Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
0:00 Thank you.
1:00 Please stand for the pleasure.
1:01 Welcome to the Institute of Life of the United States of America
1:11 and to the Republic of the State, one nation, under God, and to
1:16 the report, and to the review of the Justice of God.
1:23 On today’s agenda, please, we’ll have Dr. Udell and approve all
1:26 of our presentations.
1:28 Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair.
1:29 We’ll dive into the data to see how we progressed over the last
1:37 several years.
1:39 Then we’re going to have a presentation on the proposed
1:42 instructional calendar for 26-27.
1:45 And then we have a short list of policy revisions to consider
1:49 with the board.
1:50 But the first presentation is going to be on our graduation
1:52 rates, and I’m going to ask Lena Weibelt to come up.
1:55 She’s one of our directors in the school leadership department.
1:58 She actually oversaw the graduation rate process, the tracking
2:02 of data and making sure schools were doing everything they can
2:06 to make sure kids graduate.
2:08 And she deserves a lot of the credit for the numbers that she is
2:13 going to share.
2:15 As I’ve said before, this is a K-12 measure of our success as a
2:18 district, but the high schools have to do their part and make
2:22 sure we get the kids across the finish lines.
2:24 And Lena has been instrumental in making sure they do their part.
2:28 And we have really good news to share, so I’m going to take some
2:31 time to go through a PowerPoint and really dive a lot deeper
2:35 into the data rather than just celebrate the fact that we have a
2:40 93% graduation rate as a district.
2:43 But, you know, some of our schools have done some big work, and
2:45 we want to make sure they get recognized.
2:46 So, Lena, I’m going to turn it over to you.
2:48 Thank you.
2:49 Good morning.
2:50 I am really excited to be here to review our 2024-2025
2:54 graduation rate with a five-year analysis of our progress.
2:58 So, as Dr. Randell just said, graduation rate is part of our BPS
3:02 strategic plan.
3:04 And while I will be speaking today to the great work that our
3:06 high schools have done, graduation is truly a full K-12
3:11 initiative.
3:13 Without the hard work that’s being done in the elementary
3:15 schools and middle schools to prepare our students for high
3:18 school, we would not have the success that we will be seeing
3:21 today.
3:22 As part of our strategic plan, our key performance indicator is
3:27 to achieve a 95% graduation rate for all subgroups with a metric
3:32 of deploying a district-wide cohort tracking system at 100% for
3:38 BPS high schools.
3:39 I’m very proud to say that we have fully deployed our metric.
3:44 So, we have a tracking system that is updated and monitored
3:48 monthly.
3:49 Yay.
3:50 We are very excited about that.
3:56 For the 2024-2025 school year, Brevard Public Schools’ official
4:03 graduation rate is 92.7%, which the state will round up to 93%.
4:09 So, we’re super excited about that.
4:11 This is the highest graduation rate in BPS’s history.
4:16 That we could go back and find, it is the highest graduation
4:19 rate that we have had in BPS history.
4:21 We have been able to accomplish the success by implementing
4:33 systems at all of our schools with emphasis on awareness of how
4:40 the state calculates graduation rate.
4:43 Under Mr. Ramer’s leadership, we were able to make this a
4:47 monthly topic of discussion during our leadership team meeting
4:51 director’s time to drive home the importance of having systems
4:55 in place at every school that would outlast personnel changes
4:59 and that everyone involved with anything to do related to
5:03 graduation rate would know how important their role is in the
5:07 success that we’re having.
5:09 So, that has been what our emphasis is.
5:13 So, this, our systems are working.
5:16 So, that we can say.
5:17 There were six of our 17 high schools that increased more than 5%
5:22 from the 2023-2024 school year to the 2024-2025 school year.
5:29 I know you can read this slide, but I’m hoping that you will
5:33 indulge me because I think the accomplishments of these schools
5:37 is exciting enough to read out loud.
5:40 So, you’ll see, we’ll start from the bottom, that Palm Bay High
5:44 School for 2023-2024 had an 84.7 grad rate and they moved up to
5:49 90% which was a 5.3% increase.
5:53 Astronaut High School started at an 89.4% and went to a 95.5%
5:59 which was a 6.1% increase.
6:02 O’Galley High School, 83.7% to a 90.6% which was a 6.9% increase.
6:11 Coco High School went from 71.7% to an 80.3% in 2024-2025 which
6:19 was an 8.6% increase.
6:22 Bayside High School went from 80.4% to a 90.5% which was a 10.1%
6:29 increase.
6:30 And BVS went, our virtual school went from 87.8% to 100% and 24-25%
6:37 which was a 12.2% increase.
6:39 So, those are some really exciting numbers that I felt really
6:44 needed to be shouted out.
6:47 And again, our systems are working.
6:53 15 of our 17 high schools either increased or maintained their
6:57 graduation rates with Edgewood and West Shore maintaining 100%
7:02 consistently throughout the years.
7:07 We have 10 schools with a graduation rate of over 95%.
7:12 And those are Astronaut, BVS, Cocoa Beach, Edgewood, Mel High,
7:18 Merritt Island, Satellite, Space Coast, Vieira, and West Shore.
7:24 So, before we leave the slide, I want to note that all but one
7:27 of our high schools has above 90%.
7:30 90% or higher all but one of our high schools.
7:32 Yeah.
7:33 So, we are moving.
7:34 That’s great.
7:35 Getting closer to our goal.
7:36 This is a view of our graduation progress over the last five
7:43 years.
7:44 I want to make a point to talk about the school year 2021, which
7:49 was the school year we did not officially get a school grade due
7:54 to COVID.
7:56 During that year, the state offered COVID waivers for testing
7:59 for school.
8:00 So, that data is labeled with an asterisk.
8:04 So, really, as we’re looking at our increases, we want to focus
8:08 on 21-22 to 24-25.
8:13 So, just to clarify, I’m going to interrupt.
8:14 Go ahead.
8:14 Yes, please.
8:15 I already told her I’m going to do this numerous times.
8:17 So, for the people watching in the audience that may not
8:20 understand all of that, in 2021, that first data point on the
8:24 left of the slide, that was one of the last years we were still
8:27 coming out of the pandemic, so to speak.
8:30 And the state waived the testing requirements for any seniors
8:33 that year, so in other words, if a senior hadn’t passed Algebra
8:37 I’s EOC or hadn’t passed the 10th grade reading test, they waived
8:40 that graduation requirement.
8:42 So, in a sense, that should be, should have been the highest
8:47 graduation rate ever for us.
8:49 And as we go through these slides, we’re going to go school by
8:52 school, and you can see that when you go through them.
8:55 In 2021, some of our schools did have a really high graduation
8:57 rate.
8:58 Some of our schools didn’t, even with the waiver.
9:00 And so, obviously, what we’ve done, what we’ve put in place
9:04 since then, has paid big dividends.
9:06 So, if you want to compare apples to apples, it’s the 21-22, you
9:11 know, the second data point to the far right.
9:15 Like, that’s, those are four-year cohort graduation rate
9:18 comparisons, no waivers or anything like that.
9:20 So, that’s the progress that I’m going to really kind of
9:24 highlight in that time period.
9:26 So, for example, on this slide, as a district, from 21-22 to 24-25,
9:32 we had a 5% increase as a district.
9:34 So, that’s some pretty good stuff.
9:36 So, when we, as we go through school by school, and we’re going
9:39 to look at some subgroups in a minute, you know, that 2021 is
9:44 kind of, has an asterisk for a reason.
9:47 That was even with waivers, you know, so, sorry, Leah.
9:51 No, that’s a, now, please.
9:52 So, shortly after Mr. Raymer got, got to the district and became
9:56 our chief of schools, is really when we started to have this
9:59 conversation.
10:00 So, to piggyback on what Dr. Rendell was saying, that’s really
10:03 when we started having this conversation about how are we
10:06 tracking and how are we monitoring our graduation rate.
10:09 And that was when we really started looking at our systems.
10:12 Do our schools have systems in place?
10:15 What are those systems?
10:16 And can they stand the test of time when we have turnover in our
10:19 schools?
10:20 And does everyone who touches the grad rate understand the
10:24 importance of it?
10:25 And so, that’s a big part of the systems that we run through
10:28 monthly at our leadership team meeting.
10:31 So, this is another slide that I’m very excited about.
10:37 And I do believe Dr. Rendell will probably even have more to say
10:40 about this one.
10:41 But this is our subgroup graduation rate over five years.
10:47 As you can see, we have steadily increased over the last several
10:53 years.
10:54 This is part of our strategic plan.
10:56 We do still have some work to do.
10:59 But our strategic plan does say that our performance indicator
11:03 is to get to 95% in all subgroups.
11:06 And you can see in our multiracial for 24-25, we were at 92.4
11:11 already there.
11:13 But beginning in our 21-22 school year, you can see that in
11:18 pretty much almost every area, we have steadily increased in our
11:24 subgroup.
11:25 So, that’s just another part of our systems that our schools are
11:28 monitoring.
11:29 So, this is one of my favorite slides.
11:32 So, Lena knew I was going to jump in on this one.
11:34 Again, if you’re looking at the colored bars, the bar on the
11:38 left of each group is the blue bar for 2021.
11:42 So, that’s the asterisk.
11:43 You know, so that’s with waivers.
11:45 So, then the yellowish bar is the second bar is really the first
11:51 for 21-22, the first apples-to-apples comparison to 24-25.
11:56 So, if you look for economically disadvantaged, that first subgroup
12:00 over the last four years, we’ve made a 9% increase.
12:04 Almost a 10% increase for that group.
12:06 If you look at the black African-American subgroup, 7% increase
12:12 from 21-22 to 24-25.
12:15 If you look at multiracial, a 7% increase from 85 to 92.
12:21 Students with disabilities, a 10% increase from 21-22 to 24-25.
12:27 And then, the one that I think is really encouraging is the last
12:32 subgroup, English language learners.
12:35 You can see if you go from 21-22, it was 65%.
12:40 And for 24-25, up to 82.7, almost 83%.
12:44 Now, you also look at the blue bar in that group.
12:48 When we had the waivers for the state testing, this group was,
12:52 that’s the highest they had ever achieved.
12:56 So, it shows that that’s the barrier for them, is the state
12:59 testing.
13:00 It’s not the graduation number of credits.
13:02 It’s not the GPA.
13:03 It’s probably the 10th grade English language arts assessment,
13:07 even more so than Algebra I.
13:08 But, a 17% increase from 21-22 to 24-25.
13:14 Really great work by the teachers at the high schools and the
13:17 teachers throughout the system.
13:19 Really great work by the principals and the guidance counselors,
13:23 college and career specialists, everybody who’s had a hand in it.
13:27 So, the subgroup data is very encouraging.
13:30 I don’t know if you caught, though, that Ms. Weibull mentioned,
13:34 in the strategic plan, our ambitious goal is for all subgroups
13:37 to be at 95% in five years.
13:39 So, we’re moving in the right direction, but that’s a pretty
13:42 ambitious goal.
13:43 So, we’ll see if we can get there.
13:46 Yes.
13:46 So, I’d like to now take you on a visual journey, a five-year
13:52 journey, of our grad rate for each of our individual high
13:56 schools.
13:56 And, their progress along the way.
13:58 So, as Dr. Rendell and I have been talking about, 2021 with the
14:04 asterisk, and then beyond that, you can see the increases over
14:09 the last several years in our school’s grad rate.
14:13 So, this is Astronaut High School.
14:15 Even in 2021, with the waivers, they were at 86.5.
14:20 And, for 2024-25, they were at 95.5, which would really round up
14:24 to a 96.
14:25 I would like to say that.
14:26 So, you can see the work that that school has been doing.
14:31 Bayside High School, a little bit ups and downs there, but they
14:37 increased, as I had said before, over 10 percentage points from
14:42 2023-2024.
14:46 Brevard Virtual School ended up at 100% this past school year.
14:52 CoCoCo High School, so you could really see the work that CoCo’s
14:57 doing in 2021-2022, they were at a 66.8, which was borderline
15:04 for the state to kind of come in and talk to us about that.
15:09 And you could really see the work that they made, but then that
15:12 really big jump from 2023-2024, from 71.7 to 80.3 and 2024-25.
15:21 So, you could really see the work that they’re doing.
15:23 They also have a very high ELL population there.
15:26 So, they’re definitely working with those subgroups to increase
15:30 their graduation rate.
15:32 That’s a 13% increase from 2021-2022, so 13% in four years, but
15:37 the big jump was last year almost 10%.
15:39 CoCo Beach, again, you can see where their data has gone.
15:49 O’Galley High School took a little bit of a dip, but has come
15:54 back up.
15:54 Edgewood, it’s our consistency, our consistency of our 100%.
16:01 We want to make sure that we’re recognizing those guys as well.
16:04 Heritage High School, you can certainly see that trajectory from
16:10 21-22 to that 24% that they just received.
16:14 Melbourne High School, here again, all in the right direction.
16:19 And, again, very proud to say, as Dr. Rendell had pointed out
16:23 before, that many of these schools,
16:26 even with the waivers, the testing waivers in 2021, their grad
16:32 rates are still higher now.
16:34 Without any of those waivers, right, with just the work and the
16:37 systems that they’ve been putting in place, are higher.
16:40 Palm Bay High School, this is another one, 21-22.
16:43 They were at 76.5, and they got a 90% graduation rate in 24-25.
16:51 Would you skip Merritt Island?
16:52 She went very fast.
16:55 Oh, sorry.
16:56 You want to go back to Merritt Island?
16:57 I’m going to give them their due.
16:59 Okay.
17:01 Yeah.
17:01 So, Merritt Island just had kind of a, just a little arc there.
17:05 But, again, still higher than they were the year that we had the
17:10 COVID waivers.
17:12 Palm Bay, Rockledge.
17:15 Rockledge was, you know, I almost said 93%, if we round that up,
17:20 for the 24-25 school year.
17:23 So, again, moving in the right direction.
17:26 Satellite.
17:28 So, again, even higher than what they had in 2021 with the waivers.
17:33 They’re at 98%.
17:35 Space Coast, you can certainly see that trajectory there.
17:41 They were probably one of our lowest, I guess, in 2021 with the
17:45 waivers, right, at 84%, but sitting right now at a 97%
17:51 graduation rate with the systems and work that they’re doing at
17:55 their school.
17:56 Titusville High School, another one, is doing great work there.
18:01 You can see the progress that they’ve made over the last several
18:06 years with a 94.2 last year.
18:09 Vera High School staying pretty consistent there with a 98.6,
18:15 even, but still improving, right?
18:18 I mean, it’s hard to improve when you’re that high at a
18:21 traditional high school, but still making that progress.
18:25 So, we’re very proud of them.
18:27 And then, West Shore is our other school that we want to show
18:31 that has been consistent with the 100% over the years.
18:35 So, for my last slide, our key graduation data point, 10 of our
18:41 17 schools hold a graduation rate of over 95%, as we’ve
18:46 previously said.
18:48 15 of 17 schools increase or maintain their graduation rate from
18:53 23-24 to 24-25.
18:56 And this one, I definitely want to highlight.
18:58 Our traditional BPS schools hold a graduation rate of 94.5%.
19:06 So, when we take out all of the other schools and we just add up
19:10 our 17 schools that we’ve been talking about today,
19:13 their graduation rate combined would be a 94.5% graduation rate.
19:19 And then, 17 of 17 of our schools have maintained or increased
19:22 their graduation rate over the last five years.
19:25 And that’s all I have.
19:27 Dr. Rendell.
19:29 Questions from the board?
19:30 I mean, I have a comment.
19:32 But I just, I am so proud of the secondary world and the work
19:36 that they are doing.
19:37 And I continually tell my principals in the North End, I’m like,
19:40 you guys are killing it.
19:41 You are rock stars.
19:42 And so, you know, for all of the naysayers that publish things
19:45 that are maybe not favorable, I’m like, this is the end-all tell-all
19:49 of are we doing the good work that truly gets these kids across
19:53 the graduation stage and set up for success in life.
19:56 And there is no denying this.
19:58 So, thank you so much to the entire team.
20:00 I know your team is walking those schools and tracking this data
20:03 and it matters.
20:04 It is so significant.
20:05 So, thank you.
20:05 Thank you, Ms. Wybell.
20:08 I always appreciate your work and Mr. Ramer’s team, everybody,
20:12 putting those systems in place are really important so that our
20:14 schools can continue to be successful.
20:17 And the turnover factor is important, too.
20:19 Just a question about the last slide.
20:22 We talk about the BPS schools or traditional BPS schools.
20:25 That includes these 17, but the 92.7, does that, the extra,
20:30 would that include, like, also Gardendale, also the charter
20:34 schools, also whatever other alternate pathways we have?
20:39 Okay.
20:39 Yes, ma’am.
20:39 Did you just say the charters are bringing us down?
20:41 Could be, possibly.
20:45 Is that what you said?
20:47 So, I, the other thing that I wanted to ask was, I think I
20:52 remember this correctly, but,
20:54 when we talk about school grades, the school grade formula is
20:58 lag data.
20:58 So, this is the data that will go into this year’s school and
21:01 district grades, correct?
21:03 Yes, ma’am.
21:03 So, we’re looking really awesome before we ever go into May.
21:08 That is the one cell they already have the data for.
21:11 Yes, ma’am.
21:11 That’s awesome.
21:12 Well, I’m liking this cell.
21:13 I’m liking this cell.
21:14 So, kudos all around at the district level and the school level
21:17 for getting our kids to this level of success.
21:19 And I look forward to those numbers continuing to rise.
21:23 Yes, ma’am.
21:24 All right.
21:26 So, great.
21:27 This is good stuff, right?
21:28 I mean, and this is where we can talk about this a little bit.
21:31 It’s hard to talk this down.
21:34 But, if you really peel back some of the onion here, it really
21:38 is years in the making.
21:41 We’re going to hand it to Dr. Rendell when he had the vision of,
21:43 you know, changing the structure at district where we have Mr.
21:47 Raymer in charge of the admin.
21:48 So, he’s focused.
21:50 Yes.
21:50 You know, I was in his war room at Merritt Island High.
21:53 So, if you could just take that intensity and bring it
21:57 throughout our district, we were going to be in great shape.
22:00 You know, you’ve heard me say this before.
22:02 Leadership matters.
22:02 Yes.
22:03 And here’s where we can sit back and see the fruit of that.
22:07 And then, can’t say that without giving props to Ms. Harris and
22:12 her team and Ms. Dampere and their team.
22:15 So, it is a huge team effort.
22:18 And, of course, we can trickle it all down to the schools and
22:20 the teachers and, you know, all that.
22:22 But, this is where it makes us kind of proud because we had some
22:25 guy over here telling us what he’s going to do and his vision.
22:28 And, we’re seeing the results of that now.
22:32 So, it’s just, it’s good.
22:34 And, the future looks good, too.
22:36 As a former testing coordinator, myself, of getting students
22:42 across the stage and how difficult that is, we can sit back and,
22:47 you know,
22:47 and props to all the testing coordinators out there because it
22:53 is a very, very tiresome job, right?
22:56 And, people, I think, in the community don’t even realize what
23:00 they do and they need the help of the entire school to do that.
23:04 So, it’s a good day to sit back and say, you know, good job.
23:09 But, you know, I can’t add any more.
23:12 And, I do believe, just if I could add one thing, is that our
23:15 systems are really part of that awareness, right?
23:17 Including our testing coordinators.
23:19 Like, every, I think a big part of why we see that increase is
23:23 that everyone involved now in grad rate understands what it
23:27 takes to move that needle, right?
23:29 Yeah.
23:29 It used to be, well, you know, the kid’s gone, so we’re just
23:32 going to withdraw them with this easy withdrawal code, right?
23:36 But, not understanding how that affects our grad rate, right?
23:40 So, it was just making everyone that touches any of those pieces
23:45 aware of what, of how that affects us positively or negatively.
23:50 Right.
23:52 I think you mentioned something that is a very valid point.
23:54 A student is in a cohort, the second they set foot in that grade,
23:57 in ninth grade, they enter high school.
24:00 That is part of the cohort.
24:01 Yes, ma’am.
24:01 So, you must track it.
24:03 So, the illusion that, oh, we’re kicking a kid out or we’re just
24:05 like, oh, that one’s a tough student, that’s not what’s
24:08 happening here.
24:09 This is us really standing alongside that student and getting
24:11 them to the finish line.
24:13 So, that’s very significant.
24:14 Sorry, yeah, I just made me think of the cohort conversation
24:17 because I know a lot of people will say, oh, well, you’re just,
24:21 you know, you’re getting rid of the bad kids, so your graduation
24:23 rate goes up.
24:24 That’s not true.
24:25 Right.
24:26 And that’s always confusing because, like, you have 5% or 7.3%
24:30 dropping out.
24:31 Not necessarily.
24:32 They’re just not all crossing the finish line in that four-year
24:35 period.
24:35 Right.
24:35 That’s really important to know because some kids, it just takes
24:39 them an extra semester.
24:40 That’s right.
24:41 And I think, are you guys good?
24:43 Good.
24:44 I think, for me, some of the, as we get closer to that 95%, it
24:48 becomes difficult because there’s outside external factors in a
24:53 lot of these children’s lives that we have to make up for.
24:58 And it’s difficult because some of these students may not have
25:00 the same opportunities.
25:02 But I wanted to thank Dr. Rendell and our staff because I know
25:06 that we work very hard to fill those gaps with community groups,
25:09 with other people.
25:11 And I think, when we talk about the graduation rate, it’s not
25:14 only just for our teachers in the classroom, which is a large
25:16 part of it.
25:17 It’s not only the administrators in the building, but it’s the
25:19 bus drivers who drive the kids to the schools.
25:21 It’s the administration at the school district that’s super
25:24 focused on a strategic plan that actually has metrics.
25:27 It’s working with our community groups like Children’s Hunger
25:30 Project and others so that they can go ahead and support our
25:33 kids.
25:33 It’s a holistic community involvement.
25:35 And that, for me, is what really makes this graduation rate.
25:39 Dr. Rendell has always said this is the most important number
25:42 and point of reference for a school district.
25:45 And it is because it doesn’t just talk about the kids in the
25:47 classrooms or teachers in the classrooms and other people.
25:50 It talks about us as a whole, the policies that this board has
25:53 passed in order to support those initiatives and everything else
25:56 and the staff that’s there.
25:58 I just wanted to say thank you from the bottom of my heart.
26:00 I truly appreciate everything that you guys are doing, being a
26:03 teacher and a board member in the school district.
26:06 I’ve seen it on all ends and everything else.
26:08 And I know that we are humming in the right direction.
26:11 And I wanted to say thank you.
26:12 That’s it.
26:12 Dr. Rendell.
26:13 You know what, I’m going to give him the stage, but when you
26:17 said that, we’re going to go, absolutely, you touched on it.
26:22 But I want to thank, you know, we can’t educate any of our kids
26:25 if they’re not in our schools.
26:27 So, again, another shout out to Rashad Wilson out there to
26:31 making sure our buses run as smoothly as they do and being fully
26:36 staffed.
26:37 And then, of course, you know, we need IT, so ET now, right?
26:44 But, again, it just goes back to the leadership in the team that
26:48 we have.
26:49 And we couldn’t be prouder of them.
26:51 And it’s easy to represent a winning team.
26:54 So we’re not quite at our goals, which I’m sure Dr. Rendell is
26:56 going to talk about, but we’re headed in the right direction.
27:00 It is truly a team effort, and with Ms. Dampierre’s attendance,
27:04 right, their campaign that they’re doing this year, that can
27:07 only help with what we’re doing, too.
27:09 Because, again, like you said, we can’t educate them if they’re
27:12 not there.
27:12 So with the buses and then the attendance, it is really truly a
27:15 team effort.
27:16 Speaking of the attendance, Matt, you mentioned about the
27:20 policies and the emphasis that this board, you know,
27:24 we’re strong enough to be behind of getting kids in the
27:27 classroom and the tardies and the phones.
27:29 I mean, all this stuff is going.
27:31 You know, when they – it’s early.
27:34 I guess I can talk for a second.
27:35 Go on the sub-box, man.
27:36 Listen, it’s 11 o’clock.
27:39 You know, some of our teams have ended in the football season,
27:42 and you look back at some and say,
27:44 how did they turn that around so quickly?
27:46 I am from Chicago, so I have a little bit of experience on this.
27:49 And it’s everything from the person who’s, you know, running the
27:53 parking lot of handing out the towels to the communications.
27:57 You know, everyone has a change of attitude, and you can change
28:01 things quickly.
28:03 You saw some of those numbers, I’m sure.
28:04 Those are mind-boggling of turning around graduation rate, which
28:09 is the ultimate, you know, number that you want to look at.
28:13 That’s why students are in our schools, and the parents feel
28:16 comfortable putting them in Bavard Public Schools,
28:18 and they should with numbers that we have like this.
28:21 So, once again, thank you so much as a team.
28:24 All right.
28:24 Thank you.
28:25 Hang on, hang on.
28:27 Just because you did it, I want to run down and tell everybody
28:29 that was –
28:30 No, no, no, because if we’re going to honor a couple, we’ve got
28:32 to honor all, right?
28:33 So, Rashad, thank you.
28:36 And the people that may not have been mentioned were the custodians
28:38 and some of the other individuals.
28:40 Food service.
28:40 That’s Kevin.
28:41 I was getting there.
28:41 I was getting there, Kevin.
28:42 Kevin, get them out.
28:43 We went to do real chicken inside of our schools, right?
28:47 Literally, like put real chicken in front as opposed to some of
28:50 the reprocessed stuff.
28:51 Why is that crazy?
28:52 That seems like –
28:52 But the proteins and the opportunities that the students have as
28:55 far as meals is incredible.
28:57 Oh, it’s lunch, not like real chickens.
28:58 Right.
28:59 Like not real chicken.
28:59 real chicken okay lunch but anyways that was before my time on
29:03 the board so what were we feeding them
29:04 before so it’s a processed warmed up kind of like finger thing
29:09 and i remember it was a chicken finger
29:11 that was reprocessed and stuff like that so he moved to do that
29:15 yeah and it’s in kevin thornton
29:17 and some of his other things that he has with his many people
29:19 don’t know the amount of the level of
29:21 work that they have done inside of those food bars and
29:23 everything else and then you have
29:25 um russell cheatham i mean how many promethean boards do we have
29:28 inside how many um you know
29:30 what i mean one-to-one as far as laptops and stuff like that
29:33 inside the classroom and then you have
29:35 miss dampier back there who’s research redone the entire
29:38 discipline process and then put people out
29:40 of esf and put them into the schools and had more hands-to-hands
29:43 on everything else dr rindell
29:45 am i taking away your thunder here you’re good but um and then
29:50 you have uh um brian dufrank who has a
29:53 you know incredible retention and recruitment right now and you
29:56 go all the way down and you have officer
29:59 klein who has all the security that has us all making sure that
30:01 we’re safe on a regular basis
30:03 and we just start going all the way down so thank you i
30:06 appreciate you all right dr rindell
30:08 there’s really not too much else i can say um no the numbers are
30:13 great and it’s unfortunate some
30:15 of our friends that were with us earlier today didn’t stay to
30:17 see the numbers hopefully they’ll watch
30:18 the replay um we measure what we do like you know what gets
30:24 measured gets gets done and so having
30:27 all these data points and tracking these students and making
30:30 sure they’re successful it’s a team effort
30:31 everybody should celebrate these numbers and be encouraged that
30:35 you know we’re moving in the right
30:37 direction with such pace too moving at a quick pace um i do want
30:41 to point out 15 of the 17 high schools
30:44 improved their graduation rate from last year the two that didn’t
30:47 were already performing at a very high
30:49 level satellite and merritt island they both were at 98 96 97 so
30:54 you know all really good numbers and
30:56 some big jumps for some schools in the last two years or so and
31:00 you know we know how to do it so we just
31:02 have to do it each year and maybe you know try and squeeze out a
31:04 few more points here or there but a
31:06 great job by the team uh we did a great job with the
31:09 presentation so thank you and now we’ll move to the
31:12 next presentation so we’re going to have mr pruitt who also is
31:16 in the school leadership department
31:18 under mr ramer and he has the enviable task yeah of convening
31:23 the calendar committee
31:25 which helps put together the instructional calendar each year
31:29 instructional calendar is a team process
31:33 there’s a lot of people involved there are a lot of rules
31:36 associated with the calendar some from the
31:39 state for example we cannot start school till august 10th there
31:43 are some other rules some of them in
31:45 contract with the teachers union and 1010 so there are all kinds
31:49 of things that go into
31:50 the making of the instructional calendar and it it’s actually
31:54 pretty difficult to do and this calendar
31:58 that mr pruitt’s going to present i used to be in charge of this
32:01 process in a previous role in a
32:03 previous district so i know how wonderful it is and the calendar
32:06 that he’s presenting today i think is
32:08 one of the best i’ve ever seen so hey dr rindell before we leave
32:12 the previous topic sorry i just i had to do a
32:14 little research because i before we get started getting emails
32:17 and phone calls about something
32:18 um just to clarify we only have one charter school that goes all
32:22 the way well actually we have a few
32:24 but i just was looking at one they’re like at 98.9 so i i just
32:28 want to make sure the but when we talk
32:30 about our overall cohort we have may have some schools like our
32:32 alternative schools and ever own things
32:35 that get counted in our overall graduation rate that don’t have
32:38 a specific school grade so when we talk
32:39 about that i think that’s where we’re where it may be lower than
32:44 the 94. am i am i that’s correct
32:46 going the right direction yes yep okay i just wanted to make
32:48 sure before some of our charter schools
32:49 start sending us nasty grams three charter schools that count
32:53 three okay i wondered i’m like yeah
32:56 all right thank you all right thank you good morning morning so
33:02 i’ve got the pleasure of sharing the uh
33:05 2026-27 proposed calendar uh process with you and then kind of
33:09 go over the calendar that we put
33:10 together and like dr rendell said uh you’re pretty excited about
33:13 the calendar that we that we are
33:15 proposing for the 26-27 school year uh some some unique things
33:18 that we’ve added in there for for next
33:20 year i just kind of wanted to start just briefly uh go through
33:24 the the process you know we met with the
33:26 calendar committee at the end of october uh you can see here uh
33:30 list of the the members who participated
33:33 just about every department we have here for brevard public
33:35 schools and several school principals as
33:37 well and our partners with brevard federation of teachers also
33:41 participated in the calendar committee
33:44 discussion uh just a few things you know like dr rendell alluded
33:48 to a minute ago there’s a lot of
33:50 parameters that we must follow in building the calendar uh it is
33:54 um it’s fun uh there’s a lot of things that
33:56 we’ve got to make sure that we we stick to state statutes and uh
34:00 and state board rules um you hear
34:02 a lot about minutes and hours um you know just so you know as we
34:05 move forward with the the calendar
34:06 presentation today the calendar that we’re proposing for 26-27
34:10 meets all the minute requirements all the
34:12 hour requirements uh per the state um you know the first day of
34:15 school cannot start earlier than august 10th
34:18 not many people know that um you know we’re lucky in the 26-27
34:21 school year that august 10th is a monday
34:23 you know so we’re able to to look at starting school uh the
34:26 first day that we’re eligible to
34:28 to do that uh some considerations that we talked about during
34:31 our our committee meeting was uh professional
34:34 uh development professional learning days teacher work days
34:36 hurricane makeup days uh you know fortunately
34:39 this year knock on wood we didn’t have to deal with that but
34:42 that is also part of our calendar
34:43 committee discussion and what we put into uh building the the
34:47 calendar for the the next year and then the last
34:50 point on their dates for graduation you’re looking at
34:52 opportunities to as you guys know seniors graduate
34:55 typically before the the last school day of the year so just
34:58 ensuring that there’s enough uh instructional
35:00 minutes built in so that they can do that again i mentioned uh
35:04 minutes versus days uh this is a conversation
35:07 that we started uh with bft uh last year we were working uh
35:10 through uh adding some of the things that we
35:13 talked about in the that will be in this calendar for 26-27 um
35:16 you know anytime we were able to get the
35:18 minutes we can add opportunities for teachers and students uh as
35:22 you can see here um you know the
35:23 minimum is 4050 minutes for the semester classes in high school
35:27 and 8100 minutes for the uh year-long
35:30 classes in order to to achieve credit for our high school
35:35 classes for the 26-27 current tentative calendar
35:39 you can see that we are well above the minimum requirements of
35:42 the state which kind of builds
35:43 in a little bit of the the instructional minutes 3.46 additional
35:47 days worth of instruction in the first
35:48 semester and 3.26 days of instruction second semester and i’ll
35:53 get to that here in a few minutes when
35:54 we start looking at um with the instructional time and makeup
35:58 days if if they’re needed next year
36:00 so i’m gonna pause right here i’m gonna pull up the proposed um
36:05 26-27 calendar
36:07 and i apologize it’s a lot uh there’s a there’s a lot of little
36:13 numbers in there it’s hard to see
36:15 uh but again you know we start looking at the first semester
36:18 second semester breakdown
36:20 uh of the proposed calendar for next year um you know one of the
36:24 we’ll start the beginning uh pre-planning
36:26 this current school year previous school years typically was six
36:29 days of pre-planning uh what
36:32 we’re looking at for next year is a five-day pre-planning week
36:35 um you know it starts uh teachers will
36:37 come back in august versus starting at the end of july for pre-planning
36:40 uh there’s still going to be the
36:42 professional learning opportunity built in uh during pre-planning
36:44 you’ll see it on the calendar there
36:46 on august 5th it’ll be a four-hour professional learning uh
36:49 followed by teacher planning uh it built into
36:52 that uh that week of pre-planning so we still have the
36:55 opportunity to to do any new initiatives or
36:57 adoptions or materials and things that teachers need in order to
37:00 get started for the school year so
37:01 that opportunity will still be there like this year our early
37:07 release days will begin the second week
37:10 of the school the school year not the first friday so the second
37:14 friday of the of the school year will
37:16 be our first early release and those remain at 60 minutes like
37:19 they are this year the calendar as we
37:22 have put together for for next year it is 90 days each semester
37:26 so it’s kind of balanced got 180 day
37:28 school year finishing before memorial day again um if you’ll
37:32 notice the uh the new the yellow here in
37:37 in september september 25th uh that is that is new this is one
37:41 of those exciting points that we were
37:43 talking about a few minutes ago for next year’s calendar is an
37:46 opportunity for uh professional
37:48 learning around pm1 data when pm1 data comes in in the fall we’ve
37:53 got a day built in for for planning
37:55 around those numbers uh in preparation for pushing towards pm2
37:59 uh at the end of the semester so we’re
38:02 really excited about that opportunity to be able to add that
38:04 into the school calendar as a professional
38:06 learning day for staff um and four hours of of data review
38:10 looking at data and making plans moving into
38:12 pm2 with the second half of that day being planning teacher
38:15 planning based on the professional learning
38:17 that was done at each school so again that’s new for uh for the
38:21 calendar for next year but really excited
38:23 about that um still the same holidays that we have in there the
38:28 contracted work days in between first and
38:31 second nine weeks uh veterans day we have labor day up there in
38:35 september thanksgiving break still a full
38:37 week uh and then winter break we come to winter break uh you’ll
38:41 notice uh the the darker colored greens
38:44 the box there at the end on january 4th as we got together with
38:48 our calendar committee uh our friends
38:50 and operations and food services brought up a great point as we
38:53 were talking about the the end date for
38:55 winter break uh winter break is is typically 10 days uh it just
38:59 so happened that that 10th day for 26 27
39:02 would have been on new year’s day uh january 1st holiday uh so
39:06 typically our operations folks and
39:09 our food services that’s a great opportunity for them to restock
39:12 and get ready for the kids coming back
39:13 but again being a holiday that would made it extremely difficult
39:17 to do so so in in talking with uh with
39:20 with our our committee we moved the end of winter break for
39:24 teachers and students to january 4th
39:26 that’ll allow our food services group to get the cafeteria up
39:30 and running and be ready to go and
39:32 welcome students back uh on on january 5th so that is that is a
39:36 non-student teacher day it is uh
39:39 those the 12-month employees that is a work day for them um and
39:42 that’s something that uh again just
39:44 based on where the calendar fell for the return of of school uh
39:48 coming back after the holiday we
39:50 needed to add that day in there so um that’s why you’ll see that
39:53 and it’s 11 days for the 26 27 school
39:56 year um moving right through the calendar we still have our
40:00 traditional holidays our uh martin the king
40:03 holiday there in the middle of january and then we have our uh
40:07 professional learning day in in february
40:11 that we have every year uh that’s gonna be february 15th that
40:15 like the day we added in september around
40:17 p.m 1 the idea will be to build that day around p.m 2 with our
40:21 final push into our our spring testing
40:24 in p.m 3 so preparation uh based around that p.m 2 data and and
40:28 schools being able to have time with
40:30 their staff to put together plans moving forward uh and
40:33 addressing any shortcomings they may need to do
40:35 going into p.m 3. spring break you’ll notice spring break a
40:40 little bit further back in uh in march also
40:43 that uh the 26th of march is good friday so it encompasses good
40:46 friday uh and spring break does
40:48 match with eastern florida state college so we’ll be on on break
40:51 the same time they will be on break
40:53 and then just kind of moving through the rest of the school year
40:56 uh you’ll see that we have our exam days
40:58 at the end of may and we wrap up with post planning on thursday
41:02 may 27th so we’ll be done before memorial
41:05 day um you know with uh with the entire school year at the
41:09 bottom of this you’ll see kind of a breakdown
41:12 of semester for minutes um you know again that’s something that
41:15 always comes up is how much time do
41:17 we have in the event of hurricanes we have the makeup day
41:20 priority on the left side there you know so in
41:22 the event we are out due to uh hurricanes uh this is how we
41:26 would we would make those days up uh there’s
41:28 enough instructional time built in to where we wouldn’t have to
41:32 ask for uh rearranging the schedule
41:33 getting together with with different committees we’ve got time
41:36 built in like i said earlier just over
41:38 three days in first semester so if we are to miss a few days uh
41:42 due to hurricanes we’ve got the
41:43 instructional time already built in you know so there wouldn’t
41:46 be having any any rearranging of the calendar
41:48 or the schedule so that we could we can continue moving forward
41:51 where it gets a little bit tricky
41:53 is if you look at days four and five we would have to look at
41:57 going into the first and second
41:59 days of second semester making those first semester days but
42:02 again nothing we would have to do to the
42:04 schedule we would not be losing any professional learning or
42:06 work days or any opportunities like
42:07 that for our staff and students and then again you know moving
42:11 forward if if we were to go beyond five
42:13 days those would be discussions that we would have with with bft
42:17 on borrowing from early release
42:18 time to to plug in to make up those days this allows time for
42:23 graduation in in the end of the school
42:26 year as well gives gives schools the flexibility to do that and
42:29 then having the the hurricane makeup
42:32 priority posted as part of the calendar for our community to see
42:35 not so they can plan accordingly
42:37 so that’s kind of it in a nutshell um i’d be happy to take any
42:41 questions if you have questions
42:42 on the proposed 26 27 calendar first of all thank you i know
42:48 this is an enormous task for the committee
42:52 to coordinate all the requirements by the state and our union
42:56 contracts and all of that to put all
42:58 this together and i know the public who complains about
43:00 different things which there’s not a lot to
43:02 complain about this calendar um you know they they often don’t
43:06 understand all the intricacies that you
43:08 guys have to work under so thank you uh for doing that i did
43:11 notice this year i when we met last
43:13 week i didn’t notice um looks like this the second semester will
43:16 start on january 11th which is
43:18 kind of late for us um do we know how and it’s always workable
43:21 with our dual enrollment students
43:23 students but we do we know when efsc is starting their spring
43:27 semester for next year so we actually
43:30 had a meeting with uh efsc to go over the calendar okay and they
43:33 don’t start second semester till that day
43:35 so it aligns perfectly with them perfect perfect perfect so that
43:40 was my only question and i believe
43:42 also dr rindell are they also taking the same thanksgiving break
43:45 as us yeah so what’s interesting
43:46 is through that calendar conversation with them they decided
43:49 they would go ahead and take the full week
43:51 of thanksgiving off so their employees their professors and
43:55 everything can thank us for the fact that they
43:57 now have the full week of thanksgiving off and then we don’t
43:59 have to worry about the transportation
44:01 piece for the students who are taking the best correct yep so
44:04 all of our holidays align perfectly yay it
44:06 seems like we should have done that before thanks for doing that
44:10 sure okay um thank you for all the
44:14 hard work that you put into this so board you know what i’m
44:17 going to say on this one so i’m going to go
44:18 ahead and plug it right now modify calendar but that’s okay i’ll
44:21 get back to that so i this has been
44:22 something i’ve been talking about for years i feel like i am
44:24 beating my head against the wall um one of the
44:26 things i noticed on this is that the calendar committee the
44:29 composition of that i don’t see
44:31 parents included on that i think it’d be very beneficial for us
44:34 to maybe look at some of our
44:36 our parents that come to like our pie meetings or something like
44:39 that that that could not pie i’m
44:40 using the wrong acronym um plt plt thank you i’m like wrong
44:43 acronym the parent leadership team maybe um
44:46 recruiting a couple of them to play a role in there because then
44:49 they could convey back to even school
44:51 sites with the community like what’s going on with the creation
44:54 of it because like miss campbell had mentioned
44:56 not everyone understands the intricacies of making this calendar
45:00 um the other thing i would like to
45:02 see and i told you this before and i know this this goes back to
45:06 the minutes versus days and all the fun
45:08 stuff there i would love us to be able to get to a place where
45:11 we could end the first semester by the
45:12 time christmas break starts i realize the nuance with that
45:15 because we’re building in hurricane days
45:17 which typically happen the first semester not the second
45:20 semester obviously for obvious reasons
45:23 i would love to see that happen the only way that i could ever
45:27 see that happening and i don’t even want to say
45:30 it because i know what that’s going to end up being is uh get
45:32 rid of that thanksgiving holiday no not the
45:34 thanksgiving holiday that’s not at all what i was thinking so uh
45:36 no the the early release days to to trade
45:39 minutes for days and and that that way could possibly be
45:42 something in the future that we look
45:44 at if we talk with our friends at bft on hey we we understand
45:47 you like these minutes on these days but
45:50 would you prefer would a teacher prefer to have a day instead of
45:53 a few minutes um that’s what i’d like
45:56 to see and then one other this is just a personal preference i
45:59 would love to see our district take an
46:00 initiative to make election day a district holiday for our staff
46:04 and students that way our students can
46:07 participate in that as well as our staff and then i think i have
46:10 the only school that’s a polling
46:12 location at this point but uh that might be a way to help our
46:15 supervisor of elections too when he runs
46:17 into some issues with trying to find places yeah that’s correct
46:20 space coach junior senior is a polling
46:22 location but it is the only one it is the only one left so uh
46:24 just something i would love to see
46:26 happen in the future uh if the board so desired to to move that
46:29 way so thank you for your hard work on
46:31 this i know it’s a ton of moving parts and you did a phenomenal
46:34 job thank you yes same uh we know the
46:37 work that goes behind in all this so it’s a good call that’s
46:41 right on the uh including the parents on
46:43 that uh but you also took my thunder on the uh uh the if if we
46:48 could um possibly put together a a what
46:52 if calendar of what things that we could do if we maybe didn’t
46:55 have that the early early release minutes
46:58 there and explore you know what it could a day in brevard
47:01 schools could look like if you had
47:03 you know access to all those minutes and could do some things i
47:07 i think that would be a good discussion
47:10 you know so and we had talked about that on the one-on-one yeah
47:13 i think that would be a good thing to
47:15 look at the 27 28 and say what would it look like if we had that
47:20 change right right because as a
47:22 as a teacher as a former teacher myself i you know we know the
47:25 importance of having those
47:27 educational minutes you know and being able to use and then you
47:30 know when we don’t use our hurricane
47:31 days what what it could look like and so uh yeah i look forward
47:34 to seeing those yeah i’ll put it
47:36 together all right appreciate it yes for all the hard work yeah
47:39 appreciate you um thank you for taking
47:41 the time to meet with us prior to this and going over this this
47:44 is a really good calendar i really
47:45 appreciate it um and i echo your sentiments um uh in the fact
47:50 that those early release days i think we can
47:53 creatively put something together that works both for our labor
47:57 groups and for us for student achievement
47:59 it um it does reduce the the day of those fridays is difficult
48:03 to get true achievement out of a
48:05 shortened day because of the way that it runs um and we’ve had
48:08 great success with teachers trying to
48:11 do it but i think if we offered them an opportunity to maybe
48:13 some other options um increasing you know
48:16 there’s a lot of options there that we can do so thank you for
48:19 doing that i did want to kind of
48:20 kind of mention um this year the graduation days are all on the
48:23 same day and for years we always made
48:25 it a point to make sure that all the graduations were not on the
48:28 same day so that we could have
48:29 families attend different ones so next year not this year next
48:32 year when we come back if part of that
48:34 can be that we put those graduation days on um separate i know
48:38 that’s not your area but i did just
48:40 want to say it out publicly i don’t know where the rest of the
48:43 board feels on that but i feel we did that
48:45 years ago um with the other board is that we made an initiative
48:48 and i think it just kind of fell
48:50 by the wayside but being able to go to multiple events locally
48:54 we always just said look like if
48:56 it’s satellite versus like titusville yeah those can be on the
48:59 same day but when you have like ogali
49:01 and well and satellite and um pierre it’s difficult because
49:04 there are a lot of families that are in
49:06 those areas so that’s all so just something it’s hard because
49:08 you do have i mean i remember one year that i had a
49:11 parents reach out to me but it wasn’t two schools within
49:14 district five it was a school here so you’re
49:17 never going to be able to eliminate all of that but at the same
49:21 time we can try to do so next to
49:22 each other because that i did get a lot when we did this this
49:25 year um and we’re going to get a lot of
49:27 emails as we get closer so just something to think about um and
49:30 then i agree uh letting all the parents
49:33 come in and have conversations about this uh you know solid
49:36 solidifies and and makes it stronger so
49:39 thank you so much for bringing that up and that’s it um i have
49:41 one more thing too i did too okay
49:43 well just the importance you know what when when something’s
49:47 important to you you’ll you’ll you’ll
49:49 make time for it and that day that you know the teachers can
49:51 come together and talk about the pm2 data
49:54 uh again as former teacher that that is so important i’ve done
49:58 that in other other districts when
50:00 we went over like uh semester exam data you know things like
50:03 that it’s that’s extremely important you
50:06 know we tell the the teachers hey you know this is why the pm
50:09 you know one two and three are there so
50:10 you can gather the data adjust instruction and then and go at it
50:14 but now we’re giving them time to do
50:16 that and and again that’s just us thinking and you you know
50:19 forward thinking uh of the teachers and
50:22 the ones that are out there so giving them that time uh they
50:25 they appreciate that so from them to you
50:27 and to me to you thank you again for thinking about everyone
50:30 involved thank you yeah i think that’d be a very
50:32 beneficial day yes absolutely my other thing i wanted to mention
50:35 and i mentioned this when we did
50:37 our one-on-one is the academically high performing school
50:40 districts our just our district now meets
50:42 that criteria it looks like from the doe’s website um the
50:45 application period typically happens in the
50:47 summertime like june uh so if you go on i would love for our
50:50 district to be listed on this top 10 because
50:52 we meet the criteria and so there’s no reason we shouldn’t be
50:55 there with these other districts that are
50:57 performing as high as we are so i would just ask that from your
50:59 office maybe they’re i’m not sure
51:01 which department dr rundell if that’s something that you would
51:04 need to to lead out on mr raymer and
51:05 i have talked about that it would come out of my office okay all
51:08 right i would love to see us to
51:10 be on that list so thank you i don’t have any other comments
51:14 about the calendar presentation again i
51:18 think it’s one of the best ones i’ve seen in a long time um you
51:21 may recall two years ago we did survey
51:23 the community the fan parents primarily and they wanted the full
51:27 week of thanksgiving off and they
51:30 wanted to finish before memorial day sometimes you can’t have
51:33 both things but in this calendar you can
51:35 moving spring break back one week allowed it to line up with easter
51:40 so for those people who celebrate
51:43 easter you know we it you know the friday in school in spring
51:46 break is good friday so it ends with easter
51:49 weekend so yeah it works out pretty well and just really a
51:53 balanced calendar number of days one of
51:55 the things that mr puitt mentioned and you guys all understand
51:58 but maybe the public don’t really
51:59 understand is it’s all about minutes not days and we have a lot
52:03 of instructional minutes built in you
52:06 know thank thank you to the brevard federation of teachers for
52:10 reducing the release time on early release
52:12 fridays this year and next year so that allows us additional
52:16 instructional minutes so over three
52:19 days of hurricane makeup each semester already built in so if we
52:23 unfortunately have to close for
52:25 hurricanes we really shouldn’t have to adjust the calendar you
52:29 know so really really good balanced
52:31 calendar pretty excited about it beautiful and we’re just we’re
52:34 approving this at our next meeting
52:37 correct i believe so yeah february 24th yes ma’am yes so for the
52:41 people who are waiting for that just
52:43 know it’ll be official official uh on uh 24th february 24th yes
52:48 ma’am thank you all right everybody good
52:52 good okay thank you thank you right dr rendell before we move on
52:55 to policies do you have anything else
52:57 no i don’t okay so next thing that we wanted to talk about is we
53:00 have a series of policies that are on
53:02 here i don’t know if anybody has any of them that they
53:04 specifically want to speak to um we can go
53:08 and just say does anybody have any questions or i can run
53:10 through them one at a time i did want to ask
53:12 one of the things we put forward a couple of years ago is
53:15 instead of just having it highlighted
53:17 whatever the additional language is if we could underline it
53:20 like they do at the state legislature
53:22 and then they if you notice we went to a green highlighting but
53:26 sometimes people don’t have color
53:27 inside their printers and stuff like that and there’s just a
53:30 little bit different so if you have the
53:32 strikethrough which they have which is great but if we could if
53:34 you guys are okay with going back to
53:36 the way we just underline the additions that would be great too
53:38 you know what i mean because if right
53:40 now if you look at it the pink has is the one that says that
53:44 they’re you know removing but at the same
53:46 time that um that removal is great if the color changes you know
53:50 that’s a removal but if the color
53:52 changes and you see the this you know what i mean you might not
53:55 know so underlining it helps that’s
53:56 all right if you guys are okay with that are you okay with that
53:59 miss candy oh i’m i mean it’s highlighted so
54:01 even if you just had a gray print it’s going to be highlighted i’m
54:04 not i you’re talking about
54:06 underlining all the additions yeah it’s what we had it before we
54:09 just kind of i don’t know where it
54:11 went i don’t remember ever doing it a different way than this so
54:13 i’m whatever as long as people can
54:15 see this is including us this is what we added this is what we
54:18 took away i’m fine with it so all good
54:20 with it yeah i don’t have any okay all right um i can go through
54:25 real quick um we have uh policy um dealing with
54:30 employment of staff does anybody 31 20 do you guys any
54:33 discussions on that piece no okay just to clarify
54:37 for the audience that’s viewing this is to adopt a change in
54:41 policy that allows us to value work
54:45 experience in lieu of a degree yep so for certain positions you
54:48 know our job descriptions have required
54:50 a college degree and we’ve learned that in some cases work
54:53 experience in that field is just as
54:55 valuable if not more valuable than a degree so that’s what this
54:58 language allows us to do it’s a good
55:00 thing yep yep it also cleans up the uh lettering there and the
55:06 next one is is uh policy 6210.001
55:10 allocation and use of ad valorem millage anybody have any
55:13 questions on that
55:16 no so just for clarification yeah this is changing a little bit
55:20 of language to say
55:21 not necessarily what specific measurables it would be just have
55:26 to have specific measurables because
55:29 we want to measure if we’re spending money especially you know
55:33 additional tax revenue money we want to
55:36 make sure that we’re measuring the effect of that so rather than
55:39 list every trying to list what every
55:42 possible measurement it has to have measurable outcomes for
55:45 example it might be enrollment in
55:47 advanced placement courses and you know but we hadn’t called
55:51 that one out so it’s like rather than
55:53 call them out specifically appropriate measurable outcomes okay
55:57 if that makes sense because some of
55:59 when it when it says proposals for program funding require these
56:03 you know some of them like we have used
56:06 this for the summer fine arts theater workshop i mean they’re
56:09 the measurable as did we have a performance
56:11 you know it’s not necessarily we’re not always necessarily going
56:14 to have the same exact number of
56:16 students per year and it’s not a failure because last year we
56:18 had 100 and this year we only have 90.
56:20 it’s just uh um so some of them will require different kinds of
56:24 goals i guess is what this is added
56:27 flexibility is that yeah because we had called out two specific
56:31 ones graduation rate proficiency gains
56:33 it did say example given but you know this just gives a little
56:37 more flexibility to measure the
56:39 effect of whatever it is we’re funding gotcha thank you would it
56:43 jeopardize any of the programs
56:44 that we have in existence right now no okay no all right
56:48 everybody good good all right moving on next
56:52 one is uh policy 8407 safe school officers dr ando you want to
56:55 give us an overview on that one too
56:57 this one’s just more uh for in response to the audit findings so
57:01 we’re bringing it in line with our
57:03 practice and what we’re required to do by statute yep seems that
57:07 way when you read it okay anybody got
57:09 anything on that no does anybody have further discussions they
57:11 want to talk to at the end of
57:12 the meeting anything going on all right if not i’m going to
57:14 adjourn the meeting everybody good yep all right
57:17 meeting is adjourned