School Board Workshop - Apr 22, 2025

001i know adjourn the meeting. welcome to today's work board workshop. We're happy to have you join us and we're thankful to your time and dedication to our school district. This workshop is now called to order. Our primary focus is to create a safe and productive environment for all participant. Please be reminded of the exit doors that are clearly marked for exiting. While in the board room refrain from obstructing exit doors. All attendees must occupy seat with the exception of media, and these students that will be doing something for us today. Upon activation of the fire alarm system please exit from the room in an ordinarily fashion and continue to exit the building and remain outside until they have deemed the room safe to return. Board member rupert will now introduce her school to lead us

002in the "pledge of allegiance". MS. Rupert? it's coming. please stand for the "pledge of allegiance". I pledge allegiance to the flag uft united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under GOD indivisible with liberty and justice for all. please be seated. thank you. that was crest haven, yay! Good job. [Applause] as we begin to prepare this school board workshop we're reminded that our vision is 100 percent proficiency for all of our students. We begin the vital task of this achievement. We'll continue to lead our students to that potential. Our theme believe and power achieve one broward. Today's workshop will operate in accordance to policy 1020 and the board will review the items as advised and presented by the superintendent. Our first item is engaging public school board students with

003extended reality er, or ai. I now turn it over to superintendent. we're so glad, I'm going to turn it over to DR. Fulton and her team. good morning, DR. Hepburn our esteemed colleagues and our amazing members of the community. We're standing at the edge of a new frontier of education, a motion where innovation meets imagination and where possibility meets purpose. Today workshop prepares us to experience virtual reality and as powerful tools we're begin to go harness right here in our district. Imagine students stepping into a virtual lab to conduct science experience in real world time. Or a history time where learners explore ancient civilizations by walking through a virtual city. Picture a ai tutor adopting lessons to meet the needs of every child, on-demand at their own pace. This isn't a dream. This is happening

004right reer in our classrooms. As a district committed to innovation and excellence, we have the responsibility to lead boldly, to I embrace the innovations, ai extended reality are not just about extending technology, they're about opening doors for all of our students regardless of the zip code they live n.Today's demonstration will highlight how we are leveraging these tools with care, creativity and a deep sense of purpose, you'll see not what is possible but what is happening across our schools. You will hear from our amazing students and our teachers as we bring the classroom to the board room. Nelson mandela once said, education is the most powerful weapon you can using to change the world. Because when we equip our students with the tools of tomorrow, he empower them to be the leaders of today. Today we're

005expanding that power, make iting more accessible, more engaging and more aligned with the future our students will inherit. The future isn't coming, the future is here and it starts in our schools. Whether the concept of ar, virtual reality is new today, our goal today is to deepen your understanding, ignite your imagination and inspire you to continue to provide support for those amazing innovation that's are happening across our classrooms w.That said, you're not here to hear me speak, you're here to see our students in action. I'm going to turn it over to our chief academic officer simone who is going to kickoff this presentation and provide you with the overview and show you how these innovations align with our priorities and our tra taoej I can goals. Thank you. good morning, this agenda outlines our journey

006from hands-on examples and workinin definition to see real classroom applicicions, wewe'l wawa through brbroward publblic schos s is using emmersive technology and artificial intelligence to personalized learning, increase student engagement and transform instructional practice. So the exciting part. We're going to begin in a few minutes with a 20-minute excursion showcasing student and teacher interaction with virtual reality and artificial tools. These examples from math to art to special education illustrate how students across level are engage withing environments to enhance understanding and motivation. You have been assigned to one of these for your excursion. You will also be provided with an essential question. However before we enjoy that practice and play we want to provide some working knowledge. Let's clarify our terms, extended reality, xr is umbrella in incompasses our reality and mixed reality, each offers different levels

007of emersion, ai artificial intel yens is embedded in many of these tools and serves as the backbone for personalized data instruction. So to provide context for the experience, this outlines examples of extended reality. Here you can see how virtual reality fully emerges students and/or teachers and adult in new worlds, overlay digital content and mix reality to enable interaction between real and virtual objects. These are powerful tools for education. Now let's head to this experience for yourself so you can have this wonderful experience. Our student escorts are here because you have all been assigned for your experience excursion. Mraebs stand by. Please stand by. welcome back to the school board workshop and thank you so much for that amazing experience. [Cheers and applause] And I will turn it back over to staff to continue their presentation.

008well I hope you enjoyed first of all, DR. Fabian executive director of academics, I hope you enjoyed our little excursions from the board room to the classrooms. We're not done yet, we have students and teachers to shire some of our best practices. So we can go back to slide. Slide, we're going to talk about a little bit about structure instruction. It helps really taylor instruction by data. Best standards ensuring that learning remains grounded and academic rigor. And teachers start to see the evolution of using data to be da da smart and data rich and driven. It allows them to pivot instruction and historical and obstruct math to life creating an engaging aligned experience. And what we've seen, through the data and data is just the technology tools that just one variable. We have seen that

009xr and ai works to increase not only equity but it bridges gaps for students who MAY lack access to field trips. And supports multi lingual learners, it ensures students engage in content and we want to look on return on investment during the MARCH 4, initiatives such as these have shown in student achievement data from pm2 to pm2, it's showing gains. We're excited to take a deeper dive of all of these particular tools that we're investing in whether they're a protocol model to identify which ones are at the core of increasing student achievement. So now I would like to introduce, one of our teachers speakers, gabriela who is from a poll amidle school who will give a perspective on how these tools are implemented and success in her classroom. good morning, I'm gabriela I'm sv teacher

010at apollo middle school, been teaching for 18 years, I started for computer science inclusion cohort in JUNE 2022. And that is a research practice partnership between DR. Maya israel, the university of florida and lisa str stem and cs programs in the department. Since then I've had the opportunity given to me by DR. Kutcher our wonderful principal to incorporate instructions and robotics not only for my students but also all the a v classes in the school. This year I took on the challenge of coaching robotic challenge team as a well as a drone team, comprised only as of students with disabilities. Now the controller came about because at the beginning, when we first got the robot, our kids were all excited about, driving the robot, this is musab this is a 7th grader in one of

011the sv classrooms. He like my other students were excited to participate in the competition but he struggled using this controller, holding it and pressing the buttons. So we reved -- reached out to the developer of the robot, the vex robotics who we had already been working with. We let them know that we needed help modifying the controller smusof can participate. So they immediately assigned engineers to connect the iq robot, here's musof demonstrators how he uses the controller that has been modified. Go ahead musof. [Applause] Take your time. [Cheers and applause] Good job. Thank you. Participating in robotic has impacted musof because he's being included now he can participate like every one else. He'll be in the team next year mainstream and participating along his peers. Musof, what is your favorite part of the robot? what

012do you like about the robot? You like the robot? Yes. You like making baskets? Yes. All right, teaching computer science has opinion a huge positive impact for all of my students, you've used robotic and computer science to engage my students in meeting standards. Math standards in measurement and fractions through building and coding robots, by collaborating with their peers on programming xalensing. It has helped to improve their skills in problem solving communication, collaboration and persistence which are not only iep goals but skills that they will use not only in school but in life. It will help students like musof participate in activities, benefiting students all over the world. You will get to see other adoptive technology at the esc team has helped. I would also like to invite you to attend our computer science inclusion cocase

013on MAY 11th, I'm sorry MAY 17th, pines middle school. You'll get to see musof and others demonstrate what they have learned. We'll have a research partner at uf and the vex accessibility of developer DR. Jimmy linn, all attending a special guests and speakers for these events. And I look forward to seeing all of you there. Thank you.D thank you. the second part of our presentation is on what motivates and we heard a lot of that today. And these tools are highly engaging students received instant taoed back and to the classroom concept to future careers. So what we would like to hear is now hear from jaylin, an 11th grade high school and he will share our firsthand at the experience through the digital designs. MADAM Chair? DR. Holness. I just want to say thank you

014to MS. Mccully! [Applause] She and I worked together at apollo and she is an amazing woman and we need give musof a und of apapplse,, that was s awese. [Appususe] Thanank you. thank you, MS. Mccully. thank you, appreciate you. thank you. hello my name is safous he espinoza from plantation high. I'm here to talk about the 3-d animation program. Without relying on han drawn art. For students like me who MAY not be confident in drawing. Character design might be needed it's not the main focus of the course which many students find appealing. Students can use programs like 3-d max to design characters and scenes. I personally enjoying using because it gives me the freedom of experiment and build various parts for my character. hi I'm dillon and when it comes to 3-d animation like sadie

015said, when you're making your character, it can help you process the helps you with processing whether it's making a model or whether it'sing discrimination where you have to see a model from a 3-d aspect it really helps to visualize what you're working, especially if you plan to go into other careers, understanding how to work in a 3-d environment helps you to navigate those better. Where you would have to see it from different angles. Thank you. thank you. And so when we look at the different kinds of technology, we certainly want to make sure that we meet the unique needs of all of our students. So if we go back to slide, talk to struggling learners, our adaptive technology is not only enriching but intervening on the spot. It pin points where the students needs are

016and makes suggestions in realtime. Xr can reinforce these concepts through visual hands-on experience and key learners who benefit from sensory strategies. In enrichment really does meet the students needs and expectations and they don't just keep them waiting when you have multiple students with multiple different kinds of areas and needs, it's able to adjust and adapt, or simulation xr and takes them further with virtual field trips which sometimes students and teachers don't have access to that opportunity. So bringing it to the classroom allows for he quit but to for students to explore things that will be cost neutral for them as well. And then the table here, breaks do you know whether we're supporting learners challenging advanced students or keeping them engaged. Ai and xr play complimentary or critical roles. When we look at the video

017we want to talk about a contract that we have j world and we want to talk about the connections that jr is having across the multiple levels. I think we can queue the video. ?Fm while we're waiting on the video, I think it was sadie, if you can let them know what you want to pursue after high school, because the conversation we had was directly to the skill and knowledge that you're learning in your current program at your current school? well I would like to pursue dental lab or orthodontics and it allows me to view the, when creating retainers and mold for teeth. Sorry. What did you want me to? That was it? Thank you. [Applause] and jadeen if you can tell us what you want to pursue. so after high school I want to

018be a bio medical engineer, so having a 3-d space to work with, helps you understand how to make prosthetics or fake armor leg so you can understand how it moves and things of that nature. [Applause] all right, we're having a little technical issue, we'll by pass the video, we'll show it a little bit later. All right, we're going to move into our next part of and share our secondary vr learning experience with our teachers czaria dillard high school on prisisms. good morning, I'm aria from I'm dill ard high, I'm an algebra 1 teacher there, and I had the opportunity to piloting prisisms vr this year with my algebra 1 students. So far it's been a great experience for both of us, me actually learning how to use the vr, this is the first time putting

019on a headset myself and the students diving in and going tlut modules and just loving to learn math. So, vr is well prisisms vr in itself is real world, real life experience where they actually dive into the real world problems that we can be solve using math, right. So a lot of students like to ask me in my algebra class, and my math teacher can tell you, they always ask me, why do we need to do this, what is the purpose of math, I'm not going to need this in the real world. But prisism world is showing exactly how it can be used. It takes the trouble of explaining, time and time again, you can become a math teacher or engineer because they can actually see these opportunities in place while they're doing and learning

020math, right. Can we get the next slide if possible. Yeah, next slide. Thank you. So here is an example of an actual module that we have in prisisms. S the exponential functions module where they're going in and seeing a viral growth rate in a food hall. And we can all relate to this because covid 1 we saw a virus grow rapidly, and rapidly, one person gets infected and now ten people gets infected and it's becoming a problem. But problems need to be solved. Now nobody is wearing a mask anymore, because we solved the problem, right. So that's the whole purpose of this module and it's sense. They first see the y and it's very interactive, it gets the students involved and actually excited to learn the module. And then once we, see the y they

021go into the lab and try to fix the problem using math. So it goes step by step, they actually get to touch and move physical objects to see how it's growing. Five other objects get infected. Once they see that part of the module, they go into the lab and they actually graph the data and chart it and see that it's going up by five by five by five and so on. Next slide, please. Okay. Here is the same module, just part two of it where it's actually diving more and more deeper into the math itself. Because vr yes, it is fun but this is still the classroom and we still need to learn something. So they're actually hands-on as you can see, the hand, they're actually grabbing the objects themselves, it's not just the video

022but they're doing all the stuff themselves and they have helpful, tools given and provided using their watch on the side. If they are getting stuck, there is a part that says, help tool, where they can go through and start the problem for them or assist them with the problem, there is also a button where they can click, say I need help and I'm alerted on the teacher's dashboard, this student needs help and I can go straight to them and say oh where are you on this module. I've already gone through the module myself and planning the day before, we implement it into the classroom so I know exactly if they say, oh, I'm at the graphing part, it's not really working for me, I can go step by step with them and help fix the

023problem. Everybody not necessarily tech savvy and we're all learning together, right. Next slide, please. Okay, here you can see all the different algebra 1 modules that they have so far. There are ten. And they're all coinciding with the curriculum that we already have. They have absolute value functions systems of equation everything that equates to the curriculum for algebra one. Next. Okay. Here's an example of what it looks like to actually implement it. As you can see in the center, it's kind of small but that's me, looking at the teacher's dashboard so I can monitor the classroom and see exactly if I click on a student that asked for help, where exactly in the module, they are at and I can guide them through there as well as when I see multiple students going through the

024same module and they're getting stuck at the same problem. What I like to do is pause them and with the teacher dashboard they allow us to click pause and it will set up a screen in the headset that says, okay, guys, take off the headset and everybody takes off their headset and we go into whole group instruction and I teach them, where are we getting stuck on? And we fix that problem right there and then. That way everybody is learning, everybody is not getting frustrated, some parts of this can be frustrating, especially if you're just not tech savvy and, you just not into it that day. It's totally fine, it's a learning curve and yeah. Next slide, please. Okay. So this is the part where we actually take off the headset after the module is

025finished and they transfer what they learned cause it's not just a video game, yes it's fun but we actually need to see did you learn anything from this module, did you learn anything from this concept. And a lot of time, we have two parts for the modules, part one is more, just the introductory part 2 is getting into the math part it of. Both parts have a synthesis usually I like to put them in groups so they can discuss what they went through module and we discuss exactly what we're seeing, exactly how the situation is turning into math and not just oh this is a fun game, oh this is, some experiment that we're doing. But how it's math is actually inputed into it, how is what I taught you last week coming into this

026vr headset, right? And then after, the discussion and pencil and paper, we have a check for understanding so we can actually see did you understand this module and they get grades for it and I can see exactly who are the students that need the extra help, who are the students that totally mastered it and can move on to the next one, right? Okay. Next slide, please. All right, and now I'm going to introduce my student tyrese thompson for a student testimonial. Thank you. good morning. I'm a 9 grade student and I'ming sharing my experience with prisisms vr. It helped me algebra 1. When I first walked into the classroom, I was like wow, this is a big step from what I learned back in middle school. And couple months into high school, I seen the

027cart for the vr head sets. And when we hopped on, it was easier for me because I have a vr headset at home so I was able to get used to it very quickly but doing math in it was new. Figuring that out, cause easy because they have coaches who are in there who direct you and give you instructions on what to do and where to go. Not only that, like she said, they give you real world experiences where they show you how you would use math in the real world. I always wondered that how I would use math in the real world, besides learning it in the classroom for like a test or using it to graduate. Instead how would I use this to make a career and actually use this to help somebody?

028Prisisms headset with the modules is not just a game. The games are fun and very interactive, especially for me as a hands-on learner. And doing it, helps me realize, okay, I remember doing this and this module. So when I see it in the real world, it's like, automatically snaps. It's, it helps me grasp, especially the lesson that we just did. When I first saw the lesson that MS. Howard thought on the board I was a little confused cause I get confused when I graph sometimes. So when we did this module, which is now one of my favorite modules where we had to move the vertex and find the exact trajectory of the package, it helped a lot because basically, it's not only on a graph. You can get lost in a graph. So when you

029move the vertex point on inside the vr headset it shoiz exactly where you are or if you don't know where to start or if you're confused of where you're at in the module, you can flip your risk and ask the other ai coach how to start, or where do I go from here. So it's very helpful. And I, I would like to continue using it as I go on like 10th grade 11th grade, when I'm in geometry it would be great. And yeah, that's why I personally really like prisisms vr. Thank you. [Applause] great job. That level of confidence and all those words that you're using that nobody up here knows, just demonstrates the level of understanding, definitely worth the resource that you're engaging in. Great job. and we have one other student keira brown

030that would like to share her testimony. hi I'm keira brown, I want to start by saying using vr is whole different because I'm not originally from here, I'm jamaican, we're used to pens and papers, we never use computers either. So using vr is a big step. And I feel like me as and us students as millennials, y'all are finally kind of understanding how important technology is and by using vr, y'all are, to me, it's like you're final leon our level of understanding. we're catching up. why we, why technology is so important to us. And also, before vr my grades was not okay, it was but it was not. I'm virtual learner, so I do good. you're doing great. I'm a visual learner, so I like to be in there, so vr helps me a lot.

031I'm sorry. you're doing just fine, honey. You're doing awesome. also, for me, I think virtual reality is a lot. It helps us a lot. Especially if I don't understand a certain topic as tyrese said, you can use the help me button which alerts MS. Howard that we don't understand and where we are. And as MS. Howard also said that, I'm one of her students that asked a lot why do we need algebra in the real world. And I've realized through vr why we actually need t.I was like why to we need letters in math, why are we going to use letters in real life? Now I realize, you're going to need to know the vertex, the y coordinates like if you're going to build a place a restaurant you're going to need the coordinates and

032landscape and all of that. So for me vr has helped a lot and for us, teenagers, I think this is what helps us. This is our, our like, how should I say this, this is how we see the things. As I said earlier, at my home and yes I'm on my phone 24-7 because I'm a teenager, what se dodo we do, e tik tok for homework, it's a same thing as a prisism, we got teachers online. I like visual, I like anything that has to do with my phone, computers, so vr is one of my favorite stuff. And I never really liked algebra before, when I just got here because I was like, it's hard, it's too much why and those letters and numbers, ever since I started using vr, I started to like allege

033bra, I'm not going lie. One of my favorite topics is values right now. And my grades have improved a lot since I started VRs so yeah. Thank you. [Applause] great job. All right, I think we can queue the video back up. typically, I know two or three careers and that resolves around what family do for a living. Junior achievement believes that every student has the ability to be successful. So I want the middle schoolers to understand when they leave here, that they're career pathway impacts their income which changes the kind of lifestyle they're able to have an adult. I like to see the magic happen when they start to understand oh my interest and ability they affect what kind of career I should have as an adult. They learn as a lot of skills how

034to communicate, how to speak about each other. one of the things that we hear all the time from our students is that they start to feel their confidence and self-esteem and self worth. That is how our children are learning. in one of our store fronts, we utilize virtual reality, we're trying to help the students realize that technology is not here to replace anyone, not here to replace jobs or hume ons. this young people will use technologies like ai and vr, we have a responsibility to make sure that we keep jr world relevant for these children. we're trying to teach them that technology can enhance what you're doing in your career. So we're trying to teach them that connection of how to utilize technology to help you achieve your own goals. all right, pass the mic

035over to director of applied learning. good morning, every one. If we can move to slide 25, please. Great, thank you. So we, you, have seen how xr is being embedded into elective courses as well as across core areas. These experiences enable students to collaborate, create and problem solve in realtime. Lending creative, applied learn ising not only work withing individual schools but also working through the college football playoff grant to provide emmersive standard space experiences for students. Next slide. Social studies comes alive with xr through virtual tours that virtual tours and create emmersive time lines. Students walk with some of the dinosaurs as some of you did, and geography where students can manipulate and erin gauge in a meaningful way. These experiences are not just stand alone but embedded in project base learning that provides an

036entirely new advantage point for students. next slide. I'm sorry, next slide. There we go. Math concept are visualized through 3-d design and manipulation from geometry to data science. Build special reasoning and connect formulas to real world application sxz deep deeper conceptual understanding, as you heard, when students ask why do I need to learn allege bra, prisisms extend reality helps them to apply concepts in the real world and help them to answer this question, why do I need to know algebra? Next slide. Science benefits immensely from virtual labs, dissections and 3-d modeling, students explore biology, chemistry and space in ways that are not only engaging but safe cost affective and deeply elustrive. Cte and inner disciplinary challenges, explore sustainability development goals and apply knowledge across domains in collaborative projects. Not only providing awareness but involving student

037voice and action in solving our actions that our global community faces. Teachers are seeing firsthand how xr and ai elevate instruction. These temials reflect the use of use, increased student access and transformation and how teachers deliver and students experience learning across disciplines. Cte programs and leveraging xr to allow students to explore careers pathways while developing specific skills, automotive tech are now more accessible and immersesive than ever before. The as you saw with the students from plantation, they're experiencing to help them not only extend their interest but move into careers that combine those two, that are supported by the district and the magnet schools of america grant. Students can simulate real world job scenarios such as automotive repair and require hands-on skills in a virtual setting. For example, vr and xr simulations can provide training for

038technical schools and areas like wedding and electrical work can also be accessed for interview and public speaking practice. Research by miller and tai ler found that vr base cte en distance student's technical skills and job readiness. Means it can be customized for diverse learning styles and needs. It holds a potential to make education more inclusive providing equal opportunities for all of our students to interact with content in meaningful ways. Next you will hear from kadeen tomas a teacher at millennium 6-12, she was the first teacher to help us to start with the college football playoff foundation grant. Her students have been expose today a myriad of xr technology programs which many of you here saw and she and her students have been on the for front of this work and she is has been successful

039in vetting it into core content through her elective programming. Cadene? thank you. Good morning. I'm a coordinator -- as an educator my mission has always been to ignite curiosity and bridge classroom learn withing real world relevance. Today that bridge is powered by extended reality. And more specifically by meta quest goggles which has transformed how we retain and deliver content. In my classroom, experiencetial, these realtime hubs empower middle schoolers to become problem solvers, innovators and critical thinkser. Imagine as a sixth grader exploring the egypt's dynasty, stepping nooraheme museum and examining construction up close. They're not just reading about history, they're walking through it and analyzing the scale, symbols and cultural relevance from a historian perspective. This type of learning takes historical content and transforms it into tangible experiences. Culture heritage. When it comes to student motivation,

040xr offers what no textbook ever could. A student who struggled in math, 3-d shapes to understand special reasoning through ak tech newer. -- architecture. Now asking critical questions during a virtual heart dissection. 4 times more information. A stanford and long term memory skills and outcomes critical to middle school development. Most importantly xr is scalable and equitable. Meta quest 3 integrates devices already used, make iting practical for classrooms of all sizes and budgets. This is important where impactful solutions must be accessible. This isn't about technology for novelty, it's about meeting outcomes through innovative practices. And create with purpose while mastering rig oring content. It supports content acquisition and hands digital influences as capable of academic excellence. So yes, hr is futuristic but in my classroom it's equitable and essential. We're not just preparing students for tomorrow

041we're preparing them to shape it. When stud touch the intang ible, they don't just learn, they transform. Xr does not replace great teaching it unlocks the greatest within it. Thank you. [Applause] thank you. I would like to transition to ai in welcome DR. Cherry wilson director of innovative learning. good afternoon, every one. We're going to shift our focus on artificial intelligence, using ai personal instruction streamline also instruction and expand access. It's changing not just what we teach, but how students interact with knowledge, with tools such as machine learning, that's embedded within ai tools, nuero networks, natural language processing and of course what we've seen demonstrated earlier, robotics. Next slide. Ai and B.C. Ps, students and teachers and parents all have a perspective and these tools benefit all stakeholders. Students receive adaptive support, teachers gain realtime

042data and planning tools, and parents can monitor progress and access resources supporting a full learning ecosystem k-12. As you see, demonstrated on this slide, we have various benefits as it relates to students such as personalized learning, access to resources realtime feedback, benefits for teachers, enhanced instruction data driven inside and of course the parent benefits of conventional access, real thyme updates and enhanced collaborations. Next slide please. We have been fortunate enough to partner with google and apple who have been partners to host events for our parents not only virtually in a podcast but also in-person so our students and teachers and as well as our parents have realtime interactive classes with these partners in a classroom format such as what we've experienced today. Next slide. Here's some example of tools we are using. Ai enhance plat

043forms like near pod adobe, apple products and discovery education tools are seeminglessly promoted into our curriculum personalization and innovation. Next slide. For students these tools provide personalized content and boost engage and develop future-ready skills, they're learning through ai every day, whether editing a vao, exploring a interactive map or collaborating with their peers in realtime. Next slide. Yeah. So at this point in time, as we highlight the teacher use of ai tools for lesson planning, realtime assessment, differentiation and utilizing plat forms for instruction making dynamic repository for students to learn, I will fall forth alana berero to give her perspective on artificial intelligence. tell know a lot of you know as alternate school board, my name is alana, berero I'm a senior just like many other students at high school. As well as doing my role

044here as a student government PRESIDENT And constantly day-to-day, we use ai to amplify student voice and bridge a connection between ai administration and students. As ai evolves it is so important that students teachers and faculty move as it does. A prime example many students and I use ai for is either Chatgpt, or copilot. For example, I will say, give me three ways to increase student engage at my school. The three projects it gave me, community partnership and student lead initiative and student reflex and recognition. It gives students a way to be innovative. Sometimes it's hard to think outside of the box and stop using ideas that we've done before. But it's important to understand that innovation is out there and more so how to allow students to use that to their benefits. Technology is moving

045fast and if we don't keep up, innovation can crash not only for our students but for our teachers and faculty as well. Ai is a way to support. I encourage if you have not used ai already, I encourage that you give it a try and see what technology brings to students. This is something that benefits students and overall have a lasting impact for the future. Thank you. [Applause] thank you so much, our next student will be patrick goal, pompano beach high school. hello my name is patrick goal. I'm many things, I'm a member of the task force for advising on policy surrounding ai, I'm editor and chief and tutor and volunteer and I'm a junior at pompananhigh school. I each ththe e roles, I us ai in a ltltiple of wa and it can augment

046the experience of students and teachers in every one of them. As editor of the newspaper, it falls on me to help students learn skills and coming up with stories. It's often difficult to manage that on top of my course load and having to write for the newspaper. And ai has been a big help in you know, being able to manage all that have and make ing the whole operation run more smoothie. As a tutor I have been used to relate to the people that I'm tutoring better and a tool to point towards when I'm not with them. I used to people as young as fourth grader. Or people my age, I use it to kind of say, okay, you know, if this physics problem, your textbook will have the answer but it MAY not explain

047it well. You can put that into microsoft copilot and it will give you a response. As a member who had the privilege and tupt to speak at one of those parent opportunity meeting with apple and google, I've been able to share the reality of what it looks like how often times students will point students towards it as a resource. And how often times share rejection of it, can skip over a lot of benefits that it often has for students. I think that one thing that is remarkably important in every context I've seen is that teachers and students use it and see it as a tool to be used and something to be engaged with. The concern never comes up are aren't students going to use it to cheat? And I think the answer, it MAY

048make the answers more accessible but millions are answers are out tl. Ai makes the y of the problem, the explanation behind it is significantly more significant to students, regardless of access to tutors and resource tz brings the y to the students and it's a tool to be used in my one of those scenarios. Thank you. [Applause] thank you so much, and our last student andrew lewis, senior from cypress bay high school. good moansinger every one. My name is andrew lewis I'm a senior at sip res bay high school. As you already learned, from entire presentation, artificial intelligence is everywhere. For example in my business class, we're learning how to market and create new products, the step by step on how to do, how to market it efficiently and all the backbone. And on my global

049instruction class we're instructed to do a paper on a global stand point and using ai to not write the essay but to enhance your paper overall. I had the pleasure of DR. Will coming into our school and speaking to not only me but to grab another view point as well as some of our teachers and faculty and it was really cool to see how every one had the same view point of it. Whether it was a student enhancing their learning or a faculty just cleaning up and put something as list of names into alphabetical order. The only thing that I can say is we need to learn how to use ai before ai learns how to use us. ooh. all right. [Applause] So greaters have greater visibility in progress, ai platforms. Out of classroom. And

050the tools that you see are broward approved tools throughout our ecosystem. Additionally, something that is near and dear to department our media centers, we actually have changed into policy our in policy 4120 our need I can't center spaces known as innovative learning comments. These areas are now flexible spaces where students can engage we merging technologies not just checking out books but checking into the future with certain activities that our project base learning activities our your steam and stem activities as well. So this should be a hub to the school not only toin crease literacy but also for active engagement for all students in this particular space. Again, something that we have worked on very hard this year is making sure that we're bringing accessibility in relation ship to ai to all of our stakeholders by

051various events that we have offered throughout this year. We have launched our ties event, technology, innovation, ethics and support, at ft. Lauderdale high school this past OCTOBER. This initiative was to ensure our approach to ai and xr is inclusive and ethical and student centered t.Includes on going collaboration, and student voice as we design our digital future. We will be hosting our second annual ties event this OCTOBER at cypress bay high school for our students. next slide. We have a video for you just capturing some of the work that we've done, boots on the ground tz it relates to artificial intelligence. this brief video shows our students and teachers engaging in artificial intelligence while we craft guidelines in our k-12 echo system. Teen ties is an initiative that we sponsored this year where we actually hosted

052a virtual opportunity with deputy superintendent, excuse me angela fulton and members with google and apple, and the tools that are at their disposal to enhance their learning. We're using them to shape our conversation around guidelines with the student at the center. Our ai task force is also leading the way and is composed of educators and students and community partners who are collaboratively designing how ai is integrated into our district with intention and integrity. This next video is showing a clip from our teen ties experience. so today we're at cypress bay high school talking to students and teacher leaders around the ethical implementation of artificial intelligence specifically from creating a statement that would be a universal statement from students for broward county to follow and for teachers to use as guard rails for this work. the

053demand of the responsible use of how we use, ai at a daily basis as you're walking through your journey. using ai we show how you're able to adopt with along with ai and rather than using ai as something to cheat or something that is looked upon in a negative way, it's more of a resource. technology, new technology effort, used as clearance how we use to physical manual and new technology have opened ai we just type stuff and it will be there for us. the students share and appreciate that their voice was captured in a real way where there was a non threatening, environment that was established in the room so they can talk about their journey, their creativity and their need in a safe space and that's something just that sometimes as educators we'll be

054saying we want to be student center and want to grasp their voice but we MAY not go the extra step to say what is it that you're trying to convey at this moment as it relates to your learning and today was a deliberate attempt in us as an adult saying what our students are saying about artificial intelligence and their impact on their life and learning. every one leading is using -- like I said in business competitions we're influenced to use it to our advantage. It's really helpful. awesome, thank you so much and congratulations on your journey. thank you. bye-bye. thank you. at this time, we're going to bring up a wonderful student also from cyprus cypress bay high school, chan ho. hello I'm chan, I'm a freshman. It is truly an honor to deliver the

055closing speech for today's public school board meeting. I'm here to speak with you today about a topic that shaped the future, for students like me. Education and emerging technology. Throughout the meeting we've been discussing about the two technology, extended technology or xr or artificial intelligence, ai. As a student I'm excited to learn what these tools can do for our experiences. Let's start with xr, the biggest advantage is how interactive it is. When we learn about the dinosaurs, the textbook shares the comparison between the size of comparison of dinosaurs and human. Vr set allows the students to view the real size of the dinosaurs, it does not only make the lesson more exciting but remember what they're learning, it connects information to experiences which makes it so powerful. Now let's talk about ai, one of the

056biggest challenges in today today is teachers don't have the time or resources to give students one on one attention. Ai can do that, it can act like a personal tutor how each students can learn the best and provide feedback for students can get better, faster. For teachers ai can help with planning lessons and progress and supporting students more effectively. But, I believe these technologies have far more potential than just the tools to improve the quality of education. I believe that in the close future and most of the jobs in the world, humans and ai will work side by side like partners. Therefore, students how learn how to effectively apply ai. If you want to prepare students at broward public schools for long term success, we need to go beyond just bringing ai into the classrooms,

057we need to teach students to work with ai creatively and confidently. The future of education is not just about technology, it's about people. And when we give students to the right tools and knowledge to use them, you'll have that potential. Thank you for your time. [Applause] so this concludes the presentation, thank you for the opportunity to share this important body of work for today. What you've seen is not just a showcase of emerging technology, it's a reflection of our student voices and reimagining what learning can look like. We know that we still have a way to go. Scaling the meaningful integration, will take time, thoughtful planning and continued collaboration and in a world where technology is evolving faster than ever, so too must we evolve, while always staying rooted in instructional excellence. But today's presentation

058makes one thing clear, we are on our way. And we're building new learning echo systems where students are not just consumers of knowledge, but creators and critical thinkser and collaboraters ready to thrive in a future none of cuss fully predict. To the students who boldly open their classrooms to the board room, thank you, your passion your buildings and willingness to lead from the front continue to inspire us. To our board, thank you for your trust and your vision, together we're not just respond to go change, we're leading it. Thank you. thank you, and thank you for bringing the board room to the classroom. We do have one public speaker. So caylee brown. Okay, no public speaker. MS. Alhadeff. thank you, thank you to staff, this is one of our best ones that we've had yet,

059thank you so much. I do have a couple of questions, in regards to applying any specific ai grants? DR. Hepburn? staff? yes, continuously. As a matter of fact we were awarded one by resource and it was about 100,000 so we're actively recruiting grants and looking to repurpose some federal grants to make sure we're meeting the needs of our students. wonderful. We need to continue to do that. My next question is this technology is it available for all students and all schools? and are we able to appropriately fund that? DR. Hepburn? yes, so many of the programs are funded with the contract under all schools. There are programs like prisisms, we got through a grant. During our budget season, so we're looking to expanding some of the programs. so not right now, but it would be

060important for us to have a deeper dive into what that looks like at each school if we can get follow-up on that? DR. Hepburn. yes, noted. okay, thank you. And I love that this is something that helps all students and really for the visual learner to be really to really work with the material and to be taught in this way is amazing. Thank you to junior achievement I know that you're implementing this hands-on and that's awesome and our students are going to junior achievement. As far as the one thing, one of the students spoke about and concerns to ai and schools and cheating, do we have a policy on ai currently right now or if not, are we working on it? doctor? so there is no policy currently which is why we have the task

061forced to inform us through the students and teachers and community what is the position we want to move in. And we're trying to shift and understand the complexity of having a policy that restrict us because of the evolving use of ai and what the policy wouldn't prevent us from moving forward. So through the task force we're going to be bringing back to the board what we consider either a policy or a process or practice that you can weigh in on. okay, so I would like to understand if any other school districts already have a policy also, our the company that we hire to create our policies what are they working on to implement this? Looking at a national level, what are those policies look like? And to make sure that if students are being disciplined,

062that is done with, equity and follow with fidelity across the district and not just in some schools than others. And then in regards to differenenwaysarare giving prprofessional development r our teacherslike for students to do oral exams or actually, write down something in cursive on a piece of paper? go ahead, DR. Khon. yes, and we're putting together some ai specific micro for teachers and administrators there will be two specific courses on ai for our leaders in prompting our next, so we're doing a lot of that stuff and we're exciting about what the future holds. okay, great. And shout out to our last speaker, he worked with ai creatively and confidently for our students and that's so important that we embrace this and we continue to make sure that we have access to all of our students

063and all of our schools, thank you. thank you, next is board member leonardi. thank you and to all the students and staff who made this possible and sat through our aecom extension, I appreciate you doing that. I know it's a heavy lift and I think as board members we learn best from our students and it was incredible for me to experience that, that our students teaching me how to use vr that was really cool. So thank you for that. I do agree that we need to address the piece with ai. I thought we did do something in policy regarding like deep fix in the last year or so, no? yes, I think you're referring to the student code of conduct. that MAY be appropriate to address. What some of us don't want to happen, is

064I type something on Chatgpt, we can agree that is an useful way to use ai. I am curious if you can expand on the ai task force like what is the make up like? What is the kaidans of the meetings what are they looking at right now specifically? so the ai task force has been meeting on a monthly basis since NOVEMBER. Because we're going over the ethical and responsible implementation guidelines in blueprint for broward county schools in its draft adoration. That represent the echo system at the table. Some of the video that you saw we've actually gone to the sga meetings we've gone to different high schools to get more boots on the ground data from our students so their voice was part of the process. We've also done the same work virtually and in-person

065with students and our parents. So as we go pull together and studying about 25 different policies and guidelines from across the country, we've been pulling together a comprehensive tool kit that our teachers would be able to utilize at their schools and also the principal would be able to from this document set the culture and tone around academic inat thingity and the use of artificial intelligence at their schools. We have had the conversation of would we in deed have some type of integrity statement that could be also included but that becomes a very cumbersome document so we don't want to overload, but we're discussing of did I sim -- disseminating to get feedback before we get a final rollout to the district as a whole. So we've been working on this diligently for the several months.

066We meet in MAY to go over the draft collectively, again all departments from academics and schools have been represented and we've had the parental weigh in with the work and look forward to bring in the document for additional feedback and/or redirection so we can have something in place and that is the goal? awesome, thank you. And then, I did, want to speak to, you know, this is such a revolutionary technology, ai, we're seeing like you all said, things rapidly change and it's changing our whole society it's going to eliminate jobs, there is a lot to wrap our heads around. It shows student access the why and that is incredible, right. So I hope that moving forward, and I think it's going to take every one and it's very cumbersome thing to do but moving forward,

067trying to make sure that with the integration with this technology we are still providing students with many many opportunities to think critically and produce. I'm an english teacher so I think about what it takes to write an essay or respond to a prompt and analyze and synthesize information. But making sure that we're still pushing our students to be able to think critically. I don't have the answers to that, I hope you do. But yeah, that was one piece that I did want to address. so I just, interesting because, and I'll go back to MS. Alhadeff's point about policy. We have done a world wind tour across the nation. We also attended the schools, we had a topic in ai and no district is at a place where we want to describe to a policy. So

068as we come back to a policy, we certainly want to think about how it could be general broad enough but restrictive enough that it gives us what we need. So bringing something back to the board is to give us the options but also access and innovation starts to happen that we're not tying ourselves to that innovation, because most vendors now that we have contracts with, have already included involved integrated ai and as they start to change and integrate it, we want to make sure that our policy can build itself around that piece. And the second point, I had the opportunity to attend a school and students were debating the use for ai and for against and. There was a teacher that happened in the in the room, and her question, I'm not sure if I'm

069embracing ai to that extent where the teachers were shy to release the responsibility back to the students but when concepts are masters, to your critical thinking skills, ai is the next level to take it to the next level and how to use it to build into areas and problem solving and project base solving. We need to help teachers how to use the technology that still allows critical thinking and problem solving and innovation. thank you so much. And to that point, I just have to be on the record saying that to the extent that we can improve access to this technology, the technologies that we learned today to teachers who want to use it, I think is very important that we do that. So count me as somebody who wants to support the expansion of it

070and one last point, as I was using the vr, the students were teaching me I kept thinking, like and we saw a demonstration of it today, how great this technology can be for our ese students, english learning to specifically look to go target those technology to those teachers would be great, thank you. thank you. DR. Holness? thank you, MADAM Chair. So DR. Cohen, I did hear you and I hear you, thank you for your presentation and your team, we appreciate all of you, thank you so much. I heard you mention that we have ways to go and that we're on our way. So I guess the question I have is, I do appreciate all of what I've seen today and I certainly like board member leonardi would like to see the expansion of broward schools.

071How fast can we go? Could you comment on how we can expedite the process of expansion to ensure that we are on, we are ahead of cutting edge technology as a district. Because all of our goal is to be not only the number one district but this is an opportunity we're at a junction where we can expand these technologies at the at the for front. DR. Cohen and team? sure, the first thing is awareness. We need to make sure that all teachers are aware of resources that exist currently. So we've done audit of all of our resources our core materials as well as our supplemental materials. We also collaborated with all of our vendors to see who has these resources. We now start to redesign and redevelop our professional learnings to include all of software

072neck tology applications. Any new, just like discovery that you just approved, has ai in it. Pushing out these resources through our pivot to make them aware of what is happening, we're starting with the leader in mind. Letting them know that there are all of these resources available. And making sure that they're integrated and then so through professional learning through identification of resources and making sure that teachers through our formal and formal meetings our support meetings are integrating all of that in a seemless way so they're aware. okay, and I do have a few questions, so through the superintendent, DR. Cohen and maybe the superintendent MAY be the one to respond to this. But how do we compare to other districts that are emphasizing the use of these technology that have goals at the at the

073for front of this? Where are we in comparison to those districts? DR. Hepburn. great question. We're all in the same journey, as you know, ai technology has grown xpotentially and many of the ed tech companies that we purchase software for for supplemental instruction are now embedded in ai technology. So we're on the same journey, most of the conferences that you go to, people are trying to leverage their opportunities to introduce you to their services or their goods that has ai embedded in it and any other experiences many are coming back to present the new technology that they have embedded that we already use. We're in the same journey as many of the large school districts. okay, so DR. Hepburn how would you describe? Because I'm really excited about what I've seen today. How would you

074describe the current state of broward county schools in the and implementation of these technology? And where are we going? And how fast can we go? the current state is good. As you can see from the presentation today, we're from DR. Fulton, DR. Cohen and DR. Wilson and the rest of the team, we're fully embracing innovation. We're not trying to stay stagnant. They hear, all the time from me, we have to do things different all the time. We heard it from our students, hey you guys are finally catching up with us, okay, so, we're implementing as fast as we can but doing it in a methodical way. We're having discussions with vendors, I met with a couple of as last week, so we're meeting with vendors, that they have embedded with ai in it that we

075can leverage moving forward. So we're shark tanking vendors out there just to see what they have available to help us excel in the future. and I appreciate that, I would love to hear comments in the near future that they're trying to catch up with us, that we're ahead of it and I think that's a direction we need to go. So basically what measure is in place, because we've seen some piloted programs like prisisms using vr. What has been done to determine the success of these programs? Are there any data driven information that shows that a technology like that and I've had the privilege of seeing 6 through 12 students using prisism. Is there any data driven information that shows how successful it is and successful what is the action plan in place to make sure

076that this is district wide? so I have the 30,000 view, and get more granular, our students performance data, right, as we look at, how students who are engaged in ai or xr, tools or resources. To compare their performance versus others. And I know DR. Cohen and his team they're evaluating other data to give a narrative view of what we discovered of how it impacts kids. Go ahead. and DR. Holness, we've engaged in a number of research base. We need to know, what is is it, what is the direct correlation of impact of the technology to student achievement whether it's engagement whether it's motivation achievement data, right now they're formalizing that process now, through their research department. We're doing a student to look at stud ept type gender and looking at the impact across school systems

077grade levels to determine an impact because with declining enrollment, we're looking at what programs are having the highest return. So we can limit the portfolio so when we start to think about how we roll these things out, maybe not as a full scale. For example, for prisisms, 12 to 14 schools, and we're looking how impactful that is and now prisisms is helping us to look around the realm. So we're looking at all of these research models before we roll it out and say, we know this really works. Everything has to be with some kind of student achievement data tied to it. So we're making sure vendors understand that they have skin in the game that they have to produce the results as well. So it's a shared responsibility between the district and the vendor. so

078DR. Cohen through the superintendent, when do you anticipate bringing back to us based upon the data driven research that is taking place to bring back some substance I have concrete results to us, to show that programs like prisism, is actually working? And then what is the action plan beyond that to expand this beyond 14 schools if in deed it shows significant positive results? sure. So typically accountser we do board workshop, I think we can make connections between the pm data and this workshop bringing the data around the specific da programs. So I'll be happy to bring that. okay, so I'll wrap this up. I'm very impressed. I think we ought to beatthe r front, drdr. Heururn cutting edge technology, I don't want us to say we're trying to catch up, I want every one else

079to catch up with us. In order to prepare students, we're at a junction where this is where the future is going. We cannot be business as usual, we have to get on a train or risk being left behind or playing catch up. I don't want to be in that position. So DR. Hepburn, I would strongly recommend that there is some kind of action plan in place whether it's a for a couple of years or so on how we can be at the for front of these cutting edge technologies and be ahead that we are, a role model for other districts to follow. If we ought to be the become the number one district in the nation, this is an opportunity that we can jump on and be ahead of every one else. If you could

080look into some sort of a plan of action over multiple-years how ever long it takes for us to be ahead of this game and for others to see us as a model to follow. noted, I know the academic team and also MR. Davis are smiling in the back because we're way ahead of the ask, so definitely noted. We'll provide something soon. appreciate it. Thank you. I don't want to you think that we're not in the for front, we just didn't pat ourselves in the back as much. Districts are leaning on us because we're the leaders but we're happy to bring the multi-year phase approach as you requested. I would love that. If they ask about a technology driven district in the nation, I want to hear broward being one of those. received. thank you. thank

081you, board member thompson. I'll be extremely brief. I do think that we're leading in a lot of ways and innovative technologies so I want to give a shout out to staff and trey. I also wanted to clear up some concerns, ai is changing every day. My husband works in this field who's his job last month is drastically different than right now. I get extremely naefshs we're going to shut down opportunities without meaning to. So for clarification, I know that we have a plagiarism policy, would that cover students using ai? DR. Hepburn? DR. Wilson. yes, so in relation ship to policies, the advise that we've been given from the ai task force and work around this, we need to embed language and existing policies so we're not recreating the wheel because ak cademic integrity is academic

082integrity so we need to make sure shah we're noting the proper and ethical use of these tools. So we're not to your point, being knocked to one policy that next month is irrelevant. The fluidity of the document that we're creating right now as a guideline for, my apologies. it's okay. You've been talking a lot. yes, excuse me. In relation ship to the guidelines that we're creating, that will be the fluid document that is as trends condition we can update and do what we need to do as trends allow. So at least have a framework dealing with because my department specifically, because we manage to turn it in tool. And we know that our, camera schools are required, thank you so much for our students in order to get their eligibility that they have to utilize

083and prove that they've written papers. So having tools in place and language around that, just specifically discuss the use of the tool what tools you can use around writing documents and things of that nature when you have a high similarity ratio, that is the piece that from professional development, artificial that we have to dig into. Because the human agency can never be lost from our teachers. So when they're executing that, we are making sure that we're covering that on all basis but that would be on our tool kit. thank you so much, that's it. thank you, DR. Zeman. thanks, chair. The idea for today was brought up so that we could have this demonstration and have this conversation. And I appreciate people's concerns about risks and policies and things like that. Just went up to

084san diego last weekend and attended the ai conference, broward county is in the mix. As a quick mental exercise and I'm glad dan is here, and I'm wondering, dan when you and I were here running around, did we have a policy on calculators and micro chips? We have to be careful about policy, this technology is not just rapidly changing, but changing everything. Our students know that. Many of our parents know that. I hope we know it too. I'm curious about what students think about our work on artificial intense that helps ed tech. But DR. Holness, we need to become broward public schools powered by ai, that's the mandate that every district in the united states has. It's not do some of our vendors who we already bought stuff from, I don't want to pat ourselves

085in the back for something that our vendors did on their own and we cannot just think about grants but a number of other things so we can think of the broward schools. It's a huge advantage for large districts. Many things are one-time costs. We can go get copilot for 26,000 employees, we can get copilot for almost 200,000 students and we can afford that and it would change our school district. Imagine if somebody would call the school and that call was answered by a bot and that bot was working 24-7, what is specialties do they have at that school, what are my alternatives. Ai is going to change everything that we do, maybe several of us asked the question, it's not okay to run a pilot and not have a pilot. If you get to paid

086you should have a plan to tell this board exactly what the a r is. Not give us a paragraph what you thought we might do later. Broward county also has 200 current members using ai every day, they use a free software package, it would be interesting to say they have creative package. I'm using it for these seven things. Technology however is only part of the solution and I wish we had gotten into that. The technology that we saw today is representing a brand new way of learning, it's driven by individual curiosity by where you want to go. It's individual ated, can you imagine a teacher with 500 students in front of them with vr glasses. If you cannot imagine it, it's coming. There are some big questions about this. Another big issue that you're going

087to have to deal w DR. Hepburn is that a lot of our learn ising -- learning is going to go 3-d but our assessment tools are 2d. And then we make them sit down with paper and pencil or online and have them answer objective answers. But I am absolutely committed to this, I don't think we need to, there is some dangers about ai but because we're a large urban school district and our budget is significant, we have out size advantage, far greater than any public in broward county, we can invest in ai. And although we don't have great data about where people choose where they go to school, I suspect that one of those is ai. As people think about it, so I'm looking forward to this future stuff. I would propose to my colleagues

088that we think about future workshops where we ask how do we become broward county public schools powered by ai, it's not an individual technology that can help an individual thing, it helps mental health, it helps with equity, it helps with attendance, one of the fascinating things that I learned in san diego schools that have high-tech have higher attendance, why? DR. Holness, they love it they get to use it. And they're engaged in it. They get to learn the pace in which they have curiosity. So I hope that in the future, we think hard about more workshops on this general topic but it ought to be how do we get broward school powered by ai. That last speaker that talked from cypress bay and I didn't catch his name, patrick from his perspective, I want to

089make sure that those are our customers and how do we build a system that impresses you. And if we do that, we'll be doing our job very very well. I suspect you know more about it than people in broward county. How we move towards becoming the nation leader. Powered by ai, I hope we get that topic to come back maybe every other workshop for the next several years. That's the kind of movement that our community want and that's the vision that will allow us to win back students to this amazing district that we're representing. thank you. Board member bulman. thank you, I'll keep it brief. I enjoyed the presentation, I thought it was awesome. I'm skeptical about technology and paper book kind of person but I thought it was amazing. I had andrea and alana

090giving me a presentation and to have your students become your teacher, it's an amazing thing. You cannot over estimate the value and really passion and enthusiasm that they're bringing to this, how engaged they are. I think it's a cool component, of education and when you're looking at analytical concerns -- issues and being concerned. And I've been concerned but the way that you have to think about using the tools, the way that you're selling the tools, patrick did an excellent job on that. I think those things are expanding our student's capabilities in way of looking to the world and hopefully, they will continue to do it. It's good to know that we have an entire group of people that will put presentations together for me and other things of that nature. Thank you very much, I

091really enjoyed today. thank you, board member rupert. thank you, I will also be as brief as my colleague maura. Today's presentation was incredible. My first question is expansion with teacher pd, I don't need to know now, we are way behind on our training. You can give it in the follow-up, so the expansion and partnerships the opportunity yesterday to go nsu and tour their ai and vr, I didn't go to san diego but I went to nsu and one point that DR. -- I'm sorry, DR. Zeman had a possibility about taking how many people, a teacher can actually teach. They had 360 degree room, so as a teacher you can go in there and it was absolutely stuning. You had screens that were representative of teachers so you can reach people all over the world. And

092it was amazing. So I think if we don't have a partnership we should look into and any other pd that is possible for our employees to actually get that combination it's an amazing opportunity right here in town. Of course just like my colleagues, I want to make sure that this is for all students and all schools. And, one more thing, what was the actual criteria for the 14 schools, it will be interesting to know, what knowledge that, what criteria actually was looked at and what areas and for what reasons? And going back to my colleagues before, little disappointing that we don't have the results from those and I know it's going to be great. And I think, that board directive is that we want to be all in on this and we certainly don't want

093to be behind the curve and I'm very very excited about this. So thank you so much. It was a wonderful opportunity. thank you and I'll close us out with just saying, you know, I think it's important for us as a board, as a school district to always be looking ten years out, right. Our elementary school students what kind of jobs, what skills do they need when they leave us? It's exciting to see what is happening now, when we know it's changing so much but important to know what it will look like ten years from now, there will be jobs and things that we cannot even envision but I think it's important that that plan isn't just what about what skills students need today but ten years from now because we want to stay ahead of

094it, we don't want to catch up. We're on the road to that. I appreciate bringing the classroom to the board today. Thank you to all the students for come out. I know sitting around and listening to all of these hoild people talk, is not the most exciting time. But we appreciate your time today to learn some of these skills and thank you to staff for bringing this to us. and I think that wraps up us. Thank you very very much. We're going to take a short five-minute recess before we move to the next item, our board member training. Thank you. it's on. It's on. They just had been set it up in the back. I was told to speak tlut microphone so if I put it down somebody holler. I will tell you the thing

095that, the presentation that I just saw, is it's amazing. It's overwhelming, and it's also very exciting. So I think you're your way to the one of the leaders. And today I'm going to bring it back to ol' school with paper and pencil, so with that I apologize. I wonder if we can be a little informal and if I called by your first names instead? And you MAY call me. That way, we can have a little less formal discussion and interaction with each other. We're going to get partially, normally this is one in a one-day full day, we're going to break it up into two. Today is base line where are we and how we want to move forward and then I will come back and do the next part and talk about communication and do

096some team buildings and those types of things. Is MAY be the full four hours, it MAY be three and a half we'll see where your conversation dpoez and where we go. I'm thrilled to be here. I grew up in ft. Lauderdale and went to schools here. I went to mcnab elementary, I went to sunrise junior high when we were busing people around. My sister graduated from pompano high school and another from southeast, I ended in private school for high school, so anyway. I am pleased to be here and you hold a special place in my heart. So we're going to go ahead and get started with the presentation, I think they're going to bring it up. This is all, geared around, growth and growing and it is we're going to be cultivating educational excellence. So

097you're going to see a lot of things about plants and stuff. Our agenda today is only get through toughment, planting the seeds of role and responsibility the root of governance and as long as we know our roles we can be a more a efficient team. When we talk about a team, the school board members and the superintendent that's the leadership team and that's the most important people as far as moving the district forward and moving in that direction. And then, you have, the workers that do, you know, all of your staff, the presentations that they did, the students, the teachers everybody that is here. They're the ones that are are the boots on the ground but you're the ones saying this is how fast we're going and this is the direction. It's important that we

098have the rolls and responsibility and we're not wasting time getting in each other's way. We are in the sunshine as you know, so if we get to a point where we might be discussing something on which you're going to vote, usually I'm a pretty good judge but you know best. So if we go there, just say no, we're getting ready to vote on that and we'll use another example. Okay, ultimately, why does broward county schools exist? Who can tell me? to educate students. okay, to educate students, okay, why else? to prepare the upcoming generation for the future? okay. of the society. uh-huh, yeah, educate them and in the process we're going to have to appropriate them for the future. Is there anything else? Nora? making sure that everything is equality? okay. every kid can have

099a voice. okay. so it's not just enough toej indicate them but educate each and every child and prepare each and every child. Okay, lori. provide them with the safe environment for them learn and xwroe. Grow. in order for them to grow, you have to have the safe environment. You don't have to answer, especially when you're eating. So basically, you're here to make sure that you're preparing each and every student, giving them the education they need to be prepared for their future and to do that in a safe environment. Well you MAY have seen on the bottom of my tag line, okay, this is not working. There we go. Student, I think we're two students ahead. Well anyway, I'll ask you the question anyway? Are you happy? With the results that you're getting right now? Have

100you reached that goal? No, or you wouldn't be talking about how can we move forward. You saw this on my tag line, students outcomes don't change, until adult behaviors change. Now part of that, can tie right into what your last workshop was, that is a change in adult behaviors, those students are ready and moving forward but we have to get out of our own heads and out of our own way in order to do that for them. But I'm talking until your behaviors change. You MAY not see outcomes change, okay. Now, how do you change? Part of it is saying, let's embrace ai, the other is, let's make sure that we're working together as a team. Let's make sure that we're putting everything forward in our strategic plan and that we keep that first and

101for most in our heads. Okay. I thought something had just taken over. So you know, we need to just, kind of analyze where are we, what are we doing, are we in our roles, are we, wasting time on things that are not really ours to be involved in. We sometimes can get so deep into what staff is doing that they are hesitants to move forward until they get board approval. As opposed to here are your goals, here's what the expectation is. Come back and tell us how you're doing. Now, it's not giving people just the ability to just go do whatever they want, it is with check ins and that type of things. We're going to look at are there behaviors that we need to change as individuals and as a leadership team and how

102do we move forward to make broward county schools even stronger and better? Is there -- okay. There we go. I have a seed for each of you and I would like you on this seed, to write two things. What is an essential or are the essential elements that can be more than just one, what are the essential elements that you need to need to function as a team? Okay. On your seed, write the element p elements that you believe are needed to be an affective team. And affective governance team. Okay, what are some of those things that you listed? And we're writing here, spelling and handwriting don't count because I do abbreviations. Lori? student centered and unified purpose. okay. student centered. And unified purpose. Okay. Who else? earn trust. alrighty, trust. Who else? reliable and

103timely information. okay. okay, what else? communication and compromise. all right. And compromise. What else. integrity. Okay beinger what else? action driven, good listeners and making decisions and data. I'll do listen and data driven. Okay. You had two other things. action driven. Okay. And the other? I have listening, understanding. Okay. Anybody else have anything? yes. all right. equitable participation among team members. okay. All right, what else? Lori? clear governance and staying out of operations. uh-huh, okay. Okay. I'll just versus operations. If that's okay. All right. What else anybody? yes. Adherence to set policies. okay. or procedures. okay, now there is a difference there, so now if you're talking about governance are you hearing about adherence too procedures, are you also talking to adherence to policy if you're in a governance role? correct, yes. okay. All right.

104Anybody else? Okay, now let's go through and look at how many of these MAY have overlapped? Or how many of you are looking at for example, how many of you would think that trust is an important piece? In governance rule? Okay, one, two, three. Four, five, you don't have to because the whole group is. Okay. I'm going to circle it because the majority of you do. What else? Reliability is that important? yeah. yeah, that's important. Okay. And timely information for governance, these are things that will help you come up with the way to govern, you know in order to do that. So I'm going to put a check mark over here. Communication, absolutely it's important in the governance role because if you're not talking with each other and having the conversations that need to happen,

105how do you know where you're going to go? Okay, compromise? Is that important? yes. that's actually necessary too. you can compromise without ever having to change your values. And we'll talk about that a little bit and we'll also talk about in one of the sessions how you can have different perspectives and you can understand perspectives without changing your values as well. So we do have to have to have compromise, integrity, if you don't have a integrity as a leadership how is anybody in this community going to trust the broward county schools that is doing the best thing they can for their students. So this one I'm going to put a star by it as well as a circle, that's huge. And hopefully it's part of your core values for your district. And listening, that's all

106part of communication. Are there any of these that you think aren't pack p kly important? -- particularly important? Are there any of these that aren't? I'm going to highlight this one, understanding your governance role versus operations. That is huge. If you are not doing that, a lot of time gets wasted. A lot of staff gets nervous, because they don't know who their suppose to be listening to. When board members start to get management and start telling how things are to happen it gets dangerous. And when board members don't agree how things are going to happen and they're in that realm, it creates a lot of problems. We're going to go through and talk about how do you figure it out? We have a lost roles that the superintendent has and board members have. And this

107is in the basis of how we do our work and what we need to be in order to be a strong team. But we also have to know what is governance and what is operations, or governance versus management, okay. So I'm going to ask you to do now, okay. The roles, okay, we're talking about this. I don't know if this responds slowly or not, okay. Just a strong roots provide the foundation for a plant to grow. To be tall and healthy, a clear understanding of your roles versus management or the roles that are provided for you. You need to understand that in order to be affective in achieving your goals. You need that strong basis, you need the basics to be in place. Now what are some of those things that you need? A strategic

108plan. So that you know what is this district doing? What is important to this district? What are you focusing on? And as you're reviewing your strategic plan, do you have a goal in there for ai? You spent a lot of time talking about it, but to you have something in there that says ai is important because if you don't and tying your budget to your strategic plan, I heard questions about where is the budget are we looking for grants to cover that? The recommendation right side always, here's your strategic plan, here are your goals, now your budget supports that strategic goal. So we're looking at a budget that would also incompass and support the ai that you're bringing in as well. Now it MAY be under a student achievement goal, you MAY not need a

109separate goal but you need too have something in there if this is going to be important to the governance team. And then management note that this is important as you move forward and as a leadership team that's discussion that you have, where is that going to be? Whats of things do you need to get in there. Once you get your data, some information can float off. Does not mean that you're going to quit paying attention to them. This is all part of creating that structure underneath the strong in order for it to be an affective governance. All right in front of you, you have several post its. I want you to on, each one, on a separate post it, what is the role, what are some of the jobs that a school board member does

110and what are some of the jobs that the superintendent does? And that, and I'm not talking about, visiting schools, necessarily, but what are, what are the things that a school board member is suppose to be doing? And when you do that, I want you to come up here and put it either under the board, as a board's responsibility or the superintendent's responsibility or the superintendent's job versus the school board member's job. Okay. So you get up and walk around a little bit as you put those in there. As many as you can think of. one per post it. yeah. She has 87 and they're all for the superintendent. [Laughter] There you go. That's it. okay, is that all of them? All right. So what we have up here is basically, the board we have legislates

111but we have highers, evaluates and can fire the superintendent the auditor and city attorney. So there are several of those, that is your job and your job alone. Okay, and approve the budget or adopting the budget, setting policy or making policy. And creating policy is all part of it. And then, approves the ort charts so that one I left alone. And communicates with the public. All right, we're going to look at the superintendent, provides clear procedures for policies. He hires staff which is written in a couple of places, oversees the day-to-day operations, creates the work chart, directs staff and holds them accountable and he leads and manages staff as well as communicates with the public. Okay, so now we have the school board communicating with the public. And we have the superintendent communicating with the

112public. That's kind of an overlap, all right. We also have creating policy, there is a little bit of an overlap in here. In that, how does this function? When you're creating policy? I said there is an overlap, why did I say there is an open lap? What happens with policy? -- overlap. Okay, the board says we need a policy on this or the superintendent and staff find that they need a policy on something. We have discussion about it. The superintendent then creates a policy with staff, recommends it to the board and you have discussion. And then the board will approve it or modify it, change it whatever, okay. If you rye -- if you try to write policy? Have you tried to write anything in a group of ten, it will take you six years

113to figure out whether it's going to go into affect today or tomorrow. Yes. always puzzled, you said the superintendent is one option. uh-huh. and in my business life, government life in the navy, you would never do that to a senior official. If I go to the general that is chief of operations, but everybody we review is a single policy or a single recommendation rather than one that says, look there is two or three different options here, here is the pros and cons, is there any school board that do options with pros and cons? there are maybe with a single topic, not with every policy. It MAY be in a particular subject area, they say we want to know whether this will work or this will work. And they will have a discussion. Most times the

114discussion happens ahead of time in terms of what you're looking for and staff brings that forward and that's where you get the one recommendation. You don't have to take the one recommendation, changes can be made, you know, you don't rubber stamp. Nobody is rubber stamping anything and superintendent and staff knows that. But I don't know if any school board where they can consistency bring multiple solutions as a policy. Now if you wanted, I didn't ask staff to do it every single time but if there was one -- . I'm talking about taking advantage of staff. So sometimes there will be a critical issue on a top ed and I don't want to go into specific exam blz through there will be an item and there is a low klos, high clause and the staff knows

115those options, but instead, they're all like, arguing with each other about what is the one that they're going to push and what we MISS Is the pros and cons or alternatives ourselves and we're not good at that. We cannot see all the options that are going on in today's operations. But the staff that works for the superintendent, has the 100 times more knowledge and we lose that when we get a single solution. And I agree it would not be appropriate for all items, I don't need a change order to double that, that's not appropriate. right. but for policy issues in particular, it will be nice to know the options about key policies or key 'ems within policies. And sometimes for big decisions. We spent a lot of time talking about what is feasible as alternatives

116to what's been recommended. And then the staff seems surprised that we ask about solutions, that they have not researched them so they're coy about saying otherwise. Any case just something for us to think about. yeah, and here's the other piece to that. Staff is very likely bringing tlie -- three or four different options to the superintendent. And the superintendent and the conversation says, this is the policy that I'm bringing forward. You know, or in the, in their conversations they're take abouting high level, low level risk what is the best way to move it forward? And then you're getting what they believe is their best option to discuss. And that's when you then look at it and say, how does this play out five years from now? How does this play out ten years from now?

117Are you solving a problem by trying to create a policy? Or are you creating what they call guard rails to say, we want things to move forward and how you do it is important to make sure that we're constantly changing and we're not being encumbered by policies that say thououhall not. onotheher things,, here that I feel lilike it neededs for our policy, have worked is that our policies have a lost procedures embedded in them. Right. So we will have a policy that is ten pages long and you have other school districts with the same policy at the max two. Because it keeps it broad so there are not a lot of procedures that are baked in, they're on the procedure side. yeah, many districts will have policies that purely are just policy. And then we'll

118talk about some terminology and I'll come back to this comment, back to your statement, but then they have a procedure manual. There was a district that had into their policy that football players got, I don't know one pair of pants, I think it was. They had to make a policy change in order to give their football players two pairs of pants. And that's because they had their procedures in their policies. By taking it out, board members can review the policy manuals so they knew what was going on every time there was a big changes or once a year but it was not keeping people from moving forward and doing their job. And we'll go back and bring it back up if I forget to tie it in. There are some things here, that overlaps and

119we need to know what the responsibilities is. We look at it and determine whether this is the best policy what changes might be need to be in it or do we move forward with this. I know that many of us use neola and they bring forward their best staff. Staff looks at that before they bring it to you, rather than saying this is what neola said this is what we're going to bring. There are cases where we're having to implement policy or put policy in, and I keep saying we, that board members, I'm no longer one, that have to implement it almost verbatim based on the what the legislature has passed. So that's something that the superintendent and attorney is making sure that they're adding all the key points from the legislation and then we

120move forward with it. The other is that you have the overlaps is communicating with the public. Do you have protocols as to you know, is it something that you're talking about, or individuals sending out newsletters? Do you have people, holding press conferences on their own? If the same story is not going out with the same details, people start to lose faith in the leadership team. when the press calls, do you have a process for what you do with that? Or do you have a way of handling it? Often times, board members will let the press go straight, I mean, the phone call goes straight to the answering machine. [Captioner switch] we're going to talk about where we go with those types of things. And some of you in new board member training have seen this,

121we'll get deeper into it. We're going break this down into four words, what, if we are saying what needs to happen, that is the board's role. If we are saying what should this policy address, that's the board's role. What do we want to fund with the budget, that's the board's role. What do we want to see as far as student achievement, that's the board's role. Any time you're asking what, that is the board's role. We're the ones that are telling the superintendent what we want to see as a school district and move forward. It's okay o to ask the superintendent how to move this forward, if we tell the superintendent thousand do something or get so far into the how's that we're forgetting that our role is the what, then we start to lose a

122little bit aof the balance that needs to happen. There was a board that they had so many board members that were trying to let the superintendent know how to do things that staff actually kind of decided I'm just going to keep my head low and do as little as possible because I don't want to get caught in the cross fire because this board member was saying it has to be this way, another board member was saying something else has to happen and staff didn't know who they were supposed to listen to because even though we know the superintendent is the one who evaluates them, they still have you in their minds as their bosses and they don't want to cross the board. So, they start trying to make everybody happy and they spend more time

123making everybody b happy instead of addressing the needs of the services. You can paralyze a district by not staying in your role. You can also create problems because if you don't have problem in the governance role that are staying there and you don't have people in the management role or you have too many people in the management role, then that creates problems as well. Now how far is too far? I heard some questions today about how are we going to fund it, how are we going to be moving forward with that. Those questions are okay, when you start saying this is how, that's okay. That's a conversation you can have one on one with the superintendent and toss ideas ashds -- around and that's okay, but to start tell thing superintendent thousand do things, you're

124stepping out of your role, and see the difference? Okay. Yes? [Inaudible]. board members corporate or for a a government organization don't put their time and effort into the things they can't change, so instead of worrying about those strategic goals, instead of worrying about reviewing the data that comes in towards those strategic goals, thinking about policies and long term implications, that part which is their mandate, it's sexy to dwet into that, how to go do thing and is who's the principal of one school and what happened -- the detailed what questioners which are also inappropriate. We have so much time to put into this job and we should really focus -- there's only nine of us -- on setting those thing that is we can approve and do and execute and when we spend time doipg

125other things, we're really not fulfilling the special thing we could do only. you're exactly right. And part of the difficulty when you have someone who has worked in the school district to become a school board member, they're geared to how we make this happen, how do we make this happen, how do we make this happen, that's where their mind goes, so they forget into they're not in the how do we make this happen role anymore, they are into what we want to see happen, and it takes us a while to get up to that level of paying attention to what our role is and what the superintendent's role is. Yes? [Inaudible]. we had a conversation about ai a a year or so ago where it was -- we don't want ai in our schools, but

126as you start to -- you xwo -- go into the squao ls tha,'s reilly the why, we're here because of the why, if you don't get into schools and you don't have those conversations with the people who are doing the work, it' not necessarily for us to say how to get done but we'll never know what needs to be done if we don't go and see what they need. I think it's important to remember that as well. yes, don't hear me say that you shouldn't be going into the schools and be having conversations. If you're in a school and you're talking with a superintendent or -- I mean p I mean with a principal oar talking tog the teachers, to be excited about where we could go with ai and to talk about the presentation

127you saw and to talk about those kinds of things, that's absolutely right and absolutely part of us being cheerleaders to move things forward but when you start saying how come you haven't done or when are you going to, or how is this going to happen, then we're overstepping our boundaries. We're not telling the staff what to do. We're talking about kind of getting them excited about the things that are on the horizon. You see the difference there? But definitely going into the schools, seeing what's happening, and you go into a school and they MAY say we're having a problem with x, y, z, that you bring back to the superintendent and you share that with him and you have that conversation, so that the superintendent is aware. one of the problems that many, many districts

128run into is they start talking, okay, there's -- somebody sharing something about ese so a board member goes to director of ese and starts talking about the problem there. Thinking that it will help fix it. Well, it doesn't necessarily because the superintendent MAY know that this is happening in five different place asks we're working on what the solution is going to be and so they need to -- you need to share it with the superintendent. If it's happening in one place, that's a different thing but it MAY be happening in several, so going to -- and when we talk about communication, we'll talk about what are the levels of communication. We encourage dwrou take thing tos the superintendent. Some superintendent wills say, okay, you can take it to the next -- you know, whether it's

129area superintendents, chief of staff or whatever, they can answer those questions also but when you start going below that, now you start meddling and no you're into the how, they're going the say this is not happening, and you say, this is how I'm going fix it, the superintendent is the one who oversees that. You see the difference? Okay. Now here's a word that all of us look at, not just the superintendent but the entire governance team. Did it happen? That's where you're looking at data, you're looking at things that are happening with your strategic plan and look at those goals flt did the policy that you asked, did it come forward and, you know, then even did we look at -- again, how does policy play out? Too often we put policy in place because

130we're trying to solve a problem that MAY be a procedure is best, not everything needs to be solved with policy and I'll say it again. Policies that are thou shalt not do not result in the same kind of a student achievement as those that are saying here are our expectations, here are the parameters, now go po rt and make it happen. So, we're asking -- there we go. We're asking did it happen. Then the next question for the governance team to ask is why. Why did it happen because we need to do more of this. Why didn't it happen? Well, it didn't happen because you didn't come back after easter break with covid, so you didn't see the same kind of student achievement that particular year that you thought maybe you might, okay. What do

131we need to do differently and what do we need to continue o -- to do? And those are conversations that you as a leadership team have. We don't flexed to get goo sbao the nitty-gritty of every single thing, but what did we do, how do we mover forward, how do we do it? If you are talking to staff, this is how I think that problem could be solved, you need to take a step back. You can have that how conversation with the superintendent on a one by one, not on the dais, not, you know, -- that's not a place where we brainstorm ideas. You brainstorm ideas in workshops or in conversations that you have. Your board meetings to conduct the business of the board that is held in the public. So your agenda, you look

132at it and you move forward. So, with everybody staying where they need to, those puzzle pieces come together and now you have a strong governance team but when somebody starts to blend into the next one or you forget to do one of them, if you forget to do the did it happen, you've got a break into that, if the what starts meld hinting the how, you have a problem, and if you never look at why, you can't solve any of the issues and the governance team is not as strong as it could be, okay. I'm going to just show you something you have seen before. With all the lines that are here, don't cross those lines t school board decides what and the superintendent decides how. It's just that simple. Any questions on that? Okay.

133There we go. Do we need to say had -- anything? If people aren't staying in their lane and staying ob their side of the road, you end up with some pretty big problems so we'll leave it at that. People get tired of saying stay in your lane, we wouldn't have to say it if people just stayed in their lane, it's that simple. Does that help clear up how and why the district is supposed to run. We're goik talk about the stages of team development. This is an important piece with tuckman's stage, bruce tuckman started talking about -- there seemed to be similarities with businesses when they're making decisions, there seems to be some interesting similarities with people that are working on committees, my goodness, they're also on project and is you started really look ranching

134evaluating how did those teams that are working successfully and accomplish ago lot, how are they functioning, what did they need to work through or what caused them to do that. We started looking at all the phases they do through and later he added an extra one, but they were forming -- he talked about forming, storming, normbacking and then later added adjourning, so let's talk about one of those. Every fwraoup he worked with, every group that he saw that functioned well went through these stages. The forming, that's when you first -- and I'm going to put it in terms of a school board, that's when you first get your new school board members or you are coming together, you might get a new superintendent, you are forming, you're going to be very polite, you're eager to

135get working and you MAY not have all the experience that you need but you also have -- usually have pretty high expectations, whether it's high expectations because I'm going o come in here and change everything or whether it's high expectations because I want to be part of this group working well together, so there's poz tier feelings. At the same time, they MAY also be a little anxious or a little nervous, do I know everything that I'm supposed to, I don't really know all of the rules, I'm trying to figure out even where the restroom is, you know, you don't know all of the stuff and so they are very polite, everybody's very polite, very welcoming, everything is going smoothly, not accomplishing a whole lot but it's going smooth. Then they get into -- then as

136people start to feel a little more comfortable and they start to get to know each other a bit more, they get into the storming stage, now, staring doesn't ing -- storming doesn't mean it has to be a big blow-up but everybody's starting to feel their oats and you MAY be starting to have a bit of conflict because where a new person might have kept their opinions to themselves when it was a heated conversation, not really knowing enough to feel like they could come out with their comments, they started to -- they're starting to feelel re mfortable and they're starti toshare ththeir opions,, you MAY have some personality clashes because we don't xwet to pick who we work with, we are given who we work with, and so sometimes there are personality clashes. Then people start

137to realize, oh, you mean we can disagree, everything doesn't have to be a 9-0 vote and we can disagree and still walk away and still be friends. When they first start to disagree, that doesn't necessarily mean that everybody b feels comfortable with that disagreement, they might disagree over big hicks or little things. We had somebody talk about responsibilities, one of the biggest robs board members have is I don't think that person came prepared for the meeting and I don't think they're handling their responsibilities, this person doesn't get here on time, it's the little stuff that makes the biggest rub with board members. When you ask them and you get down to really what is the problem, why can't you get out of storming, ask -- and without asking them, the thing that is come up

138to the surface is the little irritations, that happens during storming. Occasionally there are subjects that will throw you into storming. It MAY be with a policy that there will be some consequences attached to a policy and people don't believe this is an appropriate consequence and this isn't what should happen, and people feel strongly it should, that MAY create some storming and it can be about an item. The trick is and the concern is how long do you stay there. You can storm over a particular topic but then you come out of it with the next one. It can be a 15 minute storming or it can be a six month storming. You need to come out of it as soon as possible. Lori?Frjt I think one of the issues we tend to run into is

139board members are not listening to the staff response and then they'll ask the same question that was already asked. And then it just becomes so drawn out and they're not listening but they're asking the same question that was already answered. it's frustrating on the part of everyone else who has already heard the answer and it's even more frustrating on the part of staff because they start to think, did I not make myself clear the first time, what did they not understand, what am I supposed to say this time that they didn't get. And we will talk about communication, but listening is one of the biggest barriers to communication and you've heard it over and over again because people are thinking about what they're going to say next rather than listening to what the answers are.

140They're talking about or thinking about how they're going to respond. They'll ask staff something and they're off either writing down what my next questions are and so they're not listening or they might be looking at their phone and so they're not listening. If that's a concern or a problem that you have here, then that's the conversation you need to have and a fix needs to happen, a commitment, a commitment that you're going start listening and that you're not going to be, you know, writing things down or paying attention or looking at who else is in the room or trying to make eye contact with someone. If it happens re regularly, you're goipg to be in that storming phase for a long time and you can't get to high performing if you're stuck in storming. Now,

141is lori the only one that think that is happen? S yeah, it's all lori? Fshlgts it's all lori? no, and it even happens not just when staff is speaking but when the public is talking too. it's rare that we have a a whole board listening to them or leave thing student and is the teachers that came in today, we're not always hearing them and it's something for us to think about. yeah, there is some tech naoeg -- techniques for people who are having a hard time paying attention for a long time, add is constantly thrown around as a thing but there's people who tend to day dream and you'll be listening to someone, have you ever sat in an audience listening to someone and the person next to you says what did they just say,

142you've been listening and you can't even tell them, you have no idea, even though you are quiet and paining atending, you thought you were listening but you couldn't tell them. One of the tricks with that is literally as they're speaking, you are saying the words right behind them because our brains can work faster than anybody's mouth can can mover, you can say those words and still hearing them, so it can help you focus in. If you're having a hard time focus, maybe that's what you need to try doing. When you are listening to staff or when you are listening to each other, that's an important part of your role you, ear decision makers, how can you make decisions if you're not listening, and if you're not listening to the public who are combining to bring

143their perspective and thoughts in it, even if it's that same person, we had a person and I will say now it was from pen bellies county, he came to every meeting framing JANUARY 2001 to my last board megalith meeting, the om time he didn't is when we were in -- when we were doing things online during covid. Say it is same thing, talks about the same thing every meeting, everybody knows what he's going to say, but occasionally he's got another little twist of something and occasionally that little twist is important, it MAY not have anything to do with the topic he's constantly talking to us about but if we aren't listening to hill, we would have missed that key piece. Even if that person is coming over and over and over again and you know

144this is how they're going to talk, you still need to listen for two reasons, one, they MAY something that is going help you in your decision making, the second thing is it's the polite thing to do. There was a board member year asks years ago that was called out by a member of the community, as she was talking, he f she was taking copious notes of everything that was said and she was called out and she realized that person thought she was just writing stuff out and wasn't paying attention, and she apologized and she said I was writing down the key point and is she learned at that point not do that anymore and after they finished, as they're calling the next person down, she would hit the highlights and write those down, but while

145the person was talking, she was looking them in the eye and listening. She realizes afterwards how much she missed, she realized there were a lot of things I didn't hear what people were saying. We need to think about how we're listening to the public but also to each other to be the same way. One of the things that a board that we were working with did was as they spoke and they said the public MAY have thought it was a little crazy, as they spoke before the next person could talk, they had to count to three and then the CHAIRMAN Would call on the next pesh, so that they couldn't be thinking about how they're going to respond. You thought about how you were going to respond during that time, not while the person was

146talking so there are techniques you can incorporate if you can agree to them. You can't just say this is what I'm going to do and it will solve the whole problem. It will solve what you're doing if you're making the effort but if the whole board makes the agreement and makes that effort, then it helps a little bit, but that is a huge problem and that will keep you in storming because even if you end up making a good decision, you're aggregated with each other because I had to listen to the same answer four times when it could have been once. Okay. The next stage -- okay, as it says, storming is normal, but how long do you stay there? That tees the key, get in there, get out. Then the next phase is new

147york city norming, during this stage, people are used to each other, they know what buttons are going to be pushed that will make each other go crazy so they kind of avoid them unless it's a last resort and then they pull it out, but this avoid those kinds of things or they understand where they're coming from so they even listen differently, and so they're moving along, things are going well, it seems as if everything is happening, you've settled into a groove and moving along and everybody's happy. The problem with that is people become complaisant and here we are, this is good, we're doing well. You know, we don't go into storming very often because we know what's going to happen, if I say this and it's not going the change a person's mind so I'm

148not going to say it f we're going to change a person and we'll have a conversation and go back and forth websinger ear very respectful, all of the things that you think need to happen, you're doing in norming. The problem is that's not enough. You're not at high performing and so everybody thinks that here we are, we've made it. Okay, there's a different piece in the performing. In the performing stage, you're very, very confident that everybody is here for the right reasons, you're no locker judging, oh, that person just want tos change this or this one just wants to change that. You're all here and you know you're all here for the same reason, you're going to provide the best education possible for every single child you have in this district in a safe environment

149and you're reaping them for what they MAY be facing as they're moving forward. That's the ultimate goal and you all know it. The how you do it, that's still some discussion you have with the superintendent and how the superintendent is doing with that is part of the evaluation and then are there hicks we need to do to improve, those are all parts of the conversation but it is an exciting kind of conversation even when it's a heavy decision because you know that this governance team is going to come up with the best possible solution. Everyone's on the same page, you know what that final goal is going to be, but the biggest thing is trust has been established. You trust that nobody's going to say anything to try to make you look bad. You trust

150that nobody's trying to be the best person on the board, you trust each other that they're really looking at this through the eyes of what's best for students as opposed to a a personal agenda they have. All of that trust is the big piece that pushes it to the next level. question. yes, sir. so, it would appear then that performing -- and I could be wrong -- seems to be sort of a refined sophisticated stage of moving between norming and storming, that's pretty much what it is, it's sort of perfecting storming and norming to where you're alternating back and forth in a a refined manner? yes sx, you're mostly in performing. The performing and norming are so close that you might not be able to tell the difference other than that piece of trust, do

151you trust every board member, every person on the governance board, do you trust the the superintendent is doing and making decisions in the best interest of the students that you have in your district, that's -- it's obviously important for any team to go through that stringing stage and then that norming stage and to normalize it later on this the performance stage where norming and storming function smoothly together. exactly. However, you can go from performing and it's not uncommon sxit's not dangerous to go from performing to storming on a topic, a situation, you MAY be very em passion, different people impassioned on different sides of an issue and you storm as you're making that decision and it MAY be a 15 minute storming, it MAY be something that you start the tomorrow here -- the storm

152here and you don't rehash everything you have done at a workshop at the board meeting. You've already had that conversation. And we think we're going to be educating people while we're up there because everybody watches the board meetings. You know, when you really think about the population in broward county and how many people are in broward county and how many people watch the board meeting and then how many people watch the board meeting hating are not part of the school district, you would be surprised. You could educate people in a a different way, different formats, not during a board meeting, board meeting is to conduct the business, you know. It's okay to celebrate something great that happened and on a consent agenda, there MAY be a school that's going to be going to MARCH in

153the macy's day parade, you don't pull that item and say isn't it wonderful they're going to be doing this and that and we vote in favor of it. We just passed something in on the consent agenda that I want to highlight, 30 s ebds seconds, it's done. Lori? thank you, so I heard you brought up the word trust and i think it is challenging when board members speak a certain way to an item and then vote a completely different way, so it's difficult for me to trust what -- when they speak because I might be on board with them and then they quickly change and vote a different way, so it's difficult for me to trust them. okay. That's interesting, usually when you speak in public and you're stating your position, unless they have heard

154something -- now, you come into a board meeting, I will guess 98% how you ear going vote on any item, you're prepared, you have read the agenda, you have talk today the superintendent, you have your answers to any questions you MAY have had and you've done your homework at least that week that you had for that agenda but there is always a possibility and the reason you listen o the public and why you listen to each other, there is always a polt that something -- possibility that something that is said a piece you never considered x that changes the way you think. or you might vote a certain way for a procedural reason. You're not always exposing how you feel about an item, sometimes you're doing it so you can bring it back. so you

155can bring it back? yeah. okay, alright. Not a subject, but one that you voted on that's not coming back, give me an example? you MAY do a lot of things that are not just disclosing your feelings, even seconding things, you agree with it and you don't know if you do or not. you want to hear it. and sometimes you might vote on it because procedurally you might want to have the authority to bring it back. You MAY be voting off of it, they do this in senate all the time, mitch mcconnell votes in favor of something just because he want tos later whenever that item wants to come back, he can bring it back because he voted on the prevailing side so there's reasons might vote for things that is different than whether they agree

156with the items. I don't think the public understands that, usually if they vote for something, they think you don't like that and you will be held accountable for that as an elected person, but you do things here that are not revealing about how you feel about an item. and that should happen rarely f you're asking for something because you want to bring it back. If you're doing that on a regular basis, somebody's going to believe any decision you make is valid and they're going to do nt do whatever. it takes a few time tos lose someone's trust. yeah. but what is being observed is not actually what is being perceived. okay. Yes? I would just say the same thing, it kinds of depends on where you start off in the conversation also because I think

157a lot of times a lot of us come in believing one thing or thinking it or staff can give us information or another board member will give a perspective and you're like, oh, I didn't think of it that way and honestly there are times where debbie mix son personally believers one thing but I don't know that it's always the right thing for the district and I'm trying to make sure that what I'm voting for is in good faith and effort for the whole districts not just because I think it's a good idea or not. And it's sometimes hard to -- when you're talking and being passionate in a conversation, it's you but then when you salter to hear about other people, so especially if you start discussions early on and then other people have chimed

158in, you MAY have had a different perspective to say maybe that isn't such a great idea for the whole county, although we're here for districts, we are really here for the whole county so it's always important to keep in mind that although it might work for one little area, it MAY not wounding as a big whole and you don't really see that until you start to engage in the discussion with your colleagues. right. You are elected from a geographic area. Once you are elected and you assume that office, you are now responsible for the entire county and so what MAY work where you think in your little neighborhood or your geographic district, that's not enough, it's what's goipg to be best for the entire county. Now, in order the address the concern lori has, very

159easily if one person is speaking one way and changes their mind, you can easily say, I've heard some valid points and as a result, you know, I'm going to vote this way, especially if you said I'm going to vote in favor of this and then you end up voting against it, yeah, why would someone trust you, you said one thing and did another, that's kind aof the basis of not trusting someone. But t be able to sasaheard a nunumb of ingsgs that has cacaus me to chan my mimind and then vote, that would help I would think, you know, straighten that out. Sarah? I think it's also, you know, just because someone doesn't vote with me, it doesn't mean that I can't trust them, right. You know, I think I've been on opposite sides of

160votes from everyone on this dais, but that doesn't mean I can't trust their intentions or trust them as human beings. I think we're all going to disagree about something at some point. Our votes aren't necessarily dependent on trust. yeah, and I don't think that's what lori was saying and she'll correct me if I'm wrok, if everybody had to agree on all the time, you would need one board member, but the fact that there are nine of you, that means we need to see things from various perspectives, it doesn't mean that everybody has to share their entire thought process for every single vote. Your vote says what you believe . I think what lori is saying paoez give this impassioned plea and says this is where I'm going and this is so important and then vote

161no. That's different. even to say I understand where you're coming from and I understand that's important to you and this is what I think, you know, you can vote against it. I don't think and am I hearing you correctly, it's not that people vote no or differently, it's differently than what they said they would vote? correct. sometimes we don't have the opportunity for the sake of time or we've used up our opportunities to speak to caveat our vote before we vote, you know what I mean, so I think that's another thing for everyone to consider. and you can also talk to your attorney, sometimes many attorney wills say it's okay after the vote to say to another board member, this is why I changed my mind. Because the vote's over, but they will not, okay.

162That's why I said talk to your attorney. No, after the meeting, after the meeting if you want to explain why you changed your mind is what I was staining, but if she says no, then the answer's no. Because I say ask your attorney. Anything else with that? Alright. We are going spend a a moment to find out where you think you are in the -- let me do one more. I'll do the adjourning as well. There we go. So, in 1977, bruce started looking at and he said there's another piece to this that I had not considered before and he starts seeing it as a normal piece of the process too and that's the adjourning. Once the project was over or in our case, once a board member chooses to retire and not run again

163for office or if they lose their election, you have a board member and if you've been performing, all that person that you trust and part of this group that has built a team, a governance team has is really working well and now somebody's going to be gone, you're sad, you're sad they're going to be leaving. They're also pardon of the adjourning process is the board member themselves are saying I'm not going to be in this position anymore, I need to keep wringing right until the end but I'm going to be sad so there are those kinds of things too so, the adjourning is you're feeling that loss and yet it takes you a little bit to convince yourself to be excited about the new day that's coming and the new board members that are coming

164in. That's why we always say welcome brand new board members, it's not their fault nobody has chosen not to run and they're the new person so you welcome them and help them through. One of the other things we try to make sure people understand is what are your protocols, a new board member comes on, the best way for them to find out something they did was wrong and do something that was right and figure out that's not the way we do things here. So, the way to get them into that forming, norming and to start the process is is for thel to do that but the adjourning is a little sad for some people, there is grieving that's going on, the superintendent levers, unless you fired them, a superintendent levers and there's a new one

165that comes in, you MAY be excited about the new one but also missing the old one. It's a combination, but that's part of the conversation is the adjourning that goes along with it. When we ear doing is do is find out where we think you are in all of this and I'm going to -- I'm only going the give you one piece at a time because people, they jump ahead and do things wrong then. on here, there are questions on two sides and I want you to answer that the way you believe things are wringing here and you will do one -- I'm going do 1-5, 5, everybody goes 3, 3, 3,, 1-4, you have to pick a side on each one of them, we try to set procedure and is protocols to ensure things

166are orderly and run smoothly to minimize interruption and is given the opportunity to say tawa they have to say, would you say that rarely happens so that's a 1? Or we do that most of the time, that's a 4? And we still need to work on that a little bit, but we're good at it, that would be a 3. You're going fill that out all the way down. When that's done, we'll fill out the answer sheet. Okay? Any questions on that? Can I explain it any better? Until you see it. Hold on. Here you go. Were you all listening, that's the question. [Laughter]. 4 is almost always, 1 is hardly ever. Pardon? [Inaudible] yeah. is 4 always? most of the time. Usually. We got away from saying always because someone says nobody ever does always,

167so most of the time, yeah, you're pretty much consistently there, that's a 4. 3 is there and you fall off the wagon every once in a while. 2 is we're trying but we're just not that there yet. 1 is nobody seems to care. And your names don't go on these, so be honest. (Working on exercise). has everyone finished? Now grab the paper that's in front of you that looks like this and you're going to put the numbers in to each -- for your answers, you're going to put them here on this page. Now here's the kicker, they're not in order, if you look, it will say number 1, number 2, number 4, number 3, so don't just go across it, so make sure you're putting the proper numbers of the questions with the numbers that

168you have answered flt any -- any questions? This is the toughest thing yu eel do today. We'll give quou -- you a harder one next tile on here. Then when you finish, total up each column and put the total on the bottom, just for each column. You can use your phone if you need to. We're adding 1-4, I think we can do this. And when you're finished with that, [Inaudible]. Thank you. What I'm going to do is I'm going to average these all up while you watch this next video and then we'll see where we are as far as a group, what area you fall into, okay. So, go ahead and start that, please. (Watching video). how many of you have a guard up? Yeah, what do you grow, tomatoes, flowers, vegetables, you gro things,

169don't you? Well, my family and I, we embarked on a cleanlier, healthier journey of eating which includes lots of organic foods, organic vegetables are very expense I ever, that's a special section in the market, isn't it, it's off to the side. We decided we're going to start growing our own vegetable, we figured you get soil, seeds and put it together and things might grow. Shockingly, things grew, we got tomato and is basil, we started learning about the potassium and phosphorus, the acidity, seed depth and plant spacinging and which plants need full sun versus moderate sun, it's a thing, isn't it? It givers me a deep appreciation for farmers who have to v to do this for a living every single day, we grew kale and tomatoes all in our bag yards, so I learned things

170about gardening which impacts leadership and it impacts accountability. number one, we never have to industry f try to make weeds grow. You don't have to do anything to make weeds grow, they just grow, don't they? But watch this, weeds never start big, they always start like this. They poke their head up like this, just to see if anybody's going o do anything, then if nobody does anything, what happens sm it does this, then it does this, then it gets big and vong and hairy and starters dropping seeds to make more weeds. Before you start thinking about weeds or your bad employees, no, you're a weed, you're a weed, no, no, don't call your staff weeds. Weeds are the undesirable behaviors you don't want on your team, so think about combining here late every day, think

171about saying that's not my department, think about the bad a t tuesday, those are the weeds, weeds are a sign of neglect, weeds are a a sign of what? Yes, whenever you see a weed, that moons it was allowed to grow. So I'll give you an example. How much how many of you have a a policy in your company, in your spot around cell phone usage, like no cell phones, alright. so, here's how it usually starts, let's say I have a cell phone, I went through orientation, I signed my name, I put my name in blood in the handbook, no f cozy cups, no cell phone usage, it's in every single urinal, no cell phone usage, you have t-shirts made, no cell phone usage. Here's what happens now, so I come to work, cell phone

172is here in the podium, here's how the weed starts, good morning, good morning. If nothing happens, they pick the phone up. If nothing happens, if nothing happens, they have it all up in your spot. Whenever you see a weed, you sesea buncncof wes, doyo say y osose are such inconsidere e bunch of weeds. Who do you blame in? The owner, the gardener, by now you realize who's the gardener? It's you, boo. Yes. Instead of lao looking at everyone else's weeds because we can be experts saying whose weeds are over there, I see some nice weeds, it's not about looking at everybody else's weeds, what are our own weeds, -- okay, alright. So, what did you think? engaging. any of it resonate? yes. what parts? And I'm almost finished here. that weeds are a sign of

173neglect. okay. What else? Okay. What else? you should practice what you preach. okay, yes, praktsz -- practice what you preach. Okay, what do I think might be the weeds that you're dealing with as a board? What are the things that could get in your way of -- weeds are storming, and unless you address that, you're going to say here. So, what are the hicks that might be that are going on here that are weeds that need to be addressed or hicks that just might be not necessarily right here, but what could be the weeds that would keep you in storming? constant change. constant change, okay. What else? [Inaudible] lack of trust. What else? We already talked about some of them. lack of complete information. lack of complete information, okay. What about the listening we were

174talking about earlier? That could be a weed that would stay there and keep you in storming. what else? Lori? trying to please a small population. yeah. Forgetting that a small group doesn't necessarily represent the entire and yet still being able to balance that that small group has some needs that need to be considered as well, you know, how do you find that balance. You know, we have oftentimes board meetings where there have been as many as 150 people at some board meetings and yet when you stop and think about the the size in of -- of the county in which those people were living, those 150 seemed to overwhelming at the board meeting but when you put it in perspective of the entire county, you realize there are a lot of other people and that's

175a small portion but you still have to listen to what's being said and take those into consideration no matter whether it's a large group or an individual that comes. Yes? [Inaudible]. tla's a very good one. Being stuck in your opinion of somebody and so stuck you're not willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. I know this was going to be bad, I'm not going to bother o listen or I'm figuring out what I'm going say to counteract what they're going to say because I know what's come, all that kind of stuff. when robert's rules of order are hiked from meeting to meeting and different sets of robert's rules of order are spoken at one meeting a certain way and then change tos the next meeting. that can create some problems because you don't

176know what are the rules, okay. single district preferences, the law is quite clear but we have had thousands of hours on this board where the discussion is about my district, my school, and it's great to represent that but at the end of the day, we have to make decision, all of us have to make decisions that's good for the district, that's one of the powers we have is because we're so large, there's a lot of cool things we can do that only large districts can do but we -- that's something that prevents us from finding great answers for the whole district. and that might be something na's pretty engrained and I'm going the call you out on it, pretty engrained here, remember when ajgrable came and was working and he made a board member very

177angry by saying those are not your only children and they would come back, those are not your only children, the comment would come back, those are not your only children, it frustrated the person and it made them very angry. But the truth is those are not your only children. You and as I said earlier, once you are elected, you now represent and make decisions for what is best for every single child and young adult in your district, period. You MAY share your thoughts, you MAY say this is not going to work for these schools or a particular fwraoup of children but guess what, the group of children MAY be in your district, it MAY be in this district or this district, so you have to look for each, it's not my schools, my children, my

178kids, every single one of the schools in your district. I was in one district where board members had to actually let another board member know if they were going into a school that was in their district. I mean, it was that imbedded in that district. So, if there's one thing you need to change as a mindset of not mine, ours, okay. Are you alright? Okay. He's okay, he's still not turning red or blue so we're good. Alright, so, what I would like you to do is we've mentioned some of these, put those on a post-it, the things that you think are the weeds and we are going to come back and address these during our training, but what are the weeds that are keeping you to getting to forming, norming and performing. is this all

179internal or [Inaudible]. there -- let's put the things over which you have control because you can't change, you know, things over which you have no authority or control. So, let's look at the things you can change. And you can put more than one on a post-it if you would like. Yes? [Inaudible] it can be what you think is keeping the board in the weeds. Does that answer it? [Inaudible]. you can spell it phonetically, there you go. Okay, then stick them up under the storming. okay, everybody have theirs up there? Alright. So, rather than making you look like all you have is issues, what are some of the things you're doing -- let me share this first, when I looked at the scores that you wrote and we averaged them out, each one of you did

180the columns and we averaged them out, the reality is you're all over the board, you're not in any one area at one time so, you are flexing from place to place to place, you are still nr -- in the forming stage in some areas. You are definitely in the storming stage in some areas, and then you're also in norming and performing, and because all of the numbers are so close, storming is the -- second highest, fringing is the highest, storming and then performing and new dnrorming are close to each other. The reality is you're stuck in storming, you're doing things that are norming and performing which shows you have the ability to get out of it. You're just not there yet, okay. Yeah, so let's talk about what are some of the hinges -- things

181that you are doing that you think are forming? [Inaudible] okay. You're still -- well, that's kind of a weed really, when we're talk about listening. Forming, you're still polite, you still call each other by board member so and so, I haven't seen anybody get snotty with each other while we were talking, you come to the meeting and you're ready to do your job tha,'s fringing. What are thing ins norming that you're doing well? [Inaudible] okay. Alright. [Inaudible]. alright. Yay. we're using data more than ever. okay, using data more than ever, yup. That helps him be an excellent superintendent also. And the fact he's bringing it to you shows you he's excellent. Good. What else? I think that even though our meetings are still long, we're like putting in more measures to make our meetings more

182efficient. one of these days we're going to talk about why your meetings are so long, I think you hold the record, and can ai help you with your meetings, that's the next question. Alright. [Inaudible]. they're just going to be long, okay. Can you disagree and still walk out happy or polite with not maybe happiness necessarily but polite and okay with each other. You don't hold a grudge just because somebody voted in a different way. [Inaudible] most of you. Okay. Alright. and because it's only most of you, it might get you from here eventually where all of you are to get you up here. So, what are some of the things that might be getting you into performing, looking at data and seeing the achievement getting better and better in various category? S aligning to our

183strategic goals. aligning thanks to your strategic goals, that is key, if you can do that, that will be one thing that will get you in a performing faster than anything else. [Inaudible]. okay, you might want to change that off the bat. we've tried. that's what we landed on, but I think, you know, the conversations -- I don't think they're combative or I think most of the time the conversations are being different perspectives that allow us to be more holistic. and that would fall into either one of these categories, norming or performing, those kinds of things, having the conversations. If you -- and I'm going to xwo on to your meetings far second, we're not going to dwell on that today. If you have the sense that you're going to vote for it and you're talking

184a little bit, do you only get one time to speak and it's one time for ten minutes or is it somebody can say something and maybe they speak for a minute and a half and somebody else MAY and it can come back to them later, to a next person. it's ten minutes cumulative. We sometimes do a round two but we didn't need to have a lot of round 2's recently. There are some people that use up all of their ten minutes and some people -- if you have the sense that the board is in the same place you are with, yeah, we're probably going to vote for this, it looks like a good policy, why are you using -- and I'll just say singing your whole ten minutes? If you think everybody's on ta same

185page, who are you trying to convince, and the pub -- public doesn't get a vote, the public gets input. I don't know about other board members but depending on what you're voting on that you think they're going to vote yes and the majority of the board will, sometimes it impacts different parts of the district, you feel a need to rationalize why you're voting yes or why you're voting no so you can have ao better understand why you made that choice as oppose today staining yes or no without e will be rating on your rationality for doik so. I think it's important when the public is watching, it's important they understand because we are the voice of the public and the community. And they should understand why we're voting on that basis. okay. And earlier I

186said how many people really watch your board meetings, and is this the place to educate them? I think it very much depends op the topic we're talking about because we're in the are -- process of redefining schools and I think if anyone was just like yes or no, that's a disservice to what we're doing up here so everything is circumstantial. exactly. Jouster as going into storming can be, you know, one issue that will bring you there and back, that MAY be the one issue or there MAY be an issue that you need to share but not every issue has to be shared with everybody. It would be interesting at some point to get -- have it looked at, they can get the the numbers of how many people watch -- analytics. okay, how many people

187are watch thing board, how many are within the school district or district members and then how many are in the public, and that MAY be important for you to see and determine whether, you know, with zoning and redefining school lines and things, going out into the public, having listening sessions MAY be a better way of having them understand where you're coming from, why it's being done, what's happening, educating the public there as oppose today a board meeting because, again, it's to conduct the business of a meeting and it's held in the public which is different than a public meeting. Yes? I have a question this accidenter came up before, so when I went to the chairmanship academy, we had this discussion and I brought back some of the things that you mentioned, so workshops are

188where we should be really educating and making those declarations of how we feel and what we believe in but by the time it gets to the school board meeting, we shouldn't be -- all of thosose estions should have been answered, riright, and if there are ququestions when you sethe board item, the way I understood our discussion to be and that is really the board members should be contacting the superintendent or sending a board question on there. The answers are public record, they have to share them on our agenda and that would cut down on a lot of the extra discussion that we have, not that it's not good discussion but as you mentioned, we should have already been beyond that by the time it gets to a board meeting, but are we able to do

189that collectively and agree on it because we've tried to make some changes and it hasn't been overly successful in some areas and really just based on what you just said and what I heard were some of the things I brought back to us to try to make our meetings more efficient and we've moved forward flt we were doing a great job before I got here and brought back some of the things that you suggested, but how -- when everyone's not on board and they'll say yes but then intrinsically want to make sure everyone understands how they're feeling ask -- and it's not necessarily a bad thing but it is when we're trying to get to business of the board, so how do we collectively as a board do that moving forward when we say yes

190but then -- because we have a policy that says that if they have questions, they're supposed to send it in but not everyone's doing that to fidelity, so how do we move forward with what we've said we're going o do but yet it still doesn't happen in terms of trying to make our board meetings more efficient? let me ask you a different question. When an employee violates policy or a student violates policy, what happens? there are consequences. The biggest problem is there aren't consequence widths the board meetings, board members, however, are you setting an example of it's okay to ignore policy if it doesn't suit your needs? If you're going to have policy, should the governance team honor policy? Should they follow policy or should they do a way with it and create something else

191that will work for them? Yes, sarah? yes, because this has come up when we tried to make policy around censuring board members, you're not going the censure a board member for asking a question they had beforehand but there are limited ways to have consequences for board members, so I'm curious about like that tension? and I'm saying there aren't consequences for board members. What kind of example do you want to set for the students and the staff in your county that it's okay to pick and choose which policies you follow, or you follow the policy and if it's not a good one, you change it? That's the conversation you should be having. You're going to follow this policy, if it's not a good one, change it. I really just don't agree with you. It is a

192good policy, it's a really great practice. okay, then follow it. I'm not finished. I'm sorry, I interrupted you. if you don't mind my finishing, everybody on this board is an elected leader and their accountability is from the public, I have seen other boards do funny things, they will have the staff count how many questions were asked per member that should have been asked way before the meeting and who have asked the most questions gets a not too nice a word, you asked six questions that totally could have been asked and should have been asked before the meeting. Why is it a joke? Because sometimes those people are going through thing ins their life and they couldn't get to it. Some important items come before a school board meeting and we have a week en. The

193as good policy because anally that's something we want people to do but you cannot tell a school board member to give a brilliant speech. You cannot tell them to turn homeworks in on time, you can't tell them to always be on topic. It's difficult xw ens robert's to cut them off when they're not relevant. They are elected leaders and have a right to speak, but it is a good policy. The reason it should stay in policy is because we want people to do that and it needs to be written that way, whether or not there are consequences beyond lekt -- lekt toiler consequences or public trust f you're a school board member who comes up with that a lot, you don't a lot of attention, so there are consequences to that but I don't think

194you should get rid o a policy because board members don't follow it 1 harbinger % of the time, I think so, but sarah doesn't, it's difficult to susz out, I think you have policy because it's the right thing o do, not always because you enforce it. okay, so you have a policy that at some point a group of board members approved it. yes. did this group a f agree to it? You made the policy? Okay. but again, like what he said, it's subjective, just about the questions in general, like, sometimes we get three agendas at once or two agendas at once, you are processing as fast as you can and are bringing questions to the board. You're going ask it again because maybe there was a a misunderstanding with staff and what you were trying

195to get at, but to not allow us to have questions or to say that's bad ga frn nans of our board meetings, like I have a lot of strong views on that. I'm not saying hating and I don't believe I heard anybody else. that's what I'm hearing from you, that we can't talk about what -- we can't educate our community especially on issues about changing their lives or where they go to school, we can't ask questions because we should have submitted that ahead of time. Sometimes questions come up, sometimes DR. Holness will say something and that prompts a question in my head, it's not that we're ineffective and not asking questions ahead of time, we have great conversation and is a very diverse board and yes, our meetings are long and it's annoying sometimes and

196we get hangry towards the end of the meeting but we are doing good govern -- governance. We are having good meetings because of the discussions we having, we joke about how long our meetings are, but we're doing good work. you watch a tape of a meeting two years ago and you watch what we're doing today, it's significantly different, its's about doing the work of the students in the schools and to DR. Hepburn's credit a majority of the work with do in workshops iss about student and is learn, it's not about the adult issues websinger try to handle those quicker in other ways and to me this board needs to stop and think a little bit about how how much better it was than when I joined. It's a different group and much more product tuff

197and it might take us a long time but we're working towards good things. okay. Let me speak to a couple of your comments. I said at one point you come in 98% of how you're going to vote and you listen to fr each other if there's a piece that's missing, that's a conversation that needs to go on. The board meeting is a place not to educate, there are places that suit that purpose better than doing it solely from the board table and thinking that because we did it at the dais, everything's going to be fine. Getting out into the community, doing listening tours or question and answers where you're listening to the public and you have a a presentation as to why are you rezoning, why are you doing whatever the topic is where more

198people MAY be able to come and hear it and actually realize, oh, this is a topic they're going to be talking about. So I'm looking at where's the best place to do the education is what I have been saying, I'm not staining -- saying don't do it from here, okay, and if you do it, do it less than ten minutes, okay. I have to say too, it was kind of surprising to me because you mentioned we have based on the data that you have collected that we have some storming issues, and that was surprising because I think the board in 2024-2025, we've been really functioning far better than I believe when I first got here in 2022, so I was very surprised to see that we scored high in the storming area. I thought we

199would most like be in a greater percentage in the performing area. I know that we have to refine the process between storming and norming, but I thought we came a long way so I was surprised to see we were in the storming and I would like to mention too we did take measures to improver the time in the meeting because we had a motion to where we approved our meetings to be 8 hours. If we want to go further, then we have to by majority vote, vote to continue the meeting, and so we've had a lot of great discussions and majority of the tile, we vote to continue the meeting, so I think we're in a much better place than we were even with the meeting times, with the storming issue, I was surprised at

200that. your stringing MAY have been higher had we done it two years ago so your number ares lower but you're still storming and you can tell you're storming by comments that have been made that not everybody is on the same page with everything and that's part of the storming. Storming doesn't mean you have big blowups, it dubt mean that you're fighting, it can turn into that if people are stubborn but I'm not seeing any of that. you should hang around for a while. isn't it normal to have some storming and some norming to be performing? it is normal to go into stringing occasionally. If I said here's a topic and you need to get to performing, you MAY go through storming, then norming and then performing on that topic. okay. and I'm not going the

201ask for any input f you're going through ai as you were just talking about, there's going to be a lot of discussion and there MAY be some storming that happens before you become that district that's leading the state and then leading the country in ai, so there can be some storming that gets you to performing because you've had the opportunity to have some very difficult conversations. I understand. lori and [Inaudible]. I have a question, based on a regular school board meeting, what do you think would be the average of item pulls that one board member would pull? okay, do you have a consent agenda and then non-consent? yes. the average number from a consent agenda should be 0. Then it shouldn't be on a consent agenda. A consent agenda is definitely where you get your

202questions answered ahead of tile. That's the routine stuff that's on there, approving the budget expenditures for the month, approve thirsting crazy law of the superintendent has to bring you the appointees, they're putting in place, by law, you have to vote on them and agree. Those kinds of everyday operational types of things, contracts for construction and that type of thing, those are what I would assume are on your consent agenda. no. We have a really weird thing, I've been on a lot of boards and this is the weird consent thing, it's defined by not having financial impact. oh. and that's not what consent should be, consent is all the things you just listed, should be the no one even reads them kind of thing and is then the open items would be things that are significant

203which used to be identified by financial cost or impact but there's a lot of things that have significant financial impact that, one,, we're not allowed to make a judgment on it like hiring people and some things, you know, that might have money but they're just kind of must pay bills like change of budget amendments every month, so we f we could do much better if consent was built around some definition of what you described which is these are things that almost in no. One would ever pull because there's no reason to spend time on it. they're the routine things as a board member to check to make sure it's happening appropriately. right, but that's what consent is supposed to be. exactly. and I think we have this weird definition of what consent versus non-consent is.

204It's something you want to talk about and it's on the consent agenda and you wonder why. there are b items which are board items which are to give direction to the superintendent but they were discussion worthy, there was a lot of discussion around them which made our meeting go [Inaudible]. It could have been longer, but, yeah, that's kind of the b items come up especially because that's the only place we can as a board discuss them unless it had come to us at a workshop which the items didn't come to us at a workshop, so I agree with DR. Zeman, what should be consent because sometimes it's not a big deal but I think if I'm not mistaken, last meeting, there were as many consent items pulled as open items pulled which was frustrating as

205a chair because consent should be, you know, -- but in that instance, there were important b items that there was no other way for us to get to a consensus without having those discussions. So, and I think there was five, right, five b items that were all board member items. you need to be careful with board member items being brought and voted on at the same meeting. If your agenda is out a week ahead of time, it does let board members know that type of thing, but having things that haven't been vetted through the superintendent and staff and then brought forward can cause some problems. Let's put it that way. Board members can have wonderful ideas and then find out, you know. we don't do it. so, oftentimes, boards will have a portion of time

206during their workshops where those -- what I'm understanding the b items to be would come at workshop and it would be discussed at the workshop and the board in general -- I mean, in unison would decide whether that through consensus, is this an item we want to pursue or is this something that can be referred to staff, can the superintendent handle it because not everything has to be a board verdict. So, there are some things you MAY want to look at your agenda and how that is handled because otherwise I have no idea how many items should be pulled. [Inaudible] okay. [Inaudible]. The double letter ie steps. your double letter items, those are what I would understand to be non-consent items where it's brought forward and maybe there is discussion about it and then you

207move forward and those -- each item would be addressed, not necessarily I'll pull this one or I'll pull this one. I know there's one district that everything is an action item and then they pull the ones they want to talk about and they have very long meetings. [Inaudible]. okay, so that's a lot. If that taoes business that needs to happen in the next two weeks, then I understand that, but the consent should be those standard ongoing every couple of months, every week, every other week, every board meeting, whatever, that are just routine items, so they very rarely would need to be pulled. There MAY be something -- I made the comment about somebody going to the macy's parade tha, might be a consent agenda item, it's just getting approval to rent the bus to take

208the kids or giving them approval the take that as a field trip or whatever. And that MAY be something that afterwards you might want to just say we just passed something on an agenda item that I want o to highlight because we have a tremendous group that's going to be going to the macy's parade because he were chosen out of the country, that kind of thing, so you can highlight some items without pulling them but the consent should be those items that they're pretty much going to be passed unless there's a question about a contract, you've read the contract, everything looks good, iet assist standard contract for maintenance that needs to happen or supplies that need to be at the beginning of the year, or it's towards the end of the year where you do

209all the arts supplies and everything else to get the warehouse items in. Those are pretty standard. Yes, it involves money but are you going say we're not going to pay $15 for this pack that says it's $15, so, you MAY want to look at some of that. Yes? just to throw in a little context of why there's the ying and the yang when it comes to speaking up and how much is too much. the grand jury's questions, watching board meet advising seeing board members doing their job and board members not doing their job, so when you have an overarching event like that and it's multiple times, that itit kind of sets the bar up boardrd members. Toe,e,.If I wain other districts, I would be like how am I holding myself accountable, how am I meeting

210with the superintendent and seeing what he's doing, etc., whatever it is, but I think that's a a piece that's important to me but if it's something simple and I want to pull it because it's the macy's parade, then I'll say in my pull, I'm just having a comment or I'm supporting the item and that's -- I'm just letting you know I'm going the pull it but I want to tell you I'm going to do this and that's really -- I guess for that, but I did want to put out that basically it's -- the grand jury's report came and went and still hasn't really gone away. makes a lot of sense. One of the ways you can cover that is where groups will send their questions in to the superintendent ahead of time and then

211all of the questions get answered and everybody's questions get sent out to the entire board. Thafrjts's what we do, yeah. so they can get answers. if those answers aren't adequate, you call the superintendent and say that's not what I was asking or they went off on a different tangent than what I was wanting to focus in on, so you still have time to do the that. back to the other thing, I think part of the being in storming and norming is because we have had a lot of change, constant change. The board has changed, the superintendent has changed, and we have a good board now but we really only been together since DECEMBER, right, we really -- we're still forming those normal relationships with each other, so I think -- and now we'll go into

212that again, so, you know, I think we just haven't had -- the board before us was pretty stable for a long time and just in the five years that I have been here, we've been through a lot of versions of the board and different superintendents, so I think that's kind of -- would probably explain why we're in that triangle there. Two other things, I have a question, but just to answer, on our consent item, what we -- we've done now is ie tep that is weren't pulled, if someone has a a comment, we've given two minutes for each board member at the end to kind of just say whatever they wanted to say to kind of address that, but I have a question. So, let's say a board member would like to direct the superintendent

213to collect data on something. Is that something that everyone on the board has to agree with and we've had back and fourths forth on whether it's a vote, a consensus, semantics are a thing, I as chair have gotten called out on that a number of times so I would really like your opinion on what should that look like? no individual has the authority to direct the superintendent. It is the board, so the answer that we give is the majority of the board has to agree that this is important data to receive. There are also questions that you can ask as an individual and get answers. So, many districts will have like a time limit, if it's going to take staff more than a half hour to put this together, you ask questions through the superintendent,

214if it's going take staff more than a half hour, you bring it to the board, if it's going to take them more than an hour, you bring it back to the board so we're not -- if you think you have nine school board member and is everybody wants to take one hour worth of gathering data and information, you have taken a staff member one full day and then you bring him to a board meeting, that's another day they've lost, and you bring them to a workshop, that's another day they've lost. By the time you're done, you can be cutting the amount of time they have to do their job in half, okay. So, you might want to look at some protocols or procedures as to how much staff time, but you're allowed to get any

215question answered to go back to your original, a board member can get any question answered but it's how much time should it take and how do you go about doing it. okay, and let's say that's in a workshop where you can't take action. you can't take action but that's where consensus come ins. and someone else said to me that consensus means 100%. nope. I did not agree with that. it's the absence of dissent. so, was the difference, is there a technical difference between voting majority at a board meeting and giving consensus at a workshop? It's just semantics in terms of -- it's the legalities, okay. you voted at a board meeting. If somebody brings something up and they would like some information, some data, whatever, as CHAIRMAN, you can say do swre one person has

216already said it, you need five to be the majority, so do we have four other people that think that this is important data to get. so, is it appropriate to say DR. Holness, do you agree? no, it's not, it's not, carol. Consent is the absence of disagreement. If someone comes up with an idea and says we would like to hear more about ai at the next workshop, if there's no disagreement, if no one says anything, that is consent. You're not allowed to ask around a room according to robert's? I was agree witching you on that one, you don't go around and ask but you can say are there others. it's not about fiver, it's about the absence of dissent. That's what consent is defined by in robert's, as long as no one says anything against

217it, it is consent. silence means consent, that's where that conversation came in. but if no one says no -- but what we're saying for good practice in a bore, to make sure the -- I've spent decades on this board, this is not what robert's says and robert's says consent is the absence of dissent. If you're trying to go to dinner, if someone doesn't say anything against it, that's what happens. so what happens when somebody says something against it? this is important. so one person says no, does that mean the superintendent then doesn't do it? no, then you have a discussion. and you have to find out -- that is the subject tif discussion to the group of the chair. They say that's consent, that's my view of consent, that's one of the powers of the

218chair. then I would suggest you all decide how you're going to operate with consent. We say that if the majority o the board directs the superintendent to do it, then that's what the superintendent would do. Now whether we call it consent or not is a different issue. Yes? yes, so I just wanted to make the point though, the difference between consent and an agenda item is when you're getting consent at the end of the board meeting, you're not allowing the public the opportunity to speak on the item or to speak on the topic to say because they don't know that someone randomly is going the bring something up and then randomly get consent of the group. So that iss a key difference. yeah, if an item is being brought up randomly, it should be put

219on a different agenda item. and I also want to say I think it's very disappoint hating MS. Batista is not here. okay. she's not part of the governance team which is probably why. Yes? so, a few things, to MS. Batista being here point, she is -- part of her evaluation was to get parliamentarian training so she is supposed to be like advising us on parliamentarian stuff. I mean, to give everyone some grace, I don't know that she knew that we were going to have this robert's rules conversation. So I had a lot of questions about the conversation that has ensued. Are we talking about consensus or consent agenda, like, I think we -- we're talking about both things. okay. but like right now were we talking about what gaining consensus means? somebody asked to give

220the superintendent a directive and how do we decide whether he's moving -- to have him say yes, we have consent and we have consensus. okay, historically we've gone around the room, like, are you good with direct thing superintendent to do this and if five board members said, yeah, we're good, that's how we moved forward. Am I now hearing we should not be going around the room, is that what I'm hearing? correct. so, that would -- to MS. Alhadeff's point, it will be nice if MS. Batista was in the room to hear about this because that's what we've been doing for five years, so there's that. My concern I guess is -- and maybe if we -- one of us can submit a question for follow-up, like if we need every single person to agree or

221what DR. Zeman is saying, like in absence of dissent to gain consensus, that means like almost nothing moves forward. So, that's a concern for me. You said something earlier though about, you know, business that would be -- when you were talking about the consent agenda, that would be the business of the board for the next two weeks. Are there some school districts that you work with that have two regular school board meetings a month? yes. that's how we used to do it. I think when debbie and I joined at firstser it was right after we joined that we did away with that, correct? So, I don't have like a strong opinion either way but I think that MAY be something we could talk about give than we have agendas that are over 100 items long

222is maybe doing two regular school board meetings a month and then two workshops is how it was done like a long time ago. And then I had another question, now I forget, but, yeah. if you think of it, we'll come back. and you can do two a month if you're not doing 8 hours each of them, and that MAY shorten the meetings. I wanted to thank the colleagues for asking great questions. I get great joy when I see a question and an answer come across that I didn't think of and that happens all the time but I learn a ton from your wisdom of asking the questions you ask and I love getting them. I want to ask for one good governance rule we don't hear much about but I think it gets us much

223faster to performing than one of these that we're talking about, assume good intent from your colleagues, like, you see something you don't understand, you MAY not understand why they're taking so long to talk, you MAY get frustrated because see mra n is going on and on about ai but a lot gets done when you assume good intent of your colleagues and I think that's easy on this board. and that is something that we do get to in the next half of this because it talkers about -- I set you up? not today, but our next one because we talk about some personality traits and then we get into how do you get around all of this and basically assuming that everybody is here with good intent. there's a huge difference between a team of experts

224and an expert team, but the big leap to becoming an expert team are to assume other people on the team are help tog achieve a goal and my observation is I haven't seen anything on this board where people overwhelmingly aren't trying to build a a good school system. If you start with that, you can get a lot of stuff tone. that's one of the things that will put you here and that's where it's done, where you assume there is good intent x you see that good intent eventually, you trust each other. Lori?Frjt yes, I have a question with regards to the superintendent with the board member question and then follow-up because I've always asked if that follow-up can be attached to the item because I think what tends -- I don't know if it's happening

225because I think it should happen but then also maybe then the public would be aware that that board member asked that question because they see it in the item if they were reading it and then also that board member wouldn't have to ask the same question at the meeting because it was already answered. that could be handled a cup ofl washes, did you want to speak to it? we attach the board response for that item and send out an entire packet of all the questions and the items. One thing probably the last meeting I told staff to do, as they receive hem and answer them, to send them out. One thing I noticed and I didn't notice until I started asking the question, okay, I see -- say DR. Holness asked a a question, we

226responded to it, I signed off my assumption it was sent to the board members but for board item, they were holding on to it to attach it to the item and send it as a bulk. And then MS. Rupert asked the same question, and I said, no, you send them out as we receive them, that way if DR. Holness, his question got answered, then MS. Rupert wow f would see the answer. That way we don't get duplicate questions from board numberings. let's say it's 002, is my question that I asked on oo2 attached to oo2 in the item ?Frjts yes. and before the board meeting? yes. okay, so then the board member wouldn't have to ask the same question because it's already there. it's already there. thank you. the only time it would not be

227attached, the board meeting's on tuesday and we get the question on monday. Since it's last minute. that's why we have a policy that says when it should be turned in so we can make sure it's uploaded and everything. okay, sarah, you had a question? yeah, I remember what I was going to ask about before. Or maybe this isn't necessarily a question but more of a concern. You know, one thing that you mentioned was like being mindful of staff's time when we're asking for data and asking questions. I think that like something I hear a lot from the community and sometimes I feel this as a board member, it sometimes feels like the district staff is operating in spite of us, like that we are like a hurdle that they have to get past and really

228it's like us who we are the people who are supposed to be directing policy and so I think there's just -- I feel a tension there and from the community's perspective, we -- or at least I hear you guys are the ones who should be doing this and they -- staff is then supposed to be operating at the direction that you give in terms of policy, but it sometimes feels like we're just like a burden to staff, so I don't know if you have any advice on how we navigate that. well, one, by having a communication agreement, we'll call it, with the superintendent, to whom are you the to speak when you have questions or whatever, and if you're going below that. Let's say it is -- the cabinet, are they allowed to talk to

229all the cabinet members any time they need to? . Inger yes, I have sent out a one sheet that lists all the cabinet members, as far as who they can talk to as far as the chief, if it's operations, you're free to call MS. Paul. if you're maintaining that level, then that's part of the process. When you start going below that and start going to the people that they oversee, now they start wondering, what am I supposed to be doing, am I supposed to be doing what this board member says, am I supposed to be doing what this one says? I'm trying to make sure that I make everybody happy as much as I can and it causes confusion for them. And so that's where some of the problem come ins. The other part is

230of your questions, the community doesn't quite understand how school boards work and how school districts work. It's not like any other business. You know, a board of directories usually gets to speak to each other outside a meeting or within a meeting, they get to talk to each other, they don't. Board of directors also can give direction and they move forward and they MAY check a little more often and delve a little deeper than a school board can. Other board of directors are here, we ever given the CHAIRMAN -- I mean, we've given the ceo their direction to go up and do it and report to us in three month sos this isn't like any other business so people don't really understand that. When they will stop questioning all of it is when they start seeing

231progress being made with their students. The best way for the public to believe you is to start seeing that your students are achieving and that they're making progress and that they're seeing you're all working together to do that. I have a question. yes. you mentioned the community doesn't quite understand how the school board operates, right. But isn't it the district's obligation to education the community? Because I've seen those concerns sometimes where you're being -- inquiries are being made without the understanding of what a school board member does and so on and so forth and what the district operation's responsibilities are, so whose responsibility would it be to educate the public so they can better understand how governance works versus operations? okay, and that can be the school board member, when they call you and say

232my child d wawa disciplined by a teacher and I don't agree withit. Your question is have you spoken to the teacher? Yes, I talked to the teach and her she didn't want to hear anything about it, have you spoken to the principal? By constantly directing them to the right peel, you are educating them to what your role is. If they call you and say I have a concern, let me put you in charge with the person that oversees that, and here's the phone number, they're the ones that can handle -- answer your questions or handle the issue. Another thing that they're not thinking I just don't want to deal with you, if you don't hear back from them within a few days, give mre a call. Wefrjts have the large district websinger ear the sixth

233largest in the nation. Wouldn't it be a better approach if there is some sort of a formal way of whether it's through awareness or because we -- to educate families, parents, guardians, as to the role of different entities and how they can can get their issues resolved as opposed to -- because you have hundreds of individual cases that's brought forth to a board member that had they been aware of the procedural as -- aspect of operation and is what the board does in advance, we would not be unindated with those type of inquiries? there is an argument to be made for that but the reality is most community members who have children in schools, parents, guardians, all those, their world revolves pretty much around the school. Some people don't know school board members exist and

234they don't until there's problem and they work their way up and that's where with compassion and understanding and direction, you can put them in touch with the people and that's what ends up being the way that they learn how it works. Again, the biggest thing to gain confidence from your community is for them to see that the students in your district are making progress and they're learning and they're excited about going to school and you can sell through pr and press releases and everything else the wonderful things that are going on that we sometimes forget to share. And then the public finds out about that. Yes? I just wanted to talk about the run of show today, chair. I know we started late and this is incredibly helpful, thank you, and I don't want to

235insinuate my preferences, if we wanted to finish by say like 4:00, could we go another 15 minutes and find a good breaking point and go to the next critical ie fem we have while everyone can still stay here? I'm not sure how much longer you have? we're close to where I can wrap it up. do we need to gain consent? is there anybody that doesn't want to lever -- leave earlier? would you like me to address consent and consensus while I'm here? just consensus. so, consensus doesn't really add conflict, doesn't really exist under robert's rules. The most similar thing under robert's rules is when you have unanimous consent. So, that's a little bit different than consensus, so consensus is -- and I think DR. Zeman explained it well when he said is when no one

236objects, so if someone objects, then you have to discuss it and then you have to figure out where you're at, at that point, and that happens usually during a workshop because we're not voting during a workshop. right. so, that's the difference between consensus and -- so, you have -- go ahead and ask the question. one of the questions that MS. Leonardi asked that I feel like I ask a lot, is it appropriate to say DR. Hol bs, what do you think, MS. Rupert, what do you think, and the answer was no, that's the way we've done it for as long as I've been here but then all of a sudden we weren't supposed to be doing it anymore so it's just confusing, I want to clear that up so we know what we're doing so,

237no, you're not supposed to go to each person and ask because it's almost like a vote and you're not supposed to be voting, that's the only reason you would not be able to do that but I know it's hard sometimes when you're trying to figure out whether there's consensus or not whether or not -- because not revenger has spoken, so maybe one way to address that is just before the person [Inaudible] To say hearing no objection, we are going to move forward doing whatever it is that you think everybody had consensus on, and if someone does not agree, that person would have to say, no, I don't agree and start that process but sometimes it's very difficult as you can appreciate, everybody's talking, everybody's saying a couple of different things and then all of a

238sudden you don't know if it was a majority of the people that wanted something and staff is confused to so they need to know what the direction tof board is as well. well, and that was where I was coming from when I said -- I guess I was the one who started the whole conferencing -- conversation about consensus, the way they operate is are there other board member who is are interested, and they what say yes, I was told that's not what robert's rules are. Now with the -- what was the other one, unanimous consent, those -- yes, in robert's rules, if you say if there is no objection, that's where this meeting is adjourned. That's where we use the unanimous consent. I always do a robert's rules little thing and that's one of the

239examples I gave, I staged about staged -- talked about consensus and consent, if no one objects, so that was the exact example I used. So, yes, so that's -- alright. Then how are you as a board going to agree if somebody asks for data for example, one person says I think we need this data or I think we need to put this on as an agenda item, how would you suggest that the superintendent find out that it's more than one person asking for this? I have a question on that. Since no one can vote with that example and I know that the chair has a difficult position in determining consensus, can the chair instead of asking for a vote, can the chair say does anyone want to give an input on the superintendent providing data,

240does anyone want to give their feedback, then the chair can determine if she believes that everyone or majority agrees without a vote, so she's simply try tos get feedback as to what is your input on data being provided. that could work. I'm just suggesting you -- I'm doipg agreement on how you're going to handle that and I'm going the leave this toup the attorney. I think it would be easier if I said does anybody object to the superintendent bringing this back. or no one doesn't object, if something you think is the obvious thing and not hearing any objection, let's try that. And then you can raise your hand and say object and then it's done. so, if there's one objection, it's dead? you don't have unanimous consent. there's no unanimous consent. I guess I would

241like some clarity, I feel like we've been doing this for five years under mlt pl chairs and it's news to me today that now we're not allowed to do this. clarify what you have been doing. Tfrjt way we've been gaining consensus is going around the room and saying are you good, this has been going on for my entire time under a million different chairs on the board. So I'm a little disturbed we're finding out today that we should not have been doing that and then I would like some clarity, so if we with are to move forward, to DR. Holness' point, if there is one objection, is something dead or is it like a five member majority and then it can move forward? Because that's how we -- a lot of times people will talk

242about can we bring this item to a workshop and it takes five people to say yes to move forward. So is that -- I would really like some clarity on that moving forward. so, I think the issue when you have -- when you're in a workshop setting and then you go to each one of the board members is that it looks like a vote, right. But there's nothing prohibiting you from like after someone spoke, if it's not clear, which way they're leaning, to say, are you for it, are you against it, I think you can ask those questions as the chair. when there is -- if there is no clear consensus or dissent for that matter, and you would like to have some clarity, you can say something along the lines, you know, hearing no

243objection, the superintendent will gather information regarding this item and bring it to the board to the next board meeting or at the next workshop or we'll have a follow-up or what not. If someone says I object, then there has to be some discussion, right. And if there is -- there cannot be consensus there, it has to come in some sort of an item to the board at a board meeting to direct the superintendent to do x, y or z, and then you would have to take a vote at that point. so, what is consensus, five people agreeing or unanimous? it is a majority, so it's fiver people agreeing. . Er no one person can direct the superintendent to do something, no one person can stop st board from doing something. and I don't want to

244belabor the point, but -- so, if someone says I don't agree and we have a discussion about it and only that one person doesn't agree, then I would say as the chair, it seems as if the consensus is to direct the superintendent -- correct. because what I heard earlier is it's only a consensus if no one disagrees? no. so that's where I'm still stuck because I heard two different things. no, the definition of consensus is that there is no objection but it doesn't mean that if there is one person objecting, that there is no consensus. consensus and unanimous consent, those are two different things. DR. See mra n was talking about unanimous listen sent, consensus is get thing feel that the majority of the board is in favor of something. I just want -- because

245I had a number of people staining something different. En consensus is general agreement, no one objects, general agreement. But there could be somebody that objects. if somebody objects and it needs to be general consensus, why would we have to have a continued discussion with that person if they objected, if everyone else agreed? well, if it's clear that everyone else agrees but sometimes people are silent and someone objects and then it sounds like maybe that gives it is rest of the people like, okay, well, there is company so I'm going to say no too because that happens. I'm sorry, I just have a quick question. If someone objects and the chair asks for feedback, not a vote, feedback, and is it toup the chair's discretion to determine that based on the feedback that she can presume

246consensus and direct the superintendent? yes, she summarizes whatever she thinks she's heard. so, the issue is this cannot appear that it's a vote by asking individual board member tos raise their hand but she can ask what is your feedback on this issue, if she determines she's -- we have consensus, then she can direct the superintendent even if there is an objection? correct. okay. lori?Frnlt but to be clear, if there's objection, you would need five board members to object? yes. you have to have the majority? you would have -- right, a majority would have to object, otherwise if everyone is silent and only one person says I don't agree, in that scenario, only for workshops, not in a board meeting, in a board meeting, you vote, the majority -- right, the majority will have to say

247an abing -- actual vote of yes. [Inaudible]. I think we should play one scenario out, I heard the discussion and I don't want you to come to the a workshop and then you having a discussion about the discussion again about consensus, play it out. I think we should have cell phones during lunchtime. before we do that, I think what was also an issue that came up recently was we were at the end of a board meeting and we asked does anybody have anything to come up and an issue came up and we had consensus, not everybody agreed, would you call that a vote because it's at a board meeting but it wasn't an item on the agenda, it was a topic that someone brought forth to want to discuss -- to direct the superintendent to

248do something and we -- yeah, so it was about a boundary change. And so someone directed the superintendent, we as a board took -- well, I went around and asked everybody and two people did not agree, 7 did and so the item moved forward, so we kind of got stuck there because it wasn't really an agenda item, it was brought up when we asked for that but we were still in a board meeting, not a workshop, and it hadn't closed so we could still vote at that time. So, does that then be considered an item even though -- because we did vote -- that's why to me it seems like it's the same thing, but semantics are important, so were we taking a vote then or a consensus? was there a motion made? he directed

249the superintendent and then we took consensus as to whether we agreed for that directive to move forward. okay. Then technically it was not a vote, there needs taob motion and a second in order for it to be a vote at a school board meeting and then have that discussion. can can you do that at that time? it's very dangerous to do so. but technically yes. because if it's boundary changing is your example, we want to change the boundaries and it's the final vote, the public has nod had -- not had a chance to weigh in for the change. it was a directive to bring us back something. so that would be very different than direct thing superintendent to move it and it's still combining for a final vote, they are two different things. It's just

250nod real good practice to bring up something and vote on it when the public hasn't had an opportunity to buy in. and just to be compare fa ir t discussion and the topic came up during the workshop basined on an item that was before us at the meeting and based on some public comment I think is where the direct I ever came from. It wasn't out of the blue but it was not something that was on the agenda. and sometimes the rule ares cumbersome for government, there is people always say, well, it's a violation of s un shao in, it's not a violation of sunshine, there's a reason you have an agenda that comes up 7 day ins advance, it's because of the administrative procedures act that says you have to publish an agenda 7

251days in advance unless you have a special school board meet, you have less time, you can publish the items with less time. Now, that doesn't mean you cannot bring an item late and accept it for good cause, there are many way tos get around that main rule. there's a process for that too. there's a process for that too, but it's just a good idea, number one, you know, because you do have the ability to have -- the opportunity for the public to speak about it. There is notice, so that the other board members also can prepare for that, so unless it's something of an emergency nature, there is no reason to really do it that way when you really think about it most of the time, even though it MAY seem at the moment there

252is. just be very, very careful with that. And's better to move it to another agenda or go ahead and have the discussion because that's in the public but as far as the vote, give the public the opportunity to speak to it. Now, let me give you an example, we forgot to elect our representative for fsba, that doesn't impact the community, that's who's going to represent your board. That could be something that was forgotten to be put on the agenda, that's different that something that affects the student and is the community. and again and it's not that it's prohibited, you still have do it, it's just not good practice. it's not good practice, that's what I'm saying and be very careful. and if I MAY say one more thing, when I was coming down, I was

253sort of like, do I get in the elevator because they're saying something I want to hear, but I did hear something that MS. Rupert said and there is a lot of the practices as it pertains to the agenda that are imbedded in the past grand jury investigations that the district has gone through, so there were reports that had criticism of board members at the time or how the board in general did things, so as a result of that, there were policy has were put in place to try to address ose issuesesand onofof them was what is a nsenent item versus an open item, and I think there was -- it was 2011 grand jury report, it does talk about the fact that -- accuses the board members of trying to hide thing ins the consent

254agenda, etc., so after that, I think the policy came out that anything that has any financial component will be in the open agenda. and that came out of the grand jury? correct, but I think the policy goes a little too far because I don't think that's necessary, but that was the response to that grand jury report. then that's how you dwot that agenda the way it is. thank you very much. when's our next session? MAY 6, I believe, and that -- we'll pick up on going from here and how communication will help solve some of these issues. We were pretty much at a stopping point anyways so it's good to have it be your fault instead of mine. Before we close, I just have one question and maybe I'm opening myself up to a very

255long conversation. As a result of the conversation today, what are you going to do? You just spent a lot of time with us, and it doesn't have to be as a board, what did you as an individual take away from the conversation or the time together today? And I'm not letting you out until somebody says something? I'm going the -- to ask more written questions but be prudent to not waste staff time. lofr lori? I'm going to be more of an active listener to my colleagues. okay, good. I'm going to do a better job of figuring out how consensus moves moving forward and I appreciate the direction. good. Anyone else? nora? Rnlts I'll pick up the phone and call the superintendent more. I'm sorry if I talked you up now, but that's good practice, very

256good practice. Yeah, that also lets him know what's the temperature of the board so he's making good decisions rather than bringing something up not even knowing that you wouldn't go along with that, so that helps. Anyone else? Alright. Thank you, I appreciate your time and I will see you in MAY. [Applause]. thank you, we're going to take a short no more than five minute recess. We have one more item and then we have closed door. (Closed session). welcome back to our school board workshop. Our last item is the office of safe schools quarterly report. I will now turn it over to staff for a very, very, very brief presentation. good afternoon, my name is morgan, I am one of our compliance coordinator ins the safety and security compliance section. I have some information here for

257you today with our presentation, I don't know if we have that up on the screen, I believe you were provided that in advance from our quarterly report. Fantastic. So, our next slide is going to be just of course our information regarding our requirements. Move to the next slide, please. and this is also the quarterly report we received from the state of florida regarding our quarter 3 compliance visits, there are a total of 46 schools inspected this quarter which is just under 15% of our total schools within the district. Of those schools that were visited, there were 21 that had no compliance deficiencies or were completely compliant and that's just under or just over 45%, excuse me, of the visitors -- visits that were completed. Next slide. So, we did break this down for our traditional

258schools. Those site visits totaled 37 and 20 of those site visits resulted in full compliance so they did have that perfect score from their site visit from the state which brought us up to about 55% or 54.05% of those visits that were completed at traditional schools. We included the superintendent objective of the 18 requirements within our compliance report and you can see how that has progressed over the year with quarter 3 now being at 95% compliance with our year to date total being just under that 95% benchmark there. Next slide. For our charter schools, we also have that information with 9 of the schools visited being charterers, and one of those schools had full compliance within the site visits. So, that brings us to with that same metric for that superintendent objective but in our

259charter schools to our year to date for -- including our quarter 3 being at 87.8%, and our last slide just to give you an overall picture of how we have changed and progressed, so of course for the entire district, we have increased significantly since the first quarter up to now being at 46.75% compliance which of course we are still working to address every day and our areas for continued improvement still seem to be those same areas of our documentation, some of our doors and gates and some of those safer space markings as well and giving you some of our information here of the actions we've been taking with outreach to our schools individually and ensuring we're meeting those timelines with the state for addressing any deficiencies. If you have any questions, that's it from us.

260thank you so much for that, MRS. Alhadeff? yes, thank you, on page 5, bullet point number 2, it speaks to a compliance department. Can you speak to if we have compliance departments specifically or is it just people? task assigned chief security officer, there is a mighty tale that work on compliance. and are they working directly with the asm's? do you want to talk about the role? yes, myself, my counterpart and other compliance coordinator that are part of our compliance team do work directly with sam's on a daily basis communicating with them regard thing visits they're conducting at schools working directly with their supervision, they will reach out when they look for assistance to support those schools, every day I have talked to probably four ark sm's today. and how many do we have total? 14.

261okay. And just to be clear, we don't have a compliance department, we just have a compliance team? that is cek, we report -- myself, my counterpart and the two clerks underneath us report directly to chief lo sa n know to support the school specialist, and I do apologize for that language in the presentation. no, I just wanted to be clear. thank you. thank you so much, chair, last time we saw this, there was a change in the rule or the rules about what was checked for in schools in q1 change from q1 by the time we got to q2, these numbers here are all from the exact same standards, so q1, 2, 3 are completely comparable? so, they have not been -- these are the data we've been given by the state of florida, that's

262what we were trying to keep consistency there. They didn't make any adjustments with how they changed our percentages, and they have not made any changes since the last conversation that we had in q2, so we just used the data that was provided to us by the state and broke that down because that will be what is finally reported by them, so there has been no adjustments made to this data. let me say this back a different way then. These numbers do not form a trend? Because they are different measures of safety and security so, what we're telling the public is here's three number from q1, 2 and 3 which are not a trend? and that's based upon the data from the state. and I'm down with that, I would have recommended you reported it both

263ways and I would have footnoted this and say this is not comparable data, these three, 98.8% of broward county think it is with the same measuring stick sdp it is not. That's for you to consider. of course, we will make an adjustment to that. I thought we had gotten agreement to did that last time. Second, am I write that broward county's traditional public schools are improving in their compliance with safety and security inspections? DR. Hepburn? actually my question was just asked by DR. Zeman, so that works out. Thank you. thank you so much for the report and for answering the questions. It was, good to see that we were doing better in that. I would really also like to see our charter schools doing better because this is about school safety. So if there is

264something that needs to be done to help them to get a better report, I would hope that we could give them the report that they needed to be able to do that. So all right. Thank you. Thank you so much for coming and waiting for us. At this time, do any of my colleagues have any. Sorry, MS. Leonardi. I have something to share. to bring to the board for student successes to share. MS. Leonardi. I had the privilege to attending lie I -- will I lion junior last week. I brought my daughter,s as DR. Hepburn said, she did not blink the entire time. the talent is amazing and the staff and the work that they put n it was an incredible experience and I think speaks to the importance of arts in the school. I

265just want to thank the staff for inviting me and thank you for, for putting on such a beautiful show. thank you. Anybody else. I have a couple of things. DR. Zeman. is this the time we wanted to talk about future workshops. if you want to, now is the time to do that. I want to express the discussion that we had today about ai and that we continue to have more information about broward schools powered by ai, and I think there was a lot of discussion by the board today that was not just about ai as a add on to some software as we already bought, but ai as a principle. There is tremendous value in bringing ai to workshops every couple of months. More important is the budget. We've had some shocks from the legislature

266that if we end up where the house and senate are right now, it's going to be very very dire times to the extent that the board is made aware of those options earlier and provide guidance about where we MAY want to see some reduction so we have money left for educator adjustments. My proposal is that we keep getting budget workshops until we wrap that at the end of JUNE and adopt our original budget. But after that, I would like to see this ai theme every couple of months where we get a big dose of ai. thank you, is there anyone that disagrees with DR. Zeman's? MS. Leonardi? I guess I have questions about both of those things like what, I would like to hear from staff about those proposals and you know, if they would

267have new things to offer, for the budget every every workshop before we get that sorted out, as well as the ai piece. DR. Hepburn? so talk about the ai piece. As you know, the academic team, they frequently do workshops probably one every one to two months just to give the board updates and performance so we can definitely wrap strategies and practices and resources which is what the ai components can be in the workshop so we can get a holistic view of what we're doing. As far as the budget is concerned, the team and I we're working on cost saving to first provide that in a memo in a board so you have that in a timely fashion real soon. And then we'll workshop foes cost saving for board feedback as we move forward to the

268upcoming school year for things that impact us for the upcoming school year and things thth will creaeate runway fofor ththe 267 hoolol year which h would volve having discussions with principals and leadership teams and the like because they have to be part of this journey if we're going to make changes and sustainable changes that are going to be embedded in the bullet you're -- culture of the schools. i also know MR. Sullivan is going to once this session wraps up, he's going to provide a workshop on all things that came out of the session including edge slate you're, new legislation around funding for public schools and alike. That is a component too that we can add to that, that will be very helpful for the board. But we're going to be giving you, a memo

269talking about cost saving real soon anyway, so. okay, so I'm hearing around ai it can be embedded in the academic workshops, is that correct? That's fine with me, I'm not sure if that's what DR. Zeman was talking about but I'm not going to speak for him. And in terms of doing a budget workshop at every workshop from now until we adopt the budget, I'm hearing that that is somewhat in the plan already? that is somewhat in the plans to talk about soft saving and MS. Johnson's team and their usually cadence for budget workshop. thank you. MS. Alhadeff. would I like to see that I would like to see our strategic plan come first, and revise and look at that if we're going to incorporate the ai into it into the strategic plan and then I

270can see cadence after that to do ai. DR. Hepburn. we can have the same team present the strategic plan and how ai would fold into it. I know we have over arching goals and also guard rails, so many of the, so I want to kind of provide clarity, we do a lot of things. We do a lot of instructional practices a lot of straj tees that utilize and don't utilize technology. So those are types of our components that help us so we can bring that and discuss those goals and really talk about some of the work na is involved that follows up to equate to student performance, everybody has a clear understanding about what is inside the strategic plan and how to work the team does at the schools and above. and what does the

271timing look look? -- look like? I have to talk to our team I'll bring that up next monday and look at the workshops, our workshops with pretty jam packed in MAY, they're already over 8 hours long, so we're looking at a schedule so we can cut out to see what we can cut out or shrink so we're not here for 12 hours. okay, I just think the strategic plan is, you know, our golden light that we need to connect the budget to. absolutely. so that should be a priority item. is everybody okay with having the strategic plan come back to us? Anybody disagree? I'm going to be difficult today, I'm sorry. I'm wondering when did we? It feels like we adopted the strategic plan multiple times. When did we last do the strategic plan? the

272strategic plan sunsets, 2027, correct? yes. and it's a five-year plan, correct? Or no? four or five years, I have to check. so we're like in the middle of it. yes, we're in the middle of it. okay, I don't disagree about the concept being in our strategic plan. I do have concerns about like, altering the strategic plan mid-stream and changing like goals and guardrails, so not like a deal breaker for me but I don't know that that's the best way to address it. no, and what I want to do is strategic plan is inform the board. Is theres no instructional practices baked into this, we're not saying, we're saying in the strategic plan, hypothetically saying, algebra 1 will increase by 5 percentage points. That work would change. yes. s we progress. There is new tools and

273resources that come out every couple of years. So that's why we can bring it back to present it. So the board can understand the work that is involved to support the strategic plan and all the priorities that we have that we discuss every monday morning so we're well-informed about the things that we are doing right now. But you know, strategies and practices change every couple of years. Today it's ai, tomorrow it's ai on steroids or something else. We'll bring it so we can have that discussion. DR. Zeman? Did you have something to add? Yes, MS. Alhadeff. to that point, we have two new board members and another school board members that will be coming on board. And that is more important that we bring the strategic plan back. and just as a note to that,

274in the discussion today with our trainer, she did mention that our strategic plan points out what is important to us in the budget should align with it, so even if it's a sub in pa -- papa renthases. I think it was referred to 2024 or 2022, I think it did and then it said what we're expecting in 2027. I think when we're having anything handed out like that, it should be the most resent information. I don't think it would absolutely be, you know, kill us that much to put the information that we know there at the time or at least within a year, cause we've gone up, it will be easier for them to see it on the power points which are out there ever meeting and that connection, you know what I'm saying? I

275don't know if my colleagues? yes, I understand what you're saying. okay. everybody is is there anyone who disagrees with what MS. Rupert is suggesting? Okay. Great. Okay. real quick. Do we have to keep printing these? Like is that something? that's at the will of the board, we're happy to print nothing. is it fine with everything else, I just throw it away. we can print it for the chair and vice chair. Okay, we'll keep printing. can it just be emailed? And you can have it on your computer? That way if you want to follow along. yes, I don't know if we have consensus. we don't have anybody that objects. does anybody object? DR. Zee mafn has his hand up. Are you okay with it being on an email? yes. okay. so we, we can always make

276you an extra copy if you need one. Okay. or we can share. yes, we can share. I'll take a picture. I'm really good at pictures. we'll have a qr code. I have a couple of student things so sorry, I would like to congratulate justin from choral blade and they all qualified for the 2025 incubate debate national championship that is going to be held at new college of florida in sarasota, so congratulations to them. And the aid student from the college academy at broward college, they have been named national quest bridge scholars and they're earning full scholarships to top university, tyler scott, going to rice university, bianca o, boston university, daf I alisha, smart worth college. Diana boston university, shylarose washington and lee university. Isaiah rios, massachusetts institute of technology. Mit, sabastian garcia gutierrez pomona college.

277Congratulations on them. And on this 55th earth day, I would like to congratulate the three top schools that won the how low can you go. First place central park elementary, reduced their electrical con assumes by 35 percent. Second place forest hills elementary, reduced their electrical consumption by 14 percent and third place was cooper city high school reduced by 12 percent. And greatest water reduction was coconut creek elementary school that reduced their water usage by 62 percent. So happy earth day. Anybody else? The scheduled order of business of this school board of broward florida has been completed. I now adjourn the meeting.