.
1:45:15 We were split. I’m sorry, not split. We have 72% of our staff members feel that their opinions were taken seriously by administration.
1:45:26 That said, naturally, there were some that did not feel that way. And there’s an area for schools to, again, dive more deeply into that. That category.
1:45:39 Okay. School environment and community. Overall, we, you know, are perceived to have a welcoming environment, which is very good there.
1:45:49 The majority of our families feel that they feel accepted and they feel a part of the school. They feel connected to the school. I’m so sorry, guys.
1:45:59 That staff. I do apologize. Forgive me.
1:46:03 Forgive. Forgive me. Okay.
1:46:09 Go back to areas of growth. 43% of our staff report reported neutral feelings and fairness of discipline. Okay.
1:46:20 Again, that hopefully, again, school leadership and administration will take that information and. And that feedback and continue on this process and hopefully with the clarity of our discipline procedures that we will bring that together. Professional development.
1:46:39 We were split last year. That was a highlight for us. It looks like we have about half of our staff members feel that professional development is meaningful and the other half not so much.
1:46:52 Exploring those concerns again, in detail will be. Be something that we would definitely want to look at. Again.
1:46:59 This is. You know, these are all of our high schools, so not all schools feel that way. Engagement and decision making.
1:47:08 72% of our staff members do feel their opinions matter. Okay. A quarter don’t feel that way.
1:47:16 Understanding and addressing their concerns can improve overall engagement and satisfaction. Okay. Moving to families.
1:47:26 Overall results indicate that our parents generally do hold a positive view of the school climate, with high markers given for academic resources and respectful treatment by teachers and administration. We did add an item to the survey for families. We did ask them how they felt about our school grade and if they agreed with it or not.
1:47:43 In our district, our school grades and our district grades, 80% of our families agreed with that. We should. Their school should have received an A or B and our district should have received An A or B.
1:47:54 So that shows that they have strong belief in us and strong confidence in us. Okay. School quality and safety, again, those ratings show high confidence in those areas.
1:48:09 They believe in the quality of education their students are receiving. And we use that. We use those responses for curriculum and academic resources.
1:48:18 Again, we did very well in that area. So areas of growth, 21% of our parents don’t feel involved and 30% don’t feel informed. That was kind of the big takeaway from that.
1:48:32 Families wanted to know when their students were in danger of failing, when they weren’t doing well in a more timely manner. That seemed to be a consistent theme. Okay.
1:48:47 Again, I know this was a high level view. This offered some valuable insight into our school strengths and areas of growth. School leadership is going to engage in some collaborative work at our Ascend conferences and they’re really going to look at providing, you know, a good, you know, good culture and climate systems, you know, to maintain connectedness and to make sure students are doing what they’re supposed to do to provide quality education and that families feel very connected to what schools are doing.
1:49:19 We will have, we will make school survey results available. Okay. So they will be available to the public.
1:49:27 Families will be able to see how their school rated on all three surveys. They can look at student information, staff information and family information. And they’ll be separated by grade level.
1:49:43 Elementary schools all be in one document, middle schools and high schools, respectively. Any questions? Okay. Is it possible to get the data results for the specific school sites? Maybe breaking them down.
1:50:02 That way we can just see. It’ll help us identify. Yes, ma’.
1:50:05 Am. You’re going to be able to see. You’re going to be able to see.
1:50:07 Each school is going to have a report with, you know, all three surveys. You’re going to see all the topics. You’re going to see averages and rankings.
1:50:14 Okay. So that’s going to be nice that you can make that comparison there. Yeah.
1:50:17 So you’ll have an average of each item as well. Well, so you can see those comparisons. Okay, wonderful.
1:50:23 Thank you. That’s all that I needed. Y.
1:50:24 Mr. Chair. Sure. Just two questions.
1:50:27 Yes, sir. First of all, for the. Are you going.
1:50:32 How are you going to let the students, families and teachers know what actions you’re taking in response to this survey? And secondly, are you going to. Is there plans to do a follow up survey to kind of measure our progress in this next year? Perhaps. So I can answer that.
1:50:47 Yeah. So first of all, this is an annual exercise that we do every year. One of These segments of the school improvement plan is on culture and climate.
1:50:56 So in the Ascend conference in the next two days, these are some of the data points that the principals and their leadership teams will use to attack that area of their, of their school improvement plan and culture and climate. We have been trying to find the right provider that can offer us a customizable survey for both students, staff and parents. And so thoughtexchange did provide us that our return rate is not exactly where we would like in each of those categories.
1:51:24 So we may not use that provider, but we’ll still do this every year. This is an annual event that we do. So the answer to the first part of your question, you know, how will we communicate, how we’re responding to this? Will be in each school improvement plan.
1:51:41 You know, that’s, you know, where the data is going to show up for each individual school and how they’re going to address any weaknesses, any areas that they need to improve. We communicate out to the public here. Once we get the website set up in such a way that they can go in and search all the data so they can see all the data for themselves.
1:52:02 Like I said earlier, each board member is going to be able to see every school individually in their zone and other schools across the district. So information is readily available and some of it for us as a district will show up in the strategic plan as well. Thank you.
1:52:21 Thank you for addressing that issue because I know we’ve had, we’ve continued to have concerns from some people in the public. I know last year when we used the other vendors, we had multiple vendors to get surveys, you know, about the cost. And so I know thought exchange was a lower cost and we could have them do all of the surveys.
1:52:38 And there was a benefit to it being the same format and for collating it all. But I can, I appreciate though, you explaining how we’re using it because that shows why we still need to do the surveys. Correct.
1:52:51 And hear from all the stakeholders because of that climate change goal, you know, and this is, this is other than doing man on the street walking out and catching kids in the hallway, how do you feel about your school? That’s not exactly the best way to do it, but I think we got a pretty good percentage. I know by school it’s not as high. The percentage rates vary.
1:53:13 I’m assuming that’s going to be in the report as well. And so we, you know, schools that only got five kids to take the survey, that probably not indicative of the whole school culture, but kudos to the schools who have those higher percentages, even though I haven’t seen them yet. But I think this is crucial and it’s really important to get all these stakeholders feedback.
1:53:35 And we have. We even have, like, not just teachers, but district staff. Right.
1:53:39 We have that survey and they’re. They’re providing similar feedback. So we’re getting, as a district, as a whole, that.
1:53:45 From our. All of our employees. Employees as well.
1:53:46 Thank you, Mr. Thomas. I did want to answer the second part of that question. So you did ask about, you know, about monitoring that progress.
1:53:55 So the school improvement plan, as Dr. Rendell mentioned, is a living document that will be addressed throughout the school year. Okay, thank you. Susan, anything? No, I’m good.
1:54:07 Megan, you good? I’m good. Dr. Andell, good? I’m good. All right.
1:54:10 Appreciate it. Dr. Trindell, you want to go? Yeah. So next we’re going to turn it over to the curriculum and instruction department.
1:54:20 Tara Harris and her team, two different presentations. The first is going to be on the personalized education program. This is a new thing for us.
1:54:31 We’re going to be able to allow families that are choosing homeschool or other alternative school, school delivery models to access our curriculum and our classes for a fee, using the PEP scholarships that they get through the Florida state government. So Dr. Meyer, I think, is going to lead us through the presentation. Dr. Meyer, I’ll turn it over to you.
1:55:00 Or Tara, whoever. Thank you. I’m good.
1:55:07 I’ll mute. Okay. Good afternoon.
1:55:13 Thank you so much for allowing me to speak. Dr. Andell, the board and Mr. Gibbs, I’m here to give you an update on the PEP, or personalized education program. Okay.
1:55:24 This sprouted from House Bill 1, and it right now has 60 opportunities, and each year they grow by 40,000. So next year it’ll be 100,000. And we’ve already started getting parent phone calls in for, you know, interest in it.
1:55:43 So it is intended for Florida families to choose a plan, an educational plan for their children, and it is for students K through 12. So you might want to ask what this means for Brevard public schools. So we’re looking to open opportunities for students to use their scholarship that they get either Florida Tax Credit Scholarship or the Florida Empowerment Scholarship to pay for courses in our brick and mortar schools or Brevard Virtual.
1:56:14 Brevard Virtual was the pilot last year, so they did have a handful of students that took this opportunity. So up and coming for next year, we’ll be offering CTE courses, AP courses, elementary courses, secondary courses, and elective courses. So the process for parents will look a lot like the rest of school choice.
1:56:40 It is built through focus. They will complete an enrollment form through focus where they will not be reported to the state for funding because we’re not going to jeopardize their scholarship. And then they complete an application choosing the courses and the schools that they’d like to attend.
1:56:56 Once that seat has been confirmed with the school, we’re going to have the parent sign a contract. So if you’re looking in the red folder that was handed out, the first article is the course catalog. Your first page is elementary courses that will be offered, and the rest of the pages are your secondary.
1:57:16 Also, the second portion or article that you were given is the parent contract that has already gone through legal and been approved through legal. We intend to put those two documents to the board in your next board meeting for approval. So once they choose their courses, we solidify their seat with the principal of the school.
1:57:40 We will then ask the parent to initiate the funding through their step up or they can pay through focus. And then students will begin class on the first day of the semester. So each semester will have the opportunities available.
1:57:54 And if you’re looking at your screen of the presentation, that’s what their focus account looks like. And that’s what it will be. The exhibit A, that’s the form that they will fill out after they’ve enrolled, enrolled.
1:58:10 Okay, so the course catalog. There’s a lot of factors that went into looking at the prices for each course. FTE is always taken into consideration.
1:58:21 The cost of supplies for each class, the cost of the certification, your AP exams, the cost of the bonus fte. Because we won’t generate that. Because we won’t.
1:58:29 We won’t be reporting them to the state for funding. So we have to account that cost. And also we did a comparative study with Miami Dade Florida Virtual.
1:58:44 Okay, so right now, behind the scenes, there is a PEP website created. When we go live with this, it will be available to parents to see. It’ll have all their information, the steps, their contact.
1:58:55 Contact the district, which will be my team, and it’ll provide direction for the parents. So before I go for questions, I just want to give a shout out to all the departments that helped with. This is a huge collaboration effort.
1:59:12 It was legal, it was student services, finance, hr. We’re getting our positions posted. You guys were a president every single net.
1:59:23 Big shout out to them. Everyone worked hard with getting this together. So I’ll go for questions.
1:59:33 Okay, go. So thank you so much for doing this. I know we’ve been asking, but it’s a huge lift because one, the state didn’t provide, even though it’s been allowable or legal for us to do this with the scholarships for almost like two years coming up, but without a framework, it was really almost impossible to do.
1:59:51 And FLVS was the only one that got it up and going right away. And I know BVS has been trying to get there too, and has been able. Weren’t we with bvs, we were able to do this year.
2:00:01 So thank you for this complete document because this will be really important and I think it’ll be a way for our. Not homeschool families. Can you call them homeschool family, More our scholarship families to be able to access our programming.
2:00:14 So a couple of questions. One, once we get this up and running, will it be connected directly to the marketplace that the scholarship, you know, because they go into their. Maybe I’m not using the right term.
2:00:25 You know, if you’re. If you’re a step up for students or whatever you go into and you can kind of add things to your cart, will there be a link directly from there? If you want to take a class from Brevard Public Schools, an in person class or Brevard Virtual School, here’s your link and it’ll go from there. I’m not sure they can link to like our website, but we are a vendor through Step Up.
2:00:44 Okay. So we are listed because Brevard Virtual has this up and running. So we are.
2:00:48 So we will also put like, instead of just our virtual, we’ll put our brick and mortars as well in there. We are, as a district, a vendor. And so then the payment will go.
2:01:00 I mean, I know y’ all are going to work out all the details, but that’s also ready to go. Oh, yes. With however the payment’s gonna be.
2:01:05 We have worked with our finance department to set up a different spreadsheet just for pep. Okay. So it’s.
2:01:11 Yes, clear cut. Okay. And then the second question I had was we just went through a long conversation about the code of conduct when PEP students are on campus taking any number of classes, which if they’re taking seven, they might as well just come be a student.
2:01:28 Just enroll. Right, Enroll. But will the parents also be aware of.
2:01:34 I mean, obviously they’re going to be accountable to. They’ll sign off on the student code of conduct as part of their registration process. Well, in your document that you have, that’s the legal contract, it does mention that the students have to abide by this code of conduct.
2:01:47 That was the question I had. And then the third question I had was when related to class size. Yeah.
2:02:01 So we have class size amendment, but these aren’t our traditional FTE students. So the way I could apply for a class and you know, they’re going to stick them wherever, you know, and maybe they, they only want the first period class because the way they want to structure the rest of their day. But like we don’t have any first period classes that are class.
2:02:21 I mean, how is that going to work for class size? Do they count towards class size or not? Or is that something the state hasn’t answered yet? They will count towards class size with their coding. They will have a different coding than like a traditional homeschooler student that could come in where we would code them, but we generate the fte, but even still they count in that class size. So.
2:02:40 Because they will be on the roster for that classroom teacher. Okay, so something different. Just giving the example of if I am a teacher and I have English one at Bayside High School, I may go into that class size average because if I’m zoned for that school and I’m just, you know, assigned to that course, that will look very different.
2:03:01 So this will be based on actual seats available so that we can stay within class size. Okay. Okay.
2:03:08 So it will similar to other things we have if we, if there’s not space available like when we did our choice, you know, like if someone elos into a school, you’re not going to be able to do this if we don’t have, if all our classes are full. Correct. And along those lines, one of the items that we need board direction around is currently, if I am a brick and mortar student with an MBPS school and I apply for an ELO at a frozen school, I don’t have access to that school.
2:03:38 Now what we want directive is if I am a PEP student and I need a core, I want a course at that school. Will those students have access to the course if there are seats available to that course, versus if I want access to the entire school day? Right now that’s frozen for families. I understand that dilemma, but I feel like people are eloing their, they’re wanting the whole shebang.
2:04:07 If someone comes in and their closest school is a frozen school for ELO, but we’ve got an AP chemistry class that only has 10 kids in it. I mean, this is, to be quite honest, this is a money generator for us and potentially money generator for the teacher. Because the more students that take the test and pass it, then that’s more bonus money for them and more bonus money that goes back into the school as well.
2:04:27 So I feel like if the course is open, that we leave it open because there are a lot of those specific classes, CTE courses. I don’t know about rotc, how open those are, but rotc, the ap, ace, and what’s the one I’m forgetting that’s ace, ib, that are not full. And it would be good to have extra kids in those classes.
2:04:27 So I feel like if they’re open, that we. Because it’s just onesies and twosies here, I feel like we need to keep those open to fill the classes. And quite honestly, those are going to be our courses that we feel are most attractive.
2:05:03 Are those academic courses as well as our CTE courses would be attractive. I didn’t really quickly go through, and maybe I just missed it because I was just glancing. Is ROTC listed in here in the catalog? No, these are all in Working with Finance.
2:05:21 So this is an exhaustive list of all the courses that we could offer right now, but I believe it’s probably in there and I just missed it. But I wanted to ask, because that was one of the things that we talked about before, that sometimes scholarship students or homeschool students, you know, like the opportunity to participate in rotc. And I’ll leave that to you later.
2:05:46 We don’t have to belabor the point, but if we can just make sure that if that’s an opportunity for them, that we include it in there. If, in fact, it’s not in here, we’ll include it before it comes before for approval. Okay, thank you.
2:05:56 That’s all I had. Ms. Campbell, you beat me to the punch because my question was going to be about the. The frozen schools and, and what we’re doing there.
2:06:04 So I, too, I. I agree with you. I think if there’s a seat open in that course, even if the school is frozen for ELO purposes, it would be advantageous for us to go ahead and place a child in that seat. Thank you for the huge lift.
2:06:16 That this is nothing short of a ton of work that you have done to identify this. And it’s really. It’s.
2:06:21 I mean, honestly, to families that are, you know, using this step up, this is very exciting to be able to look at this catalog and say, okay, I can look at some different options here to have my child in that school and learn different classes that maybe they wouldn’t have access to otherwise. So I think this is a good partnership that Will work out really well for our district. So thank you.
2:06:38 I’m very excited about getting this up and running. Mr. Thomas, anything to add? No, sir. Okay, same here.
2:06:46 Great. I’m excited for the families. As we wrap up, I just need to recognize Dr. Mayor, because.
2:06:53 Oh, Mr. Susan. Mr. Susan. I get it.
2:06:56 I get it. I just want to say thank you to all the staff that worked on this. This is a huge undertaking.
2:07:04 This was one of the biggest components when I did my tours of with the homeschool families that they really, really wanted to get this cleaned up. And I know that you were rushing to try to get this done prior to the beginning of next year and do it with fidelity. And I’ll be honest, like many of you may not know this, but many of our other districts are not even close to where we are right now with this.
2:07:25 And it is a. It is an overall just achievement in a collaborative effort to educate the kids inside of our community. And I’m just really proud.
2:07:35 So thank you so much, Ms. Harris, for you and all your staff working on this. It’s a big deal. So thank you.
2:07:41 Thank you. And I couldn’t have said it better, but I would say, Dr. Mayor, because she has just been working with all of the departments to get this lifted. I believe as of yesterday, she finished her interview.
2:07:53 So we will have a PEP staff member that I know. We’re very excited. You will see these documents coming on the next board agenda for further discussion and approval.
2:08:04 One more. And P.E. it’s not on there.
2:08:07 I didn’t see PE. It’s under electives. Yeah.
2:08:12 Oh, just. It’s just general. Okay, good deal.
2:08:14 Thank you. Dr. Andell, you want to add anything? I’m good. It was a.
2:08:19 A major amount of work. Yeah. And Mr. Susan is correct.
2:08:23 There are a lot of other districts waiting to see how we’re going to do it so they can then copy it. It’s the highest one was flattering. Right.
2:08:29 Play just another example of us leading on the space coast. So that’s great. All right, Dr. Rendell, what’s next? So I’m going to turn it back over to Mrs. Harris and she’s going to share with us some preliminary data, some results of all the different assessments that we’ve been.
2:08:50 That our students have been enduring over the last few months. Absolutely. Oh, she’s right.
2:08:56 So, as Dr. Rendell mentioned, this is our preliminary data. And you’ll see it’s over and over on several slides. It speaks to unofficial versus or compared to official.
2:09:09 But we just wanted to make sure that the board and our viewing public had all of the information that we have as of today showing trends as far as student learning based on the fast results in and EOCs that we have available. So this first slide, I just want this to be clear for all that are listening that this is data that is basically our raw data that has come in. It doesn’t include the factors of students that were here both during the October and February FTE as well as they having tested in this school site.
2:09:43 So this is just very raw data compared with. We wanted to make sure it was apples to apples. So it’s compared with this exact same data Source from the 24th school year.
2:09:54 And so you will see specifically when we get into our math data, I want to remind you that we are not able to pull apart those students that have taken the retake assessment for algebra. And I’ll go over this when we get on that slide, but I just want to. This is very early, very initial data.
2:10:13 It does give us some trends and we can speak to what that looked like compared to last year as well as what we how we think it may fall out. But you’ll see the note on the first slide we are now in the data correction window with the state. It’s a little later than it is in previous years.
2:10:31 So schools are going in and making those data corrections that often can look like a student now qualifies for a different program. And so they’re going back in making those corrections that could fluctuate the data. It’s not overly significant, but just for full transparency I wanted to share that with you.
2:10:53 So this first slide you will see this again is our all students tested ELA performance data. So you will see it by grade level. You’ll see third grade.
2:11:06 We lost graduation ground based on this data. What we do suspect at the school level we can do that two, three, match and kind of pull out those students that this number includes that may not go into that school grade calculation. So we’re able to see some of that where it may come out awash.
2:11:25 I just can’t predict that tightly from a district data point. Some highlights that I definitely want to share is we do have our school based data that we can provide access to you with because these represent all of our students. And when you see we have some schools that are really making some trend data and I’d love to shout out their names but I will with mal intention forget someone.
2:11:55 I won’t recognize the exact school. So. So but I, I do want you to Know that we are seeing beyond pockets of excellence.
2:12:03 We are seeing some schools making some very sustainable growth over time. We still have our work to do and that is why we’re super excited for day one of Ascend is all about that school improvement around the academic side. I know our student services partners have mentioned that day two is around that school improve culture and climate.
2:12:25 So the next two days our school teams will come in and really dive into what is working that we need to build on and we have momentum. But where are areas that we can tighten up or change practices in order to ensure more students meet with success? Before you get off this slide, I just have to say kudos for those middle grades. Those are those big jumps in the middle grades that makes my heart happy.
2:12:50 Yes, we have a lot to celebrate and again, I want to be up here shouting out because we have some increases across the board that we just haven’t seen consistently that we really have a lot of room to celebrate. But because this is initial data, I’m trying to control my excitement. Don’t do your happy dance yet.
2:13:13 Do we need to reconnect with Mr. Mr. Susan? He’s in the meeting. Okay, so then the next slide. This comes into our math data.
2:13:23 Some areas absolutely of some significant growth. When you look at math data, math has always been an area of, you know, there was so much statute around ELA instruction. We now have some statute around math.
2:13:38 And I just want to do a shout out. We have had since the Thursday immediately following the teacher holiday, these rooms have been filled with elementary math teachers. Our elementary math principals have attended training with Dr. Smith.
2:13:55 This is an area of focus. If you remember back in January, I shared some of our elementary PM2 data. That was not where we wanted to be.
2:14:04 So to see that we’ve made some ground. The team has worked very hard on the instructional practices. We talked a lot about collaboration of departments.
2:14:15 CNI could not do what we do without the support of both student services and our school leadership team that are boots on the ground ensuring that the plans are in place. So I think that that is what you see when you see some of these trends. Again, I want to go back to that algebra number.
2:14:34 If you take a minute to at. Look. Look at that last year, same, same content area but again, first time test takers as well as retakers.
2:14:45 We were sitting at 47% proficiency this year with first time and retakers, that’s 49. What I can tell you for that subject area last year when you pulled out those students that were Retakers that don’t come go into that school grade equation, that 47 moved to 54. And so I tell you that to say that’s kind of the trend data that we’re looking at.
2:15:12 When we pull out those retakers, what will that 49 turn into? And so we’re just very proud of our teachers and our students, our school leaders really working hard to ensure increased student learning for all middle grades. Again, last year when we were comparing this. Sorry, if I may, real fast, we were comparing the previous year we took a hit on math on almost like a lot of the grade levels.
2:15:41 Yes. Last year every secondary math score wasn’t an improved decline. Right, right.
2:15:48 So this is really good data. Very good unofficial data, and that’s a good comparison. If you think around ELA last year, grades 3 through 10 increased last year.
2:16:00 Math, it was 3 through 6 increased last year. And so to see this, especially for our secondary schools, a lot of work has been done. Yes.
2:16:13 And now we’ll move on to our science. Again, raw data. So not with a 2, 3 match, but again, you see increases in every area of science.
2:16:23 Science. I’m hoping that not all of our schools are watching this presentation because tomorrow we want to do some celebrations when our team is up at a sen to really applaud our schools for their work that they have done this year around instruction. And again in social studies, you will see increases across the board for our tested social studies grades.
2:16:48 So again, initial data, we’re still, you know, awaiting that two, three match district wide, but also for the components of school grade. But we’re doing a lot of predictions and when you have increased levels of proficiency along that you will see more students are learning. So you’ll typically see increased learning gains as well.
2:17:16 See, before I turn it over to questions, I will say I want to thank the board you put an investment through the approval of our fifth grade science so that we have seven teachers in all of our schools. We are continuing to work on that so that we can see more significant increases. Moving into our 25, 26 school year.
2:17:38 We talked a lot about mighty moves and what we’re seeing in Our K in 1 data is really making some projections. It’s very challenging with that primary data. And I know I’ve said this before because it’s like depending on what ability you are, you take different state assessments.
2:17:55 And so the data is hard, but just I think a real bright spot in some shining areas is our kindergarten. We now have more students at the end, end of the year. That qualified to take that reading test instead of that early literacy.
2:18:11 Again, we’re also seeing that in first grade, second grade, we were a little flat. And what we knew is those were children that did not have strong phonics foundational skills in K and 1. So we know that our second and third, we have a lot of work to do.
2:18:30 One of the things that for 25, 26, we will be providing third grade interventionists to schools that are not A’s. And then for our schools that have a subgroup area focus where they are underperforming by a subgroup, they will receive either a half or a full time second grade interventionist for ela. So our teams are working with those schools around the areas that we know we have some catching up.
2:18:55 And I know that our strategic plan goal is a 3% increase. But I think that that is when you see across the board we have some grade levels that are exceeding that 3%. I think with those intensive supports, with very directive and prescriptive use of those interventionists, it is a.
2:19:14 I think it’ll be a one year intensive support for second and third grade that we will see payoff in dividends. Yeah. Any questions, Mr. Chair? Yes.
2:19:27 Two things. One is Mighty Moves is only for first grade, is that correct? No, that is VPK through grade three for 25, 26. And just I know you weren’t here for our kickoff.
2:19:40 That’s our flashy name for all things foundational skills. So it is heavily changing the game in first grade because that’s when our students primarily learn from to read. But it begins in VPK goes to third grade.
2:19:52 And for 25, 26, we’re expanding that into small group instruction in grades four through six. And that’s. I’m assuming that’s why the second and third grades have been a little flat because they just haven’t been exposed to it as long.
2:20:04 Correct. There’s some statutory requirements around the science of reading, but there was just also some. The pendulum has switched in the philosophy of teaching around reading instruction.
2:20:15 And so our first grade and second grade experiences haven’t had as much of the phonics and fluency practice, not not only on the practice side for students, but the explicit direct instruction. And my last question is, and I apologize if you already said it and I didn’t catch it, but are we able to get the results for each school? Absolutely. I can provide all of that to you.
2:20:37 Okay, I appreciate that. Thank you. I just want to say I am so stinking happy when I look at these scores, I’m like, oh, this is happening.
2:20:45 The mighty moves is an investment. Right. We’re planting a seed that’s going to follow all the way through the educational experience for those children until they graduate.
2:20:52 So I’m really excited right now. This is. We’re still.
2:20:55 I don’t even. The seed hasn’t sprouted yet, so it’s still underwater. So that’s what I just.
2:20:59 I cannot wait to see what these kids are doing come grade seven, eight, nine. Like it’s just going to be tremendous. I really do believe, you know, teaching them reading is the most critical thing we can do.
2:21:08 Everything else flows from there. So I am very, very excited about what this looks like for our district. So thank you for all the work your team does.
2:21:15 You’re doing an amazing job. Thank you. Woohoo.
2:21:19 That’s my comment. Yeah, I just want to say that Mrs. Harris has been bringing me the data as it’s been coming in day after day, week after week. And we’ve been trying not to outwardly celebrate because we just were, you know, until the state gives us the final numbers, we don’t really know.
2:21:38 But really thank you to all the teachers who worked so hard this year to yield these results and the students who yielded these results. Because if everything holds true last year we thought was a really strong year, this actually could be even stronger. If everything holds true.
2:21:58 But again, that’s the work of the people in the classrooms and you know, that’s who we’ll celebrate when these hopefully become official. Absolutely. That’s great.
2:22:08 We are unofficially, very excited. Unofficially. Unofficially, Unofficially.
2:22:14 Okay, good. All right, I think we’re good. Thank you very much.
2:22:20 Thank you so much, Ms. Harris. All right, next on the agenda, policy review discuss the proposed media policy. Mr. Chair.
2:22:31 Yes. So first of all, I will tell you that the policy that was submitted, whoever wrote that, did not do a very good job. I wrote it.
2:22:42 So I will tell you that I would like. I’m going to ask. I would like to tell you my intention but.
2:22:47 But I’m gonna end up asking you if we can table it and allow me the opportunity to readjust rewrite and submit it back for yalls consideration. But let me just tell you what my intention, my intention was for submitting this. First of all, it meant in no way to be cast a negative light on anybody.
2:23:08 I think we have a great superintendent, great communications staff. But the one thing I noticed is that we don’t have really have a communications policy. I think it’s, you know, it’s very minimal.
2:23:17 And so my intention is only to create a policy that makes us better and increases transparency, builds public trust. You know, this is a time where we’re going to, we have to, in two years we’re going to have two very important issues that are going to be coming up before the voters. And I think that we need to do everything we can to build, enhance that public trust.
2:23:38 These may not be good comparisons, but if you compare our former Biden administration to the Trump administration, regardless of your political persuasion, I’m pretty sure most of you guys are share the same political ideology. But regardless of that, if you look at the Biden administration, they’re very close fisted. They didn’t say, they were not very forthcoming.
2:24:01 Where President Trump is open book, you know exactly what you’re going to get. He’s, he is, you know, has press conferences every day on the cuff planned. He’s just an open book.
2:24:11 And to me, I think that’s the best way to do it. Our own sheriff does a great job of that. Very much an open book.
2:24:16 So I just wanted, I think we would be better off from what I have seen over there, you know, as a citizen, as a candidate and as a school board member, rarely are we at fault for anything, but oftentimes the school district gets a black eye. And I think a lot of it’s just through maybe not having our leaders be the ones that are speaking, explaining their decisions, being out there, being leading the charge instead of just doing it in a press release. I just think there’s ways we can do it to improve.
2:24:46 So that’s what my intention is, to just hopefully create a policy. It might not be perfect, maybe you guys would want to tweak it, but I would ask that you allow this to be tabled, number one, until the 24th of June. And if we need to do it longer, we’ll do it longer.
2:25:00 I just trying to, I just want to get it right. But I’d like to resubmit what I wrote because I really am not, I’m kind of embarrassed, to be honest. The result of when I reread it again, I’m like, I don’t know who wrote that.
2:25:13 And then secondly, I’d like to ask Mr. Gibbs to research the credential part of it. I actually submitted it as two separate things and I know it got combined and if we don’t need a credential meet, that’s fine. I was just trying to follow, have some kind of system where we, you know, we could identify real media sources from not and I, but I don’t not trying to exclude anybody.
2:25:36 I just like, you know, maybe let Mr. Gibbs see what we can do on that portion. That would be make sure it’s constitutional. And, you know, it’s, you know, it’s something that everybody can embrace.
2:25:47 So anyways, I was. So my official ask is, can we table this issue until June 24th and let me resubmit the proposal for your consideration or a future date if the, if the staff needs longer, can we provide some input before we go out? So that discussion. Yeah, it’s fine.
2:26:04 Go ahead. I appreciate that. And I, I, because I do have some, I do have some input I wanted to give.
2:26:10 But I, my first input is that our normal policy, of course, any one of the ways we can create policy is a board member. Could we not really had that before, but a board member can create policy. But I generally the policy comes from the department, the area.
2:26:27 So if we’re going to have a policy on volunteer volunteers in schools, usually that’s going to come from operations because that’s security. Right. Same thing with food nutrition services.
2:26:36 That comes from operations facilities, whatever. This is definitely a government community relations policy. And I would suggest that it would be really good since Janet Moynihan is our head of those things that you work hand in hand with her, not to say and not with Paul, but specifically there.
2:26:55 And generally, too, we have the. Because I was surprised. I was like, we have a policy about communications and oh, wait, no, we don’t.
2:27:02 And I was thinking we did that whole NEOLA review a couple years ago and did NEOLA have one? And so it would be good to go ahead. And Niola does not have one. So I submitted, I believe, to the board, but I know I’ve sent it to Dr. Rendell at least once and to Janet once, a very short media policy from Martin county that a friend of mine is on the board and Martin sent and it’s very short.
2:27:24 It’s on their page. It’s very clear, succinct, to the point. I think that would be a good, it was a very good model policy.
2:27:31 So. But I think it’s good to come to be working hand in hand with our resident experts in that. And so that would be one suggestion.
2:27:40 Also we have part of our strategic plan goals to reduce, I mentioned it earlier, reduce the amount of time in a critical incidence. I think that could be part of it. And also, and you mentioned, I very much appreciate the part where you listed the laws that we have to abide by FERPA being one of them, because I Actually think there’s a couple places in the policy that way we present to the public actually may violate ferpa.
2:28:04 So there’s going to be some things. So what is a media event? What’s not a media event? I’m not a fan of the media credentials just because I believe when someone comes on our campus they need to go through our Raptor system. And no badge that you can hold up should be able to allow you on campus if you haven’t done the yellow sticker.
2:28:21 And then they’re not going to be able to go unescorted around our campus. So the only thing that any kind of credential thing to me would be like for athletic events because if you’re going to be a media and I don’t know how we do that because I can’t remember feel like we. That’s the one policy we do have is for athletic events who’s.
2:28:38 What is going to allow them to come on the field. And I don’t know that process because I don’t, you know, but like for football games and baseball games, what allows them to come actually on the field? And I think we already have something but that would also be probably good to incorporate in that. As for athletic events, what is the process you have to go through to get to be an on the field media person for those? Because we, I mean we appreciate our sports partners, BSN and Space Coastal, the other ones who cover athletic events.
2:29:05 It’s probably good to combine those things and then I will just give my input. As far as press conferences go generally, I appreciate your comparison, your illustration but I also know from watching perennial press conferences that they have a tendency to go awry because, because you don’t always. You can control what you say at the beginning but you can’t control where it goes from there.
2:29:30 And so, and as far as the timing of them being every week or whatever, I feel like it needs to be more on as needed basis because honestly some weeks are real slow around here and to me that’s okay. I haven’t seen one yet. You haven’t seen a slow weekend? Well, maybe, maybe we’re going to get back to slow.
2:29:49 But yeah, but I would appreciate appreciate you working hand in hand with, with Janet and the training that she’s had to to bring us something that will be all encompassing including the athletic piece if we don’t already have that somewhere, not including the credentialing just because I feel like for security we need to go with the policy that we already have for people visitors on campus, and that would include media, because I don’t want to give them any kind of idea that they have more freedom than they should have when they step onto a campus or into this building. Either they have to follow the same rules everybody else’s. We’ve given them a special place in the boardroom, but, you know, in a school campus, they need to follow the visitor rules.
2:30:29 So I think. And that’s it. Absolutely.
2:30:35 Thank you for bringing clarity, because I honestly, my first instinct when I saw this was why. Wanting to know the why behind what we’re trying to do here. What are we trying to accomplish? I, too, agree.
2:30:44 I think you do need to work with our communications department, hand in hand, on forming this policy. Maybe one of the things that we could do or incorporate or look at is with the strategic plan and the communications department specifically, maybe that can be an expectation that we ask of a weekly something, whether that be an update of what’s happening around the district or. I mean, there’s a lot that happens around the district.
2:31:04 So I know if you follow the social media pages, you’re seeing all kinds of things all the time that are going on, but that might be a better place to input that part of the policy rather than put it in or that part of the ask rather than put it into the policy. But, yeah, I’m all for tabling it, bringing it back, and then kind of hashing this out together and figuring out what makes the most sense and. And moving forward with it.
2:31:23 So let’s give you more than two weeks. Let’s give you all more than two weeks. Yeah, that’s true, too.
2:31:27 I don’t know. I mean, I don’t have any slow weeks. That is true.
2:31:31 So. And you. I mean, honestly, workshopping it is the best thing to do because then we can all talk about the parts of it that we, like, don’t like and tear, you know, tear it apart, I say lovingly, but you know what I mean, just kind of go through those things.
2:31:42 So I would. I mean, tabling it till the 24th isn’t a bad idea to come back, and then we can talk about it again in depth, and it’ll give you a little bit of time to. To work through it.
2:31:50 All right, good. Go ahead, Mr. Trent. Oh, yeah, yeah.
2:31:53 Tabling it’s a very good idea. And pushing it past our little summer break would. Would also be good.
2:32:02 So, you know, I don’t think the 24th is any. Any magic number. I think we can.
2:32:08 Yeah, it’s good. You know, I’m happy To talk to the superintendent when it’s kind of in a more manageable. Exactly.
2:32:14 Presentable form, because I’m actually going to be going away for a week on vacation and I’m sure you guys are so just easier to. No rush. I mean, just want to get it right.
2:32:21 But I just like to present something that we could, that would, you know, make us better. Yes. So I, I, I too would ask, and again, that’s how I feel here.
2:32:33 If, if I want the district to maybe look at a policy or look at putting a policy in place, we ask the superintendent, where would it go? It’s gcr. Can you guys work on a, a communications policy? Bring it back, tell me what you find. We’re going to do that by looking at the other districts, talking to Paul, seeing what’s out there.
2:32:54 None of us are policy experts and I would not even attempt to write a full policy. As you see that probably not a bad idea. If you chatgpt, that might be helpful.
2:33:02 Well, you know, we’ll ask John not to do that again, so. And we’ll bring it back and discuss at that point. But I have 100% confidence in the department that we have with GCR and then with Dr. Rendell’s experience, so.
2:33:17 And then we’ll bring back what other districts are doing and then we look, I look forward to talking about it at a workshop, but thank you for bringing it up and wanting to punt it for a little while, so. Absolutely. Okay.
2:33:28 I’m good with that. Next is the proposed revisions of the following. And at this point, are we just going to bring it, Open it up? Do we need.
2:33:40 Want to talk about any of it? Yeah. So Mr. Gibbs or myself, either way, there’s four policies. They’re all just minor revisions, mostly to meet statutory requirements or changes in law.
2:33:53 We can, you can ask us about anyone. We can have the person relating to that department come up if we need to. But these are all minor.
2:34:00 Yeah, I’ve kind of already looked through those. I’m fine. Yeah, I just had one question and it’s part of it is because our new software makes the print so tiny, I still can’t find the change in the drug policy.
2:34:12 And I’m at the bottom. It has to do with the federal, I think, legal limits or something. Yeah.
2:34:17 So page 39 of the packet. If you go to page 39 of the packet, that’s where you’ll find all we’re doing is matching our levels to the federal levels. The federal levels changed a couple years ago.
2:34:30 What you would test Positive for. To be a violation. And we didn’t touch that.
2:34:34 Yeah. So that’s the only change to the policy. I have old eyes and I couldn’t see the highlight, so.
2:34:39 But I did found it. I found it. Thank you.
2:34:41 That was the question that I had. Yeah. Good.
2:34:46 Anyone have anything else? I. One thing I do on the attendance policy, and I’m. I’m, you know, I think. I think it would be smart for us to put somewhere in this attendance policy that the expectation is they have as many days absent as they were to make up the work and kind of make that a standard.
2:35:00 Standard across the board. Because one of the things that we keep hearing about on the attendance is, oh, these kids are not. They’re not coming to school, they’re not doing their work.
2:35:07 And then the last two weeks of school, they’re like, ah, I need all these assignments. I’m trying to make them up. And the teachers are allowing that to happen.
2:35:12 And then they’re scrambling to take in late assignments and put them in and make sure that the kid is passing the class. One of the things that I appreciate very much so at my own child’s school, which is a BPS school, that they are very, very, very strict on the fact that if your child’s gone for two days, they have two days once they return to make up the work. And that alleviates late work coming in at the very last end of the semester.
2:35:36 And it also makes. It makes my own child, both of my children now that have gone to that same school, they don’t want to miss school because they’re going. The makeup work is too hard.
2:35:43 So I don’t know if this is the appropriate place to put this, but I think it would be smart if we had a policy that that was the expectation. So then teachers aren’t all the time taking in late work and scrambling the last two weeks before a grading period is coming to a close. So.
2:35:57 So that is the expectation. It’s actually in the pupil progression plan. It is.
2:36:01 Okay, well, maybe it needs to be reminded to our teachers then, because I don’t think they’re holding the line on that. But the language and the student code of conduct is. Reflects this language.
2:36:09 And I had the same. We had a teacher email us towards the end of the year, and I went back and I literally copied the language. Language.
2:36:18 I’m like, this is what it says. You’re not supposed to be reteaching. And when I. Because I asked if.
2:36:21 Because I asked her, I said, name your principal because I’m Trying to figure out who is telling you to do this. And she said, no, it’s the parents. The expectation needs to be communicated to the parents that I don’t have to keep.
2:36:33 I don’t have to teach, you know, come in and teach your kid all over again because your kid didn’t come to school. Right? And so, like, we have a policy on late work, but there is no yes, the teacher. If the teacher had slides, they should make their slide presentation available to the student.
2:36:48 They should make themselves available during their office hours to make up tests and quizzes or whatever that they might have missed. But there’s no expectation that I have to teach you the lesson all over again. So that was communication with parents.
2:37:00 But I don’t know what Neola says, but I will tell you, I agree with these. And it’s not on the part that’s green. It’s right underneath the green, green part.
2:37:09 The makeup I would love for us this year to work on because, you know, not to change it in the next month because we got code of conduct and, you know, but for us to work on, clean this up, see what other districts have, the language, because that language, especially for unexcused, is very vague. And if we can tighten that up a little bit. And I want to make clear, you know, for me, as I made with this teacher, the expect, you know, I have been very appreciative of the teachers that my kids have had that got to the last week and allowed them to turn in missing.
2:37:44 And not for absences, but just missing assignments, because I have one in particular that has made taken advantage of that. But the teacher offered that. We’ve also understood for the teachers who were gracious and said, this is the absolute final.
2:37:57 And nobody. I’m not taking any more of this. I mean, and we just.
2:37:59 You have to deal with the consequences. And so I like the teachers being able to have freedom. So if they want to be one of those that takes the assignments all the way up till the day before the final, okay.
2:38:10 But when it comes to absences, I think we definitely do need to explore what is the. And maybe we do, as part of our discipline committee, get the feedback from teachers. Because I think there’s going to be a variety of.
2:38:24 I agree. Of opinions and thoughts I agree with. I think we need to give them flexibility because of the teachers who.
2:38:30 Every class is a little different. Right. And they want to be flexible.
2:38:34 But yeah, something needs to be a little more concrete in what we lay out for our teachers to know what their expectations are. Well, and it could just be an educational policy that we need to make everyone aware of this. Like, this is what we are doing.
2:38:45 Because we do. Yeah, I got the same email. Like, why are we allowing this? We’re allowing these absences, and I’m making up all this work.
2:38:51 And you’re right, that is. That’s a lot for a teacher to have to revisit a lesson that they. Maybe they didn’t touch that lesson, you know, four weeks ago or something.
2:38:58 And it’s an education thing for the parents to understand. If your kids don’t come, we’re not reteaching. They have this many days to make it up.
2:39:05 And so just have your kids in school would be the solution. Right. All right.
2:39:09 Thank you, doctor. So, just to make you aware, improving student attendance is one of the goal areas in the strategic plan. And Mrs. Dampier and her crew are already starting create a whole messaging campaign at the beginning of the year.
2:39:23 So we’ll make sure we include the parameters for makeup work in that messaging campaign so that not just the parents and the students, but even our staff understand, you know, really what we already have in place in the pupil progression plan. But, you know, if we need to add it into policy language or the code of conduct, we can. But, you know, it’s going to.
2:39:43 She’s already working on a campaign to improve student attention tenants. And so we’ll just include the makeup work part in the education that we do. Sounds good.
2:39:53 All right. Anything else on there? Any of these? No, we’re good. We’re good.
2:39:57 All right, next on the agenda, we have discussion on the general counsel’s evaluation. So is this more of a. Oh, I got that.
2:40:12 Yeah, we got the. We got his self evaluation. Okay.
2:40:15 Today. Oh, oh, today, I was going to say, what, Last week. Week before yesterday? Yes, you.
2:40:32 You emailed us that today. But then you also sent us the links for our. For us to input the evaluation last week.
2:40:38 Week, but probably would be good for you to resend it. Yeah. Okay.
2:40:43 So, Mr. Thomas, this will be your first go around with this, which is always very fun. This my first year, Mr. Trent. Your.
2:40:48 Same way. You come in on November and you’re doing an evaluation for the previous year. Well, you were only there for part of the year, so it makes it a little difficult.
2:40:55 Lena, have you. You’ve sat with Mr. Thomas and shown the smartsheet and how to work all that yet? Okay, I would encourage you to do that because that’s a process. Smartsheet will drive you a little bit crazy.
2:41:07 I’m glad that this discussion is coming up, if you don’t mind. I don’t mind kind of leading it off because this is something that we had discussed when I was the chair and then just never got around to doing it. So one of the struggles that you’ll see when we start going through the attorney’s evaluation is a lot of the questions are geared more towards the attorney’s relationship with district staff versus the board.
2:41:27 And so the board’s evaluating him. It didn’t really make the most sense to me. I’m going, wait a minute.
2:41:31 We’re supposed to be evaluating him on our relationship, but now I need to go to five or six different people to really investigate. You know, that’s kind of what it feels like. Some of those questions feel like that.
2:41:41 So the ask was, can we look at what some of the other counties do for their attorney evaluations and kind of maybe revamp what we’re doing and make it specific towards the board’s relationship with the board attorney this year? Obviously, I think we’re going to go with the one we had in place because we obviously haven’t done that. But I think this needs to be done. I personally, I don’t know if you guys had a chance to review all of the sheets that were sent over with different counties.
2:42:06 I liked Orange counties. I think it’s O.C.
2:42:10 isn’t that orange County. Orange county evaluation. That’s the one I like the most.
2:42:15 But I don’t board. I guess you’re going to have to decide which one or maybe if we want to model it off of that and create something. Something similar.
2:42:21 So I. I will tell you, I didn’t have a preference yet. Necessary. I saw some that I liked.
2:42:23 I will tell you that when we first created this in 2019, hey, we need evaluation. We. We kind of did the same thing.
2:42:35 What is everybody else using and model it after our own. So it’s good to kind of see whatever. But several counties did the same.
2:42:41 You could tell they even had the same format. I. So I’m. I obviously, I agree.
2:42:48 We did not. We did not do what we said we’re going to do, which is change it. So it was fair.
2:42:52 Only fair thing was for Mr. Gibbs to go based on the evaluation that we had in place and we need to evaluate him according to what we have. One of the things we have had in the past is we’ve did this. We did this for the board self evaluation.
2:43:06 I think we also did it for general counsel evaluation is we asked the superintendent to have the cabinet anonymously give us their feedback. So. And it was just kind of compiled.
2:43:19 So if that would be a tool, if Mr. Gibbs feels comfortable with that, is that that could be another tool. That’s fine with me. So that the same questions we’re being asked.
2:43:28 Could we have it anonymously go out to the cabinet so they can give us their feedback? That would help especially for new people to know how is he working within the people he’s working with. With every day, which is supporting us and our decisions and our goals. I think that might be helpful to address your concerns, Ms. Wright, and then going forward in the future, we can just make that part of the process.
2:43:52 We did the same kind of thing when we used to do board self evaluations. We asked the cabinet to all anonymously rate us on the different standards. And then because it was anonymous, they could let us have it.
2:44:03 Sometimes we definitely need to bring that back. Right. I know we used to do it every spring.
2:44:07 We could use. Yeah, I know. I know.
2:44:09 So. But yeah, I. I think that would be helpful to me is to have that staff feedback if we can get that in the next couple weeks. Because when is our.
2:44:20 We don’t have. Do we have a deadline set? It’s very. Is that we’re supposed to be talking about today too? It’s like when we’re going to do this? June, July.
2:44:31 Okay. What’s your contract? It doesn’t. It doesn’t have one.
2:44:36 It doesn’t have a deadline. Okay. It’s just annual.
2:44:40 So when was the last. Last year? Was it done in June? He used to give them to us in May and we got one year. Yeah, it was October, so it doesn’t.
2:44:58 Yeah. I would love to get it off the cycle of the summer. I know it makes sense to do the superintendents in the late summer because we have school grades and everything.
2:45:06 But if we can get one of them off cycle. But we. Paul.
2:45:10 We need to do this now because Paul’s already submitted it and we need to be timely. I feel like. But timely could mean by the early August.
2:45:18 You know, things like that. That’s. We got to set a time.
2:45:21 But I would like the cabinet feedback whenever we set the deadline. Do that. So.
2:45:25 Yeah, again. Pun. We were talking about punting the fall.
2:45:27 Sounds good. It’s football season. We got puns.
2:45:29 Well, we need to go ahead and complete this year’s though. So what’s the timeline on this year’s August latest? And I completed it. But I will tell you this.
2:45:36 I don’t think it was fair To Paul because I don’t. It’s right. Very hard to evaluate things.
2:45:40 I don’t know exactly. Did you do it before you got his self evaluation? Yes. Okay.
2:45:44 So you’ll need to redo it because he’s gonna care what he thinks of himself. That is. That is his chance to provide documentation because you’ll notice evaluation.
2:45:54 So Lena probably shouldn’t have sent us that until. But we’re going to get the same thing when we get the superintendent’s evaluation. We’re going to get a large.
2:46:03 It used to be binder but you know, if you want paper version or electronic version documentation of how the staff and under leadership of superintendent have accomplished all the things that we had set out and then. Then we’ll do our evaluation based on that. So we kind of have this same thing with Paul.
2:46:21 I feel like that we definitely need to make it more applicable though as far as revising it because it. Yeah. Did you struggle with it where there was like several things that you were in my narrative is very hard for me to evaluate because not only because I’m new, but that was the excuse I used.
2:46:34 But love. It doesn’t. Isn’t applicable.
2:46:35 It’s not applicable. I know Short of interviewing all the staff, it’s, you know, very hard to answer those questions. Yes, I agree.
2:46:42 We need that. So for this year, what’s the. What’s the board’s will on completing the evaluation for Mr. Gibbs? And then can we put this on an agenda to really make an evaluation that works? How long Dr. Undell do you think the cabinet.
2:46:55 And if we put that out there and course Lena would have to create that smartsheet that’ll go to them that would be anonymous for them. How long would they need to complete that? For us it probably only would take a couple weeks. It’s just a lot of them are on vacation like this week.
2:47:09 Next week. Next week. So.
2:47:10 Right, right. So can we say by the end of that we would be like we have our meeting where we do the evaluation at the end of August. So over the next month if they can get that.
2:47:18 And then we have our deadline by the end of July or somewhere in there. And then we have our. Yeah, but I think we’ve already have stuff for that.
2:47:28 Everyone. There’s a lot of people out of town. So have everything done by the end of July.
2:47:35 Yeah. And then we’ll have it on. If we can get cabinet feedback by in a month, you know, middle of July.
2:47:43 And then that gives us two weeks to have our. Do our valuation Input or redo it by the end of July. And then we meet in August and meet in August to redo it and then pull Paul in.
2:47:57 Okay. We also really. I really think you’d probably have the cabinet stuff in two weeks.
2:47:59 I really think you would. Okay, well, I’m going out of town, so I’m not going to look at it. If we get into it.
2:48:12 The other thing is the timeline for the superintendent’s evaluation that we need to really kind of hone this in and make sure we have a firm date. I am of the mindset we should not do the superintendent’s evaluation until school grades come out because that’s a heavy part of his evaluation right now. What are we looking at? The end of summer? So they said July.
2:48:30 I don’t know what the DOE says. July. It could be July 1st or it could be July 29th.
2:48:37 So could we do something similar? Except we’re not going to get the cabinet feedback because the cabinet’s helping build the document where we get your self evaluation early August. And then we have till. Or somewhere, first couple weeks of August.
2:48:52 We have till the end of August to get our things in. We have a September sit down. But I think we’re going to have to approve some changes because I believe your contract has a different date.
2:49:02 But the contract is end of June. Okay, but if you, if you guys just provide context for anybody watching. The contract sets the superintendent’s evaluation in June.
2:49:16 Last year we asked to do it in July because we were waiting for school grade and I just assumed that meant we would do in July forever. And we never made an amendment to the contract. So by contract, we’re supposed to be doing it now or this month.
2:49:32 So if we say we’re going to do it at the end of July or early August, great. But I will ask Paul to go ahead and make an addendum to the contract that he then brings to you for approval. Right.
2:49:42 And if the wish is after school grades come out, we can always make it somewhat vague, like 60 days. Within 60 days of school grades being issued that way. Yeah.
2:49:52 It could be into July. That means the evaluation would be into September. So if it’s the beginning of July, it could be, you know, the beginning of September that you need to like.
2:50:02 I really think 30 days. Within 30 days. That gives you time to build your self evaluation around the school grades and then 30 days for the board to do their evaluation.
2:50:12 Because you’re supposed to receive the self evaluation. 30 days. 30 days.
2:50:16 Yes. That’s why. That’s why I suggested 60, but if you want shorter, I’ll do shorter.
2:50:22 All right. Give us the most flexibility. But I feel like that August, September time frame is probably best on an annual base.
2:50:28 I realized it was June because that’s when we hired you. It made sense. 12 months, 60 days after school grades come out for the meeting.
2:50:39 Depends on when school grades come out sensitively. End of September. And I’ll work on an amendment.
2:50:46 And then board. If you’re. You’re.
2:50:47 Have. If you’re. We.
2:50:50 We. When we used to do board self evaluation, we did it in the spring, which was hard when we had a new board member. Come on.
2:50:55 But it actually makes sense to me to do it in October because that is like the end. If we had a new board member, they would have been on for a year. And if we’re looking at it, maybe we add that to the calendar and we.
2:51:07 We already have a tool and it would. It could just be short, just a conversation. And we usually when we would do that, we bring out this document which somebody handed to us earlier today, the school board working guidelines, and we just review it and we sign it again.
2:51:21 Sign our commitments again. Looks like we didn’t sign it since last. Since before Mr. Thomas came on.
2:51:27 Just the agreements we made make with each other and with the superintendent on our way of work. So then in October, we need to put a self evaluation for the board along with us. This working document.
2:51:36 That would be a good thing to do. Yeah. Revisit that on our off site.
2:51:40 Yep. Okay. I like it.
2:51:44 All right, well, we got done with that, didn’t we? Yay. All right, so let’s see now. Let’s go to the.
2:51:50 Lastly on the agenda we have the discussion of fsba, Board of directors, Directors and advocacy committee. Okay. Be happy to leave that off.
2:51:57 Yeah. Because I’m the one who asked for it to be on there. So we have.
2:52:02 Every year, every year we have someone represent our district. Every, all 67 counties get one representative on the advocacy committee. The advocacy committee approves the legislative agenda for fsba.
2:52:15 And also out of that, you have to be on the advocacy advocacy committee to be selected. They select a handful of people, usually about 15, to be on the legislative subcommittee who’s setting the agenda for FSBA each year. So I have been that the last year and actually I think it was the year before too.
2:52:34 Happy to share that with anybody who would like the opportunity Advocacy. It says they meet every month, but actually even though this last year I was actually the chair of the advocacy, we Only met like five or six times and it was all virtual except for at the conference. And, and so happy to share the opportunity if anybody would like that.
2:52:51 And if nobody else wants it, I’ll do it again. But then the other thing, every two years we select a person to represent us on the board of directors. The 13 largest counties each get their own person.
2:53:07 Everybody who’s smaller than that have to share between two or three counties and they pick one. So we are one. We are, you know, we’re number 11, I think.
2:53:15 So we get a representative and the board of directors is really the decision making body. I have served in that role before. I will tell you, the last two years, it was supposed to be Mr. Susan.
2:53:27 It was me. I was the alternate. And so I am happy to officially be the person again.
2:53:32 I made sure that our voice was there because I didn’t want us to not have a voice in that community. So again, it’s a two year commitment. I will tell you.
2:53:42 I’m just going to be completely transparent before we open up to whatever you guys would like to do. My term will end before the two years is up. However, this is a really important role.
2:53:52 I do enjoy doing it. Unless somebody wants it. I’d be happy to take it on until such time as my school board term is over and then hand it off to someone.
2:54:02 Because like I said, it is a two year term. So I’m just putting that out there before we continue on the discussion. But we do have some deadlines that they need names for these.
2:54:13 And so if anybody has any suggestions or thoughts on either or wants to volunteer for one or the other. Everybody but Ms. Wright. I’m not a member of FSBA, so I think I’m going to get this one out.
2:54:28 You guys work this out because I’m not. Right. But July 1 is the deadline for the board of directors seat.
2:54:40 Well, I mean, I personally think the committee you’re already on is that. That’s phenomenal. And then for the board of directors, I just would want to make sure Matt has at least has the ability to say he doesn’t want to do it or he can’t do it again for whatever reason, he hasn’t been able to do it.
2:54:54 Don’t just afford him the opportunity here to at least to talk about it. I doubt he’s probably gonna have an issue with it because you. Since he’s a busy guy.
2:55:03 But that’s my only input. Give him a chance to at least discuss it. Yeah, same if we got, if we got time Maybe we can when he’s here.
2:55:11 We can discuss it at the next workshop. But we. Probably not the workshop because if we’re gonna.
2:55:16 Well, it doesn’t have to be a vote. We like haven’t ever voted. Voted on it.
2:55:19 We could do consensus. That’s what. We’ve done it before.
2:55:24 That’s fine. The 24th. I won’t be here in person.
2:55:26 I will be here by phone for the meeting and for the workshop as long as I can until literally the plane door closes. I will try to stay with you as long as I can. But again and again, I’m not trying to throw people under the bus, but the reason why that we’ve been representative all those meetings, because I was already there and someone said, hey, Katie, can you come in? I wasn’t ever called upon in the way that I really should have been called upon.
2:55:51 Hey, I can’t come. Can you. I was called by some other person or by fsba.
2:55:55 Hey, are you coming? Because we want you guys to have a voice. And it was. Thankfully I was already there.
2:56:01 But it’s not always. We did have a couple times where we didn’t have a voice because it was a virtual meeting. And as an alternate, I didn’t get that notification.
2:56:07 And so. But I want us to not lose our voice on that board of directors because it’s. It’s the, it’s the decision making body for the organization.
2:56:17 Correct. And just to be clear, I said, matt, I think you’re phenomenal. I just want to just think it’d be unfair to not at least have him as part of the discussion.
2:56:24 Yes, I appreciate it. Yeah, it sounds good. So can, can you just add that to the 24th agenda so we can have that conversation again? Yeah.
2:56:37 Can we put it on the, like at the end discussion in the board meeting? Yeah, I was going to say let’s add it to the business meeting and put it on the business meeting as a discussion at the end. Yep. Thank you.
2:56:49 Perfect. Perfect. All right, thanks.
2:56:51 Does any board member have anything further to discuss? Yeah, one more thing, and I hate to do this because I know it’s been a really long day, but we have some, we had some emails going back and forth about a public records request and because it’s about pedestal thing that we would. This is not a conversation. I would really just like to go and have a personal conversation, but we have some public records requests about a Facebook post.
2:57:19 And I will just share my thought is the easiest thing to. And I, you know, I’ve expressed it before. Before you don’t have anything to hide.
2:57:25 You don’t have anything to hide. The easiest thing, and I have to go back and I couldn’t find the earlier email, I would have to go back and search it harder, was that the request was for you to make the post public, you know, change it to the little world. And I feel like that would have satisfied everything.
2:57:42 I think some other things got added like any other post that you, you know. And part of that has to be balanced with. There was a court case last year, 2024, I believe that had to do with elected officials or public officials, not just elected officials.
2:58:00 Private Facebook account. And so all of us who even have official accounts, like I have my personal account and I have an official account, but the school district doesn’t. I manage that page myself.
2:58:11 The school district doesn’t have any control or any money invested in it. So I make those decisions and I can. Because it was about if you block people or if you.
2:58:21 Whatever. And it gave us a lot more freedom in that. But I still think when you talk about public records, even if I’m on my personal Facebook page and I post something in my official duty or my official role is subject to public records.
2:58:35 And so that’s why they tell us to be careful with our interactions with each other on Facebook because, you know, of the appearance of a violation of Sunshine Law, whatever that is. I will just, just to be completely honest, I don’t really want to go into another lawsuit about this. This.
2:58:51 If it, if it is simple, I can’t compel another board member to do something. But I, to me, that was the easiest solution was to just make public. But if we’re.
2:59:04 I just, I don’t want us to go into another legal situation where we were having to defend something and we didn’t get to have a conversation about what we want to do about it. And so this is kind of the initial conversation. And again, I didn’t want to, but because Sunshine, this is the way we have to have this conversation.
2:59:22 So my request would be, can we just do that? Can we just go and make those posts global and be done with it? Yeah, I would like to add a little bit of frame of context to this conversation just for the public that’s watching, because I am the person that the request was made of. So in full transparency, it was men. I took a 13 second clip of the meeting where people were screaming F you and flicking us off and I panned the room like this and I put up a post and it just said, if Anyone wants to see what it’s like to be on a school board, here you go.
2:59:51 I was being a smart alec and trust me, I learned my lesson. I have learned my lesson with this one. I was.
2:59:56 And it resulted in a public records request from multiple people over that video, which I have turned that video over to our public records department just for the record. But the request was very extensive. It wanted every contact comment, every reaction to every comment.
3:00:10 I hadn’t even looked at any of that, right. So I was like going, oh my gosh. And I pull this up and I’m like, this is going to take a lot of time to, you know, capture every picture, every reaction to a comment and who those names are and whatnot.
3:00:23 So it was, it was a lot. I am not opposed to making the post public if that will appease this because then you don’t have to document all that because anybody could go on and see it themselves. But I don’t know that that will do that.
3:00:35 Will that. Will that take care of this? Paul, if I make the post post public, I had to school how Facebook works yesterday when I was asking. I don’t have a Facebook.
3:00:45 I don’t do Facebook. So I need to know if that will suffice. So if it’s no longer.
3:00:50 But that doesn’t. No, because the request has already been made and so can make a request for a public record that’s accessible to them on the Internet already. We still have to supply the record.
3:01:00 So just because I make it public doesn’t mean we don’t have to still. Still go through and supply the record, right? Generally, yes, you have to supply the actual records. Yeah.
3:01:10 So I don’t think that’ll alleviate this issue, honestly. And so again, we’re working through all that fun stuff. I learned a valuable lesson on don’t put a smarted Alec post up while you’re sitting up here.
3:01:21 And honestly, it was really just to show people because I think a lot of people that don’t watch our families and friends don’t have a clue like what is happening in this room sometimes, you know, so that was the purpose behind it. So I get that. I apologize for.
3:01:32 I did want to just public address for anybody who might be listening because there’s, there’s questions about fees and everything. And you know, we do have. If it’s going to take longer than 15 minutes, we charge.
3:01:44 Right. Because it’s people’s time and the charge. The lowest paid person who is capable of doing the job, which sometimes is usually.
3:01:55 No, not we’ve never charged for board time, but the board is on the form because board members make less than some of our staff. Right. So that’s fine.
3:02:04 We. I mean, we charge the higher amount because we’re the lowest charged R rate. Well, that’s how it is.
3:02:10 We’re now looking at whether that is the correct procedure. Okay. Since.
3:02:15 Okay. So if you don’t mind just advising on that. And again, like, the whole intention wasn’t to.
3:02:21 To cause another wonderful threatening of lawsuits and all that fun stuff. So for people that claim they love public education to continue to sue the school board, I just have to say your actions speak otherwise. And if you want the post, I’ll give you the post.
3:02:35 It’s not that exciting. It really isn’t. And you know they don’t want that.
3:02:39 Yeah, no. So it’s fine. But it’s a good reminder for us to just watch what we do and watch how we interact with each other and not create another opportunity.
3:02:50 Oh, man. I guess. Yeah, that’s lesson learned, but all right.
3:02:53 Thank you for giving me that. With the world full of. Well, never mind.
3:02:58 I’m gonna stop. Anything else? Anybody? Yeah, we’re good. We’re good.
3:03:04 All right. There being no further business, this meeting is now adj. Sam, It.