Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
4:30 ♪♪
5:06 Good morning. The June 16th, 2026 board meeting is now in order.
5:10 I’m happy to welcome my former board members and the public.
5:13 I would like to take the opportunity to remind the public
5:15 the appropriate place for public participation in the meeting
5:18 is during your individual public comment opportunity
5:20 as defined on the agenda.
5:21 Outside of your individual public comment opportunity,
5:24 your role in the meeting is as an observer.
5:26 Paul, roll call, please.
5:27 Mr. Susan?
5:28 Here.
5:29 Ms. Wright?
5:30 Here.
5:31 Mr. Trent?
5:32 Here.
5:33 Mr. Thomas?
5:34 Here.
5:35 Ms. Campbell?
5:36 Here.
5:37 We’re all having a moment here, aren’t we?
5:38 At this time, the board would like to hold a moment of silence.
5:39 I invite the audience to join.
6:02 Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.
6:09 I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
6:13 and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God,
6:17 indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
6:24 That brings us to the adoption of the agenda.
6:26 Dr. Rendell?
6:29 Thank you, Mr. Chair.
6:30 On this morning’s agenda, we have three administrative staff
6:32 recognitions, 61 consent items, and three information items.
6:36 Changes made to the agenda since it was released to the public
6:39 include the following.
6:40 Revised for items F9, F40, and I3.
6:44 Removed was item F39.
6:56 Also removed was the AI platform, AI policy.
7:02 That was covered under I3.
7:04 Oh, you did?
7:05 We’re good.
7:14 Do I hear a motion?
7:16 Any discussion?
7:18 Paul, roll call, please.
7:20 Mr. Thomas?
7:21 Aye.
7:22 Ms. Campbell?
7:23 Aye.
7:24 Mr. Susan?
7:25 Aye.
7:26 Mr. Trent?
7:27 Aye.
7:28 We’re now at the administrative staff recommendations.
7:29 Dr. Rendell?
7:30 Thank you, Mr. Chair.
7:31 The board actually took action on these items at the last board
7:33 meeting,
7:33 but we didn’t have a chance to recognize the people,
7:35 so we want to recognize them today.
7:37 So first off, we want to recognize Heather Smith
7:40 for a promotion to Director of Career and Technical Education.
7:43 So Heather Smith, please come on up to the podium.
7:45 Congratulations.
7:52 Thank you, Dr. Rendell and the board.
7:55 Hang on, hang on, hang on.
7:57 It’s on.
7:59 Can you hear me now?
8:00 All right.
8:01 Thank you to Dr. Rendell and the board.
8:02 I’m really excited about this opportunity to serve all of BPS
8:05 students
8:05 in a different capacity.
8:07 I want to thank Mr. Raymer for his leadership
8:10 and for Ms. Harris for giving me this opportunity
8:13 and believing in me.
8:15 To my central ohana, I am going to miss you guys.
8:18 I am so proud of the work that we have done,
8:20 and I can’t wait to see what heights you reach this year.
8:23 It’s an eagle theme if you didn’t get that.
8:27 Go eagles or go home.
8:29 Well, you got to say that regularly.
8:32 To my new CTE team, I am super excited to get to work with all
8:34 of you
8:35 and bring new opportunities for students.
8:38 And to my family who could not be here today
8:41 because they are all working and/or doing college work,
8:44 so I couldn’t do any of this without you.
8:48 So I love you guys.
8:51 It’s going to be great.
8:53 [ Applause ]
8:59 » We’ll do pictures after we do all three.
9:00 » Yeah.
9:01 » Okay, so next we want to congratulate Lauren Sicoli
9:04 on her promotion to principal at Sunrise Elementary School.
9:07 Lauren, congratulations.
9:08 [ Applause ]
9:13 » Thank you, Dr. Rendell and the board for this opportunity.
9:16 I also want to thank Mr. Ray Mermis-Harris for trusting me to
9:19 lead in this capacity.
9:21 I’d like to take a moment to thank my family, my biggest fans,
9:24 my husband’s here, two of my three boys, and my sister.
9:28 They have loved me and supported me through this journey.
9:31 I have had the privilege of being mentored by some wonderful,
9:35 amazing leaders,
9:36 and I have learned so much.
9:37 I want to quickly thank a few.
9:40 Dr. Ivory, thank you for believing in me and pushing me to reach
9:43 my fullest potential.
9:44 Mr. Pruitt, thank you for always challenging me to answer all
9:47 the hard questions.
9:49 Ms. Hudson, thank you for the warm welcome.
9:51 She is my new director and I’m so excited.
9:54 And even though she couldn’t be here today, I have to give a big
9:56 thank you to Dr. Cassie Aronstoff.
10:00 I am a better leader today because she poured into me every
10:04 single day for the last four years.
10:08 To my Surfside community, teachers, staff, families, and our
10:12 amazing students,
10:14 what a special place to begin my leadership journey.
10:17 I will treasure every moment I spent there.
10:20 And to my new Sunrise team, my two APs are here today.
10:24 I’m so excited.
10:26 Thank you for the generous welcome.
10:27 Danielle is making this transition so easy.
10:30 I am so excited to work alongside this team and continue making
10:34 an impact on our students.
10:36 Thank you.
10:43 And last but certainly not least, we want to congratulate Cole
10:46 Mannes on his promotion to principal at Central Middle School.
10:49 Cole, congratulations.
10:55 All right, thank you for having me and thank you for my family
10:57 for coming.
10:58 A few people I wanted to make sure I reached out to.
11:01 First, some of my mentors along the way.
11:03 Mr. Todd Shear, who was my principal, my first principal at
11:06 Central Middle School.
11:08 So coming back home, that was where I started my administrative
11:10 journey.
11:11 He taught me how to pay attention to detail and what to do if
11:14 you have bats in your school.
11:17 To Dr. Rendell, he has mentored me as an APO, brought me on, and
11:22 then even afterwards,
11:23 when we came into the superintendent role, he has helped me
11:27 along the way and thank you very much for that.
11:30 To my current principal, Tim Powers, he chose a planned family
11:33 vacation over being here for me.
11:36 It’s no big deal, but he taught me the importance of
11:39 relationships and how far those will take you.
11:42 My not so obvious ones, Ms. Regina is our head custodian over at
11:45 Cocoa Beach and to our front office staff at Cocoa Beach.
11:49 I’ve learned so much at Cocoa Beach, and I don’t think they
11:52 fully – the front office crew and the custodial crew,
11:55 they don’t always realize how much of a role they play on the
11:58 leadership, but they do, and I am forever grateful to them.
12:02 To Mr. Pruitt, Mrs. Hyam, Mr. Clark, Mrs. Bowman, and Mr. Ramer,
12:06 thank you for the very easy
12:08 and not time-consuming Level 2 process and everything you
12:11 prepared for us to make sure that we’re in good shape
12:14 when we do get into a school.
12:16 To Mrs. Heather Smith, I’m taking over a school – she was just
12:19 here, she got her promotion –
12:21 taking over a school that she has put on an upward trajectory
12:25 and given me a lot of pressure to try and live up to
12:28 because the system she has in place, she has left that school in
12:31 a very good spot, so thank you, Ms. Heather Smith.
12:35 And finally, the family behind me, some are blood, some I chose,
12:39 some had to choose me because of my wonderful wife, Amanda,
12:44 but it worked out great, and I’m really appreciative of all the
12:46 support that they give me,
12:48 and this is what a healthy support system can provide.
12:51 Not a day goes by where I have to worry about the needs of my
12:54 wife or my children because of the crew behind me right now,
12:59 so very appreciative of that.
13:01 This is a structure that I began to bring to Central Middle
13:03 School because I know the power of a support system.
13:07 It’s based in care, designed to give strength to those who don’t
13:09 always have it when they need it.
13:11 And lastly, Amanda, your mostly unwavering support has carried
13:15 me through this entire journey.
13:17 I love you more than I can express, and I hope that I’ve made
13:21 you proud.
13:22 And thank you to the board for this appointment, and go Eagles
13:27 or go home.
13:48 Heather, come on up first.
14:17 [no audio]
22:04 role in the public school system so that we can have that
22:09 revenue upfront. This is a major
22:12 concern of ours and we hope that we can understand. Thank you Mr.
22:16 Bernard. Appreciate you. Okay.
22:19 Ms. Stikus. So can I add my portion back on the non-agenda side?
22:22 Absolutely. Come on back.
22:26 Thank you. All right. Good morning school board members and Dr.
22:33 Endell. I hope you’re
22:34 having a good Tuesday. The agenda items I’ll be addressing ahead
22:37 of time. So F-2, F-6 and
22:39 F-13. I first want to address item F-2 and start off by saying I
22:43 do appreciate the new
22:43 way that the meeting minutes are being uploaded. I know that’s a
22:46 small detail but it’s really
22:47 helpful to read what is discussed in prior meetings when people
22:50 miss them. I don’t know
22:51 who in the district is responsible for that update but it’s
22:53 really appreciated. I also
22:55 wanted to quickly address item F-6, the five grants you’ll be
22:59 receiving. I was just wondering
23:01 if you could speak to them in a bit more detail, clarification
23:03 if you don’t mind on specifically
23:05 how these grants can be used in each of their categories. I’m
23:08 especially curious about the
23:09 Head Start grant and I’m sure Mr. Brian is too. I know Mr. Brian
23:14 and I have brought different
23:15 ideas to these meetings before and I was just curious if this
23:18 grant has increased year over
23:19 year and if you have specific aspects of the Head Start program
23:22 funding in mind with this
23:24 grant because I know there’s specific rules that you can and can’t
23:27 use for grants. And
23:28 lastly I would like to just end with F-13. I know you guys
23:31 probably get sick of me and
23:33 Mr. Brian coming up here talking about enrollment and VPK but I
23:36 did really want to express how
23:37 excited I am about this new job posting of the family advocate
23:41 role. Like Mr. Brian said
23:43 we have 16,000 students to win to BPS and I think adding this
23:46 position is a really great
23:47 step in the right direction. Honestly if Mr. Brian wasn’t
23:49 retired I would say you should
23:51 hire him but I’m hopeful to see how this position can add to the
23:54 efforts of increasing enrollment
23:55 and hearing from the community. Thank you. There are so many
24:15 things that BPS is doing
24:17 to attract those students back. All the way from creating like
24:20 menu lists of things that
24:21 students can go. So two years ago I went into the home school
24:25 network which is the largest
24:27 of all the groups and I asked them what is it that you’re
24:29 concerned about and then we
24:31 built entire offerings around those concerns. We allowed them to
24:35 come in and choose a classroom.
24:37 They can come in and take one class during the day and then they
24:39 can leave. They also
24:40 can come in and take a career in technical. They can play sports.
24:43 They can play a bunch
24:44 of things which was all the things that they wanted to and what
24:47 we’ve noticed is it’s not
24:48 just doing that but then also once they come into the school in
24:51 many cases they want to
24:52 stay. So they’re attracted through the one or two classes
24:55 through the sports or whatever
24:56 and then they come in and there’s a ton of other things that Ms.
24:58 McDonough, Ms. Adrienne
24:59 McDonough does. It works in that space that if you wanted to
25:02 reach out to her you could
25:03 find out there’s there is a significant amount and we hear you
25:06 as far as the declining enrollment
25:08 it’s something that happens all the way across the entire state
25:11 and where there’s not only
25:12 our county but many other counties are in the same bucket. So we
25:15 we always listen to
25:16 anything anybody offers us but we do have a ton of stuff too. So
25:19 I would look up Adrienne
25:20 McDonough and go there and I do know that there’s some of those
25:23 things unless you want
25:24 to add to it. You know not to that but I was going to ask Dr.
25:26 Endell because these this
25:28 the grants it is a lot of money that we get money that we get
25:32 every year but it’s you
25:33 know almost 29 million dollars. Do you think we could have Ms.
25:37 Harris come and just kind
25:38 of give a brief overview because we were approving that the
25:42 request or authorization. Yeah we
25:44 can definitely have a workshop where we talk about what the
25:47 federal different federal grants
25:49 are and what we use the money for. Yeah these aren’t new grants
25:52 these are grants we’ve been
25:54 right accessing for many years and so we have programs tied to
25:57 these grants. Right and just
25:59 so the public knows every all five board members had one-on-ones
26:03 with both Ms. Harris and Ms.
26:05 Dampier to make sure that we understood each of these grants
26:08 some of them are IDEA right
26:10 which everybody usually knows what that is for the ESC the Head
26:13 Start specifically has
26:14 to be actually there’s probably more detail on Head Start than
26:17 anything we do because
26:18 we give we get monthly updates so I encourage people to take a
26:20 look at those monthly updates
26:22 because that is in detail everything we’re doing with Head Start
26:24 from the enrollment
26:25 to how many snacks we provide right ladies every month and then
26:29 the professional development
26:31 and there’s so much data on Head Start probably more than
26:33 anything else so all of those are
26:35 can be found but I just want to make sure I knew that the board
26:38 did get those those
26:39 briefings specifically on these grants from the student services
26:41 team and the curriculum
26:42 instruction team to make sure we understood what the money is
26:46 what we’re using it for
26:47 what you know because it is definitely designated dollars that
26:51 has to go in a certain category
26:53 so thanks Mr. Chairman. And I’m going to be quiet today because
26:56 I’ve lost my voice so
26:57 that’s why I’m not speaking as much I’m just going to go ahead
26:59 and say that now for the
27:00 public that I’m it’s a struggle to talk so she just opened the
27:06 door all right that concludes
27:09 the agenda items only for public comments we thank you for your
27:11 time out of your schedule
27:12 to address the board with your concerns and suggestions I would
27:15 like to remind the public
27:16 that the board is accessible for further conversations outside
27:19 of our business meeting through scheduling
27:20 a meeting we are now under the consent agenda Dr. Endell thank
27:24 you Mr. Chair there are 61
27:26 items under this category thank you Dr. Endell does any board
27:28 member wish to pull any of
27:29 these items? Hearing none I will entertain a motion to accept
27:34 the consent items on tonight’s
27:35 agenda would anyone okay move for approval there you go second
27:42 all right Paul roll call
27:44 please Mr. Thomas aye Ms. Campbell aye Mr. Susan aye Ms. Wright
27:48 aye Mr. Trent aye we will
27:51 move on to the agenda information agenda which includes an item
27:54 for board review and be brought
27:56 back for action in the subsequent board meeting no action will
27:59 be taken at this item today
28:00 there are three items under this category does any board member
28:02 wish to discuss any
28:03 of these items yes since Mr. Bernard excuse me Mr. Brian
28:08 mentioned this I wanted to just
28:09 take just a minute when we look at these charter renewals these
28:13 in order to be renewed especially
28:16 for the 15-year length a charter school has to be a high-performing
28:19 charter school and
28:20 if they are I mean I say it in two ways one it’s our hands are
28:24 kind of tied right if they
28:25 do what they’re supposed to do according to the law we renew
28:28 them and we could renew them
28:30 for longer if they’re high-performing but I just want to speak
28:32 to the point of choice
28:33 because that’s a number that’s been brought up a lot and I do
28:37 want to make the point and
28:38 I’ve shared this with you before that of those 16,000 students
28:42 there is a good chunk of them
28:44 that BPS never had when they added the scholarships in there was
28:48 a large percentage of students
28:50 who were already attending private schools who now just had a
28:53 scholarship to go with
28:54 it and so are there some students that we have lost to either
28:58 home school or charter
28:59 school or private school vouchers yes there are some we even
29:03 lose students sometimes to
29:04 FLVS because our families don’t understand we have BBS which is
29:08 even more amazing right
29:10 and there’s hardly anything that BBS can’t do that FLVS can and
29:13 so our virtual schools
29:15 is what I’m talking about for the people who don’t know all the
29:17 abbreviations but I do
29:18 want to make a point I there when it comes to education choices
29:22 I believe that parents
29:24 need to choose the best options for their students and that may
29:26 be charter school that
29:27 may be homeschooling that may be using homeschooling a
29:30 scholarship they that may be a private school
29:33 with a voucher whatever it is but I my job is to make and this
29:38 is the plan we have it
29:40 we don’t need a new plan we already have a plan the strategic
29:43 plan part of it is to gain
29:44 back enrollment that’s part of the strategic plan but then also
29:47 how we’re going to do that
29:49 is to make sure that Revard public schools is the best option
29:53 that it possibly can be
29:54 and I still believe that we offer so many things that there is
29:57 no other education option
29:59 this candidate can offer when it comes to music CTE ROTC the
30:04 high level of academic
30:06 things that we have as well as our support for ESC students
30:09 those are things that the
30:10 private schools and and frequently home schools and charter
30:13 schools just can’t provide or
30:15 don’t provide and so I believe that for the still continuing for
30:18 the vast majority of
30:19 students are County that we are the best option but we we want
30:22 to keep we’re going to continue
30:24 to push that as we have our goal to be the top 10 in the top 10
30:28 of school districts in
30:29 the state of Florida by 2030 hopefully we get there faster that’d
30:32 be great be great
30:33 to get there this year I don’t know but it looks like we’re
30:36 going in the right direction
30:38 but I just want to say that’s what we’re doing that’s what the
30:40 plan is but parents are still
30:41 going to make the right choice for their family and you know
30:45 what that may not be okay with
30:46 everybody but that’s okay with me because I know I made those
30:49 same choices for my for
30:51 my children at each point when I came to elementary school and I
30:53 came to middle school and I came
30:54 to high school with each of my three children we made we made
30:57 what’s the best decision for
30:58 this kid and I think that on principle that that’s the right
31:01 thing to do we may not all
31:02 agree but my job in this role is to make sure and by the way we
31:06 chose BPS schools for all
31:08 three of them at every step of the way because they were the
31:11 absolute best options for us
31:13 but every family has to make that decision but our job will
31:16 continue to be the plan that
31:18 we already have in place is to continue to work that plan for
31:20 the Brevard Public Schools
31:21 is the best place for as many students as possible and to
31:25 attract them back that way
31:26 it does include marketing our GCR team has an amazing job and
31:31 they’re sending out you
31:32 know sending out even mailers to families in certain areas it
31:36 includes you know includes
31:38 social media it includes just everybody at every level doing the
31:44 best they can to get
31:46 the message out that we have great things going on it is
31:51 unfortunate that some of the
31:53 the loss has been through negative spin you know it’s funny
31:57 because sometimes the people
32:00 who say their support our public schools the most are actually
32:03 tearing our schools down
32:05 I think they think they’re tearing down the board but what they’re
32:08 actually doing is tearing
32:10 down the school district and that’s disappointing because they’re
32:13 people who I think would say
32:14 they’re champions of education Mr. Brian I would not put you or
32:17 Ms. Dykes in those categories
32:18 because you have both been professional and polite and the way
32:23 advocacy really should
32:25 happen but you know not to be a slap down on people on social
32:29 media and we don’t need
32:30 to go into all that but I just think I think people need to
32:32 realize that when they’re tearing
32:34 down the board and the decisions that the district the school
32:37 district is making the
32:38 superintendent they think they’re doing that but they’re
32:40 actually tearing down the school
32:41 district making it look like we don’t handle funds wisely well
32:44 who wants to approve the
32:45 millage and the sales tax in the fall if they think we’re not
32:48 handling it and wisely and
32:49 everything is false that’s the other piece of it is or it’s a
32:52 twist it’s an absolute
32:54 twist and so I just you know I put that out there as I want the
32:58 people who are reasonable
33:01 to consume that kind of media and social media for what it is
33:05 and recognize that if there’s
33:07 any questions that you have as to how funds are being spent for
33:11 us grants and things like
33:12 that how we’re spending that money how we’re spending the millage
33:14 money how we’re spending
33:15 the sales tax money what are we doing to attract families you
33:18 know in competition we’re proving
33:20 this charter school contract in our next meeting but what are we
33:23 doing to compete with that
33:24 charter school in the area at the same time realizing that if it
33:27 weren’t for some of these
33:28 charter schools especially in the south end where I live and
33:31 where Mr. Thomas live we
33:32 actually wouldn’t have enough room in our in all of our schools
33:35 for all those students
33:36 so they’re they’re kind of doing a service for us at the same
33:38 time they’re in competition
33:39 with us but they’re also providing space for all our students so
33:42 I know that was just a
33:43 whole lot but I didn’t want to walk away from that charter
33:45 school conversation without mentioning
33:47 the that choice options you know there we are not sitting on our
33:51 hands or wringing our
33:53 hands going what are we going to do what are we going to do no
33:55 we’re continuing on to work
33:56 to plan to be the best option in Brevard so thanks Mr. Chair for
33:59 letting me go on a little
34:00 bit of a rant do go we enjoy it okay anybody else have anything
34:05 okay we’re now on to board
34:08 member recognitions reports and discussion points who wants to
34:10 go first you’re good no
34:16 I know okay we’re just you want me to read yours thank you guys
34:19 okay would you like me
34:22 to read yours you want me to I can read them okay I’ll go quick
34:24 I may actually take one
34:26 of you oh yes I will I will first of all I want to thank Lena
34:32 Farnham and Allison in
34:35 the superintendent’s office because I you know this year I’m the
34:38 chair of the central
34:39 Florida coalition and usually at the last meeting in December
34:43 the chair puts together
34:45 a little bag of goodies from their district but I’m not going to
34:47 be here in December so
34:48 they did the best job but the cutest little bags they made all
34:51 these things with a coalition
34:53 logo and put them together so thank you Lena and Allison y’all
34:55 did an amazing job and everybody
34:56 loved it I wanted to I don’t have their names unfortunately but
35:00 I just want to tell you
35:02 a little story about a very short there were four Viera high
35:07 school band students who saw
35:10 a gap in opportunity we have what’s called Brevard Symphony
35:14 Youth Orchestra so that students
35:16 from across the county and actually their students sometimes
35:18 from outside the county
35:19 who audition can have it’s kind of like an all county but all
35:23 year right they can have
35:25 the best of the best and it’s a developmental thing we have some
35:27 really amazing musicians
35:28 but there wasn’t a place for jazz and so these students said we’re
35:32 going to form our own
35:34 so in January they put together all student led no there was
35:38 probably some adult supporting
35:41 them in certain things but they put together an audition
35:44 advertised it out through Instagram
35:47 because you know that’s how the language of our people through
35:50 Instagram put together
35:51 all the additions did the auditions decided what music found a
35:55 venue for rehearsal found
35:57 a venue for performance and on May 31st they had this amazing
36:01 jazz concert with students
36:03 from Space Coast and Rockledge and Melbourne and so many more
36:07 and Viera and all these students
36:09 and I just wanted to congratulate these students and they even
36:12 had titles like director of
36:13 operations and director of music and director of communication
36:17 it was so so fun just to
36:19 see these young adults in fact the music director was a 10th
36:22 grader this year so they have a
36:24 bright future in front of them and for any aspiring jazz
36:27 musicians coming up or parents
36:28 of jazz musicians they’re going to take the fall off because
36:30 they’ll all be incredibly
36:31 busy with marching band but they’re going to restart in January
36:34 for a second season
36:35 so I just I think our students are doing really amazing things
36:39 and that was so fun speaking
36:40 of music at the end of this month this will be our last meeting
36:43 before this in fact it’s
36:45 next week the summer fine arts theater workshop students have
36:48 been working all month long
36:49 and they will continue this week and next week and if you would
36:52 like to see the shows
36:53 they are June 25th through 27th that’s a Thursday night Friday
36:57 night and Saturday afternoon
36:59 the south show is at satellite high school they’re doing the
37:02 little mermaid and the full
37:04 Broadway version and the north show is Mary Poppins and they’re
37:07 doing that at Titusville
37:09 high school so super fun go out and get your tickets you can get
37:13 them through the BPS website
37:16 and I just saw them on Facebook if you want to go find them
37:21 there Ascend was amazing last
37:24 week thank you Dr. Riddell and team for putting all of that
37:27 together bringing all their school
37:28 leadership teams together at the beginning of summer to develop
37:31 their school improvement
37:32 plans and bringing in people from the bureau and school
37:35 improvement and all that and I
37:36 just have to say Mr. Ramer and Ms. Harris are a super fun team
37:40 of MCs and it’s always
37:42 fun to see them go back and forth and get excited about our
37:45 performance our student
37:46 achievement through the year and then the last thing I wanted to
37:51 share is at the Takes
37:52 Talkin’ Children through Brevard Schools Foundation Takes Talkin’
37:58 Children had a mentor Luau last
38:00 week and my husband and I went because we’re both mentors and
38:03 they had a surprise announcement
38:04 that day there was quite a few students seniors not all the
38:07 seniors who had gone who had just
38:08 graduated through the program but a lot of them were there and
38:11 they made the surprise
38:12 announcement usually Takes Talkin’ Children you get the mentoring
38:16 through your high school
38:18 and some of your middle school years but then at the end of it
38:20 you get a scholarship a two
38:21 year scholarship for college and they announced to the students
38:25 that night that for this class
38:28 it’s going to be a four year scholarship so it was super
38:31 exciting yes amazing work for
38:33 the Brevard Schools Foundation team the Takes Talkin’ Children
38:36 team they did what they needed
38:37 to do there was some hoops they had to jump through to make that
38:40 happen but the kids were
38:41 just blown away that this year they’re going to receive that
38:44 four year scholarship and
38:45 so it was it was a lot of it was I know it was in a couple of
38:48 news outlets but I just
38:50 wanted to share that and in the board meeting because I think
38:52 that was so exciting so thank
38:53 you Mr. Chair thank you Mr. Chair this past weekend I had the
39:11 privilege of serving as
39:12 a guardian on the Space Coast Honor Flight that went to DC so if
39:16 you’re not familiar
39:17 with what an honor flight is it’s where the community takes
39:21 veterans up to DC and tours
39:22 all the memorials up in DC including Arlington Cemetery and so
39:27 Space Coast Honor Flight takes
39:29 50 veterans and then you need 50 guardians they call them or
39:32 companions of the veterans
39:34 some of the veterans are older and need some assistance
39:38 navigating and you know the terrain
39:40 up there and stuff like that so I served as a guardian and
39:43 fortunately my veteran did
39:44 not need any assistance he’s quite spry actually still runs half
39:48 marathon so I was keeping
39:49 up with him but it’s a very meaningful experience one of the
39:53 things that we do is go to Arlington
39:55 National Cemetery and witness the changing of the guard at the
39:58 Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
40:00 and it is quite moving and the veterans all get to sit right up
40:03 front and get a front
40:04 row seat and it was a really really gratifying experience for me
40:10 to to go there and kind
40:12 of give back as a guardian as a servant with the veterans there
40:16 and you know each of the
40:18 different memorials we went to we had some World War II era vets
40:22 on the trip and in Vietnam
40:24 era vets Korean War era vets and so on and so we go to each of
40:27 the memorials they have
40:29 a tie to that memorial because that was the conflict that they
40:33 were a part of and so a
40:34 lot of emotional stuff happening it was great to be a part of it
40:38 the biggest thing is the
40:39 welcome home ceremony so when we get back from DC and this is at
40:43 the Melbourne Airport
40:44 it’s a great partnership with the Melbourne Airport that the
40:47 Space Coast Honor Flight
40:48 has and we fly out of Melbourne and fly back to Melbourne and
40:51 that really eases a lot of
40:52 the travel but when you come back at the end of the flight and
40:55 Mrs. Wright has been a participant
40:57 in this there’s a whole bunch of people there to welcome the
41:00 veterans back just from this
41:02 trip but talking to Jim Hart the admiral that organizes all this
41:07 some of these veterans
41:09 didn’t have a positive homecoming when they came back from their
41:13 time in service certainly
41:15 the Vietnam era veterans were not necessarily always welcomed
41:18 with open arms when they came
41:20 home from that conflict and he also explained how in World War
41:25 II we had millions of service
41:27 members overseas and when the war ended we had parties and
41:30 celebrations right after the
41:32 war ended but it took months even years for us to transition
41:35 some of those military service
41:37 members back to America so when some of them came back there was
41:41 no celebration and parade
41:43 so this is kind of a celebration and parade well Space Coast
41:46 Honor Flight challenges the
41:47 community to come and be a part of that welcome back ceremony
41:51 and Melbourne Airport was packed
41:53 with family members and volunteers in different groups and one
41:56 of the groups that I asked
41:58 to participate was VR high school VR high school’s football team
42:01 their cheerleaders
42:02 student government and some other student clubs and
42:04 organizations were there and they
42:06 showed really well they were a big part of the celebration I
42:09 really want to thank the
42:10 VR high school team for coming out on a Saturday night in the
42:14 middle of the summer to welcome
42:16 home the veterans was quite a good experience and shout out to
42:21 Coco High School’s JROTC
42:23 they provided the color guard at one of the earlier ceremonies
42:26 and so the next honor flight
42:27 is in September and we will be challenging the community to
42:30 welcome home those vets when
42:31 they come back but if you’re willing and able you might want to
42:34 Google Space Coast Honor
42:36 Flight and sign up to serve as a guardian for every veteran they
42:39 need a guardian to
42:40 go on the trip to help them out navigating the terrain and that
42:44 kind of thing so great
42:46 experience for me over the weekend but also great experience for
42:50 VR high school and those
42:52 student athletes and other students and staff that came out and
42:55 supported the welcome home
42:57 thanks alright anybody else no alright that being said I’ll take
43:04 a short break and then
43:05 call up the other speakers thank you
43:27 [Music]