001testing testing one two three. welcome to today's regular school board meeting. We're happy to have you join and yous thankful to your time and dedication to our district. This regular meeting of school board is now call to order. Our primary foc sus to create a safe and productive environment for all participants. Please be reminded of the exit doors that are clearly marked for exiting. While in the board room refrain from blocking the access doors. All attendees must take a seat except for the media. Upon fire alarm, please exit from the room in an orderly fashion and remain outside until the it's been safe to return. DR. Holness will now pick his school to lead us in the "pledge of allegiance". it's an honor to welcome cadets from gerald tc program, as a unit they've contributed
002over 3000 community hours and earned top honors in competitions. Several cadets plan to serve in the military. Please join me in recognizing today's participant, color guards. Along with gene felipe who will lead the "pledge of allegiance" and sing the national anthem. Thank you for your patience. o say can you see, [Singing national anthem] By the dawn's early light, what so proudly we hailed, at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight, o the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming, and the rocket's red glare, the bomb's bursting in air, gave proof through the night, that our flag was still there. O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave, oer the land of the free and the home of the brave. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the united
003states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under GOD, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. thank you, I have requested a moment of silence for jim noder. Former superintendent of broward public schools. MR. Noder dedicated 35 years for education, passionately serving our teachers and students with vision and unwaivering commitment. Began as a vocational teach and her went on to serve as supervisor and vocational and adult education, in areas superintendent, deputy superintendent and interim superintendent prior to becoming the superintendent. His leadership as broward superintendent significantly shaped the lives of countless young people, making a lasting impact on many general raisesing of students, let us take this moment to reflect on his contributions and remember a man who fully devoted himself to public service and the improvement of our schools. On
004the school's district website. DR. Hepburn, are there any changes on the changes? yes, there are a few changes. I respectfully ask for withdrawal of today's items, 3. Oo14, oo25. That's all the changes. the chair finds pursuant to section 120.25 florida statute that good cause exist for such xhaiz and accepts the revised agenda. MAY the chair have a motion a second to close the agenda. so moved. moved by DR. Zeman, seconded by MS. Bulman. All in favor say aye. aye. MADAM Chair? yes. I wanted to make sure that bb1 was withdrawn. yes, that is on the revised agenda on the website. Those opposed say no. The agenda is now closed. MAY the chair have a motion and a second to approve the minutes for the following meetings, FEBRUARY 19, 2025, MARCH 4, 2025, special school board
005meeting, MARCH 11, 2025, regular school board meeting, APRIL 15th, 2025, special meeting expulsions. so moved. second. it's been moved by DR. Zeman, seconded by MS. Leonardi. Is there any discussion? All in favor of approving the minutes as lifted say aye. aye. those opposed say no. The minutes are approved. we have one public speaker. She's not here. all in favor of approving the consent agenda items that have not been pulled for discussion say aye. aye. those opposed say no. do any of my colleagues have any brief remarks. I have one brief remark on each one, I just want to congratulate all the retirees, and wish them well in their new journey. The chair would like to take a moment to recognize new staff appointments, we would like to congratulate each of you for your career advancement
006for broward county schools f.We can give the appointees a round of applause. [Applause] DR. Hepburn, can you please share a few remarks and introduce the new leaders. yes, thank you, welcome to the B.C. Sp team, we're proud of what we'll accomplish together in the future. I also want to give the floor to two new leaders to come up and say some remarks. First we'll start with new principal, MS. Nanndrene. [Applause] good morning, superintendent, to all the directors, both present and past, who have invested in me and have faith in my leadership. Thank you. As the proud principal of larkdale elementary, I take each and every lesson that I have learned in the capacities that I've served in broward county public schools. I would like to thank my current boyd anderson family, for your leadership, your
007dedication to student achievement. MS. Hay wood, MS. Angela braun, DR. Salter, doctor bauh, all of you who have invested in me and my mu director, MS. Escandale. to the families of larkdale, elementary, I applaud you, a b-rated on your way to on your way to being an a. And I know that with my abilities and the work you have setforth under MS. Heart, the leadership within the school, the parents, students, and community members, we will continue to make larkdale elementary the place only the horizon reaching for that a. To my family, my mom and dad who have instilled impeccable work ethic and my children, all of my colleagues who have walked hand and hand with me, I thank you. Larkdale, I will be there tomorrow. And upon mia rival, I will continue to celebrate your
008successes, knowing that the impossible is accomplished when we all work together. Broward county public schools, thank you for entrusting me for pouring in me for developing me into the individual I am today. I do not take this role lightly, and I promise to make you proud. Thank you. I come to you with 35 years of law enforcement experience. 31 years right here in the city of ft. Lauderdale. Ranked from chief officer and I worked with a lot of school administrators and principals here in schools in ft. Lauderdale. And nova high where I graduated. When I had my daughter I entrusted DR. Strauss with her, from there, she went on to river middle school and graduated from ft. Lauderdale high school, flying elves, to all the flying elves. It's more than just a position, it's a
009personal connection I have with the those folks, I know the importance of the safety of our kids when we entrust them to a principal and school and staff. We both went on, my daughter and I went on to achieve our bachelor's, we achieved here in broward. I want to keep it safe and secure. I want to thank my colleagues and friends, my family members that came out to support me. My daughter is here, filming, sierra, thank you. Thank you so much. She's been with me at every promotion I've had and each appointment as police chief that I've had. She's been my side. I love her to death and I always with. Always will. Thank you for this opportunity. [Applause] MADAM Chair, before I turn the mic over to you, I want to take a personal
010privilege of thanking DR. Ernie lozano who has been our chief task of security. [Applause] He's done a great job at keeping our staff and students. Chief gregory earlier, thes on board is going to be a lengthy process and DR. Lozano is going to be there step by step to make sure you can take the reigns over. Thanks to both of you. Back to you MADAM Chair. thank you so much. At this time we will recess for a quick photo a board photo with the new staff appointments. this regular school board meeting is now reconvened. At this time MAY the chair have a motion and a second on agenda item b1. so moved. it's been moved by MS. Thompson seconded by DR. Zeman. Are there any registered speakers for b1? no MADAM Chair? is there any
011board discussion? I have DR. Holness. okay, MS. Thompson. thank you, chair. I just had a question about the timeline for sending the question in sense it's pertinent to a contract that we're discussing. How does that timeline line up? MS. Batista. thank you, MADAM Chair. So the timeline if the board approves this item today, we would attach this item to the request which is part of the process as indicated on the website for the attorney general. So we would attach this item to the request and the opinion that I would write and then, that would be sent over to the attorney general, normally takes you know, anywhere between three to four months to hear back. So, you would still be in time if the answer were to be that, that you can have another extension of
012six months, you would have enough time to bring another item for an amendment. all right, and is there any like drawbacks and sending in a question? no. okay. That's it, thank you. thank you. DR. Holness. thank you, MADAM Chair. So, I just wanted to ask, if a request is made for the attorney general opinion and the attorney general states that the board has the authority to grant a six-month extension of the contract. The board is able to proceed with the extension even if the opinion is in conflict of that of our legal council, is that correct? MS. Batista. that's a great question. At the end of the day, you know the attorney general opinion is the upon of another attorney. It does not change the law, or the statutes and I'm sure the board saw
013the memorandum that, that was sent by my office related to the question that was posed during the workshop which was specifically asked to whether the provision into 87.05, yeah, 87.257 whether that applied to the school board and the response is that it does not apply because of the definition in that statute does not include the school board, it includes other entities. right. but you know, having said that, you know, I suppose there is a very small chance that the opinion can be different from the g a's office. I understand, but I guess what I'm trying to determine and we appreciate you MS. Batista, but I'm trying to determine what takes precedence, in terms of protecting the board, is that the opinion of the attorney general or legal counsel that would guide the board in making
014a decision or carrying out a vote in protecting the board from any subsequent consequences all the sult of a decision. Does the attorney general in general take a precedence over of any legal counsel on any board? let me answer this way, if you were to follow the attorney general opinion in the event that it were different from my opinion, you would be protected in following that opinion. so we would be protected in following the attorney general's opinion. yes. so we will not have to be concerned about any subsequent consequences result of following the general attorney's opinion. well clearly, my opinion I have shared already, so clearly there would be another side so whether or not somebody out there could, you know, file something ob challenge your action, I'm not saying that that's not, you know,
015something that could potentially happen. I understand all of those possibilities, I guess my question really is definitive is the board protected in following the opinion if it differs from yours? yes, if you choose to follow that opinion instead of a counsel opinion, yes. DR. Zeman. I have a very strong opinion about this item and I'm curious, chair if there is somebody who has suggested that this legal question is either interested or legal to this contract. Nobody has come to the board and said it does. And if people are texting and inferring or saying hey, there is a hail mary, we'll apply it tone vierment al law, it does not work that way. So I want to know who suggested that this is a good idea? There is no legal basis for asking the attorney general
016this request. This law does not apply to the contracts made by the school board. I just don't like wasting our time going through this. Unless somebody who happened to went to law school says, this MAY pertain to this contract. I have not heard from that person. I went back to calls that said can you have an attorney is noted me a letter. I don't know why we're doing. Our general counsel has made it clear that this does not pertain and I don't support respond to go inuindo. Having heard none, I'm wondering why we're doing this I think when we had the discussion last week, there was a little bit of question about if there were one of these laws applied to that, but we have since received a memo from our counsel, which satisfies my
017questions that I had about that particular issue. I think that it's been made clear. We asked the about the first part, I think it's, I can't site the code off the top of my head but the one about the procurement which does not apply to the aecom, so was already addressed and then the point 055, is that? Was also made clear with the definitions, I think MS. Batista has clarified that. So personally don't have a question about whether or not it applies at this point. So thank you. I just, we have a lot of work to do. And you know, putting a contract in uncertain status by asking the attorney general who in two or three months will come back and say, your general attorney is right. I just don't think this is a good
018idea for us to take timemet of our busy scschele and puunceaiaityty on a six-month extension on a field of work which we're already under performing to public perception. Broward county does not think, that complete a construction project on time. I'm dying to show them that, I really am. But I don't want to introduce more uncertainity and feed the perception that broward county has about our construction by going down this path. Thanks chair. thank you. all of favor of approving b1. MADAM Chair. I was on the list. no one told me, sorry. Go ahead. thank you. So, I agree with my colleagues. I don't think this is a good idea. Our general counsel already said that we can't do the extension, I think that we would be wasting the time of the attorney general and I
019think that when we have, real strong questions, that's when we bring it to the attorney general. Not when your general counsel already said, gave us the answer. So, I agree we should be voting no. Thank you. thank you. All in favor of approving b-1 say aye. aye. those opposed say no. no. alhadeff, no. rupert, no. leonardi, no. cervera, no. bulman. No. I think it was just two of us. Okay. So the item fails, 6-2. I didn't hear nora. I said no. okay, 7-2. Okay, thank you. Next item up is f-2. Can I have a motion and a second for item f-2? so moved. it's been moved by MS. Thompson. second by DR. Zeman. Any public comment on f-2. no recommendeding speakers. DR. Zeman. here's our financial reports, I wanted to compliment our team on putting
020together a format and structure that allows the public to see that this board is very series about the money, I call it opm's money, other people's money. So we get other people's money and we're entrusted with that money to spend it on things that are good for the community. These reports as revised from previous reports make it very very clear on how we're doing. So one thing that I think the board should always keep track of is our state definition of federal funds. This budget is executing as we passed it, last yae, it's incredibly close, the variances are very very small. We projected that we're going to land at a 4 percent fund balance and we continue to project that we're going to land at a 4 percent. It's above the's state's minimum before you
021get a lot of oversight and attention. But I think that's important. The other piece that is important is we had a different calc based on losing 300 students, our budget has been reduced, appropriately, but charter schools lost 450 students in the same period and when you're look to go know, get people excite beside traditional schools, you're always looking for evidence about how it's going, even though charter schools are 20 percent of the market in broward county, they lost 50 percent more students than we did in traditional schools. We lost smaller proportional number, than the charter schools. But it does mean that at the end of this year, we should end in an area that is very healthy, thanks dhair. chair. thank you, all those in favor avenue proofing f-2 say aye. any opposed say no?
022Motion carries unanimously. The next item is j1. Can I have a motion and a second on j1. so moved. niz public comment on -- any public comment on j1? no, MADAM Chair. okay, DR. Holness. okay, MADAM Chair, ubl for j1 it has to do with donation of portables. So, what is the process for nonprofit organizations to acquire portables from the district in the form of donation? DR. Hepburn. MS. Paul? so basically, we would bring it to the board to get approval to donate to them. The building. I'm sorry MS. Paul, I didn't hear the first part if you don't mind. so part of the process would be what we're doing just now bringing it to the board for approval to donate it to this organization, to this nonprofit. The alternative would be that we would
023demo the buildings onsite. Cause they've been deemed unsafe for our purposes and, it's not economically feasible for us to put money into these buildings. I guess what I'm trying to understand, the nonprofit organization approach the district or do we have some sort of advertising mechanism in place to have nonprofit organizations that are community service oriented aware that there are portables available should they need them? And how does it really work. Do they come to us? typically, in my experience, when we're ready to demolish them basically. And so, that is the case with these particular portables. It is, typically, cost pro hibitied to move these buildings. The cost out weighs the value of the buildings. That's why this these district and other districts demolish. I fully understand. I guess what I'm trying to understand, if we
024have, I think it's a great idea where we have wonderful nonprofit organizations that are community service oriented to acquire portable through donation if we're not going to use them which is what is happening here. So I understand the need to either demolish them or provide them as donation. I think how we provide is donation is great, if we're, if we're looking at nonprofits that are community service oriented that it will benefit the community in some way or form. So I wanteded an idea, that can be useful for do we wait for them to come to us? I'm happy about what we're doing. I can answer that question, DR. Holness. For the most part, they come to us and access if we have additional portable for their use. most of them don't take us up on
025the offer of those portables, because the cost to transport them to whatever place they needed is too expensive. And correctly if I'm wrong, it's upwards of 30-40,000 to move or disconnect the portable. That's why when we have portable, we just demolish onsite it's cheaper for us to do that and it's cost prohibited for many nonprofits. In this situation the portable is near where the nonprofit is located. But once they find out how much it costs to transport, the cost is too great for them. I understand, I appreciate it. thank you all those in favor. MADAM Chair. I have a question. okay. since we're deeming these portables not useable, is it considered unsafe? so the information that we have, we have gifb it to the specific nonprofit so they're aware of our designation of not being
026safe for our use. So whatever they want to do to get it up to par is going to be at their cost. But they're well aware of it not being safe for our use. What is our liability of the transfer, to MS. Batista. MS. Batista? good morning, MS. Alhadeff. There would not be any, the liability in the sense that the the donation is as is, and it already is located at the site where, the donation will take place, so in other words, the portables already at the location to be donated. so are they signing something so that we're not liable if something occurs? Do they sign something? The item, that information is in the donation agreement which is attached to the item. so in the donation, agreement then, we are not libel if, you know,
027say the roof caves in after the item is donated, they've accepted that liability? yes. 2.07, limitation on liability, the fdjj agrees to assume all liability regarding the donated property upon transfer. okay, thank you. all those in favor of j1 say aye? aye. any opposed say no? Motion carries unanimously. The next item that we need a motion for is j4, moved by DR. Zeman seconded by MS. Leonardi. Any public comment? no, MADAM Chair. DR. Zeman. on page 5 of this agreement, this is agreement in case of anybody is curious about forest glen where the city of choral springs, has made generous offer to resurface tennis courts and make them into pickleball courts. I always like to note that? Some of our cities have done that city wide, some places like westin and ft. Lauderdale have shared
028recreations for all schools in the city which is wonderful thing and I hope we can get that to all municipalities in the future. But on page 5, it suggests that if the school board would like to use the tennis courts, they would have to ask permits. While I appreciate the 70,000 that they're paying to resurface, they're not in great shape so they're going to come to force, they MAY come back next year, and do more pickleball, pickleball is popular. It's a pickleball desert, in case you have not heard the phrase. I appreciate that they would like to have pickleball courts. I don't appreciate that if our principal would like to have activities for the weekend for their students or after 5:00 o'clock, that they have to ask permission of the city to use our property.
029So I just don't support that particular clause on page 5, it is 207b as in bravo. I don't remember us doing that. Chair do we have any reciprocal where we allow somebody to use our properties and then we have to ask if we want to use our property? MS. Batista? I would differ to the real estate department. go ahead, MR. Acabuzo. good morning, this is recreational agreement. Which is the rua, recreation, reciprocal use agreement. Which is 25 year or longer. The aur, 5 years. They use our facilities, they use our fas iment. So in the -- there is a designated time frame. Understand for this particular item, we spoke to the city, we wanted to change the language. The city is pretty much recommending that the item be moved to another meeting because we're trying
030to work out the same language we're concerned about. So I wanted to provide that information. chair if I heard that correctly, the city would like to say as it is? yes, the city we propose to change the language that you're talking about, they're going to submit a form but we shall be in control at all times and then, the city will have priority but they have to submit a form. So we submitted that language and the city is saying, we need to work through that language. So we're still working through that language. At the direction of superintendent, we can maybe differ the item, table the item? if I MAY, MS. Batista, do the board need to vote this down? so you can postpone the item when it comes back, there will be two items usually
031that's the way it works. If there is a change. When you post own an item it comes back exactly as you postponed it. So this item would be voted down and the new item will be hopefully voted up. and chair what I prefer to do that, the alternate is to put it out for the vote. But it's better if we want to work out the language. This is still our land and property and if there is a big fair that we want to do on a saturday, we should give them proper notice so that pickleballers don't show up at the same time on our field day is using the same space. So I appreciate that, I make a motion to postpone this until our next regular school board meeting. Do you have a date? JUNE
03217th. second. it's been moved and seconded to postpone item j4 until the JUNE 17th, school board meeting. Any public comment? Board member discussion? All those in favor say aye. aye. I have a comment. go ahead. so first, I would like to thank the city of choral springs. And the commission of choral springs for this agreement. And I, you know, greatly appreciate the collaboration to bring this tennis court pickleball courts to our schools in choral springs. So any question is, is this something with the language that we can workout today? And just postpone this to the end of the school board meeting. MS. Batista. I think the discussions are being had with the real estate department so I differ to them. yes. Board member, alhadeff, staff is currently, I just spoke to staff we're currently in
033communication, I prefer through the superintendent, maybe we can postpone it because the language is needed. They're not accepting it so we need additional time to potentially work on something. okay, so you would not be able to work it out by the end of this meeting today, is that what you're saying? yes. okay. Thank you. DR. Holness. since the city is working on this agreement through the real estate, does this require a city commission vote to approve this for it to come back to us? And the reason is because we set a time line through DR. Zeman's motion and I don't know when their city meetings are? Does this require a city commission meeting? DR. Hepburn? yes, it's usually the run of show that they have to bring it to their xhution and then they will
034send the agreement to us. so just like we do, they MAY have time lines to which they can put items on their agenda. Does that conflict in my way? I would have to do some research, I'm not sure when you're next commission meeting is. But I don't think postponing means we have to bring it directly to the JUNE meeting. So we'll coordinate with choral springs, the motion says. it says the date. Can we change the language DR. Zeman to be in alignment with when the commission meeting is for choral springs or whenever they can move forward? absolutely, I would be happy to restate the motion. The problem is, we can only do to the next meeting. So I suspect, one way to deal with that, is they'll bring an item that says, here's the item
035but we don't have a resolution from choral springs, we can postpone, it's a couple bunny hops to get there but it's the right thing to do by probts. Let's just hope that choral springs can move. MS. Batista, can you provide legal input on that? thank you, MADAM Chair. So yes, you know, under robert's you postpone, you can postpone to the next meeting, usually that's the way it works, because our meetings are laid out and we have schedule of meetinin all way to n novemr. We can n poststpo to a late memeetin but ththere is, you know, there is nothing prohibiting the board from when the item comes up in the JUNE meeting, even if it hasn't been addressed at the commission, if they have in principal arrived to an agreement, on the language, we can
036vote on it first, which we don't usually advise you to do that but we can vote on the agreement if it's been approved already in principal, we can vote on it first and then the city can vote on it, afterwards. and we can continue to postpone it? yes, or we can continue to postpone? I understand, thank you for clarifying. okay, so we voted already for it to be postponed, so. no we didn't? I thought we did. So all those in favor of post poeng j4 say aye. aye. any opposed? The motion carries unanimously. so it's postponed until JUNE 17th. The item item is j5 can I have a motion and a second. so moved. it's been moved by board member thompson seconded by DR. Zeman. any public comment? no, MADAM Chair. DR. Holness. okay, so
037DR. Hepburn, the 23.3 acres, is that being considered to be used for residential? so I'll let chris acabuzo provide some details. this report is 23.3 acres. And they agreed to lease a 8.25 acres so. When you carve that out, that's why you have that out. So the plan is for the desire, I think that's coming on MAY 20th, this item is listed as part of the redefine. The goal is to sell the property, the town is interested to rezone it, to residential, when we're going to sell it because right now it's community facility, then the time is amenable, we don't really have anything to say and when it's built, we just sell it. understand. So I guess my question DR. Hepburn and I believe this conversation came up before in prior properties, if it's being
038sold and the city is being given priority as residential, do we have any, is it within our right to indicate as part of that agreement for there to be affordable housing if it's going to be used for residential as a percentage of the units that they're going to build? correct me if I'm wrong, MR. Acabuzo, so we're going to surplus it and sell, so whoever the buyer is. so we have no say if it's used for residential or having part of that, say indicating an agreement for some type of affordable housing for teachers and staff. go ahead? the district, the only restriction we put is that there shall be no k through 12 facility, you know, technically, that's the only restriction we put on that agreements. We don't put any kind of condition that the
039buyer provides any affordable housing because you're just selling it on market rate based on established price. So we don't have any control over there. I understand that we don't normally do, I guess the question is can we? the town, right now we're working with the town and the mayor has been here, the town actually decides, if you notice the town has a low density, so I'm not sure, I can speak to that directly because again the town has the ability to approve ultimately, the land has changed or the zoning change, right now the town has not indicated any desire to see affordable housing. and the town has given the priorities purpose. We've been having discussions, they've been part of the whole deal and they really desire, for the property to be sold and pretty much,
040density, 200 per acres. I mean publicly stated that. So they didn't have an indication that they want to interested in anything like that. But the town is final approval whoever buys the property. and DR. Hepburn, my last question, should this property be sold? Where will these funds be placed? DR. Hepburn? I think these are capital dollars, that would be facing our capital fund. so there is no specific, intent of views in that for any specific purposes? It just goes in the capital funds? that's correct. thank you, appreciate it. DR. Zeman. thanks so much chair. I think we actually have some significant levers that we can use as a school board. We've had people most reisn'tly, hospital network, come to us and say, we adjacent land next to your land, our intent is to build this
041many beds, we said hey, can you help us? We would like this mental health facility, we would like our students to be able to get internships and therefore we're willing to sell that land which is a very good deal for the hospital. And I believe because public land was paid by the people already. We just get to say yes and then the great real estate department that we have, puts it up for sale and the city would have zoned to high densitile housing. And we can just say yes at that point. I think we can help in that situation in a small way. But when we get an opportunity if there is a school board member, engaged by a municipal leader, I hope they encourage that dialogue with the superintendent so we can get that
042item on the agenda. thank you all those in favor of j5 say aye. aye. any opposed? motion carries unanimously. next item is m-5, can I have a motion and a second? second. it's been moved by MS. Leonardi seconded by DR. Zeman, any public comment. no, MADAM Chair. DR. Holness. all right two charter schools being in this item being consolidated into one. I was trying to understand the item and I read it a kufple f tiemds. Are they being consolidated into one and are they separately schools owned by the same organization? yes, so they are currently two separate schools under the same umbrella and this item is to approve the consolidation into one school. okay, so voting yes, is approved and these two schools to become one? correct. On APRIL 15th, that meeting, there was an
043item to actually approve the merger of this two schools. this item is to help facilitate that process so it can officially happen. okay, so it doesn't change the terms of the contract, it remains JUNE of 2028, whatever it was. correct. ?O. Will they maintain two campuses as normal or consolidating into one campus? that, I'm not sure if it's two separate campus. MR. Parker? adrian parker, executive management, I'll differ to staff for a response? good moansinger detra coordinating with charter school management department. So when the schools are consolidated, both schools will become one, so the location for davie 5271 is the only school that will be in existence. so one of the campuses will be gone? correct. okay, so I have another question, I have noticed that some charter schools have agreements for five years, ten
044years, to what length do we approve charter schools? MR. Parker? MS. Adams? yes, sir. So initially a charter school is approved for five-year term. However, after a contract there is a renewal agreement, during that time, if the school is a state designated high performing school, they are eligible to receive a 15-year contract if the school has achieved an a or b according to the state accountability process, they are also eligible for a 15-year contract. if finance the school will receive another 5-year contract. so every charter school receives a 5-year. yes, sir. examine based on performance, they could be granted 15 years. yes, sir and if there are some financial factors, then the school would receive a 5-year contract as well. correct me if I'm wrong, I thought I saw a ten-year. that was in place
045a couple years ago however that changed and eliminated. so the charter schools that were on ten years, are they being given 15? no, they will be up for renewal and at the time, they will be granted a contract accord to go their status. I appreciate that. I need today have that knowledge, I was not sure. I appreciate it. thank you, MS. Rupert? thank you I'm going to do a jump here apropos for this item. I think when we're approving our schools for amendments, we should be savvy about our, what they're teaching. What are they foc tuesdaying on and make sure that our career ready fields here in our district are completely staffed. You know, we have to make sure that we have emphasis on thungz like avonics and aeuro space. There is I guess the
046lesser instructor if they're not able to faound one yet and I ask the superintendent to make sure that that is a big thing. I those are, we have our kids sitting in there that want to go and join the avionics military, they want to do all of this is they don't have an instructor, they are stuck where they're at, so I would ask that we would do a major focus superintendent on making sure that it's staffed, right now, we don't have the staff and it's up in the air and I know that, knita is doing everything that she can but I thought that I would bring it to you not only to you but my colleagues. So, you're comment, superintendent? yes, thanks for the comment MS. Rupert. We are working to scale that program out,
047especially up in the north region, miramar high school already has a robust program and we'll scale that that out and add some staff. Sometimes staffing such as that at a school is difficult, we're going to lever duel enrollment, that are supporting that. I did see the email with that concern so we'll work through that for atc but we're also leveraging new opportunities because we heard what a great need for that area. I and appreciate that, that's I didn't always send everything on to you. I do appreciate that and the sooner the better for direction because the students are being told they cannot take any classes in that right now. That's up to you, sir. And I appreciate the effort that you put forward so we will not lose any kids over the summer and they'll
048be excited -- excited when they come back in AUGUST. all those in favor say aye. aye. any opposed, say no. Motion carries unanimously. Next item is m-6 can I have a motion examine a second. so moved. moved and second. Any public comment on m-5? m-6. sorry, m-6. DR. Holness. DR. Hepburn, this particular charter school was denied. Can you tell us in terms of being denied, how can the issue be recommend deed as pertained to this particular charter or school, how do they remedy a denial? first opportunity I have to appeal our decision in a denial at the state level. If there are unsesful with that, you know, they do have tubts to work with charter school management and they like to assist them in filling out their applications, really, mapping out what they're standard of
049service is going to be to students, the level of instructional practices and all the other elements within being a school period of how you service kids. With you but the actual item is attached about what qualifications they did not meet and for this particular operator, if there are unsuccess appealing with the state, I would suggest that they hop on with a expert at the charter company to provide additional support. when the district denied a charter school, what is the -- does the district have any concern as it, results, I mean as you would think of, the guidelines surrounding approval of charter school? What is? Is there any potential con quens for denying charter schools? no, there is no, risk for denial of charter schools. We go through the other process to make sure they're aligning
050themselves to other requirement that are aligned. In this particular case, a lot of elements were not aligned. MADAM Chair, we have alhadeff for debate. MADAM Chair. go ahead, MS. Alhadeff. thank you. My if the board denies this approval, what are we doing for the students? this is this particular charter school is brand new, they have not enrolled any kids, they're applying to establish a charter schools so there is no issue with kids already being enrolled? okay. But you know, where I'm going with it. yes, absolutely. thank you. okay, all those in favor say aye. niz opposed say no. Motion carries unanimously. The next item is o-2. Can I have a motion a second. so moved. moved any public comment? no, MADAM Chair. DR. Holness. MADAM Chair, I am fine with o-2. We can move forward.
051DR. Zeman. this is o-2 from s top? one admin issue and then couple of issues on the summary report. One, I don't know how we put things on consent versus the non consent agenda, but I would love to see this on the non consent agenda in the future, this is a major policy issue with broward county and I don't want it to get lost in consent items so just a note for future meetings. And second, this is an area where we can do better. We are of millions total spent, 34.5 million with certified firms. A lot of that, that's 12 and a half percece, 7 and a half is in construction. We veveten ototr r categori whwhere the spenis close to 0 or less than 1 percent. And some of the categories, broward county who
052has a budget, a little bit smaller than ours but very substantial budget is is doing significantly more. Broward county is also doing a certified internship, so that if you do a construction, you must hire interns where interns are available so the next generation of experts that work in that field get a chance to gt a job. So I'm just pointing out while these numbers are better than they've been, there is two categories in which we're doing less than ten percent and I think that I think we've got to figure out a way to make this policy and this behavior that we produce even more for local and other certified departments. Thanks chair. thank you, all those in favor of item 02 say aye. aye. any opposed say no? Motion carries unanimously. The last consent item
053is 03, can I have a motion sd a second. so moved. any public comment? no MADAM Chair. MS. Alhadeff. thank you. So my questions regarding this item is over the past few years, lunches have been free, breakfast and leverage have been free for all. So how are we communicating now there is going to be a charge for breakfast and lunch. And also how does, also are we communicating to the students that need the free and reduces lunch, how are they filling out that form? Are we having pro roe dust communications now so that the start of next school year, there isn't any concerns or issues. And then also are we, are we partnering with anybody to help maybe provide provide opportunities? yes, thanks alhadeff. All great questions. We're going to start communicating as soon as
054this item is approved by the board we don't want do preempt that in case something else happens. So as soon as this is done, we're going to start to communicate with all our principals, all of our parents, so they understand, the change where it wouldn't be all kids eat free as we've done for the past few years and revert back to the system of filling out the paperwork and other mechanisms to understand their needs so they can receive free and reduced lunch. During summer, we expect some families will reach out but we have part ships that provide food in need that can't normally pay for a meal or support outside of the school also. and what if a student doesn't have lunch, how does that work? Do we provide them with lunch automatically. I just
055don't want to anything to not have lunch or breakfast if they can't afford it. yes, I have MS. Molder in the room and she will let us know how they handles those situations when students don't have money to pay for lunch. executive director food and knew services. We develop plans with our principals, pt a, PTOs, the program is at the beginning of the school so that a student does not go without a meal. and DR. Hepburn, can you keep the board a breast of those situations. It's so important that we have the robust conversations now so there is no confusion as far as the parents that need to fill out the paperwork that they're able to do that in a timely manner before the start of next school year. yes, absolutely. We'll keep the board
056noted along the way. thank you. And DR. Zeman? thanks, chair. I just want to clear up one thing, breakfast next year will still be universally free, is that correct? yes. terrific, so everybody regardless gets that breakfast if they get it there in time to be served. I understand that logic and thinking that went into this. I'm curious, chair, what is the balance in our food and nutritious account? DR. Hepburn? MS. Molder? thank you, DR. Hepburn, executive director. About 42 million dollars, usda has a minimum or actually I should say a three months of expenses that si district is allowed to have at hand. We implemented the universal free program year one and two pilot to help our families during the past years where the economy has been a little bit difficult. Now we're within range.
057I'm sorry, just to be clear, we're within the three-month limit that U.S. D sets. we'll be within the range in the month of JUNE. wonderful and there is very things that we can do with those two funds. I have two great ideas and I cannot wait to present them to the board. However, I just want to say that publicly the perception is less than the actual quality of the food. So when I visit, I always eat in one of your cafeterias and I'm always impressed with the meals you put on the table. The public thinks that they need to particular kids for lunches in order to get a good meal, you can go to broward county cafeteria and get a good meal every day, thank you mary for that and everything else that you do.
058And thank you for also sharing with the board for this? We don't always think about money that is in a categorical line, but this is 4 2000 and we need to think about what we want to do in food service in broward county. But there is, a persistent wage issue with the people who serve our food and I cannot wait to talk to you about that when the time is right. Thank you very much. thank you, MS. Leonardi. thank you. And I know we've discussed this before, but why reunable to provide free lunch to all of our children anymore? DR. Hepburn? great question. And I'm, I will ask MS. Molder to provide any information that I cannot provide. But we were above the level for food service by the federal government. So over the past
059few years, utilized the strategy of feeding all students to depleat all levels. So we cannot go over that fund balance. I don't know if there are penalties but that's the requirement from the federal government. thank you, and do we have an easy a for people to people to pay for outstanding lunch debt for our students? MS. Molder. I see her shaking her head. mary molder executive of food service. Yes, we do. We have business that's will call our help desk and they will donate funds and specifically identify what schools they want the funds to go to. And we have a system that can dop and post them to the identified school. thank you for that. I guess I'm wondering if there is a way to make that even easier like before we did have the
060free lunch for all students, members of the community would regularly reach out and say, how where can I donate to help contribute to this. So I'm wondering if there is a way to have a link that we can share. absolutely. So we will work with the district department so we will work for strategic partnership and with the foundation. got it, thank you. And I know I requested follow-up and some of these questions were answered. I think there is a important because there is a perception around the adult meal prices were not increased this year. They were increased in previous years, I believe last year. DR. Hepburn. MS. Molder. yes, so usda has standards and guidelines they have tool that we need to use to do analysis on our meal prices, so that was conducted last
061year, and that's why the price of the adult meal went up to drastic from 2.75 to 4.95 that is using that tool. and again we put numbers into that and the analysis comes out on what we need to do to be within federal guidelines. so it really is driven by the federal government. you are correct. thank you. thank you and we'll end with MS. Thompson. thank you, chair. How much is it per year to continue providing free lunches for our students? DR. Hepburn? MS. Molder, do you have that number? about nine million dollars is what we're depleating the fund balance. can I get some clarification, you said you were able to fund it because we have a surplus, so there is no money in the budget to continue this program? Or is it thising that
062we can discuss during the budget workshop? so MS. Molder, you can clarify the federal government requires that they have three months of reserve in the food balance and no more than that. So there was a surplus in the past from esser dollars. Can you clarify? so the surplus came over covid years, there was a grant and we did on behalf of the district. So students that were eating free, let me back up, we had the supply chain grant, about nine million dollars if I remember correctly for two years in a row, so that increased the fund balance. In addition during the covid years, districts were feeding their students through a waive eer free meals. So the reimbursement for free meals or paid meals is higher. So as we were feeding all students free, we had
063funds coming in which increased the fund balance. And now that we don't have that, we have gone to different programs because the waivers are no longer in existence, because covid is over, we're just claiming meals with meal eligibility. okay, but if we wanted to continue provoiding this, is that something that we would evaluate in the budget? Or just not an option? DR. Hepburn? MS. Molder. thank you, DR. Hepburn. So my recommendation is not to go in that direction and the reason for that is the past two years, we have been funding the pilot year one and two and we have decreased about nine million per year. If we would continue to do that, we would be below the 3 months that we hold at a max member and we would have to ask for funds
064to continue that program. while I understand that's your recommendation, I do think it's something as a board I would liker us to discuss further. I think the economic situation of our state is not going to get better and if there is a way to help families, we should do that. Thank you. DR. Hepburn. yes, duelly noted. okay, we will end with board member cervera. thank you, chair. I understand that it's to come with compliance. Will the students realize any benefit from this? For instance will they be getting larger portion approximates, access to organic foods or better foods, will anything change with the distribution or price increase solely to come in compliance with the standards? DR. Hepburn. MS. Molder. mary molder, thank you, DR. Hepburn, so the price increase is to be able to handle the
065increase in labor, the 3 percent food nutrition is self operating. We receive no funds from the general funds so. Any meals that we serve we need to have that reimbursement and cover the costs of food and supplies and labor. The?Riez are going up and labor is going up, we need to do that in order tone sure that the food service fund is in a positive manner. As far as it goes for portion sizes, portion sizes will remain the same. We folt guidelines for patterns. thank you, MADAM. chair we have MS. Alhadeff. she went already, okay. thank you. I have a question regards we're providing breakfast for all schools, what if we provided free breakfast for just our title one schools and free lunch for title one schools, how will those finances workout? DR. Hepburn? MS.
066Mold per, I don't know if you have those numbers? You MAY have to follow-up if needed. Feel free to answer as much as possible. we would have to run those numbers, if you remember several years ago, prior to feeding all students at no charge, we ran a hybrid model in which we had cep which is the community eligibility provision at 167 schools and remaining schools, the families were paying the actual meal prices and there was a lot of confusion with the community. We had numerous calls consistent calls that some families were being charged meals, other families were not being charged meals so that was difficulty that we en counted at the time, just a little bit of background information on that. But we would have to run figures on that. okay. So where I'm going
067with this is I think we should provide free breakfast and free lunch to all of our title one schools only, and maybe we do it just for next year, to give us a longer runway for all the paperwork to be filled out to be able to get our students to apply for the free and reduced lunch. so if I MAY, MS. Alhadeff, I just want to remind the board that the students that are eligible for free reduced lunch are at every school. If we just give it to title one schools, we MISS Out on kids in smaller populations. I did make a note to possible have a future workshop sometime this summer to kind of have another discussion about this on some possible strategies that are amenable to the board and our students that is
068going to make sense when it comes to maintain the required fund balance. So if we want to wait for the summer, we can follow-up with that requested information. yeah, I'm okay with all students that would be eligible for the free and reduced lunch. But where I'm going, speaking to that being allowable for the breakfast and for the lunch, and then I do have great concerns that we're not going to have enough runway to get the students that need to apply by the start of next year. I look forward to that conversation in a workshop. DR. Hepburn. go ahead, MS. Molder, you wanted to add something. thank you, so we already have our american plan in place, pending the approval today on the price increase. We have spoken to principals ready, we have our parent script
069ready to go out for the next few weeks until school let's out. We have requested to have them letting them know that there will be a change affective the 9th of JUNE. There will be a lynch going out to all families tha. Will link the portal in which on JULY 14th will open up, some benefits will be able to be completed applications at the time. In addition, food nutrition services will be covering the costs of meals until JULY 23, so once students return to school, in case there has not been proper or clear communication to see families, we will pickup the cost of meals for that first month, that way students will be in school and will have an opportunity to collaborate to principals so at that time, so in case there is something with
070family, they will be able to help us with meals along designee s. thank you, we're going to hold this debate for now. We have a room full of people waiting for public comment. We'll come back to the rest of the people that wanted to add since they had not signed up ahead of time. this is the time where we split the general speakers to incorporate a morning session. Each is reminded to present their comments in accordance. Our first public speaker is jolien. before you go to public spaker, you have to table the item. so under the circumstances since you have people here in the room, you can actually lay it on the table just make a motion to lay on the table, the item. and do we vote on that? so moved. thank you. motion
071to lay it on the table, it's been moved and seconded to lay this item on the table. So that we can go to public comment. All those in favor? Do I need to take public comment. no. all those in favor of thth motionon s aye. aye. anopopposed say no. Eat ththk k you. Sorrabouout that. Jolen lostlofton. Trudy jervanvich. Alrighty. Natalie lynch-walsh. Letricia grieves? Speaker: good morning, chair, board, welcome MR. Cervera, nice to see somebody fresh. I'm here to give you consistent on going update. We're broward elementary school is concerned. I do want to say for the record, that what I'm about to say is not a myth, it's all facts. I know that's been a consistent thing that the superintendent likes to say, dispelling myths, so I'm going to say it's facts. I still have
072not received communication with DR. Hepburn to meet with me or his staff since JANUARY. And I just want to make the board aware of that. In terms of broward estates, I have not heard about the facility assessment, I do recall MADAM Chair, that the board wanted to know the status of the facility before going forward with we havinger. And still have not received or heard that on the agenda as of yet. I have been actively engaging with this process, have been involved, very heavily also with all the parents and the students as this is my community. My concern also because of the facility that during the partnership meeting, that obviously, there is some partners that were not aware that the buildings that have mold issue, so, don't know how that conversation is going. There are
073different departments, that are part of this process. And what they're consistently saying is that they're doing their part but they are limited time. So I don't know, what the limited time is with each department but I want to make sure you're aware of that. Also to continue to engage the pantser that decide today go to mlk or plantation. Some did not receive the service that the board asked staff to continue to do. So they have fallen by the waste side. I do know there is a time certain on the agenda for mlk earlier, I mean that's going to be coming forth. But I did want to bring it to an attention and hopefully we can get a facility assessment publicly stated for the community, so the communications can be there. And I'll just remind the
074board as the staff member said, there are building building the 50s that do exist. Thank you all for your train anding workshop, I have been watching, thank you. chair, I don't know if this is the appropriate time but the speaker made mention of the broward estates and I know that the superintendent and his staff have been working diligently. so I'm not sure if this is a good time for the superintendent. he's going to give his report, that's the time that he can respond to that. appreciate it. thank you. Next is quentin micker. Okay, then we'll go to superintendent report. thank you, MADAM Chair. I've got a few things to share. Let me go ahead and get the broward estates issue out of the way. There will be a workshop next week for the entire board
075to review where they are with all the changes due to redefining phase one. Specifically for broward estates, I know the team has been working diligently. We're creating new programs, not just for early learning but family oriented programs with many partners, we heard the facility assessment concern, that is not totally ready get. That does not stop us from doing what we need to do to create a better environment for families and better learning opportunities. So we're looking forward to the MAY 20th workshop where the board can discuss aspect of redefining where we are. Also, the next thing is, broward county schools, united three years ago, around a shared vision to empower educational leaders and drive lasting change, under angelina brown leadership this lead to the launch of the Ph.D cohort innovative investment and talent, from the
076support and leader grant authorized by angelina brown and DR. Salter, and broward college expanded this work to include cohort and leadership masters program and pathway from professionals to teachers. The equip credentials and leading challenging schools first of their kind, current and aspiring administrator through our fau partnership. We invest as a architects of brighter future because ensures strong schools and students and a strong community. At this time, I would like to recognize the individuals in this program by name, forgive me if I MISS Pronounce your name, I'm wanted in 20 states for MISS Pronouncing names. Agoanor alfaro. [Applause] France alcina. We might want to a hold our applause until I get to the end because I have a quite a few names. Ernest, cassandra, martha sell', doinglu, darian benjamin, marie, arrow evans, loli, catherine good, james
077griffin, ca si na jean, meghan, latasha moore, prisila moore examine, alexandra, reyez, michael soto, walker, alyssa wright, la tasha williams and farrell wilson. Congratulations. [Applause] You're doing a great job and continue to build high level leaders and making sure that we have individuals to definitely fill our need when the time comes. And we have a lot of great principals and directors in the room, also, thank you for all that you do. yes, absolutely. we'll take a sort recess for a photo with the board. thank you, and we'll resume the superintendent's report. thank you, MADAM Chair. It's been a busy and exciting month filled with achievement and student achievement we've captured these highlights on our video. Beacon, if you can please play the video. looking forward to finishing strong, we have graduations right around the corner,
078I know our board and constituents have been engaged in the graduation performances and we look forward to finishing strong. Thank you. thank you so much. Next we're going to move to student advisor transition, first we'd like to congratulate the incoming/continuing students advisor MR. Landyn spellburge. [Applause] Landyn is a rising senior at western high school. He has served as the student advisor since MAY of 2024. He is on hord to continue representing the voices of 2400 stud nts for the 25-26 school year. Driven by a passion of advocacy,landyn diverse sper respective are observed. He looks forward to another year of meaningful collaboration and student center leadership within broward county schools. Congratulations and we're so happy you're continuing, landyn. [Applause] Our new in-coming alternate advisor is MR. Jc leon. jcier who bulldog a student advocate for 7
079years with student government, PRESIDENT And bcasc vice PRESIDENT, his leadership began in 5th grade sparking a deep commitment. A seasoned debater, champion student center decision sxz brings inside from both public and charter school to represent all broward county students. Welcome. [Applae]E] Anour outgoing student advisor is alana, she has spent the past year building connections, advocating for students representation, and engaging with the district community. Named outstanding senior leader at hollywood hills school and selected as one of 15 nationwide my school votes fellows, she is passionate about advocate. She will have a political science mauj or at the university of albany with a focus of advancing youth centered policy. Alana, we're going to MISS And you thank you so very much for your service to the district. Did you want to say a few parting words? Okay.
080[Applause] Speaker: okay, hello every one, for the last time, my name is alana I'm student advisor to school board. Standing before you today is truly a moment of reflection and gratitude. Serving the 24,000 students here, and broward county has been a great journey. True power of stud ept voice. When I first stepped into this role I knew that representing students meant more than just representing students but lis ebbing to their concerns, but it really meant standing up for what matters even if the path isn't as easy. But most importantly, besides that, admit thating every student felt seen, heard and valued for the decisions. Throughout my time here, I've had an opportunity to work with staff, and teachers and faculty. I got to thank I would like to thank DR. Wilson and her staff and department
081of innovative learning, MS. Joseph and the employment program, as well as DR. Wanza to name a few. I would within be doing myself any justice if I thank the two people by any side. To landyn in a male dominated world, thank you for allowing myself to be expressed and that never gave up on me. And santiago, thank you for helping me. Most importantly I want to thank the people who stuck by my side from the beginning, my mom, my family and MS. Rosales, becoming a public figure was not going to be easy but they supported supported me. I want to let my fellow students never underestimate your impact or your voice, your ideas or sad advocacy matter. To the school board if there is one thing that you take away from what I'm talking to
082you about today, please be reminded that the sole purpose of this board is for the students. Never give up on hearing student voices. There is a lot going on in this world that will affect not only students but your oifz, ---- whether it's anybody you love. Use your voice for advocacy and most importantly, never forget where you came from. Though my time as student advisor is coming to an end, my dedication is becomele. I'll be studying po lit science. This most important is not a good by more so as a see you later. I'll always carry the lessons and hardships that I've had and most importantly, we can always build a better future when we envision together. Thank you all, and it's been a great year together. [Applause] thank you so much, and I'm going
083to ask alana and jcier to head out this way. We would riek to thank them with a little token. And past student advisors that were here for alumni breakfast to please stand, so that we can recognize you and also give a welcome and shout out to MR. Mike roland he has been a legend for a very long time. So thank you for coming today. And for your patience. We're also going to recess the meeting to take a quick photo. thank you, this regular school board meet ising now reconvened. Now we will have updates from the broward education foundation. good morning, james presidency of the education foundation. I wanted to continue the congratulations to landyn and alana who is stepping away. What we did today was having the first-ever, that hopefully is going to be the
084first annual of many to come of student advisors alumni. So as the transition happens every single year, we're going to invite as we did today, alumns to come and enjoy the fruits of their labor which is the individuals stepping up. Today we had an amazing group of individuals for the first time, we had about 20 students advisors from the past come back. Some of them doing amazing things, here locally but all of them doing amazing things everywhere. So as the broward education foundation continues to support, what we do here, at broward county schools, we decided that we wanted do this and put out a call out to the community. We actually had, a few different individuals who want to support it without being named because they wanted it to be about the students and broward
085education foundation bridging the gap is exactly what we do. I wanted to say thank you to everybody on the dais, because he were all part of that examine continue to be a part of a growth of what we're doing. I want today make a mention because this community cares about our students in every kay. Every way. We appreciate it and excited to continue. thank you so much. thank you. Is there anyone from the broward county council pta? Okay. employee union groups, anyone here from btu? Bpaa? Esm,. All right. So now I will ask if one of my if I can have a motion to take oo3 off of the table. chair, I move to take o3 from the table. second. okay, it's been, it's been moved by MS. Thompson seconded by DR. Zeman, the motion
086is not debatable so all those in favor say aye. aye. all those opposed say no. O4 is back on the floor and next we have MS. Rupert. MS. Rupert. thank you, I'm referring to o3. I wanted to ask MS. -- I'm sorry I forgot. I wanted to discuss food and nutrition for a discussion, I didn't hear any mention of the backpacks for the weekend, if we're still doing that. We're still doing that now or have we stopped for any particular reason. And I think some of the new board members MAY not know but it was pretty cool while we were doing it just month to make sure that our hungry children over the weekend were being able it take care of with the backpack. So just to extend via the superintendent for MS. Molder to
087give a little update on what we're doing on that, would be appreciated. DR. Hepburn. go ahead, MS. Molder. mary molder, MS. Rupert, if i'm untdsing correctly, since covid ended, we no longer do tha. The actual backpacks were coming out of a different department and that was several years ago, I have not heard that that is still occuring, but that ceased when could vid ended. I'm sad to hear that. And I would ask my colleagues and the superintendent if when we have that workshop to discuss this further, that that also be on the table that we need to look at. I appreciate it, thank you all. thank you, DR. Zeman? thanks so much, vice chair. I just kind of ask my colleagues about the timing of this coming back. I think families need to know about
088the family plan for next year. So the idea that we're going to workshop more than once and roll this around until JULY, I just don't think it's the best trf broward county, I would like to do a workshop when we can and get the ideas out, whether we're talking about alternate deliveries of food, because there are other districts that have made other process in bringing free prepared food which taste better and more nutritious. So there is an opportunity to try that out. I also remind the board that when we collect money for people who can afford to pay for meals, it allows us to pay the people who deliver those meals beinger it's the same pot of money. So there is a really good balancing act twaoez MS. Molder and MS. Johnson on the food
089nutrition, budget at the end of the day, this is opm, and we went to spend opm in a way that is benefits the people who paying for this. So my only request is whether or not, can we workshop this with the expectation that the discussion that we have and the workshop next week, could or prior, at least a workshop prior to the next school board meeting on the 17th of school is a decision presentation, so that we can give family notice, that's at the end of the school so we'll be losing people from the normal communication that he get from the school information sources. But I would like one person, I would like to press towards JUNE 17th to be a decision on what we decide to do for food for our children next year.
090MS. Batista, do we have to do a vote? DR. Hepburn. I just want to clarify the statement around the workshop. The statement about a workshop is not about this item, the workshop is to provide information and discussion for the board cause I'm hearing a lost questions about food and nutrition, how we service students, all the other angles like MS. Rupert just talked about backpack programs so. This is more about information and discussion for the board not specific to this item. We're ready for this item to be voted on so we can press go when the board votes, time is of the essence. My comment about the workshop is to provoid an avenue for the board to understand what we're doing in the food and nutrition, fund balance, strategies how we address students who MAY not
091be able to afford meals, partnerships with folks providing additional services, by giving them food and things like that. So we can talk about the angles of how we support our stud nts to ensure that they have quality meal. so, I think I heard a different conversation what I heard somebody ask MS. Molder about middle schools, and she said I need to get some data so we can come back. I heard colleagues talk about alternate things about what is on this item. I didn't hear anything that suggests that we're finished with this item. There is information we're missing. So it seems to be table this and bring it back or workshop this so we can that robust discussion that we need to we understand the implications of the ideas that came from the board. So I
092thought what I heard was we were going to potentially put this on the table, do a workshop so we can really get into the details fully informed and that should inform an item to come back at the next school board meeting, did I MISS Something? DR. Hepburn. I don't think you missed something, I'm just clarifying my intentions of what the purpose of the workshop is for. So we can continue to opine about the next steps, if it is a workshop, we needs to be done very quickly. Go ahead, MS. Paul. so as I understand it, we have to do something with the meal prices, that's not non negotiable, this is directed by U.S. Da, that we come up with a plan to increase the costs for student meal prices. And that is what we're presenting
093to you now. And with chose to do it in a gradual way not to invoke this on students at one time. So that's what this item represents. I think this item is a challenge. I don't know it needs to be done today. yes, the requirement is three months. And by JUNE, we would reach that amount. Three months of cost to provide schools with meals? no, the three months represents the fund balance that we're required to maintain at all times. So if molder is here, she can elaborate further but that's what the issue is. That we have to maintain a three-month fund balance. my understanding is the opposite case which is if you have more than three months, you need to spend that money. Can we get clarification? it's a maximum. so if we go over
094that. we have to maintain three months, three month fund balance. sol that's different, that's minimum and you're saying maximum. That's two different things. I would like to know definitive. we have to maintain three months of operating funds for food and nutrition, we cannot go over that, if we go over, we have to spend it down quickly to get back back in the U.S. Da's regular daysings. so if it's a maximum, we can't go below of it. If you have more and if I can get the number correct, is that 42 million? So 42 million is a maximum amount of money which means if one of my colleagues idea's about doing something with these prices were to be the will of the board, we can do that. It is not like a fund balance where you
095must have that amount of money. If you have more than that money, you have to start giving away food or give a away in wages. So this is a different kind of. if I can have MS. Molder make clarifications. mary molder, so usda, says maximum is three months, anything over three months needs to be depleted which what we have been doing. So we'll be compliant at the end of JUNE so then we'll have three months. So three months covers expenses, it's suppose to be three months for expenses for a food service department. And we run about 11 to 12 million a month. So that lance thatat wehave, thosose expendites at reree months is to ensure that food can be ordered, invoices can be paid, if we have a hurricane, we have to pay our staff.
096There is no reimbursement claim when schools are closed. That's what those funds are used for, if we have o order equipment. I totally understand, and I don't want my colleagues, even though I agree with this item, this the one I would vote for, my colleagues have come up with ideas to reduce costs and given that that is a maximum amount of carry these are legit issues that dpepd on the board's vote. When somebody had an idea about title one, free lunches, there was no pricing available for that today, and yet, we are at the maximum of money. In fact, if the monthly expense is 11 to 12 million, how do we get to 43 million to be our fund balance? DR. Hepburn? MS. Moulder. so we still have the month of MAY and JUNE. That's
097what we're estimating. but the numbers, quick numbers here and again this is not budget quality data but I think we need to get to that and I think we need to give the board their authority to make a decision about this. Because we can giveaway free lunches to title 1 middle school and still stay below the three months. It MAY not be the smart thing to do, but I don't think feel like there is some urgency because we're not breaking a minimum fund balance where if you go below the 3 percent. yeah, I think it's confusing. just for clarity sake, there is a maximum and a minimum. Right now, we were exceeding the minimum requirement that we need to keep three months, right. So as a result, we was over that requirement, we have more
098in your fund balance in the food service department. Therefore we were giving out free lunches to as many students as we could. We have hit the point of a minimum requirement of three months fund balance, right. That means if they go below that, they will be en crouching on the general fund. so the good and nutrition counts towards the operating fund balance minimum of 3 percent total? not minimum 3 percent, required by the district or the state, it's required by the federal government, that they need to keep three months fund balance in place to support the food service department. if I MAY, just to put something out there. So I think with this item, the board can vote toin crease the prices, right? This is what the item is specific to, as far as all
099the additional strategies, that we're discussing, that that, could probably be brought to a workshop, it would have to be brought to a workshop that is coming soon. But I think the item before us today is just to increase the meal prices, nothing more than nothing less. If the board, agrees we can push out information to parents simultaneously too, after this is approved to let them know price right side increasing, and they will be transitioning to paying for lunch or free reduces lunch based on application and then we can still come out with easier to pull back on that than to tell everybody we're doing a and in the middle of summer, we're changing it, but it's easy to pull back if we push out information to say, hey you have to fill out applications for
100free and reduces launch and you'll have to default to pay to see if you qualify. But it's easy to pull back if we change the strategy that says the board a grows to have in all title one schools to get free lunch. What is before us today is just raising the prizes either, we asks students to pay for the increases prices or we're asking ourselves to pay because we've been paying for the previous price anyway. so chair, I want to be clear, if we all agree that we're setting prices with this item today, we're not setting eligibility, we can still come back and entertain a motion or an item that allows middle school kids to not have to pay that price that we approve today. that's whaifs what I was going to say. We have
101to increase them and I think that we can have items brought back that would address some of the other things that we've been talking about. thanks, chair. MADAM Chair. I just have a quick question. quick. then I'm done. sort -- for the sake of the public p the increases prices are affecting those students who are not free and reduced lunch? DR. Hepburn? correct. So the increase across the board if you are eligible for free and reduces lunch, that's where the food and nutrition program gets reimbursed from the federal government to pay for your free or reduced price on your lunch? and if you're not eligible that's where you impact the prices? thaek. Drk that's correct. thank you. all those in favor of o3 say aye. any opposed say no, motion carries unanimously. Okay. Thank you.
102That is the end of for consent items. This is the part of the meeting where we will consider all open agenda items. The following open items have been identified for discussion. So, hh1, gg1, a a 1, cc1, f f1, ff2, ff3, jj14, jj20, jj26, mm1, oo6, oo8, oo9, oo10, oo12, oo18, oo20, oo23, oo27, pp2, ss1, and there is a special order for ss1 at 11:00 o'clock. Special order ss2 also at 11:00 o'clock. MAY at this time the chair have a motion and a second. I no longer have to pull oo6. okay. So no not oo6. At this time MAY the chair have a motion and a second to pass the open items that have not been pulled for discussion which will be bb1, bb2, jj yes. Oh sorry, about that, bb2, jj1 through 13 which
103one did you say sarah? oo6, I am no loaninger pulling. jj15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, mm2 through 8, o o-2 1, o o-2 2, oo23, oo26 and pp3, so those that were not pulled and so can I have a motion? So not oo6, I apologize. so move the list as. moved by DR. Zeman, seconded by MS. Leonardi. Were there any registered speaker on those items not pulled? yes, MADAM Chair. We have a registered speaker for jj2 brooke boardy. Disregard. okay, perfect. Sorry, okay. All in favor of approving the open agenda items that have not been pulled for discussion, say aye. any opposed? Say no. aye. motion carries unanimously. Okay. At this time, since we're at 11:00 o'clock, can I have a motion and a second for items ss1
104and ss2? It's been moved by MS. Thompson seconded by MS. Bulman. Is there any public comment on items ss1 or ss2? yes, MADAM Chair, we have four registered speakers, the first is brooke, next nicole morst. good morning, my name is brooke boardy, I'm here to speak about the renaming. I ask for more transparency for this process. Problematic cannot should not should not be accomplished via a simple name change. I would urge board member to investigate the matter at mlk when compared to the problematic successes, I think some level of school board directed investigation is warranted to discover why the montessori program has not been successful at mlk and why the name change in an associated magnet removal is happening? My understand ising that staff has stated that it's the will of the parents to not
105have a montessori program, based on conversations at the school, I don't think that's true. Removal of magnet program is not coming from the community or parents, it's coming from the district. I suspect that this is part of the process of the broward estates elementary closure, and if that's the case, I feel that the board has been mislead and that this name change is not an appropriate process for removing a magnet program. I'm ask that the board carefully monitor and question the programmatic changes. And with any program there are dollars attached to that. So for the students that have already lost their community school and reboundied to mlk, mlk is now losing from this program. thank you, next speaker. Speaker: I will echo what boardy said, this is a removal of montessori program under the guys
106of renaming. There are 200 plus kids go into plantation from broward estates elementary because they did not want to attend a montessori, there are 40 plus kids going to mlk. There are 54 students and 200 plus choice students there. Have the choice to go to mlk the 40 plus that are choosing to go because it's mont -- montessori, so the school choice window is open right now. We need people to understand that they have an option to go somewhere else. There were two parents at the meeting, and they were told that this is part of redefining process. Asking their opinion on a montessori, I did the survey that was sent out to parents, there was never a question, of if it simply said what you would want to change it or not. There was no
107word on montessori, I think if people knew that you were removing their montessori program, you would have parents here today. There was one parent that filled out the survey. And they were all unanimous. our last two speakers, is letricia and jackie lucekim. Speaker: I ask that I be addressed when I'm asked to come to the podium. In regards to this specific item, I do want to say that I did attend the meeting at DR. Martin luther king and participated in the renaming of the school. Unsure of your the playground is which is far from where the students have to walk to. So with the renaming, i participated and I did vote. But I want to bring things to your attention because I do know that you cannot get involved in day the to day operations,
108you have to ask the superintendent to do it. As a parent to all children of broward schools as a tax mayor and mother and nana, I will continue to bring you information that you need. Our voices are vital, hope you receive it well. GOD bless you well and MAY you rest every night that the students are our focus, not the staff, we're here for our children. Thank you. thank you, next public speaker. thank you, jackie. During the phase one last year, it was a lot discussion about mlk was a montessori. The other opportunity was plantation elementary. The proposal today is a retreat from that position and removal of montessori from the title. It's not a renaming it's partial indoing the name. That I feel it merits. So I'm asking for that today. It's a letter
109from mlk's principal on the 29th of APRIL, stating the school has concluded the process of renaming the school and another on MAY 2 from the assistant on behalf of stakeholders approval for renaming is being sought from you today. Let's look closer at the process such as it was, at no point does there a paeb to be any conversation with the community about the programmatic change that this represents, it has been about picking a new name. On APRIL the 1st has a item renaming mlk. It has 14 attendees five being parents and the minutes state that the principal says this process is in place due to the removal of montessori program. Minutes recorded, there was a guest speaker from vsy, and a parent asked why teachers are leaving and the principal said they move out of
110state or private schools. Pros were listed as creating a positive environment and playing a huge roll in behavior and helping to close academic gaps. Removing the program was not offered as a choice or in community debate the process was simply we're not going to be a montessori because the district said so so help us name the school. Talk about renaming task force, no idea who was on it, when did they meet, what was their task. Was it to evaluate the program and its potential benefits or simply finding a new name that does not include montessori, there were surveys but it was just about renaming. And I just want to say, DR. Martin luther king leadership and activism helped to expand and lay for solid foundation for high-quality education for all. Families deserve openness and clarity
111not after the facts and surveys. This is more than about a name change it's about trust and ensuring that when B.C. Ps offers solutions to a displaced community it follows through integrity and transparent dialogue. Thank you. that concludes the registered speakers. thank you. Next we'll move on to, so DR. Zeman, since you pulled s1 and s2, you can do both of them. I appreciate that chair. Both volve questions that have been answered already, thank you very much. okay. Next we'll have MS. Thompson? thank you, chair. Just want to clarifificatn onon how w schools change eir r names since there seemto be some community comment? yes, absolutely great question. It's a consistent process, I will let DR. Hudge talk specifically. thank you, DR. Hepburn. So the former specific process for renaming schools guided by policy 1401.
112The process was numbereder by conversations that were had within the community, meetings feedback and discussions. The principal will then establish a committee. The committee will then put out vote and mlk's situation, it was put out through a qr code. When the number of votes are determined or most votes determined, then the principal will submit a recommendation, that recommendation is being brought to you today. To the board and as the board you have the authority to approve reject and rename the school. If approved, the school will then communicate the final decision to see constituents. So that is the process, it's guided by policy 1401. thank you. And I just wanted shout out choral cove for their name change and for your advocacy during this renaming process. As people in the dais, you were not originally on
113the list but because of your hard work and tenacity and loving harassment of board members, you are placed on the agenda and I think it really speaks out to how important this process is to get community involved and to make sure that what we change in your school system is what is best for our community. So yay! thank you. DR. Holness? thank you, MADAM Chair. No sur price here, my concern is about mlk which is in my district. What was the original vision of the montessori model at mlk? DR. Hepburn. yes, I'll have DR. Fulton provide details as I was not here at the inception of the montessori at mlk. thank you, angelina fulton, I'll try to add context because I was not also. But what I do remember is it wnt through a similar
114to what we call redefining now, we were repurposing schools and at the time, the martin came up to be martin luther king JR. Because that was established through the community process. So when it started, martin luther king had received an f, to trying to reconfigure and also demands of the state, there was a lot of pressure with not getting into the ground into where it was suppose to be. As the mont tory magnet is in name, it's a lot of philosophies that make up the name for montessori. While some of the things were multi grade level. The teachers had to be certified as well in the montessori philosophy. One of the challenges is getting all the teachers certified, it was like a resolving door. It takes several years to get them certified and often times,
115I think it was stated earlier, once they were certified, some of them went on to moving out the district or going on to private schools because that is the commodity in private schools. So at this time, I believe in DR. Hudge, correct me if I'm wrong, there is only two teachers today that are certified? And the philosophy of montessori? okay, so through the superintendent, DR. Fulton, not having the required percentage of certified teachers in the area of montessori, how does does that have any impact on any kind of aringlations to say this is a model at a montessori school, what are the consequence?Z DR. Hepburn. DR. Fulton. I don't think there is any consequences or penalties in regards to not being certified in name but I'll differ to MS. Hendrix who is over the magnet
116programs, who can speak what it means in legality but I don't think there is any penalty if we don't have certified in name. And that is the case, that if we hire teachers but in this case, we have not been able to get our numbers up and teachers being certified in montessori area. understand, so let me rephrase this, if we term a school as montessori school as part of the district, is there a guideline that exist to category us as such or a specific school? And if we there is, what is it? so again I will differ to susie because that falls on ospice to montessori. so if I can add to the question, if we don't have teachers and only two are certified, we're not implementing the program with fidelity and students engaged for
117going there for specific purpose are not getting there what they went to the school for. Because we don't have the instructors trained. right, and I understand that DR. Hepburn. My question is, is there a guideline that defines when a school is considered a montessori school to which we can name the school as such? Or does that not exist and that is subjective? again, I'll have to agree with DR. Fulton, but I can tell you, most programs like that, usually, they want to be considered whole school in order for the name same such as ivy program. The ivy organization will come down and tell you, you're not an iv program because your iv program is not a whole iv program. You're piece mealing it. So I would assume the same for the montessori schools because the
118others are full fledge across the board. okay, so what is the governing unit that would come down and say, mlk because of its lack of teachers is not a montessori model? we'll have to provide a follow-up if MS. Hendrix is not in the area. For us, we're not living up to the integrity to what the program is suppose to be on that campus. Number one, we don't have the teachers, enough teachers certified, number two because of that students are not getting the level of instruction that is commenced with the type of instruction that they receive from qualified teachers. understand. So I'll hope for a follow-up if there is a governing unit that provides any guidelines and such. I have what measures are taken to remedy the number of teachers that are certified as montessori, were
119there any measures taken? And I understand that there's an exodus of teachers once trained. But what measures did we put in place? And the reason I'm asking this question, this is my school, it's in my district rather and I've gotten many questions about it because because we're renaming the school. the public wants to understand if they want to mack a problematic change and so on and so forth. So these questions are relevant for this item. So in terms of did we consider any measures to remedy the issue of shortage of teachers that appears to, to rationalize changing the name and it's program? you have kids that are grandfathered into the program, but also implementing desirable programs too, I'll let DR. Fulton add to that. DR. Holness, I want to make a cc, we have hired
120two additional leachers so there's four trained teachers and it's a small percent to the total population of teachers that are there. But to add to your question in regards to what are we doing as a district to recruit or get teachers tor certified, it is a major commitment for teachers to go through the certification. It takes a few years and it's not like during the school day, it is on a teacher's I'm, in the evening, taking classes at the university, we have a partnership to get them certified so some of the challenges are teachers on their own wanting to take these extra learning opportunities for the commitment that it has for -- to get your certification and once they do, retaining thing teachers is very difficult because now they become more marketable. okay, so we
121do have some kids who are transitioning from broward estates because of the repurposing of broward estates to an early learning center to mlk. Were those families informed that we are seeking to change the name and remove the montessori component? And I guess the other question will be, will we be offering some aspect of the montessori model for those kids who transition and thinking they're going to a montessori school? Are we offering some aspects of montessori because we're voting on a programmatic change as well as a name change today, so the kids that transition there from broward estates, will there be an option for a montessori or some sort of a montessori aspect to the school that those parents who thought they were going to a montessori school will be able to take advantage of. I'm
122hear, yes ye, sx, yes, there are some philosophies from the montessori program that will remain adopted in mlk. I know that in communication widths the principal because we wanted to make sure this process was extremely transparent, we don't want to be taking anything away from children that were an enhancement, just add soing we can provide additional opportunities especially for the students that were coming to us, they were coming from a stem magnet program over to DR. Mlk and we wanted o the make that transition as smooth as possible. In some is of the meetings, it's almost like a mix, there was some parents, I think one of the community persons had mentioned it during public speaking was that they stayed away from choosing DR. Mlk because they did not favor the montessori magnet so they
123decided to do choice somewhere else so it's a blend of a mixture. We don't want to take away what has been working at the school the last few years. As you've seen the student academic data at mlk for the past 5, 4 years, they have been trending positively, so a lot of things are wringing so we're not throwing the baby without the bath water but I'll have DR. Hodge add anything else. thank you, I think you summarized but I'll go into more detail. She did speak about components that would remain and that have been successful, one is the peace education where students learn practical strategies around just making sure that they resolve disputes peaced ffully and that's been imbedded swao the culture. The other thing is provide ago structured and orderly and esthetically pleasing environment
124for students and as you walk around mlk's campus, you will see there's outdoor reading spaces, there are murals of that the culture and the environment is esthetically in print losing toing to the environment. The other thing is hands-on learning, even with standard baits curriculum, we want to make sure we're doing hands-on learning with students with materials in the classroom, so those are components that we want to make sure that we keep in place. And then also a culturally focused, you know, collaboration with the students, stakeholders, as well as community stake homed, we want to continue to have these conversations and enhance where we need to as you will see in the upcoming board workshop, one of the things we'll talk about is even integration of some enbacker enhancement with ai, does it take the place
125of what has been imbedded there but enhancement that we continue to move those student ins the right direction. I understand. So, if I am a parent and I'm electing to bo to mlk with the intention of utilizing the montessori aspect and I know we have four teachers currently, can as a parent request that my child be with a montessori certified teacher for those parents who are going to the school for the montessori itself? Sofrjts, we will certainly have the principal, MS. Parent, to meet with those parents, we have an open house coming up I think it's next week, if I'm not mistaken, there is an open house coming up so we are open to talking with parents around whether or not we can make that happen. So, I would like to klaountd, MADAM Chair, I
126would love to see that even though wi oar doing a programmatic change regarding a vote on a name change, we have some respect of montessori and even though we have challenges in getting teachers that we continue to be vigilant in terms of getting certified teachers who are montessori certified and not fw if up op that because there are some parents who are really wanting to go to the school because of the montessori component. So I'm hoping the efforts will be ongoing and that we don't give up on trying to get certified teachers there even though we're voting for a a name change and that students who have interest and parents who have interest many the montessori aspect of the school, that they will be given the opportunity to be with these teachers who are certified
127as montessori teachers. DR. Hepburn? yes, absolutely noted. I wanted to also add, you know, the name change also provides parents the opportunity to understand there's much more to just montessori mlk, so we don't continue to diminish enrollment there because many parents in the community are not choosing the school because it's montessori or they're exercising choice to go to other schools for different type of opportunities so I don't want to pigeon hole this particular school to say this is the only think they do, they do so much more. I appreciate that, thank you. MR. Sevara, point of clarification in regards to the mlk situation. My understanding and my reading of policy 1402 which set it is parameters for renaming school [Inaudible] Facility iss the principal will appoint a committee to a narrowly list of name and
128is that information will be then voted on by the parents, I'm going to assume that happened here and that majority rules, so from what I'm hearing while I understand there MAY be concerns about program change and name changes, is this the will of the parents of the students at that school to have this name in fact changed? yes, thanks for the question, MR. Cervera, that happened, the three options, one of the three options was DR. Mlk elementary school, the other two, one was [Inaudible] Elementary school and I forgot the other name, there were three options that were presented to parents for a vote. so, the parents want this? correct. thank you. thank you, MRS. Alhadeff? thank you, so to that line, how many parents voted? DR. Hepburn? MS. Hodge, if you have that number. if
129I can call up MRS. Darryl, I think she has the numbers. hello, jennifer [Inaudible], director sto, we have 371 responses, however, it's difficult to tell how many were parents because they are anonymous. Many of this. -- them. how many are tao urnt student ares enrolled in the school currently? I don't know if anybody b has that number. I want to give a comparative to the board. it's a total of 468. 498 is what I have. okay, the mid changes of the 4, so majority aof the responses are reflected based on that number, I want to give a compare the tif number for the board. so, for the 371 responses, were they all -- those 371 responses were for the name we're approving today? correct. there was 371 responses total, if you're asking how many were
130in favor, is that the question? yes, that's the question. Er yes. sorry. I have 358. okay. And was that information, DR. Hepburn, in our backup? I would have to -- let me check. If not, we can send that as a follow-up to make sure you have that. okay, I think that's really important. So, my line of thinking is a lile bit t different and I don't think it's something that we could possibly change today and I was happy to hear that ai was brought up, but I would love to see there be a martin luther king ai academy, and I know the board is really talked a lot about integrating ai in our schools, having ai tutors, robotics kicks, ai tools, vr headsets, ko etd coding, I know we did a whole workshop on that,
131bringing in guest speakers from companies like google and microsoft and mindfulness tools so I know tla the board is really stringing to integrate ai more into our schools and I would love to see martin luther king academy to really be a -- sort of like a pilot program to really integrate ai into the school. MS. Alhadeff, you're stealing my thunder for the summer, so that's a discussion across the board for many of the things we're trying to do within our schools, scaling up, being innovative in our approach of how we change, how we provide learning opportunities for our students. I know the team at mlk are starting small with the program, so we can get it right and then scale that out. and I want to make sure that we're providing m -- mlk with
132the headsets, they get the robotics kits, the coining, all the resources we can to provide that school. yes, absolutely, the team and I are reviewing costs for vr, xr, all the emerging technologies so we can make these things available to a lot of our schools. thank you. And I just want to confirm our clarify something before we take this to vote. So, the question was -- I'm waiting. who is that? that's MS. Rupert for debate. oh, for this item? Okay. MADAM Chair, it's three seconds, that's all I need, I'll wait until after you. it was two different things that have been said, I want to clarify, what came to us was to vote for a name change but somebody asked were we voting for a name change or a program change, the answer was both,
133and then that same person in discussion said that they were hoping we didn't have a program change, so since it really appears that what we're voting on is just a name change, can you be specific as to what we're voting on in this item so we're clear to the public? so, specifically, it is a name change. My answer to that question was more for the public to understand there is so much more going on at mlk besides montessori, montessori is one component, but there's a plethora of programs that are going on that the staff will be initiating to address needs for families, kids, based on their choice. okay, thank you. MRS. Rupert? thank you. I did want to just give a little bit of history, five seconds worth. When it came to the montessori, as
134one of the old boards, that it was important that we saw there was a swinging door for our montessori teachers leavening, e -- leavening, ing -- leaving, so three, four years ago, we had some terms for the teachers that were leaving there, we would pay them to get certified but in turn, they would stay there for at least three years so I wanted to let you know that's what we did and secondly whatever happened to that? And I could take it as a follow-up because I don't want to take anymore time. DR. Hepburn? DR. Fulton? so, she's correct, we do pay for the courses and the training that they have to go through and there is a commitment in writing, really a gentleman's agreement they stay for 5 years, but that they don't finish the
135training -- like I said, it takes several years to get the training and it's rigorous and it's on top of what they're currently doing. When the principal recruits, she's recruiting basically for montessori, we haven't been able to recruit large number of teachers that were coming in with training already, when we hire them, it's an agreement that you would take the training in a period of time but it never materialized to the full extent where we have a large number of teachers that were certified and once they get certified, they become very marketable so they start to leave to go to private schools and other places so it's hard to keep them. to we do that at one school or all our montessori schools? Z. It's it's in the teacher's bargaining agreement. just a point of
136clarification, thereafter prior commitment that the survey indicated that the parents support a name change. There was not an option for the parents to keep the same name, so I can't conclude and I don't think we can that parents supported the name change, they supported one of the three options presented to them. There was not an option to say they want to keep the original name. I think they felt they had to pick woufn the three that was presented so I don't think that's enough to conclude and to state that parents supported the name change. DR. Hepburn? DR. Fulton, if you can go through the process of how they come up with the three options for voting. you are correct, it is an empty slate in the beginning, it's a recommendation, what name would you like,
137they come up with the top three to be the ones to vote on, it would be assumption if they wanted it to stay the same, that would have been an option to keep that as the same name and it would have been one of the names to be voted on, but the names that came up came from the body of the community that was involved in the naming process. and then that went out to the general public for survey purposes, correct? Rjt I'm going the differ that to DR. Hodge as far as the details how the school did that process. so, if MS. Eskandel can come back to the mic., please. yes, DR. Holness, that is correct, the process was sent out to the community, the first way it was sent out was through a
138parent link informing them of a process, the second wauz wi the qr code where we received their vote, their responses o for the name. but there was not an option presented to keep the same name when that survey went out, correct? the names that were on the survey were the names that were generated at our sac meetings. I'll ask the question again t names generated were presented for the survey and there was not an option on that survey to keep the same original name, correct? correct. so, that's the point I'm making is that we -- I understand the process but we cannot surmise that if that option wasn't presented to the general public that they favor a name change, they voted for one of the three options presented to them but there was not an
139option to say keep the original name, so I'm just making that point clear, so, because I've heard it said up here and I don't want the public to get the wrong impression that there was a survey and the public support the name change, they supported one of the three options. There was not an option to keep the original name? correct. thank you. okay, thank you. All those in favor of items ss1 and ss2, say aye. aye. any opposed, say no. Motion carries unanimously. I leader a no, chair. did you hear a no? I didn't hear a no. awesome, chair. if I could, chair, can I have privilege to go ahead and announce those two names na last time we didn't, the two names for name changes are DR. Martin luther king JR. Elementary school and
140also coral cove academy of the arts, congratulations. [Applause]. you have to hold that sign up again. Beautiful, they already have their logo and everything. Great job. Thank you. Okay. Thank you so much. Next we have two items that are time certain for 11:30, so if I can have a motion and a second for items hh1 and cc 1 to come to the floor. It's been moved by DR. Zeman, second by MS. Thompson. Any public comment on items hh1 or cc 1? MADAM Chair, we have one registered speaker, DR. Natalie lynch-walsh, and I currently do not see her. I don't see her either. So, okay, let me take the items here, let go MS. Bulman? we can keep going, we just can't vote. MS. Bulman, you're up first, you had questions on cc 1. [Inaudible] okay.
141Then I will move to MS. Rupert. MRS. Rupert? thank you. I'm going to go sequentially because you know how I think, I'm going to start on page 7 and I'm speaking on the gifted and talented box there, and I'm only doing it there, the automatic gifted screening has not done done the last two years, this was to be able to identify more students that were not bingeing located. They were not getting caught to the point where we knew they were gifted because they had different exceptionalities, so that would be my question. Will that be initiated again under the curriculum supervisor of gifted and talented? DR. Hepburn? MS. Hollingsworth? good morning, MS. Rupert t curriculum for gifted and talented was over with ese last year, so two years, we've never stopped doing doing the universal screening,
142we stopped get thing go get testing protocols, we've been utilize thing p m-3 data working with richie ba um's office and our gifted group to determine thresholds for that. We've identified 400 more students this year using that method and also being very aware of not overeating so we've bb doing that to make sure they were singing materials and data and get test that is we we're already using to identify our students. okay, I'll bring this up further at another time because I know this is the org chart conversation, but there are multiple second grade teachers with their recommendation to have children tested, tested. So we'll have a further discussion on that, I appreciate you, simone, okay, next page is page 8, supervisor foster care and neglect, there's substantial difference between prevention and after effects of
143abuse. For instance, we adopted our cheerer child from the foster care system at that time, he and our family had bonding therapy but he also received therapy to address and learn ways to avoid triggers and learn to heal significantly different perspectives from foster care to child abuse prevention, so I would ask for another view of this change and would be interested to see if the two supervisors had any input about this merger, sometimes financial decisions need to take a backseat to what is best for the kids. DR. Fulton, can you address that. She's asking who is involved in making this decision? and I asked the same question of the superintendent so I know there's an answer. thanks. that's okay, DR. Hepburn's coming back, I'll let him answer the question. MRS. Rupert, can you repeat your
144question, I'm sorry. do I need to read the whole thing over or just the question? . Inger no, just the question. I would ask for another view of this change and would be sbr esd what the two supervisors of the separate boxes had any input about this merger, or were they okay with it? go ahead, DR. Fulton, I know the team looked at that so they can formalize that decision. Er we were looking at ways that we could continue the same level of services by bringing some cost savings to the district, so we found those two particular positions to -- we looked at the job descriptions of both and to see where we could find any two sro that can be done by one person, so with that, we were able to put them all
145together, we did a job study because we didn't want to put something on someone that they could not deliver the the level of services that were currently being done, we did condense those two and we will have one person that will be doing both positions and we truly feel as we looked at it from the higher level per spekt I ever was that the same level of services that we were providing with that, that we were able to continue to do that moving forward. And bring a cost savings to the district. I'll be watching that as it goes. And page 13, there's no way for me to explain how I feel about remove thing coordinator of district network. The person that is the sos when schools go down, connectivity, problem solving, customer service, relationship builder,
146front line worker, dedicated employee, how many boxes is there going to be to take the place of this position's responsibilities where all schools and facilities know who to go to right now, they know that person. And it reminds me of when we had I zones, that the connectivity with the high school, the middle school, elementary schools, the continue mutely of the -- continuity of relationships and family schools and they would have had an office in the underutilized school. So, there were savings of facility co-s but also money and increasing customer service. The principals knew exactly who to reach out to for that sos at their schools, and it was extremely important that there be one person that's able to meet that end. As we were looking at the charge and the ones that were presented
147at the workshop, had this particular box still there and then friday evening, it was taken out. So, I just -- I'm having trouble with this because this is somebody -- there's a direct link to customer service, service o the schools, continuity, the relationships, you know it's a hot mess with trying to get people -- when I'm at schools and I know you all feel the same way, people have who do I call, what do I do. Well, when we did the eye zone areas, that's -- it was tied together and that's the same way, there was one person in that box for the network, for the whole network for them to be able to go to, it was an sos for everybody to know where to go and things were fixed, so I find it
148difficult to believe that getting rid of this particular box is going to be anymore customer service because they're happy now. So, for this, I'm struggling with this one and I would like an answer, please. DR. Hepburn? yes. Thanks for the question, MS. Rupert. Certainly we as the sixth largest school district don'tbacker don't want to be dependent on one person, we want to be more responsive to principals, teach and he iser the community at large, so any aspect of this is about improving our systems just to make sure we can provide a level of service we need to everybody and certainly not the depending the entire principal or school staff on one person. If there's any additional details that you have in the question, I can differ to MR. Davis and his team who I know
149have done a great job in reviewing the org chart so we can provide better service to our schools and be more responsive than we have many the past. I appreciate that and customer service and loyalty are extremely important to the reputation of everyone, and most importantly our district, so I do appreciate your words. However, how we treat our employees, when we say nobody will be losing their job, we meant nobody will be losing their job, and it's very hard to accept that especially when your box is on for the workshop and low and behold, you're hold you're going to be losing your job but it's still there when you go to the workshop. And then you call and tell your boss, this is what's happening, my box is still there, am I still losing my
150job. There was no communication after that, so to be able to see it very much slashed away after that is a human being behind that person and I just -- I can't swallow that. if I can answer, I'm sorry, if add, if a box has been x'd prior to the workshop or after, we've communicated with those employees to tell them that's been elelinated, that has noththg g with ---- wewe're rereful abt how we're commune caught skating to employees because we haven't got ton that stage if we could not find a home somewhere else for them and we MAY look for them to find other options so I want to be careful with the message if a box is x'd out, employees have been communicated about that position being delimited, it's not about the person because
151we haven't communicated those type of aspects to people yet but just about the position na's on the org chart. . Er I'm not going to debate about this with you because I respect you too much. I will share the information with you, you can see if it's one person, it's one person in our district, but I feel things like that. I know finances are extremely important and I keep the money where I keep it, but treating people with respect and dig nit they is also part -- dignity as part of my dna, so I wanted to let you know about this, and for this reason, I will not be supporting the org chart this year. Thank you so much. okay, thank you. Board member thompson? thank you, chair. So, as my colleagues and I have
152been discussing at our budget workshops and the superintendent has emphasized over the past several mothers, we are facing severe financial challenges. While some are attributed to our previous boards and our previous superintendents over the last several years who have struggled to have the hard conversation about right sizing our district, it would be wrong of us not to acknowledge the fact that our state does not pruned education tat rate that it should for a state that pro claim tos love their kids and wants what's best for their future. So, it is consistently ranked.In the bottom five, we are currently 45th in how we fund our education systems and our challenges are continuing to pile on as legislative session isn't over and they're continuing tog hack away from the little funds we get by taking away funding
153for our ace programs,, our ap programs, so while as a board we have to make these hard decisions, I just want to acknowledge we are already in a very challenging financial position due to tallahassee and the it is vital we continue to advocate to raise the base student allocation for all florida students because that's the only way education system in the state of florida is going to survive so as the public has mentioned and as some of my colleagues have mentioned, I was also surprised at the more modest cuts to the org chart and I don't want people to think we don't -- that we're ignorant to the fact these boxes represent real people and that this conversation is being had that is going to potentially affect their livelihood, how they feed their children and
154how they afford to live many broward county. I think it is very important we take a critical work at every department and ensure that every department we are investing in is in the best use of taxpayer funds and delivers the very best results for our students. For example, I have mentioned our strategic partnership department and while I appreciate the staff follow-up, I found it lacking. I didn't see any partnership that is were invoe -- innovative, they didn't step out of the box, they wouldn't have already been involved with us regardless. I also think that the staff that lead those departments have the better ideas of where we can make connectionsfinger MR. Davis just told me about the partnership we're having with microsoft and no how we're going to be the only school district many the
155nation to provide ai throughout our district. trey davis, we'll go the world, not the nation. the world. [Applause]. so, that's amazing, and that is a department who knows their stuff so well that they know the partnerships that we can go out and make these collaborations with and not necessarily have a completely separate department. However, if we are going to invest in these departments and I trust that the superintendent feels that this department is what's right for the district, I want us to be very critical about what they're bringing in and the partnerships and innovation they could bring. I also want to acknowledge the organization chart only represents about 2.5% of our workforce, so even if we cut the majority of these positions, it still suspect going to be enough to provide significant raises to our
156employees so we need to take a holistic approach to right sizing the district by looking at reducing our footprint, looking at school allocation formulas, and creating strong partnerships with people outside of our school district that want to come in and help support our schools. We are at a very defining moment in our district, every dollar matters, every decision we make up here matters, we need to be forward thinking, have innovative solutions to meet the needs of our county and we need to set the bar not only for how school districts are run many the state of florida but many the nation. Thank you. thank you, DR. Zeman? thanks so much, and thanks, school board member thompson, for that awesome insight. There's a lot in this org chart change that is very worthy, new positions to
157put people behind the hag line broward county public schools for artificial intelligence. Reorganizations to try to deal with bro urtd county public school an a rf rated school district, not a district that was not a-rated and had a lot of work to do on the other side. I'm going the ask one question and I have three recommendations on the org chart, the first, chair, I'm curious about our planning going forward for the assistant superintendent for transformation office. If in fact the academic success becoming an a district is going to be trem moan douse success this year, how long are we going to need an assistant superintendent for transformation office? DR. Hepburn? we will always need that position, as you know, many in the past, not just broward county public schools but other school districts, schools
158will kind of muster up a level of success to get out of that state watch and then they have a yo-yo effect and they keep going up and down, up and down and I know it's pretty frustrating for the school community and the community at large that they serve to help maintain a high level of consistency as student performance progresses and close learning gap and is also opportunity gaps, positions like the assistant supe of the school transformation office is vital for maintaining that, so we don't go through the yo-yo effect we see in other places including here in broward county in the past. chair, what was the last time we had a school that was on the state's watch list for academic failure? DR. Hepburn? last school year. and I just want to watch this.
159To MS. Tofrn son's point, there's a big issue with the xlaount and we've talked about it but we have to get real about which is enrollment is down 17%, but our overhead I don't think has gone down 17% in the last ten years. MR. Superintendent, what is the cost of our overhead shown on this org chart compared to ten years ago? DR. Hepburn? cost. I don't think I have that specific number with me right now. I can provide a quick follow-up. You have that number with you? I can tell you we will be with the strategies we detailed and the memo that was sent the week before, we will be below the student proportion of staff to students in a year or two. A year with attrition and significantly more in two years of attrition.
160As I stated before, we have almost 3 thousand people that tha are voluntarily leaving our systems through resignations and retirements soy aoep not even counting terminations and positions across the board. So, in the past, that's been backfilled like for one for one, so if we are strategic and backfill 40% which is 40% is concentrating tainting on backfilling positions in schools, we will exceed that number quickly. I look forward to that conversation this summer, school board member thompson, because there's two ways to get to reductions, there's wait to see who quit and is see which ones you fill or don't fill which I never can support because you have no idea why a guidance counselor or social worker or assistant principal quits. That's a random event. The alternative method is to go after things and say
161our enrollment's down x%, our teacher count has gone down because we ratchet teachers down every year bh there's few and her fewer students but we have to proactively make sure our overhead comes down as well because there's only two thing ins this business. There is supporting people, those that help the folks that are doing the learning and there is supported people which are the ones in the schools primarily doing the work of this school system. There is an obvious budget adjustment that happens when you lose fte on teachers. There is not one on the number of schools and this board has not shown their willingness to reduce the number of schools but there's also no automatic adjustor to overhead. And that's something as MS. Thompson pointed out is dependent on us. We have to look
162at the supporting part and say you're either going to take it out of school sites supported people who are doing our work or you're going to take it out of support. Those are the only two things there are, one goes down automatically with fte and one does not so I'm not in favor of the attrition plan, I'm in favor of the wisdom of this board saying we can look at some things and say we just can't afford to do that anymore. Last year we had 8 chiefs in broward county schools. This year this org chart proposes 9. I don't think that's going in the right direction. Er I think it's going in the wrong direction. Last year we talked about the incredible number of direct report tos the chief academic officer. This year if you
163count the org chart, there's ten different director that is report tos the chief academic officer and there's a mix of teaching students and teaching adults. I think we have a chief academic officer for teach k students tha, the focus ought to be from k-3 12 and teaching adults is a telly different science. Andrew cogi is not pedagogy and I would propose we think hard about profession nol learning and professional development and leadership working directly for the deputy superintendent just to liege the load and to make sure our cao is focus on our kids rather than focus on their staff I.'s a totally different system, totally different thing that is work on those two things and I think that goes from 10 direct reports to 8. I'm also equally willing to take risks ob the transformation
164office, maybe not this year but many the future. If we go down to a dozen or less c rated schools in broward county this year, we have to think about whether other leadership models can go after the persistent yo-yo prap, not because it's the per feblgt answer but because we're running out of money. If we can't figure out how to do things with ai to reduce positions, we're going to continue to take it out of school sites and instructional positions when that's just not the most responsible thing for us to do. Those are my org chart comments, chair, we're still going to handle individual positions descriptions with hh1 separately? the items were taken together, so, continue, five more minutes. I'm sorry? So, I'll start with my recommendations. First I'll go from the top, there's a
165couple of things on the chief of staff position description that I think are still legacies of the position when it was responsible for communications primarily and public relations or media relations. In the minimum qualifications, we say 8 years of demonstrated leadership experience at either school based district, administrative or related high level management positions. I don't think our chief of staff position should have that third bucket. The related high level management I don't think is appropriate. If you're going to be the chief of staff here, you should have 8 years of demonstrated leadership in either school based, administrative or -- period, so I would strike everything at the or related high level management positions or a combination of any of these and I move that change. is there a second? okay. second. okay, is there any
166public comment on the motion? Board discussion on the motion? MADAM Chair? yes, sir. I would like the superintendent's feedback on that change and how this will impact -- DR. Hepburn? yes, fw if me a second, I'm trying to find the actual part of the document. it's page 3 under minimum calls, second bullet. and where did you prose o strike? strike after the word administrative so it doesn't include high level management as a minimum -- it includes 8 years of leadership experience, that's it. and strike -- sorry, everything after of. after the word administrative. okay, yeah. I have no disagreement with that. doesn't that limit the person that can apply for this job to only be -- district administrative would cover that. but it would have to be someone from a school, someone outside the school
167district. somebody from outside of the school district wouldn't be able to -- who never worked in a school district would never be able to qualify for this position, so correct, that would limit opportunity ins the future. I agree and that wasn't my intent, my intent was to make sure it was leadership and not management and so let me restate my motion. After the word -- so, it should say a mip mum of 8 years of demonstrated leadership experience, period. So, that would cover leadership experience in a school based district or elsewhere. yeah, that's what I thought you were proposing. and I apologize, the point is to strike out management. This is the chief of staff, this is the integrate tor of all those chiefs that sit on the front row to make sure they can
168get all the integration issues it is serious job. So, that's why I'm just proposing leadership more important than management. I agree if the proposal is to a mip mum of 8 years of demonstrated leadership experience, period. yes, sir. I'm good with that. alright. Any other discussion? All those in favor of the the motion and the change in the chief communication position, say aye. aye. any opposed? no. no, alhadeff. rupert. three no's. And five yes's, with cervera not voting. further down, curtaining as a spokesman, I don't think that's appropriate for a chief of staff. I don't need a chief of staff who has been -- it's great if they happen to befinger but I think that might be a left over from a previous so I'm just making a motion to strike the word serving as
169a spokesperson with stens I -- extensive experience level. is there a second? second. okay, public comment on the motion? Board member comment on the motion? MADAM Chair, I would like the superintendent to speak to it. and before that, I'll just jump in and say usually the chief of staff is the person who answers media questions, sometimes on camera, sometimes off, so I would not be in favor of changing that. DR. Hepburn? no, I agree with you, MS. Hixon, I was going to say the same thing. MRS. Leonardi? same thing, yeah. alright. Okay, all those in favor of the motion, say aye. aye. any opposed, say no. no. motion fails. thank you. thanks, chair. Hold on one second, 7-1, MR. Cervera didn't vote. on the chief operating officer of job description page 1, fourth bullet from
170the bottom, it says right now compile and maintain specific ace and is other information struck out, that's being taken out of the job description as the coo, it makes sense, we replace that with ensure the public is aware of current information -- I'm sorry, never mind, I'm on the wrong page, page 2 is what I'm looking for. Third bullet is struck that says maintain progress charts and prepare reports on major works in projects in the department and other things which I strug out, I'm sorry, I can't read the rest of that. I believe this is a big deal for our chief operating officer and it's something has broward county public schools probably considers an area of improvement -- of important improvement which is we need to make sure that the public is aware of what
171we're doing with our projects and so I would like the chief operating officer not even the chief facilities officer but the chief operating officer to have a bullet that says ensure current progress charters and significant updates on major bcps works on projects are available to the pub lig. I've worked in this field before, I have looked alt other school district sites. I know people call me constantly about a project that they care about usually because their kids are in skaoel school or they live neneby, it aos way past the time we have cuent t ininrmrmion avavailable ani woululd liketoto make the e chie operating officer responsible for that upgrade. DR. Zeman, just do you happen to have -- because it sounds like you MAY have a number of these are written out so you can
172pass it out because I'm still trying to find where chief operating officer is. I apologize. so, if you had it where they could make copies for us, it would make it a little easier for us to follow along. I would be happy to do that. I only have a couple more, and I apologize, in my experience, we kind of went through these one at a time in previous org chart discussions so I was prepared to did the same this year. so, my control find isn't working, but it sounds like, DR. Zeman, you're pretty much saying the coo will make projects more transparent for the public to understand the progress of the project. it is a big deal to the community, I know we've made good progress. This is not like we don't have dashboards and
173things internally. I just would like our chief operating officer to be public facing on our major projects, and so the wording I'm proposing is ensure current progress charts and significant updates on major bcps works in progress are available to the public, so this is the top x jobs that someone wants to know with's going on at rickards, you can see it. the additional memo is there. okay. thank you, MR. Sullivan. and I apologize, chair, I'm old school so I brought printouts. MADAM Chair, can I ask a question on that point? go ahead, MRS. Alhadeff. do we have somebody already doing this work? yes, MS. Paul, if you want to provide details, I want to say garth is supporting us with this work if I'm not mistaken. yes, that is correct as well as my internal
174staff. garth and internal staff are doing this work. ask there's a whole website on that to communicate to our constituents, correct? that's correct. was there a second, did you make a motion? I moved that change already. did we have a second? Okay, so go ahead with your next one. thank you very much. This is really a question, chair, on the chief facilities officer position. We have a masters degree as a preferred qualifications instead of minimum. Would this be the only chief level job that doesn't require a graduate degree? DR. Hepburn? go ahead, MR. Azzarito? through the chair, divider azzarito, chief people esofficer, no, it's not. . Inger and what other chief position does? chief peoples officer is not required. terrific, thank you very much. Second question, chair, is really we have registered architect, engineer, general
175contractor as a preferred qualification. Is that standard for a chief facilities officer not to be required to be an architect, engineer or general contractor? DR. Hepburn? MS. Paul? that is a typical job description to have those items. typical to have it though is mandatory or preferred? for that level, mandatory. terrific, so I would propose that change. I would like to propose that that bullet that's under preferred registered architect, registered engineer, licensed general contractor or must qualify for registration or lie censure be moved from preferred to minimum qualification section. I'm on page 2 of the chief facilities officer and our current chief operations of a facility officer said that would normally be nr the minimum qualifications for chief facilities officer, I want to move that pr preferred to minimum, that's my motion. is there a second?
176Okay, it's been moved and sueded, any public comment on the motion? Board member comment on the motion? MADAM Chair? DR. Holness? moving that from preferred to minimum, how will this impact folks applying for this position or what impact would this have? DR. Hepburn? go ahead, MS. Paul? I think it will potentially limit the pool of applicants if we were to do that. That's why preferred is there to give you a better pool of applicants. MADAM Chair, and how important, DR. Hepburn, is this particular requirement to the job? DR. Hepburn? it's important but it's also good to have a a breadth of candidates we can pull from so to see o who's going fit our need but it's also important. so f a candidate does not have this requirement and it's in preferred, can they still
177do the job or are the options to bring that candidate to have that person hired up to speed? I'll ask MS. Paul? a lot of it turns on the experience level also. So, you can have all the degrees and n the world, if you don't have the actual experience in construction and running projects and that sort of thing, then it would not be adequate for that level of position. okay, so would you then say that someone with adequate experience could do the job without this particular requirement being in the minimum as opposed to preferred? I think at a minimum, they have to have a bachelor's degree in construction or something at that level plus experience. okay, so this motion by DR. Zeman in moving this particular criteria to minimum, would you conclude that that is
178important to get the job done or if it's in preferred and a candidate does not have it, what's -- is it impactful to the job? I think that, you know, a lot of times you see or or are in job drips, they have that so you can k widen the pool of applicant and is try to find the best applicant that your particular organization/district needs so,, you know, I'm okay with preferred but a lot of it turns on, you know, their experience in the field. MRS. Leonardi? so, if what I'm hearing today is that usually it would be mandatory, why was it placed in preferred in the first place? DR. Hepburn? we reviewed -- this is a previous job description, so I think it's probably just an oversight on us while we're trying to update
179the position in the job description for this position. thank you. MS. Bulman? I was trying to -- my question was going to be an exception of someone that would have experience that's outside of an architect, engineer or a licensed gc, and I think it's up here in the minimal qualifications, correct me if I'm wrong, if you have a construction management degree and then sufficient experience in that, that would probably be an example of someone that would qualify for this job that doesn't have those certifications, is that correct? DR. Hepburn? MS. Paul? I think, you know, just in my experience in that level of position, they had the certifications, they're an architect, an engineer, a contractor's lie wednesday is a vast knowledge of experience, you know, there is no like exact bible that it has to
180be this but oftentimes organizations take into account what their history is in that particular position and what their needs are, so for us, you know, we want to make sure we get the best candidate possible and sometimes the best candidate possible is not the one that has the doctorate degree or something like that, so I think we -- we have to be very tailored towards what we need the position to be and as chief of facilities, my experience is they're normally an architect, I worked with a person at an architect and an engineering degree, so there are various combinations of this, but you look at their body of work and this is not an entry level position. but -- okay, so just to clarify that, so if -- a construction manager, if you went to
181college for a construction manager, you have years of experience, but I don't know if they have a license, I'm sure they have certifications, if they don't have licensing, would that be someone that you would still consider? I've looked at -- as an applicant? an example, I've looked at a lot of resumes over the years and what I've come to ascertain is you look at their body of work and the type of projects they've been on, you look at -- you look at the whole person and not just one aspect and not just one degree. You have to take all of those factors into consideration, so the ideal candidate, you know, you paint a picture of an ideal candidate would be someone with an architect degree that works many schools, have built schools over the years,
182that MAY have started out as a construction manager, we have a person that started out in construction and is now a lawyer, so, you know, you look at all of those attributes to find the best candidate to fit you, so it's not a one stop shop in other words. alright, so I guess the question is, is we're narrowing the pool f we go with DR. Zeman's motion and would we be doing that to our detriment, to your detriment to pick the best candidate or is that the preferred qualification? so, I think the term preferred opens it up a bit more as opposed to minimum qualifications, but again, when we go through the interview process, we judge each resume, each candidate to find which one fits us best based on, again, their education as well as
183experience level. thank you. thank you, MS. Alhadeff? thank you. DR. Hepburn, can you jog my memory currently, is this position of chief facilities officer filled right now? no, it's not. and past grand jury report made it very clear that we need to have a a chief facility officer position. And so I am very hesitant to add more restrictions to the job description to add these different levels that they have to have of certification because I do agree with with MS. Paul as far as keeping the net wider to allow for more people to aemploy f -- apply. H is telically speak, it's been a difficult position to get qualified people to apply for, so I think to keep it the way it is, is what we should do, thank you. thank you. All those in
184favor of the motion, say aye. aye. all those opposed, say no. no. no, alhadeff. do you want a a roll call? Okay. I wanted to vote the way lori did. roll call on the motion, school board members alhadeff? no. bulman? no. cervera? no. hixon? no. holness? yes. leonardi? no. rupert? no. thompson? no. zeman? yes. motion fails 2-7. thank you. the next change is so we can find it is the director of professional learning and development. You probably don't even need the documents for this change but I'm making a motion that the report 2 is not the chief academic officer but the deputy superintendent. And I brought this up earlier, ten director point tos the cao is unheard of, three is kind of the management standard, you know, you don't want a whole lot more than
185that so you have good span of control and can cover ask you really get to know what your next level direct reports ares doing but most importantly professional learning and development is about our adult staff, not about our k-12 students and I think that that's an appropriate responsibility for our number 2, the deputy superintendent. is there a second? I'll second it. okay. Any public comment on the motion? Board member comment on the motion? can you repeat the motion. yes, I could. To take the reporters 2 for the director of learning and development to change from that fr the chief academic officer to the deputy superintendent. can you tell us where that is and I just scrolled through all of them. going back to the org chart. it's an org chart. it's really both. But that
186job description didn't come to us? yes, it did. okay. sorry about that, I just brought my printed copy. I'm not making any other recommendations to the detailers s -- details description, just the line on who they report on. DR. Hepburn, do you have any -- sorry, I defer to DR. Fulton. so, I'm okay either way in regards to -- we have two roles in the district, those who teach and those who support teachers and this particular role is those that support teachers and whether it's reporting to the chief academic officer, I have full confidence that that role will be executed in the full extent of excellence, and who reports to me will be the the same, so it's to the preference of our amazing superintendent. I will align with my deputy superintendent to move it
187because I have confidence she can accomplish whatever. MS. Thompson? I just had a question or a suggestion as well, why is it not reporting to hr since it seems like teacher development and supporting teachers should be more of a resource of -- or a function of our human relations department. DR. Hepburn? I want to make sure we're clear on the roles that DR. Zeman is suggesting being moved. Are you subjecting director of leadership development. that would be my subsequent motion, for right now, just to make it one at a time, I moved that professional learning and development be moved to the deputy superintendent instead of the cao. But my next motion just in case you're curious will be to mover leadership, again, the focus of adult learning is different and our cao is an expert
188on k-12 learning as are many people in this district and this is not about any one individual, this is about what responsibilities will make sure that professional learning and development will get the attention it needs. In my mind, this is where we are going to make a lot of money in terms of winning back students which is doing a tremendous infusion of effort and time into our professional learning and development. And so I just think it's going the fit better with our number 2, our deputy superintendent to get the time, attention and resources it needs to really be a world class education component in broward county schools. so, to answer your question, MS. Thompson, it depends on the district, some districts have it ton hr, some districts have it on the academic side of the
189house. For us, the nuance is to ensure especially with the ebbs and flows of the do -- doe and up dazed of standards, there's a clear understanding in the academic side of the house of what needs to be accomplished and what capacity building needs to be reflected with standards that we're teach ining a classroom, that's why it's under academics here. I have seen it in other districts where it's under hr. Where we're at and continuing with fast and iterations of new standards and those things, it's in the appropriate spot. I will save you some time, DR. Zeman, we MAY as well do leadership development, they go hand in hand. my motion is amended to include them both, thank you. okay, I have a question because as you just mentioned, it givers me pause because the
190academics of students directly correlates with the development of the adults because they're teaching them that academics, so I just have concerns of taking it out of the academic under the purview of academics, especially if now the deputy superintendent is not the deputy superintendent of teaching and learning anymore, she's just a deputy -- I don't want to say it that way, she will not be continued the deputy superintendent, so I think it's a disconnect if you don't keep them together because that professional learning is specifically so that those educators can teach the students what it is the curriculum is based on, so I just have a question on that. could we xropz -- compromise and do a lofted line? I'm happy with that. If we do a dotted line, we'll withdraw that motion and end up
191with a tted lilineith concurrencnce ofthe board, ththers no obobjeion. Thk k you. I only have t left. are we considering the director of mental health position today? DR. Hepburn? let me hop into the job descriptions because we have many. we talked about it last week, I find it curious -- curious would be a polite word, I find it shocking our director of mental health has zero years of experience of doing anything mental health work, the applicants who apply for the job should have considerable experience delivering mental health services, be a social work, a psychologist, a school counselor, family therapist, I believe deeply and I think there's tons of evidence, if you want to be a great principal, you should have been a great teacher so you have credibility with your primary staff, but we have
192a direct door of mental health position that we filled with a talented person but I suspect we got lucky rather than doing what I feel is much better which is saying let's fill it with someone would's done mental health before, so, I just don't know if it's on the agenda for today or not. We brought it up last week. it is not on the agenda but I do want MR. Azzarito to pull up the current job description to confirm what are the rimers as far as experience when it comes to providing mental health s fs. minimum for the director of mental health services and earned masters from an accredited institution, a minimum of 7 years within the last 12 years of progress I beverly more responsible experience in social work, mental health s frs ors
193other educational related fields and n a school based and/or district office administrative position, experience in grant writing, demonstrated knowledge and experience in program planning, prevention and intervention models of service dlifr ri for mental health and mental service, leadership and budget management experience and then effective verbal, written and interpersonal communications skills required for the position. right, to that point, there's an or in that sentsz, so you can either have experience doing mental health or you can be a leader in a school, and that's what I just find inappropriate in a world in which we really need dramatic improvement in mental health services, coordination, integration, assessment, the whole thing. The fact that you can be our director of mental health and not have ever done anything mental health, it just doesn't pass the test for me. DR.
194Hepburn, I'll just throw out there my own thought real quick. I would hate to change a swrob description while someone's sit ining a seat that wouldn't meet that. I would think maybe it's more appropriate if there was a time where we needed to fill -- if the seat becomes vacant, then it would make sense to bring that job description to us at that point. I don't think we would disagree but I would hate to be the person stringing in that seat and know that I don't fill what the job description is. well, the job description isn't part of this current item. great, we can do something -- I asked the staff if we could change the job description, while we know f are thinking about it without afngt the incumbent and the answer was yes,
195so, we can bring that up separately because it's not part of today's item. perfect, yes. I have one more comment which there's two missing position description and is I don't know if the board would like to see those today if they are ready. It would mean us reading a job description for our assistant director of ai and our director of data intelligence, those job descriptions didn't make our package, I understand the staff has them ready today. If we saw those, we'd be done with item. The org charts could come out and we could move on, its's different way of doing things to look at it and the public wasn't privy to seeing it beforehand. DR. Hepburn? I defer to MS. Batista if we can bring that forward based on board decision. so, that would be
196an amendment and the chair would have to approve it for good cause. And you also have closed the agenda so you need to the open the agenda and put in an amendment to the item. just personally, we have a lot going on and to add two very important thing and is have us read it, I would rather have it given back to us. I don't have a strong position, I want to make sure we're aware we had the option so that's great, thank you, chair. okay, thank you. DR. Holness? thank you, MADAM Chair. DR. Hepburn, have we exhausted all options on or below the org chart to realize savings based on your opinion? yes, for this current iteration, yes. okay. What is your confidence level of reducing significant staffing through attrition in upcoming school years?
197highly confident. We've already examined the categories of position types that we've been going through attrition for the past three years so we're confident that the majority of the backfill is going to be on the instructional side that impact schools. The attrition that we'll depend on is from the early departments that are our central office, and ancillary offices that is don't have an impact so much on schools. so, based upon attrition, how many staff in the upcoming year, 2025, do you estimate that we will reduce the district by? absolutely, over a thousand. okay. And based upon just the general estimate, what kind of savings would you suppose -- that could realize to depending on the fringe, the salary and fringe, that could range from 50 million and above just in one year. and this would be
198in addition to the 7 million dollars savings that's proposed here? correct. okay. In the attrition plan, describe how this will impact if at all instructional staffing. I know you mentioned some minimal impact, what will that minimal impact be? for instructional staff, there should be in impact at all. The backfill we will be analyzing on a weekly basis in our cabinet meetings will be focused on backfilling positions that are still needed at schools. We do know we're experiencing declining enrollment year after year so skom of those positions MAY not even be needed but we'll be focusing on backfilling positions at schools and it will not have an ill pact on what we're doing in our schools. so, I know it was previously expressed in terms of attrition that it's not certain and so on and so
199forth, and possibly not reliable. Based upon trends in the school district, how reliable are your estimated numbers looking at trends? it is reliable. When I wass basing the data off of three years, we are on average lose almost 3 thousand employee who is are voluntarily leaving our system through retirement and resignation every year. okay, so with the arition plan, this enables us to reduce staffing without having to lay off or terminate a large amount of staff? correct. We're going through some tough decision-making right now but to get to that 17% or higher number, has would involve laying off thousands of people. This is the way to not worry about the pain of a couple of thousand people because we already have people who are voluntarily leaving our system year after year. so, I know that
200there is sort of a proportional relationship with losing students and losing teachers, correct? correct. so, we spoke about in the past a ten year span where we lost 38 thousand students but we gained staffing. So, apparently based upon your former comment, it would have been -- it would not have been teachers that we increased, it would have been because there was some sort of an increase in staffing. So, the reason I'm asking this question, as we move forward, can you tell us how this in terms of attrition and in terms of the positions you're removing below the chart, will this mostly impact middle management, upper management and -- it will impact the organization top all the way down. We have people in various employment categories that resign and retire every year. okay. And these cost
201savings, how will it benefit students in terms of attrition and losing a thousand staff or more, how will this funding lead back to students? it's definitely funding that goes back into our general operating funds and gives us an opportunity, we're already on the path of innovation, it gives us an opportunity to innovate further baiz eel have more money to address the needs of our kids in a different way. so I have a couple of questions based upon specific positions. I know board member rupert had some concerns about merlin the foster care and the child abuse and neglect prevention positions into one. When I look at the numbers, this would result in a savings of 127 thousand 33 dollars, correct? DR. Hepburn? I'm just verifying, just a second. I'm going to agree with you without verification,
202but yes, most likely with fringe and salary, it should be close to that. with this savings and merging these two positions because we've gotten concerns that each of these positions independently are pretty significant to the district, is it worth the savings to compromise these positions or are we diluting these two positions and putting into one under one individual? I wouldn't say so. Like I've been telling folks, we didn't just start talking about org changes last week, we've been probably working on this since DECEMBER, it's been methodical steps analyzing opportunities, when we're faced with certain opportunities week after week, the team will go out on their own, do their specific research and see what the impact would be to the organization. A lot of these decisions have been thought out and understanding the impact of what
203it does for students or the system at large. okay. So, can you confirm that these two positions being merged into one will not compromise the effectiveness and student safety? correct, and as the board is well aware, if a decision needs to be changed in the future, I'm not afraid to come back and ask the board to, hey, I need -- you know what, we didn't make a great decision here, we MAY need this back, as it stands right now, we've done our research for all of our positions that we're eliminating or consolidating to make the best decision possible that will not impact services to students or communities. so, board member rupert mentioned there was a job study, guided study done. Were the two supervisors for these individual positions part of this? Was there any discussion
204with them? so, that'd typically not the case when we're -- we're not -- that just muddies the water if we go talk to somebody to say, hey, can you do a, b, c, d, that puts employee nrs a precarious situation. So, we don't normally go do that, yes. I understand. So, my understanding is the child, abuse and neglect position, it promotes awareness, staff training and gauging early intervention and it collaborates closely with dcf, the state attorney's office and the foster care program seems to be more about abuse or neglect and its mission seems to be quite different from the child abuse and neglect prevention, so this seems to be two critical areas and I don't know necessarily the depth of these positions but it seems to be two critical areas of student wellbeing and I'm
205concerned about the merger in saving thousand dollars for the year whereby the consequence could be impactful to students that are really disadvantaged in some form or way, so I have concerns with this. Would you like to respond, DR. Hepburn? Because I am worried about the minimal -- it's the a decent scavenging, if the consequence is significant to children, then I'm concerned about it. as I said before, we've evaluated all our positions that we're collapsing and consolidating, this has been going on since around DECEMBER week after week, so we're comfortable with many of the decisions that are before you today. If it taoes will of the board based on any concerns or whatnot to bring something back websinger eel abide by that, for us as a team, we've done our research and delved into every aspect
206of decision making that will impact the school year. Hence that's why you don't see a lot of things on here, we couldn't evaluate certain thing sos we decide today do that for this upcoming school year to make some better decisions as we move forward for other positions but for the ones that are before you today, we've dope a lot of extensive research before we finalized our decision. okay, thank you, MADAM Chair. thank you, I will end the decision, but I will -- chair, I need a cleanup item. I think we need a motion about the dotted line. I mover both professional director of leadership and director and [Inaudible] Have a dotted liep to the dep city superintendent and continue to report to the chief academic officer. anybody second the motion? Okay, any public comment? Board
207member comment? All those in favor of the motion, say aye. aye. any opposed, say no. okay, great, thank you. I just have two things. so, on I would say page 19, it di pends on where you're looking. I'm on hh1, the job descriptions, the coordinator, I guess it could be either one, coordinator prevention programs, I have a concern with the name prevention program because the supervisor, foster care and prevention services already has prevention in it. I think it's very confusing. I know I had already mentioned this to the superintendent, so DR. Washington, did you have another suggestion for that particular name? yes, go ahead, DR. Washington, she's prepared. good afternoon, everyone. We can include -- I can either clarify in the job description x kt exactly what prevention programs they are, it's about substance abuse
208prevention, violence prevention but it includes our mentoring program, so we could change the job title to something related to prevention and mentoring, so whatever makes it more clear. it's your department, when you say prevention programs, when you read through it, it aos not clear what prevention programs you're addressing so I think both would probably need to happen is that you would need to include what prevention programs are being addressed and include -- so, if mentoring is included, I think it should also be in the title, so I make a motion to change the title of coordinator of prevention programs to coordinator of prevention programs and mentoring. And then to add in the description the specific programs which I don't know where that goes exactly. Essential performance, responsibilities, I guess it goes in there, so it
209says assist in the development of strategy and is implementing the district's prevention programs such as -- and then what the programs are. And I don't see mentoring in there. So we'd have to add a bullet about mentoring. chair, is there another title that wraps all those things into one title, kind of like student services is 27 things but people understand -- is there another general title that fits besides -- I agree with you prevention by itself doesn't tell you what they do, but there stl a general label that might work for has? that's why I asked the superintendent. I have a couple of ideas. Er go ahead, MR. Sullivan. yeah, chat gpt, coordinator of prevention and mentorship program or coordinator student support and prevention and mentorship. we already have student support. It sounds like it's
210repetitive, so if it's repetitive, we don't need it. maybe just coordinator of prevention and mentorship programs. that's what I said, thank you. second. is there any public comment on the motion? Board member comment on the motion? Okay. can you repeat the motion. so, the motion is to change the name of coordinator, what's being suggested, coordinator of prevention programers to coordinator of prevention program and is mentorship, and then to add in the performance responsibilities nr the first bullet, prevention programs such as and to list them so we know that that's different than the prevention services of a different supervisor and then at the bottom to add a bullet about the mentoring because this also includes mentorship. . Inger so, what was just the title? the title right now says coordinator of prevention programs which used to
211be ek quity, diversity and cultural out rao efrp, so we're going to add to this coordinator of prevention programs and mentorship. And then list the programs that are the prevention programs included for this job title. anan chair, juju do we ed to gethat puput gether inin wripg and ouought back to the ard d later this aft the nraon to wrap up this item. Would that make it legit? Saying things like list the programs MAY not work. okay, MS. Batista? well, I think that would be appreciated by the assembly and the staff as well so there is clear direction. okay. so, we'll have to table this. lay it on the table. yes, lay it on the table will be appropriate because we have a 1:00 tla we're late for, so yes. okay. Alright. Can I have
212a motion to -- so moved. second. okay. It's been moved and eked to lay it on the table, all those in favor, say aye. aye. any opposed? Okay. So, we will lay this on the table and come back to it after our closed attorney-client session so, board members, I'm advised tla the general counsel would like to request an attorney-client session. At this time, I am requesting all persons not scheduled to attend the attorney-client session, please exit the room at this time. MS. Batista? thank you, MADAM Chair, I would like to request the school board convene an attorney-client session in order to discuss litigation pending before the 17th judicial circuit and in for browardbacker broward county florida, burke construction group mincer versus the school board of broward county, case number cace244-5001566, the following person wills attend
213this attorney/client session, school board members debra mix son, hair chair, lee in regard di, vice chair, lori alhadeff, maur r I mccarthy, jeff holness, nor ra rupert, rebecca compton, allen spaceman, hepburn, edward ess quire, thomas cuny, esquire and marylin c. Batista, esz quire, in anticipation for this request, it was properly teed for MAY 2025 at 1 P.M. In accordance with 286.011(8) Of the florida statutes. The purpose of the attorney-client session is to discuss settlement negotiations and/or strategies related to the pending litigation and a certified court reporter will record the session, only those persons note ined the advertisement will be permitted to attend. Thank you, MADAM Chair. (Meet ing in closed session ). (Meeting in closed session). can I have a motion to bring back to the floor hh1 and cc 1. It's been moved by
214MS. Bulman and eked by MS. Thompson. So we're going to go back to -- we were asking the question about the coordinator prevention programs and how we could make that a different name, so we all have a paper now where they have updated this, so coordinator, prevention and mentorship programs and the first bullet, they've added programs for violence and substance abuse prevention and then the second bullet says assist in the development of vat jis and implementing the district's mentorship programs for students and then it looks like the review is assistant developing substance abaou prevention, so they went through and outlined what the proensuing programs were, so it separates it from prevention services which had to do with child abuse in the other item. So, there's a motion on the floor to change this job description,
215job title and job description. There was a motion and a second. There was no public comment and we were on board member discussion. Anybody else have anything to add to the discussion for this item? chair, could you point out what was changed from what we had earlier? if you look on the job title, it was prevention programs, so now it's prevention and mentorship programs. Then under essential performance responsibilities, the first bullet, they added what the prevention programs are, so for violence and substance abuse, then they added the second bullet, assist nr the development of strategies and implementing the district's mentorship program because that wasn't addressed here, and on the third bullet, they added violence and substance abuse prevention. thank you. any other board member discussion? All those in favor of the motion, say aye? aye.
216Er any opposed, say no. Do we have our two members on the phone. we have MS. Rupert who has her hand up. MRS. Rupert, can you have a question? I don't -- no, she's not there. Okay, so, so I guess, okay, I don't think we have any other discussion, -- take a vote separately on this, so on hh1, all those in favor as amended, say aye. All those opposed, say no. Motion carries unanimously. And then on item cc 1, all those in favor as amended, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say tho. That also carries unanimously. no. I think that's MS. Rupert. MRS. Rupert, is that you? I have been on the phone the whole time trying the vote, so I apologize for raising my voice, but yeah, you couldn't hear my I understand. so, you're
217a no for cc 1. I'm voting no on cc 1 which is the -- that's the job descriptions, right. no, cc 1 is the org chart. I'm voting no on the org chart, have we voted on hh1 already? we did. okay, I had my hand raised but you went right into closed door for that. All I needed was just a job description on page 13, I mean, it's not going the affect the vote. On manager district m ins rate tor services, if there's a job description for that job and the ones that were mentioned by DR. Zeman about combining later in the meeting, I guess, are those the ones we are looking at this afternoon? no, we're not. It would come back to us at a whole other time. then the one that I just
218asked for, I prefer if it came back as well. DR. Hepburn? unless there is a job description. can you just repeat that. can you repeat the position title? sure, it's on page 13 and it's under the chief of staff and communications, it's the -- it used to be the assistant director district administrator services but it's now changed to manager and I just wondered if it was -- there was a job description for manager. And if we needed that to approve or we don't need it. we didn't change anything, did we? you changed the name. it should be in here. if you can give us 30 seconds, MRS. Rupert. okay, thank you. I believe it's in the additional information. We changed it from coordinator to manager and also we included public records in that job description
219because that will now be under that division of communications and that position will oversee the public records function. okay. So, that it was assistant director and then it became coordinator and now it's manager? it went from assistant director to manager. okay, I appreciate that, so you said that's in the backup? correct. And additional information. okay, I didn't have that like I didn't have the stuff two seconds ago t work through, but I trust that you guys do your stuff especially for DR. Washington, so I'm okay. Thank you. okay. So, the vote would be 8-1 on both -- well, MRS. Alhadeff, is MRS. Al had -- alhadeff on the line? so, it's 7-1 on both items, thank you. Okay, next item up is aa1, can can I have a motion and a second. so moved. it's
220been moved by MS. Leonardi, seconded by MS. Thompson, any public comment on aa1? no. board discussion, MS. Thompson? thank you, chair. i'm very excited to talk about our vpk programs, I believe this is really where there should be a lot of investment of our time and energy on. I had submitted questions that I know there was some delays in getting them back, I want to highlight some of them and hopefully we have the answers, but how many of our student that is attend our vpk programs enroll in the bpcs schools? right now the data we have for 23-24 because we're currently in 24-25, 83% of our student that is were enrolled and our completed our vpk programs returned and stayed in bpcs. thank you, I think that is an amazing number, we can always do
221more, I think this is an entrance point into our system. I also think that this is something our competitors are not offering and if we can figure out a way to help parents so it's only three hours from the state as most of us know, if we can figure out washes to supplement this or expand it or figure out a way to better advertise it so we get more families in, I think that would be really attractive and I would really like this to come to a board workshop during redefining because I think this is an opportunity to not only for all my colleagues to learn about our vpk program, we can talk about advertising better, and then really bring in some smart ideas once the questions are answered about how we can use vouchers
222and times that add that to go into full -- sorry, and how we can try to grow that into full day instruction because we know the ill pact it's going to have to our community and we know the impact that it will have to our enrollment. Thank you. thank you, DR. Hepburn, did you want to speak to? . I am taking note for a future workshop so we can talk about vpk expansion along the same lines as redefining. thank you, that was -- DR. Zeman? thank you so much, and to MS. Thompson's point, you know, we have 182 elementary schools identified in this package, excuse me, 182 schools for which this is potential but only 75 are offering it so there's a tremendous opportunity for growth, to the extent though that we are thinking about
223expanding early learning centers, there's a difference between having an entire building and a facility and doing solely early learning centers for which the state thinks they are funding early learning centers through vpk and pre-vpk, they think prao it providers or other romanticizations are using those funds to pay for facility and is other things which we cannot do and we have to be thoughtful to bifurcate that discussion. We don't want the state to think that we are supplanting funds and we have to just be very careful in our discussions about whether we have bhoel school that is do early learning centers which is one issue and there is other space in existing other schools and the big advantage as you pointed sxout the question is that 83% of them stay and go to our schools which
224means they're either kids that were destined for our school anyway or kids that were trying our schools, they met our people and said, wow, this is a great team and I want to be part of it. So, I think that there's tremendous tun to expand this. We've rarely hear from private providers when we do this and that's what's always shocking to me. If we opened 100 vpk and pre-vpk slot and is got people the sign up and they were doing great thing ins our school, you would think private providers would call the superintendent or the kaoef of staff and say what are you doing expanding this, you're taking money from me as a private provider and apparently those calls have not happened almost ever which means there's a tremendous lack of supply in terms of
225people offering this capability and when you talk ta parents, they have a hard time finding people that will take these vouchers and do that for that fund so there is a gap to fill in the the schools for which we have two or eight or whatever number of classrooms available and I hope we're husbanding in doing that beyond elementary school, if you have an elementary and middle school together, it doesn't hurt to use the excess space in the middle school knows next those kids are going to come back as long as you can provide for proper boundaries for those early learners. Thank you so much. thank you, MS. Bulman? thank you, chair. Just to support what was said by MS. Thompson, DR. Zeman, I really enjoy going to visit in schools where they have vpk
226because the principals tell me they love it and the program we're providing, so to put that energy, workshop it and see how we can expand the programming I think is just very important for our education system in general and it's a fantastic opportunity that we have and I think that our communities really benefit from having the local vpc -- vpk programs and who better to provide these programs than our schools. Thanks. all those in favor of aa1, say aye. aye. any opposed, say no. aye. okay, it passes unanimously. I have to bring an item back. We passed it in the beginning but it was supposed to be voted down. It was a memo to vote it down, so can I please have someone bring a motion to bring back oo17. so moved. it's been moved
227by MRS. Leonardi, seconded by MS. Thompson. Is there any public comment on oo17? no, MADAM Chair. okay, board discussion? So, if you look on the agenda, there was a memo to vote this item wn cacae ititcomemes baba to us in a different form on another ietem, that's why we were supposed to vote this down. But we voted yes. So, all those in favor of this item, remember you're voting it down, all those in favor of this item, say aye. All those opposed, say no. no. the item fails. Thank you for that. i forgot to do that earlier. MADAM Chair? yes. MRS. Alhadeff she indicated she wants to vote on the org chart ask job descriptions, for that to happen, a board member on the prevailing side would have to bripg it back if the board
228wanted to do that. motion to bring those tenses back. second. it's been moved by MRS. Leonardi, seconded by DR. Zeman to bring back items hh1 and cc 1, all those if favor, say aye. aye. any opposed? no. okay. 8-1 with MS. Rupert dissenting. 7-1. yes, DR. Holness isn't -- correct, 7-1. do we need to wait for -- yes, hold on. no, we don't. It's going to pass anyway. here he is. okay. Alright, we are goipg to revote on hh1 and cc 1 because MRS. Al had deaf was not on the line when we took the vote. All those in favor of hh1, say aye. all those opposed, say no. no. MRS. Alhadeff, was that a yes? alhadeff, yes. okay, thank you, so that passes 8-1. All those if favor of cc 1, say aye. aye.
229all those opposed, say no. no. that also passes 8-1. Thank you so much. The next item is ff1, can I have a motion and a second. so moved. second. it's been moved by DR. Zeman, second by MRS. Leonardi. Any public comment on ff1? no speakers. mshs -- MRS. Bulman ?Frjts I wanted to highlight a person at addicts middle school, there's a grant for $2,500 from wal-mart that's been obtained by DR. Leshon clark, she does a fantastic job applying and obtaining grants for that school. She works very, very hard in the community to make community connections so I wanted to recognize that and keep up the good work. thank you. And I also just wanted to -- for some reason, they have me for ff2 and not ff1 but it was ff1. I want to say
230thank you to everyone who applied, this month we have 379 thousand dollars coming into the district from grants, 300, a little over 300 thousand of it is for vpk summer so that's excellent. 50 thousand was from fp & l and 20 thousand from florida blue, so I wanted to thank all those partners from participating with us and for supporting our students. All those in favor of item ff1, say aye. aye. any opposed, say no? [Inaudible] motion passes unanimously minus DR. Holness because he's not on the dais. The next item is ff2. it's been moved by MRS. Leonardi, seconded by DR. Zeman, any public comment on ff2? no speakers. any board member discussion, like I said, mine was supposed to be ff1, okay, all those if favor of ff2, say aye. any opposed, say no. aye.
231motion carries. The next item is ff3. Can I have a motion and a second? it's been moved by MRS. Leonardi, seconded by DR. Zeman. And we do I believe have public comment on ff3. yes, we have one public speaker, DR. Trudy jermanovich. hello. DR. Trudy jermanovich, I would like the congratulate the district on applying and getting this grant for the past several years. i'll tell you algt bit about it, in order to address students lack of access and skills, digital collaborates with verizon to support the vils program, the grant comprises in-kind devices equipped with 4g cellular data plan for students and teachers including 30 gigabyte monthly data plan and repair and replacement for accidental damage o the device. This has been awarded for several years. In order for schools to become a verizon learning school,
232the school must serve middle or high school student and is have 65% or more of their students participating in the free and reused lunch program. Schools go through a three phase process where they first must supply, complete a process where the principal, staff and students are interviewed and finally receive notice of their acceptance into the program. Digital promise selects schools to be part of verizon innovation learning schools. The grant was used with high achieving students who are taking biology in middle school and I hope this could be replicated with regular middle school students. When extending technology, this is the kind of program which should be used as a model. I would like to know if the present cohorts use their biology textbooks on the ipads. What a wonderful way to utilize a new way of
233using the technology and not just for testing. I think this could be used as a model to work with the broward education foundation and I would be glad to donate to that cause. Thank you. thank you, MS. Jermanovich. Are there any other public speakers? no, MADAM Vice chair. thank you, I have MRS. Bulman? thank you, MADAM Vice chair. I just wanted to point out the excellent data we have here for the schools that are participating in this program. I think it is extremely impressive, again, when I've toured schools in my district that are participating, very impressed with the facility and what's happening in those learning labs, so I am very grateful that we're able to participate in that and if we could expand the program, I think that would be fantastic just base on the
234gains we're seeing by yao u using this technology and utilizing the program. thank you, any other board member comment? All in favor of the item, say aye. all opposed, say nay. Item passes unanimously. Could I have a motion and a second on item gg1 please. second. moved by MS. Thompson seconded by DR. Zeman. I have MRS. Alhadeff on the list. thank you. So, my question and comments regarding gg1 is in regards to the previous item where it was passed and the funding was going to go to coral springs high school when the -- and I understand this item is in regards to litigation to move the executive summary to move forward with the litigation which I'm fine with but I guess I just want the board to remember in the future that we approved that
235when the land sold, that that money with go to coral springs high school. I know they were looking forward to using that money to help build up their cafeteria, so in regards to I guess there's escrow funds or is there any funds available with this item moving forward to support coral springs high school now and if that's possible, where does that money go? DR. Fulton? MS. Paul? my understanding is that the money goes to general fund, it goes back to the district. so, how much money is it and I guess my question -- what is that money for? what is it combining out of and how much money is it? as I understand it, that is a penalty for the real estate transaction not going through and so therefore that's portion that we keep from
236the agreement or the district keeps from the agreement. how much money is that? is MR. Acobuso here? no. I think it's somewhere -- I think I hear him. Hold on just a minute. No, that's not him. I would have to follow up. My memory, I think it's around 60 thousand, somewhere in that neighborhood. But I can give you a more precise dollar amount as a follow-up. okay, because I would like to make a motion to have that 60 thousand dollars be given to coral springs high school so they could move forward with their cafeteria project but I want to have understanding through MS. Batista, is that allowable? MS. Batista? from a legal standpoint, yes, it is allowable. okay. So, I move to have the 60 thousand dollars or whatever the correct number is based on
237what staff says to be given directly to coral springs high school to be used for their cafeteria project. is there a second? i'll second the motion. Public comment on the motion? Board discussion on the motion? MRS. Bulman? I guess MS. Batista -- actually, first of all, the original agreement, there's an agreement that the money from the real estate transaction is 600 thousand dollars purchase price is earmarked for coral springs high school. MS. Batista? there was a prior item where MS. Alhadeff made a motion and it passed unanimously for that money to go to coral springs, so that was for the sale of the parcel. so, right now we have a maximum claim for this deposit but we really don't know what we're going to end up getting. We could end up settling it somewhere in
238between. I guess my opinion would be that if we were to agree to MS. Alhadeff's motion, that that would be subtracted from a maximum of 600 thousand dollars or is it just an open ended -- if we can sell this for a million dollars next week, is then a million dollars going to coral springs high school? How was it structured? so, this is a penalty, so it would not be a million dollars. MR. Coon nao e is -- I know this wouldn't be a million dollars, if you agreed for a 600 thousand dollar purchase price and that money is going to coral spring high school f we come back and sell it for a million dollars tomorrow, then does coral springs high school get a million dollars or are they only getting 600 thousand dollars,
239and I guess is this an open ended -- can we -- are we giving the deposit to coral springs high school and then giving the next purchase price, I need some clarification. so, those are all very interesting questions. When the motion was made, I don't mrao ef that there wass any of that discussion at the time from my recollection. The motion was just for the sale proceeds to go to coral springs and at that time, the amount was 600 thousand, so I think that was all that everyone took into consideration and I don't think the new issues that you're bringing up were discussed at that time. and it was based on that particular contract. Would has go away since the contract is no longer in place? right. Er we're not selling it anymore, with ear
240going after the -- correct, and I think that's why -- right, MS. Alhadeff is making this motion so that the penalty money also goes to -- but presume mri -- presumably, the property is going to be sold though? eventually, hopefully. it makes it open ended or we cancel the first thing and then we're only looking to apply the deposit to coral springs high school. We need the make it more specific. well, so I think whenever the item returns for a future sale, perhaps MS. Hall -- alhadeff will make a similar motion at that point. any further discussion. DR. Zeman? I am sympathetic to selling a piece of a school property and returning that money to that school. If you were slinging a piece of any one of our 239 campuses, that campus would suffer the
241loss of that land, it could no longer use that land. The land at coral springs could have been parking lots, it could have been used for pep rallies, it's land they're losing that is -- while it's across the street, it was still platted for coral springs high school fr, the sale of the land, I understand giving up the money. This is a different issue, this is people backed out of the deal. I would look forward to reselling it again like soon and making it part of that item that if we're going to sell that land and 600 million, whatever we get for it, that that funds be retained by coral spring for their use but I don't support penalties from any individual transaction go into?I one of our schools, it is important to allocate funds
242based on need, not on proximity. And these funds don't really relate to coral springs. The sale of the land would, and when it comes up for sale again, I would support any part of the item that would allow those funds to go to the school for the wholesale but I don't want to just do this as a jean practice, I don't think we want to open pandora's box that penalties from failing to conclude a contract should go to any one of our schools, it should go to the general fund. any other board comment? MRS. Alhadeff wanted to speak. go ahead. thank you, my sense of urgency for this funds is honestly just for coral springs high school to be able to use it for their cafeteria project and I understand that they were looking forward
243to having this money to be able to do their cafeteria project, so the sense of urgency to have funds available. Now, I see this as an opportunity and the sale of this land, I don't know, it could be years before that actually happens, so that's why I'm trying to connect this amount of money with this item now to give them those funds to move forward with their cafeteria project. okay. Thank you. MS. Bulman? Okay, board member cervera? thank you, point of clarification, I want to make sure myself and my colleague ares all on the same point. If in fact you're successful with this litigation, ul be entitled to a return of the thousand currently in escrow and obviously able to do what you will with the land at a later point in time. Opining there's
244an attorney fee provision in that contract as well so you can recover what you expend on that litigation. If that is the case, then understanding what board member alhadeff's concern is about the urgency of the money and as well as the what I'm hearing about perhaps the 60 thousand going back into general fund and only apportioning the sale proceeds to the high school. Perhaps an option would be to allow the 60 thousand from the escrow fund if you're successful with your litigation should be relatively swift, at least i would hope so, it seems pretty clear cut to me and ultimately when the property is sold, reduce that sale price by the 60 thousand, take that and put that in the general fund to address the urgency concerns. MS. Batista? so, I MAY need a little
245help from MS. Johnson because the sale of funds are capital funds and these particular -- the 60 thousand go to the general fund, so I'm not really sure, so I defer to her expertise to share with the board whether that's available to be done that way. through the chair, [Inaudible] Johnson, cfo, any funds, capital project that is are sold, property goes back, they have to go back to the capital fund, any penalty use comes to the general fund, period. We cannot switch -- you know, general fund dollars, we -- general fund can buy anything but it goes to the general fund. understood, thank you for the clarification. thank you, board member thompson? once the sale comes back, I think we can discuss the sale and who the proceeds go to through that point, I don't
246think it tsetses a good precedent to tie these agreements to just specific schools. i think there are a lot of schools and there's a lot of places we can put our general fund, if we can recoup these costs, I think it needs to go to the best use, so I would not be in favor of this, thank you. thank you. I came in late, so is there a motion? [Inaudible] okay. there's a motion on the floor to allocate 60 thousand dollars from this transaction to coral springs high school, correct me if I'm wrong. spot on. okayay another bod discscuson onhe momoon? L those in favoofof thth moti, say ayaye. aye. those opposed, say no. no. motion -- do yu need a roll call? roll call on the motion, bulman? no. cervera? no. hixon? no. holness?
247no. leonardi? yes. rupert? yes. thompson? no. zeman? Alhadeff? yes. motion fails 6-3. okay. Thank you. Back to the original motion, all those if favor of gg1, say aye. any opposed, say no. no. motion -- did I hear a no? alhadeff, no. okay, motion passes 8-1. Thank you. Next item is jj14. Can I have a motion and a second for jj14? before we mover into that, you have a speaker for jj2, would it upset them if we can go out of order? I don't have a speaker for jj -- we have a speaker for oo23. we passed jj2. That was passed already. Can I have a motion and a second for jj14? second. it's been moved by MS. Leonardi, seconded by DR. Zeman, is there any public comment for jshs j14? so. board member comment, MS.
248Leonardi? thank you, I'm glad this item is finally moving forward. It has been three years in the making so while the atlas are disappointing, I'm glad this is finally combining to a bining -- coming to a vote. When I requested follow-up on this item about why there have been so many delayers, I was given a very detailed response but the follow-up ended up with improvements continue to be made. The question I had is how are we holding people involved with systems available. And the response was specific improvements continue to be made. So I'm wondering what specific improvements continue to be made. DR. Hepburn? MS. Paul? so, that's a very good question. And thank you for that. This as you said has been kicked around for a number of years and one of the things that
249I and my team are wringing orking -- working on is trying to clean all of these thing that is have been lingering in this strict for years. This is an interesting project because the design was apparently very complicated but more importantly, it lingered because there was no decision made on it and that's one of the things that my team and I are much better at doing is making decisions on projects and moving these projects forward and so we're looking at how we do business, how we can improve on doing businessmen part of it is finding where -- pardon the phrase, where the bodies are buried and moving these projects forward. This is one of those projects that hit me within my first year. I had a number of them as you know. So, it was
250a problem with the design, it was a problem in making the decision to do it. It was a a problem in getting funding, it was a number of things that articulated in the response. Sx, you know, we just have to get better, and as I build my team based on -- thank you for your approvals -- based on the new org chart, we will get better but this is one of those lingering projects that in my opinion lacked a sense of urgency. And I appreciate MS. Leonardi bringing it forward asking the tough questioners, so we cannot have these situations in the future. and I guess what I'm struggling with a little bit is I hear terms like this was kicked around, no decision was made, but in the follow-up that I received, it says the
251processes for the specific project were complex give, wife those complexities and challenge, those delays were unavoidable, improvements continue to be made. And again I'm still not hearing specifics and perhaps maybe that's not -- you know, it's not my role to get into the di to day but I have serious concerns because these delays continue to happen. I've been on this board for almost five years and I've often asked the question how are we holing people and systems accountable. And I continue to be hold that improvements continue to be made and then we experience the same issues. So, I just feel like I'm hearing conflicting responses or conflicting responses and that's with I'm struggling with. So I appreciate that there is a desire to improve but I am concerned with the lack of specifics that I'm
252hearing around those improvements. Thank you. if I can add, we definite ly understand the concern and frustration. Many of those people who were the decision makers are not here anymore, we don't have a mechanism to hold them accountable. As MS. Paul said, during her first year and continue to this day, we still find a lot of things that were not addressed and we're flabbergasted with system of the things we're finding because it's impacting students so we're trying to figure out the best way to accelerate unresolved projects to get them moving as fast as possible and we certainly look at accountability measures too but some of those decision makers are definitely not here anymore. thank you, and I will caveat that with some of them are still here, so I have confidence in our superintendent and
253in MS. Paul to hold people accountable because it is very important, this is a lifesaving measure we're implementing and I did ask, you know, what are the -- what is the plan for moving forward with other schools to implement these safety measures in other schools, and I believe there will be a plan for -- in the defp process, so I appreciate that as well. Thank you. thank you. DR. Zeman? thank you so much. I don't think getting complete answers to questions interferes with operations. It doesn't at all and I hope that we continue to get very, very clear answers to the questions that are submitted. I'm curious, MR. Superintendent, we've approved the cfo position, we've approved the coo position, we have approved and -- excuse me, we have asked for the six month extension to
254go through JANUARY for aecom so we have stability, when can this board say that we are at the point of expecting to have projects not get kicked around, decisions not avoid. What's the a date you're looking at where we could look at our facilities system and say it is delivering now with other people's money what other people want from those funds. DR. Hepburn? I think you can say that right now. I think the frustration for us is not about what's in front of us, what we can see with our eyes wide open, it taoes things we don't know about that we find. Gosh, where did this come from, how come nobody spoke up and said anything about this and we do discovery and we start diging and start finding out how long this project has
255been sitting here unresolved and where's the money for the funding for the project and all those other issues, so I can say the things that are raoekt here in front of us with our eyes open, we are addressing in a timely manner. It is the unresolved things we constantly discover for whatever rhyme or reason, the folks that are not here or the folks that are here aren't pointing those things aout and we sometimes trip over them, what's that, so that's the frustration for us as we try to move forward. to MRS. Leonardi's point though, it's one thing when you aoep the wall and see something behind the wall that wasn't in the original plans. There are lightening strikes that happen and things get delayed. I'm talking about those things that are within our control and
256to MS. Paul's point, like to voluntarily say, hey, decisions were not made, people were supposed to be sitting on something's desk and they didn't mao u it from here to there. We see that when when we go and talk to community, we have three options to do something with your school, which cafeteria or media center do you want and they might take nine month, those kinds of things we can't tolerate, that's within our control. If you're saying right now we can hold the system accountable for the mistakes that are within the control of the team, then let's go, let's giddy up and get some of this stuff done. If there's still time to hire people f there's still transition time, I don't want to press it to be now but when you get to a
257point where you feel like you have the full team and you could be held accountable for the mistakes that are on the inside, not those that are the act of god or things that you open a wall and you shouldn't have been expected to know that because the plans didn't exist, those are totally different categories, but not makes a decision is within our control I think and I know MS. Paul holds people very accountable for these things. I know we are I think almost fully staffed on the pmor team, I think we're over 90% staffed, ma'am, how staffed are we? we added some additional positions by your action today, we still have a couple of vacancies we have to fill but the additional positions are really key. thank you so much. And I think we
258made no change tos the coo or chief facilities officer org chart you brought, MR. Superintendent, right. correct. so, if we're approving the org chart, if we're 90-ish percent on the pmor and going to the add positions to get things done, at some point, I would love to know to say okay we're up and we're tracking these things and not going to run into a three year delay in reaction to a horrific incident and then to find out where there's other similar structures in broward county schools, I think should be discoverable and maybe we can all make it part of the same contractor, repeat the design if we can to get things going, so thank you very much. thank you. All those in favor of jj14, say aye. aye. any opposed, say no. Motion carries unanimously.
259Er nester is jj20, can I have a motion and a second. It's been moved by MRS. Leonardi, seconded by DR. Zeman, is there any public comment? no, MADAM Chair. DR. Zeman? thank you so much, chair. This is an interesting delay, 662 days. The unfortunate part of this, this is a good news part of this, if we didn't lose any service to our students. If this is done, we're trying to go from substantial completion to close out, is that correct, MR. Superintendent? that's correct. thank you. And the down side is it took 662 days which again the community just doesn't understand that. If it was 16 or if it was 26 days to get from substantial completion to completion, they would get that, they just don't get 1662 days, what taoes systematic lesson to learn from
260this, why did this take so long to go from substantial completion to completion? I have MS. Paul? I think I was in palm beach at the time. you MAY have been in texas at that time. there's no excuse, you grie -- I agree with MS. Leonardi in terms of holding people accountable, I can ly a lot of excuses, obviously I wasn't here but this is an exorbitant amount of time to do something like this and so part of the accountability that we will hold in our next rfq is making sure that, you know, this is just not acceptable in any level, so I can't provide you any kind of excuse for it. thank you very much, chair. thank you. All those in favor of ie the tem jj20, say aye. aye. any pose f opposed,
261say no. Motion carries unanimously. The next item is jj26, can I have a motion and a second? It's been moved by MS. Leonardi, seconded by DR. Zeman, I don't think we have public comment, I was the only one on this. I asked the question and it was answered but I want to explain why I asked the question. So, this is for 6-12, it says hvac and ada restrooms and my question was does it corps both of them f you look in the exec tier summary, it tells you the item is seeking 3 thrustingbacker00 thousand dollars of additional funding from capital project reserves tos complete the smart hvac and ada restroom renovations via a cspm agreement with hb hoffman and then it says the entirety of the renovation work is being completed under csmp's and includes
262the following, and then if you go to the next paragraph, it says the fire alarms and fire sprinkler projects are currently in construction and being completes by cf electric of fort lauderdale inc. And francis engineering r ep respectively t roofing projects have been completed ask a proposal for the ada restroom rep basing project is currently being reviewed. Upon approval of this item, an ntp will be issued to hb hoffman to proceed with the hvac work, so it's say thing ada restroom is still bingeing reviewed and that this is going to start the hvac, so how is it that we're approving money for a project that's still currently being reviewed, so it's very confusing. DR. Hepburn? MS. Paul? so, this project as you can see has separate components of it, so construction services minor project is
263one way that we're doing part of the project. There was an ongoing project associated with it, so what we're asking for is 300 thousand dollars to complete the ada restrooms and finish the project. So, if aecom or sonia is here, they can provide more specifics on it. the confusion is if the project is still being reviewed, how do you have a complete dollar amount? because the project is in different phases, so we estimate that 300 thousand dollars is what's needed to finish the ada rest -- restrooms on the projts. that's my point, it is estimated so it is likely you are going to come back to us again because this says this money is for the hvac and that the ada -- that's what it says in the executive summary, so if it's an estimate,
264it seems -- like, why is this not coming to us once it's been reviewed and we know exactly what it is that is needed for the project. go ahead, MR. Mcintyre? your misers cs -- mic.'s don't like me. we are asking for 300 thousand dollars total, 100 thousand dollars is to fund -- fully fund the proposal for ada restrooms, then the balance, the 200 thousand dollars is to fully fund the hvac work. We do have a proposal, we don't have an estimate now, we have a proposal for the ada bathroom. So, we know what we need for funding and what we need is that extra 100 thousand. so, is that -- did I MISS? Ing in reading that? I believe it shows it the clearest many the chart where the chart is stating that we're
265asking for 100 thousand dollars for ada and 200 thousand dollars for the hvac work, all the other projects are completed or fully under contract and moving forward, so these are the last two pieces of work associated with the formal -- original contract. so, the renovation project is being reviewed, let's say it comes back sxit needs 150 thousand, and not 100 thousand, you would have to come back to us. I just don't know why it's coming back still in review is my concern. we have the proposal, we can't accept the proposal until we're funded. Once we're funded, now we can accept the proposal and mover to contract. so there's no expectation that this is going to -- not at this time, not unless dramatic work changes. okay. Alright. Thank you. Because it was just confusing reading
266tla in the exec tier summary. it's a confusing pronlt in general. and before we vote on it, I want to total up the consultant omission and errors total 282 thousand 952 dollars 67 cents and you know I like to bring that out because that money is coming from our capital reserves, sol of it, and we were doing really wem not even hitting the 100 thousand mark and we seem to be -- I know we're doing more projects, but I just like to keep track of that. So, all those in favor of jj26, say aye. aye. any opposed, say no. Motion carries unanimously. Next I'm going to go out of order a little bit, one more, m m-1, can I have a motion and a second for m m-1? Its's been moved by MS. Leonardi, seconded
267by DR. Zeman, I don't think we have public comment. MRS. Bulman? thank you, chair. I had my question answered my DR. Wanza, I was wondering how we came up with the cost and making sure we were also including all of our central office administrative costs with our hourly rate which we are, so thank you tha,'s all I needed. thank you, and my question was similar, also answered. So, all those in favor of m m-1, say aye. aye. all tho opposed, say no. The motion passes ewe man mousey without MRS. Thompson because she's not sitting on the dais. Okay, now I'm going to go out of order. I'm going to -- can I have a sxhoetion a second on oo23. so moved. Er can I have a second? second. it's been moved by MRS. Leonardidi, sended
268by DR. Zemama d I beeveve dohave publ comment. yes, MADAM Chair, we have two public speakers, matthew janowitz and josepie. it's on? it should be on. okay. My name is matthew, I'm with jano coach and is lar ri's private car websinger ear one of the larger passenger transportation companies in broward county. So, one of my issues is it's been very hard to get registered as a vendor to provide charter buses services to broward county. Being one of the larger outfits, we're registered with palm beach county, we provide transportation services but it's been a difficult task, so I'm not the best public speak e I did write a little something so here I go. So, I'm asking bro urtd county schools to consider open ago fair and competitive bid program for motor coach services, for several
269year, it appears that this contract has not been put out for an open bid which limits the opportunities for qualified providers and reduces transparency and n the procurement process. A competitive bid would ensure that broward county schools receive the best value and service while promoting equal opportunity among vendors. We believe that many capable motor coach providers including our own can offer reliable, safe and cost effective trance formation solutions infuser the district. We respectfully you urge the district is to open the bid and allow qualified providers the opportunity to participate in the process. So, I just dish appreciate the attention on this matter, I appreciate the opportunity to speak in front of everybody. Also I'm a guy that has been in this business now 20 years, after covid, I decided to go after the school board,
270I can never get anywhere, they just keep telling me the bid's not open and also I was with broward county schools, I went to elementary, middle and high school with you guys, but that's all I'm asking is for them to open the bid and not extend it because now they're staining they're going to extend it this year, they can extend it another year. I'm going after this five, six years and going nowhere, I appreciate the time. thank you, DR. Hepburn, do you have someone he can speak to? yes, if we can hear from the next speaker and see if he's got the same issue and MS. Andreu can address both of them. good afternoon, josepie, we provide motor coaches since 2017, I've been waiting to get on this vendor's list. I just wanted to say
271if we can can get like a fair -- I'm not a great speaker either, but a fair type of transaction going on trying to see why the delays, how come we can't get on on that list, what's the fair opportunity how we could get on it, we provide every document, every stuff going on, and we're still not going there. We would like to know which -- where you guys promote these bids, we've been on every national -- on demand stars, power scopes, we try to see where you guys go, and every time we get it, it's always on delay, that's when we find out. we're trying to find out who do we need to speak to, how could we get on it and work on it from there. That's all. thank you. thank you, MS.
272Andreu is the young laid sitting behind you, she can provide some s I tans, yes. thank you, board member discussion. I have DR. Zeman?Frjts thank you, when we were talking last year about the fame louse plan for freeing up empty seats on our bus, trying to use other people's money to help other people, one of the issues that came up is that we didn't have reliable endorses who could do the small loads so we have three special needs kids in plantation who need to get to a special school in allen dale, allen -- haling dale, we have three yellow buses, we have a single unit of transportation in broward county which is a very large yellow bus and I understand how we got to that place but I'm just curious, MR. Superintendent, I guess if
273we have 15 vendors on this list, are they also the vendors that might be able to help us transport the small number of kids that we have when they have to go long distances across the county? I'm not sure about the exact answer for this specific itb, I think this is more about larger transportation for full trips but -- that's correct. This is field trip oriented. and we do have some vendors for what DR. Zeman is speaking about, correct? yes, we're trying to expand that, but yeah, that's part of it, we have big yellow buses, we don't have a very flexible fleet overall. are we intending to have a flexible suite by the next year? we are exploring options for becoming way for efficient in transportation into the summer, in addition to what the board
274MAY not know, parents who choose when we have those sdiflt situations with wr a big yolo bus is not an option or where we can't find the right car service, parent who is choose to drive, we reimburse them for that also, we have that ability to. that's great, I hope we get soon to the system where it's not one size fits all. absolute will you. we still have thousands of empty seaters on our bus and thousands of kids who want the use those empty seat who is are willing to walk to the last bus stop and right now broward county does not make it possible to do that, so we have to figure out thousand do that, it's a huge differentiator between charter schools who charge up to 200 dollars a waok, 800 thousand dollars
275a year for some of the students to go to broward county, we are free, if we can roll aup thousands more seats to get our kids on the bus, I wonder how many kids we have on our bus, and I hope we have a plan put together as soon as possible. thank you, all those in favor of oo23, say aye. aye. any opposed, say no. Er motion carries unanimously. The next item is oo6, can I have a motion and a second? it's been moved by MS. Leonardi, seconded by DR. Zeman, any public comment on oo6? no. MRS. Bulman? I pulled this item specifically to address olson middle school which is already an early start date and then it's going to be even earlier but MS. Paul has through vigorous negotiation split the difference of the
276ten minutes and has agreed that the start time will be 7:05 instead of 7:00 whereas it used to be 7:10, so thank you very much, MS. Paul. And that's it. thank you. MRS. Leonardi? thank you. I had pulled this item and then I asked some questions for follow-up, those questions were answered but I did want to flag whi the tten rogers, this is an alternative school that services our students very well and when I visited a couple of months ago, I was made aware of how the early start time impacts the operations of that school, how it makes -- it is really negatively impacted the attendance, so I just wanted to flag that. I know per our follow-up, we're not allowed to make motions on this or anything like that, but when it's something that
277impacts a school in the student attendance for some of our most vulnerable students, that iss concerning to me. Thank you. thank you. And I happen to go to olson yesterday and had a similar conversation with the principal and sort of along the lines of what MS. Leonardi just said, olson is one of our schools that we've had conversations about because it's very underenrolled and the concern is that 7:10 already is an early start, so I know that we split the difference but I would ask the superintendent maybe moving forward to look at do we need to continue to have olson be such an early middle school. Is there a way to -- I know mcnick kol is -- I would like the superintendent to just look at ways we might be able to help them,
278often people come and they like the school and then they'll ask what time it start and is they think that's early for their kids and choose not to go through and they're bringing some phenomenal programs there and we'd like the help them in any way that we can so I would ask the superintendent to look at that and see for next year, see what we can do. MRS. Bulman?Frjts thank you for bringing that up, chair, to both MS. Leonardi and chair's point, I think someone has to go to school really early maybe, but it isn't less attractive for those schools so you're putting them at a disadvantage and I know there was a concern about enrollment. Personally that's my zone school and one of the reasons why I send my school to a magnet program
279because I toured that first but 7:00 in the morning is not an attractive proposition for a lot of parents, so if we could maybe look at this again, I think we could attract more students to those schools. okay. Thank you. All nose favor of item 006, say aye. aye. any opposed, say no. okay, motion passes minus DR. Zeman. Next item is 008, can I have a motion and a second on oo8? It's been moved by MS. Thompson, seconded by MRS. Leonardi. Do we have any public comment? no, MADAM Chair. MRS. Bulman?Frjts I'm sorry, my question was answered on this. all nose in favor of oo8, say aye. aye. any opposed, say no. Motion carries again minuses DR. Zeman. The next item is oo9, can I have a motion and a second. It's been moved by
280MS. Thompson, seconded by DR. Holness. no comments. no public comment, MRS. Bulman? my question was answered and it was also answered for oo10 if you want to -- okay, well, -- okay. Thank you. Did we finish the vote on that? Okay. All those if favor of oo8, say aye. any opposed, say no. Motion carries minus dr. zeman. Can I have a motion and a second -- that was 009. Sorry, that was 009. 0010, can I have a motion and a second on 0010? It's been moved by MS. Leonardi, seconded by MS. Thompson. No public comment. Board member comments, MS. Bulman but she said she had that answered so all those in favor of 0010, say aye. aye. any o poised, say no. Motion carries unanimously again minus DR. Zeman. The next ie em is oo12,
281can I have a motion and a second. so moved. moved by MRS. Leonardi, seconded by MS. Thompson, mo public comment. Board member comment, MS. Bulman? my question was answered. okay. and then I have oo12 too. Hold on. I had this answered but it doesn't hurt to ask the question again, we have three schools that were first in line for the artificial turf, so DR. Hepburn, through DR. Hepburn, chief paul, can you give us an update on the three schools and then we had six additional, so if you could give us an update on those nine schools. MS. Paul? so, we have already started on two of the schools, deerfield beach, south broward high school, those are -- then dillard, 6-12, we f they already had their meeting. They will start construction on dillard, if they
282not already started, it will be this week or beginning of next week, so those three fields are rocking and rolling and we will have them completed by JULY 31, 2025, if not sooner. awesome. When do the next round of six start?Frjts we have to make sure that we coordinate with the campuses and when we have the opportunity, normally during the summer, same kind of pattern that we're doing now. okay, great, thank you. Okay, all those if favor of 0012 -- I'm sorry, MR. Cervera? thank you, MADAM Chair, point of clarification on this project. Is the 14 million tla's being requested, is this to just place artificial turf on various playing fields within these -- I believe I heard nine high schools, or are we also resurfacing running tracks as well? Because I'm looking at the
283executive summary and I'm confused as to exactly what's being done for the proposed million dollars? MS. Paul? the artificial turf fields are a part of it and also as part of our maintenance program, replacing track, as we need or repairing tracks as needed so it's a bit of both. The focus because these artificial turf fields have been promised for I think quite a few years for those of you that know the history, we're doing both, we're doing both, so we've put the money in the defp to do a certain portion every year. was the initial object tier to do -- in my mind, I'm thinking of the football fields that are traditional rectangle and they're surrounded by the tracks for the track and field athletes. When this initially came up looses like earlier in the
284year, the the initial spending authority was for 3.6 million, it's now up to -- and now it's an additional 14 million, was the plan to always address the tracks as well as the fields or were the tracks being added now? How do we go from 3.6 to 14 million? I think it was more of -- sorry, I had some background noise there. So, I think the project is to do both. I think because the artificial -- or turf fields were promised years ago, we put a different spin on it, we have different issues with tracks, especially at terra vel la, i think that was your high school. So, they have to go off campus to compete and one of the issues with their artificial track is I think it's only three lanes and that's not
285sufficient to complete, so, that is a different kind of project because we have to figure how do we reconfigure the field to see if we can accommodate an expanded track. Other issues is we have to repair tracks. Some of our athletic facilities are just really aged and ek leaked, lekt -- elect I can, so this is to bring up the standard across the district. so for those affected schools, we're in MAY. Football will start in AUGUST. JULY 31 for the three fields initially and then we'll do the next iteration because I'm a football pharynx I'm a dal lance cowboy fans, so we work closely with the campus principals as well as with the athletic department to make sure that we complete the tracks or the fields or tracks within the time period so that they
286can have their athletic events at the school. so our kids are not projected to MISS Any events at these schools? well, no. thank you, and MS. Paul, if I'm not mistaken, we have a schedule rotation of schools that update the tracks like every so many years if that's correct? right, and also that's also part of the fca has we're currently doing to assess across the district where we stand on our facilities, tracks and so forth. Er great, thank you. All those if favor of item oo12 -- MADAM Chair, I have a question. sorry, go ahead. what is the -- I guess the cadence of how it's determined what schools get paid to be funded over -- like a good priority over another school in MRS. Alhadeff, can you restate the question. I think we missed
287the first part of it. what is the reasoning or cadence that we come up with to determine what school gets funding to get turf fields or to get their tracks replaced? How do we determine what is the cadence of the names of the schools that are priority over other schools? DR. Hepburn? MS. Paul or I see MS. Dorsett back there too. The initial was about condition of the field which some fields were exacerbated as far as the ability for players to participate on the fields, so I know that was one of the main variables used to decide the priority list of what fields go first and subsequent fields. they said some of our fields are just not very safe, there were cracks in them and just in really poor condition so we try to assess
288whic ones were the worst ofofand,d, agagain, we'll t t fufull assessment once we complete the fca, facility condition assessment. That will give us additional information but we had to start somewhere and we tried to start in collaboration with the athletics department trying to take care of the ones that are the worst off. And I'm not sure if MR. Dorsett is here, if he can add to that. Yes, sir? exec tier director of physical plan operations. MR. Superintendent, you're spot on, there was a recommendation to look at the fields with the worst conditions first. They started out with dillard high school being granted a grant from the nfl for a portion of the monies to do the fields, so we started with dillard being one of the worst ones. Deerfield beach being another worst one and
289south broward, so the three schools with the worst conditions, we started with those and there was a collaboration effort between district staff, the athletics department, the ad's at each one of the schools to determine the priority list and we're working from that priority list. thank you. So, I guess this new document that we're going to have with the facilities assessment will have a more detailed, logical sense of rating I guess to say based on certain standards, is that true? yes, that is correct. okay. And one could argue that not even having the ability to have a track match at your school trumps even a track that's in bad condition. So, I think that is a really important conversation the board needs to have in regards to prioritizing the money and what schools get completed in
290a timely manner based on this new report. DR. Hepburn? yes, the information is noted for the future but the fca will provide additional data to help make some informed decisions of how we move forward with future replacements of fields and tracks. and what is the eta of getting this report? MS. Paul? it is my intent to provide -- or for them, our vendor, to provide a briefing to the board no later than JULY. They're still compiling information but we're working with them to make sure we present it to the board this summer. thank you. All nose if favor of oo12, say aye. Any opposed, say no. Motion carries unanimously. The next item is oo18, can I have a motion and a second. It's been moved by MS. Leonardi, seconded by DR. Zeman, I don't think
291we have public comment. no comment. let's see, board member thompson? thank you, chair. I'm very excited about this. I've talked a lot since getting on the board about our mental health services in areas where I think we can improver and strengthen and I think this is one way we can get another professional's analysis in what's working. I did have a couple of questions regarding the scope of services. Is there a set number of interviews we are going to be conducting? DR. Hepburn? MS. Hollingsworth? good afternoon, aisle have MS. Winter sh our director of mental health, answer that. there's a variety of groups that will be interviewed as a part of this process and each group has a different number, there will be a cross section of different staff and schools, as well as our mental
292health professionals so there's a broad scope of input provided as a part of this analysis. and continuing on that, is it -- how are you reaching out o the stakeholders, how are we going to ensure we have mental health pro professionals that have been here brand new to the district, that have been here 20 plus yearser how are we going the make sure we have a a comprehensive services that we have. they have identified several individuals they are interested to speaking to to ensure they receive that cross section, as a part of this process, they will specify all of the different individuals that need to be at the table. how are they identifying that? Jts there's a list they will provide pending board approval that will identify the school based staff, the district staff and
293the various stakeholders to provide input. so, go ahead. I was going to add to that, so once they give -- once this is completed and they give us that list of individuals by title, not by name obviously, we'll be working witching the regionals and other departments to make sure we do engage with the cross section of that, we're getting a wide variety of individuals that can give larger breadth of institutional knowledge around the process of mental health. alright, and then are we also going to be interviewing all ages of students since they are -- there will not be student involved as a part of this al sis. okay. How? Like, how we are evaluating how we are giving services to our students, how is that not a part of this? so, student voice is a
294part of our mental health process overall. This particular analysis given the timing of the year fell right when testing is occurring so in order to ensure that there's no interruption of student destining, that's why students were not as a part of this process. no disrespect but if we can't get student feedback into how our mental health services are being delivered, this is not worth doing at this time. Like, our whole -- they are our main people and I would love to give our student advisor a chance to speak if he wants to, or our new one. However, the whole point of making sure we are doing this correctly is making sure our students are getting the services. we've talked multiple time ins workshops about how our students don't know the services we provide or don't
295know they're safe adults and to not have students, I need to take a step back because that is the shock to my system if one of our student advisors wants to take hold. so, again, we continue as a department to ensure that we are covering that student input and providing platforms for focus groups and things of that sort. As a part of this particular analysis, that is not a piece that will be includes. I understand that, if we're spending this money to get a fully comprehensive analysis of what our system is, to not include the the stakeholders is extremely frustrating. if I can, the pathway to get this to the board was a little lengthy, because of the timeline with the students, we weren't able to squeeze the student part, we can easily go back
296o the stable to add the student part but the student interviews will not happen until early fall. So we can pass this, have them bring a different agreement for the students in the fall and talk to the adults now. I would like to hear from our student advisor. good afternoon, landyn, student advisor to the school board, I would defer to MS. Ba be -- batista, there's some concerns regarding students revealing any personally identifiable information or personal content that MAY violate not them being includes ined the scope of services of the contract, so I agree with you, MS. Thompson, regarding student input and looking at a holistic view but I wouldn't want to jeopardize the fact that this contract does not include student input. MS. Hollingsworth, did you want to -- I was going to also
297weigh in regardless of we would have to get consent from parents around that, so I do agree with always having the student input piece but also knowing that that also MAY be limited in regards to who is going to give consent on who wants to talk about those measures. if I can also add in my consultation for clarification with the vented vendor, they're look at the equity of the service ns, the part that was removed was to evaluate the classroom environment and the classroom, not direct interview widths students around their mental health, so they did provide that clarification that it is based on looking at the system of support that's provided to students from a behavioral and a mental health per spekt I ever, not necessarily the individual student input about their experience. thank you,
298I did want the highlight that and maybe a puddle jump from this contract, MS. Winter and DR. Washington have made it a priority to include student input in all the work they're doing in improvements they're doing, MS. Winter is working actively -- regarding a student focus fwraoup that we are working through the student support instructional specialist at school across the district across levels to get feedback from students that receive the services from those student services facilitateors rather than typically when we would go through student government way, we're speak tog the student that is utilize those services, so while it's not directly related to this analysis, we are doing that work and I would be happy when this report comes back to kind of have an attachment to that of the work for the feedback we're
299receiving through the focus group. could you come back to me, please. sure, MRS. Bulman? thanks, chair. My comment was more that i like this idea. I appreciate the fact that we're getting a third party analysis, that we have a consultant and that we're getting an outside view on this particular issue. I know that this has been brought up since I've been here so I think that that is very proactive and I commend you, I think we could probably do something similar in some other as peblgtbacker -- aspects of the system. When you're inside something for so long, it's kind of hard to see different viewpoints and other way tos do things I think this will be good. That being said, I'm not going the get into the weeds with it, I hope -- I trust
300the people that are managing this that we're getting the information that we need to make sure we have all the pieces together to implement change so I'll just leave that to you. okay. MS. Thompson, did you want to add? Sorry, DR. Zeman? thank you so much, just a little background. Six months ago, I asked the board to ask our mental health experts to come and talk to us about the strategy waxer wah are the measures we have right now about efficiency and effectiveness, what are the resources we have, what are the outcomes we're getting and to go back and say if those aren't the outcomes we have, the need of outcomes in mental health are the needs in a large district, and the presentation was awesome and it lacked data. There was a really passion
301play about all the resource that is are out there, what they're doing t the referrals to everybody to everybody else, it was a terrific presentation but it was missing an ability to measure what it was doing and if you can't measure your input, you can't connect it to what the outcomes are. If there is an attempt to further deepen the knowledge there is about the mental health system and we have four weeks in the school year, it seems like this is a wise first start. I'm dinging to know what else we need to learn beyond this so there is some augmentation from an outside party of how we're doing and what we're doing and where is it we can get better because without the data, you can't really articulate a strategy. You can't even talk
302about outcomes because if your outcome is we want people to not have mental health problems, okay, well, they do, all the things look like it's failing because some people or lots of them, again, 20% of america's high school youth know how they're going to take their own life and 10% have tried. So, I would love doing everything we can do get to a strategy and what we're doing for four weeks is talk to the providers because that's who we can talk to and then we come back and do better work next year, I think it's a crawl, walk, run thing, right now we MAY be crawling, it's not perfect but we have to start making progress towards a strategy. Thank you. thank you. Board member thompson? I guess it is a start. I'm still extremely
303frustrated because if we are promising to deliver mental health service and is then we're not talking to students and we're not evaluating the classes that they're getting, we're not talking about the way our teachers are presenting prevent tier information like your teen violence and stuff like that, but it's a start, so that's all. MADAM Chair, MRS. Alhadeff for debate? MRS. Alhadeff? thank you, yes, I agree with MS. Thompson, I think that it's extremely important that we engage the students in the conversation. I see it as a very important part of this analysis and when we leave the students out, we are getting an adult take on the services, so I will be voting no. thank you. And I tend to agree. I don't know that I'm voting no but I think I've mentioned this a
304number of times. I went to a town hall -- a student political forum in coral springs and the students wanted to know why we didn't care about their mental health. That they didn't think we were doing anything and I was like, we spend millions of dollars on stuff, and then we did do a survey, that was when DR. Smiley was here, to find out what did students want. At the end of the day, they wanted people to talk to. So, I do think an adult taig on what's happening in mental health and a student take often looks at different things that are important. I understand what you're all saying, this is a start, so DR. Hepburn, would there be a way to continue and start something in the fall? You said you're collecting data from
305students now. Is there a way to share that jep data what this company so they could unfold it into what they're doing? I mean, is there -- is this just a start or are we continuing, is there a way we can make everybody understand that all of this is important and we're looking at all the pieces? yes, absolutely. This is a start and as MS. Bulman pointed out, other things many the system as well that we're stringing to find people to assist us in reviewing how we provide services and other aspects, but it was a journey to go out and find a reputable company that is research based improving in other large school systems across the country that can come in and give us a different lens on how we're providing service. The agreement where
306we couldn't do the classroom portion of it due to our destining in MAY and just being able to -- interview the adults, we'll have a conversation about the student component and pe f see where we can take that with the information that the information they're collecting from students and if they have other services or ability in the fall when our students come back to engage with them to learn from their perspective on how they're receiving the service so it's a start. I think this is an essential start to help us plan for the upcoming school year to close some gaps. Without this information, we're just going to continue to do the same old, same old, collect thing information the way we've been collecting it so it's a good start to close the gaps to improve
307the services we have for mental health. I hear from the students all the time, we have tons of people o -- to talk to, they can talk to but there's gap between what services we're providing or the knowledge of the services we're providing and the students knowledge. I would ask in addition to what the company provides us, since there is some data collection happening with students in general, as a department, I would hope that you're taking the input of both the company on the systematic side and the students and the things that they're saying that they want to bring forth to us, a mental health plan that encompasses both of those pieces. I mean, we MAY not need the company to do that piece if it's something we're already collecting data on but it would
308also be good as we move forward to see it in a big picture all together. absolutely. sure. so, you guys are talking about combining back in the fall the start talking to students. If we're having this company do it, is there going to be an additional cost? we will talk about invo about how that would look between us and if there's an additional cost, we'll bring it back to the board. They MAY be good partners and support us with the data we've already collected so that's a conversation we'll have with invo once they start to work to figure out how that looks when the students come back. okay. MADAM Chair? DR. Holness? since the student part as far as student input seems to be the concern and I also agree that that's an important part
309that we're missing here, I understand that the superintendent is going to bring something back, as a board, do we need toto providide any directction formallyly to e susuperiendedent or shldld we stst expect it to come back to us? I mean, if you want to make a motion, you're welcome to do that. It sounds -- we're going to bring something back. okay, so I know board member thompson had major concerns with this, so I was just wondering if she wanted to make a motion in that regard. I feel similar but I know she's also very passionate about it as well. I'm glad my passion shows, hopefully in a respectful way. I mean, I guess it's now on table to add this to the contract, correct? right, we'd have to get -- that's correct. well, I want
310to make -- so, then -- and how long will this analysis take? I don't know if we have the timeline. the report will be available by JUNE 30th. this is quick, two months. I guess -- well then how long would it take to get student, like, input, if we have to wait for the fall until they come back, if they come back in mid augustfinger I'm trying to craft a motion of when we should have this. what about this then, clearly they're going the learn about the provider side and in six weeks, this is limited scope because it took quite a while to get it to us, it was our delay in this case. But given they're going to be working with our providers and learning our system from the inside and they work on
311-- I forget, is it 150 districts, this is a pretty -- they're a reputable company. right. They should be able to come back to us at the same time and say how do we fold student ins l ex year and learn what you really need to learn to write a sdrat -- strategy. That's normal for a vendor, get information from a perspective and another do out to them, I would say by the middle of JULY would come back and say how would you do the full assessment that includes xhaunt stakeholders, providers, student and is our fam faculty, our faculty is a huge part of our mental health system, so they do this for a living so if we asked them to come back by the middle of the JULY to the superintendent, give us how
312they would do this full assessment next year with us where we can get student permissions, where we can make sure they're selected in a way that makes sense and really represent everybody. We need a strategy. We need a strategy and it's really nice to have the pros from dover come in and say look, we're going to do quick something but we're going to pro propose something middle of JULY so you can fold everybody in and then assess it as professional mental health observers and everybody else to say that is either wringing or not working and if it's working, we can hire them, if it's not, we can go get somebody else. I see your point. I think I struggle with paying for an analysis that's not a complete analysis of the system. I don't have
313a motion. okay. DR. Holness? okay, MADAM Chair, I mover to direct the superintendent to bring back a student component to this. What was your timeline? middle of JULY. in mid JULY. zock, -- okay, is there a second? that's the issue, to students -- bring toit the board the middle of JULY. but they wanted all the information so they could start for the school year, that's the whole point. DR. Hepburn, can you speak to a timeline, please. from my understanding is to bring a proposal out about engraining with students to collect similar data we're collecting as us as a provider to students. correct. And in terms of a timeline, what would you suggest? JUNE 30, JULY 1 is fine, as soon as we approve this accidenter we can get on the phone with invo to see
314what that looks like. JUNE 30th is probably more appropriate, that's when the contract would expire. very good. so I modify my motion to JUNE 30. is there a second? Okay, any public comment on the motion? Okay, board member discussion on the motion? Okay, just to clarify what you're asking is just a plan on how we're going to collect student information once school starts. That's what we're asking for. DR. Hepburn, is that what you understand the ask? kind of, sort of. It's about engaging with students to collect data about how they feel about the services they're receiving for mental health and we'll work with invo to see if they can provide that service to us at the bin of the fall when our students return or even possibly during the summer if we have enough students
315that are accessible during the summer so we'll have that conversation. We will bring back a proposal if they're having that conversation with invo so we'll bring back that, probably more, when we have that conversation. MADAM Chair, the superintendent's understanding is the meaning of the motion as was expressed just now. okay. Any other board discussion? All those if favor of the motion, say aye. aye. any opposed? Okay, motion carries unanimously without MRS. Leonardi. Okay, so back to the original motion. all those if favor of item 0018 as amended, say aye. aye. all those opposed, say no. no. okay, MRS. Alhadeff, did you vote? aye. okay, so the motion passes with one dissenting vote and MRS. Leonardi didn't vote. Okay. Thank you. I'm sorry, MADAM Chair, who was the dissenting vote? MS. Thompson. our mental health professional.
316thank you. The nester item is 0020, can I have a sxhoetion a second. it's been moved by DR. Zeman, seconded by MR. Cervera, thank you. Any public comment on 0020? no comment. thank you, I pulled this item, so I just have a question. The f it ts says approved additional spending authority for 656 thousand 044 and 30 cents for bottled water and, you know, I have an issue with using bottled water, we're supposed to only be -- I know it's also the dispensers, so we're only supposed to be having bottled water in case of an emergency, right, if the water -- there's a boil water thing or if the students end up going outside because of something, so is this additional money for this year or is it to cover the cost of the term
317SEPTEMBER 1 through AUGUST 31? DR. Lozano that that's to cover the cost from SEPTEMBER through, again, as we mover into hurricane season, we want that spend authority the make sure we have sufficient bottled water when we need it as a district. is that part of the contract we have right now or that's a new contract because it says far term that commences on -- so, is that a new -- we're extending the contract? yes, ma'am. okay.Alright. And I just want to remind everybody that when visitors come to visit, that's not an emergency, you should pt be giving them bottled water, you can give them a paper cup with water from the dispenser. Thank you. Or a mug, yes, you could give them a mug or they should bring their refillable water bottle, even better, and
318they can fill it that way. Any other discussion on oo20? MRS. Bulman? thank you for bringing that up, chair. When I was reading this, I was thinking the big ones with the dispensers, so I was looking at it through rose colored classes that it was all very large and reusable, so hopefully that's what we're maximizing our usage of. You can take those in an emergency and pour it into cups too. It's been done before, for the entire history of human kind until recently. yes, they use it like that in 5k's. Yes, paper cups, right. Any other discussion on oo20? All those in favor of 0020, say aye? aye. any opposed, say no. Motion carries unanimously. The next item is oo27. Can I have a motion and a second? so moved. Er it's been moved by
319MS. Leonardi, seconded by DR. Zeman, any public comment on 0027? no comment. okay, DR. Holness? MADAM Chair, I'll go after if there's anyone else. okay, DR. Zeman?Frjts thank you so much, chair. Last week we talked about having operating funds executed through a capital funded project. I noticed this week we still have one procurement staff full time and one eddc staff full time member funded through this contract. I'm curious, chair, about what would the state of florida think about us paying for operational requirements with a capital funded contract. DR. Hepburn? I might need to defer that one to MS. Batista if it's -- or MS. Paul, either/or. so I'll start with the fact that it is in the rfq that was submitted that we could use -- this is staff augmentation, and then we also use
320capital dollars to pay for people that are working on construction projects, it's how we get paid so it's not unusual to have this type of staff augmentation. That's kind of the point of going with a pmor, they work on construction projects. I understand the facts and I think that the rfq was wrong. I think that when you write a capital budget and you use capital dollars, it's okay to pay for people that are doing construction because that's part of your capital budget. It's not okay to pay for people that work in the procurement office or work for supplier diversity, those are operational requirements that exist because you have a capital project or because you have a district to run but to put those inside a capital funded contract I think is inappropriate. Number one, I
321just don't like the appearance of it. I don't like to confuse people in the audience that we are mixing money, so there's the appearance of it but I also think it's bad management to mix operational requirements in a capital funded project. So I'm really curious if this is legit to do or not. DR. Hepburn? I'll defer to MS. Batista. MS. Batista? so, MR. Cooney is on his way down, but my understanding of his analysis and together with aecom and the procurement department and so on is that it is, that there's nothing prohibiting that from being on the request for qualifications. so, whether the state legislature funds broward county or any other district, they give you money for operations and they give you money for capital and in my experience budgeting, those two streams of funding
322don't mix. They really expect you to spend capital on capital and they expect you to spend capital funds on operations so how can it be that we are so insanely focused on the budget that we never let any of those dollars cross over but then we can mix it in a contract? Where does it say we can spend capital dollars on diversity which are both capital concerns? MR. Cooney? thomas cuny, assistant general counsel, the question, DR. Zeman s where does it say we can? Well, I know the operative documents have that particular language in it. is this legal to do? as far as we see, yes, absolutely. I have no further questions. thank you, DR. Holness? I'm sorry, we had one more person that wanted to opine maybe. go ahead, MR. Shim? omar shim, director
323of capital budget. These positions as far as I know are there in support of -- weren't there initially in support of the smart prm so the position that was put in purchasing was supporting the purchasing of contracts for the smart program and the same thing for eddc. okay. You know what, someone's going to have to make ascensive this because because our guy that runs security is in support of smart bonds, our director of hr in support of the smart program, our finance department is in charge of it, so the fact we have supplier diversity people supporting what we're doing with smart bond money and we have procurement people supporting that doesn't make it not operational requirements, and I think we wrote the contract wrong. I think we wrote a contract that had requirements that people
324are supporting not just the smart bond, they're supporting broward county public school that is are in these jobs and I think we're at great risk. If the people here think that that's legit, I'm going the sit down and be quiet because I've done my job but I think I'm right. thank you, dro. Holness? thank you, MADAM Chair, I have no further comments. okay, anybody else? Okay, all those in favor of item oo27, say aye. aye. all those opposed, say no. The motion carries unanimously without MS. Thompson or MRS. Bulman. And I can't blaoefr I'm saying this but I think we are on the last item which is pp2. Can I have a motion and a second on pp2? so moved. Er second. Er it's been moved by MS. Thompson, seconded by MRS. Leonardi, I don't
325think we have any public comment. no comment. okay, and board member discussion, MRS. Leonardi? I just lad a few questions clarifying this policy. There's been some discussion on this policy in the past. I'm looking at page 2, number 4 definitions and it says for purposes of this policy, lobbying means any communication on behalf of principal with -- I see sbbc committees, is that -- does that apply to individual committee members or just committees at large? DR. Hepburn? MR. Sullivan? do you need her to repeat the question? I'm sorry, yes. on page 2, section 4, for purposes of this policy, lobbying means any communication on behalf of a principal with sbbc committees, does that mean committee members or just the committees in general? hopefully MS. Batista agrees with me, that would apply to committees is my
326understanding because they do advise the board, so you could possibly as a lobbyist have influence over their actions. MS. Batista? yes, so it would be committees and the committee members as well because, again, as MR. Sullivan stated, they -- many committees do prequalification for example for construction and things of that nature, so those committees would be -- if lobbied, have influence on what vendor is chosen. and committee members as well? yes. and we're talking about committees like qsac, not like dac. right. and then it also says sbbc administrative assistants. So, I guess my question about -- and I have a few questions about filing the proper documentation but if someone contacts one of our administrative assist tapt -- assist tansies, are they to file what the school board member ares to file documenting that contact?
327MS. Batista? currently the form is only for the school board members to complete. I don't believe that that exists for even committee members or the administrative assistants. But I think what the policy is trying to get at is that, you know, going through -- maybe not going directly but indirectly to a board member would be also considered lobbying. okay. So, then let me ask you this. If someone goes to one of our administrative assistants and then our administrative assistant comes to us and shares the information, do we then need to file the necessary form? yes. okay. Okay. The other question I have is -- I have two more questions. The form that we're supposed the file, what if someone calls a school board member and the school board member doesn't -- the call is not
328planned and it appears this individual is lobbying but they're not a registered lobbyist with the school district, what is that board member to do? so, what we recommend is for the board member to complete a form, the lobbying form, and to inform the lobbyist that they need to register. got it. Thank yoyou. But it is notot -- I meanisis therany recocourse at's tataken aiainst the scschool board mbmber who -- no. and then finally what if like a private citizen contacts a school board member and says I want you to vote yes on o oo27 for instance and they have no economic gain that the privateer citizen would have no economic gain if that item passed, is that considered lobbying? so, that would not be in the definition of a lobbyist per the policy. Several groups
329are exempt like the unions and one of them is any person appearing or acting in his individual capacity, that's also exempt. okay, thank you. MADAM Chair? yes. given the org chart approval with new titles, if someone would be so kind to make a motion to amend the policy to conform with the new titles in the org chart. so moved. okay. second. it's been -- someone has to make the motion. so moved. Er it's been moved by MRS. Rupert and seconded by MRS. Leonardi to make the title corrections in this policy based on the new org chart. Any public comment on the motion? Board member discussion on the motion? All those in favor, say aye. aye. any opposed, say no. The motion carries unanimously. DR. Holness, you're okay with the motion? Okay. Perfect. Okay. Any other
330discussion on pp2? Alright, all those if favor of pp2, say aye. aye. as amended, I'm sorry, say aye. Aye. all those opposed, say no. Motion carries unanimously. I am very happy to say that takes us to public comment and I don't know if we have any. there are no registered speakers, however we have one from [Inaudible] That was not here earlier, DR. Trudy jermanovich that would like to speak at this time. this is the time in the agenda that the school board members will hear from our evening speakers. my name is proudly jermanovich, I hope you saw my written comment, it urged you to minimize tests oing of taoupt students to limit mandatory destining to only what's required by the state. Now to another urgent concern, I sent you articles from the sun sentinel in
331order to give you some assemblance of how our sex education program was approved and went through a rigorous evaluation but a subcommittee of the district advisory council. With only a few weeks left in the school year, it appears as if students will be denied lifelong information in the curriculum, I caution the superintendent by speaking on this topic on several board meetings, I urge you as school board members to ask about this program during this school board meeting and see if anything that can be done over the summer to overt the same outcome for next school year. In the past, I have sent you a florida approved program used by monroe county. I urge the district to use it as a possible template for next year's submission to the doe, if necessary, I and others would
332be available to serve on another review committee. It's very disturbing that the district appears to have just assumed the florida doe was going the let everything go along just as it did last year. These curriculum materials had been used for 15 year and is have been evaluated and approved during parent committees as discussed in the articles in the sun sentinel, there had been a somewhat comprehensive approach to sex education allowed in florida classrooms even in 1977 when I began teaching at sunrise middle school science classes. I urge the district to use the time during this summer to create a verg of the past program so the new version can be evaluated by parents and passed by this board early in the next school year. We need to do something other than just keep submitting a
333program which will not be passed by the very conservative florida state board of education. Please encourage the superintendent to tell us the plan at this meeting so we know that future broward county students won't be denied this important information. Thank you. thank you, DR. Hepburn, do you want to address how we got to here? where did MR. Sullivan go, if we can come back to that, MR. Sullivan with provide an update, that MAY be him coming through the door, okay, there he is. Sex ed. I should have taken the sick day. What was the question? How did we get here, okay, so staff did work diligently to continue working with the state to what we believe was a comp -- comp hence I ever sex ed curriculum, we had high hopes we would be able
334to get an approval in time to deliver that instruction, the scope of the feedback that we received from the state, we don't believe by the time we would resubmit with those modifications that it would be enough time to offer that curriculum for the school year, so staff is going to work -- staff is going to work on making sure we deliver those needed resources to family sos they have the opportunity toe go over that curriculum with their students. so, DR. Hepburn t speaker suggested we start early in the summer, but can you address, I don't think it is whether we start early enough or not, I think it is about what the state is -- correct, the teams started early in crafting the curriculum to get feedback and there's -- send it out, we get
335feedback and make adjustments, we send it out, give feedback and make adjustments and this last round that needs to be made will not be completed in the timeframe necessary to teach it during this particular school year, if you want to add anything mr, sullivan, if I'm off base. Okay, thank you. so, if we start -- what are we going to be doing moving forward to hopefully be able to implement a comp hence I ever sex education for the following school year since we -- it seems like we've landed this place two year ins a row, so what are we going to do different to try to circumvent it for next year? sir? yes, so we do have the feedback, so we're going to continue working and submitting, but with that timeline, it won't be done
336for this school year, staff is going to continue to work with the state to fwet to a place that we have an approved curriculum to present to the board. okay, MS. Leonardi? can someone talk about the scope of that feedback? . Inger we would have to do that through a board follow-up. okay, well, I would request a board follow-up on that and just separate but also connect to this, I think several months ago, the board asked that follow-ups that are requested in workshops and board meetings be sent, they be token and a list is sent to the board after that meeting, so I would like to see that happen. Don't we have a legal obligation to teach a sexual health curriculum? DR. Hepburn? yes, we do. And I know a lot of information is imbedded
337in some of the science courses and health education courses. Er so, if we are not delivering a sexual health curriculum although I'm hearing it's imbedded in some of the science standards, I guess I'm wondering where we are legally, if I'm a parent in the school district and my child does not get this curriculum by the end of the school year, what recourse do you have, what recourse does the district have, if we've been in good faith trying to do something that has been in limbo for quite some time out of our hands. I have a lot of questions about the legalities around this situation right now. yeah, we can provide a follow-up on that part also. can we use another school district's curriculum to -- that's been approved by the state this year? MR. Sullivan?
338that's a question we would have to ask the state but even if we did get that approval, I'll lean on my colleagues to opine on this, just giving where we are at this time of year, I think there would be concerns and challenges to present that curriculum to students. so, I'm a little frustrated by that because this board has been told over and over again that the curriculum is delivered in MAY at the end of the school year. I am also frustrated by the fact that we have been going in good faith to the state to ask for feedback and get approval for months and months and months. I would ask like what we can do to prevent this from happening next year but I'm kind of at a loss and meanwhile, I mean, this
339is lifesaving health information that students have an obligation -- or have a right to learn that we have an obligation to deliver and we have been prevented from doing so for two years now and that is unconscionable. So, I mean, I would ask the question, what can we do to prevent this from happening next year. I don't know that anyone's going the have an answer. MR. Sullivan stated before websinger will continue to make adjustments based on the feedback and hopefully the comp hence I ever sex ed curriculum that is finally approved, there won't be any obstacles for the upcoming school year because it's been approved. Bargaining changes by the doe as far as standards or any additional requirements but my assumption right now if we continue and make the updates based on the feedback, that
340should also take us into utilizing that for next year so it should be easier task or process for both of us. We will be communicating with families, that has been happening throughout. you guess I should have been more specific. Are students learning about, you know, preventing sexual abuse and sexual violence and things like that. Things that will protect them from predators? so, I know in the elementary level they have lauren's kids which does teach them about being safe and each of the different levels, I don't want to speak to what I don't teach myself. And all the required instruction per the state legislation which is approved within the ca ruk limb that we have. I ask that that be in the follow-up. And also so are students learning about puberty at age appropriate levels route
341now? Or have they learned that during the school year this year? I differ that to the follow-up, just to ensure where we're at about that and where we are with the required instruction. right, because I will present like a very real scenario in which a third grade girl gets her period and she has not learned anything about that at home or at school and she is terrified? And if she is not, if students are not getting that instruction, this is a massive disservice to our students. Thank you. can we stay on subject, do you mind, chair. go ahead. Oh I'm sorry. We will have children born, we will trauma inflected on our children, that is unnecessary, we know, we know that, we know! Comprehensive sex ed makes a difference in people's life. And we are
342naive to think that there is some process that broward county schools can do to solve this problem. The florida department of education gave us feedback too late for us to provide sexd in broward county. So let's just a spade of spade. We were preventing from providing this kind of education to the students of broward county by the florida department of education who by law has the authority to approve our curriculum. So we can send our curriculum nine months earlier, six months earlier if the department does not want us to teach what works in terms of sex ed, they have the authority to prevent us from doing it. And the consequence is more sexual disease, more sexual infection, more trauma, for inappropriate relationships. There is alternative to learning about sex ed, it's on your phone and
343it's not good. And we have a whole generation of kids who know how to get to the internet but the sources are not accurate and not healthy for our children. So, I would like to know, as MS. Leonardi did, the schedule of events of what we asked and specifically what feedback we got and when? I would also like to know what is the affect of having comprehensive sex ed taught in broward county schools? What are the affects of having it done right. There is a bunch of things that connect not prevent what will happen, because we're not prevented from research and decades of experience we know makes a difference. I didn't even bring up fluoride, but we're suppose to be taking care of health of our kids. Fluoride is proven to be good for kids.
344If you don't want fluoride, by some bottled water in big jugs and use paper cups to drink it, right chair, but don't do things that will damage kids. We're going to see kids that are missing teeth which we have not seen in this country in decades. So we have to be honest about the affect of these policies. we're spending four billion dollars a year giving vouchers to people in florida who already had their kids in private schools. I know where we can spend that four million dollars dollars, chair, right here in traditional public education. So these are not political debates, they're policy debates. There are things that we ought to talk about and be clear about, what the con squensz of what is going on with the state department ofd and other people who in
345the legislature who are passing laws and rules. That's our job. Our job is to talk about our kids and what affects it has and in both of these cases, they're awful. You have a second subject to bring about, once we're done with this round. thz thompson. -- MS. Thompson. do you want to go. So I was going to bring this up during board comments, MAY is teenage pregnancy prevention month, I want to give a shout out, because they took what the board desired was to provide the most comprehensive sex education under the limits of the law and unfortunately the state intervene and that's how it is. But I think, I truly believe our staff tried to deferring that they could so I want to shout them out for that. I don't think the outcome that
346anybody wanted and we're preaching to the choir. Again, I think we need to have a better legislative plan to advocate to tallahassee both about raising our student base education which I brought up earlier but comprehensive sex education saves lives, we all know that. Will it pass in the political climate probably not, but this is a valley that broward county that we want to keep our kids safe and it's worth it to consider as part of our agenda. So we're not shouting at people that agree with us or shouting at people that don't agree with us, but we're trying. Thank you. thank you, MS. Bulman. thank you, I agree with my colleagues. I want to thank DR. Trudy for coming week after week and bringing this message because this is so important and so great to
347see somebody that is so devoted to the cause, so thank you. Thsz public health and sex itself, I suppose toxer MS. Leonardi, there is people that just don't understand what is happening to their bodies and as a mother of three teenagers, I'm honestly horrified by what is reported back to me, route now there is a huge difference when I was a teenager and the level of education that we were getting. The, the campaigns, against hiv, against other sexually transmitted diseases. People were afraid and taking notice and acting accordingly. And that is not what I'm hearing now. I think to your point about the internet and the things, itit abrd to think wee protectiting ouour childr byby stepping around these topics in a educational way, because they're lenering things that I cannot come up with my
348brain by just opening their phone. So it's our job to edge caught our students and protect themselves and protect their health. And I don't have an answer for this but I do know that bad things are happening right now in our culture, and that, if we don't do something to educate our kids in these ways, then it's going to get worse. And people are going to have health affects on their bodies from not being informed from a decision that they made when they were a teenager. I appreciate the work that everybody is doing, and I know is not you, but I know, any ideas that you that we can't to provide even a fraction of what the comprehensive curriculum is to the kids so that they know, I would appreciate it. And I would like
349to point out and this is the thing that I don't understand, if a parent has option to not have their child participate in this curriculum, then why are we being knee capped as education system, for the people that want their kids to be educated? I want my children to have comprehensive education and very many different things. I can opt out if I don't want them to have that education. So, legally I don't know how that all goes together but we really need to be focusing on and to MS. Thompson's legislatively too, if you don't have to have your child participate, let every one else have their children educated. thank you. thank you, DR. Holness. so we're making comments not necessarily to this topic? we're still on the sex ed. I'm good. MS. Alhadeff. thank you,
350so I too share the frustration of my colleagues. I think it's really important that we ask the question to the state, what can we teach? Right? There has to be a curriculum that was approved. Why don't we try to get that approved curriculum. There is still time left and as we're always told, it's taught this month. do you have anything? Else? thank you, I appreciate that and there is a sense of urgency, I truly believe that this board has to expedite that for this school year, so I appreciate that. Thank you. thank you, MR. Is cervera? point question, have we not gotten any feedback or comments or approval and we're just waiting on them? MR. Sullivan? yeah, MR. Sullivan. I think I heard the question. So staff has been working months submitting different editations of
351the sex ed curriculum. We modify every time we get feedback. We received the last one late last week and staff analyzed and we don't believe we would be able to modify and resubmit in time to? so we're actively engaging with the process with the department of florida? yeah, we've been in touch with them continuously throughout the year. so I assume the frustration that my colleagues are voicing, is just the time? That this is taking? That the process is taking? And assuming that nothing is happening between now and AUGUST, what is the curriculum if any that the students will be taught in the 25-26 school year? it's the hopes that we continue to work in the feedback that we were given with ca rick limb and get approval for that and hopefully use that for the
35225-26 school year. so are, portions of the curriculum approved and you're hashing out the other details to include a full curriculum? And if that's the case, are we able to teach or incorporate the portion that's have been approved by doe or is it all or nothing thing? I believe it would be it would be a all-or-nothing thing. That would look different than what the board was presented so we would have to bring it back for a vote before we moved forward with a curriculum. ?O. If we cannot get a approval between now and when the school year starts in AUGUST, there is no sex ed curriculum for our students. historically, we've given that curriculum towards the end of the year so if get approval within that time frame, then we'll offer that. what portion of
353the school year? historically in MAY and it's a few weeks, but my colleagues. so we have a year to hash this out. we're working on this year's adam, we've been wanting to teach it in the next few weeks. And we've been asking for permission and the feedback keeps having our staff go back and change things with no hopes of getting things done in time to offer it this year. ?O. There is no curriculum for sexual ed being part in the latter part of 24-25 school year? some of it but vas majority is. But MS. Holingsworth can jump in there is different parts of science and other areas, much like I mentioned the lauren's kids about abuse. But the reproductive health, that is the ca rick rum that has curriculum that has to be given. The
354teachers what they want today see in that curriculum and that's where we can go back and forth that has to be approved and brought back to the board for their approval. That's why the timeline and feedback keeps coming back with the information that is in the curriculum and where it needs to be approved. so I understand, portions have been taught throughout the school year but there are other portions reproductive health, you just mentioned that have not been taught because we're still talk the florida doe for approval. so we have not been griffin instruction but outside of that, there is other required instruction that would be related that we have given. so they received some not all? some from different parts, it's not reproductive health, it's other required instruction such as the abuse and things of
355that we have to do we have embedded in other places that's where we're able to do. So we're not holding back on all required instruction and initiatives that we're required to do by law it's that reproductive health portion. thank you. chair, before we, I don't know if you're moving on to another top you can. no, I have one thing that I wanted to add. I'm getting texted that students in middle school have not gone on anything not even body health. So when you do the follow-up, could you break down for us, I was a science teacher for a long time. So each maybe each grade level, what is it that is embed in there? I'm going to guess their science standards or their health. Not every students takes health but I believe every students has
356some science component because there was a buy lolling teacher for a long time. So I know in biology it's embedded but if you're taking environmental science or fa raoen science or earth science, you MAY not be getting any of that. So do say, oh yeah, they have science, I don't know that that is completely accurate so. In the follow-up lists for us, first grade, what standards address not just sexual health but, I mean some of the things that we were talking about, body health. We have, a preventive program department's now, so you know, what is it that where is that curriculum fall in so we get a better picture of what is outside of the curriculum that is not being approved and what they really are getting so that we have a better understanding of
357what is happening and we'll land this plane with MS. Thompson. I'm landing. If we get the curriculum, is there anything that prohibits us to provide it at the beginning of the year so students don't have to wait until MAY? that was always the plan, we don't want to wait until MAY, we want to make sure that it gets done before. Many ions when I was in the classroom, because of testing, so that's been a a plan to have a better game plan. awesome, plane has landed. hold on, at this time, do any of my colleagues have any update or students successes to bring forward to the superintendent for consideration? DR. Zeman. thank you very much. As we're still in a school board meeting, I want to ask something from my audit committee rep, he says
358that we have approved 42 audits, in MARCH and 33 audits in APRIL but we had no dd items on today's schedule. Is there a limitation in our calendar to getting audit out here. We press people to get data in limited amount of times to get things done. Was there any pressing reason why the 75 audits did not come to the school board today? DR. Hepburn? yes, there is a reason. We had no quorum in APRIL and we had, the upcoming JUNE 17th meeting, we'll be bringing 7 reports forward that include the multiple of the different locations that he was calling, 40 and 70 something audits. So that will all be coming forward in JUNE? so the reason we didn't get them is the audit committee didn't have quorum to approve all of those? in order
359to provide the ones at the APRIL meeting, that would have otherwise been at this meeting today. terrific, and he talked about some that were approved in MARCH? there was a quorum in MARCH and those had come to the board two meetings ago or one meeting ago. so the only backlog is the APRIL ones na was held back by the audit committee? correct. terrific, I look forward to seeing this. DR. Holness. thank you, MADAM Chair, I have two things, one regarding the home internet survey. I understand the survey is conducting a home internet access. While I appreciate efforts through paper usage, this survey has prime aurly promoted through digital channels such as emails and district website, given that the goal is to reach families who MAY not have internet access at homes, I'm concerned that relying
360solely on these method MAY exclude the group we're trying to understand. So to help ensure broader participation, I recommend the possibility of distributing a painr version of the surveyor at least a printed notice, even a quarter page so that families that are not connected still have an opportunity to respond because DR. Hepburn, the concern is no internet access. So if we are trying to survey families with no internet access, and they have to rely on the internet to respond to the survey, it does not make sense? DR. Hepburn and I had sent something to those lines to ask the questions, also in different languages, so can you address that? yes, the survey is in different languages to accommodate families, other than speaking english. We can work with our school base leaders to, you know, they
361know their communities better than we do and give them, mechanism to send something. We're also, I don't know DR. Fulton or MS. Davis if we actually sent it out through text message too. I know everybody has a cell phone, we can, if we have not done that, we can do that too. So different angles, email, text message, and give our principals the autonomy, the ability to send it out. I don't think it was sent out through text message. And the concern is trying to acquire internet access. The text message might be helpful since most people have. It was sent out through text, okay, very good. Thank you very much. I have another comment, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to florida blue for their partnership and investment in our students through the peeps
362program at dill ard 6 through 12 and I had the pleasure of attend the resent ribbon cutting and also present was our chair hixon and DR. Hepburn and our staff, MR. Khism and fueler. And I would also like to extend special thanks as well to my good friend, senator rosswood who was heavily involved in the partnership that we developed with florida blue at dill ard high school. And thank you to the students, they were awesome, they were wonderful. thank you. Board member thompson. thank you, chair, I have a couple of questions and a discussion, or not questions, shout out. My daughter, ellie and I attended the kids awards last wednesday. It's totally cute. It's the 25th anniversary so I want to give a shout out to them, and DR. Wanza and hepburn. And also shout
363out to walter c students who came in in first place for the drone competition. And also c-castle elementary pta because one of their pta's moms went above and beyond and got the only grant in south florida for free laptop for families through at&t. So I think that shows the strength of yes, thank you. The strength of community and our pta and then a shout out to student abdul norwala who a scholarship he got 2500. And I want to discuss our leadership, I know there is a lot of going on in our budget. I know, I want to know if we cannot do it in a staff. It's a team building activity, so it really does not need to be on our workshop. And there is just other things that I would rather be using that
364time discussing. And I just wanted to see if it was possible to change it, also if it needs to be recorded because it's not, something we're voting on, it's suppose to be a team building activity. And I think it feels uncomfortable talking about our personalities and doing other kind of activities when you know you're being recorded. But obviously, I want to stay within the bounds of law. MS. Batista? there is no requirement for the training to be recorded. okay. So then the recordings online already, are we able to cut that and remove it or keep it up? What are people's feelings about that? you're able to remove it. You know, obviously the record is still there. And if anybody were to ask for it. the public records, they can request but they don't have to
365watch our analysis of each other, correct? yes, that is allowed. and as far as the schedule, we do have flexibility so it's no longer on our workshop day so we can use workshop stuff to discuss school activities. that would require us to do it on a another day. I like that a lot. I know we talked to the coach lady. we have to check with the presenters, the trainer's schedule. But we purpose picked tuesday because that's when members have allocated their calendar for business. But if you want to do it a different day, you can present that to the trainer. you have to remember, some people have other jobs, some of us might not. I understand that, but I think, there is so much in the district to be working on? anybody have comments on
366that? I think r idea is spot on in line with h mi. U know, the ideaofof haviving sepate so o that we can ju be in a training environment and not be recorded and go through I think, we would learn more and we might be willing to talk more too if it's not recorded. We would have to notice the meetings, which is all right so do. We've gone to conference sxz trainings before, we just have to find a good scheduled block of time where we can get together. we have two more four-hour sessions. we have three. I have a question, can we possibly do the workshop first and then do the training afterwards? we can change the order so the workshop is concluded and we do the training or vice versa. I'd love that. it's
367a kind of a compromise and people would not have to give up another day since some people have jobs. I'm fine with that. I also feel bad that the presenter is sometimes sitting around for hours while we finish. but if we schedule her at 1 to 5. right. that will would mean we needless things on the workshop. we're happy to present less things. we just have to read the briefs ahead of time and come back with questions. I think somebody online, well on this particular topic, I'm. I'm in I like that idea. okay, perfect. All right. Anybody disagree? So we would have the same day but do you have a presence? OCTOBER? no, it would depend on the presenter and the schedule. we'll check with the presenters and present both options evening or morning and
368then the next workshop we can update the board. perfect. Thank you. was that it? yes. board member cervera. thank you, MADAM Chair. Two things, briefly. About the team building, we're going to be destroying the record of that award winning bean stock that we built, which would be ashame of depriving anybody. I would like to give a con congratulateory shout out. So congratulations, james, he was recognized by both of our florida senators, senator rick scott and ashley moody. So way to go james, fantastic job and keep up the hard work. thank you, MS. Alhadeff? thank you. Congratulations to savida, she won the tennis state championships for msd. And congratulations to the marcus douglas baseball team, they won their 5th straight regional champions, highlighting walk off from lorenzo in the second game. congratulations. Anybody else before I
369go? I have a list of things? Not too long. So first I would like to also congratulate nova middle school or their three-pete, this is their third time nrai row that they're we-the people competition winners. So that is very exciting for them. Also congratulations to ft. Lauderdale high school, they are third in the nation in the mock trial team. So congratulations to them. And marvin ex nndsis was recognized as outstanding attorney. i would also like to actually, MS. Thompson started it, but we have 8 national merit scholars, so very excited for that. Merit scholars being identified as by a high sat score and places them top scores in the nation can they have to go through a rigorous selection process. So we have 8 of them from the district in the nation. So I'm not
370going to say all the names right but I apologize. Andrea barbo sa from tomas clay. Pompano high school, I think you said this one, abdul from flannagan. Adam from sieper bay, allah ma reese, henseta, from cyprus bay. Jenel from hollywood hills high school and gregory road enco from cypress hill high school so congratulations to all of them. So I woik lao say two things to my board members. Remember that we made, a policy that said that we were going to send our questions on agenda items to staff early. So there were a lot of questions especially on the consent agenda items, that I think could have been sent earlier so staff would know what those questions were and we could have gotten them as a spobs. -- response, remember we're not suppose to pull that
371much consent items and we had a lot more pulled on this agenda. I want to remind you as a board that's what we were going to do. And we were good on the mission but we're slacking off on that mission as we move forward. So I just ask you to be cognizant on that. and the last thing I want to end, strategic partnerships because it's been brought up a couple of times, that particular department, it was something that I had asked for early on was happy to see it come. As you go around to the different schools especially in district 5, principals just don't have the bandwidth to be reaching out for partnerships. And I don't think MR. Chism did not add everything on there. There have been a number of school that he connected
372to either put their items in the school, where they get their little cash dollars. So there are a lot of partnerships that were in individual schools that have come directly through this particular department. And I think he, sold his self short when he gave the response to the, to the question on you know, what they were bringing in. So I would just like to give him a shout out and know that, they are doing much more than what was shown in the response that we received. So thank you so much. MS. Chair. I might need MS. Batista's help with one. In the event that we have curriculum, I don't think we have enough time without having to come back to the board. okay,. can we do that general counsel? would we need a motion? I
373move we give the superintendent the authority to offer any sex ed ca urriculum that is approved in the state of florida flor. I second. Moved by DR. Zeman, seconded by DR. Holness, any public comment? Any board comment? I -- MS. Leonardi. I support it, because there have been debate about motions not publicly noticed on the agenda, and there was an extensive conversation on it, on unrelated items so I want to be clear that we're legally allowed to do this? MS. Batista? yes, you're legally allowed to do this. okay. board member cervera. point of order, MADAM Chair. MS. Alhadeff. I just wanted MS. Batista that this is being added in by good cause by the chair. sure. I find good cause to add this to the agenda. we voluntary -- we would have to open the
374agenda. maybe it would be better to direct the superintendent to approve this curriculum if we received approval by the state. don't we still have to? yes. I don't think if we direct him, we don't have to. If it's not a motion, we don't have to open the agenda. I believe for direction, you don't need to. can I suggest another alternative, since you are, it's probably going to take at least 48 hours, 72 hours to do this, why don't you set a special board meeting for, for the workshop and have that direction at the time, or even the approval if that's appropriate, if we already have. and you can still plan to deliver. why can't we just open the agenda right now and give him the authority? you could. You could as well. I like that.
375okay. motion to open the agenda. second. it's been moved and seconded to open the agenda. Any public comment? Any board member discussion? Okay, all those in safer say aye. any opposed say no. motion carries. Okay. So DR. Zeman, would you like to make that motion again. sure, I would like to give the superintendent of broward county schools the authority to offer, a sex ed curriculum approved by the department of ed at his discretion this year at broward county. second. it's been moved and seconded. Any public comment? Board member discussion? point of order, MADAM Chair. Is this added for good cause to the agenda? okay, yes. So we, I find good cause to allow this motion to move forward and be added to the agenda. thank you. board cervera. I believe our neighbors to the south
376in monroe county have had their curriculum approved so maybe we can get a copy. it's on their website. okay, so, we're directing the superintendent to check with the state to make -- is that what we're doing? Check with the state if the state says that we can already use a already approved curriculum. he has the authority, we're not directing him, we're giving the authority to make that decision on behalf of the board. with doe approval? that's the point I have to make sure that we're going to check with doe before we move forward. That was the motion. Any other discussion on the motion? All those in favor say aye. aye. any opposed? Say no. Motion carries unanimously. Okay, motion to close, I have not closed the agenda yet. Yeah? I was still, I didn't get
377to that part yet. you mean the agenda was already opened? yeah. Okay, can have a motion and a second to close the agenda. so moved. second. it's been moved and seconded, to close the agenda. Is there any board discussion? All those in favor say aye. aye, any opposed say no, motion passes unanimously. Now the school work of school board has been completed. Seeing no other obligation, I now adjourn the meeting.