Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
0:00 Thank you.
3:59 The board meeting is now in order.
4:01 I’m happy to welcome my fellow board members and the public.
4:04 I’d like to take this opportunity to remind the public that the
4:06 appropriate place for
4:07 public participation in the meeting is during your individual
4:10 public comment opportunity
4:11 as identified on the agenda.
4:13 Outside of your individual public comment opportunity, your role
4:16 in the meeting is as an observer.
4:18 Paul, roll call, roll call, please.
4:24 At this time, I’d like to hold a moment of silence.
4:28 Please rise for the pledge of allegiance, please, please rise
4:42 for the pledge of allegiance.
4:49 I pledge allegiance to the flag of the flag of the flag of the
4:55 United States of America and to the republic for which it stands,
5:00 one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for
5:05 all.
5:09 Thank you, Mr. Chair, that brings us to the agenda.
5:14 Thank you, Mr. Chair, on this evening’s agenda, we have three
5:20 recognitions, 45 consent items, and two information items.
5:24 Changes made to the agenda since it was released to the public
5:27 include the following.
5:28 Added was C-1, revised F-5, and removed C-1 administrative staff
5:32 recommendations.
5:33 Do I hear a motion?
5:35 Move for approval.
5:37 Second.
5:37 Is there any discussion?
5:38 Paul, roll call, please.
5:41 Mr. Trent?
5:41 Aye.
5:42 Mrs. Wright?
5:43 Aye.
5:44 Mr. Seeson?
5:45 Aye.
5:45 Ms. Campbell?
5:46 Aye.
5:47 Mr. Thomas?
5:47 Aye.
5:48 All right, everybody, please welcome Mr. Famous Michael Cadore
5:53 from Eastern Florida State
5:54 College to the podium, sir.
5:55 Good evening.
6:01 Thank you so much.
6:02 I don’t know about the famous piece, but…
6:03 Oh, come on, man.
6:04 I’ve seen some selfies.
6:05 I will take my hand to you.
6:07 But we’re here today just to not only continue to support our
6:10 children with our time and our
6:12 treasure, but financially as well.
6:13 Outside of Eastern Florida State College, where I’m honored to
6:17 serve as our executive director
6:18 of Bungie Media Engagement, I’m involved with media
6:21 organizations in our community, one of
6:23 which is to lift every voice.
6:24 And I have some amazing individuals who are here with me.
6:27 I’d like for them to come up.
6:28 They had no idea that they were going to stand with me.
6:30 But it’s very important that I mention this amazing young lady
6:35 here, Ms. Beverly Hamilton,
6:37 who has been involved with Revar Public Schools for about 14
6:41 years.
6:42 And when she was at Kennedy Middle School, she had approached me
6:45 in regards to her kids being
6:47 able to have some exposure in the community.
6:49 She came to the right person and lived every voice was born.
6:54 So the last five years, we have been hosting events where kids
6:58 can come out and showcase
7:00 their talents through song and dance and poetry and whatnot.
7:03 And each year that we do that, monies raised, we’re able to
7:07 donate to our students in transition
7:09 program.
7:09 I have with me, well, let me see, Maradona High School?
7:13 Yeah.
7:13 Okay.
7:14 Is Maradona in the house?
7:15 Maradona in the house?
7:15 Where’s Maradona at?
7:16 All right.
7:18 I’m here by way of Titusville High School, Titusville Terrier.
7:22 I know Titusville is in the house.
7:23 Let’s go Terriers.
7:23 Her husband here, Mr. Charles Hamilton, he is a graduate of Maradona
7:26 High School.
7:27 Mr. Hurley Brown, who is now the head of football culture at
7:30 home at Trinity, he is an alum
7:32 of Maradona High School as well.
7:35 I guess we’re going to show some love to the Mustangs.
7:38 Mr. Come on up, son, really quick.
7:41 I’m going to make this quick, and we’re going to do a check
7:43 presentation.
7:43 Why do we continue to give back to our community?
7:46 It’s because they’re going to come back and give back to us.
7:48 I have with me Mr. Jimmy Bell.
7:50 Jimmy Bell is a graduate of Cocoa High School.
7:52 He’s currently a student at Eastern Florida State College, and
7:55 he works in our community
7:57 engagement program.
7:58 So he is here to not only be a standing witness of the things
8:02 that we do in our community, but
8:04 we would like to present a check on behalf of Train and Succeed,
8:07 a nonprofit here locally,
8:09 321 Empowerment, as well as GEICO, a check for $500 to go to
8:15 ourselves.
8:16 Students in Transition Program.
8:18 Nice.
8:18 Thank you so much.
8:20 Mr. Cadore, so when you first asked me, you said that you only
8:25 had a $250 check.
8:28 Can you explain, sir, how we just got to $500?
8:30 Well, one phone call was made to a 321 Empowerment, which Mr.
8:33 Thomas is a part of, and they said,
8:35 Mike, we can do this a little bit better, and they chipped in
8:38 another $250 to help these
8:40 kids out.
8:40 So thank you again, 321.
8:42 Yes, thank you.
8:42 So, Mr. Cadore, what I’ll do with my own personal funds is I’ll
8:47 match theirs at another $250,
8:49 because Ms. Hamilton, Ms. Hamilton reminded me of the first time
8:53 when I ran in 2016.
8:55 I knocked on her door illegally, because it was in a spot that I
8:57 wasn’t supposed to be,
8:58 and she kind of filled me in on all that stuff, and I was
9:01 reminded about what her commitment
9:02 to the schools are, and I appreciate you.
9:05 So I will commit $250 of my own money to match what Mr. Thomas’
9:08 group did, and I’ll get that
9:11 to you.
9:11 So thank you.
9:12 Yes, ma’am.
9:12 Thank you so much.
9:13 We appreciate it.
9:13 Yes, ma’am.
9:14 Absolutely.
9:15 Yes, sir.
9:17 Let’s get it.
9:17 Thank you.
10:49 That’s awesome.
10:55 Awesome.
10:55 All right.
10:56 We all good?
10:56 All right.
11:00 Thank you.
11:00 Thank you, Ms. Cruz.
11:01 Sorry.
11:01 Are we good, Dr. Rundell?
11:04 Yes, sir.
11:05 Are we good?
11:05 At this time, we would like to welcome Ms. Lysinski, Chief
11:09 Financial Officer for the district.
11:10 Ms. Lysinski, what do we have here today?
11:14 Okay.
11:15 Tonight, we are pleased to honor and celebrate the outstanding
11:18 achievements of our district
11:20 schools in financial management and accountability.
11:23 Each year, our schools undergo a state-required audit to review
11:27 the management of funds for student
11:29 activities.
11:30 These audits help prevent fraud and ensure compliance with
11:33 internal controls, state statute, and board
11:36 policy.
11:36 RSM, an external audit firm, examined financial records in areas
11:41 like revenues, expenditures,
11:44 fundraising, sales tax, and petty cash, assessing accuracy,
11:48 authorization, and compliance.
11:51 Each school received a final report detailing any audit findings.
11:56 A no audit finding report indicates no issues were found,
12:00 highlighting the professionalism
12:02 and integrity of our staff.
12:03 Strong financial stewardship by school leaders not only upholds
12:08 community trust, but also positively
12:11 impacts student outcomes.
12:13 We wish to express our sincere appreciation to the Bavard
12:16 Schools Foundation for donating
12:18 the frame certificates.
12:20 I would also like to acknowledge district accounting staff’s…
12:23 I will introduce Mr. Edwards, who is the chairman of our audit
12:32 committee, to say a few words.
12:36 Following Mr. Edwards, Mrs. Smith will introduce each of our
12:39 bookkeepers and respective principals
12:41 whose schools received a no-finding report.
12:45 Mr. Edwards.
12:46 Mr. Edwards, before you start, I wanted to give you a thank you.
12:56 Many of you don’t know, but Mr. Edwards has been the board or
12:59 the chairman of our audit committee
13:01 for how long?
13:01 How many years has he been doing?
13:02 About 15 years.
13:03 So for 15 years, a lot of our financials are reviewed by that
13:07 man, and he has been stellar
13:09 in everything that you’ve done.
13:10 And I wanted to give you a personal thank you for your work that
13:13 you’ve done for us.
13:14 It’s never paid.
13:15 He comes all the time.
13:16 He’s always there.
13:18 And there were some things that we worked through that your
13:20 leadership got this district where
13:22 it needs to be.
13:22 And I just wanted to say thank you for that.
13:24 Thank you.
13:24 Yes.
13:25 Thank you.
13:25 Thank you very much.
13:26 Yes, sir.
13:27 Good evening, everybody.
13:29 First of all, I just want to say I’m glad to be here.
13:34 I’m especially glad to be here for the reason of recognizing the
13:38 bookkeepers and saying thank you,
13:41 thank you, thank you.
13:44 That’s been said, I’ve been on the audit committee for a long,
13:47 long time.
13:48 And bookkeeping was one of the functions that we were very, very
13:53 concerned about.
13:54 What we do is we look at everything possible that could go wrong.
14:00 And we look at what are the consequences if it goes wrong.
14:04 And we determine on an annual basis what we’re going to go out
14:08 and audit.
14:09 And for many, many years, bookkeeping was right at the top of
14:12 that list.
14:13 Mm-hmm.
14:13 There were some serious issues.
14:15 But fortunately, the bookkeeping community, they’ve gone through
14:20 some training.
14:22 They’ve made some serious process changes.
14:24 And they’ve reduced the number of errors that we ought to be
14:27 concerned about.
14:29 And for that, I’m grateful.
14:31 And I’m speaking on behalf of the five-member audit committee.
14:35 Each school board member gets to appoint one person to serve on
14:39 this committee.
14:41 And we do act independently because we’re not paid by the school
14:44 board.
14:45 We’re not paid at all, but you can change that.
14:48 But now, seriously, we’re giving back to our community because
14:54 we’re products of our community.
14:57 And we also have children, not grandchildren, that are in school
15:02 within this community.
15:03 In fact, I saw my teacher here tonight that taught my, well, she
15:09 was a principal for my grandson.
15:11 And thanks to her and her staff, I just, he was able to get out
15:16 of school and then to college.
15:18 There’s some pretty nice money to go to college.
15:22 So thank you, thank you.
15:23 Let me just give you some numbers.
15:27 In the 20, 24, 25 year, in terms of statistical changes, overall,
15:34 the number of schools with two audit comments or less increased
15:39 by four.
15:40 That’s a good thing.
15:41 Yes.
15:42 The number of schools with no audit comments increased by four.
15:48 The overall total of families in 20, 24, 20, 25 reduced from the
15:54 prior year by 16.
15:56 The total high-risk comments reduced by five.
16:01 And the total borrowed-risk comments reduced by 16.
16:05 And this is important here.
16:08 The total recurring comments from previous years reduced by four.
16:13 And what that means is people weren’t repeating the same
16:16 mistakes.
16:17 So with that, I’m going to talk, and I can probably talk about
16:20 that.
16:20 Keep going.
16:21 You deserve it.
16:22 You talk.
16:22 We got, you can go another 15 years.
16:24 We’re fine.
16:24 Got two mics.
16:26 I can go talk.
16:27 All right.
16:29 But at any rate, it’s a very serious matter, because when you
16:32 have audit situations and audit findings, it can end up penalizing
16:37 the district, and that can end up hurting our students and
16:40 hurting our community.
16:42 So what these folks have done is by no means a small thing.
16:47 What they’ve done is a big thing.
16:48 So I would like for you to join me in an applause for all bookkeepers.
16:52 I would like to invite Mr. Edwards, Ms. Lisinski, Dr. Rendell,
17:07 and Chairperson Susan to come down for the award presentation.
17:21 All right.
17:22 They don’t want you guys.
17:23 No.
17:23 No, just you.
17:25 They don’t want to let the board members present our school.
17:26 No.
17:28 I am pleased to announce the following school bookkeepers and
17:32 principals.
17:34 Please come up to the front to accept your award and have your
17:36 picture taken.
17:37 Audubon Elementary.
17:39 Bookkeeper is Ashley Leedy.
17:42 Principal is Candace Jones.
17:44 Cape View.
17:45 Cape View Elementary.
17:51 Bookkeeper is Victoria Burns.
17:53 Principal is Melissa Long.
17:55 Central Middle.
18:02 Bookkeeper is April Boyer.
18:04 And principal is Heather Smith.
18:06 Endeavor Elementary.
18:13 Bookkeeper is Vanessa Keys.
18:15 Principal is Catherine Michelle Murphy.
18:19 Wolfview Elementary.
18:24 Golfview Elementary.
18:26 Bookkeeper is Elaine Higgins.
18:29 Principal is Jeffrey Coverdell.
18:31 Imperial Estates Elementary.
18:38 Bookkeeper is Alexa Humes.
18:41 Principal is Cynthia Adams.
18:43 Jackson Middle School.
18:50 Bookkeeper is Shailonda Waters.
18:53 And principal is Jennifer Shockley.
18:55 Jefferson Middle.
19:03 Bookkeeper is Melissa House.
19:05 Principal is Mira Trine.
19:07 Johnson Middle School.
19:15 Bookkeeper is Tracy Byrd.
19:17 And assistant principal is Tia Wilkerson.
19:20 Kennedy Middle School.
19:27 Bookkeeper is Pilar Ararat.
19:29 And principal is Angela Owens.
19:32 Lewis Carroll Elementary.
19:39 Bookkeeper is Coleen Moore.
19:41 And principal is Jamie Miner.
19:43 Oak Park Elementary.
19:50 Bookkeeper is Susie Mitchell.
19:52 And principal is Kelly Rouse.
19:55 Ocean Breeze Elementary.
20:01 Bookkeeper is Linda Nolan.
20:03 And principal is Shelley Ann Michaud.
20:06 Quest Elementary.
20:12 Bookkeeper is Catherine Kiangaro.
20:15 And principal is Carrie Castillo.
20:17 Saturn Elementary.
20:24 Bookkeeper is Christine Branham.
20:26 And principal is Javier Alfonso.
20:29 Southlake Elementary.
20:36 Bookkeeper is Jackie Sellers.
20:38 And principal is Jennifer Brockwell.
20:45 Space Coast Junior Senior.
20:47 Bookkeeper is Kristen George.
20:49 And principal is Jeanette Connor.
20:52 And Vieira High School.
20:59 Bookkeeper is Renee Ambrose.
21:01 And principal is Heather LeGate.
21:15 That’s a whole lot of bookkeepers.
21:24 Yep.
21:25 I’m going to do something.
21:26 We’re not bookkeepers there.
21:30 Thank you.
22:30 Thank you, Mr. Edwards.
22:45 You want to take a minute and let them clear?
22:47 Yes.
22:47 The hustle in me, we really wanted to push it, but I think we
22:51 just let them on.
22:52 Thank you.
23:52 Can you just tell me what I’m going to say?
23:54 Just tell you?
23:55 We’re still, the meeting’s still running, so.
23:58 We would like now to welcome Rachel Rutledge, the amazing CTE
24:10 director, and Kimberly Perry Sanderlin,
24:12 college and career specialist, to introduce our student award
24:15 winners.
24:16 Ms. Rutledge, I want to take a second and thank you for the
24:18 construction competition that your team put together.
24:20 Many of you may not know, but Brevard Schools is now going to
24:24 challenge Citrus County and many other schools
24:26 for construction competitions based upon what you put together
24:30 and showed that these kids are doing.
24:32 I mean, we had kids with LLCs that had construction companies
24:35 that were there.
24:36 That’s incredible.
24:37 And the programs that you put together, I just want to say thank
24:39 you.
24:39 So, Ms. Rutledge, with that, the floor is yours.
24:43 Wonderful.
24:44 So, I, we did have some rock star students at the competition
24:47 the other day.
24:48 We did.
24:49 So, I’m looking forward to doing more of that to recognize
24:51 students.
24:52 But today, I want to recognize Jayden Furusa.
24:55 Yay!
24:56 He is our CTE U.S. Presidential Scholar for Brevard Public
24:59 Schools.
25:00 Why don’t you stand up real quick?
25:02 Woo!
25:03 All right.
25:05 Jayden is not, you can sit down if it’s okay.
25:10 He is not only an exceptional CTE student.
25:14 He is a stellar student all around.
25:17 He takes rigorous high school course load, has a GPA over 4.0,
25:22 is earning his associate of arts degree through dual enrollment
25:27 with Eastern Florida.
25:27 He’s taken the welding technology program as well as the
25:30 building construction program at Astronaut High School.
25:34 He also participates in AVID, Advancement via Individual Determination
25:39 Program, and has completed AP coursework.
25:41 And he serves as a mentor for young students.
25:44 So, this young man has got, has got it going on.
25:48 He is very well rounded academically as well as technically
25:52 through career and technical education.
25:54 And we couldn’t be more proud to bring him forward as this year’s
25:57 Brevard Public Schools student.
25:59 So, he’s earned credentials and been able to showcase his skills
26:03 in all the different types of welding processes.
26:07 I’m probably going to mess up the pronunciation of them, so I’m
26:10 not going to do that, Jayden.
26:11 But he is also working on CNC Machinist College credit
26:16 certification and just really has a bright future ahead of him.
26:21 So, we are really proud to name you as our Brevard Public
26:25 Schools CTE U.S. Presidential Scholar.
26:28 Congratulations, Jayden.
26:29 I have to, Mr. Chair, if I might just say something about this.
26:33 Yes, absolutely.
26:34 All right.
26:35 So, Jayden, I have to speak on you for just a minute because I
26:38 have known you now for quite some years.
26:39 And watching you grow up into the young man that you are today,
26:42 truly, honestly, it makes me so proud.
26:45 I am so excited for your future.
26:46 I have no doubt that you’re going to do amazing things.
26:48 And so, you know, all those things that you’ve already done, you’re
26:51 a legitimately good human being.
26:53 And I think that’s what matters the most.
26:54 So, very, very proud of you.
26:56 You represent our district.
26:57 You represent District 1 really, really well.
26:59 So, I’m very, very proud of you getting this award.
27:01 Jayden, why don’t you come up here and talk to us?
27:04 Oh, my crown.
27:06 Well, you don’t win a presidential award and you don’t come up
27:09 and say something.
27:10 I’m sorry.
27:11 I know we have a couple other nominees.
27:12 But when he stood up, I thought we were announcing one of our
27:15 actual staff because he’s so big.
27:16 Yeah, and he’s joined by his mom and his proud principal today.
27:19 Yes.
27:20 Yeah.
27:21 Why don’t you tell him just a little bit about what it is that
27:23 you enjoy about the CTE?
27:24 Oh, so, I mean, what I like about the CTE is my passion is
27:28 welding.
27:29 I love doing it.
27:30 I don’t know.
27:31 It calms my mind and it’s something that I like to do.
27:33 Either just work and get paid for it or just do it in my free
27:36 time.
27:37 My mom bought me a welder.
27:39 I think it was a year or two ago for Christmas.
27:42 And I haven’t been able to put too much use still yet because I’ve
27:45 been busy.
27:46 But anytime I am able to break it out, I love doing it.
27:50 I loved being, whenever I was at the high school, being a part
27:54 of the welding program in there.
27:56 I was able to double up on the courses last year as my junior
27:59 year.
28:00 That way I’ll be able to do full-time at EFSC this year.
28:03 And I’m currently doing full-time there online while doing the
28:07 internship at Atlantic Storm Protection.
28:09 Wow.
28:10 As well as working at my local barbecue place that’s from Mount
28:14 Passing.
28:15 That’s more important.
28:16 The barbecue sounds a lot better than the storm plant.
28:18 Yes.
28:19 Don’t forget it’s all on me.
28:22 What are you going to do?
28:23 What am I going to do?
28:24 Yeah, man.
28:25 So I’m currently looking at a couple options right now.
28:27 But my main, our main interest is most likely joining the local
28:31 295 based out of Daytona.
28:32 Yep.
28:33 For plumbers and pie fitters.
28:34 Good.
28:35 Doing the welding, the pie fitting, all of that.
28:36 And they have a amazing apprenticeship program.
28:39 Yep.
28:40 Five-year long where I’ll be able to learn a lot of more stuff
28:42 other than just that.
28:44 The director and Brett Mursky and I are real good friends.
28:46 That’s a great home for you, man.
28:47 You’re going to do very well.
28:48 I have a couple of buddies that are out there right now and they’re
28:50 loving it.
28:51 Yep.
28:52 That’s awesome.
28:53 Very good.
28:54 You guys got anything to say?
28:55 I kind of took the thing.
28:56 I was just so impressed with them.
28:57 I’m sorry, Ms. Rutledge.
28:58 I kind of hijacked the thing.
28:59 But you don’t usually see a kid stand up that’s like nine feet
29:01 tall in the back and receive
29:02 a presidential award.
29:03 So that was awesome.
29:04 So is your mom here, you said?
29:05 Yes, she is.
29:06 Ma’am, thank you so much for bringing and raising such a great
29:10 kid.
29:10 I also want to say thank you so much for putting that welder in
29:12 his hands because he’s going
29:14 to do some great things.
29:15 And ma’am, you’ve done amazing.
29:17 Not that you need to know that, but we’re very proud that he’s a
29:20 BPS student and a product
29:22 of what we do.
29:23 So thank you so much, man.
29:24 Much proud of.
29:25 I will say she actually didn’t know I was doing this until about
29:27 five minutes before
29:28 we left.
29:32 I didn’t really know exactly what all I was going to be doing.
29:35 So I didn’t exactly tell.
29:36 I just told her, oh yeah, I’m going to Vieira.
29:38 And then she like finally asked what for, about five minutes
29:41 before we left.
29:42 And that’s when she was like, oh, I’m coming.
29:44 Good.
29:45 Good, good, good, good.
29:46 Well, Jayden, you’re just like any other, you know, 17, 18 year
29:49 old kid.
29:49 You’re doing great.
29:50 But you did win the presidential award, which is really good.
29:52 And good luck with 295.
29:54 Great outfit.
29:55 Great organization.
29:56 They’ll treat you the right way and you’ll learn through the
29:59 best.
29:59 So that’s great, man.
30:00 Congrats.
30:01 Anybody else got anything to say, Mr. Jayden?
30:03 Congratulations.
30:04 All right.
30:05 I promise.
30:06 Okay.
30:07 I’ll be quiet.
30:08 Yeah.
30:09 All right.
30:10 Good job, Jayden.
30:11 Good evening to our BPS board members, our district leaders,
30:24 community members and especially
30:25 our family and friends that are here for our honorees.
30:28 I’m honored to be before you this evening to celebrate three of
30:32 our most exceptional scholars
30:33 in our district recognized through two of the most prestigious
30:37 academic nominations at
30:37 the state and national level.
30:39 I would like to first recognize our 2025-2026 Sunshine State Scholar
30:44 nominees.
30:45 Each year, Brevard Public Schools selects two outstanding 11th
30:50 grade students who demonstrate
30:52 exceptional achievements in science, technology, engineering,
30:55 and mathematics.
30:56 Our two nominees, along with their parents, will travel to
30:59 Orlando in April to participate
31:01 in a statewide program that brings together Florida’s top STEM
31:05 scholars.
31:06 Our first Sunshine State Scholar nominee is Ms. Amari Thompson
31:12 of O’Galley High School.
31:13 All right.
31:18 We have so many nominees.
31:22 I know we’re doing pictures at the end.
31:24 No, listen.
31:25 This is their time.
31:26 You do.
31:27 You do it.
31:28 Amari is a top-ranked junior whose resume is as impressive as it
31:32 is diverse.
31:33 Her accomplishments include participation in Drone Racing Club,
31:37 Art Club, and the L3 Harris
31:39 competition.
31:40 She also serves as junior class president, student government
31:43 junior class president, and president
31:45 of the Anti-Bullying and Anchor Club.
31:48 I said there’s a lot of presidents in here.
31:49 Oh, good.
31:50 At Amari’s celebration, it was a joy to hear her parents,
31:53 counselors, and principal affirm
31:55 exactly what her application judges recognized.
31:59 Amari is a leader of integrity, intellect, and purpose.
32:03 Please join me in congratulating Ms. Amari Thompson.
32:07 I just want to hear from you, where you’re going.
32:20 Just talk to us about what you feel about Brevard Public Schools,
32:23 O’Galley, everything
32:24 else.
32:25 Tell me about what it’s like to lead all those kids, and where
32:28 you plan on going.
32:29 Right now, it’s like I’m so happy to be at O’Galley, and it’s
32:32 like I’m proud to be from
32:34 my school, and then in the future, I want to study math, and it’s
32:38 like I want to take that
32:39 and basically inspire the people who I’ve grown up with in my
32:43 school, because it’s like sometimes
32:45 they’re like, “Oh, Amari, you just like school,” and it’s like I
32:49 want to inspire other people.
32:51 Even I can use what I like to help somebody else, basically
32:55 inspire them.
32:56 And when I go to college, I do want to study math when it’s like
32:59 people are like, “Well,
33:00 you can’t really do anything with a math degree,” but it’s like,
33:03 “I don’t think so.
33:03 I want to teach people,” and it’s like, “I want to use my brains.
33:07 I want to use basically my authority after I’ve gained that
33:11 education level to basically
33:13 advocate for the people who may not be able to.”
33:16 That’s good.
33:17 Mr. Amari, hang on.
33:18 Dr. Undell, it seems like we might have a future teacher right
33:21 here.
33:21 I don’t know if you want to give her a folder right now, just so
33:23 that in four years you get here.
33:25 When she graduates, Mr. Dufresne and I can offer a contract for
33:29 when she graduates.
33:29 We’ll take care of her.
33:32 Your energy is inspiring, and we are so blessed to have you.
33:36 Thank you so much for being here.
33:37 And if there’s anything we can do to help facilitate that, you’re
33:39 in my district, so I would be your representative.
33:42 If you want to build any programs or do anything, use us, okay?
33:45 Thank you so much.
33:46 I appreciate you.
33:47 Congratulations.
33:48 Oh, oh, oh, hang on, hang on.
33:49 Mr. Susan, I think you need to worry because she’s a future
33:52 leader and she sounds like she’s going to be taking your seat.
33:54 Listen, we have – listen, more than welcome it.
33:56 You come back from college and I’ll support you.
33:58 You can run for school board.
33:59 There’s a lot going on, so – but you do whatever you want to do.
34:02 You’re just – you’re – you’re inspiring to be there, so thank
34:05 you for coming tonight.
34:06 Very good.
34:07 Thank you.
34:09 Amari, about the – about the math, right?
34:11 Yeah.
34:12 As a math teacher.
34:14 So that’s awesome that it’s interesting to you that you just get
34:18 it, right?
34:19 Yes.
34:20 But when they say, what are you going to do with math?
34:22 I mean, I used to hold up the cell phone and say, you know,
34:25 luckily there are people who enjoyed math
34:27 because that’s behind the engineering in a cell phone.
34:30 They don’t realize everything you do – sorry, other teachers
34:33 out there, but everything revolves around mathematics.
34:36 So you got it, and you’ll inspire people just by your excitement.
34:40 So thank you so much.
34:41 You must have had some wonderful teachers, and especially the
34:44 teachers you have at home.
34:45 And –
34:46 Yes.
34:47 So that’s exciting.
34:48 Congratulations.
34:49 Good job.
34:50 Thank you.
34:52 All right.
34:53 We’re going to keep it moving with our second Sunshine State Scholar
34:58 nominee, Mr. Eshan Vipul of West Shore Junior Senior High School.
35:03 Like Amari, Eshan is top-ranked junior with an extraordinary
35:12 list of achievements.
35:16 He serves as President of the Melbourne Math Circle, Team
35:20 Captain of Academic Team, President and Lead Instructor of Math
35:25 Counts, and Vice President of the Computer Science Club.
35:28 In addition to his academic leadership, Eshan is a dedicated
35:32 philanthropist, having logged over 300 volunteer hours already
35:37 – an accomplishment that speaks volumes about both his
35:41 character and commitment.
35:42 Please help me congratulate Mr. Eshan Vipul.
35:47 Thank you.
35:49 Yes.
35:50 Hi.
35:51 My name is Eshan, and I’m a student at West Shore.
35:54 And I’d like to thank Brevard Public Schools for this
35:56 opportunity, as well as my principal, Mr. Clark, and my college
36:00 and career specialist, Ms. Faubush.
36:01 I’m really passionate about STEM, and I want to study computer
36:04 science in the future with the ultimate goal of giving back to
36:07 my community as I’ve done it throughout my high school and plan
36:10 to do so in the future as well.
36:12 That’s awesome.
36:13 Sean, when you become famous, don’t forget to come back to Brevard.
36:15 Yes, sir.
36:16 And you just made a commitment.
36:17 You can’t turn back, right?
36:18 You’ve got to come back, and you’ve got to do exactly what you
36:21 said, because there’s a lot of people that make this place
36:23 special when they come back.
36:25 So just think about us when you’re making that decision.
36:27 Anybody else got anything for them?
36:29 Oh, it’s –
36:30 Well, there’s a common thread about math here this evening, so,
36:33 I mean, we can’t ignore that.
36:34 But, yeah, congratulations to all the scholars that, you know,
36:38 this is just, honestly, it’s the why.
36:40 And that – it just reiterates, hey, the good work that’s
36:42 getting done every day.
36:43 You guys are learning, and you guys are going to be world changers.
36:45 Thank you for serving your community.
36:47 That speaks volumes to you as a human being, as well.
36:49 So continue to serve your community, and your community will
36:51 serve you.
36:52 I think that was Mr. Cadore’s famous line, I believe he says
36:54 that.
36:54 Probably.
36:55 Something along those lines.
36:56 But, yeah, that is the best that you can do.
36:58 But thank you so much for all that you already have done.
37:00 Absolutely.
37:01 So, Eshan, if I recall, I’ve actually known you since you were
37:07 quite little.
37:08 Uh-oh.
37:09 I live in our neighborhood, went to school with my son.
37:11 Can you – as you represent our other students also that are
37:15 speaking tonight, can you speak
37:16 to the importance of your support at home?
37:19 Because I’m pretty sure that somebody – before you ever got to
37:23 West Melbourne School for Science,
37:24 you had a good start.
37:25 Yep.
37:26 My parents have been very important throughout this whole
37:29 process, like from the moment I
37:31 was born literally.
37:32 Probably.
37:33 So, yeah.
37:34 I really appreciate everything you’ve done for me as well.
37:37 All right.
37:38 Thank you, Eshan.
37:39 I’m very proud of you.
37:40 Good job, Eshan.
37:41 Thank you.
37:46 Now, board, this is a rigorous process.
37:48 And because they actually will be honored and have a weekend in
37:52 Orlando, we have to also
37:55 identify an alternate, just in case one of those nominees cannot
37:59 go.
37:59 And our fabulous alternate for today is Aaron Gordon of Edgewood
38:04 Junior Senior High School.
38:10 Thank you.
38:13 All right.
38:14 Aaron, again, I’m looking through my laundry list.
38:17 Aaron is very involved in STEM activities.
38:21 Great test scores, math counts, AMC math competition, mu alpha
38:28 theta, dedicated swimmer, varsity and
38:31 club, MVP, sectionals, so similar to sports regionals beyond
38:36 state competition.
38:38 He’s done piano for 11 years and wants to be a doctor, majoring
38:43 in physics or applied math.
38:45 Awesome.
38:46 All right.
38:48 Hi, I’m Aaron.
38:51 I’m starting to feel underdressed and underprepared.
38:54 I didn’t know a lot of this was going to happen, but I guess we’ll
38:57 roll with it.
38:58 Yep.
38:59 I’m another math kid.
39:00 If you like math.
39:01 Oh my gosh.
39:02 Any social studies?
39:03 Math’s the best.
39:04 Okay.
39:05 But yeah, I’ve been doing a lot of math, you know, all that
39:07 competitions and whatnot.
39:09 I’m going for a lot of big reach colleges.
39:12 You know, I’m looking, you know, like Harvard, Caltech, you know,
39:15 we want to get there.
39:16 But yeah, doctor would be nice.
39:18 You know, they help out the community a lot.
39:20 And, you know, they pay well.
39:22 You know, that’s just a side, side thing.
39:24 But yeah, of course, I want to give back to everybody.
39:27 And I really want to thank my principal, Ms. Ingrada, and my
39:30 career specialist, Ms. Cofer.
39:32 They’ve been helping me a lot with everything throughout these
39:34 years at Edgewood.
39:35 And I can’t be prouder to represent Edgewood.
39:38 Right here?
39:40 No, let’s go.
39:41 Go Red Wolves.
39:42 But anyway, you know, I’m just so honored with this opportunity.
39:47 My teachers as well, they’re amazing at Edgewood, helped me
39:51 through it all.
39:52 Especially, you know, I can just name a few.
39:54 Mr. Johnston, Mr. Muir, Mr. Franco, who’s my homeroom teacher,
39:58 has been helping me get it through.
40:00 And, you know, I just want to thank everybody here for coming
40:03 and recognizing us.
40:04 Awesome.
40:05 Thank you so much.
40:07 For that to be extemporaneous, you were on it, sir.
40:12 I’m just telling you.
40:13 You were definitely prepared.
40:14 Our final recognition this evening is for our district’s U.S.
40:18 Presidential Scholar nominee.
40:20 The U.S. Presidential Scholars Program was established to
40:23 recognize and honor some of the nation’s most distinguished
40:26 graduating high school seniors.
40:28 And was later expanded to include students demonstrating
40:31 excellence in the visual, creative, and performing arts.
40:35 This year, Brevard School is proud to nominate a scholar who
40:39 received a perfect score from all three of her anonymous judges.
40:43 A remarkable distinction that reflects her outstanding record of
40:47 achievement and leadership.
40:49 Our 2025-2026 U.S. Presidential Scholar nominee is Ms. Helena
41:02 Davis of Cocoa Beach Junior Senior High School.
41:10 Helena serves as Senior Class Vice President, Logistics Head for
41:15 Dance Marathon, President of the Fellowship
41:18 of Christian Athletes and President of the National Honor
41:21 Society.
41:22 Her leadership, service, and excellence exemplifies the very
41:26 best of Brevard Public Schools and make her a truly deserving
41:31 nominee on the national stage.
41:32 Please join us in celebrating Ms. Helena Davis.
41:35 Thank you guys so much for this opportunity.
41:49 I actually didn’t know about the whole perfect score thing.
41:50 So that’s a delightful surprise.
41:52 Thank you so much, Mr. Rendell, for all you do – Dr. Rendell,
41:55 pardon me – for all you do.
41:56 I’m not sure if y’all are aware, but he came from Cocoa Beach,
41:59 my school, and we’re all very, very proud of what he’s done.
42:05 I’d like to thank my parents and my wonderful teachers and my
42:09 college and career advisor, Ms. Bierman, for all they’ve done.
42:14 Thank you so much for this opportunity.
42:17 I think you have to thank your fan club for coming, too, because
42:20 it seems like you have a whole section of the actual place here.
42:24 There’s a bunch of them over there, so thank you.
42:26 Yes, sir. They’re my family. I’m very proud of them.
42:28 It’s an amazing thing.
42:30 Any questions about Helena’s future?
42:33 Yeah, I was going to ask, because you’re actually right – you’re
42:36 a senior, right?
42:37 Yeah, this is it.
42:38 So we’re not very far out. So do you have plans yet?
42:40 Yes, ma’am. I’m going to FSU to their honors program and –
42:45 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
42:47 Just want to say that. Thank you. Oh, sorry. Is that out loud? I’m
42:50 sorry.
42:50 I’m hoping to major in international relations and Russian and
42:54 Eastern European studies with a minor in U.S. intelligence
42:57 policy.
42:57 Wow. All right. No noise.
42:59 Say hi to me.
43:00 The wall chains are right there.
43:01 Yeah.
43:02 That’s good.
43:03 Good job.
43:04 It’s just a future Secretary of State right there.
43:06 Okay. All right.
43:07 Coming from an IV school, that makes sense.
43:10 Very, very good.
43:11 What an honor.
43:12 Yes.
43:13 We’re good.
43:14 Take a break for some pictures.
43:15 Great job.
43:16 Yes.
43:17 Mr. Chair?
43:18 Yes, sir.
43:19 I just wanted to acknowledge the fact that all these students
43:21 are amazing, but I also want to acknowledge that all their
43:24 principals are here.
43:24 They took time out of their –
43:25 Yep.
43:26 You know, after a long day to be here to support your students.
43:28 It’s really impressive.
43:29 So, Mr. Barton, Mr. Clark, Ms. Ingrata, Mr. Powers, thank you
43:33 for being here.
43:33 And Ms. Miller.
43:34 It really says a lot about you.
43:35 Ms. Miller.
43:36 Oh, Ms. Miller.
43:37 Sorry.
43:38 Okay.
43:39 Thank you so much, Mr. Powers.
43:40 He’s a freshman right now.
43:41 All right.
43:42 We’ll take a photo.
43:43 Let’s get some.
43:44 Yeah.
43:45 Some pics.
43:46 I’m going to go to the next slide.
47:45 Thank you.
52:44 Okay, now for the phone.
52:46 Well, good?
52:47 I don’t think we ever…
52:48 Whenever you’re ready.
52:49 Yeah.
52:50 Dr. Rindell, we all ready?
52:50 We’re done.
52:51 We are now at the public comments portion of the meeting.
52:55 We have one speaker and we’ll have received…
52:59 They will receive three minutes.
53:00 Our attorney will call a speaker in order at which they are come
53:03 to speak in order of one.
53:05 Mr. Gibbs, Mr. Gibbs, please call the first speaker, Mr. Gibbs,
53:07 please call the first speaker and only speaker, Mr. Bernard
53:09 Bryant.
53:10 All right, Mr. Bernard Bryant.
53:11 Come on down.
53:12 Here we go.
53:12 Come on, let’s hear it.
53:14 I got to tell you, I travel from Pasadena just to make sure I
53:18 come to this board of meetings.
53:21 I just love you guys.
53:22 Listen, man.
53:22 We got you.
53:23 So, Dr. Randell and board, thank you so much for allowing me to
53:26 speak today.
53:27 I am so excited when I saw those young people, Amari and Ishan,
53:32 say they want to give back to their community.
53:35 What a tremendous thing.
53:37 So, I just wanted to let this team know, two weeks ago, we had
53:40 the South Brevard branch in WACP had their STEM program
53:44 demonstration.
53:45 There were about 70 kids from Brevard Public School that
53:48 attended that event.
53:49 Wow.
53:50 So, we were so proud of Brevard Public School students, and I’m
53:54 very proud to be part of that program.
53:57 But one of the things I would like to talk about is the millage,
54:02 the ad valorem millage.
54:05 You know, what I’ve looked at the data, and you guys know I’ve
54:08 been up here for several years now, talking about VPK.
54:12 And I guarantee you, all of those students that received those
54:17 award today, they attended VPK.
54:19 So, when I looked at the data over the last few weeks, I noticed
54:25 that the VPK participation rate has not changed much at all.
54:31 Probably by 2% in terms of participation of the marginalized
54:35 community.
54:36 But when I looked at the tax plan that was in your, I think it
54:39 was in your workshop today, there are three buckets.
54:43 And one of the things that I saw was that in the student program
54:47 development area, there were no buckets set aside for VPK
54:53 investment or improvement.
54:55 And I just want to say that, when you look at the educational
54:59 gap over the last three or four years, there have been about a 2%
55:02 increase.
55:04 So, the gap is still around 22% to 24%, and to me, that is not
55:10 good enough.
55:11 So, I’m asking this board for your compassionate heart to really
55:16 looking at adding some funds in that bucket called students’
55:21 program development and expansion.
55:23 And I know there may be some laws around that I’m not familiar
55:27 with, but my mother used to always say, “Put your money where
55:30 your mouth is.”
55:32 So, I just hope that this board will show compassion toward
55:36 those areas that need VPK participation.
55:40 And I’m a Bible teacher, you know, one of the things they said
55:44 about Jesus, Jesus was a man of compassion.
55:47 And what Jesus did, when he saw those that were in need, he just
55:51 didn’t felt about it and express anything.
55:55 It was always coupled with an action.
55:58 He had compassion on them, and he healed them.
56:01 So, I’m just hoping that you will consider adding a bucket in
56:05 there for VPK.
56:07 What can we do to recruit more students?
56:10 What can we do to really increase that population?
56:14 Because your data has shared with us that if a child does not
56:19 attend VPK, it’s 70% chance that that child will not get on
56:24 reading level.
56:25 So, thank you so much.
56:26 Appreciate it.
56:27 Thank you, sir.
56:28 Mr. Chair, can I just–
56:30 Absolutely.
56:30 Hang on, hang on.
56:32 Mr. Bryan, I–
56:32 Mr. Bryan, listen.
56:33 Hold on.
56:34 I know, Mr. Dufresne’s back there because he’s going to jump on
56:36 this.
56:36 But I actually addressed this today at the workshop because this
56:40 was an area of concern that you had spoke to me about.
56:42 And so, I’m sure that Mr. Dufresne’s going to reiterate the same
56:45 thing.
56:45 But the policy mimics exactly what was on the ballot when we
56:50 voted for that millage.
56:52 So, we have to keep it in line so that they match the same thing.
56:55 So, we’re not telling our voters, hey, we’re going to get millage
56:57 funds and do this with it, and then we change the plan later.
57:00 Mr. Dufresne will go into more detail with you.
57:01 But I just wanted to let you know.
57:02 I did bring it up because this was one of the questions that was
57:05 asked today.
57:05 Mr. Bryan, thank you for answering that question.
57:09 One of the things I also saw in that policy, are there any
57:12 boundaries around how funds are spent?
57:16 So, that’s a concern of mine as well.
57:19 And I really thank you for that discussion.
57:20 And that’s something that I absolutely think the board will have
57:22 a discussion.
57:23 We hear your passion for VPK and it is 100% genuine.
57:26 So, we understand that.
57:27 And I just wanted to clarify the part about the policy and the
57:30 verbiage that was in the policy.
57:31 That’s all.
57:31 Thank you very much.
57:36 That concludes agenda items.
57:40 Only public comments.
57:40 Thank you for taking time out of your schedule to address the
57:44 board with your concerns and suggestions.
57:44 I would like to remind the public that the board is accessible
57:49 for further conversations
57:50 outside of our business meetings through scheduled meeting.
57:52 We are now at the consent agenda.
57:55 Dr. Rendell.
57:55 Thank you, Mr. Chair.
57:57 There are 45 items on the agenda under this category.
58:00 Thank you, Dr. Rendell.
58:01 Does any board member wish to pull any of the items?
58:03 No.
58:04 Okay.
58:05 Being there are none pulled, I will entertain a motion to accept
58:09 the consent items on today’s agenda.
58:10 Second.
58:12 Any discussion?
58:14 Paul, roll call, please.
58:16 Mr. Trent.
58:17 Aye.
58:18 Ms. Wright.
58:18 Aye.
58:19 Mr. Susan.
58:20 Aye.
58:20 Ms. Campbell.
58:21 Aye.
58:21 Mr. Thomas.
58:22 Aye.
58:22 We will move to the information agenda, which includes an item
58:26 for our board review
58:27 that may be brought back for action at subsequent meeting.
58:29 No action will be taken on this item today.
58:30 There are two items under this category.
58:32 Does any board member wish to discuss this item?
58:33 Or these items?
58:35 No.
58:36 We are now at board member recognitions, reports, and discussion
58:40 points.
58:41 Does any board member have anything to discuss?
58:43 You can go first.
58:46 I’ll go first.
58:48 Ms. Campbell.
58:49 Yeah, I’ll be happy to go first.
58:51 All right.
58:52 I’ve got a long list, but I’m going to go through them pretty
58:54 quickly.
58:54 First of all, and I don’t know if Mike can zoom in on my shirt,
58:59 because the Stevenson, show and tell time,
59:02 the Stevenson Elementary, a group of students from Stevenson
59:05 Elementary designed a t-shirt.
59:07 And on the front it says, “In a world where you can be anything,
59:11 be kind.”
59:11 And then I’ll show you the back.
59:12 I’m standing up, Mike.
59:13 Mr. There you go.
59:14 There we go.
59:15 Move your hair.
59:16 Ms. Campbell.
59:16 Oh, sorry.
59:17 Mr. There we go.
59:18 Perfect.
59:18 He’s got it right there.
59:19 All right.
59:20 Okay.
59:21 You see it?
59:22 Yep, yep.
59:22 Hang on.
59:22 Right there.
59:23 That’s it right there.
59:24 Okay.
59:25 Hang on.
59:25 Okay.
59:26 All right.
59:26 They did this as a fundraiser because they wanted to, they
59:30 wanted to share a message,
59:31 but they also wanted to raise money for students in transition.
59:34 You know, Michael Cador and led the organizations that were
59:37 giving money towards students in transition.
59:39 But these students also wanted to do something to help with that.
59:43 So, board, there’s going to be a second round.
59:45 If you would like to purchase, I’ll make sure that Ms. Tuttle is
59:48 going to send those back out.
59:50 But I wanted to show that off and let the community know that it’s
59:52 also going to be reopening,
59:54 I believe, for more shirts if you’d like to have an awesome
59:57 shirt, but also support our students
59:58 in transition and the efforts that our students at Stevenson
1:00:01 Elementary are doing.
1:00:02 So I was very proud of them.
1:00:03 We had a conversation about vaping this afternoon at our
1:00:06 workshop, but I wanted to share that tomorrow,
1:00:11 the 25th of February at 2 o’clock, the Uplift Drug-Free
1:00:15 Coalition will be having a webinar
1:00:17 entitled Navigating Conversations About Vaping With Youth.
1:00:20 And so it would be a great thing for our parents to jump on if
1:00:22 they just don’t know how to start,
1:00:24 because we talked about how vaping, the vaping epidemic is not
1:00:28 going down, going away.
1:00:30 And we, parents really need to be involved in recognizing the
1:00:33 dangers.
1:00:33 We had our separate day school groundbreaking a few weeks ago,
1:00:37 and I was proud to be there.
1:00:38 Somebody else may be mentioning it, but we’re really excited to
1:00:41 opening
1:00:41 this facility.
1:00:42 I wanted just to take a minute because I’ve seen lots of things
1:00:46 stirring online,
1:00:46 and I know we released our information.
1:00:48 But this separate day school, to just dispel some misinformation
1:00:53 and to talk about how really
1:00:54 extra awesome it is that we can do this.
1:00:56 Four years ago, we had in the past two different, we had
1:01:02 contracted with a company.
1:01:04 Some people said they’re charter schools.
1:01:05 They weren’t charter schools.
1:01:05 They were contracted schools to serve our students with the most
1:01:09 extreme emotional
1:01:11 behavior needs.
1:01:12 And so those, after the school year was over, we were a little
1:01:17 bit into the summer,
1:01:18 when that company decided to cancel the contract.
1:01:21 And we had six weeks to put up something to serve those students.
1:01:25 And we had space at Gardendale and Merritt Island, which I love
1:01:28 Merritt Island,
1:01:29 but the only thing close to Merritt Island is Merritt Island.
1:01:31 And so because we have that space, we put up within six weeks a
1:01:36 special day school to serve those students.
1:01:39 And for the last four years now, students have been traveling by
1:01:42 bus from the extremes of our county to a pretty out-of-the-way
1:01:46 location.
1:01:46 So we were really excited after we went over and saw what Orange
1:01:50 County was doing with their
1:01:51 students and this population to be able to look at the
1:01:54 possibility with with impact fees.
1:01:57 So we don’t go into debt to build a building that’s designed for
1:02:01 these students.
1:02:01 Gardendale, we did the best we could of what we had, but that’s
1:02:04 an old elementary school
1:02:06 that was not designed to meet the needs of these students.
1:02:08 So we’re really excited to be breaking ground.
1:02:09 And actually, they were already getting pretty far into the
1:02:12 process.
1:02:12 So we’re excited that hopefully that will open in the middle of
1:02:14 next school year so we can serve
1:02:16 those students who their their most appropriate education space
1:02:20 is in a school that’s designed for them.
1:02:22 So we’re really excited about doing that and especially about
1:02:26 doing it debt free.
1:02:26 So and also thank you to all the staff who’ve been making it
1:02:30 happen in that building.
1:02:31 That’s not the ideal situation for the last four years.
1:02:34 Last week, we had our Children’s Hunger Project luncheon.
1:02:38 I wanted to thank you guys, board and staff, who were able to
1:02:41 come.
1:02:41 We raised over $100,000 that day alone.
1:02:44 And I’m really proud of our community.
1:02:48 Yes, really proud of our community for the compassion for our
1:02:53 students and our goal,
1:02:55 joining us in our goal of eliminating a childhood hunker in Brevard.
1:02:58 I have been invited for the last several years to teach our
1:03:04 session
1:03:06 for our future teacher leaders and people who are thinking about
1:03:09 going into administration
1:03:10 or who are in the pipeline of going to administration.
1:03:12 It’s called the new class name is called the Foundations of
1:03:15 Leadership.
1:03:15 It’s an in-service that teachers can go to.
1:03:18 And I just wanted to thank Lisa Stanley and Lisa Hyam for their
1:03:22 efforts in this.
1:03:23 It’s always they get such great feedback from our employees who
1:03:27 take this course.
1:03:28 And it’s really a lot of fun for me.
1:03:29 So next year, one of you guys is going to have to figure out, I’ll
1:03:32 give you my notes.
1:03:33 Because it’s always a lot of fun to interact with our teachers
1:03:36 and let them know
1:03:37 what my part is to share how policy making works on our end and
1:03:40 how they can have an impact on that.
1:03:42 We are in the middle of MPA season.
1:03:44 That stands for Music Performance Assessment.
1:03:46 And I’m so proud of our bands, orchestras, choirs, jazz bands
1:03:51 for all the hard work that they’re doing.
1:03:52 They’ve been going on the last few weeks and they’re going to be
1:03:54 continuing on the next couple of weeks.
1:03:56 This is their Super Bowl, Mr. Susan.
1:03:59 This is their state championship where they go and they are
1:04:03 judged and they get to perform their best.
1:04:05 And so good luck to all of those groups and we’re really proud
1:04:08 of you.
1:04:08 Last week, the children’s – sorry, wrong organization.
1:04:12 Brevard Schools Foundation celebrated the 10-year anniversary of
1:04:16 the supply zone for teachers.
1:04:18 And especially we recognized the work that the foundation and
1:04:23 the supply zone have done towards
1:04:26 providing school supplies and personal care products to our
1:04:29 students in need, especially our students in transition.
1:04:31 We’ve talked a lot about students in transition tonight.
1:04:33 So congratulations to them.
1:04:35 And thank you for all the partners and community support that
1:04:38 the Schools Foundation has had to make that happen.
1:04:40 Last Friday and then Monday, I got to participate in the African-American
1:04:46 read-ins at Columbia Elementary at Palm Bay Elementary.
1:04:49 And I know that Mr. Thomas and Ms. Wright were there at Palm Bay
1:04:51 Elementary on Monday morning.
1:04:53 It was great. We had so many members of the community come in
1:04:57 and the students love it
1:04:59 when community members come in and read to them. And it was –
1:05:02 there were great days.
1:05:04 Finally – and I know I’ve had a lot, but it’s been three weeks
1:05:08 and we’ve just – it’s February.
1:05:09 We’ve had so much going on. But I can’t – I had almost missed
1:05:13 this one on my list, but Ms. Hand reminded me.
1:05:18 So the fourth graders at Jupiter Elementary, their STEM teacher
1:05:23 is Ms. Machata, who was one of our six finalists for Teacher of
1:05:27 the Year.
1:05:27 They – they got a bug and just decided, you know what, we want
1:05:33 to build a bridge.
1:05:34 We want to build a bridge.
1:05:35 Now, it was kind of symbolic, but also they wanted to serve
1:05:39 their school because there was kind of some traffic jams going
1:05:42 on.
1:05:42 You can imagine some of our schools the way they’re designed
1:05:45 when you’re going across, like, from one class to another.
1:05:47 Sometimes you have to – especially if it’s raining or whatever
1:05:50 – you have to walk all the way down the sidewalk
1:05:51 because you don’t want to walk across the grass. And there was
1:05:53 no – there was no sidewalk from one side –
1:05:56 one hallway of classrooms to this – the art room. And so they
1:06:00 want – but they wanted – didn’t just want a sidewalk.
1:06:02 They wanted to build a bridge. And so I love this idea. They had
1:06:06 this – all these great designs.
1:06:08 They built bridges with, like, popsicle sticks and had these
1:06:10 designs.
1:06:11 But Sue Hand and the facilities team took this on and decided to
1:06:16 help these fourth graders fulfill this project.
1:06:18 So – and Mike’s been videotaping it, and there’s going to be
1:06:22 more to come on it.
1:06:23 But I just wanted to recognize Ms. Machata, the fourth grade
1:06:25 students at Jupiter.
1:06:26 And Sue just showed me a picture tonight of the finished work
1:06:29 because I went on Friday after the African-American read-in.
1:06:32 And the facilities team wasn’t just building it for them. These
1:06:35 guys were down on their knees on the – they poured concrete.
1:06:38 Let the kids help pour the concrete, design it. The students,
1:06:42 everybody got to have a turn, turning a screw,
1:06:45 putting the slats in place. And so they have built this bridge
1:06:49 and found a little extra funding in there to help them do that.
1:06:52 It was just the most amazing idea. So I can’t wait for you guys
1:06:55 to see the story.
1:06:56 But congratulations and thank you to the facilities team for
1:06:59 helping these STEM students have this magical moment
1:07:02 of getting to be a part of a construction project on their
1:07:06 campus.
1:07:06 And then the Bayside High School machining program even got in
1:07:10 on it because they designed a little plaque
1:07:12 in their machining class to go on the bridge. And it’s so
1:07:14 awesome. I can’t wait for you guys to see it.
1:07:16 And that’s all I have, Mr. Chairman.
1:07:18 All righty. Who wants to go next? Mr. Thomas is chomping. Here
1:07:23 we go.
1:07:23 I’ll go ahead. I have two recognitions tonight. First of all, Ms.
1:07:28 Myers, the principal at Riviera
1:07:30 Elementary, has selected Taylor Adams, a third grade teacher, to
1:07:35 be recognized. So I’d like to
1:07:36 read a little bit about what Ms. Myers wrote about Taylor.
1:07:40 Taylor Adams is in her first full year as a
1:07:42 third grade teacher at Riviera. She goes above and beyond to
1:07:45 connect with her students and build a
1:07:46 strong classroom community. Beyond that, she also spends time
1:07:49 thinking through her lessons so that when she
1:07:52 delivers them, her students are successful. Her positivity and
1:07:55 enthusiasm for teaching is contagious,
1:07:57 even on challenging days. And this is felt the minute you
1:08:01 entered her classroom. We are so proud of
1:08:04 her and glad she is part of BPS. So thank you, Ms. Adams, for
1:08:08 all of your work at Riviera Elementary.
1:08:11 And I’d also like to give a shout out. Last, last meeting, I
1:08:14 gave a shout out to Palm Bay,
1:08:16 ROTC Air Rifle Team for winning the National Championship. It
1:08:19 was the Marine Corps National
1:08:21 Championship. Well, they went on to Ohio and they went against
1:08:24 all services from around the country,
1:08:26 and they are the national champion of all services. So
1:08:29 congratulations to Bombay ROTC.
1:08:34 Good job, man. And that was an all-female team, but one male
1:08:37 member. So that’s even more impressive. So
1:08:39 very cool. Wow. Nice. Do you want to go or you want to go?
1:08:42 Yeah, you go. Okay, go ahead. Ladies. All right. Well, you took
1:08:46 one of mine off my list,
1:08:47 so I’m going to go ahead and read you the email because this is,
1:08:49 my daughter is actually part of the
1:08:51 the ROTC program at Space Coast. And so I received an email that
1:08:55 kind of, we all received it,
1:08:56 the board did that broke down how well Brevard was represented
1:08:59 at this competition. So I’m going to read
1:09:01 the email from Senior Master Sergeant Mr. Warner. It says, “Across
1:09:06 the United States and Overseas
1:09:07 Department of Defense Education Activity, schools are, sorry,
1:09:11 schools, there are approximately 250
1:09:13 Marine Corps, 850 Air/Space Force, and 1,500 Army JROTC units, 2,600
1:09:20 schools in total hosting
1:09:22 an Armed Forces JROTC unit. There’s over 6,000 students across
1:09:27 all services that compete in this
1:09:29 championship qualification match. BPS represented extremely well.
1:09:34 So as of Saturday, BPS ends the
1:09:36 2025-2026 Sporter Air Rifle National Championship for the United
1:09:40 States Marine Corps, thanks to
1:09:42 Palm Bay Magnet, and the United States Air Force, Space Force,
1:09:45 thanks to Space Coast Junior/Senior.
1:09:48 Additionally, in their first year competing nationally,
1:09:50 satellite finished at number 9 for the Air/Space
1:09:53 Force. And then finally, astronaut qualified for and competed in
1:09:57 the service championship,
1:09:58 finishing in the top 5% of all Army units. So our district was
1:10:02 represented really well. And that
1:10:04 just really, truly goes back to the amazing leaders that teach
1:10:07 those different ROTC programs. I am always
1:10:10 amazed at the conversation that comes out of that in my own
1:10:12 personal home. And I just, I cannot say enough
1:10:15 wonderful things about how our ROTC instructors are truly
1:10:18 changing the next generation of students. So thank you,
1:10:20 thank you, thank you. All right. I know we’ve, we’re going to
1:10:23 have some overlap here on some of these,
1:10:24 so I’m going to try my best to not hit on all the things that,
1:10:27 that you’ve already hit on Ms. Campbell or
1:10:29 that, that one I just wanted to read the specifics because Space
1:10:31 Coast, one of my schools was in there
1:10:32 as well. Um, I want to give a, a huge thank you. So we, we
1:10:35 hosted some very special guests last week. It was a
1:10:38 different week for us, but, uh, the Governor, the Commissioner
1:10:40 of Education, uh, and Congressman
1:10:42 Herodopolis came to one of our schools in the north end, THS. Uh,
1:10:46 they were able to announce the fact
1:10:48 that they were, we have achieved as a state, our, our, our goal
1:10:51 for career and technical education. So
1:10:54 they achieved that goal five years in advance, which is a huge
1:10:57 feat, because I think they were a little
1:10:58 unsure at the time of setting the goal, if they’d be able to
1:11:01 accomplish it in this amount of time. But
1:11:02 not only did they accomplish it, we’ve accomplished it five
1:11:04 years earlier. So thank you so much.
1:11:06 And thank you to Titusville High School, Chef Noble hosted. Uh,
1:11:09 she’s an amazing, you know,
1:11:10 culinary chef that is a cordon bleu chef that just is
1:11:13 charismatic and fun and you want to be around
1:11:15 her. And so thank you for presenting some food to our wonderful
1:11:18 governor, uh, that students had made.
1:11:20 That was a fun event overall. Um, also want to thank, we had the
1:11:22 Lieutenant Governor the very next day.
1:11:24 So he came to the north end and he, uh, went to our welding
1:11:27 program, interestingly enough,
1:11:29 at Astronaut High. So I want to thank him for devoting some time
1:11:31 to really see what’s happening
1:11:33 in the trades programs in our schools. I think he was blown away.
1:11:35 I think most
1:11:36 people are when they walk into that welding program, it is
1:11:38 absolutely mind boggling. This
1:11:40 exists in high school. Um, so it was very, very cool, cool visit
1:11:44 and a lot of time one-on-one with
1:11:45 him. Um, we board, we’ve also had Brooke from, I think it’s
1:11:49 water safety, water safety presentation.
1:11:51 So she’s come before the board and she’s talked about her
1:11:53 passion for water safety. Well, she invited
1:11:55 me to attend one of her water safety presentations at Jackson
1:11:58 middle school and, uh, the title of fire
1:12:01 department was there. The mayor was there. Obviously the amazing
1:12:04 instructors were there, but really
1:12:06 demonstrated for an entire PE class, how to perform CPR. And
1:12:10 they did this on babies on, you know,
1:12:14 they went through all the entire, the whole gamut. And so I just
1:12:17 want to thank her because honestly,
1:12:19 watching these kids learn this life saving measure, I, I just
1:12:21 couldn’t help but think these are lessons
1:12:23 that will carry. Um, I had a situation with a personal family
1:12:27 member, friend, um, sorry, my, my best friend’s
1:12:30 father had passed away, but he’d had a heart attack and their
1:12:33 grandchildren go to school at Titusville
1:12:35 High School. And the grandchild was present when he had the
1:12:38 heart attack and he was able to administer
1:12:39 CPR. And that was taught through one of our instructors. And so
1:12:42 I’m just like, Hey, some of these lessons
1:12:44 that they don’t seem like at the time, this is a big deal. Like,
1:12:47 I don’t even know if I’m ever going to
1:12:48 use this, but they’re using it. And so that’s one of those
1:12:50 things where you’re like, okay, this is an
1:12:52 aha moment. So, all right. Um, also want to give a shout out to,
1:12:55 we had one of the finalists for the
1:12:57 top four under 40 with lead Brevard. So Kelly, who works in our
1:13:01 ESC services, says, um, she was one of
1:13:03 our, our finalists. And I just want to say that was an amazing
1:13:06 event. Honestly, there was 12 finalists
1:13:08 that were there and they all had just such hearts for serving
1:13:10 our community. Every single one of them
1:13:12 gave back in such a way that was impactful. And I was honored to
1:13:15 be there and represent her and cheer
1:13:17 her on. And so shout out to Kelly. Uh, you did an amazing job.
1:13:20 You do an amazing job. You,
1:13:21 you, she meets these needs of children that are the most
1:13:23 vulnerable children and, uh,
1:13:25 blows my mind that she’s able to do that day in and day out
1:13:27 because it is a mission of her heart,
1:13:29 but she does it because she loves these kids. And then also I
1:13:31 want to thank Ms. Cagney for allowing
1:13:33 me to come with, you know, Ms. Campbell, we all went to, to Palm
1:13:36 Bay Elementary to read, but I went
1:13:38 specifically to Ms. Cagney’s first grade class and Peter
1:13:41 Phillips from the district attended with me.
1:13:43 So he was there and we got to, to read to kids. And, uh, those
1:13:47 moments are the ones that kind of ground us
1:13:48 back into the why when you see children in the classroom. And a
1:13:51 lot of times you get stuck in
1:13:52 the governance of things or the headaches of things. And I
1:13:54 jokingly will say, it’s the adults that make
1:13:56 this job hard. It’s not the kids. The kids are the best part of
1:13:59 this job. And, um, so thank you so
1:14:01 much. Thank you to, to Barbie Miller for inviting us. I told her,
1:14:04 Hey, invite me anytime I will come and
1:14:06 happily participate in classrooms. And I think that is all that
1:14:09 I have at this point. Thank you so much.
1:14:11 Um, really appreciate all of you guys. I mean, how awesome is it
1:14:14 that we have the governor come
1:14:15 to our school district. We have presidential award winners. I
1:14:18 mean, it’s just, we have a lot of
1:14:20 stuff. We have national marksmanship. I mean, this is incredible.
1:14:23 Like I’ve, I’ve been to a lot of
1:14:25 other school board meetings and stuff like that, and they don’t
1:14:27 have this type of stuff. So it’s
1:14:28 really cool. Right. Um, wanted to tell you guys, just give you a
1:14:31 quick. He’s going to skip you.
1:14:32 Oh, it’s okay. Sorry, man. Because you know, she goes and then I’m
1:14:35 supposed to go like, Oh God.
1:14:37 Well, I let her go. I’m so sorry, man. So that’s fine. And many
1:14:42 times I’m like, that’s fine. Just go
1:14:44 ahead. But we, it has been a while and there’s been some really
1:14:46 good things that, uh, that have come up.
1:14:50 So, uh, I’ll forgive you there, but, uh, lots of, lots of shout
1:14:54 outs today. Um, so bear with us even
1:14:56 just a little bit more, uh, some, some very exciting sport news.
1:15:01 We got a little bit of that,
1:15:03 like Coco Beach boys soccer, uh, wound up in the semifinals, uh,
1:15:07 you know, the final four of the
1:15:08 state soccer tournament. So that was good. They, that’s where
1:15:11 they, their journey ended. It wasn’t
1:15:13 quite like the, the men’s and women’s hockey and in the Olympics
1:15:16 with a shout out for them, but that’s,
1:15:19 it was way more than they expected for the year. So great job,
1:15:22 uh, coaches and staff there. And then
1:15:25 let’s stay on the sports for a little while. It’s, it’s all a
1:15:28 little bit here in the next few minutes,
1:15:29 all cocoa. Um, a shout out to coach Dottie had their, uh, uh,
1:15:34 first victory in baseball in over
1:15:37 two years for the cocoa tigers. Uh, it doesn’t matter. We don’t
1:15:42 talk about that. Um, but it was, uh,
1:15:45 I got to meet, uh, uh, the staff and, uh, some of the, the
1:15:49 coaching staff and, uh, coach Dottie’s wife,
1:15:51 who’s a VR a teacher and, uh, uh, some of the boys and they’re
1:15:55 really turning that program around.
1:15:57 So there’s a lot of excitement about the cocoa baseball program
1:16:00 over there. Um, he also wanted
1:16:02 me to mention that they’re, they’re always looking for some
1:16:05 donations for lots of things for their
1:16:07 program. But, uh, this Friday, I can be a little, uh, uh, cheerleader
1:16:10 for them. They are going to have
1:16:11 a first responders night, Friday, February 27th at 5:45 at the
1:16:17 cocoa baseball field and it’s honoring cocoa
1:16:19 police and fire departments. So they’re really stepping up, uh,
1:16:23 the community involvement. You
1:16:25 know, we all know about the cocoa football program. Um, but the
1:16:28 baseball program is, is up and coming
1:16:30 and they’re young. They’re like a middle school team. Uh, they
1:16:33 had an eighth grader win their varsity
1:16:35 game and then had, had a double digit strikeouts, a big deal for,
1:16:38 uh, for that program in the community.
1:16:40 So, uh, the, just to stay on the, uh, on the cocoa athletics, it’s
1:16:44 a congratulations to coach hooks,
1:16:45 uh, the, the new football coach that they appointed there. He’s
1:16:48 got a big, uh, a big program,
1:16:51 a lot of expectations, but he’s an alumni of cocoa and, uh, he’s,
1:16:56 he’s excited and he’s up for that,
1:16:57 that position. So the community already loves this guy. So, uh,
1:17:01 I was able to meet him, uh, at this
1:17:03 event, which was cocoa again, it’s the cocoa, uh, fire truck
1:17:07 number 32 push in ceremony.
1:17:09 Do you guys know what I’m talking about? Yes. So if I do, and if
1:17:13 you don’t out there,
1:17:14 please look it up. So what it is first in the state where, uh,
1:17:18 these fire trucks, and you know,
1:17:20 they cost about $1.6 million now for fire trucks, but it’s the
1:17:24 first in the state that they took the
1:17:26 colors of the school and they, they decked out this new fire
1:17:30 truck in cocoa tiger pride stuff. It is,
1:17:33 it is amazing. It was the entire, it looked like the entire
1:17:38 county was there, but it was, I mean,
1:17:41 the cocoa city council was there, um, uh, uh, fire chief lamb,
1:17:46 uh, it had a great speech talking about
1:17:49 the whole history of why they call it a push in ceremony. Uh,
1:17:53 mayor Blake, uh, of course he brings
1:17:55 the excitement no matter where he goes, but they had the cheerleaders
1:17:59 out there. They had the baseball
1:18:01 team and what else they have? They have a lot, uh, the band and
1:18:04 they even had the band there, uh, for
1:18:06 cocoa. So, uh, principal Stewart organized that, that whole
1:18:10 group of people there. It ran, you know,
1:18:13 flawlessly. It was really exciting. So please go online, look it
1:18:17 up. It’s a truck 32 and, um,
1:18:20 it was great. We actually kind of pushed it into, in the, uh, uh,
1:18:24 in the firehouse and they brought it
1:18:25 back out and they put up the, uh, the, the extension ladder and
1:18:29 they did everything there. So that was
1:18:31 real good. Um, now we get into some other things there. Uh, one
1:18:35 voice voter registration program. Now,
1:18:37 this is a program, uh, that’s been going throughout the district,
1:18:41 uh, put on by the supervisor of elections
1:18:43 and Timbo Bannock. Uh, well, I had the privilege, uh, and the
1:18:46 honor to attend, uh, at Merritt Island this
1:18:49 past weekend or this past week, we had over 600 students in the,
1:18:53 uh, auditorium, both juniors
1:18:54 and seniors. Uh, and, and what a, what a lesson on civic. So
1:18:58 just the, the, uh, uh, the responsibility
1:19:01 and, uh, you know, the ability to pre-register, I keep
1:19:04 forgetting that, that these kids can register
1:19:07 to vote, uh, you know, a couple of years in advance of actually
1:19:10 voting, you know, at 16 and, you know,
1:19:13 talks about the importance of, you know, learning before you
1:19:15 vote, you know, and these, these guys, uh,
1:19:17 uh, had stories upon stories of, of the importance of, uh, of,
1:19:22 of their one vote.
1:19:23 Uh, we had a veteran there talking about, uh, you know, our,
1:19:27 what our country has sacrificed in
1:19:29 order for them to be able to vote. So it is a great program, uh,
1:19:33 that, uh, Timbo Bannock’s,
1:19:34 uh, heading up and, uh, it was just an honor. It was a, it was a
1:19:38 joy. So, uh, Ms. Lubbers,
1:19:40 uh, the principal over at Merritt Island, again, allowed, um,
1:19:43 you know, both juniors and seniors,
1:19:45 uh, to be there. Uh, I don’t think that’s been the largest. I
1:19:47 think Vieira had over a thousand
1:19:49 at theirs and, uh, it, it’s, it’s a great event that’s going out
1:19:52 there. Um, not to forget, um,
1:19:57 what Roosevelt’s elementary and Cocoa beach and Cape view and
1:20:01 Cape Canaveral, what they’ve done,
1:20:02 um, because of, uh, uh, let’s say the merger of the two school,
1:20:07 the consolidation,
1:20:08 those two principals, Melissa long, uh, of, uh, Cape view and
1:20:13 page trusted from Roosevelt.
1:20:14 They put their heads together and came up with an idea of not
1:20:18 only are we going to have an open
1:20:19 house on March 5th, but they were bringing over grade by grade
1:20:24 for over about an hour and a half
1:20:25 a day. Last week, they brought over the third graders from Cape
1:20:29 view into Roosevelt and they,
1:20:30 they had activities set up in the gym, in the playground, in the
1:20:34 cafeteria, and they had team
1:20:35 building. Uh, they had games, a little bit of dodge ball. I’m
1:20:38 glad that that was, that’s still there.
1:20:40 Um, but, uh, music going and it was all run by the student
1:20:44 leaders. They had these group of sixth
1:20:46 graders with their little clipboards and making teams. And, uh,
1:20:50 so yesterday was the fourth grade
1:20:52 and today was the fifth grade. And I was there, uh, along with
1:20:56 the, uh, the school counselor,
1:20:58 Ms. Anderson, we’re holding the doors open for them to walk
1:21:01 through the gymnasium for the first time
1:21:04 and their eyes are, you know, this big, like, look at this, this
1:21:07 is amazing. And, and it did help that
1:21:08 we refinish that, that, that gym a few years ago. It looks brand
1:21:12 new, uh, and changed the lights so it
1:21:14 looks very bright, but the kids just absolutely enjoyed
1:21:17 themselves and the, uh, they knocked it out
1:21:20 of the park, uh, you know, with the, uh, with the activities.
1:21:22 And of course, when you, when you, you
1:21:24 know, include popsicles in there somewhere, they’re, they’re
1:21:27 excited about it. So, uh, so much so they,
1:21:30 they thought they were going to stop at about third, fourth and
1:21:32 fifth. Well, the second grade,
1:21:34 uh, and the first grade teachers from both schools contacted the
1:21:37 principals and said,
1:21:38 we’ve heard, we were hearing such positive responses on this
1:21:42 that we would love to do something
1:21:43 ourselves. So after spring break, they’re going to bring them in,
1:21:46 uh, first grade and second grade,
1:21:48 and maybe do some in-class activities, you know, uh, uh, to, so
1:21:52 the entire school is going to come over
1:21:55 and see the new classmates in the schools that they’re going to
1:21:57 have next year. So they’ve really
1:21:59 taken this and, and made a super positive, uh, situation here.
1:22:03 So, um, a shout out to them and,
1:22:05 um, you know, us providing the transportation for them to come
1:22:08 on over. So, um, it’s just been,
1:22:11 it’s been a good week for that. So that is about it. Now you can
1:22:14 go.
1:22:15 Did they let you drive the fire truck cause it was your birthday
1:22:17 this week?
1:22:18 Oh, no, no, no. It’s a birthday today. That was last week. So we
1:22:22 won’t, we won’t talk about that.
1:22:24 Do we, should we sing happy birthday? No, no, no, no. We didn’t.
1:22:28 Come on. There’s always this place for good start. Okay. Anyways,
1:22:33 happy birthday.
1:22:33 No, we’re good. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Um, I just
1:22:36 wanted to bring an update
1:22:37 to the presidential youth physical fitness. We actually are in,
1:22:41 we are testing the children.
1:22:43 Can I stop you? Yeah. So when I was in the gymnasium today, uh,
1:22:47 at Roosevelt,
1:22:48 the, uh, uh, principal, you know, kind of looked on the wall
1:22:50 cause I talked about,
1:22:51 Hey, I think you’re going to get this thing painted this and
1:22:53 they are on the,
1:22:54 uh, on the list for this summer. And there’s a stenciled sign at
1:22:57 least. She’s like,
1:22:58 we got to get rid of that thing too. And I looked at it was a
1:23:01 presidential, uh,
1:23:02 like records or whatever. And it was from like 1994.
1:23:05 And she’s like, you know what? We’re going to just put that in
1:23:08 the back hall. I go,
1:23:09 save it. Cause you know, we’re doing that all again. And I’m
1:23:12 sure Mr.
1:23:12 Susan is going to want to love to see those names. So their
1:23:15 names and stuff up there from 30
1:23:17 years ago. Yep. Just wanted to let you guys know the
1:23:20 presidential youth physical fitness,
1:23:21 the teams are already testing should be completed sometime here
1:23:24 in the spring.
1:23:25 And we can go ahead and request that the signature,
1:23:27 that the certificates start getting printed up in Washington DC
1:23:30 for the first time.
1:23:31 Their printer’s pretty dusty as, as you may know. Um,
1:23:34 but it’s going to be a great opportunity. So more to come on
1:23:36 that. Um, so we have,
1:23:39 just so you guys know, April 17th, we have to start saying the
1:23:42 date over and over again,
1:23:43 is the, um, swearing in ceremony for our students. We’re also
1:23:48 going to see about possibly bringing in
1:23:51 the national and state winners for what the things that they did
1:23:54 to honor those ROTC students as part of
1:23:56 that. Um, and utilize that not only for swearing in, but maybe a
1:24:00 opportunity to honor when we have
1:24:02 national or state winners, you know what I mean? Which would be
1:24:04 cool because there needs to be a place
1:24:06 for that. Yeah. Also, we had an amazing construction program
1:24:09 competition. I just want to let you guys
1:24:11 know, I talked about it earlier. Um, but to see all of the
1:24:13 schools that have construction programs competing
1:24:17 in a competition between each other to build all of the framing
1:24:20 and everything else, put in electrical,
1:24:22 they put in, um, all of the air conditioning and everything else
1:24:26 all within a, um, two hour period
1:24:28 was incredible. And then they had to go break it all down. But
1:24:30 that’s a lot of, that’s a big thing.
1:24:32 I look forward to seeing the HBCA kind of take that thing over
1:24:35 and start. And we do have a competition
1:24:38 with, um, Citrus County. It’ll be virtual. And then what we’re
1:24:41 going to do is, is I’m going to try
1:24:43 to challenge a couple more counties and maybe we can have one
1:24:45 big one. And maybe you can work on
1:24:47 grabbing the HBCAs in those counties and working with them to
1:24:50 kind of collaborate and everything
1:24:52 else would be kind of cool. Um, we do have an update on the
1:24:55 logos. So just so you guys know,
1:24:57 we identified organization, some organizations that had come in
1:25:00 and gotten, um, contracts signed
1:25:02 by athletic directors back as early as 2011 to go ahead and
1:25:08 present to Walmart and all the other
1:25:10 places to print our shirts. Um, we did an audit, found out how
1:25:13 much money we received. Um, do not feel like
1:25:16 that was reciprocal as far as what it was over the years, but
1:25:19 our staff and our attorneys sent
1:25:21 out cease and desist letters to all of them to say, no, we are
1:25:23 going to bring forward a policy.
1:25:25 It’s what we’ll talk about here in the offsite. Um, and what we’ll
1:25:28 do is, is we’re going to allow
1:25:30 on July 1st to start the beginning of what will be, you have to
1:25:34 contract with the district to utilize
1:25:37 hours. And so local vendors, and that’s the reason I wanted to
1:25:39 let you guys know if local vendors reach
1:25:41 out to you and say, Hey, we already, we’re doing this. How do we
1:25:44 fit into this? No problem.
1:25:45 But they’re just going to have to get the rights signed and
1:25:47 approved for them to print.
1:25:49 So we have a couple, I think it’s a Brevard. Um, there’s a
1:25:52 company that we do business with that
1:25:54 makes a lot of our prints and stuff like that. And that would be
1:25:56 somebody that already does it.
1:25:57 So we’d be in approving them, but we don’t want to allow the Walmarts
1:26:00 and the CVS and all that stuff.
1:26:01 And for their defense, they had nothing. They did not think that
1:26:04 anything was wrong. And they’ve been working with
1:26:06 us to make sure that those do not get sold inside the school. So
1:26:09 big opportunity for them. Look for
1:26:10 some news to come out about that possibly next week. We also had
1:26:13 the BECSA. I don’t know if you guys
1:26:15 remember, but the non-invasive mammogram breast exam. And from
1:26:19 everybody that I talked to that’s gone
1:26:21 through, it said that it’s absolutely amazing. Um, some of them
1:26:24 said that it was so relaxing that they
1:26:26 almost fell asleep when it was going on. So it’s a great
1:26:28 opportunity. And I’m looking forward to seeing
1:26:31 some of the statistics, as you guys know, it was, it filled up
1:26:35 within the first two hours,
1:26:36 right? So they opened up more days to have more. So we’re
1:26:40 looking to see if some of the individuals
1:26:42 that don’t have breast exams actually get them. And we opened it
1:26:45 up for 35 and older. And some of the
1:26:48 people I spoke to one said, I just turned 35 and I was so lucky
1:26:51 that they actually covered the cost for
1:26:53 me because there’s a majority of breast cancers that are now
1:26:56 coming in under 40 years old. So it’s good
1:26:58 stuff. Another great thing that, um, Mr. Dufresne and our
1:27:01 insurance and Dr. Rendell have been working
1:27:03 on to bring, um, Cancer Care Direct, just so you guys know, a
1:27:06 little update. They’re receiving the
1:27:08 file for the first time of all of the individuals that have
1:27:11 cancer. So they’ll be starting to reach
1:27:13 out and getting them all of the individual care that they can
1:27:16 provide to get them better treatments
1:27:18 and stuff like that. Big week for the insurance stuff. Really,
1:27:21 really good stuff happening. Um,
1:27:23 don’t forget we have the elementary school sports coming up
1:27:26 March 7th is going to be the big, uh,
1:27:29 I think that’s next Saturday is big, big, big, big, you know,
1:27:33 flag football jamboree.
1:27:34 Yep. All the flag football jamborees. And we, I spoke to Kevin
1:27:38 Robinson. There’s going to be, um,
1:27:41 so the way we did it is if we don’t have the stipends and we don’t
1:27:44 want to burden the school district,
1:27:45 but we still want to hold events for the elementary schools that
1:27:49 we were going to, and we talked about
1:27:50 this provide like an AAU or a pal league to offer like tennis
1:27:54 golf and all of that. So we have
1:27:56 indication that Viera East is going to host a countywide
1:27:59 elementary school golf tournament.
1:28:01 So that’s going to be whole cool nine holes. Uh, Mr. Trent’s
1:28:05 going to help work on that.
1:28:06 We also have a tennis tournament and then we also have a
1:28:08 wrestling tournament that’s going to be at
1:28:10 Viera. So if you guys want to come watch the mighty mites come
1:28:13 and wrestle in there,
1:28:14 you know what I mean, go after it and we’re going to have some
1:28:16 cool stuff. And what’s crazy is,
1:28:18 is that it’s not like we’re creating. So the wrestling, I found
1:28:21 out once we started calling
1:28:23 some of the coaches and stuff like that, they’re already doing
1:28:24 it. Right. So like there’s already
1:28:26 elementary school kids wrestling as part of the program so that
1:28:29 they can come up. It’s just,
1:28:30 and they’re so excited. I mean, you tell me I can go wrestle
1:28:32 against Ralph Williams and all this other
1:28:34 stuff. So it’s going to be really cool. So they’re gearing up.
1:28:37 So sometimes in April,
1:28:38 and we’ll make some of those, um, some of those going on. And
1:28:40 that’s all I have. Dr. Rendell.
1:28:41 Dr. Rendell. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m going to follow up on a
1:28:45 couple of things that were mentioned
1:28:46 by the board members. First, we did have the governor visit Titusville
1:28:48 High School last week.
1:28:50 And I really want to thank Jennifer Gonzalez, the principal and
1:28:53 her staff. It is quite a lift to pull
1:28:57 that off, especially because you’re not allowed to tell people
1:29:00 that you have the governor coming.
1:29:02 We didn’t even tell her until about five days out. And so there’s
1:29:06 a lot of work that they had to do
1:29:08 behind the scenes to do that and to host that event. And I want
1:29:11 to thank her and her staff and her team
1:29:14 and her school for, for doing the things they had to do to host
1:29:17 that. It was quite a great event to have
1:29:19 the governor and the commissioner and representative Herodopoulos
1:29:22 was there as well. And then the next day,
1:29:24 Krista Miller and her staff at Astronaut hosted the Lieutenant
1:29:27 Governor. So, you know, it was great for
1:29:29 Brevard County and great for our public schools to have these
1:29:32 officials come and visit, but there’s a lot of work
1:29:35 that goes into preparing for that. And so I just want to thank
1:29:37 those, those administrative teams and
1:29:39 the rest of the people at those schools for all the work they
1:29:41 did for that. I don’t know if we’ve
1:29:43 been able to see in the shots of different speakers and stuff,
1:29:47 but around the room, in the boardroom,
1:29:51 we have art. We have all kinds of art. Because tomorrow night,
1:29:54 so Wednesday night, we have an art show
1:29:57 here at the school, free, open to the public, starts at six o’clock.
1:30:01 And it’s visual art from all of our high
1:30:03 school art students. And the work is quite amazing. So if you
1:30:07 are a fan of visual art and you have free
1:30:10 time tomorrow night, totally encourage you to come by and see
1:30:13 this artwork. It is fantastic.
1:30:15 So shout out to our teachers and our students for working so
1:30:19 hard and producing such high quality
1:30:21 visual art. It is, again, amazing the work that they have
1:30:24 produced.
1:30:26 The last shout out is for the last three weeks, we have had
1:30:30 science fairs. So Brevard County is such a
1:30:33 big district that we have three different regional science fairs.
1:30:36 And science fairs starts actually
1:30:38 in elementary school. A lot of districts don’t concentrate on
1:30:41 science fair as early as we do,
1:30:43 but we do. Part of it is because we’re the Space Coast and we
1:30:45 have a lot of rocket scientists that live here,
1:30:47 you know, engineers and things. But it is, again, amazing and
1:30:51 impressive to see the young people
1:30:54 engaging in the scientific method and the research process in
1:30:58 elementary school.
1:31:00 And those teachers and those parents who are somewhat involved
1:31:05 in the elementary science
1:31:07 fair projects deserve a lot of praise for all the work that they
1:31:11 did. And congratulations to all the
1:31:13 students. I went to the elementary award ceremonies each of the
1:31:16 weekends and saw these kids getting
1:31:18 blue ribbons and red ribbons and the pride that they showed for
1:31:21 the work that they’ve done. And
1:31:23 obviously we encourage that as they go into high school,
1:31:25 secondary, you know, middle school and high
1:31:27 school. And those science fairs were also going on. Eshan from
1:31:31 West Shore, one of the youngsters that we
1:31:33 recognized earlier today, was best of show for one of the fairs.
1:31:37 And so he’s going into international
1:31:38 competition, international science fair. And our kids, actually
1:31:41 our kids, our young people actually do
1:31:43 quite well in the international competition for science fair.
1:31:48 And a lot of that is due to the
1:31:50 instruction that they receive from the teachers in their
1:31:52 classrooms. And so I really want to thank all the
1:31:55 teachers who put their heart and soul into preparing these kids
1:31:58 for science fair and encouraging them
1:32:00 to participate in science fair and also the families that have
1:32:03 supported those students
1:32:04 through that process. We don’t always talk about science fair.
1:32:07 We don’t always talk about science
1:32:09 achievement. And we really should because it takes a lot of hard
1:32:12 work and dedication by those students,
1:32:14 the teachers, and of course, the parents who supported them.
1:32:16 That’s all, Mr. Chair. Thanks.
1:32:20 Thank you so much. I truly appreciate it. Good job, Dr. Rendell.
1:32:27 You ready, Paul? Chair recognizes the
1:32:30 board’s attorney, Paul Gibbs.
1:32:31 Paul Gibbs: Board members, on behalf of attorneys Randy Mora and
1:32:35 Jay Danio, I am notifying you that
1:32:37 advice is needed regarding the pending litigation style Jennifer
1:32:40 Jenkins v. Brevard School Board and Matthew
1:32:43 Susan, case number 05-2023-CA-018437, and Jennifer Jenkins v.
1:32:52 School Board and Matthew Susan, 5th DCA,
1:32:56 case number 5D-2025-3222. Pursuant to 286.011 Florida statute
1:33:04 known as the Government and the Sunshine Act,
1:33:06 I am requesting an attorney-client session with the board for
1:33:09 the purpose of discussing strategy and/or expenses
1:33:12 regarding the litigation. I will ask the board’s clerk to cause
1:33:16 reasonable public notice of the time
1:33:18 and date of this attorney-client session and the names of the
1:33:21 individuals attending to be published.
1:33:23 If the board approves, I will work with the board clerk to
1:33:25 coordinate dates for the attorney-client
1:33:27 session working with our counsel’s availability and provide
1:33:30 notice of the meeting inclusive of
1:33:32 scheduling a court reporter. It is anticipated that
1:33:35 approximately two hours will be needed for the
1:33:37 session. As required by this statute, only the following
1:33:40 individuals may be present:
1:33:42 School Board members: Katie Campbell, Matt Susan, John Thomas,
1:33:45 Jean Trent, Megan Wright, Superintendent
1:33:47 Dr. Mark Rendell, Paul Gibbs, General Counsel, Randy Mora, and
1:33:53 Jay Daneo with Trask Daneo,
1:33:55 either in person or via teams. As required by statute, I will
1:33:58 ask a court reporter to record the session.
1:34:01 Their notes will be fully transcribed and filed with the clerk
1:34:03 of the school board. Upon conclusion of any
1:34:06 litigation and/or settlement of all claims arising out of this
1:34:09 case, the transcript will be made, public record.
1:34:11 I recommend that the board hold an attorney-client session pursuant
1:34:14 to section 286.011
1:34:17 Florida statutes to discuss strategy of pending litigation. If
1:34:20 there’s no objections, I will
1:34:22 instruct our attorney to work with the board clerk and schedule
1:34:25 on March 3rd if that’s possible.
1:34:27 So, thank you very much. We’re good. We’re going to take a brief
1:34:30 recess. Thank you.
1:34:31 We’re good. We’re good. We’re good. We’re good. We’re good. We’re
1:34:41 good.
1:34:42 We’re good. We’re good. We’re good. We’re good. We’re good. We’re
1:34:53 good. We’re good.
1:34:53 We’re good. We’re good. We’re good. We’re good. We’re good. We’re
1:35:04 good. We’re good.
1:35:04 We’re good. We’re good. We’re good. We’re good.
1:35:28 Thank you.