2025-07-29 - School Board Meeting

13:06 Good evening. The July 29, 2025 tentative budget hearing and regular board meeting is now in order. I would like to welcome my fellow board members and the public. I would like to take this opportunity to remind the public that the appropriate place for public participation in the meeting is during your individual public comment opportunity as identified on the agenda outside of your individual public comment opportunity.

13:28 Your role in this meeting is as an observer. Paul? Roll call, please. Mr. Trent.

13:33 Here. Mr. Susan. Here.

13:35 Ms. Campbell. Here. Ms. Wright.

13:37 Here. Mr. Thomas. Here.

13:40 @ this time, the board would like to hold a moment of silence. I invite the audience to join it. Thank you.

14:14 Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. At this time, I would like to invite Ms. Rachel Rutledge, Director of Career and Technical Education and Mr. Ratham to join her at the podium. Thank you.

14:50 Thank you. Good evening, Mr. Trent, members of the board. Dr. Rendell.

14:56 We are so excited to be here this evening to introduce our strategic partnership with Vystar Credit Union. They are partnering with the CTE department to establish a fully operational credit union on the Melbourne High School campus. So we’re excited that Dr. Kirk is here as well.

15:11 We’ve been working together for a couple of years to bring this to fruition. And through this collaboration, kids are going to get a hands on experience and they’re going to get valuable skills that are going to lead them into business, marketing and finance fields. They’re also going to have internships as a part of the program and they are doing complete facilities renovations here to bring this credit union onto our campus.

15:33 I’d like to introduce you to Michael Rathjan. He is the Vice president of School programs. Good evening school board members and superintendent.

15:42 Thank you for having us. We are very excited to be here with you to bring this opportunity to Brevard County. Just a little bit about Vystar to communicate the longevity and the potential for the students.

15:53 Vystar opened in 1952. So we’ve been around right at 73 years. And we started out with 12 volunteers who each pitched in $5.

16:02 And they originally created a way for civil service and military families to have safer and more affordable alternative to do their banking needs. And we started up at Naval Air Station Jacksonville and It was about 19 years ago, so we’re going into our 19th year now of when we launched our Vystar Academy High School program. And that was birthed out of the idea of what you heard Ms. Rutledge mention about the career and technical education to bring the learning to life.

16:31 And our former CEO at the time, prior to being in banking was a math teacher. So he had a heart for education. And we figured, why couldn’t we get involved in one of the most meaningful ways to help the students and those families and then serve the overall community by creating this opportunity for students? So at no cost to Brevard county, we will fully renovate the space on campus and turn it into a fully.

16:57 Yeah, it’s a budget meeting, too. So bring the credit union to fruition. It’ll be a fully functional Vystar Credit Union, but it will be exclusively operated by the students who get selected to participate in this program.

17:11 And our initiative is to teach as much financial education both to and through our student interns to reach as much of the student body as possible. And then, of course, the leadership development of those student interns, and then again, to serve the overall community of not just Melbourne, but Brevard Public Schools as well as. So I’m joined by my colleague, Ms. Amoy Guthrie.

17:33 She is the local branch vice president of our Melbourne branch. So our students will work very closely with her and her staff. And then we are blessed to have Our market president, Ms. Lisa Barbano, here to support us as well.

17:45 So this is a collaborative effort, and every department Vystar is involved, and we’re excited to help support Brevard Public Schools. Thank you. Do you have any questions for myself or Mr. Or Michael Ward? I’ll wait.

18:02 I got a lot of questions. Well, I’ll say I am super excited that you’re bringing this to Milhi, and I think it’s going to be such a great addition to the programs that are already there. When can we start? Yeah, that would be my first question.

18:17 I know the answer, but I’m. In case anybody’s listening, when are we starting? This program’s going to open in next August. We’re going to start recruiting in the fall for students to participate during the choice window.

18:32 And we’ll get the teacher on board, get her trained, get him or her trained, and get the students into their internships in the summertime of next year. That is very exciting. Thank you.

18:43 Very good. Very good. All good.

18:45 Mr. Chair. I’m just curious how it works on an active school campus. How do you make a credit union work? Yeah, absolutely.

18:52 So, as you know, it’s a closed campus, so the credit union’s only open to the students and faculty of that campus. So it’s not open to the public, and we respect that. It’s a learning laboratory first before it’s a credit union.

19:06 So anything related to school functions or Testing takes precedent over branch operations because it is meant to be a hands on experience for those students to practice exactly what they’re practicing in our full service branch on a day to day basis as an embedded part of their curriculum. Thank you. And just to add on to that, it’s important to Vystar and to us as well that we’re engaging our other financial institutions in the to provide even more internship opportunities for students.

19:35 So we’ve had conversations about that over the last couple of years. That’s great. Ms. Megan? I’m good.

19:42 I don’t got a question for you. So is it only the people that are. Because I. To support your efforts, I would love to open up an account there, but you’re saying it’s only for the individuals that are at that school.

19:56 So as far as the day to day operations go, it’s during school hours at the particular class period time that’ll be designated by Dr. Kirk and it’ll be open to students and faculty during that time. So as a respected school board member, if you’re on campus during that time, you’d be welcome to go into the school branch and conduct your business or open your account. But you can also do that at our full service branch.

20:20 And another component to this which I think is worth mentioning is we launched a Vystar debit card give back program a couple of years ago. So anyone who utilizes the Mel High School logoed debit card, Vystar shares $0.05 per transaction up to $10,000 per year directly back to that school.

20:40 So we, so thank you for your interest and we encourage you to open an account. Open an account. So if a student.

20:46 Sorry. And I’m drilling down here in my mind, if a student wants to start a business and wanted to open up a business account with you guys, they could do that. They could.

20:54 Okay. At that location, proper documentation, what not. So we have, we’re still regulated as a financial institution so we have to follow the same corporation papers to the state and everything else.

21:06 So it acts as an entire one and then yeah, the kids are going to interact with it. I just think it’s a, it’s literally one of the most fascinating things that I’ve been able to be a part of on the board. I applaud you and your team’s efforts for what you guys are doing.

21:19 I thank you. Mr. Kirk can always use for fundraising a little bit more because he’s, you know, got a great school and he does a great job over there. It’s just a great model and I. And I thank you for asking a couple, answering a couple questions because I had people asking me as I bragged about this to other people and I wanted to be able to go back to them, but then them hear it from you publicly that we’re actually starting a credit union inside one of our schools for the students that are there.

21:44 And those are some of the things. That’s incredible, man. Thank you.

21:47 I appreciate you. That’s all. Yeah, it’s our pleasure.

21:50 Yeah. Okay. So exciting times.

21:53 You know, Matt, you’re always one of those back. You’ve done everything in education and when you were teaching and all that digging trenches. But outside of high school, one of my first jobs while I was a freshman in college was at a bank.

22:04 I was a bank teller. And that was interesting. You know, Friday nights through the drive thru was just.

22:13 That was an experience banking. Yep. See, you laugh.

22:17 I knew exactly right. And I knew how to like steal pens because everyone’s like, where’s my pen? You know, so you have to have that. So I learned a lot of valuable lessons inside a bank.

22:28 I think it’s great experience for those kids just being around, you know, the numbers and the figures and, you know, got to give props to the math person who started that, you know, good ideas by math teachers. So now we’re excited and we hope, like you said, Mr. Rutledge, that we get more input from, you know, business partners in Brevard that, you know, we see this here and maybe we can get, you know, multiple of these in our, in our schools. I think it’s, I think it’s really good.

22:55 And then in addition to our, you know, our personal finance classes that are coming in, it’s a, it’s exciting time. So thank you so much. Dr. Rendell, you want to add something just for people who have questions? It would operate probably during the period that’s associated with lunch.

23:12 So the students would be scheduled into the class fourth period or fifth period, whatever Dr. Kirk picks and that. So the bank would be open during lunch for the students to access the bank, the credit union. So it’s not like they’d get out of class to go visit the credit union.

23:27 It would be during their lunchtime more than likely. And you guys have been doing this for 19 years. How many other districts and locations, high schools do you have going? So we currently have 19 different high school programs across eight different school districts.

23:43 This year we have 204 student interns who are participating in our year long paid internship opportunity. So Melbourne will be our 20th school branch in our 9th school district. Awesome.

23:55 Very nice. Thank you so much. Thank you.

23:57 And I’m very grateful for Dr. Combs for being our curriculum support for this new program that’s coming on, and Peter Phillips for supporting the internship program as well from the CTE team. Thank you, everyone. Vystar, we’re very excited about this partnership.

24:09 Do want to give a shout out to Dr. Kirk, the principal at Melbourne High School, because he did say yes. We didn’t. We didn’t go and say, you’re doing this.

24:18 We said, how would you like to have this new program at your school? And anything for his students. He said yes, for sure. So, Mr. Chair, we could take a break and take a picture.

24:27 That’d be awesome. Absolutely. Yep.

24:28 Let’s take a break. That brings us to the adoption of the agenda. Dr. Rendell.

26:09 Thank you, Mr. Chair. On this evening’s agenda, we have administrative staff recommendations, a tentative public budget hearing, 47 consent items, four public hearing items, two action items and two information items. Changes made to the agenda since it was released to the public include the following.

26:28 Added were an employee direct healthcare item and an interlocal agreement and letter of agreement between bps, BCSO and Bus Patrol. Revised was administrative staff recommendations. Tentative budget, Florida Educator Health Trust item and the minutes from the July 22, 2025 meeting.

26:47 Removed were the termination of an instructional employee and the long term and short term disability item 22 789. Do I hear a motion? Motion to approve? Second. Any discussion, follow roll call, please.

27:01 Mr. Thomas? Aye. Ms. Campbell? Aye. Mr. Trent? Aye.

27:04 Mr. Susan? Aye. Ms. Wright? Aye. We are now at the administrative staff recommendations.

27:10 Do I hear a motion? Move. Approved. Second discussion.

27:13 Follow roll call, please. Mr. Thomas? Aye. Ms. Campbell? Aye.

27:17 Mr. Trent? Aye. Mr. Season? Aye. Ms. Wright? Aye.

27:21 Dr. Mundell. Thank you, Mr. Chair. By your action item, by approving that item, we have appointed some new administrators.

27:28 Typically we recognize them here and give them an opportunity to speak. But all of them have family commitments tonight. So we’ll have them back at the next business meeting.

27:36 Notable to present is that by your action, you have named a new prince. What? Space Coast Junior Senior High School. So we congratulate Dr. Jeanette Connor for being placed as principal at Space Coast Junior Senior High School.

27:50 She’s most recently been an assistant principal at Titusville High and doing a fantastic job. So Space coast will be in good hands and we’ll recognize her at the next meeting. Great.

27:59 Okay. We are now at the tentative budget hearing presentation portion of the agenda. Dr. Rundell.

28:05 Thank you, Mr. Chair. The first order of business is to have Ms. Cindy Lyszinski, our chief financial officer, provide a presentation on the proposed 2025, 2026 millage levy and. S.

28:37 Oh, not from him. Sorry. That’s fine.

28:41 That’s good. I have to wait till it gets all the way down. Sorry, Mr. Susan, I didn’t have any food to eat.

28:46 That’s fine. I’m good. I’m good.

28:51 We’ll take it. We’re fine. No, leave it like that side.

28:57 I’m back here, everybody. We’re good. You just hear you, not see you.

29:01 That’s fine. We’ve got the presentation online. Well, it’s coming on the screen.

29:23 And you’re back. Kind of liked it the other way. And we’re all done, So.

29:37 Good evening, Mr. Trent, board members. Dr. Rendell. What has already been an incredibly challenging budget this year, we’ve also experienced an unforeseen life event in our budgeting department.

29:53 But our incredible staff never missed a beat and elevated the leadership and incredible teamwork, determination, ownership and passion way beyond any expectations. Day, night, weekends, hospital stays and visits. Our exceptional dedication didn’t just meet our goals.

30:11 It redefined what is possible. I want to thank Diane Lichtenstein, Rebecca Granholm and Angelina Burmeier for all their incredible work to make sure that we get this done on time. And they are absolutely amazing.

30:30 So. Florida school districts experienced multiple reductions to anticipated FEFP revenues in FY2425, largely due to the rapid expansion of Family Empowerment scholarships. The Florida Department of Education has created a rigorous system of controls and checks on the reporting of students by district and charter schools.

30:53 Yet the control system for granting scholarships and following the student funding has been flawed, causing increasingly inequity between the traditional schools and the scholarship funding. Because of the breakdown in accuracy reporting FES enrollment, the school district districts across the state received a proration in the third calculation to pay for the scholarship growth over state projections did not receive full payment in the district’s last assurance, issuance of funding from the state. And all the school districts in Florida are still awaiting the fourth calculation, which is normally received in March and April time frame.

31:34 The fourth calculation is required to reconcile our actual enrollment and budget with our enrollment projections budget estimates. That said, I believe the delay in the fourth calc is because the fdoe, they have great efforts going on to correct these inequalities to the best of their ability. Without the fourth calc, we do not yet have an accurate ending position.

32:01 So our FY26 beginning balance is our Best estimate of where we believe we should have ended the FY24 25 school year bottom line up front. Our current spending is not sustainable based on our revenue projections in the FY26 and out years. The FY26 conference report does not increase funding from the FY25 reduction levels for BPS or other districts throughout the state.

32:30 Flat funding actually equates to a cut given cost of living, inflationary cost, higher operating and construction costs, unfunded mandates, and the need to be able to provide a competitive wage to our employees in order to have the best teachers in our classrooms. And because of further projected enrollment declines, the FY26 budget will require BPS to continue to reduce its footprint and increase efficiencies to match its enrollment population. Again, we are not alone.

33:05 Every district in the state faces the same challenges and with bps, one team, one mission focus on student achievement. BPS will lead, adjust, adapt and continue to be Brevard’s best choice for students academic achievement. I did.

33:30 I saw it. I saw it. I was like, she’s got it.

33:34 What was that flash? I missed it. What was the flash that happened on the screen? Did somebody catch it? Yeah, I didn’t know what it was. Okay, so this slide is the public hearing agenda.

33:48 The public hearing will include this presentation covering the proposed 2026 budget rates and FY26 budget. Opportunity for public comment and board member discussion. Adoption of the proposed total millage levy to support the FY26 tentative budget.

34:04 Adoption of the FY26 proposed budget as presented a Request authorization for the superintendent and the staff to perform all necessary actions to comply with the truth and millage requirements and announce the date of the final public hearing to adopt the FY26 budget. The truth and millage legislation requirements are detailed under Florida Statutes. TRIM timelines are very prescriptive in law and the clock started July 1.

34:44 The total timeline to budget adoption is 80 days. The statute dictates the order of the business during the budget hearings and TRIM requires two public hearings for open discussion of the millage rates and the proposed budgets. Millage is a term that represents the tax rate levied on real estate or other property.

35:06 One mil is equivalent to $1 in taxes per $1,000 in taxable value. If your home has a taxable value of $100,000 and you’re assessed a mil tax rate, you will pay $100 in taxes. The Florida Education Finance Program.

35:29 The FEFP is a mechanism by which the state and local operating funds are allocated to Florida school districts. The Florida Legislature sets the required local effort millage rates. This is done through the FEFP second calculation for following the receipt of the tax roll which was certified by the Florida Department of Revenue on July 14, 2025.

35:53 This calculation replaces the estimated tax roll from the 2020 from the 26th Conference Report with actual certified tax roll. The school board must levy the required local effort millage rates in order to receive any state funding under the Florida Education Finance Program program. The total proposed millage related to school funding for FY 2026 school year totals 6.

37:06 310 mills. This millage rate will generate revenue for the general operating and capital outlay funds the required local effort rate adjust year to year while the discretionary and local capital remain fixed. The voted operated millage is an additional 1mil that our voters approved during the November 8, 2022 election to ensure our employees receive additional salary compensation beyond what the FEFP enables districts to provide.

37:28 When you Compare the actual FY25 total millage rate to the proposed FY26 millage rate, there is a decrease of.001 mils. This slide depicts the historic millage rates over the last 10 years.

38:03 The orange area represents the fixed basic discretionary operating rate, the light blue represents the fixed outlay rate, the dark blue depicts the variable RLE rate that has been adjusted down each year as property values increase and the green area represents the voter approved 1mil operating millage rate. As required by trmm. We must compare the proposed millage rate to the rollback rate.

38:24 When property values rise, property taxes generate more revenue. For the total revenue generated to stay the same as the prior year, the tax rate must decrease. The rollback millage rate is a rate that would generate the same amount of revenue as last year if applied to the current year’s taxable value.

38:51 Said another way, the state rolls back the millage rate as property values increase to bring the total taxable dollars available roughly equivalent to the prior year. Under trim, the rollback rate is the basis for determining if tax rates have increased or decreased. When the rollback rate is less than the proposed millage rates that we received from the state, we must advertise a tax increase.

39:30 For Brevard Public Schools, the proposed millage rate is higher than the rollback rate. This slide depicts the annual certified school property tax values starting from 2014. The 2021 tax assessment is the pre Covid values in 2022 23, Brevard county saw high property values due to a combination of low housing inventory high demand.

40:09 This imbalance was fueled by factors like population growth and increased migration to Florida, particularly after the pandemic. And then you can see the 2526 tax roll is the property appraiser certified school taxable value? Using the proposed millage rate, our total projected tax levy is approximately 483.6 million at a 96% collection rate.

40:21 The required local effort 234.3 million and discretionary 57.3 million millage makes up the local operating funds.

40:43 The capital outlay millage is levied for capital improvements for almost $115 million and the voted operating millage is predominantly for providing competitive compensation for our employees. The full basic discretionary millage will garner 57.3 million.

41:07 If any school district levies the full 1.7 I’m sorry 0.748 mil levy and it generates amount of funds per FTE that is less than the state average, the school district will receive a discretionary millage compression supplement that will bring the district up to the state average.

41:33 In our case the state compression calculation guarantees $864 per FTE so we will receive an additional 161 per FTE or approximately 13.2 million. The voted millage will provide increased compensation for our employees after proportionally sharing with charter schools.

42:49 Bps will receive 64.6 million. 80% or 51.

43:31 7 million will be allocated for compensation for all employee groups. 16% or 10.3 million will be allocated to student programs and 4% or 2.

43:58 6 million will go towards technology advancement in the classroom. The local capital improvement millage or LCI will garner the district 115 million. 36.

44:17 3 million comes off the top and is used to pay the district’s debt service. The charter’s portion equates to 3.1 million and approximately 16.

44:45 4 million in LCI contributes to maintenance cost for labor and projects. LCI also pays for the district’s 9 million property insurance. This slide compares a sample home valued at 300,000 and the impact of school related property taxes in 2024 compared to 2025.

45:02 In this example in 2024, a home valued at 300,000 with a 25,000 homestead tax exemption would be taxed $1,460 at a 53 cents at a 5.3110 non voted millage rate and in 2025 the same home taxed at a 5.310 millage rate would be taxed 1,460 25 in school related non voted property tax which is the property values.

45:19 Assuming that the property values stay the same, the homeowner would have a decrease in taxes of 28 cents. The voter 1 mil property tax would add $275 in both. I think this is a picture of another CTE program.

45:47 So our schools rely on timely and predictable funding information to plan effectively for the upcoming school year. So our school leaders can make decisions about staffing programs and supports that directly impact student learning. This tentative budget is balanced.

46:11 We did have to reach into our general fund balance but we are still showing acceptable financial stability. Again, our current spending is not sustainable. Based on our revenue projections in FY26 and the out years, BPS will continue to right size to match our enrollment population, increase efficiencies through innovation and focus on being the best educational choice anywhere in the state.

46:50 At a high view of the tentative budget you can see the breakout of the funds. Keep in mind these numbers include fund balance that carried from the previous year. You can see that the general operating fund also includes 86 million.

47:43 That’s a pass through for charters. And then it also includes adult ed and cte. And then within the general fund is also the voted millage, the school age before and after care.

47:49 And then the next fund you will see is the debt services. And then after that you see the capital. And the capital budget has multiple funds within it and it also includes includes you know the tax levy, the impact fees, sales surtax and it also shares its fund with our charter schools.

48:01 The next fund you can see there is food services, special revenues. That one includes our federal grants to include our title grants like Title 1, Part A, Title 2, Part A, Title 3, Title 4, IDA Head Start, 21st century grants. Those are all included within the special revenues.

48:32 And then you can see the school internal funds, the 25 million, it does look high. The internal funds include school fundraising dollars and district advertising. Revenues are projected to be 13.

49:01 8 million and the fund balance is 11.8 million. And then the seven funds include the workers compensation, auto, general liability and health insurance.

49:17 These numbers are rolled up even further and these are the numbers that Dr. Rendell will speak of towards the end of the hearing. And then we’ll be back for our final public hearing on September 9th. Are there any questions? Board, any questions? Thank you Ms. Luscinski and thank you team for working through all the challenges especially over the last couple months, the late legislative session and the funding that we thought we’re going to get that we didn’t get and now we’re going to get It I had a question since we have heard since last time you presented to us that we are going to be receiving the federal funds, the budget that as presented, does it include those federal funds so we thought we were.

49:41 That were frozen or does it not? It does, it does. Okay, good. Thank you, I appreciate that.

50:05 And I just. It’s always a good time because this part of the year can be confusing for people Just to kind of explain the proration. Of course we have unique situation this year, especially with the scholarships and waiting on the fourth calc.

50:17 But I think it’s important for people to understand that that’s something that happens every year in a way because when the legislature approves the budget, they approve it for X number of students that they expect across the entire state. And then what happens through the year as the whole entire state of Florida has more students? Some school districts maybe get a little larger, some get a little smaller, but those extra students that come in in the middle of the year get prorated across so we all get just a little bit less per student. Am I explaining that correctly? Maybe a little simplistically, but is that.

50:53 That’s the general idea. Did a wonderful job on that. So you can’t go over the level that the state set in this case this year the overall traditional school charter numbers went down and the scholarships were the FTEs that increased, causing us to go above that budgeted amount.

51:12 And the traditional schools took the proration and the scholarships. Right. So that’s a complicating factor is that where generally the proration happens across all the schools and we all take a hit or whatever it is.

51:26 Or if you have district had large increases in student numbers and they’ll have a little bit more, but it’s all less per student with the scholarships being rolled into that number. It makes it more challenging because the state doesn’t go back to the families that have had the scholarships and say, okay, you have to give back $50, $100 or whatever per student because it’s already been given out. And so all that hit comes on the charter schools and the traditional public schools.

51:52 So that becomes a challenge. I mention that because the state is already shown signs both the legislature and as well as the DOE of trying to make some corrections to that we need. I mean I appreciate the choice options that our families have had expanded through the years, but it’s an imperfect system that hopefully and a lot of times the legislature will do that.

51:55 Right. They’ll jump and then the next following years they’ll fix things. So we’re in the fixing things process, and I’m hopeful that the legislature, if we can communicate what it does to us, what it means to us, the delays.

52:12 I think they’ve heard from what happened earlier in the year when we had the proration, and then of course, this year with the 47 million having to be withheld from districts because the jump in the scholarships, I think that helps us to define what our advocacy can be because we want to make sure that it’s fair that there are. If there are students who said they were taking a scholarship, but then they ended up coming back into our public school schools, we want to make sure that the whole mantra of the money follows the student actually happens. So as we are developing very quickly our legislative agenda for this coming year, I think it would be good for us to understand it, for you guys to communicate what would be the easiest way or the.

52:28 Or the simplest way to communicate that to our legislators of what they could possibly do to help fix the system. They were working on some things, like issuing ID numbers to students who take a scholarship. But we want to make sure we understand our budget and the impact that the state has on us.

52:41 So I just wanted to add that in there so that we kind of know that. Just to explain what you talked about at the very beginning, what the losses were that we faced even before, as in the middle of why you guys were trying to develop this. So thanks for working around that.

52:42 One of the things the financial council is recommending to the state is either have scholarships as your own, as their own district within the fefp, or just separate it completely because being intermixed just isn’t working. Yeah, I agree. Thank you.

52:51 I’ll go. All right. I appreciate you getting this to us.

52:59 Obviously, we are feeling the frustration, I think, that everyone around this state is feeling on the fact that we’re not able to look at these numbers ahead of time, which puts a board in a predicament because we’re not really able to weigh in on a budget. A tentative budget. I know it’s a tentative budget and we will make amendments, we will change it, but it puts us all behind the ball.

53:11 And then we’re forced to basically check the box to say, yes, we have done this, or we’re going to move forward with the proposed millage changes. But I did have one question that I’m pulling these numbers through, and I’m looking through past years, and there’s one number that just keeps on jumping back out to me. I’m like, what is this number? It’s on the other financing sources.

53:14 And there’s $160 million that shows up, which is an abnormally large, high number that hasn’t shown up in years past. And so I’m not sure what that number is for. And I’m just wondering if you might be able to help shed light on it.

53:19 Page 19. It shows up there. I’m on page 19.

53:22 It shows up in a couple spots, but it just keeps on jumping out to me. So I’m going to ask the question of. Right.

53:37 Historically, it looks like that category we’re looking at, you know, $3 million, $200,000. Like, it’s never that much. So there’s a massive jump.

53:44 And I’m just wondering, what is that for? It’s the refinancing. It’s the refinancing. It’s the refinancing.

53:48 Okay. So that would be. Okay.

53:53 Within the debt. Okay. So I just jumped up for this fiscal year we just finished, and then if you look at the.

54:07 The proposed year, it’s back down to 750,000. Right. Well, that’s why I’m just.

54:09 I keep seeing it go all over the place and part of this, again, to the public. Like, we’re kind of looking at this very freshly because everything has been delayed, and finishing out last year’s budget is impossible without the fourth calc. So the whole thing is just really.

54:13 And my family would call that bass ackwards. We’re kind of building this thing as we fly. So I. Your team has done a phenomenal job.

54:32 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for all you guys have done on trying to piece together together numbers.

54:53 When you don’t have all the numbers. It’s frustrating. It’s extremely, extremely frustrating.

55:12 And so I’m hoping that this board looks at sitting down after tonight and going through this again, maybe with a workshop and really honing in on this budget so that we’re able to have some say in what’s happening here. It’s a pretty huge part of our role. So.

55:25 Yep. Thank you. Good.

55:39 I think that’s the plan anyway. Yeah. I think if anybody.

55:43 If. If you couldn’t have said it any better, Ms. Wright, I think that everybody said, you know, we’re basically coming up on a bunch of deadlines, things are flying in, and what we need to do is pass the budget, and then afterwards we have options to look at it, adjust it, just like we always do every single month. You guys are moving transfers, we’re moving things around.

55:52 It’s that we want to Set a budget so that we can set things according to the rest of our plans. But as the flow of information is happening so quickly, we have a base and then we move on, just like we always do. And just like in many other instances throughout our life as school board, we’ve had instances that have come in the middle of the year and we have to adjust and we have to do stuff.

56:21 So this is, you know, regular in case, and we’ll get through it and we’ll come back together. And I think, like you said, Ms. Wright, I. I look forward to working with you and the board members. I think you even said it, Mr. Trent, as soon as this thing’s over and we can find out exactly how much is where as far as the school district, for coming from the state and funding and stuff like that, we should be in a good spot.

56:32 So thank you so much for all your work and I appreciate you. Like, sometimes the conversations come out and I don’t want it to seem like it’s our district that is in this hole. It’s because of the different forces that are moving throughout our schools and stuff, like our federal and state government.

57:02 That’s all. Thank you. I’d just like to say thank you for your work as well, and I’m looking forward to getting the numbers so we can actually see what the budget’s going to be.

57:26 Anything, Dr. Rendell? I’m good. All right. Okay.

57:57 Well, thank you so much on that. The hearing is now open for public comments. We will, in accordance with Florida law, accept the speakers in the following order.

58:20 The 2025, 2026 proposed millage levy followed by the 2026 proposed budget. Is there any individual who would like to address the 2025, 2026 proposed millage levy? Is there any individual who would like to address the 2025, 2026 proposed millage levy? Is there any individual who would like to address the 2026 proposed budget? Good. Keep going.

58:38 Keep going. Go ahead. Yeah, thank you very much.

59:02 I’m also going to speak later on, but I saw a couple of budget questions. One of the things that was alarming to me about the budget that I just heard, the impact of the Family and Powell Scholarship Program for educational option. So I got a little bit nervous when I heard that based on the impact of revenue being lost to private school as well as homeschool costs.

59:11 So I just wanted to see what that trend is over the last few years, because it’s going to impact us going forward and just want to understand what the impact. What was the revenue impact of that amount. And then lastly, from a community perspective, a lot of your budget bucket rolls into five categories.

59:13 But one of the things the community cannot see is the detail behind that. So we just seen the roll up bucket number, but what are the programs that drive up that bucket? Such as? One thing you’re going to hear about later on is my concern about vpk. You know, what can we do to budget more in that category? But from the budget presentation, everything is rolled up in a bucket and the community cannot see those costs individually.

59:21 So if you can, maybe help us understand that, because our communities are very concerned in those categories, how is the money being spent? But when you look at $1.6 billion rolling up into five buckets, it’s absolutely impossible to comprehend that from a community side. So that’s kind of what I’m asking for going forward.

59:36 And I’ll talk a little bit later on. Thank you. All right, is there any individual who would like to address the 2026 proposed budget? Okay, there being no more, the public comment portion of this hearing is now closed.

59:43 Really quick, Mr. Chair, I was wondering if we could ask Cindy where the digital copy of this is. Do we have this on the website somewhere? A digital copy for the public to see the tentative budget. Will it be attached to the minutes? Can we make sure that gets attached? Yeah, the PowerPoint presentation and the booklet will be attached.

1:00:03 Okay, thank you very much. So, Mr. Bryan, the PowerPoint presentation and the digital copy of the details will be attached. Thank you.

1:00:07 Great. Thanks. Ms. Campbell.

1:00:09 All right, that brings us to the recommendation for the adoption of the proposed millage rates and tentative budget. Dr. Rendell. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

1:00:20 There is a total of three separate motions for the board to consider. I will read each of these recommendations into the record and then request board action. The first action item is to adopt the proposed 2025, 2026 millage rates.

1:00:54 And they are as follows. For the operating fund, a required local effort of 3.062 mils.

1:01:06 A local discretionary of 0.748 mils. Capital outlay of 1.

1:01:10 50 mils. The voter approved millage of 1.0 mils, for a total of 6.

1:01:15 310 mils. Do I hear a motion move to approve? Second. Any discussion? Follow.

1:01:30 Roll call, please. Mr. Thomas? Aye. Ms. Campbell? Aye.

1:01:59 Mr. Trent? Aye. Mr. Susan. Aye.

1:02:18 Ms. Wright? Aye. The second item is to adopt the 2026 proposed budget. It’s broken down into the following funds.

1:02:23 The General Fund of $830,701,064. Debt Service Fund of $36,828,238, Capital Project Fund of $490,908,603, Special Revenue Fund of $153,692,180 and an Internal Service Fund of $126,807,690. Total 2.

1:02:26 Total 2026 proposed budget is $1,300,630 $8,937,775. Do I hear a motion move to approve? 2nd. Any discussion follow.

1:02:55 Roll call, please. Mr. Thomas? Aye. Ms. Campbell? Aye.

1:03:35 Mr. Trent? Aye. Mr. Susan? Aye. Ms. Wright? Aye.

1:04:05 The third and final. The third and final item is to authorize the superintendent to take the following actions. Number one, notify both the property appraiser and the tax collector of the proposed 2526 millage and the following rolled back rates.

1:04:24 The general fund rolled back rates include the required local effort of 3.0004 mils, the discretionary operating of 0.7, a capital outlay rolled back rate of 1.

1:04:52 4693 mils, the additional voter approved millage of 0.9795 mils and the total rollback rate of 6.1820 mils.

1:05:17 Second, to notify both the property appraiser and the tax collector of the final public hearing on September 9th at 5:30pm here at the ESF in Viera. And third, adjust the revenues and expenditures if necessary prior to the final public budget. Do I hear a motion? Final public hearing.

1:05:36 Second discussion. Roll call, please. Mr. Thomas? Aye.

1:06:03 Ms. Campbell? Aye. Mr. Trent? Aye. Mr. Susan? Aye.

1:06:36 Ms. Wright? Aye. Prior to the adjournment of this hearing, I must read the following statement. The proposed 202526 millage rate necessary to fund the tentative budget exceeds the rollback rate by 2.

1:06:56 07%. This tentative budget public hearing is now adjourned. All right, we are now at the public comments portion of the meeting.

1:07:07 Paul, how many, doctor? 12 agenda, 12 speakers and each will receive three minutes. In an effort to remain unbiased to the speakers at the podium, I will be asking the parliamentarian, our attorney, Mr. Gibbs, to announce the speakers and manage the time clock. I would like to take this time an opportunity to remind the public of the rules written out in Board Policy 016 9.

1:07:14 1. But also take the time as a warning to those in attendance, if you cause a disruption, you will be asked to leave the premise. If you continue to cause disruption or fail to Leave the premise.

1:07:26 You’re in violation of Florida State Statute 877-713, and you will be committing trespass. And the board will enforce these rules. Mr. Gibbs, would you call the first three speakers? Kelly Columburdi, Quinn Dykis, Bill Perelman.

1:08:03 Hello, School board. So I don’t have the agenda item in front of me, but it’s pertaining to the instructional staff recommendation. I noticed that 112 teachers resigned, which is alarming to me.

1:08:31 And as I’ve brought up at previous meetings, I think the culture that is being stoked in Brevard schools that is antagonistic towards teachers and students is partly what’s driving them away. I have heard that teachers are scared, students are scared. And I certainly hope that something can be done so that we can make Brevard a place where teachers want to be instead of where they want to leave.

1:08:54 As I’ve also mentioned before, I mean, St. Lucie county is trying to poach our teachers. And if I was one of them, I would probably take up that offer because this is no longer a pleasant place to be someone who loves learning or loves teaching. This is no longer a pleasant place for somebody who genuinely cares about kids and wants to make sure that their welfare is maintained, regardless of their identity.

1:09:06 So that’s how I feel about that particular agenda item. And something I feel that could be really helpful with respects to that is a resolution that we’re going to prepare to ensure that Brevard Public Schools is being more proactive about a lot of our concerns. Concerns.

1:09:17 And we’re going to have more details on this resolution later. But I sincerely hope you take it seriously, because we’re not only concerned about the teachers fleeing, we’re concerned about the unshaky nature of, you know, the funding that we can anticipate for Brevard county for all schools moving forward under the Trump administration. The speaker who was just addressing the budget mentioned the phrase, you know, it relies on timely and predictable funding.

1:09:36 And even though the funds that were just frozen for us have been, you know, released back, there is a lot of concern that the Trump administration and his association with the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. I’m glad you find that funny, Gene. You know, there’s a lot of genuine concern that there’s going to be further dismantling of funds and programs that students rely on, especially kids who are learning English as a second language.

1:09:47 I mean, if I’m remembering correctly, Trump passed an executive order making English the official language of the country. But we’re no longer going to support students who need to learn it when so many of us are kids of immigrants ourselves or grandkids of immigrants. So I think you know where I’m going with this, and I just hope you do better.

1:10:21 Thank you for listening. Quinn Dykis, Bill Perlman, then Bernard Bryan. Quinn Dykis, Bill.

1:10:49 Bill Quinn goes first Quinn, then you, then Bernard. Yep. I apologize.

1:11:03 No, no worries. Good evening. I am here tonight not only as a product of the Florida public school system, but the daughter of two Florida public school teachers.

1:11:16 My parents have been serving the Florida community for over 30 years each, and I have seen firsthand how changes in both the federal funding and especially the local budget allocation directly impacts the lives of teachers both in the classroom and at home. The recent federal education funding freeze made my friends, family, and myself extremely concerned about the vulnerability of our schools, especially here in Brevard county, which caused me to look further into this board’s most recent budget meeting. From what I have seen, and please correct me if I’m wrong, this board has stated that they value a few items, but to name a few, STEM programs, healthcare insurance improvements, and teacher pay.

1:11:41 I am concerned that the budget proposed tonight affects these essential items, programs that support these topics, but feel as though I’m getting conflicting information. What I think the community would appreciate most is honest and simplistic clarity on the impacts that were in response to the funding freeze in a way that your everyday community members can understand. For example, how many teachers have we lost? Or what specific programs were cut and how this proposed budget now plans to handle those consequences.

1:12:01 The federal funds have been released, but I’m sure actions were taken that cannot be undone in time for the first day of School on August 11th. Lastly, I believe a town hall posted by you, the board members for Brevard, parents, teachers, and especially students would provide immense relief and potentially increase their trust in you as board members. I saw recently that Pinellas held one and over 1,000 people attended.

1:12:08 I believe Brevard deserves this kind of. Kind of transparency and support. Thank you so much for your time, and I look forward to hopefully hearing and seeing this board move forward with transparency.

1:12:14 Bill Pearlman, Bernard Bryan, and Jennifer Hopkins. Good evening. I’m Bill Perlman.

1:12:27 I’m a retired Brevard teacher and perhaps, like you, I spent this month in a panic about the Trump administration’s freeze on the $6.2 billion of funds that Congress had already approved for education. We know those cuts targeted programs you already had in place, so I hope it caused panic in all of you.

1:12:55 Then after much upheaval and without warning, just a few days ago, those funds were thankfully unfrozen. So we dodged a bullet. Except we didn’t.

1:13:04 Because last May, President Trump told Congress to cut $12 billion from the 2026 education budget. The budget you approved tonight, which actually just starts in 10 weeks on October 1st. So without this funding, how do you plan to support low income students in their reach for college? How will you support our English language learners? How will you continue to provide teacher training? We probably agree that funding cuts only exasperate teacher shortages and burnout.

1:13:21 Well, since you approved the 2026 budget tonight, what steps are you taking to inform the public of the impact of the cuts in federal funding? According to recent multiple actually recent polls, 80% of all voters want investment in quality education. We all know how rare it is for 80% of all voters to agree on anything. And this is a unifying issue.

1:13:50 Yet only 40% of voters are satisfied with elected officials commitment to making that happen. Big discrepancy there. Right? And that’s you, the elected officials on the low end of that approval rating.

1:14:23 So there’s good news here though. The good news is that you have an opportunity to change that perception here in Brevard. And it all boils down to how and when you keep us informed.

1:14:54 You have an obligation to include the community in this crisis. And if you do it right, you will win over voters on on an issue in which we are all aligned. Dr. Rendell, have you directed staff to prepare reports on the potential impact of these cuts? If not, why not? If not, please do it now and share this information with the public board members.

1:15:18 We need to get that done. If you want to be seen as leaders, draft and submit a resolution in support of federal education funding stability. A resolution is a no cost option and it would demonstrate your commitment and your leadership.

1:15:26 And equally important, hold town halls. This is a crisis. Submit a resolution.

1:15:45 Keep us informed. Hold town halls. Help restore voter confidence.

1:15:51 Thank you, Bernard Bryan, Jennifer Hopkins, Braden Riley. Thank you again. Thank you, board and Dr. Rendell.

1:16:03 First of all, I just want to express my appreciation to Dr. Tara Harris, Ms. Andrea McDonough and the early learning team. I was so excited. On this past Saturday they were at the Powell baseball basketball tournament passing out flyers to encourage families to register their children in their early learning program.

1:16:20 So I was so excited. I was there. I watched the enthusiasm of our parents and I watched how the information was being propagated.

1:16:36 I’m grateful to Dr. Rendell. Dr. Rendell has produced a marketing video for VPK. And we are so excited about that and thank you so much for investing in this particular area.

1:16:49 So that is why I want to talk about the budget now. I’m asking that this board will consider adding a line item to add capital investment in your VPK program. Some of the things I’m looking at such as program support, any particular facility needs, but I do believe this is where our money ought to go.

1:17:06 If you look at early at your value stream, early learning is the key to really closing the achievement gap. So I’m asking the budget to reflect that, reflect the support that is needed for this and really support any facility items that are needed that will tell me where our heart is. You know, they said follow the money and I like to see some effort in that area where our children in marginalized community can be enrolled in vpk.

1:17:17 So that is my plea to you before I retire. But I am so passionate for our children because the reason why, when I see those kids, I see myself and it took people fighting for me, giving me the tools that I need, caring for me, loving for me, no matter what side of the track I grew up. So that’s what I’m asking, would you consider adding a line item to your capital plan budget? And I truly would appreciate that.

1:17:26 And then lastly, I would like more clarity as we go forward. We had WXYZ consulting firm here really need to understand what the impact of that program going forward. They made some traditional, they made some phenomenal recommendations in the remodeling category as well as the reconstruction category.

1:17:38 And I’m sure Ms. Hans will get us straight on that. But please consider those items. We like clarity in those areas as we go forward.

1:17:43 Thank you so much. Jennifer Hopkins, Braden Riley, then Ava Wolf. Good evening.

1:18:03 My name is Jen. I’m a longtime resident of Brevard County. I’m a graduate of Brevard county school schools.

1:18:20 I’m incredibly disappointed to see where we are today. Very concerned about the future. Every day we get closer to starting the school year with numerous instructional positions waiting to be filled.

1:18:41 There’s 112 resignations listed on the agenda and not enough willing candidates to replace them. Budget cuts further hinder the district’s ability to attract and keep qualified candidates. The teachers and staff that you manage to retain are underpaid and overworked.

1:18:55 This will continue to escalate due to these budget cuts and morale will diminish due to the toxic environment that’s been allowed to perpetuate. A shortage like this affects the entire community. Class sizes are larger, forcing teachers and staff to spread themselves too thin.

1:19:20 Students do not receive the quality of education and attention that they deserve. The community feels underserved when the the schools are underfunded. Burrard county is not attractive to candidates because of the decisions that have been made.

1:19:33 When you allowed an excellent teacher with above average testing record to be dismissed from the classroom, you created an opening for more and more people to leave. It costs more to hire and train new people than it does to keep the people that deliver results and create a supportive environment for the students. You could have done something different.

1:20:01 You could have done something better. You can still do something better. This teacher shortage directly challenges the commitment that you made to serve every student with excellence.

1:20:14 As the standard. That mission statement should remind you that you’re here to serve the students first. You must do your job and reverse this crisis.

1:20:30 Students lose trust in the system when they lose their teachers. You must start working toward earning trust from them. You can attempt to do that by treating them and their teachers with respect to a town hall.

1:20:50 To show your willingness to be transparent and answer questions would be a great start. It’s not excellent to defer to small minded groups of people. It’s not excellent to dismiss a good teacher.

1:21:01 It’s not excellent to contribute to a situation where teachers want to leave. It’s not excellent to be in charge of a school district that can’t fill its openings. It would be excellent to take this opportunity to refocus and prioritize education and our students.

1:21:09 Thank you. Braden Riley, Ava Wolf, Paige Saint Marie. Hello.

1:21:38 My name is Brayden and I’m a volunteer with Students Defending Democracy and I’m here to speak on agenda items D3 and D4. My main concern, as well as all of our concerns, is what your next step is going to be to see support these students, every student in this county, not just the ones that fit into your dense narrative. Every student is in an extremely vulnerable place right now.

1:21:51 What are you guys going to do to allow every student to have opportunities and to allow their education to flourish? With these budget cuts, I don’t think I even need to mention who you will attack and project your indifference onto. But I will anyway, in case it slipped your minds. Are you going to come for our migrant students first? Our special needs students first? The students who need extra help because they don’t get any help at home.

1:22:15 Are you going to use this as an opportunity to bring everyone together and fight the real problem? What we really need is transparency. We need to know what’s going on because keep in mind you work for us in this little workshop you’re planning. You’re probably going to hide the reasoning for every choice you make because you know it’s not what the people want.

1:22:26 You did it with Calhoun, so I wouldn’t put it past you that you’re going to do it again. Beating around the bush and only sharing numbers and details you feel like sharing is completely misleading. A waste of time and a waste of a student’s educational career.

1:22:45 I would love to give you the benefit of the doubt and not jump the gun, but with your guys track record, I think it’s very justifiable to think the way I’m thinking. We all sit here every meeting expecting answers, but yet we leave these meetings more confused than we were before. How the hell are you guys the head of our schooling system system when your form of teaching is avoidance and intolerance? For the love of God, do your job and figure out a way we can work with these cuts and allow education to go unharmed.

1:23:01 It’s not like you guys haven’t harmed it for the last three years. Toodles. Ava Wolf, Paige St. Marie and Amy Raub.

1:23:11 Hi, I’m Ava. I’m with Students Defending Democracy and I graduated from Brevard Public Schools. I’m coming up here to ask you to address the major budget cuts and hundreds of open job applications in your county.

1:23:18 Getting rid of the job openings doesn’t change the problem that your schools need teachers. If you care about your constituents and this community, please help us feel better and hold a town hall so we can discuss these things even if you don’t have the exact numbers. These parents and teachers want to know you have a plan.

1:23:41 As the presenter said earlier, they need it. They rely on it. Stop making money decisions like you’re running a company and put students before politics.

1:23:47 Public schools are not for profit. You need a plan for the budget. Work on it.

1:23:54 Paige Sainte Marie, Amy Raub, Aiden McFadden. Hi, I’m Paige Saint Marie and I’m concerned that with this new budget and the federal education funding freeze, essential education programs will be on the line. I urge you to keep in mind that these budget cuts are affecting real students and real educators.

1:24:08 Every student deserves an equal education. Don’t cut programs that support giving them that chance. Brevard county deserves to know how these changes in funding are going to affect our schools, staff, and most importantly, the students.

1:24:16 We deserve transparency about how this will affect our community. Brevard deserves better to better. Amy Raub, Aidan McFadden, Tegan Jones Lloyd, Hi, I’m Amy Raub.

1:24:35 I’m going to speak on agenda items D3 and 4. The public is scared. We’re scared.

1:24:56 We’re going to ask you to hold a town hall to help us all use our minds about these huge budget cuts that we’ve avoided once, but we know are actually coming. And you cannot deny that. I hear the League of Women Voters would be willing to hold the forum.

1:25:16 And Katie, I know you’ve had a good experience with that with them before, so we can have them reach out to you if you’d like. So the cuts that are coming federally are scary. The district was already broke.

1:25:44 You’ve not been very fiscally responsible. Moms for Liberty cost us a million, by the way. You can’t fill teaching positions.

1:26:05 You can’t keep the teachers you already have. Your schools are falling apart. Class sizes are growing.

1:26:25 So with all this coming. When interviewed about the federal funding cuts to public education, Jean Trent said, I like to look at this as no matter what kind of news we get is great. Now what I think always looking to be more efficient and effective is important.

1:26:43 And now we’re kind of forced to do it. He said. So, wow.

1:26:49 Now. Oh, wait, here we go. I think getting leaner is always good for companies.

1:27:17 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’re completely funded by the government. It’s public schools.

1:27:34 A small reminder, lowest teacher pay in the country in Florida. Lowest. Yeah.

1:27:49 Florida has the lowest teacher pay in the country. And now we know Gene’s not willing to do anything to protect the students and the teachers that he already has. You’re not going to speak out about these cuts and try to protect your staff and do what your constituents want.

1:27:59 You’ve chosen the path of bending over for the child rapist in the White House, and now I hear that you’re going to wear hats to mimic him. Congrats. Aiden mcfadden.

1:28:17 Tegan jones. Loy paul raub. Hi, I’m Aidan McFadden, and I would like to say that the federal funding freeze is a horrible mistake that harms students, teachers, faculty, and community members.

1:28:34 By cutting or in some cases, eliminating funding to programs like after school care and summer learning, the proposed resolution presents solutions to problems the funding freeze is causing. The community also calls for a public town hall for the sake of transparency and cooperation. While I know the federal freeze is not in your control, you have the power and responsibility to adapt and overcome to this obstacle.

1:28:54 Thank you. Tegan Jones Loy and Paul Raub. Hi, I’m Taegan Jones Loy.

1:29:03 Today I’ll be addressing agenda items D3 and D4. So with all the budget cuts being talked about today, where are we going to be seeing these cuts? Teacher pay, transportation, school lunch. Where are these cuts going to be? Please tell me.

1:29:27 Are you going to be open and honest with us? You should have a town hall so we can all be reassured that you’ve actually discussed these things. You owe this to the students, teachers and parents of the Brevard community. Show us your plans and what preparation you’ve done, or else we’re only left to believe you’re incompetent assholes.

1:29:53 Thank you. All right, Paul Raub. Sure.

1:30:10 Mom’s proud. As has been mentioned repeatedly, the recent federal education funding freeze raised important questions for many of us about how vulnerable our school systems are to sudden disruptions. That concern has only grown as we’ve looked more closely at the proposed federal budget for 2026.

1:30:21 The proposal includes deep cuts to essential education programs, programs that support teacher development, after school care, summer learning, English learners, migrant students, and students with disabilities all being reduced or eliminated. These programs matter in Brevard. They serve real students and real educators across this country.

1:30:24 Families, students and staff deserve to know how these proposed changes could affect our schools and what steps are being taken to respond. A few people have mentioned a proposed resolution. Talking about a town hall and other ways you could show support and encourage communication about these things at schools.

1:30:35 I’m going to hand that to you if it’s okay, after I’m done. The resolution does not assign blame. You folks do not draft the federal budget.

1:30:55 It simply calls for transparency, planning, and a shared commitment to keeping the community informed. We also ask that the board consider hosting a public town hall. Giving space for families and educators to understand what’s happening and ask questions would go a long way in reducing confusion and helping the district respond with clarity and care.

1:31:05 What we’ve heard so far has, again been discouraging. Hearing great at the prospect of getting to run Lean have trouble, as you know, most people would, with comparing a school system to a company. They are entirely different things.

1:31:10 But also, I don’t know that anybody would want to work for a company that celebrated a sudden drop in revenue. New. I don’t know that you’d be quite as glib and great and fine if the proposal was to cut the school board.

1:31:19 This affects other people, but other people are real. Some of them are students you’re supposed to be serving them. They matter.

1:31:38 And you know, as Ms. Gamble said, hoping for more communication from the legislator, giving you all some more guidance, some more insight into what might be coming so you can prepare for it. I’m glad to hear that mentioned, but that’s how we all feel. Further down the game of telephone, we would like that same thing from the board about how we can be proactive about things, about how these real serious cuts are coming down the line.

1:31:47 Because let’s be clear, we have currently a federal government that has effectively declared war on education and a state government that says hold my beer and you could should be whatever line of defense we have left. And we are asking that for you. A lot of criticism has come this way about us coming here just to yell at you and how about a spirit of cooperation? Well, you want, you want that? That’s what I’m hearing.

1:31:59 Please thank. That’s all the agenda first. Yeah.

1:32:06 That concludes public comment. We thank you for taking the time out of your schedule to address the board with your concerns and suggestions. I would like to remind the public that the board is accessible for further conversations outside of our business meeting.

1:32:28 Through scheduling a meeting. Ms. Campbell. Yes.

1:32:44 Thank you, Mr. Chair. We don’t usually address things right after public comment. But since these were budget related and I probably would make these comments in the budget time, I wanted to clarify a couple things.

1:33:05 One, I could almost put it on a timer. Every year around this time when our instructional staff recommendations come and there’s a ton of resignations and retirements and just a few hires almost, I can set my clock to it. Somebody’s going to come and say we have all these people leaving or not hiring anybody.

1:33:27 The truth is that’s just the way the agenda items run. And in the next couple of weeks, next couple of meetings, we will have lists of. With long lists of hires because there are.

1:33:31 It’s always lacked. And the new teachers didn’t start. Actually they started yesterday.

1:33:36 But their official date will be this coming Friday. But I wanted to give. And Dr. Rendell, if you can confirm for me, we have talked about cuts and how we need to.

1:33:48 To get leaner. But I think some of the members of the public are suffering under the misinformation that the cuts, the federal funding cuts were for this fiscal year. And If I’m correct, Dr. Mandel, the budget, the federal budget, the big beautiful bill that was just passed, those are talking about cuts for the following school year.

1:34:04 Am I correct in that? That is correct. Okay. So we would have been in a tight with some of our programs if, if the freeze had held.

1:34:32 I’m glad that it was short, but I just wanted to. Because not everybody watches our other meetings. We actually have had a conversation about this in our June 15 work session that was pulled together to talk about the budget.

1:34:52 We had a conversation about this last Tuesday at our board off site. And so we’ve had these conversations. And while all the details.

1:35:08 We didn’t talk about all the details, One thing that Dr. Rendell shared with the board, and people can go back and watch those. I encourage you to do that if you, if you have interest in the budget, a true interest in the budget is that Dr. Endel, during the freeze time, had really pulled together his staff and evaluated. And one of the things he said to us was, we want to make sure that whatever cuts we have to make, they’re not going to affect the schools.

1:35:12 We will do those up here, and we want to leave the schools primarily untouched. So I want to make sure I said that because not everybody who’s made a comment tonight probably, probably watch those meetings, but you can go back and watch those if you’re interested. But that was a priority that I think the boards absolutely supported.

1:35:15 We said, so we want to make sure the schools are as unaffected as possible. Thankfully, those changes that the cabinet was working on so diligently, we were able to, you know, undo those before most of them took effect. So just to clarify, the cuts that many people talked about tonight, we’re talking about this school year.

1:35:20 This school year is going to remain relatively untouched, but we have some big decisions to make, and I appreciate the concern. And so knowing that next year’s budget will be leaner federally, and that is a good percentage of our, of our. Of our annual budget, those will be conversations we can have in the coming year with lots of question marks.

1:35:33 But that’s not a. This school year type of consideration. I want to make sure that everybody who is.

1:35:42 Who brought that up was aware. Yeah. Mrs. Campbell, if I could just follow up.

1:35:56 Please do. Yeah. So even as early as mid spring, late spring this year, when we were talking about this year’s budget, we already knew that the state funding was going to be limited.

1:36:20 So we already made some decisions back then that we would do everything in our power to make sure that none of these reductions would affect operations at the schools. And we’ve been able to do that. We’ve been able to hold true to that.

1:36:25 We haven’t reduced any teaching units at any schools, any services provided to any schools with the proposed state budget that we got when the federal funds were withheld. We had to look at what programs were funded by those funds and find other funding sources within the budget to hopefully carry those funds, carry those operations forward. And we were in the midst of doing that and had found ways to do that and then the funds were released.

1:36:27 So there is really no change in operations at any of our schools this year. We’ve actually put more resources at the schools this year than we have in past years. So the supposition that there’s going to be reduced services at our schools is false.

1:36:29 More services than even in the previous years, more support than in the previous years. Now 26, 27 is going to be a different story. So going through this year, we will have to look at ways we can get more efficient and, you know, leaner as we talked about.

1:36:53 Thank you. Great. There we go.

1:36:56 Thank you for that clarification. Yes. Thank you, Doctor.

1:36:59 Thank you, Ms. Campbell. All right, we are now at the consent agenda. Dr. Rendell.

1:37:11 Thank you, Mr. Chair. There are 47 items on the list under this category. Does any board member wish to pull any items? Okay, I’ll entertain a motion to approve tonight’s agenda.

1:37:14 Second. All right, Any discussion? Yes, really quickly. Because when we do consent agenda, sometimes wonderful things kind of get stuck in, in the middle.

1:37:19 And there’s a great new program that we’re able to support our employees with through our insurance plan and that is the cancer care and infusion services. So we’re excited to be able to roll that out. Thank you, Dr. Mandel and Ryan Dufresne for your leadership in that.

1:37:30 And I know that former SIAC committees, we talked about that before, but we’ll able to be able to provide no cost services to our employees who have to go through cancer with the and expedited, I mean all treatments, all those kinds of things. So it’s an exciting thing and we’re really, I’m really glad that we’re able to add this to our bucket of things and benefits that we have for all of our employees. Thank you.

1:37:33 It is a really, it’s a great thing. So. All right, Roll call please.

1:37:44 Mr. Thomas? Aye. Ms. Campbell. Aye.

1:37:48 Mr. Trent. Mr. Susan. Aye.

1:37:58 Ms. Wright, the second public hearing is to address item G1 policy 3124, drug free workplace. Is there anyone present that wishes to address this item? Is there anyone present to address this item? Do I hear a motion move to approve? Second any discussion? Paul, roll call please. Mr. Thomas? Aye.

1:38:14 Ms. Campbell? Aye. Mr. Trent? Aye. Mr. Susan.

1:38:24 Aye. Ms. Wright. Aye.

1:38:32 Policy 5200. Is there anyone present that wishes to address this item? Is there anyone wishes to address this item? Do I hear a motion move to approve? Second. Any discussion, follow? Roll call, please.

1:38:42 Mr. Thomas? Aye. Ms. Campbell? Aye. Mr. Trent? Aye.

1:38:59 Mr. Susan? Aye. Ms. Wright? Aye. Policy 8330.

1:39:05 Is there anyone present at wishes to address this item? Is there anyone present wishes to address this item? Do I hear a motion move to approve? Second. Any discussion? Paul, roll call, please. Mr. Thomas? Aye.

1:39:08 Ms. Campbell? Aye. Mr. Trent? Aye. Mr. Susan? Aye.

1:39:13 Ms. Wright? Aye. Next is policy 8406. Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item? Is there anyone present that wishes to address this item? Do I hear a motion move to approve? Second.

1:39:16 Any discussion? All roll call, please. Mr. Thomas? Aye. Ms. Campbell? Aye.

1:39:19 Mr. Trent? Aye. Mr. Susan? Aye. Ms. Wright, Dr. Andell, will you please let us know about the items under the action portion of today’s agenda? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

1:39:26 The first action item is H1 Florida Educator Health Trust. All right. Motion is to approve the participation agreement with the federal Educator Health Trust and to appoint the superintendent or as his representative, as a trustee of the trust.

1:39:32 Do I hear a motion move to approve? Second. Any discussion? Yeah. I have a question and I. This was something that you shared with us, but I did miss the presentation last Thursday.

1:39:35 Question. The agreement that we’re voting on tonight adds you to the directors of the trust. But I think.

1:39:45 I feel like there’s like if for us to take other steps or more votes would have. So what exactly does this. Where does this put us, I guess is the question that I have.

1:40:03 Yeah, we’re just a member of the Florida Educator Health Trust. I would be our representative in trust decisions if the Florida Educator Health Trust were to do make any proposals or revisions or changes to the trust operations. I’m a voting member any superintendent.

1:40:15 Right. So at this time it doesn’t put our health fund, it doesn’t join it. Correct.

1:40:29 Right. We’re just. We’re a member agency.

1:40:43 Right. Got it. So we have the advantages of any benefits of being.

1:40:59 Absolutely. Yes. Okay.

1:41:09 Thank you. Nice. Paul, Roll call, please.

1:41:17 Mr. Thomas? Aye. Ms. Campbell? Aye. Mr. Trent? Aye.

1:41:33 Mr. Susan? Aye. Ms. Wright? Aye. The last action item is H2 code of student conduct.

1:41:41 Do I hear any motion? Move to approve? Second. Any discussion borrow. Accomplished.

1:42:06 Mr. Thomas? Aye. Ms. Campbell? Aye. Mr. Trent? Aye.

1:42:18 Mr. Susan? Aye. Ms. Wright? Aye. We’ll move on to the information agenda, which includes two items for board review and may be brought back for action at a subsequent meeting.

1:42:28 No Action will be taken on this item today. Does any board member wish to discuss these items? We are now at the board members reports. Does any board member have anything further to request, report on or discuss? Who would like to go first? Mr. Chair? Yes, Mr. Thompson? Two things.

1:42:41 First of all, I’d like to just publicly acknowledge the service of George and Mary White. Most of you guys have heard that they were tragically murdered on July 23rd. You know, they were married.

1:43:22 They were a team we sometimes recognize. You know, George was involved as a, as a minister for Zion Fellowship and he’s the current second VP for independent naacp. He helped out with the students at Stone Middle School, but as we all know, they’re married.

1:43:31 So they were a team. So I’d just like to acknowledge both of them and just acknowledge their commitment to the community and their sacrifice. And on a positive note, not to brag, but District 3 had the two finalists for principal of the year.

1:43:44 So like to just give a quick shout out to Jennifer Julian, the principal of Columbia elementary, who was the runner up. And then Central Middle School’s Heather Smith was the principal of the year. So congratulations to both of them and good luck next year, guys.

1:43:56 Very good. Hey, not to brag, but those used to be District 5 schools. All right, well, do order.

1:43:58 Ms. Campbell, would you like to go? All right, sure. Yes. Lots of things happening as we’re getting ready for the, the beginning of the school year.

1:44:08 It was great to be with our cafeteria managers here in this room as they were getting their training but also celebrating their accomplishments over the last school year. I didn’t get to attend, but I heard there were actually, was actually a custodian kickoff and there might have been some Olympics. I really wanted to be here for that, but I had other plans that day.

1:44:18 We also had our strategic plan year and review in the superintendent summit. So. But I walked through a little bit of the new teacher academy yesterday.

1:44:26 We had 350 brand new teachers going through training and you know, just all things from like how to use focus to classroom management, setting up your room, things like that. But one of the things that just got me excited and as I was walking the halls, I ran into three people. I ran into Wendy Smith, to Joe Flora and to Adrian McDonough who were also checking things out.

1:44:36 And you know what, they were all excited, excited about something. They were talking about how they’d been trained the elementary school principals about the, the walkthroughs, the academic walkthroughs. And I’m like, here we are, we’re just coming off of, you know, finding out that we’re in a district.

1:44:51 By the way, it’s our first school board meeting since we found that out, so congratulations, bps. We’ve already talked about it in other meetings, but yay. And they’re already like, so excited about training for this coming year.

1:45:06 So I know curriculum, instruction, you guys are, are hitting it, but they were. They were just so excited to see how this is going to make an even greater improvement in our student academic performance. So kudos to the whole team.

1:45:22 And then I also just wanted to thank our a couple of different teams. I think I’ve mentioned it before, but curriculum, instruction and educational technology finance, all of them for getting this opportunity for families who are getting the scholarship, the pep scholarships, to be able to a la carte, use those dollars to actually pay for classes in our schools. I think this is a great opportunity not only to generate some revenue, but to allow families to find out the great things we have to offer, especially programs like, you know, ap, ib, ace, our music, our wonderful music classes, ROTC CTE programs.

1:45:32 Just so many classes. So thank you guys, because I know that was a challenging effort, but we that the doors are open, right? They can go to the district website. I know.

1:45:36 I plan to put on my Facebook page in the coming week. But for the people who are getting the pep scholarships there, you can use those to purchase classes to come and join us. So please come and join us at your local school.

1:45:47 We’d love to have you. But I did again, just want to thank all the staff members that were part of that getting that off the ground so that we can get rolling with that this school year. Thank you.

1:45:57 That’s right. I will go next. All right.

1:46:09 I want to give a shout out and a thank you to the hundreds of volunteers that we have in the north end. So we strategically picked four different schools. A church up there did to really love on them to go pull weeds, cut tree limbs.

1:46:18 I mean, it was hot. It’s 110 degrees outside. But there were hundreds of volunteers, a lot of manpower and hours that were sacrificing just to make the school look welcome and presentable.

1:46:38 And so thank you to. To the Grove Church. Thank you to the hundreds of volunteers that spent their Saturday morning last Saturday cleaning up some, you know, fun yard work.

1:46:48 They omitted their yard work or skipped their yard work to go to this one. Also want to give a shout out to the transportation department. They brought to life an idea which was story time with the bus driver.

1:47:01 And so thank you thank you. Thank you for making that happen for some of our rising VPK students or potential kindergartners that are coming in to kind of break down the barrier of being afraid of a bus. If you think about how small they are and if they’re going to ride a bus, that’s pretty terrifying to a little person.

1:47:12 So thank you for making that dream a reality. And then hopefully we’ll be able to expand on it maybe in different areas and have other potential students come and check out what transportation looks like. I was not able to attend this, but I also want to say thank you to the Tyusville Police Department.

1:47:36 Every year they are one of our partners that helps in the North End for our security and our safety for our students. But they do a welcome back breakfast where they invite all the administrators and the SROs and it’s just a really great kind of kickoff to the year of hey, we’re here. We’re in this together.

1:48:07 Any kind of security changes or updates that gets informed at that time. And again, as a thank you to our SROs, because they are really standing in the gap and protecting our students. And then I also wanted to.

1:48:18 I have one more. Sorry, I have a bunch of them. There’s so many fun things this time of year.

1:48:33 Every. It seems like every day there is something happening in the community and it’s really where community shines. But I mentioned this person last year, probably mentioned the year before, but I’ll mention them every year because I just cannot give enough praise.

1:48:48 So there is a real estate agent in the North End, Edna Wilson, and she has kicked off this. It’s called Kicks for Kids and Board. I want to invite you on Sunday morning.

1:49:03 This is going to take place in the North End in Titusville. But this all came about because of the idea of not being able to show up at school with the new shoes and that being just something that was really near and dear to her heart. And so originally it started on a small scale.

1:49:11 This is the fifth year. This year we are slated to put 1400 pairs of brand new shoes on kids feet, which is amazing. That’s a lot of shoes.

1:49:18 There was a $30,000 anonymous donor that came through that said, yep, we want to donate to this mission. So on Sunday, if you’re not doing anything, I know most of us are at church on Sundays, but this is a really cool opportunity to get to serve and help some parents and some families that maybe don’t, you know, if you got three kids and you’re trying to put shoes on Them and figure out which size shoe to wear. That’s a little tricky to do with one parent.

1:49:23 So if you’re free and you want to come, I will give you the details of that. But it’s going to be an amazing event. Thank you, Edna, for your heart of gold and really serving a community in a way that meets a need that others maybe don’t do.

1:49:25 So thank you, we appreciate you. That’s all. Well, first off, I want to say I was at the new teacher academy, got to address them and it’s always, and it’s always amazing to see all of our new teachers, how excited they are, the questions that they ask and everything else.

1:49:36 And I just, I heard that many of you other ones were there when I was not there. I really appreciate you going up there. It means the world for them to see the school board and ask the questions directly and stuff like that.

1:49:48 So that was awesome. I did want to say today we attended a funeral. I wanted to say for one of our students, Ms. Vivian Sleath and what she, what happened there is something that’s impressive and many of you know Vivian’s story and I don’t want to continue into that direction, but the overwhelming support from our schools as a part of that child showed our connection to our children.

1:49:55 And I watched as some of our principals who have that connection on various levels were either speakers inside of that or inside of the funeral or were supported, supportive inside of pictures and everything else. And I think when we talk about BPs, those are the things that we look for is that community connection and that caring for our kids and that showed there. And I wanted to say thank you to all of you and Dr. Rendell and District staff that went there for that because that was a big heart check.

1:50:05 But watching our teams and their connection was phenomenal. And I do have to say thank you to all of the other individuals that that were there without naming everybody and everything else. So that was one.

1:50:13 And then I had a big thank you to you guys. You know, 12 months ago we recognized that the healthcare was an issue and we’ve all been going to SIAC meetings, we’ve all been fighting to get through it. And tonight we took two giant steps.

1:50:16 Savings, significant savings, better customer service, attacking areas that are the highest cost claimants inside of our health care. And that was because of all of you. There’s not a single individual up here that has not been committed to fixing our health care over the last 12 months.

1:50:26 And I wanted to say to all of you, thank you and Dr. Rendell, your guidance and leadership in that and Ryan Dufresne was phenomenal. And the teachers union and the other. And the 1010 Union for working over the last 18 months on this.

1:50:37 It’s been a phenomenal push and we’re doing some great things and the fireworks are about to. To begin. So now with these two movements, now it all begins.

1:50:51 So I just wanted to say thank you to all of you for your commitment. That’s it. Mr. Chair, I missed something and I just saw it.

1:50:59 I looked down. Is it okay if I do one more? I’m sorry. I would not have been able to sleep tonight if I didn’t do this.

1:51:05 So since we like to brag in our districts. We all do. Right.

1:51:09 All of our school data information came out and it’s a good time to reflect and look at where we can improve. But it’s also a great time to celebrate. And so I want to give a shout out to two principals, Joe Flora and Travis Diesel.

1:51:16 They were the only two in the secondary realm that had across the board games and it just shows to their dedication, their hard work, their love and what they’re investing in into those teachers. So shout out to them. I would not have been able to sleep tonight.

1:51:19 I wrote their names down here so I wouldn’t forget and then just kept reading down my list. So thank you to those schools. That was a Space coast and then that would be Madison Middle School.

1:51:30 Did an amazing job. There were many other schools that also had across the board games but wanted to really talk about them because they’re secondary and secondary is a whole different world than elementary. So thank you, thank you, thank you for the hard work.

1:51:44 To all those wonderful staff and those leaders that are leading up there. Thank you. All right, schools, I believe There was a Dr. Undell.

1:51:54 I know numbers. I don’t know schools. There was a third school that had.

1:52:00 Was in that same category, was there not? It was on the slide up there. I was probably Sherwood Elementary. Just off the top of my head, I think they’re.

1:52:09 I was, I was going secondary. I know, but I know there was three schools and we had talked about that. Dr. Undell, when you go, are you going to go into some data? I got my report right here.

1:52:22 I can start going right now. Are you going to go into any of the Rah Rah Rah and the A district, you know? Yeah, I was hoping I was just going to do it. I figured you guys were all going to do it.

1:52:30 Well, I was waiting. I thought we might too long since we Found out we forgot that we thought it’d be him. I could give it.

1:52:34 I’ve been forcing people to put it in presentations every day. So, like I’m there. I just want to give Dr. Andell the opportunity.

1:52:40 He gets the last of everything. Okay. You should do as much as you want and then.

1:52:48 All right, we’ll fill in. So, yes, it was good. It was a good presentation when we went through all the schools.

1:52:51 But, you know, my biggest is, you know, Brevard was an A district for the second year in a row and it had been quite a few years before we. Mr. Trent, did you say something? I didn’t hear you. Did you? We are.

1:53:07 Brevard was an A, is an A district second year in a row. Okay, I just wanted to reiterate that. Thank you.

1:53:13 So in addition to that, Mr. Thomas, you talked about the AP or the principal of the year. We had the AP of the year. Cole Manus from Cocoa Beach Junior Senior High School as a just an absolute rock star.

1:53:16 What time is it? He’s probably just now leaving the campus right now. He’s got to be the hardest working individual I’ve ever met. His motor goes.

1:53:23 It’s unbelievable. I mean, you lose weight just standing next to him. He moves so much.

1:53:36 So it was, well, deserving. All of them that were put up there was deserving. But it’s nice to see the hard work paying off.

1:53:38 So that was a great event, the superintendent summit. That was really nice to have like 400 administrators in the building learning things all day long. It’s nice that they at least get some of the time off.

1:53:47 They can come together and learn. So that was great. So we were able to learn more about our district.

1:53:59 Matt, what is it again? It’s an. I think you said a district. Right.

1:54:03 67% of our students say second year in a row. Second year. So 67% of our schools were both in A or B.

1:54:07 So I mean, that’s impressive. And of course there’s always going to be. Well, yeah, but this school and that school, we need some more improvement.

1:54:15 It’s absolutely. We have 100 schools. It’s going to be that way.

1:54:23 But tonight is a day to a time to reflect on accomplishments. Also, did you also know that there were 900 more applications for advanced placement kids going into advanced placement classes than there were last year? 900. That’s not a small.

1:54:32 That’s not like five. That’s not 10. That’s 900 more kids in advanced placement classes.

1:54:35 That’s incredible. Sorry to cut you off. I was just want to make sure.

1:54:44 No, that’s great. So we always talk about, well, so what? Now what? Right. And we do that in sports.

1:54:46 We’re going to do that here in Brevard. I know we’re in A for I’ve heard the last two years. And you know, my challenge to the board is for us to do it one more year.

1:54:56 Right. For next year. So my challenge to you.

1:54:58 All right, I’m going to go ahead and put it there. Is to make Brevard a again for 2025, 2026. So we’re going to go for the 3P.

1:55:11 So pat yourselves. But guess what? This goes out to the teachers, the administrators and the parents this last year in Brevard to help what, make our district an A again. Right.

1:55:18 Let’s do it again. Two in a row for the third year. Three.

1:55:58 Thank you so much. Three P teachers. The shirt was for you guys.

1:56:10 This is the last board meeting we have in the summer. So if, you know, there’s a. I think a pickleball paddle on here.

1:56:31 Get out. Enjoy yourselves in this lovely weather we have. Stay cool.

1:56:53 Let’s go. Parents, I’m sure you’re excited that we have two more weeks and our students are going to be back in the classrooms. So, you know, this is the last two weeks.

1:57:12 Many of you are teachers. I know. I’ve seen the parking lots.

1:57:22 I’ve been in some of the schools, they’ve been in there for a while now getting their classrooms ready. So we’re excited about this year and where we’re headed. And I’m going to turn it over to you, Dr. Rendell.

1:57:31 Hang on. I want to say one thing. Dr. Rendell, sorry to cut you off.

1:57:54 Go right ahead. There’s a lot that goes into what we did for an A school, but I wanted to also include. You know, we know that the largest impact inside the classroom is the teachers.

1:58:09 That is the number one. There’s no. There’s.

1:58:14 Every statistic shows that if the teachers are in there, that’s they’re the ones that make the largest impact. But we also have our bus drivers who are our bookends, our lunch ladies who are making sure that they’re fed and they’re touching those kids every day. So I just didn’t want to.

1:58:29 And our custodians to make sure that those classrooms are clean. Those touch those kids every day. And I just wanted to make sure that they got the shout out for all the hard work that they did, too.

1:58:45 So thank you. All right, so the first Thing is, was interesting at the beginning of this section of the meeting, not everybody was bragging about us being an A. And what I take away from that is that we’re back to the place where we expect to be an A. When I started my career here years ago, we expected to be an A every year. It was, how much of an improvement can we make? And so as an A district, the statistic that I think is the most impressive is that we had improvement across the district in 20 of 21 tested subject areas or grades, 20 of 21 testing points improvements.

1:58:56 Now, last year I was really excited because we were 18 out of 21, and this time 20 out of 21. So we’re definitely moving in the right direction. We as a district earned more total points than we did last year, a higher percentage of points earned.

1:59:05 So a stronger A as a district. Now, are there some schools that slipped and do we need to work with those schools to improve? Absolutely, absolutely. But a lot to celebrate, you know, kind of putting ourselves back in that position to be, to expect to be an A. And it’s all about, how much can we improve? Mr. Susan’s right.

1:59:11 We definitely want to make sure that the teachers and the students who did the work in the classroom get the bulk of the praise for that. It’s not us up here, and it’s not, but the supporting role of all the other people in the district, you know, that’s the thing. We talk about two types of people in the district, those who teach and those who support those who teach.

1:59:20 And so team effort, a true team effort for us as a district to maintain that high performance and improve. And then how can we get even, you know, more points and a higher percentage for next year and make sure that the schools that slipped a little are back on the right track and moving forward. So a lot to celebrate.

1:59:24 We’ve kind of celebrated over the last couple of weeks at workshops, but this was our first business meeting. And so I was expecting confetti and. No, I’m just kidding.

1:59:32 But, but I love the fact that it’s almost like now we expect it. Okay. And that’s, that’s a good place to be, but a lot of hard work goes into it. Again, the teachers and the students are the ones that, you know, the teachers delivered the lesson plans they taught, and the kids learned and exhibited what they had learned on the test. So shout out to them, but also to all the supporting cast. And then aside from that, I do want to share some facts to dispute some of the things that were said tonight, we. At the conclusion of the 23, 24 school year, we had a 91% retention rate. It’s pretty good. At the conclusion of this year, we improved to 93% retention rate. We’re on track to be 98. And this is classroom teachers. I’m only talking about classroom teachers. So this narrative that teachers are leaving us in droves is inaccurate. The numbers don’t say that. So 91% retention rate in 23, 24, 93% retention rate this school year that we just finished. And we’re on track to be 98% hired when we open the school year. Most businesses right now would love to be 98% hired. Now, any vacancy we have in an instructional position is one too many. But the narrative that was presented earlier is inaccurate. It’s a great place to work. It’s a great place to teach, and the numbers show that. Thank you. All right, I see that we have crickets in the room. That’s great. All right, we’re now at. Is that all, Dr. Rendell? Yeah, thank you for that, Mr. Chair. Yeah, sure, go ahead. Just a quick question. What’s our total number of teachers that we have? Approximately well over 4,000. Like 4,500 or so. 4,500. Somewhere in that range. All right. All right. We will take a short recess before the non agenda item public comment portion of tonight’s agenda starts. Okay. All right, Sam, It.