001e e e and this evening School Board Awards and presentations I ask that out of respect to everyone please silence all electronic devices at this time at this time I'd like to call the meeting to order the time is 5:30 I would like to recognize the superintendent for a series of awards and present ations Dr Moore thank you madam chair we do have a number of presentations um thank you everyone for coming out in some beautiful weather and I'll turn it over to miss Maddox for our presentations good evening everyone thank you for being here with us tonight we have a full agenda of presentations we're really excited about and we'd like to start off with our casual for a cause presentation um last month the school district raised money for GAC gford youth achievement
002Center and in exchange for a donation teachers and staff and students were allowed to dress down for a day and I am happy to um recognize Miss Angelia Perry who's the executive director and Dr Deborah Taylor long director of Extended Learning Services here in the SDC and Dr Denise Smith and Barbara Pierce if you would please come to the podium we have a donation of $2,340 65 and Sebastian River Middle School raised $386 they were our top fundraisers for get a picture of may I call up another Board of course member Dr Terry Graham if she'll come join us please okay didn't recognize you with your hair all right here we go than you than for our next presentation I would like to welcome Miss Carrie wall our senior digital Innovation [Applause] administrator good evening
003honorable board chair board members Dr Moore esteemed colleagues and guests I present an exciting development in our District's commitment to Innovation and steam education an area that is vital to Preparing our students for the future steam cultivates critical thinking creativity and problem solving skills it encourages students to become not just consumers of Technology but innovators and creators today we highlight how robotics particularly through the use of spheros will play a transformative role in our classrooms and for our students spheros offer our students Hands-On opportunities to explore coding engineering and design in an engaging and interactive way these tools make abstract Concepts tangible empowering students to experiment collaborate and develop essential 21st century skills none of this would be possible without the generosity and vision of two remarkable individuals Steve and Jane Jones their generous contribution
004has made this initiative a reality providing our students with access to resources that will inspire and challenge them in meaningful ways on behalf of the district our educator ERS and most importantly our students I want to extend our deepest gratitude to Steve and Jane for their commitment to education and their belief in the potential of our Young Learners Mr Jones will you come up please Mr Jones if you'll come up please yep right up here thank you go stand right here they're going to come out together we're taking a significant step step forward in equipping our students with the skills they need to thrive in an Ever evolving world I'm proud to recognize the schools across our district that have received Sphero bolt packs each now equipped with tools to bring steam education to life
005in exciting new ways I also want to celebrate the incredible students who participated in our inaugural spero qualifier their creativity problem solving and teamwork were on full display and they set a strong foundation for what we hope will become a celebrated tradition in our district these students are shining examples of how opportunities like this can Inspire Innovation and Foster a passion for learning if the schools will please come out we have Oola Elementary School with principal Jennifer Norris and Coach Mikey [Applause] Marini Beachin Elementary School assistant principle Jessica Keaton and Coach Deborah moris Citrus Elementary School principal Tasha Jones and Coach Vincente wolf lineup Rosewood Elementary School with principal Adam fa and Treasure Coast Elementary School principal Jeremy Keane coach Britney Tims and the techie Pirates yep come on up front what we have for
006you is a small demonstration of our robots and our gratitude to Mr Jones who is here with us today all right and come on and walk across with your robots please we want to get everybody up front so we can take a picture tonight each school is receiving a Sphero accessory pack that includes a Terrain Park and two chariots as demonstrated by the students tonight yep [Laughter] yep there it goes we might just need to walk it over let's give our meta Blazers robotics League a round of applause oh yeah there it goes yeah good job wow job that's cool all right techie pirate what your name is okay come on we got it that's on the FSA every [Music] [Applause] awesome I love these things I watched them down I was like that was
007so cool I like where do I know from I met you the day that the kids were all there har yes yes thank you for doing this all right well we give them a moment to exit thank you so much to our Med Blazers thank you if you didn't see that they spelled out thank you with their spheros which is very cool that was all right our next presentation we would like to recognize our all state music festival students and I'd like to ask Miss Janine Jones who is our district lead music teacher and music teacher at Oola magnet school and Harry Beckham who is our professional learning [Applause] specialist each January the Florida music educators Association holds its Allstate music clinic and Conference in Tampa Florida this conference is unique and valuable experience for
008teachers and students alike offering all the chance to learn from Top tier Educators to work alongside other talented musicians and to build lasting Connections in the world of Music this annual event brings together the best and the brightest Young Musicians from across the State of Florida we are incredibly proud to share that 13 students from Indian River County Schools were selected to participate in this year's All State Festival the audition process for all state is highly competitive with only a small fraction of students selected from thousands of applicants Statewide it is a testament to the dedication hard work and talent of these students that they were chosen to perform at such a prestigious event this achievement would not be possible without supportive parents and the exceptional music educators at their schools who dedicate countless hours
009to helping their students grow and Achieve at the highest level as a district we celebrate the accomplishments of these amazing students all right if my music teachers could come forward please and under the direction of Mr canel Annabella paret who was able to uh perform in the Middle School honors band Yes yeah under the direction of Mr Harris we have Abby who is Middle School treble choir Ain Lawson also Middle School treble choir Zion Williams Middle School treble choir and Christian Harris Middle School mixed choir unfortunately Mr Binger could not be here today but his student theen Yen um from middle school honors Orchestra was participating and did a great job as well if we can give him a round of applause Mr Robinette and unfortunately uh his student Autumn Morris who participated in the
010Middle School honors Orchestra is unable to be here tonight so he will be accepting the award on her behalf moving to the elementary range we're going to go with Miss St petery and under her direction we have Juliet Pascal lone who was an elementary ORF we have emilyn magu who was elementary Ensemble and we have Grayson colasso was elementary chorus and last but not least do uh Miss Janine Jones and under her direction we had Paisley beers Elementary orphan Ensemble Sebastian Holbrook Elementary orphan Ensemble and last but definitely not least Alana Lewis Elementary orphan ensemble and I'd like to go ahead and take a moment to thank these teachers because not only are they doing the hard work each and every day of instilling the love of music with their students but they're spending a
011lot of extra time after work hours weekends and then contributing to these big events so I also have a certificate for each of those teachers and again we couldn't do it without you so thank you C we're going hold for your thank you guys and congratulations on your [Applause] accomplishment our next presentation will highlight our CTE programs um it is CTE month and I'd like to introduce miss Ann Bieber the director of academic success and Christy Shields director of Treasure Coast Technical College and Career and Technical education he'll be sharing a video highlighting our CTE programs and a brief presentation and recognition of CTE mon EXC thank you um I just want to take a quick second and I I don't have much of a voice Miss Shields is going to be my voice but
012I want to thank the board members for taking the time out of their days over the past two weeks to really come out and see these programs and I hope that that frame of mind helps you when we go through um I have provided everyone a color copy of the PowerPoint we're going through because we're only going to just read one quick highlight from each of the programs and then we have a video so here we go did you know Sebastian Aerospace technology had 88% of the third-year students last year earn authorization to take the Private Pilot Ground School exam with the FAA the Sebastian Automotive program received a $1.9 million Grant to renovate the classroom and add a Tesla Model 3 cutaway trainer to keep our program on par with industry Vero Auto students
013have received a total of 83 certificates this year one student has earned 14 Sebastian biotechnology partners with with Sebastian River Middle School to help IB students conduct science fair research in microbiology Vero biot technology had an 80% pass rate on the base exam surpassing the nation rate of 63% which by the way includes colleges and universities since its opening Vero Bean students have prepared a total of 4,186 drinks for the student body averaging approximately 135 drinks per day and impressively this achievement has been accomplished within a single hour of operation each day Sebastian culinary offers services to various clubs that may want to have a lunch in or dinner fully prepared and served by the students Viro culinary students started a new pilot barbecue club chaptered by the Florida high school Barbecue association the tctc
014professional culinary program has its first class underway with the students developing Real World skills as they sell their dishes and provide food service in The Culinary Cafe all of our district culinary programs have worked together to cater events this year Vero digital design placed first second and third for the sheriff's department challenge they will now be using a new patch for all Indian River County school resource deputies digital information technology earns more certificates than any other program Vero digital video won the Florida Department of Health 2025 raidon video awareness contest tctc heating ventilation and air conditioning has 100% pass rate on the EPA 608 and HVAC employment ready certifications tctc medical assistant has a pass rate which is 10 percentage points higher than the national average for over 10 years Sebastian HOSA had 100% of
015the nursing assistant students pass the CNA state exam in 2024 Vero Beach HOSA one and two learn about Long Function sterile garbing and infection control Viro HOSA conducted the health screenings at 10 elementary schools screening over 2,300 students in K through six the tctc practical nursing program has been raised the number one LPN program in the State of Florida for another consecutive Year by the nursing school Almanac tctc patient care and photomy programs have over a 94% pass rate on all certification exams Sebastian promotional Enterprise operates a fullservice custom apparel and sign shop blending traditional craftsmanship with cuttingedge technology tctc welding has had 42 students earn their career certificate over the past two years 18 of them were dual enrolled and last but not least web development students earn three different certifications a huge thank
016you to all of our CTE teachers and everything they do every day thank you and now we just we do have a video presentation education is more than just sitting in a classroom it's about preparing for the future welcome to Career and Technical education where students don't just learn they experience create and build careers imagine a future where your career path is shaped by Real World skills hands-on experience and Industry Partnerships that future is possible with Career and Technical education whether you're interested in the Arts Healthcare skilled trades or transportation CTE programs offer a wide range of opportunities designed to prepare you for high demand careers [Music] CTE isn't just about learning it's about doing Cutting Edge technology to Hands-On training allowing students to explore Fields they're passionate about while earning valuable industry certifications and
017experience [Music] with CTE you're not just learning theory you're building the skills that will directly impact your future career students can choose from programs in Aerospace Healthcare and medical professions business management culinary arts and hospitality skilled trades like Automotive HVAC and Welding digital media and design and so much more with CTE you're not just learning theory our programs combine classroom learning with practical industry specific training using the same technology and tools found in the industry all the CTE programs offer work-based learning job shadowing and direct connections to employers giving you the Competitive Edge you need to stand out in the workforce [Music] so whether students enter the workforce attend college or pursue apprenticeships CTE prepares them for success in any path they choose our teachers bring valuable industry expertise and knowledge to guide you through
018your program and training to help you succeed in your chosen field from building technical skills to boosting your confidence Career and Technical education gives you the tools you need not to just imagine a future but to make it happen [Music] ready to take the next step explore the world of Career and Technical education in the school district of Indian River and start shaping your future today if we could have the CTE teachers come up for a photograph I know that that video was long and I think it's a great problem to have that we have so many amazing programs that it took 5 minutes to get them all in and again I really appreciate um you coming out to see the programs in person got [Laughter] be a little every thank you all we just
019wanted to bring to your attention that in February we celebrated our school resource officers and our school resource deputies as well as our crossing guards um with uh crossing guard appreciation day and SRO and SRD appreciation day we do have a really nice video that you can check out on YouTube or our social media platforms and we would just like to say to them your unwavering commitment to keeping our school environment safe secure and welcoming does not go unnoticed every day you provide peace of mind to families teachers and students alike whether you're guiding children safely across busy streets or offering support to those in need you're a constant source of reassurance and I know that we have some of them here tonight who are just helping out with the business meeting if you're in
020here if you'd like to stand up Mr ragley work and the rest of them are probably out in the lobby so thank you thank you out in the lobby all right and Dr Moore that is the end of our presentations thank you our last um presentation is the preview of the documentary regarding the work our community is collectively doing so last February we had a activity we call Performance policy and practice um and it's the opportunity to bring individuals really from across the state and Nation to observe the work that we're doing as well as for us to learn from these individuals at the conclusion of those two days and we had the opportunity to visit ver Beach Elementary School we had the opportunity to observe classes uh some of the individuals who are in
021front of me gave presentations um and then we came here and we observed a process that we call Datacom the following day which our principles really really enjoy as I as I look at um and on my way out the second day an individual um whose name is Jeff Martin came up to me and he says I was just really really inspired with what you do and I want to capture it I I want to capture this work that your community is is doing um and I thanked him for his for his effort um and his nice words but I really didn't put two and two together later that year uh Barbara Hannah from The Learning Alliance reached out and says hey someone wants to make a document a document about the work that we're
022doing um and I said that's great later I learned that the individual who um wanted to do this was the same individual who made the movie sentence which we premiered here and in a follow-up conversation he speaks about uh sentence as something being very heavy on his heart and sentence is a movie which really speaks about the impacts of adults when they can't read and it follows the lives uh of three different individuals and the struggles that they had to go on um or they had to deal with and in speaking to Jeff and follow-up conversations he said I see what's happening here in Indian River county is the follow-up uh the inspirational uplifting uh story about what a community can do when they're willing to come together uh be in Partnership and put all
023things aside and really work on what is the best interest of of students so I know this is going to be as big as it it as I hope it will be and I say that I hope it will be because it's telling our community's story uh regarding the impact of this partnership uh the impact of the school system and the work that we do in order to be best by kids so here is the preview of the series or the documentary that's being done on our Collective work it's no longer hidden literacy is a huge problem in America throwing money at it hasn't solved it and expecting the schools to do it alone has only made it worse only 35% of our nation's thirdd graders are proficient at reading we're leaving a whole lot
024of kids Behind the system really wasn't designed to look after all kids when we don't get them at the right time Society pays it's easy to point out the failures but who is out there doing something about it there's a county in Florida that's taking the literacy crisis head on Indian River County's kids were struggling and their families and schools were stuck in a harmful cycle too many of their kids weren't thriving we can no longer as a country expect an American dream to be available for those kids in today's economy we all want our community to thrive we want our country to thrive but it all starts with literate children and these two moms could not get their kids reading we both had boys who were struggling in school and having it be so
025hard for them and nobody to help me was awful and with money you can go get tutors you can bend over backwards but it's not fun and without money God saved them in response The Learning Alliance was started we were just two crazy moms in a philanthropist looking for a place to bring money and solutions and they set a goal for their Community because Liz said I said well the research will point to 95% of our our population can be proficient readers let's set an easy goal let's dial it back a little bit and go with 90% with their County around 45% and the wealth disparity this was an ambitious goal they probably think we're nuts right we are but they were inspired by JFK's call to reach the moon with no known path so
026they called it their moonshot moment we choose to go to the Moon not because they are easy but because they are hard because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills it's a big ambitious goal nobody knows how to get there but the community adopted the learning alliance's Vision so to have this moai goal it's all handson deck a major movement in our community it's unified everyone we break barriers we want to have 90% Literacy By third grade could be lifechanging if we Crack the Code we'll change everything it'll change a child a family the community businesses everything they bet on the idea that pouring tons of resources into the prenatal to third grade development of their kids would trickle up through their families and schools ultimately transforming
027their community and so we've been advocating what do we need to do in our homes what do we need to do in our community and what do we need to do in our schools they scoured the country for Best Practices Liz completed her Masters in learning disabilities and they started piloting in school after school summer school and teacher development programs it wasn't let's just do a program that moves you know 20 kids we wanted something bigger and more they made progress with the support of school district but we're having a hard time scaling enough to reach their goal it's scary it's scary to say 90% right you don't know how many times people have thrown mud in our face and said oh you're not there you failed and you have to persevere through that and
028say that the vision and the goal is worthy of us family multiple times until we figure it out and then the school district made a big change they hired Dr David Moore as their superintendent we will truly act in the best interest of children D the Torpedoes go ahead and fire me we have to change we're not going to lower our expectation and the day that I have to sacrifice that is the day I'm out he was drawn to the district because of the community's effort and was with the learning alliance's Mission I'm going to invest in K one and two so by the time they get to Third and Beyond I can change the experience by making sure they never get behind he brought his system change skills and a new culture to the
029district and the school system bought in it's all about what is best for students we're not going to worry about adult Comfort we're not going to worry about whether we like it public education many times has failed our communities because we have been adult centers they put their kids at the center of everything they do if we all have this Collective goal of everyone being literate by the end of third grade you know what are we waiting for like let's go now and the collective effort is really starting to pay off in the last four years their District grade has increased 29 State rankings their performance showed the most Improvement in the State of Florida over the last 3 years and have been a grade A School District the last 2 years with 96% High
030School graduation rate since 2015 their Title 1 elementary schools have improved dramatically and while the state's non-charter third grade reading scores have dropped three percentage points their scores have risen Five Points over that same time the last 13 years this community has been recognized as a national pay Setter by the campaign for grade level reading this is still a story in progress and they're not to their goal yet but something special is happening here we can do hard things we can do hard it's a story of a unique and multifaceted public private partnership that has put years of effort and money into finding solutions that make real impact with even the most challenging elementary students and schools and now they want to share everything they've learned in hopes that other communities with less resources can
031use their harder and lessons to take this crisis head on themselves something unique is happening here in the Indiana River School System but it doesn't have to be unique everyone can do this work everyone can engage in these kinds of conversations to experience this community success that Indian River county is experiencing that's that's just the preview all right I don't know stand so that's just the preview but it is very very exciting to see um the collective work um and as the narrator said the story is nowhere near from from being done it is just the the starting point but when we're willing to uh put our resources together uh in support a system uh you can see lifechanging or what I call transformational impact um and we are so happy that we're able to
032um provide that impact for for our students give to that's are you done yes all right thank you uh we're a little overtime so we are going to have a um invocation you can leave the room with if you want to not be included or you can stay and be included it's totally up to you that will not take place during our business meeting but just before it so we'll take a break for about two minutes and then we'll have our invocation with that this meeting is done e e e I ask got a respect to everyone please silence all electronic devices at this time also if you have any material you wish to give to a board member please give it to our ex executive assistant Miss Mor she's seated right over here thank
033you at this time I'd like to present the Sebastian River High School Navy junor Roc under the direction of Commander Peter biset United States Navy retired and Senior Chief John Silva United States Navy retired for the Pledge of Allegiance please [Music] stand Time March color order colors Ready Cut about face Ready Cut i al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all [Music] colors Ready Cut po colors March po colors and salute ready to pose colors March forward [Applause] thank you well done all right at this time board members are there do anyone wish to move something from consent to action or add to discussion see none M Madam chair yes i' like to add
034um Jackie Rosario birthday because because today is her birthday so okay happy birthday I'm not adding that item but I just wanted to say happy birthday to okay your age please no no Kidd all right anyone else all right we're good so I'm going to call for a motion to accept the adoption of the orders of the day they are not amended so move all right Dr Jones second second Dr PCA all those in favor say I I anyone opposed it passes 5 Z superintendent's report so Madam chair to get us back on time I'll forgo my report and move right to the pl Proclamation for black history um and I am very excited that our Proclamation uh for black history is going to be read by members of our superintendent advisory Council uh and
035these are very vocal honest students some of which have been with me for four years who share their honest feedback to us whether it's the taste of food uh culture in classrooms cell phones um bathrooms and bathrooms um in bathrooms um very very honest feedback um we just had the opportunity at our last meeting to engage in uh conversations around our strategic planned strategic plan and we're also engaging in something I think is going to be which is kind of their idea uh very very unique where we're going to share experiences um from each of the two different high schools and all of them are from the one of the two different high schools so we're going to capture that in video and bring it back to the board um but we're going to be
036able to share with each set of students the best of each other's school and learn from each other so very happy that they're doing this it's a long Proclamation whereas February has been nationally designated since 1976 as a time to recognize and celebrate the contributions and sacrifices made by African-Americans of the past and present as well as gain insight and Inspire Pro progress for the future and whereas historian Carter G Woodson and other notable African-Americans launched a negro history week celebration in 1926 the annual observant grew to honor the achievements by black Americans and other people of African descent and whereas in 1976 as part of the nation's Bicentennial black history week was expanded and became established as Black History Month and is now celebrated all over North America and whereas Black History Month is
037an important time to celebrate the many achievements and contribution made by Africans American African-Americans to this nation's cultural diversity social equality and economic contribution and whereas African-American students make up 18% in the full-time staff 18% of the school district of Indian River County where we celebrate back history month and meeting contributions of africanamerican Educators leaders engineers servicemen and women as well as many others who have demonstrated extraordinary courage talent and service to our schools as well as our community and whereas the graduation rate for African-American students has increased by 11 percentage points since 2018 2019 school year which is indicative of our students and families accessing quality education opportunities provided by our organization and using it as foundation for a successful postsecondary career in quality life and now therefore be it proclaimed that the school
038board of Indian River County Florida designates the month of February 2025 as Black History Month adopted this 24th day of February 2025 School Board of Indian River County Florida all right board members we have a um Proclamation right I don't have it in front of me so um nothing to read about it but we usually vote on these so we're going to vote um all those in favor oh uh I need a motion to pass this thank you Dr Jones and a second Dr Pasa all those in favor say I I I anyone opposed it passes 5- Z thank you students thank you for reading can you all scoot down a little yeah SW so what's going on with the bathroom yeah that's always a problem they're better right we're doing a whole project in
039we're doing a whole project in bu [Applause] you know some things never changed bathrooms were a problem when I was in high school too it wasn't the food's gotten better according to them um we're actually doing a a whole project at voo Beach where we're going to renovate bathrooms and then do a joint campaign between the administrators as well as the students on upholding the expectation of of maintaining the bathroom that was kind of uh an idea of the Vero Beach student saying you know make it look good and we could collectively work together so it's just a great group of students who who really have a high expectation really get it uh really push that was that was a point of Pride for me cool thank you all right we are to our public
040input uh we have a new script so bear with me here these are the guidelines for public input according to our school board policy 01691 during regular business meetings of the board the board offers the following two opportunities for the public to provide input one on an agenda item consent agenda and or action agenda item prior to the board taking official action on a proposition and two during the public input section for items not on the agenda for those watching please understand that though we have established proper decorum and expectations of professionalism when it comes to individuals who wish to provide public input this is a live broadcast each individual speaker shall be allotted up to three minutes during public input and up to three minutes on to an item on the consent agenda and
041or action agenda item as indicated on the order of business as it exists at the time the meeting starts the time period may be adjusted by the presiding officer individuals may only speak once about any given item individuals have who have filled out the speaker's form are allowed to address the board individuals may not delegate their a lot of time to speak to other individuals and an item If an item is moved from either the consent agenda or discussion agenda to the action agenda individuals will have the opportunity to speak to the agenda item prior to the vote of the board during the meeting please refrain from clapping or outbursts of any sort so that we can proceed with dignity and decorum by not infringing in on any individual's First Amendment rights in this limited
042public forum setting as board members listen to individuals without interruptions individuals are asked to give board members the same respect please board members may or may not address any individual statements at the end of all public input comments under Section 10001 372 subsection 3 Florida Statutes the presiding officer May order the removal from a public meeting held by The District School Board of any person interfering with the expeditious or orderly process of such meeting provided such officer has first issued a warning and continued interference with the orderly process of the meeting will result in that removal all right with that said we're going to call up our Citizen and put individuals in the order that they uh are timestamped so our first person will be Caleb mccre and on Deck will be Dr Marjorie Flanigan
043good evening my name is Caleb McCurry and I'm part of the superintendent Council and I just wanted to talk about Black History Month as a whole so I'm proud to be an African-American more importantly I'm proud to be just an American and I'm I'm so thankful that I get to pause and think before I act I get to take a deep breath and take a step back I look at my life and I look at the world and I just think what do you see I know others see the riots the shooting the fighting the dying the fires the liars and straight profanity the worst in corrupt Humanity but today why can't we see things differently we come here today as Citizens celebrating our amazing Department of Education our teachers our students our staff and
044our workers the foundation of our future and we are about to end a month that celebrated black Heritage I was recently asked a question by A very wise man that absolutely stumped me is America today our forefather's vision I thought long and hard about that one but the more I thought the more I realize that the answer is within every single one of us we are living in the vision right now even with the de growing viess in America the violence and Corruption we hold the power of the government on top of that we've come a far like we've come very a very far away in um just like individual rights as like so like for me I feel pretty free as a American in his like um as an American in America as a
045black American and I feel like it's like it's very empowering to like that um there's so much people who fought for that and I was very surprised that February 12th that was Abraham Lincoln's birthday and all I heard about was Frederick Douglas and all these other amazing black um Americans but you know if you think about it it's not only about African Americans whenever I think about Black History Month I think about the progress of America as a whole the like everything we fought for everything that it's come down to and you know we did a pretty good job didn't we and most importantly I think the biggest thing to worry about like I said it's it's our progress as a country but it's it's it's not about race because we are only one race
046and that's the human race thank you Caleb okay thank you Caleb so all right and I'm gonna ask you to hold your applause because if we do that for one person we got to do it for everybody so thank you um but it is nice to have a young man come up here um and speak so eloquently when when you grow up what what are you going to be politician I I wanted to be a president the president of the United [Applause] States nice nice and said thank you have a bright future bright future all right Dr Marjorie Flanigan and Margaret Murray is on Deck good evening can you hear me good evening I'm Dr Margie Flanigan chair of Education Champions advocates for public education February 24th to 28th is Public Public Schools week where
047we celebrate the contributions of public schools Educators and their positive impact on our students families and communities approximately 90% of the nation's over 54 million kindergarten to 12th grade students are enrolled in public schools 83% in traditional and 7% in public charter schools many of us in this room I'd venture to say the overwhelming majority are products of public education system we are in good company Oprah Winfrey Steve Jobs Ruth Bader Ginsburg Warren Buffett Jeff Bezos katanie Brown Jackson Michael Dell Dr Vic Murthy Rex Tillerson and Cheryl Samberg are just some of the millions of famous Public School alums including some of the afor mentioned in Florida in honor of Black History Month I'd also like to mention some leading African-American steam leaders whose names may be less well known but whose contributions are Monumental
048theoretical physicist Dr Sylvester James gate Jr from Tampa Florida Eatonville Florida author and Anthropologist zor Neil Hurston pioneering chemist Dr Percy Julian biochemist Dr Marie D NASA aerospace engineer Dr abriel Ericson Jackson clinical psychologist and educator Dr Beverly Daniel Tatum and climate scientist Dr Warren Washington to name just a few public education is successible because we as a society value our children's future we understand and demand highly trained qualified and properly credentialed teachers administrators and support staff excuse me grasp the importance of a safe environment emphasis Iz parental involvement and Community Partnerships we know that a well-rounded education includes an appreciation of the Arts and Sciences celebrates and accommodates diversity and prepares students to be well-rounded productive citizens so this week we celebrate you our Public School teachers principals administrators support staff and board members
049for your commitment and dedication thank you for all you do to quote Public School proud public education is the foundation of our future Workforce economy and Society by supporting Public Schools we ensure all students have opportunities to succeed let's keep advocating for strong Public Schools thank you thank you Margaret Murray is next Marilyn Leia is on Deck [Music] good evening my name is Margaret Murray Vice chair of Education Champions our organization was formed out of a deep commitment to the educational well-being of every child in Indian River County and we continue to be passionate about public education Everyone likes to learn I know I do and I thought in the spirit of learning I would share a story that I bet many of you don't know Frederick McKenzie Jones an africanamerican inventor an entrepreneur who
050invented mobile refrigeration and owned more than 60 patents while living in the error of Jim Crow law is the person you can thank every time you go into your freezer today did you hear that Frederick Jones is the person who invented one of the biggest conveniences we use every single day in America Jones is born on May 17th 1893 in Covington Kentucky at age nine he lost both of his parents and was placed in the care of a priest he taught himself mechanical engineering joined the military in World War II Jones became popular for his invention of the first portable automatic refrigeration system for railroad Ro cars and trucks that traveled long distances in 1935 his Thermo controlled Model A made it possible to transport fresh food long distances which changed the way Americans eat
05140 of his 60 patents were for refrigeration others were for portable x-ray equipment he was the first African-American who received the national medal of Technology his nickname was king of cool so the next time your child takes out a treat of ice cream from the freezer you can remind them of Frederick Jones the africanamerican who invented the freezer thank you thank you Marilyn Leia is next Patricia miles is on Deck good evening my name is Marilyn L a member of Education Champions advocate for public education I'd like to commend the school district for shining a light on the achievements of African-Americans during Black History Month I've been following the stories of these individuals on the district Facebook page I've learned not only of their incredible achievements but in reading about them further I've learned about
052the many obstacles and challenges they fa to achieve their remarkable successes today I'd like to speak of another African-American who overcame many obstacles on the pathway to her success Dr Gladis May West is an American mathematician born on October 27th 1930 in southernland Virginia one of four children born into a farming family of sharecroppers she knew that she did not want to work in the fields as her parents did Wes saw education as her way to a different life and studied hard to become valedictorian of her High School class in 1948 this earned her a free scholarship to Virginia State College now Virginia State University graduating with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics she went on and earned her master's degree in mathematics she also holds a MERS of public administration from the University of
053Oklahoma and a doctorate in public administration from Virginia Tech Dr West began her 42-year career in at the naval Proving Ground now called Naval Support Facility dalren she is best known for her contribution to mathematical modeling of the shape of the earth and her work on the development of satellite geodesi models that were later incorporated into the global positioning system well known to all of us as GPS in 2018 Dr West was inducted into the air force missile and space Pioneers Hall of Fame among numerous other Awards and honor honors Dr West was awarded the web Lifetime Achievement Award for development of geodesi models in 2024 Virginia's Fredericksburg City Board voted to name its Third Elementary School in her honor the glattus West Elementary School Dr West is now 94 years old and her work
054and life were depicted in the movie hidden figures if you'd like to learn more about Dr West I'd encourage you to read her Memoir it began with a dream thank you thank you Patricia miles is next Cindy Gibbs is on Deck good evening Madam chair members of the board Dr Moore uh my name is Patricia miles and I'm a member of our community for 19 years and I'm also a member of Education Champions and I just have to say my heart is singing to see all of the good work and excitement that the students are bringing and thank you for your good work uh tonight I wanted to acknowledge and bring attention to the first black open heart surgeon Dr Daniel Hal Williams the son of a barber Daniel halil Williams founded the first blackowned
055hospital in America and performed the world's first successful heart open heart surgery in 1893 at age 20 Williams became an apprentice to a former surgeon general for Wisconsin Williams studied medicine at Chicago Medical College and after his internship Dr Williams went into private practice in an integrated neighborhood in Chicago's Southside the governor of Chicago appointed him to the state's Board of Health in 1893 a young Chicago named James Cornish was stabbed in the chest and rushed to Providence hospital where Dr Williams performed the first open heart surgery after 52 days Mr Cornish walked out of the hospital and lived a good life for the next 20 years your kids will love reading about the details of the surgery and who was in attendance so you see that books and knowledge help us understand that all
056kinds of people contributed to our quality of life and well-being in America dad Hil Williams was definitely one of those Heroes thank you thank you Cindy Gibbs is next Arlene Jamison is on Deck good evening nice to see you all on this rainy night uh in this time when both of our federal and state governments are opposed to diversity equity and inclusion I would like to express my appreciation to teachers administrators and staff who wouldn't dream of treating their students and co-workers with any kind of bias whether they are or their families are a part of the lgbtq community or are A different race or ethnicity than themselves I want to specifically thank our educators of students with special needs for standing strong in this time when both our federal and state governments are opposed
057to inclusion people with learning and other disabilities have plenty to offer in this world I'm grateful for teachers who are compassionate and welcoming to all students and who expect the same level of rigor and Excellence from every who walks into their classroom regardless of their personal circumstances thank you thank you Arlene Jamison is next Angela Boling is on Deck good evening I'm orlene Jameson I'm a member of the education champions of Indian River County first of all I'd just like to say that I was blown away by that video of all the options that these kids have nowadays for future careers I mean when I went to school it was either HCK or shop that was it so kudos to you all um as I'm sure you're all aware a terrible tragedy occurred in Texas
058recently an 11-year-old girl Joselyn Rojo corono committed suicide for anyone not familiar with this devastating event she was bullied by her classmates who threatened to call Ice on her and her parents in order to have them deported apparently Joselyn was receiving Counseling in school for which is great but her parents were never notified perhaps if they had been told she'd still be alive today but of course we'll never know what we do know though according to the newspapers is that deportations are ongoing in Indian River County conducted by Ice furthermore comments are being made to Latinos in public places such as go back where you came from even though they were born here and are US citizens my questions are are School Personnel monitoring bullying in our schools over this issue is counseling being offered
059and if so are parents being notified and has ice come to any of our schools we cannot allow the tragedy of josin to occur here or anywhere else in this country a child literally being bullied to death thank you thank you Angela Boling is next and Thomas Kenny will be our last speaker hey everybody it's been a while it's nice to see you all um I want to thank you first of all for doing the really nice Proclamation for Black History Month it was inspiring to have all the students read it um and to have it be recognized and I also have been enjoying all the Facebook posts about the different African-American Heroes um I really enjoyed going to the Vera Beach High School on February 11th for the African-American student council's presentation the sounds
060of gospel it was a great concert and I was very happy to see our superintendent and um several of his staff and some of our board members there to enjoy the music um so that was great just lots of good things happening uh I hope I want to encourage everybody in the spirit of black history to um be aware that the Indian River county is celebrating our 100th anniversary this year and I would encourage you all to look up the schedule of events on ircgov.com and see the many opportunities there will be to be in the gford community to learn about some of more of gord's History um we all I'm we all can learn more about gord's history I'm sure and um I am happy to see that tomorrow according to the calendar there
061is a scheduled meeting for the NAACP and school district of Indian River County Work group hopefully that's happening um because today it's as important as it ever has been that we continue to work to achieve unitary status um I don't know how that all works when we have a federal court order that requires us to work on our diversity and inclusion um in our current government but I believe it's very important so thank you that we're moving ahead and I hope we continue in the positive fashion that we have been in that work group thank you thank you Thomas Kenny hi everyone um I just want to start with what the superintendent said happy birthday Jackie Rosario um I'm here and talk about that desegregation order for a little bit uh it's not a Dei
062order at all for those to people who would assume that or lay that language over top of it if you just read it it's very incorrect to even contemplate that um and that brings us to our work group a couple months ago here in these meetings this superintendent says we are unique here in that we have an order that's set up by what we call a joint Equity workg Group plan we have nine conditions that the plaintiff and the defendant defendant have worked out in a contractual agreement to come together and decide what that looks like and what desegregation looks like according to that joint action plan he says it's Unique no other case like it in the United States and I would per I would probably submit at this time after doing this for
063almost since 2018 that would be the seventh Year we're in you should probably try and figure out a way to get out of that contract it is not working um we're watching some of these work groups and we just see how one side that is representing an organization that fought so hard for civil rights and many people sacrifice physically abuse and different things these days are not adhering to the historical uh h of men and women of the NAACP and this these work groups the kpis and all the various things that go on in these things are not showing and sharing what this school system is really about any longer because this school system is full of opportunity this school system is full of people like Caleb who just showed up here and made one
064of the most beautiful presentations on the opport opportunity of all in the human race to achieve in America and so I would think that this case could end because this school system as Dr Moore has said is desegregated it is desegregated by the order that was first granted in 1967 and how that was laid out it's even probably desegregated by much of what the current 2018 plan is but people people are afraid to say it and when you have one side say go what do you mean by voting when you want to vote on issues to me that's just a tall taale sign they don't want to get out of it and so I would ask that you guys take a real hard look at this and call this system what it is integrated thank
065you okay we are to our consent agenda item I'd like to call for a motion to approve the consent agenda items so move Dr PCA second for Mr Dyer any discussion all those in favor say I I anyone opposed it passes 5- Z for a consent agenda all right there were no items pulled and we are on to our action agenda items okay so the first item we have is a 9A approval of exploration of foreign exchange program at the superintendent's workshop on February 10th Miss Rosario introduced a discussion item on District's existing Foreign Exchange program the goal of this item is to formally direct the superintendent to explore the feasibility and advantages of developing a comprehensive Foreign Exchange program which would have also involved revising policy 5114 non-immigrant students and foreign exchange programs um
066Dr Mo would you like to say anything about this item um M Rosario can present the item but as you just referenced it was discussed at at workshop and it comes before you to um for approval and for me to follow up okay Mr Rosario sure thank you so much is this working um is this working yeah there we go so um I appreciate um the time discussing this at our last Workshop board members um this is an item that is pretty straightforward it's it's something that has been near and dear um for me as a foreign exchange host mom in the school district it's been an incredible opportunity for not only myself and my family um but also for the students that I have hosted um I will tell you that there are incredible
067benefits for all of the students um involved in this um we at the school district have not actually updated our current policy which we do have a policy um it is 5114 it is titled non-immigrant students and foreign exchange programs it hasn't been updated I'm going to say since 201 I think 2012 or 14 16 I was close enough it is in your backup um and what I uh want ahead and did is I did some research on um what other school districts are doing and in your backup I did include Lee counties Oola County St John County St John's County and uh broward's um Foreign Exchange program and some of their policies uh just so that we can see how they have worded their policies um and they're they're actively engaged in the foreign
068exchange uh program and so I made some recommendations um and drafted up a new policy for us and obviously um uh with this vote tonight it would allow um Dr Moore and um and our attorney to um review this the the the the recommended policy and then come to us of course the superintendent uh would be charged with um coming back to us with a report on what it would look like to review not only this policy but to review the practices the benefits the um the overall um effort to establish a really robust Foreign Exchange program in our district um and then go from there so um that's really what this item is about I'm glad to hear that um everyone seemed to be in support of it at the workshop so at this
069time uh Madam chair I'll just um send it back over to you for board member comments okay just for clarification you mentioned that you wrote this policy the changes I did has it gone to our attorney I just said it has not yet and part of this charge is to allow Dr Moore to work with our attorney to take a look at it to edit it to fix it to do away with it and rewrite a new one or whatever it would take okay board members any discussion yes uh Dr Dr johnes thank you um at our February 10th Workshop we did have this information there are about nine attachments and I really believe it was just going to go to discussion because each of these specific um recommendations we need to discuss so um
070I started doing the research and today I talk with the head of the council for students for international educational travel Mr Paige and I'm still looking at all the information he has sent to me um but just in general right now at Vero Beach High School we have one foreign exchange student and one at Sebastian River High School our policy allows up to five I I say our policy is okay now and if we have more requests we could work that through the superintendent also talked a little bit with Charter High School they have 60 at this time um they have one person dedicated to that um I have not gotten back the information from St EDS and I will but I believe um one person is working with that specifically but um just for
071me because I did have exchange students that's Master for high school and it has changed since then um if you are in here on a J1 there's no monetary money for our families F1 they do sponsor third-party organizations some pay dipen some do not there's a lot of information again on that page of the F1 that they approve there are 37 programs so I I believe that if you look at our policy as it is now it's 2016 where it was updated we did have it years before that about 20 years and it has worked um for some reason you know we're saying well maybe we could get more we have one at each school right now I just think we should look at that policy if we have to up the number then we
072can up the number but some of these as far as recommendations um I do not agree with and I think we need to go one by one at at a discussion at one of our workshops so um that's my input as far as where we are and what we can do and the other thing obviously we don't have the numbers like Charter or St EDS and they do both do a great program um they have a great program with the exchange students but even putting more information on staff I work with these at FHSAA with a person who was just dedicated to these and it's a lot of work but I think our policy as it is now is over okay and if we need to up the numbers to get our students to come
073here we can do so one of the things that um Mr Paige did say and he reiterated this you know the J1 they do not have any kind of stiping for their for their hosts F1 they have some they they have some do and some don't but I'm okay with our policy now and if our our issue is to get more then let's up that number couple of things on the recommendations also um he basically said when we get a for exchange students were to put them in the classes that they would have as sophomores and juniors I will never agree with seniors even though they don't graduate um the seniors in our high schools now they come up to earn all these senior um I guess you could say accolades and so fa so
074forth and some some new things as a senior so I I never thought we should have seniors also as far as specific courses that she'll be provided to report exchange students on a space available basis um again he said they're just required to have the classes that we would have as a southb or Junior and so forth um as far as recommendation for US history in English that's okay because we do require that um and then they can limit the number for an exchange students but I just think we need to look at this more specifically before we even have an approval to have the superintendent look at it there's a lot going on with um foreign exchange students and our numbers are low so if we want to up the numbers I'm fine with
075that but not on all the specifics any other board members Dr Pasa yeah I'm happy to move it forward and and see what uh the new policy would be recommended from the superintendent uh with legal review um and then we can we could certainly go kind of uh section by section and see how we all feel about it and what we want want to either take away or or put back in okay Mr Dyer yeah at the workshop uh when we talk generally about this uh I think that foreign exchange students are are a good idea so I don't have any problems with that my only concern is there is so much going on in the school system now with the kind of innovation of what's going on the district the five new or four
076new k through eight schools the uh all the things that we're doing in the district and I just want to make sure that another program doesn't add complexity and take away the focus for the task at hand over the next couple of years uh I I too uh thought we were talking about increasing the number of students I didn't understand that uh we were going to rewrite the whole policy so I I probably tend to side with uh uh Dr Jones in this that if we need to uh uh to take a look at it I would be more in in seeing how many students we really could do how we would use them is it great to have them part of our IB programs uh but in terms of rewriting the whole policy I'm
077not so sure that that is is something that really needs to play take place at this time but I'm all for if Dr Moore wants to take a look at this to to take a look at it and come back with a uh recommendation okay um I'm GNA speak because it's your item and then you can speak uh visas I heard F1 and J1 so F1 I think do Dr um Jones you mentioned that okay what's the difference between F1 and J1 there's no stien for the this is what Mr Paige told me this morning for the host families F1 there is they don't sponsor that directly but they do approve a third party and they don't know about stiens they have no idea what will be he said sub could be a thousand a
078month some could get nothing they they don't get involved with that okay because in here I see something about we're giving control now to the sponsoring exchange organization to issue certificates of eligibility for j1b so those are the ones you said they don't have a Staten that's correct okay um because if you're um housing somebody and you get a stipan um that's a little different story on um kind of how it matters I think to um to what we do in policy so I thought our policy was fine we only have one student in each school so we're looking at doing a whole bunch of work for district people on something that's only going to affect a couple of kids whereas they're working on lots of things to affect lots of our students so yeah
079I I'm wondering what the urgency is here Mr Rosario okay thank you so there is no urgency this is something that uh Dr Moore and I have talked about for probably about two years probably um there isn't one student at Sebastian River High School to my understanding I think there is about five four or five students maybe Mr Green would know for sure but there is not one there's more than one for sure with you our information is one student at Sebastian I thought there was more than that no we in looking we was one student as from Principal all right um so that that aside um I was clear that there was a recommendation for a review of the policy at our Workshop shop all of the same documents that were at the workshop
080I mean on the uh back up today were the same items that were there for the workshop um but again my recommendation for the changes was just a starting point that's the reason for this charge is to let the superintendent take it and go from there with our attorney and kind of see do do do these recommendations work for us do they not work for us um one of the things that um I know for sure for um the number of current five students um something that Dr Jones just mentioned that our current policy says that um each high school May accept a maximum of five foreign exchange students at the bare minimum even if that was something that we needed to change it's still something that needs to change right because if we have
081dwindling numbers at our Public Schools due to school choice and this is an opportunity for us to bring more kids in and not lose FTE um then there's just another Avenue for us to be able to move in that direction um nonetheless you know here we are and so it's just another change it isn't a new program it's the program that we currently already have it's just one that's not robust it's not one that's actively you know um something that we do you know on a I guess a regular basis so it's just something that was about time uh in talking with Dr Moore again yet again he said we put it on the agenda so here it is it's on the agenda um so again the charge is just for him to do the
082research um he has assured me that this is not something I mean he could speak for himself but he has assured me and the board actually at our Workshop that this is um not a hard thing to do to kind of you know do the feasibility um research on this and return back to us with recommendations for or against or changes and so on and so forth um so Dr Moore um through the chair yeah um I think apparently the board knows a lot more about this than I do because I haven't done the research yet but as I said at this point it's not a significant amount of work I am not looking to put additional burden on on my staff um just referencing what you were saying so so moving forward um it's
083just bringing back recommendations in terms of what is feasible in terms of our system and how we want to um move forward so relatively straightforward Dr Moore this would require our attorney to have some hours spent working on this though correct so we would be spending some money on this okay I just want to say that all right I'm going to call for the vote um I Madam chair I will also add there is no date on here um I didn't put a date [Music] um I didn't assume that because there's no you know rush and there's no timeline that it would be just okay to leave it without a date if board members you want to put a date on there that's fine if Dr Moore you want to you know add a date
084as well to give us a timeline so we don't miss anything and then three months from now say we haven't heard from you on this that's fine too um but I just left it without a date just so that you know for in complete transparency for that purpose Dr Dr Pasa has something Dr Pasa um I I just wanted to mention that um you know the issue with the different types of visas and whether or not they're uh eligible for the stien I don't know that that's really pertinent um cuz the host family has volunteered to take these kids in they're excited to take them uh and they don't have to take somebody if if they're not getting a stipend you know this is all voluntarily so us getting in the way of a family
085who's really excited to invite a kid into their family um and hopefully give them really great opportunity you know a lot of these kids come from places where uh They Don't Really maybe have the best education uh maybe they uh dream of coming to America and moving here um so I think that you know us trying to get in the way of a family who wants to spend their time and money to help a child from another country get better education I I don't see how that's pertinent uh to our programming um but I think in general you know we talked a lot there were a lot of people who spoke about diversity today um certainly inviting uh kids from other countries to come learn with our kids uh is pretty much the uh the
086Leading Edge of diversity um so you know I would hope that people would support that kind of a thing just com yeah I I have a comment about that um I don't think we're I'm not not supporting it we have one child in each school right now we have a policy says up to five I just personally like to see when we get to five maybe we approach this because it then it would be an issue I don't think it's an issue right now that's that's the only thing I have to say Dr um jnes and Dr P has a good point but the only reason I brought that up is just for the knowledge base I was learning quite a bit when I talked to Mr Page and right now our policy doesn't say
087you have to have this or this it's still welcoming we've just got to do a better job making sure that we have the openings sorry bless you have the openings and welcome our students but I I think our policy works if we add something says we can add more than five I just I think it works as it is is now okay I'm going to call for the vote all those um oh I need a motion I make a motion second Mr Rosario Dr PCA all those in favor say I I anyone opposed opposed opposed I'm I I okay it passes 32 all right um action agenda item 9B approval of rename naming Pelican Island Elementary School as outlined per P 7250 this item requests the board to approve the renaming of Pelican Island Elementary
088to Pelican Island classical Magnet School the name shall pass with the super majority vote of the board which is defined as one vote more than a simple majority vote of a quorum present okay any discussion by board members oh I'm sorry Dr Moore would you like to te up the item would you like me to present the item I know you have a speaker signed up so uh yes present the item and then the speaker can speak before we vote Dr sha through the chair uh in accordance with policy 7250 commemoration of school facilities we conducted a community Forum on February 12th 2025 we had 17 attendees who offered their input into the renaming of Pelican Island Elementary uh shortly after that we engaged in the scheduling of a work group meeting the work group
089had community members parents students faculty and District staff uh Pelican Island does not have a student council so we felt the student was represented through the presence of the actual student enrolled at the school and uh through the students recommendation on the committee they suggested the name which we are presenting Pelican Island classical magnet and the committee unanimously approved that new name and um it's for the board's approval okay thank you all right we have a speaker Mr Kenny just here on behalf of a moms for Liberty policy media director um Jennifer couldn't be here this evening she sent you guys an email about all of that but uh we're all for this we we love the idea of the classical Magnet School one of the things that we were thinking about in this is
090um that you put K8 now during there's a lot of overlap here and I think you know last uh month there were the formation of the four K8 schools brought quickly um to really just go with what parents are looking for and trying to be adaptive move quickly in in the school choice Arena that Dr Moore is really uh put all of his efforts into that's one of the things you have to do and the second thing you have to do is you have to be bold so to say it's K classical magnet Pelican Island K classical Magnet or however you would word it I think it's something that you just assert out there and you do that and that's really what it's about people seeing opportunity I mean we're we're bombarded with messages daily
091so any good message coming out of this school system is a message we're celebrating and um shouting from the rooftops and so that's where we stand and thank you for doing this okay any discussion board members uh Dr Jones well um I did attend that meeting with um principal Justice Dr shafty Dr vegan and it was a really good group um and they came up with several names I liked it and I want to hear from other board members but but if we do something like this are we then going to look at Dr Moore Rosewood magnet K you know 8 Oola magnet K8 fmer Elementary K8 I mean I think I remember when I said this a little bit earlier as far as um when we do this you know how will it affect
092the other schools that will be k8s and since Pelican Island has Classical in their name would we go Rosewood magnet you know they look at Core Curriculum alola magnet Math and Science you know and so forth would we get into that Arena so through the chair we would follow the policy I think what you have in the those other schools is um they won't be full k8s for for another two years they can they can function so to say we would follow the policy in this particular case which we did um and not with the others is is is just the process that we would have to go through okay I'm just saying that right now it's Unique no no I I I agree but I'm trusting the process okay anyone else Mr Rosario yeah
093um I don't I don't think in this particular situation comparing what we do or how we change the name for the Pelican Island classical Magnet School um could be compared to Oola or um any of the other schools going moving to Ka because those schools aren't they're not changing in it's totality right this is a completely new school a completely new curriculum a complete lead New Direction in which this school is going from traditional public to classical um the other schools aren't doing that so I think in that way um it makes this particular School different um I don't know what the other schools are going to want to do in terms of adding a Ka to it um but I actually think adding Ka I see on here on the recommended list and I
094don't know if this was in the order in which it was like First Choice second choice but I see the second item was Pelican Island magnet there was K8 and then the the second bullet says Pelican Island classical magnet K8 I do think the K8 in this particular situation um benefits this particular school because it's so new because it's something that's an attractor um because it is um apparent parent you know I guess even in real estate right a parent moving into the area looks up um k8s or elementary schools you know this school is not going to be under the elementary it should be under the K8 but just looking at the name alone if they see Pelican Island classical magnet they might just think that it's it doesn't include the middle portion of
095it the six seven eight whereas if you have K8 it's it's an it's like a double attractor to me it's like a double whammy it's a double boost for a parent who wants both of those things um and in this situation I just think it would be a great thing for us to be able to just tag on the K8 there somewhere um Mr Dyer yeah I I too attended the meeting uh at uh Pelican Island and uh I thought it was a good process and appreciate that we did follow through on the process you know to me as we look at these uh all this is about choice and you know choice is making sure that people in the community understand what their choices are so I would go back to what uh Dr
096Jones has said and actually believe that it's really branding and letting people understand what the choices are available in the community so you know if we go through a process when the time is right with the other schools I think that we should consider that too but why not brand them why not let people very easily know what each school is about and what you should expect and what your choices are in the community so you know again that would have to go through the process I respect the process I like it the way it is I can also go with K8 you know it's whatever we think is uh is best so okay okay Dr Pasco yeah I appreciate the the process that they went through uh those who participated in the work groups
097and forums um and their recommendations um I think the name that they ultimately chose is is good I think it's excellent um I also liked Pelican Island Classical Academy just the way it sounded um but I I think we're we're definitely on the right track with where we're going here just a a point of of clarity as it relates to the other schools I think my recommendation to the principles would be only Fels elementary school because their current name is felmer Elementary School um Rosewood is Rosewood Magnet School um Oola is acola Magnet School um the only variance between the name that's before you now is it includes the unique um educational design which is the classical school so felsmere we will have to do something with with felir maybe felir dual language um don't
098name it yet we go through the process yes um okay so I'm kind of one that's been begging you for k8s for years now and I I was really happy that we're starting to do k8s um because I've been at a K8 and um when we renamed Sam gains uh when all of that went through it was Sam gains and then they added the K8 later um as it grew as it became eighth grade in there um so it's interesting how uh I I'm fine with either one uh I also know that when parents are checking out schools there a couple things they ask not just about the name but they ask about the schools and their grades and what's going on and they ask people in the community um that's where they get their
099information they also can go to our website and if you go to where it says Welcome to our schools on the website it says Elementary Middle High specialized so of course we will put a tab in in there between Elementary Middle for k8s right and we'll move our magnet schools that are going to add sixth grade 7th grade and eighth grade to that tab correct correct okay so right now parents will go there and say well it's K8 I have an eighth grader I just moved here I want to put them in the K8 school but it's not a K8 school yet you see what I'm saying that's kind of the the rub is it's if I have a seventh grader eighth grader and I just moved here and I see it's a K8 I'm
100going to get excited okay I can I have that option I'm going to roll over my child and then you're told no so that is kind of a false advertisement I guess that's a little bit of a rub um that's the only reason I hesitate on it is because of people in the next two years they will think that they can put their kids there but they can't good point so that's the only thing I I I kind of worry about with this yes can can we come back and revisit that in a couple of years or is this formal I mean when actually is a K8 is it that the time to to reconsider it I mean if I don't know what the what the policy would let us do that yeah yeah okay
101and that's part of why we have a process in place and that um I have a question for you Dr shafty can I ask her oh absolutely because I saw her name on it so you were there in the meeting I couldn't go that night otherwise I would have been there with a you know silent mouth um but um was that brought up about adding K8 to the name was the parents eliminated that very quickly because they looked branding um Mr Dyer said it when you write that name they felt like it would be just two things they wanted to prioritize in their conversations the uh honoring Pelican Island so that was never brought up that they would Veer from Pelican Island and they loved the classical magnet they felt like it had a nice
102flow they considered acronyms making sure it didn't say something something that we regretted later um you do have to worry about that they did they had really thoughtful conversations and they felt like maybe if they were we were a couple months back when they were going to be the first ka8 it would be kind of an accentuation point in the name but because we are broadening our K8 approach the most important pieces were Pelican Island classical and magnet so they tied it together in the recommendation for the name so I'd like to personally honor the parents and the people that went through that because that I'm glad I asked that question because the only hesitation I have in adding K8 and and not doing what the group that went through the process recommended is that
103um if they don't have seventh and eighth graders yet then parents are going to say wait a minute that's false advertising so I really hesitate about putting K8 on it right away and again you know we can go back to that in two years or three years so I'm fine with that but I appreciate all the hard work everybody went through to get this done um Dr Jones no I was going to ask that question wonder why did they do that after listening to them that night and Mr Dyer and I kept our mouth quiet although I'll have to agree with Dr PCA I liked Academy in there somewhere didn't say anything but anyway and that was a unique uh group and they were very excited and now the question I brought up with you
104know Sixth 7even and eighth grade they're not at ka yet so we should just lie low so this is good discussion thank you sure anyone else okay so we have um I'm going to call for a motion for approval of renaming Pelican Island Elementary School which was piee as its acronym to picm I think that's what it's going to be all right to Pelican Island classical Magnet School um can I get a so move hey Dr Jones second second Dr PCA all those in favor say I I anyone opposed it passes 5 Z thank you for all that hard work we appreciate it Madam chair yes um I just wanted to um take a moment just to remind parents because I don't see it here but I know that there was there were previous conversations
105with the board and Dr shafty and and Dr Moore on um editing revising our our plan for opening because originally we have on our original plan for opening uh Middle School six seven and eight or at least six was intended to begin in um not this August but the following August of 2026 but instead we have changed that right so that we've upped that and now sixth grade will begin um will open in this August 2025 so I just want to clarify that for parents I know that the plan is probably in the works at least the revision of it just so that we have you know these things kind of matching along with the new name I'm I'm I'm assuming that you're waiting for the new name to put be put in the plan
106I kind of figured you were so if I can just um allow Miss uh Dr shafty to just kind of or Dr Moore to just solidify th those plans so that since we're talking about it now as parents here um we could just make it clear we can do that whomever she's waiting for you Dr Mo no yeah no no I'm sorry Dr sha we we can do that it's just simply updating it to the the current language she's what the name now that he knows the name he said yeah okay so we don't have any discussion items we're moving on to Schoolboard member matters is there someone that would like to go first I will okay um so the CTE tours were super um fun and and exciting actually and um Ann Bieber I
107don't see her here but I just want to thank her um and Miss basura for being present and for um engaging in the um Career and Technical education tours at Sebastian high school at tctc and buau Beach High School so um I I don't want to say that this is the only takeaway but I have to say that Vero beans m chal latte was pretty outstanding not for nothing and it just solidifies my push to have these col these schools rotate their culinary and have like a little coffee stand or pastry stand outside at our board meetings not just for us but for the audience to enjoy right gives them exposure gives everybody an opportunity to taste their incredible drinks and um coffees and and pastries and all that so um it just just kind
108of said this is why we have to do that I'm I'm I'm grateful for that I'm grateful for the kids um in the programs and the um teachers um and I'll just leave it at that okay anyone else Dr Pasa no um Mr Dyer I I'll say I I uh took the tour of the CTE schools as as well uh with uh and Bieber and and I should say that I was pretty blown away especially when you got into that uh biotech lab I mean I thought that that was absolutely incredible and when you see the work the kids are doing in the accredidation that they have and what they're doing in the industry already based on their experience and the certifications they're getting from that lab is incredible I thought the new Tesla was
109pretty cool and being here on the uh Space Coast with the Aerospace and Technology also I think can be a big deal uh for us uh is we look at uh certainly robotics uh drones which is a good word and a bad word uh I I know that you can uh get a get a license and uh there are uh high-paying jobs flying uh drones along the power lines for fpnl so there are many many good uses of paying you know 70 $80,000 a year to do that so there's a lot of good things that are out there that we can do and I think that as we increase the stem uh some of the things that I'm seeing bringing in uh not only the labs but the techniques of being actually being able to
110be Hands-On I think are great the nursing program in all three areas uh you know terrific so I I am hoping as you guys start uh thinking about the boutique high school and the ways that we reinvent the system that we can actually put CTE on steroids as part of that uh program and go uh both career and uh and college uh as we get into that school but it was pretty exciting and I really appreciated the uh time that I spent there uh also I did attend the uh meeting for the naming of uh Pelican Elementary and then uh recently uh I invited the uh CEO of uh Florida Council of 100 to visit the uh moonshot school and to see what's going on in our community uh the Florida Council of 100 is
111very good about taking public causes uh which I think the financing of of prek through 12 education and getting those issues in front of the governor in front of the state legislature so I do think that there is funding that we need to do and I am hoping that being an a school district and everything that we're doing here that perhaps there is some Target funding to help us with Innovation that there are some other things that we can do at the state level to make sure that we spend more and monitor prek through two we only really start in grade three so that's why you see everything on 3 through 12 because that's what's measured but really if we make our investment at prek through two I think it'll pay dividends and we'll be
112able to uh reap the benefits by less expense later on in in the uh in a child's uh educational growth so again good month and thank you okay Dr Johns yes um I'd like to Second the gospel night of Vero Beach High School um that was done by the African-American student council I think there were about six or seven churches from gford it was absolutely outstanding um I attended three schools last week for Black History Month Sebastian Elementary Miss Hart always does a great job she each class does a door um picture if you will and we went around and judged those Dodger toown had a great um Black History Month luncheon and of course Rosewood has their fourth graders presenting in their little Courtyard with uh African-American Heroes and the fifth graders would then
113evaluate them so it was a really good combination I attended Dodger toown the gifted program on Saturday um so Dr Jacobs and Dr McMahon there I think they had five units um and there were about 60 students that were uh enrolled and was absolutely outstanding um using the um Steam Park if you will that was created obviously with Carrie wall and a lot of people so they're continuing that and that was wonderful as far as my duties executive Roundtable still working on strategic plan I'm a part of the fsba equity committee and they had a presentation from P Panella schools about gifted and their ese programs and that was excellent I learned a lot executive Roundtable this week Economic Development Council this week um what Mr Dyer said on CT is so important if you
114really look back and I know they just highlighted one point on each screen but our our students and their scores especially in that biotech I think they said that it was like 63 64% high schools and colleges and ours was 80% and uh if you have been in either of the biotech classrooms um at sebas River High School real Beach High School any of the career and Tech classrooms um you can see that they're absolutely outstanding and um in conclusion um you know the video we had from moonshot and how that public private partnership has worked I mean we're we're really a template and a pilot for the rest of Nation on working together and our board put in as one of our priorities is to have 100% funding in prek and I think that
115is such a big thing we have to keep pushing with our legislators because if we can recruit them in Pre prek we're going to keep them in our schools you know so it it was good discussion tonight board members and I appreciate it thank you all right um so I have been tracking bills so here's your legislative update as of this morning there were 78 related to education or that we would have to at least pay attention to had something to do with something that it would affect District staff um but as we were talking it went up five more so bills are being introduced like right now is the time when lots of bills are being introduced there are it ranges from everything from social work to start times to um Universal free lunch
116to additives and Foods um cardiac emergencies bra Futures conflict resolution Gulf of America the Hazardous walking conditions in schools uh lots of things that you know you don't think are related to schools some of them but they if you look at the title sometimes it's not but I had to click on each one and look to see if it's going to affect schools so we're up to about 83 that's kind of low um so we're they're going to keep moving I'm sure that we'll keep seeing more and more um going but the the um education committees really haven't been meeting yet about bills because they're just kind of in the introduction stage so it'll be interesting and the next not not this week but next week um when they start gearing up again with committees
117it'll be interesting to see what um bills they put forward to to discuss first so um zonian planning I went to um that as well um and the the only project that's kind of come up which is kind of interesting is the Quail Valley Project they are adding another um recreation center it's not anywhere near their golf or their tennis it's another place on us one um but it was really interesting to to see what they're going to um possibly do there uh Treasure Coast Council of local governments I attended that as well and uh again they're monitoring legislation and they're looking at how cities counties and school boards can look at the legislation that's being proposed and how it affects all three of us and if we can work together to kind of um
118you know talk to our legislators about what's going to affect all of us together and it's more powerful when you get that uh family fund Fest was a lot of fun uh thank you to U which is the old substance abuse it's not old but the substance abuse Council then committee and I'm not sure what other names but now it's Thrive and um they have new offices so it's really great that they're expanding like that gospel night was wonderful um very moving so I appreciate that and um a there was something mentioned when we had citizen input about um or I should say individual input about um the 100th anniversary of uh Indian River County and um there are going to be tours I don't know if you've seen that for gford for Sebastian and
119for uh Vero Beach so I'm going to kind of give you a heads up that that information's out there is kind of neat you can go take a tour of those and I um highly suggest you do if you don't know a lot about our County and how it started it's kind of interesting about the old story about the um theater at 14th Avenue Theater if you don't know that story look it up it's kind of interesting what happened a long time ago when we used to be part of St Lucy County and so um I also went to uh well I led the fsba legislative um meeting committee meeting and we devised with our uh legislative team up there a a training for Schoolboard members and uh we got really good feedback so I
120asked Dorian to forward that to all of you so I'm not sure if you got it or not but there was an hour training about um understanding about how to interpret the bills where to look um who to speak to how to speak to them that sort of thing so it was really good and uh it's kind of gearing us up for day in the legislature which is coming up in March um when I went to the CTE program tours which I did and I've done every year um I will say that I've been asking for that hood for biotech for a couple years now and I said I was going to mention it because I keep asking for it and what it is is uh that program is just busting at the seems as
121a matter of fact one of the kids told me that she's really good friends with a student that is a freshman in a college I won't name which one um but when she went to the school and she started taking more biotech they said you already know all this how about you help ta the class so she's actually taking the class for credit and actually helping teach it so it's really great what they're getting out of these biotech classes what a hood does for them is it moves them to a higher level lab so they can do higher level learning Le increase our stem um a little bit more so these kids that are really on the higher end can go to international science fair with a killer project that will just blow everybody away
122you can't get that unless you go to I think it's scripts now um so you have to go down to Stewart if you're a student here so we don't have that in our County for students to use and it's really critical to have those hoods it's just a a vacuum Hood yes it's probably expensive Bruce um but it's something that's going to benefit our biotech programs so it's not just for one or two kids it's not just for those science fair kids it's for our biotech programs and um Mr Bush is Smiles every time I say I'm going to keep pushing for that I I promise you I will um so he's doing an outstanding job as well as all of them in the CTE programs it was amazing I'd love to see us open
123up tours for the community as well I know we have done that in the past um but it would be nice for people to see we do have alternatives to go to college lots of great programs um and people don't realize how many we have and I think that video really did show um kind of how how many we have so appreciate that uh with that I'm sorry I forgot one thing yes okay sorry in honor of um Black History Month I attended the HBCU baseball yesterday at Dodgertown and I will have to admit that um our city manager had a better pitch okay did he really Dr Moore did last year oh yeah embarassing you're a little embarrassing I threw one out of Vero and I hit the plate but anyway um and one
124of the things since we're talking about um career and tech let's get that air Mr Green at air conditioning at sebas River High School you know I've only asked for that for 30 years that's the other thing okay that's it I'm done I'm sorry no I'm I'm going to tag on to that CU you know are you talking about where they were doing the t-shirt printing no oh that was so hot in that room so he's been begging for some air conditioning help in that room so I am going to put that out there as well as sure um because we're they're doing some amazing stuff we just don't want to hold them back so with that uh Dr Moore superintendent's closing um just closing I remind everyone who's listening if you have a kindergarten
125through e8th grade student next week we begin our final assess assessment with I I ready which is the last piece of information that will prepare us for our six week push leading into assessment so very very important information we'll be gathering from our students to have a deep understanding as of where they currently sit and from there we will devise a plan for the remaining 44 days is that what I saw in your office today Kelly 47 47 I just bought I bought a few days right there um to make sure that we have everything in place for the end of the year and Dr Mo I know between now and our next meeting there will be a big National announcement um so fingers crossed all right with that we're going to adjourn at 7:37