Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
3:56 Sa. Miss Campbell. Here. Miss Wright.
10:58 Here. Mr. Thomas. Here.
11:01 Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag from the United States of America. Doctor Rendell, can you speak to the board about the agenda for today? Yeah.
11:23 Thank you, Mr. Chair. Today we’re going to do a budget update. Typically at this time of the year, we.
11:28 We would be presenting the board a tentative budget for the coming school year. This year is unlike any other that I’ve experienced in Florida public schools. We are behind schedule, and it’s not through any fault of our own.
11:45 The public may know and the board members know and staff knows that the state legislature ended their session very late this year and delivered a budget to all the school districts and other government agencies in the state very late this year in the summer. Typically we get this kind of information that the budget numbers in May and we didn’t get them till mid to late June. So that put us behind schedule already.
12:13 And then we also received some news days after that that the federal government was withholding some block grants or federal funds for different programs. So we’ve been scrambling trying to put together a tentative budget for next year based on the lateness of the budget we received from the state and the news about withholding of some funds from the federal government. So we’re going to give you an update on the process a little bit and some of that background information.
12:46 We wanted to share it in a workshop work session format so the public can be made aware of some of these challenges that we’re facing. We will present a tentative budget to the board for approval by the July 29 board meeting, as we do every year. And we will also have a final budget to present to the board in September, as we do all every year.
13:09 One of the things that is not impacted by the delay in the state budget and the withholding of the federal funds are the tax rates. And that’s usually something that the community is really interested in. And we will be presenting those with the tentative budget in July and the final budget in September.
13:31 And Paul can answer questions about the timing of that, like why we’re statutory required to present that information. So we are putting together a tentative budget for next year. But today Ms. Luzinski is just going to talk about the process and some of the challenges that we’re facing.
13:48 So I’m going to turn it over to her. Okay, thank you. Good afternoon, Mr. Trent.
13:54 Board members. Dr. Rendell, he pretty much summarized what I’m going to talk about. So what this update really is to talk to you about, you know what it’s going to take to produce the tentative 2526 budget for the scheduled hearing July 29 and currently there are several gaps of information both in state and federal level that we would normally have at this time and will require districts across the state to plug in their best assumptions and footnote the uncertainty.
14:31 That said, we have until the final hearing on September 4th to adjust as information comes available and make any changes that you would like to see within the budget. We also make amendments to the budget all throughout the year, but I just wanted to let you know what the challenges are that we’re facing now. I think this is a fitting quote.
15:02 You know budget resources is a team sport and we believe this is a very fitting quote that we all need to take to heart. Okay, so I show this slide quite a bit, but I’m going to add to it. The key takeaway from the slide is a budget is a plan, a starting point.
15:28 It’s an estimate of the amount of revenues we anticipate and an estimate of our expenses. As always I say it’s not money in the bank as revenues and expenses may not come in at the levels projected. School districts experienced multiple hits to anticipated FEFP revenues this year due to the rapid expansion of Family Empowerment scholarships.
15:53 The scholarships directly increase the student count funded in the fefp triggering a mid year proration levied entrepreneurs Traditional schools why FES funding remained intact When I say mid year, that is when the school districts normally receive their third calculation which should have arrived in December this year. The third CALC arrived in March. The third calc helps refine and finalize the amount of state funds allocated to school districts after the initial calculations and projections.
16:28 This adjustment ensures that funding aligns with actual student enrollment and other relevant data collected throughout the school year. The calculation is based on actual student full time equivalent data and allows for more accurate planning and resource allocation by districts as they finalize their budgets. The school districts received an additional hit at the end of the the year.
16:59 Statewide a payment of 47 million from the state did not come due to the lack of funding. School districts were also impacted by a delay in receiving funding for students who attend public schools that were also issued FES accounts. The delays and prorations are deeply disruptive and jeopardizes the school district’s ability to maintain a healthy fund balance to ensure school districts financial stability.
17:40 This is something that I always include in our presentations as well is you know what is our budget priorities and I always believe our budget priorities. It’s really a moral document of what we actually believe in and value. Number one is protection of an excellent education.
18:02 Job one is to provide our students an excellent education. We have to meet each student where they are. We must touch their heart before we reach their mind.
18:11 Many times this requires additional supports and intervention before we can even start to help help them with academic acceleration and achievement. We also have to protect the work, the effective workforce, develop and support and compensate committed and impactful employees. Maintain fiscal strength of the department district.
18:40 We need to make sure we have adequate but budget reserves to cover impacts unforeseen events and maintain stable credit ratings. And we also have to protect the taxpayers interest making every dollar count. Every employee has a piece of this district and we need to be cost conscious with, with that mindset, with everything that.
19:14 And again I keep putting in the same slides, but I just keep trying to emphasize the point on all of them. This one is just. We just need to continue to stress teamwork.
19:28 It’s a team sport. And then if we focus on student achievement, there’s no winners or losers. It’s not my budget or your budget, it’s what’s best for student achievement.
19:41 And that’s what we really have to focus on as budgets scarce resources continue to come our way. So a lot of this information came from fads. But so this is what happened since the budget was approved.
20:07 The state budget on June 26, final disbursement of state funds to the school districts was short $47 million. Districts were prorated for a second time because we were prorated in the third calc and then again we were prorated because of enlarged because 25,000 students being dual registered as FES in public school. And this one, I guess just imagine your child got a amazing full paid scholarship to college of their dreams and you already gone to orientation, you’ve went and helped them decorate their dorm and all, you know they’re ready to go.
21:06 And the very day that school starts you find out that the scholarship is on hold. What do you do? And that’s kind of what’s happening to us now. So on June 30, the federal DOE announces a federal review of 6.
22:33 8 billion in federal funding for K through 12 school year starting the following day, which is July 1. So on July 1 they said they put these funds on hold and then you can see the Bovard budgets that were put on hold and what we own in the yellow and then those were the amounts that were put on hold and then you can see the roll. And you know again the schools rely on timely and predictable funding information to plan effective and upcoming school years so they can make decisions about staffing programs and supports that directly impact student learning.
23:06 So all of that has been done, all the planning for the staffing is in place. And then now we find that the money is on hold. So what do we do? The thing that the state came back and they said, well, we will issue a no cost extension to help districts use the remaining FY25 awarded funds.
23:27 Which means, hey, you can use your roll forward, we’ll allow you to use the roll forward that you see there. And hopefully that bridges the gap. And you know, again, these funds are on hold, but there’s no guarantee that those funds are ever going to come.
23:54 And then as a footnote, we heard that the 21st century grants were going to be released, but we have not seen the funds yet. I don’t believe. But that was news that came the other day.
24:10 And then the idea and Title 1, those two title programs remained stable, so those weren’t touched. And actually title one went up a bit. So that’s good.
24:31 And then as of today still we have no fourth calc released. And that’s what gives us our four final balance. So we’re again, when I talk about the footnotes and assumptions, we won’t have a beginning balance for our budget until we know how we ended.
25:12 So the state is still working on the fourth calc and trying very hard to get it to us. Sure. While these numbers are still up here, do you know if there’s been any discussion for the first item coming from the state? Has there been any discussion of the state investigating this and the dual registered students in particular and appropriately applying the funds to which, you know, is it or is it just.
25:26 Well, oh, well, we had dual rel students. We, you know, because some of that money was distributed to parents right at the beginning of the year and then some of them came back into BBS schools and we didn’t get the funding for them. The parents didn’t get them, weren’t asked to give the money back.
25:53 But some of that money is sitting, it’s my understanding, in like the scholarship funding organizations for that kid. But the parents never got it, but we didn’t get it either. So is there, so my question is, is the state kind of just throwing up their hands and saying, oh, well, it is what it is, you all just have to deal with it, or is there any thought that they would go ahead and try to figure out what that is and then later give us the money that we’re owed.
26:09 They are working. And that’s the reason 3rd calc was so late because they didn’t want to send something out with more cuts than we already received. And we haven’t received the fourth calc yet.
26:23 I know they are working very diligently. Step up. They, they just grew so fast and without the proper processes and.
26:27 Right. Yeah. And I know that there was a, there was language.
26:47 I think it went across the finish line of. But I can’t remember off top of my head because there’s so much going on in the legislature this year. Did they pass the bill that said moving forward all the students are going to have an ID number and so it’ll be easier to track you remembering if that passed? Yeah.
27:01 So I believe the solution to track the students individually with their student account number, their individual student number either was passed in legislation or is going to happen through policy. Right. And procedure.
27:10 So I do believe that’s the practice moving forward for the future. Yeah. For this coming school year and beyond, individual student ID number is going to be tracked, you know.
27:17 Right. Whether they’re a family empowerment scholarship or they’re an in person brick and mortar, you can only be in one place. Right.
27:30 That didn’t happen this year. The other. So these yellow categories and is this posted to the agenda yet? No, we haven’t put this.
27:40 So we can do this. I’ll send this to you as soon as we want to post it afterwards. These are numbers that people ask, you know, exactly how much money are we talking about? And I appreciate you putting the roll forward money up there.
27:55 So we’ve got an idea of what we have left to work with. The catch 22 that this puts us in with the not being able to supplant, you know. And so let me, if you don’t mind me taking, you know, flesh this out.
28:08 I know that you had a conversation with us individually, Dr. Rendell. So this idea of if we in some district, I bring this up because some districts are doing this, they’re saying, you know what, there’s, here’s the roles. We’ve got to have these certain positions.
28:14 So we’re going to fund them another way if we can find it. Right. We’re going to dig deep and we’re going to fund these positions because we don’t want to go the way them to go away.
28:31 They’re crucial to our success, blah, blah. But then if this, if the money gets released later and they go oh okay, now we have the money back, we can fund that with our federal dollars again, then we would be guilty of supplanting. Right.
28:42 Which we’re not allowed to do. And that’s what the. I believe I have a note there across all the articles I’ve read.
29:20 And what we’re being told is Doe had a similar situation in 2013, and the letter basically allowed the concern because the local dollars were being loaned in front and to fill the federal funding gap. And this letter allows you to, okay, the funding wasn’t available, so we’re going to loan or upfront the dollars until the funds are available and then document. And they’re saying that this would not be considered supplanted.
29:24 Okay, so we might be okay there. Correct. So that’s been a point of discussion.
29:33 There’s been several calls with the Superintendents association and members of. Of the doe. And that is a concern of all the school districts across Florida.
29:39 These are federal funds that are being withheld. Most of these funds are used to pay for people for positions. And so we had already placed a lot of people in those positions if we decide those positions are worth funding with other funding sources like the general fund.
30:13 And so we keep those positions filled and we open the year with the funding coming from the general fund, and then these funds are released and then we try to switch back the funding source to these federal funds. Technically, that would be supplanting. What Ms. Luzinski is talking about is in 2013, there was a similar situation and federal funds were withheld or something.
30:29 There was a holdup, and districts were allowed to use general funds to pay for those positions or those purchases. And then when the federal dollars were returned, they were able to switch them back and there was a waiver. So that there wasn’t supplanting.
30:33 And that’s a waiver from the state. Right. Or it was.
30:42 It was from the Department of Education. Federal, federal, federal. Okay, so it’s possible that could happen.
30:49 Right. And so that’s part of the quandary. So before we go any further, just want to orient a couple things or explain a couple of things on the slide.
31:02 So the first two bullets are the first two statements. The number like 47 million short and the 6.8 billion in federal funding, the 47 million short, that’s a state number, that’s not a Brevard number.
31:10 And the 6.8 billion is a federal number, not a Florida number. You can see the Florida number is 400 million.
31:17 And so, you know, the 25,000 students, for example, in that top number. That’s not Brevard. That’s the state.
31:27 I just want to say, you know, just make sure, clarify that. But then under this tab that says Brevard preliminary budgets, FLDA on hold, that is our, those are our numbers. Right.
31:47 So that is what we’re being hit with or not hit with. That’s what’s being withheld right now. And so we’re trying to make decisions on do we fund the positions that were covered by those funding streams with general fund or do we eliminate the positions and shrink, you know, the footprint, that kind of thing so.
32:17 Well, I appreciate that and if I can just kind of wrap what I was what I’m where I’m going up quickly, the, the catch 22 then and I’m glad to know the supplanting thing might not be as much of a problem as we initially thought. But the catch 22 is if disadvantage is a problem, we can’t do that. Then the other side that the wall that we get hit with is if we eliminate the positions because we don’t think we’re going to get the funding, then the federal government can look down and go, I guess you didn’t need that.
32:31 Correct. And so we’re kind of danged if we do dang if we don’t, as my mom used to say. But you know, part of me where I, you know, is it a possibility to say, okay, we’re going to because they’re just on hold.
32:43 They were budgeted by the federal government. We know what our amounts should be. Is there a way to just say we’re going to budget for these things, we’re not going to spend it until we get it.
32:58 That’s easy for me to say out loud. It’s not easy to accomplish. You know, so we still have on the books, job descriptions, job, but we’re not actually putting those people in those places until the funny.
33:13 But that way it’s still in our budget. And if the federal government does what they said they’re going to do with block grants and things like that or they go ahead and release it, you know, I don’t know. I mean it’s not, it is such a difficult position that we’ve been put in to make these decisions.
33:29 And what I believe you have told us, Dr. Rendell, most of these positions are school based positions. Most of these are not people sitting up here at the district, even though these are crucial positions too. We’re talking about positions in schools that have been part of our great academic success over the last couple years.
33:40 Yeah, the large majority are school based positions providing Supplemental support. Usually there are some positions that are based out of ESF but are in schools every day. Right.
33:51 So even though they’re just in lots of schools. Correct. And so, you know, that’s what staff’s been doing for the last seven days, is trying to figure out which of these are mission critical.
34:18 And if they’re mission critical, then do we have other funds for them? You know, and you know, we’re just going to make what we believe is the best decision on how to service our students and whether it’s supplanting or not later and all that. We’ll just probably have to figure that out later. Mr. Chair.
34:28 Yes. Just to clarify, Cindy, you had mentioned that it would be like getting a loan. You’re talking about referring to.
34:40 I was using the example and maybe it wasn’t a good example in my mind. It was this morning when I was driving to work. We were ready to go.
35:12 We have physicians staffing where they’re going to school to, you know, and what students and all those things. And then the next day you find out it’s on hold right now, you may not get the money. So if that happened, if you had a child at a scholarship going to college and all of a sudden it was on hold, what would you tell your child? Would you start paying it yourself or would you say, hey, we can’t afford this? It was just an example.
35:27 But just to clarify the extension, if we were to have a no cost extension that’s just money that is there, we would have to pay it back. No, it’s not a loan. It’s, they’re going to allow us to use the roll forward from this school year.
35:55 So this school year, for example, Title 2, Part A did not spend all of their grant money. The left was about 525k. So the state is going to allow us to use that roll forward and that should bridge us for the, the, you know, the highest, the, the most critical needs positions this year.
36:08 That’s one time. It’s one time. And if the federal funding does, funding doesn’t come in, then we would be stuck having to figure out how to either keep those positions paid for or correct.
36:30 And it’s, it’s kind of like an ending statement to today when we get to the end, and I’ll say it now is we’re, we’re going to fund as many of these positions as we can this year, whether it’s general fund or to be released later federal funds. But we know that for 26, 27 we have to get leaner. Like we just have to.
36:54 And you know, that’s going to be part of the general budget presentation when we present that to you. Part of it’s because what we see from DC is yes, these categorical grants are going to be put into a block grant, but it’s going to be reduced by about 30%. So, you know, these federal funds, if they’re released in the future, will be released in a different manner, you know, kind of to the states to deter, you know, distribute.
37:12 I like the idea, you know, more flexibility and that kind of thing. But we’ve already been told it’ll be a lesser amount, you know, so we just, you know, we had planned for this year with all these funds that we thought we were getting. And so we’re going to try to, you know, carry forward with as much of the plan as we can.
37:18 But we already do know that for 26, 27, we have to get leaner. So. And we did hire.
37:26 We’ve made some hires already. Absolutely. Almost every one of the positions that are funded by these block grants is already filled.
37:40 Wow. Thank you. But they’re either going to, they’re either being funded through title one, the roll forward, or finding a vacant position within general fund.
37:52 But no, nobody that’s actually hired person needs to worry. Yeah, we’re not going to cut any. Yep.
38:08 Okay. So, so that’s okay with Calc, because I know it’s always a quick turnaround already from when they send the final numbers. And you guys are.
38:15 Because we have to get the millage posted and we already know that number. Right. We can our correct.
38:31 The millage rates are set. We are, we know what we need to publish, but we have to, we have to have preliminary data. Right, but is, are they allowed and because that’s just such a prescripted timeline, are they allowed to send it past a certain date? The state.
38:54 Well, the, the document that has to be sent by July 19th by law, by statute, is the second Cal. So we’ll get the second Cal and it’s going to just tell us what the actual RLE is going to be so we could get that before we ever get the fourth cal. Okay.
39:09 Okay. So, you know, like Dr. Rendell was talking about, the. What the bill that just passed, the federal bill that was so much in the news.
39:22 What it comes out to be is they’re going to consolidate K through 12, many of the grant programs at the current. And the current amount that those are worth is 6.5 billion.
39:46 So they’re going to consolidate all Those grants that are listed, there may be a couple more, but they don’t apply to Brevard. And then they’re going to make it into a single grant block entitled K12 School Funding Program. And it’s going to be for $2 billion.
39:54 So actually, Dr. Andell, it’s a 70% cut. I got the wrong number. Yeah.
40:14 So we get through. No matter what happens, if we get the Dish additional dollars back, if they say, okay, we’re not, we reviewed it and here you go. The following year, those grants are going to be cut substantially.
40:32 And we still need to figure out how we operate without those dollars. And these are the program consolidations, the most recent funding levels. And again, this is the federal level.
40:44 And then you can see the different grants and how much. These are the current funding. And when you consider reducing that by almost 70%.
41:20 And I don’t know how they plan on doing that. And what I read was they’re also eliminating Title 3 for English, Title 3, Part A for English language learners. So while presented as a means to reduce administrative burden is what the federal government is saying, the consolidation also implies a loss of dedicated funding and flexibility to what we do.
41:40 And this is just what we’re hearing right now. There’s going to be a lot more. But just wanted to let you know the challenges that we’re facing in order to build our budget, the things that we’re considering and you know, the, the titles are probably going to be an asterisk and we’re going to say we’re getting it.
42:02 And then the asterisk will be like or not so. But we can say on the very top line that we’re. No matter what happens, we’re dedicated to an excellent education for all of our students and we will not waver.
42:22 And we will, we’ll be creative. We’ll use our passion, our compassion, and we’re going to get through this and, and make sure that all the students get the supports and everything that they need. We just need to figure out and be innovative and figure out how we can do things differently.
42:45 But we are not going to let them not get the supports because that’s why we’re here. And again, the current spending that we have within our budget is not sustainable. We cannot continue to spend because our revenue is not moving the same way.
43:09 Our expenditures are growing and our revenue is decreasing. So there’s got to be some changes. And with the plan that we were talking about and what we plan doing, and Dr. Mandel, if you want to take over, you can but is to proceed as if the federal funds under review will not be released.
43:49 Continue funding school based position that advanced student achievement. And that’s when we’re going to miss Harris was absolutely amazing about, you know, okay, these are some of the things that I can fit into title one and how we can work this and then using the roll forward, that is a huge help. The maining critical positions will be filled with vacant general fund positions and if funds are released we will be ready because we want to spend them.
44:10 We don’t want to leave any on the table because I’m sure they won’t give us the roll forward. But they need to be well thought out, they need to be ready and mostly one time items because you know if you get it late and you use it for salary, you’re going to have a lot of laps. So it’s going to need to be.
44:39 And we were going to have to figure something else since the next year it’s going to be 70% less. So what I’m saying is that we need to make sure we have some strong investments in one time funding items that can make a difference for Brevard. If the funds do come in my opinion, yeah, we’ll have to take a look at all those different things that we usually spend general fund money on such as instructional materials.
45:02 If it’s not mandatory to renew those materials that year, we can wait a year, that kind of thing. All those things will be on the table for 26, 27, for 25, 26, what we’re about to enter. It’s a matter of finding what we can repurpose funds for to cover the expenses that we think are mission critical.
45:16 The last three bullets there is, you know, how we’re going to. Our plan of work moving forward is all these vacant positions. Any vacant position will be reviewed by cabinet and you know, just determined whether we’re going to fill that or not.
45:37 We already talked about transferring some capital funds to the general fund to pay for allowable salaries. We’re going to do that and then you know, everything’s going to be reviewed and really the last bullet is more for 26, 27. As you know, we’re just going to start to really go from top to bottom and see, you know, where are places we can get leaner.
45:58 And you know, the thing that we’re always going to do is try to keep the school house, you know, intact. Like not any resources at the schools remain intact. You know, we try to, you know, if we have to make reductions in positions we try not to do that at the school.
46:06 Mr. Chair, may I question? Okay, so the, the part, a reduction that we’re seeing is 70%. That’s a guarantee. It is definitely reduced by 70%.
46:25 That’s final word, correct? Well, I used 70%. What the language said was the $6.5 billion, all those grants that equated to that number are going to be consolidated to a 2 billion dollar grant.
47:06 So I did the math. Okay, so, and that’s the 70%. So when we, when the screen before, when you, you totaled out the amount of grants that we have, our district has, it’s roughly 6.
47:19 6 million not billion dollars. And we’re talking, those are majority, those are salaries is what you’re saying in personnel. Would it be smart to look at this, rather than taking a 70% hit in one year, which is going to literally leave some of these departments looking like no one is around, potentially, would it be smarter to space that out and look at maybe incrementally saying, okay, can we reduce it by 35% this year? Is that a possibility? And then next year look at it again and we’ll have a better idea how the grant funding is going to come down.
47:32 I’m just afraid a huge reduction of 70% all in one year is going to be very detrimental. That’s going to be almost impossible to recover from. And look at the additional 30% that are still there and say, okay, we need you to do everything that everyone else was doing.
47:53 Would that be a better plan rather than heading it all at one time? Yeah, I actually think that if you go to the next slide. Yeah, I think the next one. Yeah, those last three bullets right there kind of address that.
48:02 Like as we go through this year, any vacant positions are going to be reviewed. And so that slower attrition rate, that slower reduction rate, rather than wait till next year and just not fill the positions, we might not fill some of them if they become vacant during this year. You know, so we’re going to be, you know, starting really from scratch after we open the year.
48:31 Is anything that becomes vacant during the year, we’ll be reviewing whether we’re going to fill it. We’re going to. Okay, I don’t know if that’s going to get us there to the 70% though.
48:37 It’s still, I mean, the vacancies that we have are pretty minimal in comparison to the amount of positions. Yeah. And the 70% comes off the 6.
48:48 5 to the 2 billion. In theory, you might still see more of more than 30% because some of the reduction is supposed to be overhead and things like that at the federal level. You know, so our share may not be reduced completely by 70%, maybe by 50%.
49:00 Okay. You know, so. And it’s not the all federal fundings will be reduced by 70%.
49:33 It’s specifically, it’s the title two and the title four. Right. Which we do other things besides people out of those we do, we do a lot of professional development and things like that of those.
49:40 So if the title one doesn’t get cut by, I mean if title one getting cut by 70% is, is catastrophic. No title one and idea is full. Yeah.
50:00 And I will tell you guys, I’m not, I mean really shouldn’t be surprised. I don’t know if I shared with this with you guys or not. When I came back from D.
50:35 C. last year year we as we went into every Florida legislator’s office, we spent almost the whole entire meeting talking to them about how important Title 1, Title 2 and Title 4 were because at the house at the time was talking about eliminating some of that funding then in September. So you know I, but I Can you go back to the one with the three things at the bottom or were you already there? That’s forward actually there.
50:46 Yeah, that one. I think this is a, I think this is a good plan. I know you guys have already been working on it.
50:53 Since all these things have been going down, you guys have continued to work on it. I think it’s, you know, considering that we might get some of the funding back in the year that we could, you know, carry on with after we get done with the roll forward funding. You know, you just don’t know.
50:59 One of the things that’s positive for us going into won’t help for this school year, but the next school year is next year is an election year and generally the legislature is more generous in an election year, the state legislature. So and, and after we, everybody sees the impact of what this is going to do to us, you know, I think we’ll have, everybody will have some more clarity. Would you please make sure that as we get the word about especially the 21st century grant for those who are not aware that’s our childcare, it’s kind of like Brevard after school.
51:07 But it’s fully funded so it’s free for low income families. And that’s the one that you’re saying we were hearing we should hear news about that. You’re saying we should hear news about that soon or should have already dropped.
51:18 They said it Might drop soon. Yeah. So last week we were told on a superintendent’s call that that was going to be released, that those funds were going to be released.
51:41 But that wasn’t a quote from the federal government. It was quote from somebody that was talking to the federal government. Okay.
52:01 So until they’re actually released, we won’t be 100% confident. Yeah, that’s kind of good. You’re good.
52:20 All right. This is a good slide right here. I mean, if people are reading at home, this is exactly addressing the issue.
52:44 You know, that vacant position review process. I like to look at this as no matter what kind of news we get is great. Now what? And we probably have always said when a position is not filled, let’s think about the, you know, a way of is it necessary? Is it extremely necessary? And that’s sometimes just talk because we just.
52:59 And fill a position. But now that we’re kind of forced to do it, I think always looking to be more efficient and effective is important. And now we’re kind of forced to do it and to address Megan, of course we’re not going to cut everything at once, but I believe once this process starts, that mindset is valuable.
53:11 I think all that district and at schools, if we can be always thinking of how can we be more efficient and effective, it’s going to be good. Now it’s kind of. Now it’s kind of forced, you know, so I’m kind of excited about that position or the position review process and what it’s going to bring to the district in years to come.
53:19 I think getting leaner is always good for companies, and sometimes when you’re funded as much as we are funded by the government, we don’t think about that as often as we should. You know, the public is asking us to do it, and we may give lip service sometimes, but we don’t actually look to cut as much as we could. But of course, Dr. Rendell, you said it perfectly, is we want to keep the schoolhouse.
53:30 The schoolhouse and touch everything outside of that as much as we can to be more efficient and effective. So when change comes, sometimes you got to look at it’s going to be a good thing. And you know, we’re not.
53:51 We can’t change it on the other end. So we got to look at this as it’s going to be a positive, you know, that we’re an A district and we can become more efficient and effective. I think that’s something that we can look forward to.
54:09 But it’s been. It’s been an interesting Summer, I’ll say that. Or do you have anything else? No, sir.
54:21 Dr. Rendell. No, I think that’s the end of the presentation for today. And just know that we will have a tentative budget to present to the board next time we meet.
54:29 And then we haven’t met in public since our great news, but we do need to celebrate the fact that we are, for the second year in a row, an A school district. And that’s awesome. Congratulations to all the people in the classrooms, the teachers and the students who did all the hard work to make that happen, and then all the support and everything else.
54:47 But we had several schools make incredible gains. And so we’re going to put together a presentation for the board the next evening board meeting to kind of review all of the successes and then also areas for improvement. Because even though we did see great successes overall, we still have some areas that we need to work on.
54:51 So. But didn’t want to, you know, if the public’s watching, didn’t want to leave an opportunity to remind everybody that we have achieved an A rating for the second year in a row. Before we go, we.
54:58 We forgot. Mr. Susan, are you still there? Yeah. Just say thank you so much, everybody, for, you know, giving it.
55:11 You know, it’s nothing like hearing on the beginning of the day that you’re in a school district and then on the end of the day that we’re going to be into budget cuts and stuff like that. But we’ve been here before. We’ve got great leadership, as many of you have stated, and I’m looking forward to, you know, continuing to strive in Brevard, and that’s it.
55:15 Great. Thank you. Mr. Susan, I have two quick things.
55:31 Sure, go ahead. First of all, tomorrow’s Mr. Thomas birthday, so happy birthday, Mr. Thomas. We can sing.
55:45 After we turn off the mic, we’ll let Mr. Brian do the singing. How about that? Just a curious question as we. As you guys are developing the budget since the pep scholarships is kind of a new thing that’s been on my mind today.
56:09 Board, are we. Are we able. It’s an.
56:13 It’s an unknown. Right, but are we factoring that into a tentative for revenue and expenses? Are we going to wait to see how it goes this year and. And do those budget adjustments as we go? I’ll let you know next week. All right, thanks, Cindy. But to clarify, just for any of the public watching, we do have it set up that homeschool families or private school families can access our courses. Kind of a la carte. If you have a high school student and you’re homeschooling them, and you’re not prepared to teach AP Calculus, you can visit one of our local schools and enroll in just AP calculus for a fee. And you could use your scholarship money to do that. So, any homeschool families or private school families out there, you are welcome to come join us for part of the day. That’s just a wonderful program. I mean, that’s just. Yes, that’s perfect. Any board member have anything further to discuss? As there’s no further business, this meeting is adjourned. Sam.