Regular School Board Meeting - Jul 22, 2025

001testing testing one two three. welcome to today's regular school board meeting. We are happy to have you join us and we are that canful for your time and dedication to our district. This regular meeting is now called to order. Our primary focus is to create a safe and environment for all participants. Please notice the exit doors. While in the board room refrain from blocking the exit doors. Once the board room has reached its seating capacity, you will be to a designated area. Continue to exit the building and remain outside until the authority that has jurisdiction has deemed the building safe to return. Thank you for your cooperation. Please note due to the vice chair not physically being here, MS. Alhadeff will serve in that capacity for today's meeting. I will now introduce your field park

002elementary to lead us in the "pledge of allegiance". Oh we did that wrong. Ladies and gentlemen, please rise and remain standing for the presentation of our nation's colors and the "pledge of allegiance". Today's color guard is being presented by dear field marine corps jrotc commanded by cadet alyssa, first cadet and cadet jesus delgado, the "pledge of allegiance" is being lead by abigail pane. The mcrotc program is under the supervisor of leslie tomas senior marine corps instructor. Ladies and gentlemen, we remind you to remain standing until the colors have exited. colors. Return, MARCH. Present, colors. I pledge allegiance to the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under GOD indivisible with liberty and justice for all. colors. Ready guard, right, turn, MARCH. thank you, you MAY be seated. Board

003member bulman has requested a moment of silence. MS. Bulman. thank you, chair. This is a moment of silence for jonathan alvarez. He jonathan loved going to school and rarely missed a school. He liked to draw and play catch at recess and spend time with his classmates. He entertained his family and friends with his playfulness and loved playing basketball. He will be missed by the entire family. thank you, MAY the chair. The superintendent has released the agenda with certain changes with this meeting and published it on the school's website. The chair finds pursuant to florida statute that good cause exist for such changes and accepts the revised agenda. MAY the chair have a motion and a second to close the agenda. so moved. moved by MR. Zeman, seconded by MS. Alhadeff. All those in favor of

004closing the agenda say aye. Those opposed say no. MAY the chair have a motion and a second to approve the minutes of JUNE 17, special meetings expulsions. JUNE 17, 2025, regular school board meeting. JUNE 24, special school board meeting. so moved. moved by DR. Zeeman seconded by MS. Al ha it definite. Is there any discussion. Those in favor of approving the minutes say aye. Those opposed say no. The minutes are approved unanimous. We're reminded, as an a-rated for the second time. [Cheers and applause] School district. Our vital task is to stay in this achievement. Our theme this year is believe, empower achieve one broward. The chief of staff and communications officers pulled the board. The following consent items have been identified for discussion. H2, h3, a-3, c1, c2, f3, o4, o5, o5, o6. At this

005time MAY the chair have a motion and a second to pass the concession items that have not been pulled for discussion which includes h1, f1 1, f2, j1, o1 and o-2. MADAM Chair, we do have a comment pulled for h1. okay, that will be? nathalie lynn wall much. are there any registered speakers. just the one you mentioned, MADAM Chair, for h1. DR. Lynch walsh? good morning, DR. Nathalie lynch walsh, plantation florida, I see there is a second revision to h1, which means that you will not be discussing what I'm here to talk about. But the problem that that name was struck will be addressed. You have too many messy job descriptions and you shouldn't be putting people into a position when the position has not been revised since 2007. Please have your superintendent direct his

006staff to look at all the system analyst because 1, 2 and 3 have not been touched for about 19 years and it's in safety. Safety and technology are things that I think change quick here. Needless to say, there was some shenanigans but it looks like it has been stopped at least for today but this should not sneak into the next agenda. Thank you. thank you, any other public? no ma'am. all in favor of approving the agenda items say aye. Aye. aye. those opposed say no. Those items passed unanimous. And I believe MS. Rupert and nz leonardi are on the line? yes, ma'am. great. Thank you. thank you. yeah. so we're going to h1 agenda item. The chair would like to recognize new staff appointments. We would like to congratulate each of you. We value you

007and your families. If we can give the appointees a round of applause. [Applause] [Cheers and applause] DR. Hepburn, can you please share a few remarks and introduce the new leaders. yes, we have quite a few new leaders. Most of you are being promoted, so proud of the work you've done thus far for the students I look forward in supporting you in all the things that we'll. And at this time I'll turn to MR. Sullivan because I don't know how we're going to take pictures with all of these appointees. MR. Sullivan however you want us to align to talk a photo. at this time, we will now recess this regular school board meeting for a board photo with new staff appointments. this regular school board meeting is now reconvened. Do any of my colleagues have any

008remarks for the items that were not pulled for discussion? I would just like to take the opportunity to say congratulations to all the retiree that are on h1. Thank you for all that you've done for the district and we wish you great new journey, new chapter in your lives. Okay, at this time, MAY the chair have a motion and a second on item h-2. so moved. second. moved by MS. Thompson seconded by DR. Zeman, are there any registered speakers for h2? yes, ma'am. Delvin king. and again, delvin king. Just in case it's loud. okay, no other public speakers so we'll move to board discussion MR. Cervera? thank you, MADAM Chair. In reviewing this I've identified some individuals that I had some questions regarding the actual discipline that's being proposed in my opinion, it's too lax

009and I was just wondering if I can get some clarification. So I'm going to try to talk this in order. Looking at the chart of page 1, there is a nazar who had five prior disciplinary actions in the last five years and yet this most resent request is only a three-day suspension for in subordination relate to go attendance which seems to be rereoccurrence for this individual. I'm wondering why only a three-day suspension. david azzarito. Yes, there are several absentees. This is the first time that this individual is being suspended. Not saying that back in 24, should of had had a sus tension but this will be a first time for suspension for this individual. So going forward, it would be progressive, if the absenteism, it would be a 5-day, 10-day from here. so for this

010level of offense when you're talking about lobbying, leveing, if I can get my words out this morning, leveing suspensions, the first step is the three-day which this individual is receiving. correct. thank you, my next MADAM Chair, if I MAY, the top of page 3 of the report, this gentleman is ruben gonzalez, again five prior disciplinary actions stemming from 2018, 2022, 2023, 2025 and I apologize I believe there is one in 2017. Seems to be habitual violator of rule 9, don't know the specifics of rule 9 but this gentleman does not want to comply with it for some reason. Noticing that the suspension is only two days for a violation of a fuel that has been broken at least, I guess this is the two-days. in bus attendance, they have a book that is specifically for

011them so. It's listed specifically, first, offense, second offense, and third offense and sunshine rule, so after a year, it reverts back to step one. In 2025, that would be his third violation, he received a summary ms so this is the second offense for one year. this gentleman violated rule 9 which is preventable accident which is scary in my opinion as a bus driver, once in 2022, 2023 in FEBRUARY of this year and now again, so this is what four violations of a preventable accidents? How many accidents do we need to let this gentleman be involved in before we take measures. I don't think two-day. Respectfully, if my kid was on that bus, I would not want somebody who violated rule 9, 9 times. I share some of the same sentiments and that's what we're doing

012this year is to really look at rules and penalties that are in transportation, because there is some rules and penalties that we probably need to update and revise to bring more into line with the appropriate discipline for r rtain offenses. so ararwe ununby sosome cba a and some rereemt that the bus drivers have that we can't do worse than a two-day suspension for somebody that gets into five accidents in the span of five years. Okay. I I wish I was part of that negotiate. The next is in page 5 of 8 examine this is nishelle perole. Here's one with 11 prior disciplinary actions and only up now for a week suspension. Why are we not terminating an individual like who has this many disciplinary for behavior and performance issues, I counted 11, check my math

013if you need to and now only getting a week suspension? correct, some of the same answers. So a little different, even her violation was for one rule, rule 8, the first offense is a lower suspension but since she has all the prior disciplines, that's why it's listed as a 7-day suspension. So for rule 8, first offense it's going to be less than a 7-day, but we moved it up to a 7-day suspension. and I assume this is the harshest penalty that we can do? it MAY not be the harshest but that's what we came up with the 7-day suspension. do you think that's adequate? based on, yes, based on where we are at this point. if you look at her prior discipline she had a one-day and five-day but only received reprimanded and meeting summaries.

014So at this point, first offense, after a year 7-day suspension MAY be appropriate. thank you for that. My last, erika washington at the bottom of the page 6 which goes into page 7 of the report. This individual has 14 priors and now phasing a whopping one-day suspension for her attendance and performance concerns. I'll again ask you to, elaborate on why we believe that's adequate and I'll ask again whether or not we're bound by some provision in whatever cba we have the bus drivers and if this is the harshest penalty that we can launch at this point. again, so if you look on the previous from 22, 9-22 on, just have been verbal reprimands we're looking at getting more progressive with the transportation department. We've already several meetings and talked to not just the rules and

015penalties but when it does come to incidents, that's not in the rules of penalties, this falls under regular 4.9 action. So again all the verbal reprimands, so this would be. Looking at over a year of, staying, you know, not having any violations within the last year, a one-day suspension for on going attendance dp this progresses, it would go to five and ten. let me ask you, according to the meeting summary on JUNE 6, 2022, this individual received a three-day suspension. So three years ago, we thought this was important enough to lodge more stringent discipline than we are now. well the other violations after the 6-2-22 were not attendance. So in the last three years, attendance has been better. so is it, is it our position that, the suspensions, are in line with the specific violation?

016So for instance, if I'm late for work six times and I receive a suspension and then I start showing up on time but, maybe my new violation is I just hit hitting mailboxes with the mailbox and I love hitting mailboxes, so if I'm going to be suspended for those preventable actions, are we not taking into consideration the previous? in their contract there are disciplines on the resets. So the preventable accidents, that's different thant attendance, the rules and work on hitting the mailboxes and that changes every year, that resets. The attendance is on the 4.9 side and that's where we go on the progressive. Her attendance has improved over the last three years and now she is having some issues so that's what we're going to work. when does the cba terminate? we negotiate every year.

017the current version that we're determining, when does that terminate? it's either 26 or 27 when we just renewed it. okay. if we can talk off line, I would like to know a definitive answer to that. Thank you, MADAM Chair. thank you. DR. Zeman. thank you, chair. To follow on school board member cervera, it would be interesting to have some work done and presented at the workshop that summarizes the collective bargaining agreements. We get them, and we get them with very little time. They're usually wrapped up with salary negotiations and other issues that we want from our collective units. It would be valuable as a board to see what is in our collective agreement sxz actually talk about it in our workshop so we can have discussions like what is in 4.9 and what is not.

018How do you count things so that it makes sense? These have been around for decades. And they don't get the set review that they should, so when we go back, you say, look there is three things that we would like to go to. You're talking about initial salaries, pay raises and others in the like. They all go together. This is not going to be a great year for pay raises as everybody in the world knows, public education funding is in a tailspin but I would prefer as a workshop chair, to think about bringing one or two at a time so we can get five or ten things that influence our ability to achieve our strategic goals. And just have a conversation about it as a board. We have to do it publicly, I know people

019would prefer to be able to negotiate one at a time but that's not legal. So we have to talk about it as aboard. -- as a board. We MAY give direction to the superintendent about things that we've seen that prevent us from achieving our tra taoej -- strategic goals. Right now that trigger from the board does not happen. What we get is the superintendent gets direction from negotiators. I have not seen any changes to collective bargaining agreements. It's all been salary. And it might be time that we mature a little bit and start to talk about those first and give direction to the superintendent and then see what the negotiating team might bring back. so I do believe that 4.9 is slated to come to a workshop. MR. Hepburn? yes, it will be coming to

020the workshop in working with bargaining union to collaborate to what 4.9 is going to look like. To what MR. Zeman and MR. Cervera talked b we have the same concerns, we're looking to get to modern times, like. Some of them have been around for decades. We're reviewing to see how they're applicable to our student needs, so it's a work in progress, absolutely we're working on that and that's a great idea to bring that to a workshop and education for everybody else, just to understanding what is in those collective bargaining agreements. MADAM Chair, just wanted to add that when you can bri, you can bring something to the workshop and have a general discussion but if you want to ask the superintendent to open certain items and articles from the agreement to negotiate, you can do

021that requests and direction during a close door for negotiation. that would be wonderful. Just to finish up, chair, thank you MR. Superintendent, DR. Hepburn for agreeing to do that. I think it will be interesting to give ideas about what agreements from the board's perspective might make sense to talk to the union about and then separately to the general counsel when we're done talking about it. It would be valuable a month or two ahead of the negotiation to see have a closed door and we can possibly do all of them at once if we get into them and maybe a single close door to give the superintendent direction about where we would like to see t.All of this is going to be dirty. This is not, it's not like, voting on a contract and say let's

022go spend x dollars. This is direction through the superintendent to say go talk to them about these things. And MR. Cer vera talks about good things about gar beginning. Most of those that I run into MR. Superintendent are vestages of our past. We use today do it that way. Our goals are real goals and we need to do whatever we can to achieve them. Thanks chair. thank you, MS. Alhadeff. thank you, so my question is does the superintendent have the authority to add additional discipline on to what was proposed today? DR. Hepburn? in many cases no, we have to go by bargaining graoementz. That's the plain and simple answer, in most cases, we cannot go beyond what is in there unless it's something that is violates the law. so MR. Cervera brought up two or

023four actions that is going to take place today. And in the past, we have asked the superintendent to pull certain people to take another look at what is proposed today. Are we not allowed to do that? DR. Hepburn? Or MS. Batista? yes, thank you, MADAM Chair. So for those items that in the board has asked to go back, their employees in different collective unit, the transportation unit is very regimented in the way that they have penalties set out to as to what can be leveed as to each offense that happens. So you will not be able to do that in this instance. okay, thank you. MADAM Chair. JUNE 30, 2026, at the end of this school year. okay, thank you. All in favor of approving h2 say aye. aye. all those opposed say no. The

024motion carries unanimously. Can I have a motion and a second for h3? so moved. moved by DR. Zeman seconded by MS. Thompson any public comment on h3? no ma'am,. okay, MS. Alhadeff. yes, I would like to make a motion on the p2 on the last point, it speaks to emergency communications and has examples like two-way radios and intercom and emergency broadcast systems, I would like to add to that panic buttons. second. okay, it's been moved and seconded to -- can you just say that again, where are we adding it? page 2 of the job description the last bullet pounts, it gives examples, I would like to add panic buttons. okay. Moved and second my public comment? Any board member discussion? All those in favor of the motion say aye. aye. N.Any opposed say no? Motion

025carries, back to item h3, any board discussion, any other board discussion on h3? All those in favor of h3 as amended say aye. aye. any opposed says no. Motion carries as amended. Next item is item a-3. Can I have a motion and a second. so moved. second. moved by DR. Zeman, sikded by MS. Alhadeff. : I'm curious about the agreements here. We get them in this case, they renew every five years, what we didn't get is what changes happen. Can you tell me what changes have happened between agreements? DR. Hepburn. if you can weigh n go ahead DR. Cone. good morning, there have been no substantial changes at all. thank you. Second question I have chair, what strategies and metrics have been in place to lead to the 5 percent growth in teacher improvement and

026vacancies by JULY of next year, 2026. DR. Hepburn? can you repeat the question to make sure we heard it clearly. what are the stranl daoez and metrics, the reason we have -- work in our schools extensively in a clear way, there is a real m, in smart goal, and measurable outcome and the measurable outcome is 25 percent growth in teacher recaoument and reduction nz vacancies by JULY of 2026. What we're arguing is, let's, and everything else come work here. We're going to spend some time investing in them, they're showing us, kind of what their innate schools are teaching. So everybody would agree, this is great, there is your future teacher corps, right? But are we measuring it? Do we have metrics to make sure that we're getting to that 25 percent? the short answer is

027yes. We most of those interns are hired by us and it helps us to maintain a 2 percent or lower vacancy rate when it comes to instructional personnel and the district over the last couple of years. are we measuring the growth in teacher recruitment and are we finding out whether we're achieving the 25 percent? that, we are measuring the growth. Not just for interns but we also have a lot of second career educators that come and work and teach for us because the candidates coming out of traditional teacher colleges from universities and colleges has declined significantly over the past five years. So we have very few candidates that we're hiring from traditional teacher colleges from universities. Most of our candidates are second career educators who were in some other careers and now decided to be

028an educator in our system. I think your answer is instructive, pardon the pun. It's instructive that interns represent the models come do their internship and go out in the market and apply. That's the increase that we're looking out of the intern program. That is the declining in our teach?Erz correct. almost every one hired there as a teacher was an education major that came to the school. And now roughly 50 percent are coming out of accounting careers, finance careers, biologist careers and joining us as teachers. I'm pointing out that if we're going to establish cool goals we have to find out if we're reaching the goals. Otherwise we're going to get agreements luke this, and as a board, we're being board, and then we're stuck like do we really need to do this. The composition of

029who is becoming the teacher, is it roughly 50 percent? I'm not sure about a specific number but I can tell you, they do not produce a lot of educators coming out with their bachelor's. People are majoring in a lot of other fields. They're coming out other careers and -- . do you have a rough estimate? we can get some numbers. I went to new orientation last year and I was shocked by the experience. There was a lot of people that had worked 20-30 years, and they were coming to us as new teachers. And they were accountants, biologist, finance majors, economist all kinds of folks who decided they want today give back. And one way to give back is to get certified as a teacher and come work at broward schools. Thank you. okay, thank you.

030All those in favor of a-3 say aye. any opposed say no. Motion carries unanimously. Next is c1, can I have a motion and a second. so moved. moved by DR. Zeman, seconded by MS. Alhadeff. Any public comment? no 'am. oy. MS. Ompson.. ju a seco,, plea.. I'm never first. I appreciate it. My questions is around the pregnant and parent teen section, and it seems like a lot of focus is to direct them to these alternative centers. And I would like to better understand the process we have for when a teen gets pregnant. Also in this section, discusses that they MAY have a different approach to their learning when a lot of times pregnant and parent teens just need the support of our regular students. I want to have a better understanding of how we're treating

031our pregnant and parenting teens? DR. Hepburn? go ahead, DR. Tullemoore. good morning. In care for pregnant teens, obviously, we value their education experience and their agency just as an individual dealing with something unplanned and a little difficult at the time. But we create loving environment especially at saegle to make sure that we're getting wrap-around support, mommy and me classes for the parents to make sure that they're parenting and learning all the things that they need to know to be affective parents. While keeping them on their academic track. It's not seen as a way to put them away but set them up for success. I appreciate that, but what I'm a student at west broward and I'm pregnant and I want to stay at west broward. yes. okay, so what are the supports that we're giving

032them at their home school? it's not as intensive as it is at our center skaolt but they're still getting what they need in order to achieve academically and their support there to support them with any concerns they have as well. so they still have access to full-time childcare? at our traditional schools, that's not something that is offered at all other schools. But obviously, that is at the center school. so if I was western student west broward has a day care center for older kids, would I be able to transfer there? And put my kid into a free daycare program? my understanding, is you need to provide your own transportation. it's not free. but in the the plan, it says full-time child plan is at no-cost. at the center. yes, that's what I was % trying

033to get clarification. like at broward, that's for a fee. I I understand that, I'm trying to understand and make sure that we're treating our parenting teens the same way regardless of what school they go to. And in this plan, it says they are provided free care. And are they still eligible for wrap around services? my understanding they get the services provided to most students but not the same as at the center, I want to be clear about that. all right, so if I want to stay at my home school, do I still have access to mommy and me and daddy and me parenting classes. only if they're provided at traditional schools and I'm not sure. would there be transportation provided for them to attend those classes from their home school? if they're enrolled at saegle,

034we use that example, yes, they would get transportation. so only if they're enrolled at the classes that offer it. only. so I think there needs to be some clarification, because it says transportation is available to our children for these services. And if that's not accurate, if it's not available unless they go to a center school, I'm just saying that's a little misleading. Those are my comments, thank you. thank you, can you want to make a motion? sure, it's early and I was first. I would like feedback from staff, because if I'm misreading this and this only addresses seagal and, I want to ensure that we're supporting students staying at their home schools, a lot of the time that's where they live near. But is that, is my understanding, correct then, that this plan is for

035all? Or only for the centers? DR. Hepburn? DR. Tumor. I'm not sure, this is not my item. I'll differ to who's item it is. I lost my computer, hold on just a sec. yeah, for the plan is for the district. Examine as a district prevoe vieed the services at the sites. We can be more specific in our wordings to better state what actually happens. I don't know how to make a motion to do that but if we, so if we are providing transportation, so if I go to west broward, if I do provide that transportation, then I think that needs to be clarified. If we don't, then I think the district needs to come up with a way to support our parenting students that want to stay at their home schools. In reality, that's what

036is best for parenting students is that they stay in their home community. I guess. can you be more clear about what type of support you're envisioning at their school. so if they go to the schools, they have access to mommy and me access and free childcare. I understand that free childcare does not seem that that is on the table so that needs to be clearly wrib in the services provided, if this is a district wide document. it can be access to signing up to head start programs if they're still around. It could be access to mommy and me support groups. It could be a variety of things. But in this document, it sounds like these services are only available if you are forced to go to these centers and I just want to clarification on

037if students can access these services regardless on whether they choose to go to a center or not? I think one of the difficulties, because we don't have many pregnant teens when you look at the landscape of the district, we probably have one at a high school or one at ten different high schools, so spread the services out for one kid, at ten different schools that's the difficulty to address the needs of the kids for the personnel to have the expertise to do it and that's why, the alternator the specific site provides better services for students that want to take advantage of the whole approach of the services that they can take advantage of at the center school. For some of the things you listed, signing up for snap and care, yeah that tb done at

038the school but the parent skills while the student is pregnant, those are some of the difficulties where we're spreading a person or two thin if they're trying to address the needs for one or two students at several schools. while I understand that, I think that still needs to be made clear in the document that certain services are only available if they go to the centers. yes, that would be my motion. second. it's been moved and seconded to change the wordings in the document to say, those services are provided at specific centers. Is there any public comment on the motion? good morning, DR. Nathalie lynch walsh, I support what MS. Thompson is trying to do. It sounds like we're going to have to find funding elsewhere. I was also a little surprised to hear that there

039is only one pregnant teen in the school that was the statistic when I was a teen, are they all dropping out or going out at the center. pregnancies are down. Speaker: that seems unbelievable, I support it but I don't know how they're going to fund it. thank you, just to clarify the motion is just to change the wordings in the document to say that those services are only provide at center schools. Speaker: yes, support any clarity out of written staff. any other public comment? Board member discussion? All those in favor say aye. aye. Any opposed say no. Motion carries. Do you have anything else? Okay. MS. Rupert? thank you. I'm actually asking about I said this ahead of time, hold on, I'm trying to pull it up here. C1, how did you decide on what

040increased our goals will be moving forward and then I had a second question. So I'll wait for the answer. I'll look to see if it came in email and I couldn't find it. How did you decide on what increases our goals will be moving forward? DR. Hepburn? DR. Lozano? MR. Alvarez? Speaker: vladimir alvarez, assistant director compliance. My department is in charge of putting this plan together and the goals, maybe set by the district really. Whatever we get from the plan is basically the information that the state is requesting and the goals mainly they stay the same. The goal is that we show what improving participation in the academics, participation in sports. thank you for that. So I guess basically, the district sets the goals and is that what I'm hearing? yes. We set the goals,

041and if we are not in compliance and we need improvement and participation, we have the monetary forms in order to show improvement. got ya. And we've been showing improvement. I would like to see more on the subgroups. But we've been seeing more. But I thought, the board really needs to weigh in on these and perhaps a workshop about that process, because it just comes down to how well we're educating our students and especially from, you know, top to bottom that everybody is getting a fair education. So I think that, you know, some of these goals were a little on the, the minimum side and I think that we need to be asking more especially with our ell and ese students. I do appreciate that but I think the school board itself needs to have a

042conversation about this as let's do a little bit more stretching goals instead of just hitting that 3 percent or so that we want to increase. Thank you for that. And the second question, I have is, concerning gender sports equity. Excuse me. I would like to know what specific planed increase participation and teams for girls moving forward? Looking not for a pat answer which is what I felt that we received but a specific plan moving forward. Additionally how did play like a girl events aid in this endeavor. What has worked and what will be new this coming year? That's my question when it comes to gender sports equity and for somebody that's been in the board for a while, I do have some perennial high schools that are not meeting the goals year after year. So

043somebody needs to be done to address this and I'm not into the pat answer that we're going to do this and try that when I know that we've been doing those same, accommodations moving forward. So I think once again, we need to, really look at these goals and make sure how did play like a girl workout? So, maybe that would be MADAM Chair through the superintendent, patty brown, maybe she MAY be able to have that answer. thank you for the question, MS. Rupert. So I have MS. Wanza and MS. Brown to talk about. And play like a girl event, an awesome event on how that addresses some of our needs when it comes to our female athletes. thank you. good morning, valerie wanza, by the way, happy new year, it is a new academic school

044year, happy new year. MS. Brown is going to come to the mic to speak directly as it results to play like a girl. But it will be different this year, we're actually going to develop a very intentional tool kit for athletic directors as well as individual sport coaches that is more specific in and dis escriptive as it relates to a month of season, plan this, at freshman orientation or whatever school wide assemblies do this to get descriptive and I appreciate your concern and your just out right, displeasure over the years with this being not issue for us as it relates to gender athletic participation. We're going to work on a specific tool that will be ready in the next week or so, we have a first meeting coming up with athletic directors and we will

045have the tool kit ready and also work in conjunction with the regional offices on the monitoring piece to ensure that schools are utilizing the tool kit as described and then we'll monitor and take appropriate actions necessary. That's the first part and then I have MS. Brown speak specifically about play like a girl which has been an awesome experience the last two schools. thank you, patty brown director of student activities, I'm excited that everybody is becoming familiar with the event play like a girl. It was create today spark more interest for our female students to engage in athletics and understand it's a means to an under an opportunity for them to certainly create the soft skills and different type of collaborative skills as well as earn scholarship for college. Our numbers have increased. We've only had

046the event for two years, we had 1600 girls from broward county girls. The first year it was 2000 this year. We tried to target sports, we had water polo goalie to grow knowledge in sports they MAY not be as familiar with. It was a huge success. I had not started tracking data after to determine if it has engaged more athletes to participate in sports but we can look at an avenue to do that. But we are, I do want everybody to understand the data that comes forth from the he quit plan, it is it needs to be an exact match for the demographics. So if you have, 50 percent girls and 50 percent boys on your campus, you have to have the exact same match of athletes on your campus that's a little bit difficult

047to do. And when you don't have the exact match then you're not in compliance. But our athletic directors work really hard to make sure that all the students are exposed. It MAY seem like a pad answer but it's not. It's a huge part of their job for the advisements through parent link and they work with the pe coaches when the sports are coming up to identify athletes that are just engaging in pe to see any interest or ability and refer them to the sport, let the coaches know. Athleticdirectorand cocoacs walk aroundndcampus, ve tnessed d this seself to ensure that the students are familiar with the sports and try out. They engage in the activity fair as well. You will see in open houses, you will see it's not just for clubs and academic, activities but

048all of the coaches and athletes are there represented as well to garner that interest. So it's not a pat answer, they really do work hard and very specifically for the sports that they. The last nature and this will be a hard change it will increasingly more difficult to have the large number of not just athletes but the teen sports at the schools if we're not able to increase the pay for our coaches. We're the lowest paying district for our coaches in the state of florida that will be more difficult to have these sports if we don't have the coaches to coach them. great point there, thank you so much. And DR. Wanza and MS. Brown, thank you. I had had the pleasure of talking to the student advisors to the board yesterday and I shared

049my question and my comments about equity in sports and the two of them which is, you know, DR. Wanza and MS. Brown, you work with those great kids all the time. And they're looking forward to increase visibility and kind of a buy-in at the school so there is more kids getting involved in all areas. Either academic or a team sport. So I'm excited to have them be part of this equation and I think that MAY be the, the part that's been missing over the years is that we definitely didn't have kids wanting to you know, join sports and wanting to be able to, you know o, possibly get a scholarship et cetera. So I'm excited to have them ak -- actively involved in this process. Thank you, thank you so much for all the work

050that you both do. Thank you. thank you. Next, DR. Holness. thank you, MADAM Chair. So, I appreciate the progress being made in terms of increasing the enrollment of blacks and hispanic students in a p, ib duel enrollment and so forth, we still have a long way to go. We still need to continue to have an aggressive approach to reducing the disparities that exist in terms of enrollment of blacks and hispanics in the in the course that's we offer. So I look at the, information here and see one, and I do appreciate it but I'm still left with thinking DR. Hepburn, that there is a lot more as a district that we can do because, all of our students should be whether regardless of gender, race ethnicity should be equally represented in all areas of what

051we offer as a district, and I believe we can. So although I appreciate the incremental increases, I could believe that we need as a district to continue to have an aggressive approach to level the playing field for everything, so every one has an opportunity regardless of the background. In addition to board member hixon, I appreciate the inquiry you made. And I'm looking at the response that we received, and although I appreciate the response, the response seems to be universal when we have a proportionality problem in terms of males and females matching the percentage of school participation in sports. So for example, the response that we have indicate and, they are inter vent -- inter ventive announces, canvass notification sxz so forth. That will increase participation overall for every one but does it address the proportionality

052issue? And I know that it mentioned here on the response given to board member hixon, that we actively solicit physical teachers to help identify students particularly in programs where one gender MAY be under represented. I think that's very general, I don't think that is enough. We look at all these high schools and all of them had the compliance issue regarding participation of males and females, that issue permeates. We need to have a more targeted approach. I think there needs to be a team that executes an action plan that is targeted to a specific need. So DR. Hepburn, I just want to get your feedback on because, most of the high schools if not all of them were flagged for that non compliance issue. And the response seems to be very general. How can we have

053a targeted approach to remedying that problem so we don't have compliance issue in subsequent years? thanks for the question, DR. Holness, my quer has to do with duel enrollment. DR. Wanza and her team are work oning that. To have a standard of how we engage all kids especially to address our disproportionate participation of females and males. This is not a broward county issue, this is every high school issue is that football teams, automatically pushes you out of whack with proportion. Varsity going to fill about 80 players. If you add jv you're going to have about 50 players, which gets you close to 400. You can have 300 football players. When you look at female sports, most fill about 15 to 20 sports. Girls basketball, if you include jv, 25, tops. So this proportionately, it's already

054inherit because of the sports that are available for males and females. Over a decade now, the state did sanction flag girls flag football as fhfaa kind of sport that helped but you have track season at the same time. So most of your girls were going to participate in flag football are also the ones that participate in track. They're a special students. Not every girl wants to run track. Making sure that the sports we do have available for our females are fully staffed. It, it will help us close that disproportionate gap but. But DR. Wanz and and her team are working on that team so we have a minimum standard on how to engage students and parents that's the variance that we see from school to school. You've got a gun ho coach and director, they're

055going to be outdoing all of those wonderful things. If you have a sub par director, we're going to create a minimum standard just to make sure, at this level, this is what everybody should be doing. For the acceleration part, we talked about subgroups and increasing in acceleration enrollment. That's one of the core levels it's very important to us as a school district and making sure that they have that opportunity. That's a gateway to great opportunities post secondary. If you take ab, you get a better chance of getting bright features, an opportunity to get into that post secondary. And industry certification also accelerated courses too. We're taking the subjectivity out of it, meaning taking away people that are keepers and we're bringing objective lens basinging it off of student merit. If the student has the fast

056scores and a p potential scores and sat scores, that should open the door for enrollment and we are supporting. That takes a lot of work, and in a change, and it took us about, you know, two or three years to get to where we want to get to because you're changing the whole system of schools mind set of how they put students in courses. And we're on the second year of that journey which we started to have principals go through and do what they call the master schedule analysis to see how they've been placing students and the reasons why, so they opened up their eyes and said, oh I need to have a more objective lenses. So we're constantly chopping on that tree and our enrollment has significantly rose over the past two years and

057we're going to continue to increase that and make sure that it's on merit or performance and not how they look or where they come from. DR. Hepburn, I appreciate that response. I have couple other responses, in terms of these participation in these accelerated course, I understand you're approaching this in terms of taking whatever layers of subjectivity there is and having an objective approach, based on performance and so on. But as far as the students in general, would you say that part of the disparity could also be lack of awareness to specific groups like hispanics and blacks that these programs exist and that they have the opportunity to participate. If that's a factor, how do we create awareness and what kind of awareness can we do. I know that contributed in the past, I know some

058schools have a p nights to let kids know what courses they have. Through landyn, they tell us the short falls so we work with the student advisors to close that gap about how do you want this message? Sometimes how we give the information is the way how they receive the information today. I totally agree with you that we need to do a better job of informing parents and that's what we're working on, to have that wove marketing, I go out all the time and I ask all the time, did you know that your kid with take a course, and they says no, and shame on us. We need to do a better job at getting that information. A kid that we challenge with accelerated course, often times they have not experienced that rig or and

059they're the ones that don't want to be in it. We try to educate the parents about the opportunity down the road so they can encourage their kids to be in it and stay in it. So we're doing a better job of that to educate our parents about the opportunity. Because a kid who has never been in honors or accelerated, they say it's too hard too much writing and thinking. thank you for that response. And I believe the parent involvement is extremely important because a lot of these parents, especially if they're from opportunities with economic hardship, they MAY not be be aware or have the time to research if we can bring awareness to them, they can put their children who MAY not be highly advanced but not aware of their area. And lastly, thank you,

060chair that I would like to mention. In terms of what you said, DR. Hepburn regarding DR. Wanza and her team having some sort of approach, in regards to athletic issue, I also think that there needs to be a school base involvement because these are specific schools, they know what the issue is to develop some kind of action plan, maybe with DR. Wanza's team that has a targeted approach to, the specific gender disparity issue with that specific school. So the school base leadership should be heavily involved and I hope, I know I heard what you said that it's a challenge because of the different sports that are available but I hope we can remedy the issue at some point. absolutely. thank you. I think our student advisor would like to make a comment. thank you, chair.

061I just wanted follow-up on what DR. Hepburn said because we've done a lot of great work with student services. Rolling out next year, students will have access to sello course planning, which is phenomenal, we've done work with the students and getting their feedback. To be able to see what the course profile is is at the school and what the strings attached are, if you're taking a p seminar, how that goes to the future opportunity. So we've gotten some great feedback in that area so I want today thank staff for their support in that. thank you. MR. Cer ver a. -- cervera. thank you, I want to go back to the girls sports issue that we've been having a robust conversation this morning. I'm looking at the presentation and I guess we're required to file an

062athletic compliance verification form and pursuant to this form, we're not in compliance, my question is. If we are not meeting a requirements, pursue edmonton to the statute which is identified as florida educational equity act? What is the penalty for non compliance? And I'm interested in knowing how long the district has not been in compliance? DR. Hepburn. thanks for the question, I'm not sure what the penalty is, DR. Lozano? we can do a follow-up on that? do you have a knowledge about? vladimir alvarez, ada compliance. i've been in the department for about 14 years, I recall that we have been in compliance at the time. There have been no penalty, the intent of the plan is to ensure that if we're not in compliance what are we doing. And that's why they proviewed a the moratorium

063form that we're going to follow in order to get close to the compliance. But there is not specific penalty for the district. As long as we show that we're work towards the goal, that is needed. so we've not been in compliance if I believe that I heard you correctly. We have not in compliance for the last 14 years? yes, many have not been in compliance because if you take out flag football for girls, you didn't have enough sports that were offered by schools and the state to get through that portion that they're trying to look for. The amount of sports with the amount of seats in those sports, when you look at male sports, it's difficult to close that gap. so I just want to make sure I'm clear, do we just not have enough

064girls sports teams? Or what I think I'm hearing is a lack of interest from our female students? I said there is a little bit of both but when you look at traditionally, girl sports offering, if you if a high school filled all the male offerings and girl offerings there tl would still have a gap. because football you can have up to 80 kids in a football team, and if you have varsity and if you still do preshman football 3 times 80, whatever that math is. 240, versus your female sports, basketball, about 15 students, jv about 15 students and then lacrosse if you have lacrosse, itdoes not ququait male.E. It's disproportione because of the availability of roster seats on female sport. understood. And I would in reviewing some of the data that was provided to tuesday,

065there is a spreadsheet that was given which lists every traditional high school in the district, for some reason they're all listed as district 6 high schools, I assure my colleagues that they're not all in my district. That being said I would like to acknowledge south plantation which has 240 male agent let's and 289 female athlete students, I thought that was impressive. So kudos to plantation, maybe we need to see what they're doing to help other high schools that are not meet ing the quotas and requirements. Lastly, I would like to confirmation. I know we have not been tagged in the last four years and I don't know if this question is better directed to you or MS. Batista, I just want to make sure that there is no chance or that there is no actual

066penalty in the statute and I realize we MAY not have gotten in trouble but that does not mean that tallahassee can't come down on us. I would like to have some type of assurance that we're not facing any penalties from the state from the county from the federal government, specifically funding freezing which we're dealing with now, I just want to make sure that we're not subjected to that. MS. Batista? I would have to do a follow-up on that. thank you, chair. thank you. MS. Bulman. thank you, chair. I also just had a couple of comments about the equity in the female versus male sports which by the way one of my schools had lower male participation. So you know, I think we need to look at this ho listically as well. And it's very concerning

067to me, what MS. Brown just said about the fact that we have the lowest paid coaches nat state it. I mean, first of all we have to look, I can't over state the importance of athletic programs I think to the experience of student. And not at the expense of any extra curricular because I support those being funded. One of the things that distinguishes us as a school district is our long tradition of great sports, our rivalries, people talk about these things going back for decades. And you know, your grandpa played on the team, your brother played on the team. The fact that we're having some disparities, I can I understand maybe gender and equity and maybe the statute is not reasonable. But I would like to look at the quality of our programming that we're

068offering and if, the one of the most experiences na a kid has is a mentor and who is who is a betterment or than your coach. Everybody who plays sports, can look back on what really changed their life. I would like to explore making sure that we're competitive when we're, paying coaches. I mean, this is not one off and you're sitting in a club for a couple of days after school. This is every day after school. It's weekends, and the time is I am measurable for what they're putting in. So how do we, look at that so we're competitive in the state with what we're paying our coaches? I'll let doctor hepburn answer that, accept I will say that we as a board have asked for the last two years, for supplements to be looked

069at and to increase the payment, you know the salary of our coaching staff, I coached, I got 50 cents an hour. I've been asking that since I got here but we keep being told that we need to wait until the salary is taking care of. I will echo the question because we have asked for that a number of times. So DR. Hepburn. great question, and I know people like myself who have coached and you and many on my team have koefmd in the past and you're getting paid that 50 cents an hour, for hours, but it's about helping kids. I know DR. Lozano or even MR. Azzarito, I think it was tied to the collective bargaining. yes, david azzarito, executive director. We've separated so we can act as we like. MS. Brown's department can put

070together a study of all the neighboring districts so we have what we make versus what I think 40 percent increase would get us more to what the other districts and neighboring districts are, so that has been presented to other departments. So talk a look at and let us know what we can do. okay, and that will be forthcoming, I'll leave it there, I was going to go on a tangent on state but I'll leave it there? so when is it going to be forthcoming? I think we need to nail it down. The school year is rapidly approaching and I think it's important for us to have the best quality athletic programs and we have to be attracted by the best coaches. let me foum because we're working on our budget and it is a, it

071also impacts our budget because of the amount of coaches and other supplements that it rapped up in but we can follow-up with a time line. it impacts our coaches but it really impacts our kids. Holistically, and I also just, in terms of you know, this idea that we're going to advise women's sports more because that is the feeling that nobody is getting the memo that that is happening which I'm skeptical that's the actual reason, why people aren't setting up. Something that I've noticed as a parent is that the information is not available on the website which is what a parent would do. I got my son in cross country when he was in sixth grade, because it was there, which was a miracle, it's not been sense. But the parents needs to know what the

072schedule looks like and when we're starting the season, and none of that is available. I have children involved in activity and I don't think I have the control. So in terms of communication, I think blanket communication that's you can go to the website and figure out what sports are being offered when the meetings are and when the practices are going to be, takes a lot of the guesswork out of that and then the parents are then able to encourage the kids to go. that is awesome feedback. As you know, we have launched brand new brower county website. So I know on the school's end they're doing their updates so we can add a standard approach about the information that you mentioned. That's great feedback. Just to make sure that it's on the school website. one

073more thing, so the track season and the girls flag football is during the same? yes, unless it's changed. It's still the same. because I think my understanding the best track is the flag football. and you don't get scholarships for flag football. actually they do, we have a girl that has her inl, okay. but I imagine that a scholarship is forthcoming she was only a junior last year. It seems like that's a conflict for women because the men track and football season. thank you. DR. Zeman. thanks chair. Love the board's sentiment about athletics. I want to add a little bit to that discussion. Because we're becoming more comfortable. In that competitive environment you have to think about why our do parents choose or high school others. And clearly it's because of athletics. At the end of

074the day, students want to go to coconut because they have a lacrosse. Msd winning 5 champions. So I just want us as a board and board, why do we win out over charter and private high schools? One reason is we have wetter athletics. Across the board, we have better and home school we're definitely better than mom and dad. And I know some home school kids come back to our schools in order to play for our kids. But all of the benefits that we get as a system are repeated in the individuals which is kind of cool because if you play sports, you learn things that you would never know if you don't. And that's true if it's visible sports, things like drama or debate. To be on a team, is to learn some lessons that

075you would not learn otherwise. So I hope, chair that we think about middle schools as part of our plan as well. So chair are you aware of whether or not any of these efforts we're having on gender balancing athletic or other team participation are we doing anything at middle schools as MS. Bulman pointed out, often times cuds are getting much more athletic in the 6th or 7th grade and they do prep so they can play in high school. Are we working on participation of men and women? DR. Hepburn, I will say that I know we have a very robust athletic middle school program but I'll let DR. Hepburn answer the questions. we have a athletic association which is not uncommon in other school districts across the state. And district wide reward ceremony which is not

076common at other school districts across the state especially the large one. MS. Brown if you want to add anything. you stole a lot of my thunder as I was walking up here, not helpful but yes we have a program. Our athletic director, we work a lot with the high schools, and middle schools competing at the high schools to show them what is to come next. Certainly the awards program, working with the coaches, and the middle school girls as many as we can accommodate are also invite today play like a girl event but we push just as the same the strategies are shared just the same as well. It's definitely growing. We have in the student association there are more schools asking to join the middle school association and not just schools asking to join all

077the public schools but some of the charter schools asking to join. But we also have parents and schools asking for more sports at the school level, so it's definitely and continuing. chair I look forward to some good and quick discussions about the funding of athletic not just -- . And with all do respect, I have some pretty clear, observations about what is going on and it's not sufficient in middle schools for what we're doing, I guarantee it. That's an area where if we invested more, we would get greater results particularly in our younger girls, I'm very proud of my kid's middle schools, they won the county wide basketball and the school went crazy, and that's not wonderful. But that's not enough. The city have for things like. Football fields, soccer fields, baseball fields, pickleball sports,

078where we have middle schools, it's been paid by municipalities. I've coached little league for 11 seasons, and I have not been paid a dime, and I'll continue coaching for son. It's about facilities which I think are appalling, they're substandard at high schools. i just walked a high school with a baseball coach, I was embarrassed. We don't invest in the things that give us xwe tiff advantages and we want to think about that if we want to win back students. I look forward to that being a bigger discussion. There is room for us to grow and with all do respect to your answer about public tud enters, it does not mean female students that we have being encouraged to do the kinds of things that they want to do. If they had more opportunities we would

079have more participation at the high school level but that's true. It's not a website issue, it's a systemic issue, and I believe that we're ready to flip the switch as a board to say why don't we reinvest to win back students. Chair, what can we do about bringing at let I cans, not athletic coach supplement but can we bring athletics? How can we bring that to a workshop in the next come of month? that's noted, we can bring that to the workshop in the fall. I appreciate the dialogue and I also encourage if there is any municipalities to create new partnership I've seen it done and I've seen the benefit and also the people who live in the city but the kids win in the long run with some great. And sometimes even elementary. I

080appreciate the dialogue. and in that dialogue, I'll open up the discussion about sponsorship. where so many workmen and women went to high school here and they want to give back financially and we have not made that easy. But one day we'll create a association and ask people to give back in a meaningful and it's meaningful if it's athletic. There is a whole bunch of private givers. I earned 11 letters at ft. Lauderdale, I played three sports for four years. But if somebody had called me and I was not serving on this board and said, can you donate athletic, I would give generously and I think there is thousands of others. And I hope that's part of the funding, we have not made that easy. There ought to be a app and you click and donate

081$1000. I think there is some opportunities to not only spend but raise more money so we can take care of our facilities at our high schools that are just so critical to our development of our youngsters. Thank you. thank you, and I believe we've as a board said we wanted to look into sponsorship so maybe you can bring that back with the workshop so we can move that along because I did ask about that as well. MS. Alhadeff. thank you. So I love the conversation. First thing I would like to talk about is the ft. Lauderdale soccer women's soccer that we have. I think we have a beautiful opportunity to work with them, collaborate with them. To have the women soccer players come to our schools, be leaders, try to encourage the students to join

082the soccer team and also have the students go to the soccer games, so they can see what it would be like to become a soccer women player. The other thing, I think if you go to our school's websites it speaks involves to whatat w prioritize. Meaning g yosee a pictcte e athletetic gege of all b boys. Well if we're trying to get more girls to play sports, we need to represent that in our websites. We need to have pictures of girls playing sports so the girls see that and not just boys seeing that. Also, I think we can do a better job saying it's girls volleyball. We're not representing that and showing it on our website to promote female athletes to participate in sports more. If that's a hinder, it's a very lengthy are robust

083difficult process, I don't know if anybody has thought about that. It took me days to feel that out and I signed my son up for every sport, cheerleading included. Because I didn't want to go back into filling that form out if they decide to teach for a living. But yes, so it's something that I would like, if we can look into. DR. Hepburn. yes, that's noted. I believe we've got something that compared us to the two districts and the state, so maybe they can just. I'll make it a note to resend it. specific. And also in regard, I know this is not one of our sports, but I do think pickleball is hot, it's something that our students love to play and I would love to see how we can engage pickleball into our pe

084classes into our recess time. Whether it is a pickleball club, I think also we want them to be active and they love pickleball. So why don't we do something that they love. Thank you. thank you, and DR. Hepburn, do you know if pickleball is on the horizon to become sport to that point? I don't have the statistics. thank you for the follow-up. great. All those in favor of c1 as amended, say aye. aye. any opposed say no. Motion carries unanimously. Can I have a motion and a second on c2. so moved. moved by DR. Zeman, seconded by DR. Holness. Any public comment on c2? no, ma'am. MS. Alhadeff. so absolutely yes, to terminate, thank you. MR. Cervera. 110 percent in favor of this. I just had a question, I was approached by quite a few

085parents on this recently, and I don't know if it was conflicting news reports or maybe we were not doing a good enough job with the messaging. but it's my understanding that this gentleman was at the westchester elementary school, previously before the most resent incident happened. And he was arrested and charged with stocking and harassing and all of these terrible charges. And he was put on administrative leave, I don't know what the class ification was. But I want to confirmation, that he was physically removed from the school? that's correct, he was removed from the school and placed in a department where he has no contact with students. what specifically was he doing after the first offense? Was he in this building what he doing after another? in another B.C. Ps building. with no access to children?

086correct. thank you. All those in favor of c2 say aye. any opposed say no. Motion carries unanimously. Is item f-3 can I have a motion is and a second. moved by DR. Zeman, seconded by MS. Thompson. Any public comment? no ma'am. DR. Holness. I'm good, some of my questions were answered yesterday at the meeting. Thank you. DR. Zeman. thank you, I was so happy that somebody else pulled c3. It's important to talk about the federal funding shock. Everybody is aware about the federal withhold, it affects broward by 30 million. And so far we've gotten couple million back but 28 million is a lot. Is it also that we're run ago head on medical claims? that is also correct. yeah, and I think that's in the 10 to 15 million dollars range. It's important to set

087information. Is that we're down a significant amount of money for next year's spending. But, let's just, continue I think to encourage the federal government to release the title of. It is so important for students nationwide to get the services and I look forward to more discussions about that specific set of circumstances. At the end of the day, we're roughly 50 million dollars going into next year. 50. 50th of 50. And as I continue to remind people in the media, na is the first sentence of every story they should write. Despite of being 50, broward lifted 11,000 more. In spite, we're doing dramatic improvement in the number of percentages that are a or b and in the leaps that we're getting particularly from c schools being cut in half, it's important to think about that. But

088there is two 50 numbers MS. C.F.O., we're 50th behind mississippi and alabama, we do three billion dollars a year to fund people who already had their cuds in private school to get 3000 back aef and we're down from next spending. Those are good take aways and can help us calibrate about spending more money. Thank you very much, chair. thank you, all those in favor of f3 say aye. aye. any opposed say no. Motion carries unanimously. The next item is j2. so moved. moved by DR. Zeman, seconded by MS. Bulman. Any public comment? no ma'am. DR. Zeman. ?Fm I'm just noting this this page 1 of the summary for this item that this agreement has already expired. And there is a few sentences on the bottom that talks about what happened. Whether wire talk about funding

089playground and being able to use them together. What would you recommend to the staff about coordinating to these municipalities so we can approve them before? I cannot tell from the summary whether it was our fault or the city's fault or comingling of qualities here. So what can we do to these things are nonexistent or rare so we don't MISS An opportunity to renew on time. thanks for a question DR. Zeman, we have a great relationship o our municipalities. For this specific one, I cannot pin point the issue. Their legal team or city manager, some something is about to expire. For a common collaborative, especially city of pam pa no is one of those great partners. and on your team, is there somebody that is responsible for coordination or is everybody responsible? everybody is responsible for

090their specific area division for this. If it's around support and coordination for their facilities, it will be academics. And so it depends on division leader. thank you. all those in favor of j2 say aye. any opposed say no. Motion carries unanimously. The next item is o-3 can I have a motion a second. so moved. moved by thompson seconded by DR. Zeman. Any public comment? no ma'am. MR. Cervera. thank you, MADAM Chair. I have a question regarding a specific provision, for the record, I think this is a good thing. I'm a fan of the public supermarket chain. Although, they could do something about lower the price of sushi which has gone up. The agreement does not appear to be one of the former agreement that our great legal department puts together for most of the contractual

091relationships we have with parties but this appears to be a publix forms that they use, specifically focusing on provision I, section 1, roman numeral 2. According to the language as it stands, this states that if publix fails to the commission and exceptional individual and GOD forbid anything happen, we would have to have to indemnify them, I don't know the fact that it jabbed me the wrong wai, obviously in my profession, I'm familiar with them and the need for them. But when we're dealing with exceptional students in a program like this, I'm really not comfortable with, an opt out or indemnityity provision that gets them off the hook. So I guess my question is, number one, is the language of the provision or any portion of the negotiator take it or leave it type of situation?

092And if it is, what steps can we take to possibly either water that down or remove it altogether? MS. Batista? so, thank you MADAM Chair. The, the item is negotiable. I don't know to what extent this provision was negotiated, here in the negotiation process of the contract but that is, I don't know if it needs to be approved today. But, we could go back and try to renegotiate something with publix. if there is a base us to negotiate, I would make a motion to strike that portion of subsection I which is the insurance indemnity provision, I roman numeral 2, I'm not in favor of indemnifying publix from the parents of exception al or disabled students who MAY be involved in the program. If they do that, and GOD forbid something happen, they need to be

093held liable, that's not a standard that I'm willing to shy away from. So I would request that we go back. I'm not requesting that we waive indemity altogether. They would tell us to go fly a kite but this provision needs to go. for, I know you're making the motion but just to make a point because we've been trying to get this contract for a while. The students don't do it on their way, they go through a program. So, there shouldn't be a student participating if there was not a permission slip because they go as a program to participate in this particular thing, it's not just students going to publix on their own to get a job. so I understand, let me make sure I can clarify the point in my head perhaps ma makes me

094feel better. Is it the case that you as a student cannot participate in this unless you register something with the district and all the necessary paperwork is in there? Before you're able to step foot. So this is not something that if they wanted to take additional task that they would have to get a necessary consent form, that's my concern. Is if they want to do things and they want to switch tasks or take on a higher responsibility and it's missed and something happens and then publix is oh, it's not our fault that we didn't get the permission to do something. MS. Batista. yes, so the information that I'm looking at right now, it says that we are, the district in fact, facilitated that process to obtain the approval from the parent. And, publix was not

095willing to negotiate on the point. I will withdrawal my motion as long as we're 100 percent clear that there is no scenario where publix will allow one of our students to do something outside of the scope of this agreement without having to go to a parent for additional consent and permission. not through this contract. understood, then I withdrawal my motion. And thank you for the clarification. we've just been working on this for a while. All those in favor of item 03 say aye. aye. any opposed say no, motion carries unanimously. The next item is 04, can I get a motion and a second. second. moved by MS. Thompson seconded by DR. Zeman, any public comment? no ma'am. this one is me but my computer went down. Hold on, I have a question for the item.

096So in the executive summary, it says that this is for a fourth fourth renewal but the renewal, the second renewal is good through MAY of 2026, so I'm wondering is something written wrong? Are we going out extra early? And what happened to the third renewal? because it says, it goes through JUNE of 20 or MAY of 2026 but it's coming to us now for what it says in the, in the in the executive summary for the fourth, it says prove the fourth agreement microsoft under recommended action but then it says the original agreement was first removal was, second removal is JUNE first, 2025 through MAY 21, 2026. So there is no third mentioned in here but yet the action is to approve the fourth amendment. So I was just a little confused. MR. Davis? good

097morning, trey davis, chief information officer. I want to simplify this, the fourth amendment is basically becacae the vendnd left out t of ououinitial l scountnt 56rcrcent on microsoft fabric. So we would be spending 50,000 on microsoft fabric which is our data analytic component instead of 90,000. The only reason was because of the 56 percent was left out of the original back in MAY and recommended a fourth amendment. okay, so, then, it still, the contract is still only through MAY 31 of 2026? that's correct. okay, I didn't say that on here in the background that this was because there was an error so just moving forward, if maybe it's somebody I didn't see it. But it's not in the executive summary, so it was not clear why we were going through there. I appreciate your feedback.

098thank you. All those in favor say aye. aye. any opposed say no. Motion passes unanimously. The next item is o5. Can I have a motion and a second. Moved and seconded by MR. Cervera, any public comment? no ma'am. MS. Bulman? I just pulled this because it's so cute that we have this agreement with the humane society, and I'm very happy for the partnership. I think it's a very mutually agreeable situation because obviously, I'm sure they need as much help as they can get. I know I'm not allowed to go there anymore because I always come back with a dog and I already too many. I want to commend that worked this out I know veterinary is a fantastic career to pursue or check out. I also pulled this, my question is, when do the students

099participate in this? Is this something they do on their own? Is it something through west broward that has the prevent program? Do they do it? Are we providing the organization of this or is this something students do on their own? DR. Fulton? sure. So these are service hours. Stud ens have to make up up to 250 hours. And it's not just with the humane society, it's with veterinarian, they can go to independent veterinarian as well as the humane society. we organize this through students that are in the prevet program? that's correct. so it's during school time? yes, ma'am. MR. Strauss is shaking his head no. it's both, after-hours and during school hours. great, thank you for the clarification. All those in safer of o5 say aye. any opposed say no. Passes unanimously without DR., here

100he is, passes unanimously. The last consent item of the day is 06. Can I have a motion and a second. so moved. moved by DR. Zeman, seconded by MS. Thompson. Any public comment? no ma'am. MR. Cervera. looking at some of the language in the proposed amount to this agreement, specifically in our documentation, it is paragraph three under provisions and the provision that is being sought under the original contract is 2.03 subsection b it's a list of the education records that we can turnover. I just needed some clarification because this agreement gives several categories of information that can be turned over to the children's services council of broward. Identifiable information is removed. And that's according to the cfr. My question is, if we look at the proposed amendment, it appears that we are giving access to

101a student's pseudo identification number along with a list of other items. My question is, what specifically is a pseudo identification number and is there any way hopefully, the answer is no, is there any way of that being tracked by to the actual students which would subject us to not complying with one of the federal code? DR. Hepburn? I'll refer to MS. Batista and then I'll add any additional comments if needed. thank you. The pseudo identification number as it states, is not the real student number and my understanding is that no it cannot be traced back, none of this information can be traced back to the student. do we know what that is comprised of? I know somebody when somebody says pseudo, it's your initials and birthday. I'm wondering what the make up as far as

102the district is concerned about, is this just a randomly generated number? What is specifically incompasses the pseudo identification number? MR. Hepburn. go ahead. we do a random number generating to develop that number and then, we only keep the connecting file in our office and provide the stewed o number. thank you, that makes me feel better. Thank you, MADAM Chair. all those in favor say aye. aye. any opposed? Motion passes, without MS. Bulman on the dais. this is the time of day where we have public speaker, which is agenda comments. The first speaker is MR. Delvin king. I don't see him. Next up is DR. Nathalie lynch-walsh. Speaker: good morning, DR. Nathalie lynch-walsh, plantation florida before I get to the things I was going to speak about. A couple of things have come up. It's not

103every day that DR. Zeman and I have on the same page but bringing all the collective agreements to a workshop is absolutely critical because you just approved the pda agreement, word discipline not there. If they fight t maybe it's time to go with fop, the teachers contract when you look at the bargaining agreements, they're ancient and even with salaries, nothing has been touched. When dac talked about creating a student center framework, that would impact the agreement. Agreements with right for cracking open, I support that. I'm not going to be here at 5:00 o'clock, so I want to say the words, long-range facility master plan. This is what we did not have a in 2014, it's a reason why the long bond turned out the way it did. There were suppose to be two parts to

104doing the facility assessment continue, we keep hearing about the first one, we keep hearing rumours about the second. you were suppose to have a master planner, that has not happened. And by the way, where is the stirring committee? We dissolved the stirring committee. That provide a framework for police, law enforcement agencies and defined specific roles, no, that's the suppose to be in this policy. The board should not be delegating away, its authority the procedures are under the pursue of the police department, the board policy, they can make recommendations but you cannot giveaway your responsibility by saying they can put those into a law enforcement manual, that is all wrong. thank you so much. Scott morgan. Superintendent's report? thank you, MADAM Vice chair. And good morning to the rest of the board members, our bcps family.

105We have earned a second consecutive a-rating. Even more importantly all of our schools are either a c, b or a, cutting our c rate of schools in half by 84 percent being a b or a-rated school. Yes, that deserves a round of applause. [Applause] This is a tremendous achievement that reflects education and support staff and collective commitment across our community to success. I would like to provide a brief but important update regarding the status of our federal funds. As you know several critical education programs title 1, part c, and title part b remain frozen by the U.S. Education. English language learner programs academic enrichment and after school programming. Due to the timing of the current federal freeze, we're not able to adjust our budgets accordingly. We're relying on carry four dollars to support staff funded.

106But that coverage will only extend to about four months. If the frozen funds are not released in the coming weeks our return to the plan of action which MAY include changes to staffing levels. Not only affect personnel but also jeopardize the services and support of our students that they receive each day. We continue to advocate for the immediate release of funds. We also, including formal letter urging the department of education to release the funds. Title 4 funds that support our 21 st century. Our strong and ready for a strong successful school year. We're happy to welcome our teachers and students. Now I would like to ask becon to roll the video. Take away, becon. All right, I will now turn it over to landyn our student advisor. thank you, and I'll apologize for any wrong

107terminology but I'll be filming a question and answer session about smart program and amazing impacts it's had in our schools. Last week, I had an opportunity to visit some of our schools where construction is under way, including danielle elementary to get an inside look at the resent upgrades and to see the amazing impacts that these investments have had for our students. Our sub contractors doing amazing work advocating for having these investments for our students. We invite members of the community who follow the bcps program to submit questions. Or send your questions to mart futures. We'll be releasing reels to promote the upcoming q & a and you MAY see. The construction session MAY be released and other social media platforms. thank you, so much, I believe MS. Leonardi has a question for the superintendent. yes,

108thank you. Regarding the federal funds freeze, if those funds are not released, what legal avenues do we have to recoup those funds? go ahead MS. Batista. You're the legal lawyer. thank you, DR. Hepburn. So we potentially do have some, some ways. Currently there are other states that have filed an action against the federal government to get those funds released. While there is no nationwide injunction process any longer available since the last supreme court decision on that particular issue, there is one other thing that lawsuit is requesting is, the relief that is called vaca tour and what that does is that would vacate the decision of administrative agency to not release the funds so that would have an impact nationwide so pending that potential relief, the whole entire nation would be affected by that lawsuit. okay,

109thank you. Legally, how ever else, I would encourage us to use those tools to recoup the funds that were promised to us to support our students. Thank you. next we'll have some update reports, broward education foundation. good morning, everybody. Just a few updates. We have started, I think I had mentioned this before, our back to school drive, collecting school supplies for our teachers in need so we can place those in our supply center. It's going well. Part of the drive is adopt a school program, we've got over 20 schools adopted and that means we're able to give supplies and backpacks at those schools. And thank you to those individuals, many of those here, who would be embarrassed if I called them out. A cup of things that tick not get specific on, I was hoping

110the release would be out before this morning, but we've got, we've been working diligent leon a few grants team and his team and it's been an amazing process. There is been a few things that have come up. It will be 1.1 million. That literally, culminated, it was just all came together. Really excited about that, the foundations continuing to be committed to the community and providing the leverage between the community and the school district. We have been working,g, I I haveve peononly bebeen rkining ha and handwith lo w who has been amazing, her and I really working on this community piece and doing it the way we know they deserve and also setting the light the way we deserve. So I just want to say thank you and I appreciate everybody here, like I said all

111of you always support so we're really really grateful for that. Thank you very much. thank you, we did receive a written report from pta and ptsa so that is in the email. And next we have btu. Speaker: good afternoon, happy birthday there school board member, MR. Cervera, I heard. 35, really you just want to look older to fit that role. A couple of things, I'm going to go right to the chase because I know it's not next week. With the cell phones, I know you've been conversation buzz it, looking to put cell phones back in the hands of the high school students, during lunch time. I've spoken to many of you, I have not reached all of you. I know you have your individual understanding of why it would be better, is because you cannot

112control the narrative, you know, admin has a hard time, making sure that they the students comply. And a law them to dress anyway they want. We're going to a law them to be menaces, I believe our admin are doing the best that they can and working through kinks because the band was new. And we donough that things have changed for the better, fighting has gone down, purposeful fighting, not being social and engaging more with their fellow students and engaging with the students, engaging with lots of things. I bet you engagement got better at home because the phones are put away, we got them six hours. When these kids are in the arts and in the bands they're not coaches are not allowing them to have their phones. I have tons of friends who's kids play

113sports and I never see a phone in the bug out or soccer field or in their instruments. So I think we can handle that our students can still have the 30 minutes of lunch and encourage them to nutrition they will selves and encourage them to socialize, to go reach out and talk to somebody if they need to do that. And if we need to get more emotional things, dive into our referendum money that is delegated and hire more people if you feel we cannot get to them. That is unacceptable. We have a referendum that we worked hard to make sure the funding is there. And our teachers, are seeing more positive interactions students on student, student on them with the cell phones put away. We're not saying that we want to stifle our students. I

114think we can blos them for our six hours that we have them. Much better than saying, sure we cannot handle it. You're hoping the door to say we cannot handle it. I've grown myself to build better relationship with the admin with our schools. And I'm hearing that things have gotten better and it's only year one. Don't go backwards yet, let's see what we can do of moving forward with this path of bringing encouragement from our students to show that they are learn anding here to do the job that their parents are sending them to school for. They got their phone out early, oh just one more minute, phones they can have them at home with their parents. If the parents don't want to talk to them at dinner, let them have their phones. They have

11518 hours more a day to figure out and to look at some real data. Look at real data, 76 percent of the nation that say cell phone bans are helping. It's grown from 36 to 4%. Nathalie stay out of our bargaining stuff. We negotiate with our school districts. You stay in your community we stay with ours. We're getting things done, when language comes out that needs to be changed, the district is committed to talking about it. I'm going to negotiation to talk about what you can do. I heard you say that there is some strong situations going with the budget. You have a new cfo, I get it, but taking over some damage that was done by our former cfo, let's call it what it is, i said it for years. Let's do this. next

116up is lisa from bpaa. Speaker: thank you, MADAM Chair, school board and staff. My name is lisa maxwell I represent the broward principals and assistance association. And I'm here today in support of bb1 which is school board member thompson's item related to the school meal program. I want to thank her, this is a very kind and thoughtful item. We have a number of students that for whatever reason, if they don't qualify, their parents don't fill out the forms, they end up not having money for lunch or breakfast and it's income bunt upon us to make shao students are fed because when they eat, they learn. When they don't eat, it's very difficult to teach. So this small amount of money will allow principals to have some ability to cover when kids dw to school and

117they don't have money for their lunch. It helps principals not to find other sources. There is no money in the budget that they can go to. I appreciate the item and I thank you for bringing that forward. Just to also briefly touch on cell phones, you should have received an email from me. Part of the issue is people just don't understand operationally how lunch time works in a high school. So for example, many schools have three separate lunch periods during which 1,000 students each lunch, are having lunk and they're spread out all over and you've got 5 or 6 people, to monitor. It tends to take security off of watching the parameter fences and doing other things that security needs to be doing because they're on alert for cell phones, they end up con physical

118ating cell phones examine they have to take the phones examine sit and do all the paperwork to if fill out for each phone, examine that takes time off of our security personnel which I don't think is particularly well spent. So it's lunch it's an tount have a brief interaction with their phone. But it's impossible to enforce a policy when you have a thousand students and a small handful of people to enforce the policy. I don't see that happening under our funding scenario. That's a serious consideration and why the organization took the position that they did. We always want to enforce policies but we want to tell you that when the policies are extremely difficult if not impossible to consistently enforce. So thank you very much for your time. thank you very much. Okay this will

119be the part of the meeting where we will consider all the open agenda items. The following items have been identified for discussion. A a 2, bb1 which we'll take first as a special order. Double d1, 3 and 4, f f1, jj6, 8, 9, 19 and 20, mm1 and 2, oo4, 8, 11, 12, 14, 17, 19 and 21 and rr1. At this time MAY the chair have a motion and a second to pats items that have not been called for discussion? Double o1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16, 20, 22, 23, 24 and 25, double p, 1, 2, 3 examine 4 and double t1. so moved. moved by DR. Zeman seconded by MS. Alhadeff. Are there any recommendeding speakers for items not pulled for discussion. yes, ma'am, nathalie lynch walsh for both

120items. okay. Speaker: DR. Nathalie lynch-walsh, plantation florida, dd2 property and inventory control. Back in MARCH as a duelly elected chair of the committee, I did an audit committee report that pointed out that historically, and again I apologize for taking ten years to notice but it was something that is so basic, it does not seem possible, there is no recancellation done because it's not required, a physical inventory and per state law, it's the custodian as your superintendent. So you cannot have the chief auditor's office and this is been the case the entire time that I've been volunteering and it was like this because the chief auditor's office used to report to the superintendent but that needs to come off of them and also in state statute, the C.F.O., it is not account ago function to establish

121the internal controls over physical inventory. I hope this gets fixed because this is really kind of huge, it's very significant that there is no process or requirement in this district what was basically serving as a inventory reconciliation, as opposed to, that staff performing a reconciliation where you take what the count, what the system sez should be in your inventory and then reconcile the difference and I'm speaking a a former accountant that did this on a regular base. But the position, the position approximates responsible for internal controls over this year are one, custodian who is the superintendent and two C.F.O., not the chief auditor, they cannot be responsible for creating the internal controls of a function that they must then audit. This is all in the report for MARCH. That was dd2 and pp3 please don't

122approve this, your advisory is in the process of being doged. thank you, any other public comment. no MADAM Chair. thank you. Okay. So next we are going to take -- all those in favor of approving the open items not pulled for discussion, say aye. aye. those opposed say no. Motion carries unanimously. At this time, MAY the chair have a motion and a second on item bb2? so moved. Bb1, sorry. moved. moved by DR. Zeman seconded by MS. Thompson are there any public comment on bb11? yes, we have three public speakers, nathalie lynch walsh and lisa and ileshah. Speaker: I fully support this item. I'm kind of surprised that board member had to bring it. Because the meals are being cut off all of a sudden cold turkey after a certain point and there are kids

123that cannot pay for their lunches. A couple of other things, please help somebody monitor participation. If kids are hungry, they don't do well. And when we looked at meal participation rates, they're much lower than you would expect. So but I don't think it's anyone's job to monitor the percentage of kids that are participating with meals. There is a parent letter that for all the messaging that is going out about signing up for these benefits that letter does not seem to be part of it. So you can have application. And so, but I appreciate you bringing this forward and I hope this is enough money and certainly they can move it around to where ever it needs to be. But this has been a problem the entire time my kids were school. And for the love

124of GOD for every one put that pop up every time you launch a page, stop it! I cannot even use the website. Please stop. But I fully support this item. I do believe lisa maxwell left so next up is MR. Manny. Speaker: good morning, speaking not j uft as a resident of broward but somebody has somebody who sat in the district hungry and facing homelessness. I'm somebody that had to shower at the beach and my and siblings would rely on the meals at school as the only meals. It was my reality and it was the reality of thousands of other people today in broward county, people who are struggling to make ends meet in this uncertain economy. That's why I'm asking the board to wipe out meal debt and find a way to give free

125lunch. We shouldn't shame kids on whether their parents can afford a meal. And not put these young kids in debt. Let's be honest and level with the people, it's about priorities and we've seen the priority of this far right trump and how they got public education/funding and use our kids our paunz but in the face of that cruelty, the nasty policy that see of this administration, we have a choice to make in broward county, we can bow to our agenda or staff our own values. We must staff our own values and one of our values must be that no child in broward schools should be hungry, period. We must find the money, we must make it work, if we have funds for other initiatives for salaries any other fancy stuff, we have the funds to

126feed our kids. I see this agenda item that member rebecca thompson put forward as a step in the right direction that we must do because it's in our value as broward county to do t.Feeding children is not charity it's our moral obligation to make sure that our students are fed and go to school and focus on their education and not have an empty stomach. I'm here today because when I was a child, somebody believed I was worth a full stomach, let's please pass this item and fight back against in administration, class action lawsuits are still allowed, I don't know what that is going to happen in the future final way to get the resources and sue, sue, sue. Thank you so much. thank you, any other public comment. no MADAM Chair. thank you. Board discussion.

127first I want to take a minute to shout out our staff MS. Mary moulder and her other staff for being helpful in crafting this item d alal in ininforming our communities about the meal applications, the last time I met with MS. Moulder our meal application right side up so that's promising. Also the increase out reach, I understand that the pop up bottom is is important but it does reinforce what is happening. My colleagues seem to share in my, my hesitation to understand the universal meal program and concerns about how this would affect our children and there seems to be, the under understanding that maybe broward education foundation or PTOs can just step in and solve these issues for us. I really hesitate to put that on them for one, broward education foundation won be able

128to fund this meal debt relief program equitably throughout our district. Not every school has a pto or pta, furthermore a lot of them don't have the capacity to fundraise or already fundraising for another need that they're trying to support. So what this item does specifically, it funds $500 at each of our schools, so why $500? Because I met with MS. Moulder and that's the amount she recommended to cover, based on per data that she has. Why is it that continue not just in certain areas? Or certain schools? And that is because poverty and financial struggles don't know a zip code. There is a point in this item as well where we will be evaluating come JANUARY to make sure that the funding is being used appropriately that the schools that MAY not have it or

129do have active pta to help fund this, we will be able to see and reevaluate at that point. And then, this item also addresses middle schools and high school students, because currently high school students cannot charge a meal, if you look at additional information, high school students are not eligible to charge any meals to the principal account, middle schools it's based on principals. So the principals have been informed examine they're working on our strategy to ensure that students can ak is is hes this support if needed. Also this allows them the dignity of lunch, so if they don't have money for money, they're given a butter sandwich, which I have not figured out what that is. It also gives us time for counsel to meet with them to understand what might be happening at home

130and what resources they might be eligible for. So, like I said, at the last workshop and the meeting we've had, all of us seem to have a consensus that this is an issue. But I was left with this meeting and that really didn't sit well with me so in talking to MS. Moulder, this is the concept that we came up in. And I know that funding, is always going to be an issue and I just really want to emphasize that this item is less than 0 percent of our budget. In fact, it's about.000188 percent of our budget. And I agree na worrying their next meal should be the last thing on their miebds. thank you, next is DR. Holness. thank you, board member thompson and thank you for bringing this item forward. I do think

131it's a great y.I have a few statements and questions. So just for the sake of the public, to understands where we are because the public many members of the public do listen to us. So DR. Hepburn, can you talk us through where we were precovid, during covid and where we are now why are we at this point? DR. Hepburn. thanks fort question, I'll have MS. Moulder walk up and walk us through that. Speaker: good morning, every one, school board, DR. Hepburn and the public. Prior to covid we were functioning under the program that we're currently transitioning back to, it's been in effect since 1946 during wwii we found that our some of our men that were coming back from combat were not physically and nutritionally fed. So we've been following that program since 2011, when

132covid hit the department of U.S. Da had several waive thaerz went into affect and that had to do with the fact that students were not at school but at home and we were distribute aring meals through a car line. The rei object bursment increased so all students were receiving meals for free. The reimbursement went on for several years did you tellinger covid pandemic. And that had to do with the price of food was increasing during covid. Those both of those supply xhain funinginging and covid reimbursement did end after the pandemic. We were fortunate in our department due to operations and the way that we structure what we do in the department that we had additional funds that were set aside and our fund balance increased to about 60,000. Usda statements that we were only have

133a fund balance of no more than three months. So we had to take the monies in a quick passion and help our school opportunity. So for the past years, we were using that fund balance to support the year one and year two as those funds are depleted, due to the fund that it's end. And we come back to the fact that we're operating in the manner that we were managing under prior to covid. So that brings us back. The cep program is still around in districts. We've received something called APRIL data, and that's every APRIL and that has to do with the amount of students that are directly certified through the state. Those are students that are on staff, homeless and head start. Those numbers in our district have decreased. Total free and reduced balance

134was about 71 percent. We're down to about 41 percent free and reduced based on the state data that came back to tuesday. The universal free schools that were year one and two never obviously hit that standard because they were low and free percentages. okay, so, prior to covid, for the sake of the general public listening, who receives free lunch and who did not? absolutely. Thank you for the question, DR. Holness. So the meal application process was intersected. Families would need to complete a meal benefit application, if we were approved and the application is based on household income. There is a struck you're set by u is sda. The whether they qualify for free retwosed or paid. They evaluate them based on the software program and then the family is entitled to free if qualified given

135the guidelines and reduced if they meet the guidelines. If they do not meet the guidelines, based on income become then the application is denied meaning we're at that time us. okay, so when the application is denied because they did not meet the required household income, those students will not get free lunch? They have to pay, correct? you are correct. okay, so DR. Hepburn I have a few questions foyer. Is it possible that students or parents who MAY apply and MAY not qualify for free lunch still cannot afford lunch? DR. Hepburn? I'm not sure understanding every personal situation for families, but there would be a posity. so there would be inside levels that we established but there are other where they MAY not meet a requirement but they can still not afford to provide lunch for

136their children? Okay. So those will not be fed properly with a full meal? they won be eligible for the fee or reduced lunch if they don't meet the specific qualifications that we abide by. not raeting they still cannot afford lunch. So with those students, they don't have funding for lunch, right? So those students can possible go hungry within our schools? correct, they don't have funding to pay for our lunch. I do want to be careful, some kids brought their lunch to school. So we cannot forget about that part. My kids bring their lunch to school. I just want to make sure that we're not painting you picture, that if you cannot ford you won't eat. Some students bring their lunch. yes, but some families cannot afford to have their child bring lunch to school. correct.

137I think we can assist in the vain of the item that MS. Thompson just spoke about, utilizing data to actually see down the road, if it is being utilized or exhausted and that will give us letnus test to see where we are for kids that need that support. okay, so board member thompson, I appreciate the item and I like for it to go a little bit further. Here's why I'm saying that. Since we can agree that there would be situations that the kid is not eligible and can still not afford to have lunch. When a student does not mean that they're, because the 500 is exhausted. So board member thompson I would luke tofu don't mind, that the motion include the latitude to add additional $500 funding to perfect schools should those funding exhausted at

138those schools. that sounds good to me, that's why I wanted the superintendent back in JANUARY, future JANUARY to bring back a report on this money is being utilized. I also think that this gives us an education fund. Fighting that. Work in process, the website is beautiful. Also gives time to TBTOs. so this would increase the funding in $500 increments to schools that MAY not, that have exhausted the funding and have not received anything else through any other source. So I would like to recommend that friendly amendment to that motion. second. okay, any public comment on the motion? Speaker: the motion was to increase it? Yes, 100 percent support. this is on the motion so I can speak again. yes for a minute. Speaker: I really do appreciate, I didn't have time to include that in

139my comment. $500 is not a lot of money, it's going to go quickly and just sending in imaginary income and saying if you make more than this number p considering the fact that some people MAY just want to be left out. That's my testing, so if we can find a way even if there is a wiggle room, if you make $500 moper this imaginary level that we have, you can still get the lunch, you can still qualify. it's the same thing for like food stamps, if you make a benny more than the property level then, you don't get the benefits, you don't qualify for the benefits. Sxl I think that's ridiculous. I think we can find a way to find people. I support that. thank you, any other public comment? Okay, board member discussion? DR.

140Zeman. thank you very much, this is a great item, it's worth talking about. I think we have to put it in the context. just on the motion. I have not even started talking, chair. just reminding you. the context of this specific amendment, this motion is really important because we need to understand more than just the first order of facts of providing funds for people that don't qualify don't fit under the U.S. Da limit. The first thing that I would like to know in order to understand this motion, how much money is there in the fns carried over from last year? DR. Hepburn? MS. Moulder? so if I remember correctly, we have about 36 million dollars that's the carry over. We are expenses run between 11 to 12 million dollars a month. So we're at the

141three-no right now and that covers our expenditures for food and supplies and salaries. thank you very much. Second question. How much would it cost to do the initial item that has been put forward, I know it's a pro yex. Or free lunch or reduced lunch. per school you mean. no, for broward county. per school. $500 per school. it's 500 per school. You said per student. how much would this cost. to be clear, that would come out of the fns account or general fund? my understanding this item is it t comes out of the general fund. okay. Again I have to understand the item to understand the motion. What good is $500 a school going to do? DR. Hepburn. I will it will support in the maker of the motion can actually add to this, to

142support any students that MAY have a meal challenge for that day. It's not going to address the need every day. but a meal is like three or four dollars, correct? correct. so this is going to buy if it's $3, it's going to buy 160 meals. We have schools with more students. What is a 500 a school going to do? Yunds the scope of this. If we want to do something, we should but our schools are big. Chair, what's the average size elementary school in broward county? about 6 or 700 average. but literally that might last two days of people who don't bring food and don't qualify to get reduced lunch. So what I woy abt isis that 'r'rgoing g to say the publichere's $500 per school without saying that's 160 meals total which will do

143nothing for the hunger of students in broward county. If we want to do something, let's look at the 38 million dollars can saw how we day it for students. But five yunds why we're doing this. If all we want to do is attend this but when you come in say $500 per school, that's 160 meals. I think at middle school the price is a little higher. So it's 125 in middle schools. This is not enough. Do we need to do moore. Do we know that examine then I would like to figure out how we find that money. Nobody should go hungry in our schools. Nobody. They can't eat, they can't learn. There is a real need out there and we ought to see if we can eliminate the so if I can let smz thompson,

144she did a little in her own opening. Explain how you got to the $500. I believe it was with staff. thank you, chair. It was with staff's input and discussion. Also the alternative was doing nothing if we remember the conversations we've had, it was going out to the public and praying and hoping and crying to see if they can find the money if and this is something that, in fact, you your is self said the school board should do something at our do I think it's going to fix student hunger? Of course not. However we're in a budget situation that we're trying to figure out, this brings it back in JANUARY so we can evaluate and see. Maybe $500 isn't enough there are schools that do have funds because from four years ago, the pta

145had fundraise into money. It gives them breathe room so they can go out and fundraise. It gives them an opportunity to form relationship with businesses or other municipalities that MAY adopt our school and gives our staff time where if a students to use a charge meal to find out what MAY be an image in. If a high school students does not have enough for lunch, they do not have tk being. If you look at the information that was provided with this item that is what happened, so because of this item, where a degree does not go far enough but I believe it's in our budget and welcome evaluate in JANUARY, it does solve and address issues. I hope that answers your question. almost. MS. Moulder, can you also answer. I think the question is, do

146you know what the average, monthly overture per school? Where did you come up with the $500 when you are having this conversation with board member thompson? so thank you again for the question. The $500 was something to be able as MS. Thompson said to be able to fund a temporary gap until the principal and their staff would reach out to the families and find out did ne fill out an a pluckation. The 35ed came from a figure that we MAY not to get them started as we transition back and forth. Do we want it to be higher? Of course we would. But we understand the price of the meals examine how much it is per meal at the same time this is coming to the fund to fund. It would be wonderful if we can

147fund all students but the money still has to be able to cover the cost of expenses, salaries, maintenance, equipment, things like that. thank you, but what I asked. Is how much it would cost to feed the children that are hungry in our schools. we would have to calculate that, it was 172,000, we'll have to multiply that. It will take a minute to get that. it's harder than that, because a whole bunch of the schools are still over the limit where they get all free they all get free meals, right. Because if you're over 70 percent quf,d everybody gets it. So there is a lot of schools that already get free meals. There is some others and then there is some really important analysis that needs to be done about how many are not going to

148be able to pay? And that's just, you know, somebody has to model that. What I'm concerned about is telling broward county that we're going to set money aside for kids that don't have enough money to meat and giving them enough for 160 meals. I don't want anybody to think that we're eliminating hunger. To DR. Holness's motion on the table. If you ask MR. Manly in the back of the room, if 1 $100 0 is going to help and the answer is not a chance. I'm happy spend the money to do this, I want to make sure that people understand that this is an emergency fund for either 160 or 120 meals per school can then the same students that rely on this money either have to get their application to find out if they qualify,

149they have to figure out how they can get a meal taken to them. This is a band-aid this is not a solution. That's where I want to be. So if today all we do is provide $1000 per school, I get that, and receipt me go to another topic. Why is this coming out of the general? DR. Hepburn? MS. Moulder. sorry, I'll answer your question the financial spoertion. -- portion. So we had calculated in the workshop and gave you all the information how much it would give to get all children free. 12 million dollars to feed the rest of the people, the rest of the students that would be currently, qualified as paid. Or reduced. and we would pickup that amount. The problem with the food service covering all the costs we've lost 16 million that

150we just closed on. 16 million and it keeps getting bigger and bigger, so we lost 12 million the year before. This year, it's 16 million. And we're projecting based on our budget to lose 19 million for the next school year. It just keeps dwg going down and town. Once we lose 19 we're talking about 12 or 13 million left. I appreciate the math. But the school board has to spend the money and it should be an option to fund this thousand per school with fns, and if you think losing 19 million is a problem, should go back to MS. Johnson about what is going on with the general fund. Those decisions should come to the board on here's the options on which accounts we can take it from. Fns also has to fund salaries and

151dramatically too low. We ask people to come work for us at 17 and 19. I don't want to go bear hunting with a buggy whip. That's what $500 does. Is it thes still not enough. We need to make sure that if families are not sending their kids with lunches, we've got to figure out how to fill that gap. We need 12 million. This is a different program where if somebody walks n hasn't qualified for under U.S. Da but still does not have food then they would have food pay. And I would ask you to answer my questions sometime in the near future, what would it cost to feed their kids, they're hungry and do not qualify per year? It's not the 12 million dollars answer. That's the cost of feeding everybody. if I MAY, DR.

152Zeman, you're asking a great question. I don't think we're to that answer yet. We're reverting to precovid parents and students are signing up, once the school year starts, there is already a 30-day cushion for fns paying for meals. So after that 30-day, we'll have better data to see how much students are taking advantage of the supplemental dollars that the principals MAY have to pay for food and then we can have a better answer to how much it costs to feed all our hungry students in broward county. I don't think we can answer that question yet because we're reverting back to precovid. We're going through the application process, let that happen. Let the first 30 case happen to provide that buffer of folks that did not get that. And we're feeding them for free for the

153first 30 days after that, we'll have better numbers especially in addition to the requests that some students are having to be fed. And if we don't have the best data, we can certainly send out a survey to those that did not qualify to see if we can get additional information. and I appreciate that. There are other districts that do this. Other districts who pay for lunch when a kid walks in and no packed lunch from home, and they're walking through the line, the district needs to feed them. So maybe we can get estimates on what it would cost here. I'm persuaded that nobody should come to the broward school and not be fed. This won't do that. This amount of money, is going to pay and in support of DR. Holness amendment, thousands is a

154bigger mandate but that is going to give us 320 meals and that does not solve the hunger problem and to me, I would like to know how we're going to solve the hunger problem. MADAM Chair, I need to clarify because I think MR. Zeman is misinterpreting the amendment that I presented and I want to clarify that. okay fmgt so, so it's not additional $500, it's given the district latitude to give $500 increments as needed. It could be 1 $100, $2000, it's giving him that latitude and he's going to update us in JANUARY so we'll have better numbers then and we'll be able to understand based on that information where we need to go forward. But I believe the amendment addresses your issue because it's increments of 500. yeah and the reason I don't support the

155item like that, it takes authority away from the school board who has to approve spending. So I don't want to give the superintendent the authority and g if him a blank check to spend money without coming back to us. As you have restated your motion I cannot support it because it takes away from the board and we have to figure out how to pay fns and the bills. And giving the superintendent the pleasure and not just authority is not what I would be in favor. it gives him the latitude to ensure that every kid that is hungry is fed. and we're just on the amendments. So MS. Alhadeff. yes, thank you. I appreciate MS. Thompson bringing forward. I do agree it does not go far enough. And there is I think kind of gaps of

156information that this board needed in the item to better make decisions regarding the increased in funding. So some questions that I had before before this item came forward is what we spent before covid? we're just on the amendment? I'm going to come back. I understand, but I cannot vote on this without knowing this information, it all comes together. okay. for the students that didn't qualify, do you have a figure per year? so DR. Hepburn, thank you. MS. Alhadeff, I do not have a number on that. The alt na -- alternate meals, were handled bit principals. So you can have donations, so that was occurring at the time in addition to that principals had the opportunity to pay the two dollars out of a principal account however they worked it in the budget or if they

157supplied alternative meal, and that could have been cheese sandwich, fruit and milk or cheese sandwich or jelly sandwich. Those were the alternative meals at that point in time. We're going back to 19-20, so at the time there was no one to one meal to change. We're going to fund that meal with two dollars that our school raised with the pta, it was different, it was not consistent. okay, so that's really important information because if we knew how much, how many alternative meals were given at a school, we would know some type of average. And so we're all talking the same things, is it three dollars, and for middle school? For lunch? that's correct. okay. And then a reduced fries lunch is 40 cents per meal. correct. 40 cents. correct. and just to clarify no broward

158school students will go hungry they will get a meal called the alternative meal, there is no sigma, they don't get a different tray, they will get a sandwich, they will get a fruit or vegetable or milk, so no students goes hungry, correct. point of order, I thought we said that they don't get that in high school. can you clarify MS. Moulder? so, according to the board agenda item, this $500 would be available for all students. And they would have their own meal selection, meaning they can take it in a high school, the slice of pizza or sandwich. but what DR. Zeman is asking do high school kids do they qualify to get an alternative meal. according to the current procedure, no, if a student needed to charge it was discretion of the principal. Because what

159happened is we had high school students that were charging and they would not pay back. okay, that's a problem. point of order also, the question is could they get a meal not do they charge it. Could they get the cheese sandwich or fruit in high school, not about charging. They MAY opinion like the cheese but if they couldn't pay has the option even at in high school. so prior to covid, there was no alternative meals set up in high school unless the principal set tup. It was not saying that every high school set it up. At that point, the charges they were not paying back. okay. So that's DR. Hepburn, I think that niced to be fixed. High school needs to get an alternatate meal.. Ererefor all will get t lunch reregardle of anything. My

160next question if it's reduced prices how much would it cost to beef up the alternative meal? so make it a turkey instead of a cheese sandwich? MS. Mould. The reduced price that you get reinbursed minus the 40 cents. If you can answer MS. Alhadeff's question. right, so we would have to calculate that, we'll be able to do that. The question on the reduced student. So the reduced student still has all the options they just pay 40 cents. I guess where I'm going with this, I'm trying to figure out how we can create a better alternative. so instead of cheese how much would it cost us to offer a turkey sandwich? we would have to figure that out. less stigma. yes, so I think we can work on the alternate package examine then as far as

161the fns agent, I would like to understand legally are we allowed to ask for this funding request to come from the fns account. MS. Batista? I think that's a question better answered by either the C.F.O. Or -- . or MS. Moulder, you can correct me if I'm wrong, the fns fund balance has to be in a specific amount and anything that encroaches will get you outside of the specific amount and possibly some compliance issues associated with it. if I could again, just to respond to the question, thank you superintendent hepburn. The fund balance that is three months is for continue to operate the department. As far as it goes for money coming out of the food service account to pay for meals, the food service department has been doing that for two years. That's taking

162that access funds and that is a lawable under the U.S. Da guidelines. We go through the fo D.A., we could not firm that we're going on a pilot year one and two. But we must have enough money in you are act without going to the board saying we need money for salaries or insurance. Keep in mind that during this month, food services is still picking up the cost. We have not not only done that for the past two, two and a half years but also through the transitional period. so beyond the 30 days, does the food and nutrition service account have enough money to pay for this bb item and the amended bb item and I think is the specific item, and can it pay? Can it do that. Examine can you do that, is

163it allowable? so right now, we're transitioning to the meal benefit application process. So we would have students that are eligible, or category ically approved. no, not that. The $500 that is. oh the $500 is there enough money in the account? There is about 36 million in the account. Again na leaves us at the max that we can carry. My goal is to have that money in case we have a hurricane, or tropical storm it can cost the department about 8 million dollars. And we lose revenue during that time, meaning the kids are not there for us to serve and have the reimbursement. I'm caution about that one hurricane or tropical storm can set us back. I have to make a point of order. The 36 million is a maximum fund balance. We're confusion accounting issues.

164Normally, we talked we cannot go below. You cannot carry more than 36 million. there is a minimum also, I think the wordings is off because they have to have three months of -- . I'm just trying to clarify so you understand the fact. U.S. D, says you cannot carry more than three months otherwise you're not compliance. So it's a max balance. I get that, but we have to stay within 8 to 36 million. I just want everybody to understand the facts, okay, thanks. so my question is, based on staying in the rules, what is the maximum amount of money can fns count before to pay for extra lunches? Based on the numbers today, not if we have a hurricane or anything else. so the food services has that 36 million, if we look at the

165agenda item na is up before the board right for the 113,500 can the food service account handle that? Yes, we can handle that the amount. that's not my question. What's the maximum amount of money that nutrition service kz services can handle? expense right side running about 11 to 12 million a month, spending on how much the department want to carry. Can we deplete the balance? That's always an option but if the balance if the food service department is depleted, then the board is going to have to step in and assist with salaries. let me help you out, MS. Moulder. And if it's zero, it's zero. So the question is after you balance out your budget, you know this is what you have to carry, in addition to all of that, does the food nutrition, how

166much done do you have that you can pay for meals so it will eventually be depleted if we continue to do that. so it's zero. if we were to deplete the fund balance. MS. Paul? Did you want to add something? I think that we don't, number one, a lot of the what we get reimbursed depends on the kids that sign up for parents that sign up for free and reduced lunch. So we don't have that number one. I think we can't go back to 2019 numbers because we've lost kids since then. So at this poipt, we really don't have that number in terms of ma wha is the maximum to pay out of the budget. That's that moulder is said wefl, the so we can observe that cost but I think that we yuft at

167this point, don't have all but if we talk about the item that is before the board right now, yes we can cover that right now. okay, so I think we can do more, this is not enough money. We're talking about at the elementary school, 167 lunches that can be done in one day. So I think, I think it's fine to approve even the motion to increase it, it's fine. But we need a plan. This is baby step but we need to have a more robust plan, we need to talk to companies that we do business with and asking them to donate with the lunches or partner with the school. Maybe this is more money and then you come back to the board and say, no we can only do 5,000 a year. So there is

168more than we can do. I think this is just the first step in this process. Thank you. MR. Is he ver a, just because it's gone all over. We need to vote on the amendment. it's specific on the amendment and it's an easy one. I believe DR. Holness, when you initially explained this and I'm asking for a very small point of clarification, I believe you had suggested as far as $500 allotment, if one school was not use iting, perhaps we can shift to another school? That maybe had a greater need? If you didn't suggest that, thz something to be considered. My question is if school a is not using the $500, and school b is already depleted their $500, is there an avenue where they can take the funds to make up instead of having

169the superintendent reimburse, reimburse, rebim urs. DR. Hepburn. yes, that was my ubzing the flexibility if we wonder the schools, using a mall portion we would love the money to cool. N.That was incorporated into your proposed motion. my motion is to have increments of $500 on an needed basis. thank you for the clarification. is it specifically on the amendment? 'cause you're, okay. Okay. I'm not sure if this is exactly so you guys can stop me. We're working with a lot of unknowns right now, because we're bringing this back after many years of not having done this. And so, I'm wondering, I know that the item, the original item says that we'll come back in JANUARY, to evaluate. But perhaps we need to revaluate earlier so we approve something today so it takes us, we're missing a

170lot of information. Everybody is asking questions about how we're going to solve this problem and I'm very happy that MS. Thompson brought this because this is a pressing image and everybody can we, I mean how would it take to are real financial impact that we need to cover. so great question, if I MAY, and then I'll segway to you guys. Great question. so as we were saying before, I just don't think we have enough data to make the decisions based on the questions the board is asking. We can provide a report based on the data, number one, after the first 30 days. After, you know, there is a 30-day window of all kids being fed and making sure that parents are about how many students are aelgable for free or reduced lunch. And that's 45

171days into the school, we can provide how many kids not eligible were asking for a meal because they cannot afford it and we can provide additional data until they find the right set of data to make the decision sxz answer the questions that the board is asking. We just don't have all the information that we need today because we're reverting back to a previous system from 5 plus years ago and reverting back. Times have changed, requirements have changed, social economic status has changed, so we can bring back the information in 60-day increments, we'll be able to answer the questions and have a better path on how we move as a district and our budgets will be fully finalized and we can make some real decisions based on the budget. that is my next question how

172does that impact our budget? Once we set the budget, if we find this is going to take 12,000 and then it would be more if we approved the amount. But how once we finalized the budget, what kind of, wiggle room do we have? you mean should we look at providing more? And having that available? it would be bayeds after we finalize the budget because we have a lot of specific needs and short falls and that gives the fns team to look at their own budget too. And their forecasting based on data that we're receiving. And ares our own general budget. but we don't want to be in a situation where we're waiting on another three months to really get the data? The budget will have already been finalized by then? No? I just want to

173make sure that we're not backed into acorner so that our timing is not aligned, to find out that we have in huge need that we don't anticipate that I suspect will be the case based on the fact that people are not used to doing this anymore and that we didn't provide enough for our for this particular item. and we will, we're monitoring the applications and all that right now, we'll continue to. And we can talk to our other school districts in the state that have transitioned back to this after a year or two of I am preliminariation after their exhausting their funds or art monies and then we can follow-up. But right now, we don't have the best data possible to make the best decision moving forward. so if that's the case, how do we

174make? this is a good start. okay, so we make a start and then, we'll continue to pursue this okay, so we're not locked in and this is the only thing. correct, we'll bring back the data to do what we need to move forward. I'm going to speak and then we're dwg to take a vote for the amendment. So I agree with DR. Zeman in terms of not we cannot say $500 increments as needed because we're agreeing to 112 maybe $200,000, but what happens if a thousand kids a day, need that and we end up with a million dollars by JANUARY? Like I just think that the idea of that, is too much. So I like the idea of bringing it back to us in 45 days and my suggestion is in a workshop setting where

175you can gives all the da that, here's what fns can pay. Here's what students need, so we can have a holistic look and figure out where that sits in our budget and we can also say we've reached out to these business partners. They will only give grants to make sure that students are being fed. So maybe there is other places, so on a workshop if you come back with all of those piece approximates of information, we can make a better plan. But I think the original was start withing $500 at least is something to start with. So as much as I appreciate the amendment, I think it's better to stay with the actual item which also includes high school so I think it's important that we get that across the finish line here today to

176make sure that our high school students are afforded the same thing. So we're going to take a vote on the amendment and then we can come back to the item. All those in favor of the amendment to allow the superintendent to increase as necessary $500 up through JANUARY based on this item say aye. all those opposed say no. no. can we take a roll call. yes, ma'am roll call. School board member alhadeff. no. bulman? no, because we're bringing it back. cervera? No? Hixon? no. holns. yes. leonardrdi. es. rupert. no. thompson. Zeman. no. It fails, 3-6. okay, back to original item is there anybody who still needs to have anything to say, DR. Zeman. yes, I would like to make a motion to ensure as part of this, that alternate meals are provided at high schools.

177second. great idea. any public comment on the motion? nathalie lynch walsh blantation florida, I support the motion but one of the laws at the federal level is there should be any difference between kids who have paid for their meals and kids who haven't, it's important to make sure that it doesn't stick out and getting away from a cheese sandwich and I don't know what a jelly sandwich is, I thought it was a p and j. I support the motion. thank you. support the motion. I think it's important to consider that, obviously it can't be any difference between the meals and we've got to get away from the stigma, but the kids are creative if they see somebody can a cheese or turkey sandwich, they're going to know. Let's think about the whole picture, there might

178be kids that won't go to the principal because they don't want to be seen with it. And there will be a difference, I'm stressing the importance of finding a way to make it universal and doing it quickly, if you want to partner with a private sector, saying why is the meal costing two to three meals, for these little piece of sandwiches, maybe they should be a dollar a meal and workout a deal with your vendors, I would suggest that too. thank you. Next public speaker. Speaker: felicia, coconut creek florida, we have a comment item on the agenda where we're going to try to get, I don't know if the vote going to be yes or no but we're trying to get produce from mac and growth company which is a produce company. If anything, we

179shouldn't be getting money from the general fund, because we're already in debt pulling from that account but if we get the produce and find another alternative way to get that funded, we can get some bread and meat that go in a canned -- sandwich to feed the kids. Thank you. board member discussion. DR. Holness. thank you, DR. Hepburn, I'm laoging forward to the information coming back in a expedited manner. Because I think that, as many have mentioned, the $500 MAY be exhausted rather quickly. motion carries. chair I have another motion. go ahead. I would like to motion that the funds for this item be pulled from the sms not the general fund. second. it's been moved and second to include that the $500 come out of the fns funds not general fund. Any public comment?

180Speaker: nathalie lynch walsh, I don't know if you got a clear answer whether you can do that legally. There are items where I question whether kids would benefit. It's hard to worry about things like software packages when you're hungry, you're too hungry to focus I think it was 0021 and I'm guessing that came out of the general fund. If you can do it legally, sure but if you can't, that should not stop you fund iting preparely, I can always take any of these agendas and cut at least a couple million in wasteful spending, you spend on prisisms of reality, 864, 8630 today, don't know what it is but if you're too hungry to focus, it will not matter. board member cervera. MADAM Chair, if what MR. Zeman proposing legal? MS. Batista. so it sounds that

181it is legal, that but she's not sure about whether she would have enough monies to sustain, in the long term if it's over the $500. right I believe that MS. Paul and the cfo all shifts their heads that it will cover the ones that it will cost. MS. Alhadeff. MS. Batista, is your legal opinion that this is legal, your legal opinion, MS. Batista? yes. lawyers love that question. anybody else, all those in favor of the motion say aye. aye. any opposed says no. Motion carries unanimously. Okay. Are we ready to vote on the item? MS. Alhadeff. yes, I want to go back to this alternative meal. My question is, is it by statute called alternative meal? Because, I think it needs to change the narrative the stigma attached to this meal, I would like the

182superintendent to come back with this better ideas? Universally at all our schools, the courtesy meals needs to be delivered with fidelity, meaning everything gets a tray they're getting their milk, their fruit their sandwich and not just thrown a cheese sandwich and then there is this stigma created around it. DR. Hepburn? that is noted, we'll bring that information back. I will be going to schools and asking for the courtesy meal. I know. I think that's a great name, courtesy meal. but I will pay for any courtesy meal. MS. Bulman. thank you, chair. I just wanted to make sure because I know, I just, we've been here, this is the second time we're discussing this in our meetings and MS. Moulder and MS. Johnson, have clarified, you know the situation funding, why we're in this position right

183now. But being in the community, I don't know that we've done an adequate job of explaining that to the stakeholders. I think that we're definitely advertising the need to apply for free and reduced lunch. But is there a way to put out concise and easy to understand messaging from the school district of why we're reverting of having to pay for the lunches? Because, my impression from kind of feedback, is that a lot of people believe that this is something that we're imposing upon them and obviously that's not the case, situations have changed. But I think it's really important that we're communicating properly to our stakeholders why this is happening. I think that will allow us to engage more with the community and community partners so they understand the situation is not something that we're doing

184independently and because we thought this was a good idea. yes, absolutely we can bobinger with the food and nutrition team to put something simple and work with our media outlets, and also I'm pretty sure MR. Travis is listening to get that information out. thank you, I really appreciate that media outlets. okay, I just based on what MS. Alhadeff said, I would like to make a last motion, I would like to move to change the name from alternative meal to courtesy meal. great idea. any public comment. Any board member comment? yeah. I love that idea but we just asked the superintendent to bring us some ideas and he was going to do another menu. What's the value of those options when we asked. we can change it later, I just moving forward to call it courtesy

185now as opposed to alternate. if you like it, I love it. We can start messaging right now. amen, to MS. Alhadeff's question this is something within broward domain to name that meal? Yes, we can change the name. wonderful. Courtesy. just really quickly, so the broward can call it whatever broward wants to call it, but there is a definition to the term alternative meals that is not only for reduced lunch, reduced money but also kosher meals are also called alternative meals, so there is a specific definition. so those would be truly alternative, these are specifically courtesy meals. and courtesy meals in your definition are the meals that people get when they can't pay. love it. all those in favor of calling it courtesy meal, say aye. any opposed say no. Motion carries. So to the item

186itself, bb1, all those in favor as amended so the three amendments were to add high school for the security see meal to change the funding from fns and to call it courtesy meal as to opposed to alternate meal. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed say no. passes unanimously. great job, MS. Thompson. well we have five minutes, so let's try to squeeze out another item. Next item is double a a 2 can I have a motion and a second. so moved. moved by DR. Zeman action seconded by MS. Bulman. Any public comment on a a 2? no comments. okay, MS. Bulman. I don't have any questions on this. all right. MS. Alhadeff. I just wanted to make sure that the mental health program was spent. yes, completely exhausted and in some over exhausted.

187MS. Thompson. yes, mental health assistance allocation? I mean my comments are going to be longer than five minutes. just go. You only get five minutes. so to the superintendent I would like to know how many of these programs are done virtually versus in-person. DR. Hepburn? good afternoon, simone chief service officer I'm going to have our monique our director of mental health just to go through it and give you a one by one. Speaker: good afternoon, thank you for the question. There are a portion of services provided by mental health coalition that allows for tele health in addition to face-to-face as well as rethink ed is used. But inter explorer is something accessible in school as well as out of the building for families and students to access. sorry to interrupt, my understanding of rethink ed,

188it's a virtual can you go back through those programs and say which one, I don't care where they're take iting, are they in front of a screen or real person teaching? to rethink ed would be virtual, inner explorers would be virtual. From the list that we've identified those are the only virtual flat forms that I can identify at the moment. thank you. And in talking to students, that's where they're getting their information from, would you say that's accurate? rethink ed is the platform for our required for our lessons in addition to our wellness skills, correct. so it's state statue that we have to use this programming? no, it's an approved to be used for that purpose and the lessons incorporate online instruction as well as face-to-face discussions that are lead bit adult in the room?

189are there curriculums that are lead by the adult in the room that are approved by statute. we would be able to explore, I won be able to name them at the time. There is a variety of available that are approved. yes, and a follow-up I think, other alternatives because we're paying $200,000 and I get that that's going to be less than paying a staff person or salary but I think mental health is best delivered by a human being in the classroom than watching cartoons or whatever. I also had a question on how we're measuring the effectiveness of first-aid. I'm a big proponent of the program. However are we asking adults who have taken it afterwards, if it's helpable are we getting any reports back, because we say it's affective but then there is no, there

190is nothing that those how we know it's affective? so the youth mental first-aid ca rick -- curriculum is stated, but you must have been sitting in our team meetings because those antidotal meetings are set to go out this year to we can start to collecting information from those individuals, to be able to have some idea of how they're applying it wnt school building. excellent, I do think it's a very affective and very general knowledge so that everybody feels equipped to deal with the crisis or at least manage it until they can get it to a professional. And why try, so this is the first time I've ever heard of that program. How many group sessions are being implemented in our school system and how are we tracking that? Speaker: I'm going to bring up MS.

191Sotelo. Speaker: good morning, in my department for a number of years, even we've had paused and then gone back to it because it's a very practical tool. I don't know if they're used in groups but they use them for individual support and counseling. all right, thank you. And then my last, comment just to my colleagues, is, I truly believe we need to be using our mental health allocation for mental health on real individuals and our classroom, I think that's how we deliver the best support for our students and when we spend it on other services, our virtual programming we're not doing the best supportive services for our students. Also I want to make out our ratio and I know superintendent hepburn has talked about our student counseling before, but they're recommending ratio is for every

192250 students there is one counselor. We are at 458 for school social workers again the recommended ratio one social workerer fo every 25250 studts at 'r'rat e e soalal worker for every 1093 students. In my mind, that is unacceptable as a school social worker, I understand that there is no way that I can service every student in my four schools in any amount of hours. We really need to think through the process of how we're supporting our students and in a real person capacity. The same for school psychologists, the ratio 1 to 500. And ours is 1 to 1672 students. I know we're going to be discussing funding and staffing and I know there is a shortage, however woo we're talking about mental health and what is best for our students, I really want us

193to focus on getting actual providers in our school. Thank you. thank you, DR. Zeman? thank you. There is no doubt, the future of healthcare is a blend of live and virtual assets. There is a evidence that virtualle counseling is more affective and more efficient than live counselors. We have to be careful about bri, you know, opinions and thoughts about things in look hard at the evidence. i've met with the health team a number of times, I'm comfortable with the strategy and as MS. Thompson we're still spending enough money to deal with the mental health crisis. This is related to the cell phone issue that we'll be talking about next week. Again, a mountain of evidence that say that cell phones do not belong in k through 12 schools, and we'll talk about that next week.

194Just to make shah point crystal clear, what is the biggest advantage of a virtual counselor? They're available when you are. So you don't have to drive to downtown plantation to get an appointment with a live counselor and drive back and after a while people stop going because it's a drive there and back, there is a plenty of room but counseling can be more accessible. My question is about accessibility. We say on section 2, there is no page numbers on this. On section 2, under school board policies, I think we're saying something that is not our policy. School base mental services are initialed within 15 calendar days of identification and assessment. Community base services are initialed within 30 calendar days of referral. Chair are those our standards? I know those are not but I'll let DR.

195Winter come up and expand. so those dates are identified by the state as required. so our agreement is how we ensure that we stay within the time frames. So the 15 and 30 days is actually a time frame and we're obligated that we main in the time frame and that's how we monitor it. terrific and I'm going to ask this question again, because I really mean the question I'm asking. I'm comfortable the state have a standard what I want to know and what the community wants to know what are the broward standard for initiating for school base mental health services being initialed and community being provided to people who raise their hand and say I need help? Is it 15 and 30 days? Is that our standard? we obviously want to make sure that we

196stay within the guidelines identified by the state. But idealy we want to expedite. So we do whatever we can to ensure that the paperwork is provided to the parents for their consent and we follow the process for them to be screened and connected with a provider. So we'll continue to expedite that. and I'm not picking on you. What does the m stand for standards. right, our standard if somebody raised their hand, they get help. Did you hear the students that came in and talked about mental health. Can we be a bureaucrat. We just had 16 kids come in here and say I know and I did need mental health and I couldn't get any. I didn't know where to go. So if we're going to dot brewer bulatcier crat I can answers, I'm not interested.

197Chair, -- . let me help you, DR. Zeman, I glean some information on her response, the answer was when a kid raised their hand, we immediately respond. and we as MS. Thompson don't have the resource to see respond perfectly, we are budget limited. We respond there, that's great. At the tend of the day, the response can't be thank you for submitting your form, right? That does not help somebody what helps is when they get real help. I hope when we think what a goal should be, if we don't measure, if we don't have a measurable goal, then there is no way that we can add staff, add money for other capabilities, make sure that we have great communications so they know where to turn, everybody understand their responsibilities and make sure in particular the censor

198grid that we have for mental health, which is called teachers, know what to look for and refer to. I know that system is being worked and I appreciate but I hope that DR. Hepburn goal is becomes the measurable goal, if you raise your hand not responsible response but care provided to you in as fast amount of time. We will lose students if that's our response rate. so I just want to echo again, DR. Hepburn's sentiments in terms of our own staff, it's immediate. Our expectation is that they're immediately connected with the mental health professionals to provide that support. The 15 to 30 refers to when students are outsourced and have to go through another layer of assessment and parental work to be completed for those assessment and further services. Again we will continue to expedite

199that for those third party referrals but do everything within our power tone sure that every single students is immediately connected to a mental health professionals and provided those supports until they're connected to any extended services that is deemed necessary. perfect and the last thing is a question to DR. Hepburn. DR. Hepburn. it's ford record question, I know that's a number that we cannot afford but we need to know the number. So we can keep working as MS. Thompson pointed out to more psychologist and more counselor and more social workrs but if we knew that number of resourcess, you just articulately shared with us, that tell us. so I cannot tell you, I can follow-up. We need a above and beyond the resource that's we have. Thanks to the taxpayer's what they voted for, to provide

200additional mental health support, I want to thank our taxpayers for that and we're reviewing and implementing a new staff and allocation, but we can give you the perfect allocation would look like and how much it would cost which is beyond the funds that public schools receives. thank you very much. thank you, MS. Leonardi. ?I. Just want to briefly echo MS. Thompson's comments regarding virtual menu for mental health. I think we heard from the students, several months ago, but I also heard from the student advisors yesterday that students are really wanting a human being in front of them talking to them about these things. So to the extent that we can emphasize that and push that in our schools would be really great, thank you. thank you. And I'll close us out before we vote on

201it. I, we already did public speakers. Yeah. We did public speaking on this. We do that ahead of time. So I, I think it might be a good idea to look at putting what DR. Zeman and MS. Thompson kind ofing together, I think the virtual programming is not really what the students want. They want a person. But I don't think they would mind having a virtual person. Like we have virtual healthcare in our schools. So maybe there is a way to pivot some of the money instead of having virtual programs where they're going through and answering questions, we could figure out a way to provide those virtual actual providers to make sure that students have somebody in front of them and I think in the world that they live in, it does not matter if

202they're sitting face-to-face because that's the world they live in. So we can look na that moving forward. And I've sent this a number of times, to start providing trauma training. I know there are place that's provide that for free to maybe in collection of lab courses that we start to provide for our teachers and professional development start to add that because as DR. Zeman alluded, our students are the first line of defense and the more we can help them to identify trauma, because you have to address trauma differently than you address other things, it's a different kind of counseling and I think it would be helpful for our teachers and even for behavior so they can identify and maybe address a student differently and deescalate something. All those in favor item a a 2 say

203aye. aye. any opposed say no. Unanimous minus MS. Thompson because she is not on the dais. At this time, we have a attorney-client session. I'm requesting that all not attend iting the client attorney session, not remove. MS. Batista. in order to discuss pending litigation in and for broward florida. Mark mesa versus the school board of broward county, the following persons will attend this attorney-client session. School board members, debra hixon chair lower al alhadeff, lori bulman, adam cervera, DR. Sa lan zeman, help doner, superintendent of schools, john michael esquire, tomas esquire and marilyn c batista esquire, the attorney-client session was properly advertised for today JULY 22, 2025 at 12:45 P.M. In accordance with section. The purpose of the attorney-client session is to discuss settlement negotiations and/or strategy a certified coert will record the session and only

204those session noted will be permitted to attend. Thank you, MADAM Chair. [Board in attorney-client session] and some of the reasons why the measurable outcomes would be something that an audit will live with and then I asked the fourth thing which was about food services. I pointed out at the time, that while the qualities of food is generally very grod fm -- good, there is a different way to deliver food that expand the percentage of students that take lunch from us. In broward koupt' the take is pretty low. And that MAY be good data about the quality of food. At that MAY workshop you committed to responding tho those things and I don't see them in the audit plan. And regarding this reporting, there is a lot of duplication in an audit that is already in

205the book for safety and security. So I do take similar to what happened during today's meeting when we were talking about today's meeting when we were talking about mental health. There is a lot of discussion about mental health matters and how important that is as well as various safety and security items and also monitoring of the funds that have to do with whether or not we would want to go with food services, or general fund funding. Doing those risk assessment as well. I'm capturing information from the board as I said before and I don't think that it landed very well but the risk assessment that was done last year, it incorporated the input from various board members, yourself included and that was a three-year risk assessment. I agree with you that things change as we

206go along as well with the delay of getting our external resources available to us last year, which I think at one point, you characterized it more that I was trying to say that this was a board issue that created this, that's not the case at all. It was a combination of procurement and legal and problem that's we had along the way with one of the firms that requested to be removed even though they haves deemed responsible and responsive to the bid. And they were an important group to have because we needed all the resource that's we can get. The way that that duck tails into the beginning of the comment, is the fact that this audit plan looks sultd to last year's audit's plan, is because we have audits that are still on going that

207have to be captured. We tried to make sure that we could could -- consistently. in your tour on this board, has this board -- no. so I love the fact that you're hearing the conversation, cabinet conversation, superintendent's ideas it's all meaningful inputs into how you construct an audit plan but in this case we gained consensus about some ideas you would said you would respond to them I have not seen the response other than what I hope to be some kind of inclusion in the audit plan. We talked about it and came up with consensus, I understand one of those could be subsumed in one of the other audits. The other three are not present in the audit. no it's two and two. So the mental health, behavioral threat, discipline and then the, the audit through

208the safety and security audit which really looks at everything similar to our annual audit of safety and security where they come in and test everything from getting to the through the gate to getting through the school. sure and having served with countless auditors in different boards over the past few decades, I'm familiar with going to the governing board, presenting ideas getting feedback and then changing the plan and coming back and presenting for final approval. it seems like we're not following that to the letter. There is a need to make sure that the board owns the audit plan and feels comfortable with the risk assessment and what is included. I'm not going to ask you to resite anymore answers to those things. That's I think, literally what it is. And we do have ten percent overlap

209because of the contracts last year, I'm sympathetic to that, but I I would d like yococonser the otheher two eas.S. D ifif they can be added part of the ten percent, that would be great. I would like to go to a separate issue. Policy 5 hub says if you want to amend you sit down with the board chair and you say MS. Hixon, chair I would like to do, seems like 70 add its in here, number 71, I would like to do one on this other thing that came up. It's one of the few authority that we vest in the chair that has the same authorities. And we give her the authority, just being the chair, I will not talk about her personally. I'm curious chair, last year on the audit plan over since you've

210become chair, have you there been any requests to make amendments to the audit plan? I cannot recall off the top of my head, so I'll say no. so I'll ask as a professional privilege if there is a audit made to you, whether you approve it or dis approve it, can you communicate with the board? I would. I really appreciate it. That's all I really want to talk about. I think this function is so important for an organization as big as ours. But what you look at, is just as important of how you look at it. That's why I'm a stickler about the board direction and I appreciate you bringing all of this to us in MAY and audit committee and now to us for final approval. I'm happy to approve with 10 percent contingency but

211at some point I would like to you respond to what we asked for in MAY. and if I could, there is short answer that thick stille give you and still follow-up with what you requested. At the time you requested this, you were referencing that it can use some additional audits. I would like to call your attention to page 10, where we had that pie chart that was also asked to be updated, we identified that we have currently 50 percent of our audit plan is operational audits, in fact it's more than that, but I didn't drill to for specific purpose to which one that's are kaegd as others which are also some operational audits. We're pretty operational audit heavy in this one. So I want today make sure that we had enough coverage in areas over

212and above that, so we can have compliance and performance. Because we have not looked at a contract for a long time and looking at point where there may be an opportunity to claw back some money, that would be one of the things that I want to live a little bit opportunity to look at as well. I want today make that point for everybody to see that this replaced that pie chart so we can be more clear about what number of audits are in what areas that we'll be auditing. the discussion at the MAY workshop was coached as operations but it was a diversity of programs as well. So we're not repeating the audits that we've done in the past. People remember for like five or ten years that you did an audit so behavior often

213times can be different where you've been auditing, but that means you've got to be moving around looking at another programs and functions, so I'm going to continue to advocate for a turnover of audits every year that is more than a 5 percent. I really think if we turned over 20 percent and rotated around to different areas, that we would be doing ourselves a favor but thank you for your responses. thank you all those in favor of dd1 say aye. aye. any opposed say no. Motion carries unanimously. Next item is dd3. so moved. so moved by DR. Zeman seconded by MS. Thompson any public comment? no ma'am. board discussion, MS. Bulman. thank you, chair, I'm just looking for a little clarification on this t I've read, I'm not sure what the title of it. are you

214talking about athletic and students? yes, specifically with the scholarship funds being comingled with other funds. It was alarming when I originally read it but then in reviewing the responses, because it, in reviewing the responses, it says from the business support center, it says that had identified that issue and the process was revised affective SEPTEMBER 14, 2023. So the audit report does not mention that at all. It just, was that what you found? I mean, obviously the fiscal year starts JULY first, but it looks like there MAY have been a two and a half month issue but the issue was resolved well before you actually audited them? can you point me to the page that you're referring to, so I can see? well I guess it's page, so page 11 is the business support center response

215but it's in page, on page 12 under scholarships it says this they revised the process is revised affective SEPTEMBER 14, 2023. just give me a second to I can get my head back into the finding. because the recommendation and the audit report is that they shouldn't comingle the funds but it looks like by the time you audited them. say that last part. it says the recommendation it says they should not comingle funds but the response indicates that by the time you were auditing them, they were comingling. so what we had is a consistent continue that -- condition that we found and that is that funds were comingled and it was not always clear which funds they were coming from to create a budget and also the, the recommendation was ultimately for business support center to

216document proper procedures and reconcile prepayment as a general finding because what was happening is that we have audits to go back to 2023, that go back to 2024 in the cycle because we're looking back with the internal funds. There MAY have been things that MAY have been fixed during, not while our audit field work was going on. And so, when you're talking about, was something identified in the auditor, was it not identified in the audit, if things were changed that's something that we would x out and if they didn't have the documentation or we didn't have the documentation, we would have it put into their response even if they said they would disagree with us because we can only go by what documentation at the time. I'm not certain if it was this report I'll

217have to look and see. Where we had a situation where there were financial reports that were suppose to be created after each fund -- fundraiser. In some cases they were not available for audit for us to look at that. We got a response in one of them that said that the items the documents were resent at a different date but the fact is they were sent to have been resent they were shared and pointed out to gather those during a training between the office of the chief auditor and bsc. But whether you're doing the audit it's in the previous year. They're saying that they revised the process affective 2023, but it does not mention that at all in your -- . let me look at that again. And you said that was in their response?

218yeah, that was in their response, the business support center. just to your point giving credit where credit is due if the situation had been resolved. I also have to apologize because my staff who would normally would be here to support me, they're gone today and they're the people in the weeds, I'm the one reviewing it after the fact. Hang on one second. I'm looking for a scholarships, following the review of how the receipts were being managed the process was revised affective suspect 14, 2023 to ensure the funds were designated are no longer comingled, so as I said before, we had identified that in some cases we were and in some cases they weren't. We were making a, we were making a blanket statement about what it was that we were finding to come back and

219develop policies and procedures to make sure how it was documented so it was being consistently done. the, the, I believe that there is a typo on their part in fact, I believe that they updated that response in 2024. I can make that a follow toup get back to you but that's an important part because that was their work not ours. okay, thank you. Any other board discussion? Okay, all those in item dd3 say aye. any opposed a no. Motion carries unanimously. The next item is dd4 can I have a motion and a second. so moved. moved by DR. Zeman second bid DR. Holness. Any public comment? no comments. DR. Zeman. chief auditor 27 schools were audited in this item, 26 complies without exceptions and riverside was one. When you find, 26 out of 27 schools

220complying, are you comfortable when you find one that doesn't saying this there is, that there is controls problems more likely that one out of 27 means that there is a staff training issue or new staff person? Or you know, something that is going on structurally? there are on going updates on bulletins, some of them are being finalized and published. Some of them, I cannot say that for certain that they're being discussed behind the scenes. I do know that there is been a lot of discussion about about purchase cards in the business support service area and internal funds area in general. because there is a concept of preloading these cards but they don't have a, they don't have a a policy or procedure in place, if those funds are not expended after they've been preloaded to

221reimburse the money back to the location. And what happens is that creates a situation where the financial statements for the books for that school would not be accurate because there is money sitting on this preloaded p-card as opposed to being reimbursed that we can document and calculate as we did our, what's the word? reconciliation. reconciliation, I was trying to get fancy but let's go with that. Now the reports that will be going out, especially if you have the situation happening at 20 percent of 226 locations, that amount could be a significant amount that would be misstated. So what we're trying to do as we go through these, even if it's one out of 27 schools that is looked at, if we find a reportable amount, so the principal and regional superintendents can get together and

222talk about this provided that it's a school, and identify what the problem is, as well as look what a procedure look like if they were not totally used from a preloaded card. I represent broward county and chief officer and one of the things that I want to make sure as clear when you write an audit report that some additional information MAY be very useful so the community understand more about the impact when they read about an exception, when they read a p-card is overloaded. There is two things that is would have liked to see in a report like this, one, 26 of the 27 schools passed the audit, so 26 found nothing to report. The second is 11,744.22 was not MISS Spent, it was not pulled out of one allocation and spent on things that

223it was not suppose to, it was an accounting error where it was loaded on p cards and in essence unloaded and reporteded on the books. It's important but at the same time, sometimes broward county residents read these reports and they see exceptions and findings and very very critical statements, and they MISS Sometimes the context that this was found in one of out 27 schools that were looked at last year. Or that the money was not missing it was an accounting issue that the books were not accurate. That's really important in that one instance that's really important, I live and die in finance world, I know that's a big deal. But sometimes the context is also important. And I would ask to you think that how to we make sure that it's identified as an instance

224rather a general condition of broward county schools. I've been meaning to share that with you for a long time and it's important because we want to make sure that we are communicating to the community and that we're doing really well in terms of complying with red book and yellow book and accounting standards and things like that. Where there are instances of fraud, instances of contract malfeasance, I encourage you to be as loud and proud about that as you can. But sometimes the way these things are written up, it makes great sense to an auditor and accountable who could put it in good context but it would not communicate to my this neighbor whether or not broward schoolses are keeping track of other people's money. Thank you very much. and one quick response for the benefit

225of the entire board, at the beginning of the audit reports, we generally identify in the table of contents, how many locations had exceptions and how many didn't. So from even the earliest look at this people can look at this and say, this is a very clean audit and I think that's a good thing. We strife to get more of those going. It's one of the reasons that we, it's reasons that we look at the way we do. But we also have to look at it are the controls, potentially material? If we have a situation where the funds are not properly tracked or financial reports are not being created and put in with the records, we have no way to know whether or not this is being done correctly or to pin point the root cause

226other than just maintain all the necessary records because sometimes that's what it comes down to. all those in favor of dd4 say aye. aye. any opposed say no. Motion carries unanimously. Next item is f f1 can I have a motion and a second. so moved. moved by DR. Zeman, seconded by MS. Thompson. Any public comment? no public comment. that's me. And just this month, this item, we have received 11,27 00 -- that's about 6.5 million for that is forehead start to we were selected to have head start through the federal government this coming school year and 3.5 was for school hardening and I thought that was important. And just to mention, thank you to the miami dolphins, we were having a conversation about female athletes, one of the grants is 4,000 for flag football to

227county to thanks for that. And a little for 2.8 million still spend to go that could jump up to 14 million. This time around for grants so thank you very much for all the hard work that everybody put in to get all of those grants. All those in favor say aye. aye. any opposed say no. Motion carries unanimously. The next item is jj6 can I have a motion and a second. so moved. moved by DR. Zeman, seconded by MS. Thompson, any public comment? no comment. MR. Zeman. thank you, so much, chair. I'm curious about this item, at cypress bay high school as I am of all safety issue for students. This is something that MAY we MAY not have done. I would like to learn a little bit more about the change order where did

228the requirement come from? Is this such a great idea? We MAY consider doing it in other schools. Is know, MS. Alhadeff, MS. Hixon and some others have been at conferences where ththeris a huge amou ofof scussion retetetoto windows. I knowthat we cannot replace every window in broward county schools but can we do selective ones? I was hoping to learn a little bit more that is included in case there is something that we need to think about in funding down the schools? I'll just mention, I asked a similar question so when the response that they sent back, they said this would be the standard in the schools. DR. Hepburn. and I'll let MS. Paul elaborate a little bit more. yes, sir, moving forward. And thank you for the board question, chairperson hixon, yes, moving forward, we're

229putting farrated doors and glass in the schools. One of the things that we're doing and it's a continuous process, but updating our specifications for our schools, you know, we're not building schools like we did 20 years ago. And so, that's, that's very important especially with the history of our district, that we are particularly conscious of the things that we do and intentional in terms of how we build our schools. thank you so much, appreciate the comment. thank you. MS. Alhadeff. yes, I was wondering, are they also looking at the placement of the glass and door as opposed, meaning that, how large the glass is, if it's not near the actual doorknob if the glass was broken? yes, I think number one, we're making sure that we're in compliance with current code but yes they are.

230I can have michael mac entire speak more to that if you would besinger but this is something occurring across the country. As I've gone through several conferences on safety and security and so forth. This is something that a lot of school districts are considering and this is the wave of the future. Mike if you're here, if you want to comment. through the chair, MIKEMac entire, it's inclusion glass at all entryways. Moving away from the traditional fire proof doors but the intrusion glass. is the intrusion glass built proof? no. no, it's not built proof? is it bullet resistant? yes, it's bullet resistant but not proof. And I believe you've asked before. is it stronger than hurricane glass? I would think so, but I don't have the specification before me to actually prove it. thank you. okay,

231thank you. All those in favor of jj6 say aye. any opposed say no. Motion carries unanimously. The next item is item jj8, can I have a motion and a second. so moved. moved by DR. Zeman, second bid MR. Cervera, any public comment? no public comment. MR. Cervera. thank you, MADAM Chair. I was looking for a little more clarification as to what exactly was being done. There did not seem to appear a lot of details in the packet that I reviewed, I think it MAY have been exclusive h-vac, but specifically looking for some clarification as to what exactly the change order entails and what specific portion of the project it applies to. DR. Fulton? MS. Paul. I'll perfecter to mike mac entire, a a come. this incorporates three pc Os, one is replacement of feeders for

232the chiller, after testing the existing wiring, flp rejected it because the wiring was not sufficient. So the basically, the cables had to be replaced. They also required news duct work for the for the cables, and because of when the work was taken place during the summer, we need today make sure that we had on going cool air and dehumidficktion in the city. The fact that it required new feeders, meant the scope would take up to six weeks. We will be done faster than the six weeks so the contract will not be paid out the full. Proposal value for the cooling and dehumidification efforts. if this change order is approved by the board this afternoon, is this everything that you need or that is needed I should say within the portion of the h vac to

233complete this portion of the project? Or is this only one small portion which is going to require other aspects before we can have full completion? this project has twos phases, this is the final work in phase one. Phase two is the demo of building two, I believe, which is the old cafeteria. So this work will complete phase one. MADAM Chair, do we know, this is danielle elementary school, what capacity is this school working under? can you be more specific? I apologize, enrollment? Not for purposes of the h-vac. give me a moment, let me look it up. I know DR. Wanza is here as well. can we repeat the question please? enrollment at danielle elementary? principal school, how many students do they have there? the question is, are they 50 percent, 70 percent? we're at capacity.

234can I have two seconds, sorry I got caught off guard. We're going to pull up their capacity. So they are at 81 percent of capacity, because they are, they are enrollment is 461, and they have about 108 available seats for student capacity. thank you, DR. Wanza. you're welcome. thank you, DR. Zeman? thanks, chair. I just read through this and it seems like this was six weeks of support for roughly 360,000 or 60,000 per week. I suspect I just read it wrong and MR. Mac entire, you don't need to get up to the mic, it seems like that was awfully expensive airconditioner, so thank you for your further explanation. thank you, all those in favor of jj8 say aye. aye. any opposed say no. Motion carries unanimously. The next item is jj9 can I have a

235motion and a second. so moved. moved by DR. Zeman, seconded by MS. Thompson. Any public comment? no ma'am. MR. Zeman. is just wanted shake the superintendent hand and I wanted to virtually shake MS. Paul's hand, I would give her a big hug if I good. There are seven final acceptances beinger this is a water mark, in the history of the smart bond program, a water mark in terms of the changes, and I person want to thank you because my constituents beat me up constantly, because of something that started in 2018, promised in 2019, and it's now 2025, this is huge. I understand that there are seven of them to vote on this week and I didn't want to MISS The chance to say thank you, MR. Superintendent for you and all your staff forget thising

236done, thank you, thank you. thank you, all those in favor of jj9, say aye. aye. any opposed say no. Motion carries unanimously. The next item is jj 19, can I have a motion and a second. so moved. moved by DR. Zeman, seconded by MS. Bulman. Any public comment? no, ma'am. okay, I have this one, I have a question but I would like to point out, so there were only four consultant error and omissions, which was great. But the bad part is, the four totaled to 330,000 and some change. I know it's part of the system but there were some really big consultant error and consultant omissions this month. My question for jj 19, is this item removal of light weight concrete temporary roof. My question is, seems like, we're going to spend $300,000 on a

237temporary roof why couldn't we just do the roof? the nt p was in 2022, so. It is a temporary move, it's to move to bigger phase, a new full roof across the project would be responsible more expensive. Unfortunately, this is one of the unforeseen conditions we found with a number of schools where we could not test the roof material without so basically they had to drill to find that the concrete was not good and we cannot roof over it. So now we need to do a complete roof repair. So we cannot do a complete roof right now because fund ising not available, so there will be a future full roof project. and how long does that last? it can last upwards of five or six years. so when we get our facilities assessments, we should

238have one? yes, it should be listed. all those in favor say aye. aye. any opposed say no. The next item is jj20 can I have a motion and a second. so moved. moved by DR. Zeman seconded by MS. Thompson, any public comment? no ma'am. DR. Zeman. thank you so much, I just wanted to comment on the 538 extra days for completion. And I have a question about some of these projects, it's 98 percent complete but we're not going to have final completion until 2026, is there a way to change this to get the last 2 percent done. DR. Hepburn. MS. Paul. this is more geared towards the financial close out, the locations, or the facilities is occupied but this is more of the paperwork to close it out. mike, if you want to add anything

239to it, you can. through the chair, mike, acom, we're anticipating formal substantial completion later this year. The late final completion next year is the warranty period, which what we would call the final financial close out. So the contractor will be done, will pay out the contractor end of this year, but next year is when we'll close the full contract. Meaning the architect is no longer under agreement, warranty has expired and warranty is closed. thank -- can you tell me maybe, what will happen this year at the school. this year, we'll be going through final inspections. And final inspections is where various is added which is fire alarms thank you all those in favor of jj20 say aye. aye. Any opposed say no. Next item is mm1 can I have a motion and a second. moved

240and second. Any public comment? no comment. Speaker: good afternoon, jacob director of education at the broward center arts. We have over 100 seats available for broward public schools student. We have increased the number of sensory inclusive performances for the ese population to enjoy theater in the least restrictive environment possible. So we look forward to continuing this partnership. Thank you. thank you and while MS. Thompson is sitting down, we so appreciate the partnership our students have phenomenal experience and many of us experience the lion king with the students and what an amazing opportunity they were so engaged and excited and it was, it was a fantastic opportunity for all of us. So thank you for the partnership. MS. Thompson. so that's basically what I was going to say. I know a few months ago, we talked

241about this board having a well founded for the kids. If the students want to be involved in the arts, they have a place to do that. You said that better than it I did. not really but thank you. all those in favor of mm1 say aye. aye. any opposed say no, motion carries unanimously. Next item is mm2 can I have a motion and a second. so moved. moved by DR. Zeman, seconded by MS. Thompson any public comment? no ma'am. DR. Zeman? I got my question answered. But while I have my mic, how awesome to have miami heat participate, we get more and more interest from professional sports franchises all the time and it's great to have the world's greatest basketball team here. thank you for that and MS. Batista just mentioned it but I know

242from work withing south broward we've been partnering with them for a long time. they go to different schools for different weeks and south broward is always one of those schools. So it's great to see those kids and they really enjoy it. motion carries unanimously. The next item is oo4, can I have a motion and a second. so moved. moved by DR. Zeman, seconded by MS. Thompson, my public comment? no ma'am. MS. Alhadeff. what is the timeline as far as completing the projects, DR. Hepburn? MS. Paul stepped away. there is 200 work orders. she is coming. And can we prioritize the painting of our playgrounds? our intent is to finish work orders within this year, for the painting I believe you're talking about and yes, we can. we can what? prioritize playgrounds. thank you. All those

243in favor of oo4 say aye. any opposed say no. Motion carries unanimously. The next item is oo8, can I have a motion and a second. so moved. moved by DR. Zeman seconded by MS. Tom sonl. Any public comment? no, ma'am. MR. Cervera. thank you, MADAM Chair. I'll caveat the following with this statement, I'm a big fan of fresh produce, I enjoy eating it, I enjoy seeing my wife going to whole foods and pick ing the good stuff and giving it to my kids. So by no means am I being anti. That being said, this is asking the board to approve almost 15 million dollars spending authority for this produce. I'm not opposed to having fresh produce in the cafeterias, if I read it correctly, it's for a three-year term, totaling the 14, so my question

244is, is it necessary to sign a three-year agreement for this very large sum of funds as opposed to sign a one-year deal? Seeing what the cost of fresh produce does maybe it goes down so we're not locked in for 15 years over the three years. Is there any benefit to us giving this company 1515 mimiion doars a the-year deal fothis produce. DR. Hepburn. MS. Moulder just walked back in. Any information? thank you for the question, mary moulder, historically, we've always had a three-year bid with the renewals after, that's something that we can look into just having the one year but in the past year it's been a three-yae, we've been going on past practice. do we have a benefit or a deal because we're sign a long term deal with them? Or if we were

245to break it down and only sign up for a year, would it be the same amount? right, so. so the cost of produce, we checked that it's, if I remember correctly every month because the price of produce goes up, would it be beneficial to do a year as oppose to thed three year, it's already been in the contract because the produce goes up. is that your experience that produce goes up never a decrease? you're correct. If I can make a comment, because we do florida produce, the florida produce tends less expensive, so we do get a discount on strawberries and blue berries. and you believe that almost 15 million is a competitive price for what is needed to feed our students. absolutely. I yield my time. thank you, MS. Alhadeff. thank you, this is a

246local company? I thought you said you were getting food from california? go ahead. thank you so much. So depending on what the produce product is, it MAY come from california. We strife to use local first, strawberries corn on the could be but if it's not grown at the time, then we do use california produce. that's all through the same company? correct. and, I guess, do we have the option of finding companies, you're just saying it's not seasonal to florida, so we will not find a company in florida that produces the fruit. correct. This is the distributor, they get the products from individual farmers and they're our distributor. okay, I guess overall comment I would say if there was an opportunity to use more local farmers, I would like to see that happen. I think it's

247important. I get what you're saying, MS. Alhadeff. I think a difficult for us, we're not in the business of managing produce from individual farmers like a distributor would. So we would have to add staff to communicate with all of these farmers due to logitics that if strawberries are not in season in florida they MAY be in california, or other parts of county so that's the difficulty with that task. That's why we depend on distributors to help. If it's not in season in florida, they get it from california, those two are the two largest producers in the country. okay. all those in favor of oo8 say aye. aye. any opposed say no. Motion carries unanimously. Okay. Next item is, oo11, can I have a motion and a second. so moved. moved by DR. Zeman, seconded by

248MS. Alhadeff. Any public comment. no ma'am. MS. Alhadeff. yes, so I was wondering if this item included stairway evacuation chairs for those not mobile not able to navigate stairs in an emergency situation? DR. Hepburn? MS. Paul. it does not. is it something that we have ever looked into? MR. Doersset, do you have a history on this? good evening, mark doerset. No we have not looked into evacuation on second floor. Basically, we rely on local responders to do that, if a situation warrants it, we contact the local responders and firefighters and they help lower the kids on the second floor if something has happened with a elevator. We don't have a mechanism to bring them down other than that. okay, DR. Hepburn, I would appreciate if we can do a little bit of research look into

249this and to see, you know, in those emergency situations how are we going to be able to get our students that are in wheelchairs out of the building safety? Because whether it's through the evacuation chair or first responder take iting one of our students out, we need to make sure that we're train anding that we have these conversations. I'm noting it right now. thank you. all those in safer of oo11 say aye. aye. those opposing say no. Motion carries. Next is oo12 can I have a motion and a second. so moved. moved by DR. Zeman, second bid MR. Cervera. Any public comment? no ma'am. MR. Cervera. it looks when we started funding this, in 2020, we started at 20 million. Since OCTOBER of 2020, it seems like every year, we come back and give additional

250spending authority, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 and in APRIL of 2025 we just approved 5 million on additional spending authority. I guess my question, if we had given this 5 million in APRIL, why are we being asked for additional two million dollars when it appears that we've been giving this additional authority since the inception of this project back in OCTOBER of 2020? DR. Hepburn. we're talk about thing school department furniture. I know the answer but I will let the team kind of give some details on that, because our furniture in our schools and some of our offices has not touched in a long time. Go ahead, MS. Paul. so I'll start it off. It's important to keep in mind that during this time, we had the smart program going on and media center renovations and

251a lot of furniture was purchased off of this authority. So that's one example. But, I can ask the team to draw in some additional ones. But often times when you run a large bond program and you're doing renovation or replacement additions or media renovations, but what DR. Hepburn was saying, this is a drop in the district, due the needs. A lot of our furniture is dated. I saw a lot of chairs that I think I sat in when I was in elementary school. You know, kind of that gives you a sense of where we are with the furniture, not only in the classroom cafeteria furniture is dated, some of our high schools have furniture that should be in elementary schools and so forth. So this is where where we are right now. 5 million dollars

252additional spend authority for district this size is not exorbitant. let me ask a question in a different way. Three months ago, the ask was for five million. Has something happened between now and APRIL 15th where it was realized that an additional two million dollars was needed? Did we underestimate? Did additional furniture break that we were not aware of? If we were only approving once a year for the last, going on six million and I'm not anti new furniture, I just see two million dollars on the line item and my ears perk up sometimes. If the number was five million in APRIL what happened? we've done better assessment, that's probably, better than that was done in the past and I've identified many issues where furniture can't be repurposed, just needs to be replaced. Most of that

253is in our classroom and severely outdated. You have furniture that is all rusted, broeng desks and things like that. Crack chair backs. So when you add that number for the amount of schools, it becomes very large quickly. they were getting hand me downs from other schools, but they looked way different than the wow, really colorful media centers you were seeing in other sections of the district. So we did ask the board, was good enough to increase what we were allowing for furniture based on that. So there is a lot of discrepancy in what is it looks like the furniture from some others to others. So I would concur that that's the two million is still not enough to cover what should be allocated. Okay, all those in favor of oo12 say aye. aye. any opposed

254says no. Motion carries unanimously. The next item is oo13 can I have a motion and a second. so moved. moved by DR. Zeman, seconded by MS. Bulman. Any public comment? no comment. MR. Cervera. thank you, MADAM Chair, again looking at the executive summary on this and being asked to approve an additional spend authority roughly 3.6 million dollars to cover a 12-month period. In OCTOBER of 2022, the original spend authority was less, 3.2 million and it covered a time period of three years suppose to the 12 that is being asked now. What is the, what is the reason that we need so much money now for a smaller time period as far as time is concerned? Is it inflation or cost of electrical equipment has gone up since 2022, why was 20 million enough and now,

255we need 3.6 in 2025 only to cover a year. DR. Hepburn? MS. Paul. so it's kind of same explanation as before. We're identifying our facilities, are getting older, we have additional demands. There is been a authority if you look at the impact physical plan operations are, information and technology department and the office of capitol programs which basically have projects running also. So you know, as our facilitieses get older and age, there are additional needs and this is a reflection of that. okay, all those in favor of oo13 say aye. aye. any opposed? Say no. Motion carries unanimously without DR. Zeman on the dais. Let's see. Oo -- okay, he has the next come of ones. I'm going to jump to oo18 because we have to wait for DR. Zeman, can I have a motion and

256a second on oo18? It's been moved by MS. Bulman, seconded by DR. Holness. Any public comment on oo18? no comment. okay, thank you. I have a question. So this item is for 800,000 dollars for the renaissance contract but nowhere and it's a new contract. So when you look at the financial workshop, it just says new bid, but nowhere does it explain where we came up with the 800,000 plus dollars for a spend authority. So can somebody explain how, there is like an appendix a that says how much it is per student but what schools are going to use this. How many students, there is not a very good explanation as to where that 800,000 came from. So if somebody can explain that. DR. Kan. I'll start, this is a school base purchase. So we do

257a survey to schools every year asking what supplemental they want out of the budget. So this figure is based on the number of schools that was asked. That's how that number came out. so just as a note, why was not that not added into the item? I mean, you know, we often ask for surveys and things to know when it's a renewal, but if it's a first time and especially when we're looking to find money to cover things that you know, are important besides software, this is a big number. It's close to a million dollars. So to have no context as to where that number came from and I know I hear all the time, it's just a spend authority but you have to put that money aside which means you can't spend. So if

258we no longer need the 800,000, we should know that so the spend authority is closer to what you think you're going to need because we're very night on our money right now, if you needed more you can come back to tuesday. So if that's the case, I would like to ask for that to be a follow-up for us to see so that we know how close that number is if it's exact or you know, bigger so that we have a bigger idea and then moving forward, if there are new contracts just give us a break down of how you came to that number. and just to a point of clarification, it's coming from school budgets, it's not the district budget. right. I get that answer a lot. But if we're putting a money in a

259spend authority it's like put iting in a bucket. So that means we're giving the authority for people to spend that much money, let's say they only need $500,000 then we won be putting aside 800,000 for schools to use, we would have 800,000 for somebody else. I think data being clearer next time, since this is a initial spend authority to allow the purchase for the schools who say they want to use it. So if they don't purchase it, whatever the circumstances that are happening in summer up to the point of not purchasing it again or this first time will have better data. I don't find that that would be off, the point is nowhere in this item did it say which school wanted it. we got you. Agree, we can be more detailed about the schools.

260yes, so as a follow-up and I think we can also provide last year's numbers. There MAY be schools that we survey that later on -- . it's not the first we've used it because you have survey information. So there could have been something additionally added to that. DR. Zeman, we're on oo18. thank you, and I was going to recognize that you know, spend authority is kind of interesting concept because all it does is cap how much total school principals with spend on the school products. What I love about spend authority is each principal gets their own budget. So if they value it, they spend money on it. And how many spend authorities options they have? Hundreds so they can go out and even on their own, they can go out but what I love about

261it they're the ones deciding how to spend their money on their budget. So MS. Hixon's point, this year, in case this 860 will be irrelevant because they will not have that money, I don't want to call them extras but the things for which we ask principals. The economics of this is wonderful, because we do the procurement, we give nem amen ooh of things to buy. But because they're the ones buying it and giving it to their teachers, they're tracking what happens or doesn't. The second that there is something better, they're all over it. Because school budget are so tight, they're always looking to buy. I've seen principals, buy software but only for half of their classrooms. I want today appreciate that we do that a lot and it's a good economic model. you're spot on.

262okay, all those in favor of item oo18 say aye. aye. any opposed say no. Motion carries unanimously without MS. Thompson on the dais. Next item oo17 can I have a motion and a second. so moved. moved by DR. Zeman, second by MS. Alhadeff.. Ananpublicic comnt. Nono pubc commmment. mr.Emanan. I want to talk about things that disturbs me, this insane model of failing to close schools. We have a lost schools with 50 percent or lessen rollment. Enrollment. It's either physical education, music or art, it's not all three. The cost per students is excessive of 15,000 at this schools. The facilities are so old that we have to pay dis proportionate amount of money. Sometimes these results come through in very different ways. If you look at this item on page, and there is no page numbers

263MR. Superintendent, sorry at the top. Page 2. You can see that the schools that bought sip last year, were not the schools that needed it the most. If you look at the schools, k-2 that were able to get sip, they started their pm year at 12 percent. The ones that were able to buy sip started at 18. Why in broward county schools did we decide to do that? The schools that needed the most did not get it. And I applaud the results, I mean, when you see the sip schools their leaps were greater than the schools that didn't have sip. But I want to know why we're not giving the pilot programs to the schools that need it the most? So so if I can clarify for a moment. The data can sometimes be a

264little bit misleading with the sips we see in k-2, the sips results look really good. But when you look at the inter mediate grades, it looks like the district average, as well as the sip cohort looks the same. But what I think is a little bit misleading, all the students who are in a tier two or three, they have some form of intervention, university of florida so all of those are factors in to that 28 percent. So what you're saying is that district average, the students are on intervention, right. All of these intervention are state approved based on our reading plan. So we know that they work, because we have the data to show that they work. District 28 is a little misleading. But we can tier out the schools so you can see which

265ones are showing the highest yield of return. not only that and I appreciate the explanation and thank you for that. The table makes it look like, there are schools that have sip and don't have sip and that's true. But the ones that don't, have other things that work in the like. What bothers me, is in k through 2 those are the schools that we gave the program to. That just bothers me ethically. I want the help the kids that need it the most, not the kids that need it the least. And again, I think this board has failed to fill our obligation to make sure that the money is being spent that is truly efficient. We're harming children by not closing schools that's the fact. But, but that's more now. But I also think that

266in all the items that I've looked at, they have not identified the control group in terms of what they got. So it shows what looks like a control group but they say, this other group got this plan b thing and look how much better. But the plan a, they got stuff too. So it's not a good comparison and what we would like to know, how much did sip help over not having sip? So unless every one got all of those interventions, these numbers are not really valid to the item. if I can expand on that a little bit. So you're absolutely right, we did do a study because we had tons and tons of interventions aligned to the nt s process, they were allstate approved, we reduced. So schools have voice and choice in which

267they use. So we're looking to track down the scale down which one works the best. Schools do have a choice in terms of which intervention they pick. So we're still giving them a choice and say, this is a small footprint pick one based on your data. So we're tracking data. So MS. Hixon's point, can you name any software product that we stopped using? we can, we can actually do a follow-up. thank you. all those in favor of item oo17 say aye. aye. any opposed say no. Motion carries unanimously without MS. Thompson on the dais. Can have a motion and a second oar oo 19. so moved. it's been moved by DR. Zeman sikd bid MS. Alhadeff. Any public comment. no comment. DR. Zeman. thank you very much. How many students do you predict are going

268to use the duel enrollment program per university of program for any given year, just roughly? DR. Hepburn. go ahead, doctor kan I don't have that number. we ended 497 last year. we'll be a little higher, we can provide a follow-up. it's okay, I'm trying to get an average cot. Let's say we're going to spend 427,000 at one of the schools where we offer duel enrollment, I just kind of make a budget point on this. It was true in the past that duel enrollment was a shared. And now who pays for duel enrollment? Florida district? school districts do. school districts do, so some day we'll have to reconsider duel enrollment costs as budgets get tighter or tighter we'll have to think about doing a cap or people who can afford to pay for tuition pay and

269we organize it, and we make sure they're take iting the right classes. It's interesting to me that they used to pay 50 percent and now they pay 0 but we have not put any limits on the amount of duel enrollment, that's something that I want to keep thinking about every time one of these comes up, I'm reminded that they used to pay half the bill and now, we're paying all. What is the total cost for duel enrollment? DR. Hepburn. it's about 4.4 million in tuition and 1.2 million for books. so 5.6 total. And is there a obligation for florida po pay for duel classes. I don't think if it's an obligation but incentive. I totally think it's an incentive too. I'm curious, there are some things that we pay for and don't have a choice.

270It certainly a tracks people to our schools. it's ain small factor, we have some schools where over 10 percent are graduating with associates. the answer is not. knoxer it's not. thank you, chair. all those in favor of oo 19 say aye. eye. any opposed say no. Motion carries unanimousingly without MS. Thompson the dais. so moved. second. moved by DR. Zeman, seconded by MS. Alhadeff. Any public speakers? we have one public speaker. Speaker: good afternoon, esteemed board memebers, I want to speak about the general contracts in general. Fully understand the need to move quickly at times especially when it comes to students safety are critical services but fast decision shouldn't replace smart ones. excuse me one second. We're on o o-2 1 which is a software for prisisms of reality, it's not about contractors. Speaker: I'm

271talking about the bids. that's not the item we're on right now. We're on item o o-2 1 which is supplemental software prisisms of reality. Speaker: yes, I was talking about the bids in general about the costly amounts of these bids but I'll wait until this moment comes because it has to be heard. as long as you're focused on software. Speaker: it's focused on contracts and bids about jumping at the bid. this is the last item so go ahead. thank you for coming. Speaker: can I reclaim my time. is it specifically about contracts in general or this particular contract? Speaker: it's about contracts in general. We can add you to the public speaker at the end of the board meeting because this is specific to this. Okay thank you. any other public comment? no ma'am. MS.

272Bulman. thank you, chair. Kind of to the point to another item that you were discussing, a few back. When I was reading this, it's a pretty hefty price tag for what appears to be a minimum amount of schools that are participating, I think there is ten schools that have participated in this virtual reality math program. And now there is the item says that there is going to be another ten, I'm sorry, there is 12 and there is going to be another 10. Just wondering what my colleagues opinion. I know I saw the presentation by the students couple of months ago and every one seems to enjoy this program. But it just seems to be, a very expensive item for what appears to be a limited amount of students. But that's because there is information MISS

273Ing because it does not indicate like a lot of them do, how many students are participating in this and also what the I guess the learning gains are. I know the kids seem to like it but I didn't really get anything else from the executive summaries, I was wondering if we can have a little clarification on that. DR. Hepburn? yes, DR. Cohen can go over the data and we're doing our own research also so you can talk about the impact data. sure, so I know we had an exciting board workshop on broward brought by ai which our goal is to introduce ai across the districts. We started this as a pilot program, so to your point MS. Bulman, we start withed ten schools and expanding to ten. We want to bring to another contract to

274say that we want to bring it to all schools. But to answer your question in terms of impact. The vendor, they do qualitative study, what is considered success is engagement strategies. We heard a lot of from students during the workshop and out in the field how this is being a game changer, it's changed the ways in which they perceive difficult topics, so we've seen evidence preliminary evidence that they're improvement. The one thing that you'll find is that these are kind of one-time opportunities because the head sets actually come with the software fully loaded so we're looking at capital dollars that we would use, as opposed to others. but the data that we found right now, one study one ethicacy study, that showed it had improved. Overall the students in his -- ohio the ones that

275use the prisisms, there is a study that is under way and being in completion for miami county, L.A. Is using it. We're engaging them in ethicacy study as well so. Preliminarily, we know that through the use of ai there is in correlation to improvement. well if we're millions in. My question is the fact that it's limited to a certain amount of schools. What is the plan in terms of expanding the opportunities and how did you decide who was going to get this initial opportunity? Do you have the list of the next ten available? Ten tools? so we want to expand it to more than ten. This is just the first round. And we wanted to use as a train of model before we did a full launch. So when things become a large scale, we

276worry about our implementation dip. Meaning we don't have the infrastructure to support it. Last year, we wanted to start as a prototype, the principal says, I'm vested in this, I want my teach inventories do this. We allowed it to be a slow row. Now we want to use those teach inventories help support the rest of the district. So our push is to roll this out to all middle schools for next year as well as continue with a cohort of experts. so when you say next year, you're talking about this school year? yes. We're working on an item. And we heard loud and clear from the board after that workshop and we understand our middle school students, when if comes tone to engagement, because we tend to use them first in that yai, 6 through 8

277grade years. seems like a great way to learn math, I wouldn't mind doing that myself. When we, when we purchase the head sets, what is the life span on that. Is this something that gets updated or we can continue to use? For instance, have a very short shelf life? if you don't mind, I'll defer to DR. Zeman, we talked a lot. when we did the demo, I asked one of the teachers and staff about that, it's five years. That the dwiesz last. Think about the price, the price also per year per student, is quite low it's just buying the goggles. Now the goggles last five years. So the first year you buy into it t it's pricely but is amortized for five years. They have a shelf life for five years. and more than one

278kid can use the same. oh yes, it's not just one for one. Each class can use the same set. thank you. DR. Zeman. I love the demo, I loved the scores, I love the fact that it not only helps with academic, it improves student engagement and attendance because they want to come back to school. The real joy that I found in this type of model regardless of which vendor we pick p the learning on the one day a week, you get to use that immerse I have learning, is transported to teachers telling them what they need to learn. Like zeman, uses when he was a 7th grader, he didn't understand this module and if he does not get this module kick all these other modules that depend on it, it's impossible. That's exactly what this

279is. You've got 20 students and 15 need this and 5 need that and that. And that is the module of individual learning, and this is. Spend capital dollars to gain operational revenue. It's at the right point. The supervisor plan of getting it in middle schools. 5th graders make a big choice every year. I have two that moved up to sixth grade and all of my parent friends, are talking, are you sending your kids to this school and the like because that's a huge decision point. And you get them in sixth grade, you get them through 12. So I think it's wonderful. The supervisor plan also has a rollout communication where sixth grader who use this are going to go back and talk about it. and I'm like wow, that's marketing and communicationing and making sure

280all pta and parents are aware of. This is something that only a super large district can do like ours. So as the sixth largest district, this is expensive but you have to it estimate. And in this case, I think it's a big game changer. 73 students. If you get 73 more students out of 20,000 sixth graders, you've paid for the entire program. I think we're going to get a lot more than 73 kids once we showed that we perfected how education should get done. thank you. So my question is in regards to e n ditional scols, do we have the names th hohools? not yet because because we're bringing another agreement back to the board and to expand to every one. So it will be all middle schools and then the ten original schools that

281were in it. Before, before we found out the about capital, it will be all middle schools so factor in the ten with the rest of the middle schools. okay, perfect. Any other comments. Seeing none, all in favor of o o-2 1 say aye. aye. any opposed say no. Oo21 passes without MS. Hixon on the dais. we have two speakers. go ahead. You MAY begin. Speaker: good morning, good afternoon, board memebers, superintendent and staff. I'm jamie spears and I'm a volunteer with collage dedicate today empowering and supporting children of lgbtq families. I'm here to speak in strong support of the lgbtq history month and pride month resolutions included in agenda item rr1 resolution resolution 26, 26 and 26 and 108, over the past 30 years collage has been the only national organization dedicate today supporting people

282with one or more lgbtq care givers where students can feel safe and being themselves and proud of their families. 2023 report from collage and family of quality found that 96.6 percent of students with lgbtq reported feeling excluded because of their family structure. That number is widespread and unacceptable reality. No student should have a question whether their family belongs in their school communities. Res loosesing like this mat per, they be send a clear message that all students and their families are welcomed in broward schools. They align with equity and excellence. Recognizing lgbtq students, staff and their families isn't just in inclusion, it's essential. The a time when lgbtq people and the students who love them are facing mounting hostility, this board has the opportunity to lead. Make ing broward classrooms more inclusive and more welcoming and

283more reflective of the diverse communities that they serve. Thank you for listen and reurge you to pass the resolutions. thank you. david rodriguez. Speaker: good afternoon. And thank you to the superintendent. MADAM Chair, and board memebers, my name is david rodriguez, and I'm a community organizer with aoek quality florida, the state's largest lgbtq civil rights and advocacy organization. I'm here to say thank you to the board for putting forward resolution 2626, the resolution in support of lgbtq plus history month and for other great resolutions on that list that en shine the important and necessary values of inclusion, acceptance, and fairness. In a time where leaders on every level seems to be recoiling from values that they profess just months months ago, you have a chance to show what it means to be leader and continuing

284to embody the values that this board stood for. We applaud you for not back down on pressure and making sure kids feel safe especially as lgbtq youth and students with lgbtq parents and face growing hostilities and censorship across florida. Thank you for putting forward this resolution and for voting to pass this resolution and others on that list. thank you, MR. Cervera. MADAM Chair, is is this the opportunity to go through the individual resolutions that we wanted speak on? this is your time. okay. I noticed I was the only one who had pulled this. Okay, here we go. First and for most, I want to talk about proposed resolution 261-11, this is a resolution I put forward for our national first responders day. This is a observe which recognized our firefighters, police officers our emergency medical

285technicians, EMTs and paramedics and other personnel. Obviously our first responders plays a crucial role in keeping our community safe, whether it's law enforcement or fire and rescue or any of the folks that come and face danger in the willingness to answer the call in the face of emergency. Congress designated OCTOBER 28 as the national first responders day back in 2017 to honor our heroes and this year marks the 7th annual recognition of national first responders day, which I might add was sponsored by resolutions in both U.S. House and senate. I'm proud to bring this forward to the board and proudly support the resolution in support of our national first responders marketing, mark OCTOBER 28 as national first responders day. can you say what, I'm having a hard time? sorry, this is resolution 26-1-11. I don't

286see that. that one is in additional information. and I would also, just point out for the record, the initial summary that were given on agenda some of the resolutions are missing but if you include the larger format of the, this is identified as resolution support of first responders day OCTOBER 25th and this is 26-111. on page 31 on additional information. thank you. my pleasure. I would also like to express my overwhelming support for the resolution in support of national day of prayer and this is at 26-110. The national day of prayer is a day of observant held annual leon the first thursday of MAY. This year it will be held on thursday MAY 7th. And this geb again was a joint resolution of congress that was passed in 1952, truman and PRESIDENT Regan approved an

287amendment as national day of prayer. During this day people are asked to turn to GOD in prayer and the PRESIDENT Is asked to sign a proclamation asked for every one to pray, no matter what religious you practice this is way to acknowledge the knowledge of prayer. I'm extremely proud to put this resolution forward and it has any full support for national day of prayer recognition on MAY 7th, 2026. If I MAY, I would also like to acknowledge my support for resolution 26-20 which is a resolution in support of diwali, diwali which is known as the hindi festival of lights is one of india's most widely holidays. And while the dates vary each year, because they folt lunar calendar diwali is observed for five days or even as short as one day depending on where that

288person lives and how they celebrate. Over 50,000 people in broward county celebrate diwali, so resolution, 26-20 has been full support. And those are my resolutions that I'm in support of. okay, thank you. All those in favor of item rr11 say aye. aye. any opposed say no. motion carries unanimously. Thank you so much. Okay. I think that, right. MR. Sullivan does that exhaust all the items on our agenda. it sure does, ma'am. this is the time of the agenda when school board members will hear from our evening speakers. So we're going to move the speaker who was trying to speak on the item. just MS. Shoe man. now is your time to speak. Speaker: thank you, chair. Good afternoon, esteemed members, I have a two-minute speech that I would like to talk b.Today I'm here to

289urge the board to reconsider approving the first bid on only bid that comes through on large contracts without a deeper look. Because some of these projects are too costly a specific example are item 00-5, cleaning inspection of cafeteria hoosed by vendor environmental solution ink. The bid is almost a million dollars, total of 895,000 dollars. I fully understand the need to move quickly at times especially when it comes to students safety are critical services. But fast decision shouldn't replace smart ones. When we jump at the first bid we risk missing better prices service and values. One bid does not equal a competitive process, it's at this time, we need to pause and ask was the bid process inclusive and transparent? Are there local minority or small business who are left out or unaware about the contractor

290bid? We need to remember every dollar reover spend is a dollar we're talking away from classrooms, teacher support, student programs and facility needs, accepting the first bid without comparison doesn't just hurt the budget it limits opportunities. I urge the board to stop treating, let's reimagine our procurement process to encourage more competition, more inclusion and better financial outcomes for our school and community. Thank you for your time and your continued leadership. thank you so much. Do we have any other P.M. no more comments MADAM Chair. thank you, at this time do any of my colleagues have any student success to see bring forward to the superintendent for consideration? DR. Holness? MADAM Chair, I don't have updates regarding that but I would like to, is this the appropriate time to request some information from the superintendent regarding

291internet access, thank you. So DR. Hepburn, I know that there was an item approving that all students in broward county schools have a computer at home. And that there was also a direction to ensure that our students have internet access. At the best possible price. So now that we, I saw some information regarding my follow-up question, and it appears that we have says information system division received five responses for information request through procurement and rehousing team. The vendors are comcast, ernest star, w and cajid and t mobile. I guess my question is, now that we have this information what are the next steps? DR. Hepburn. thanks for the question DR. Holness, the next step is to get that information out so they can get the information to our families. We'll find oit what is the

292best avenues to get into the hands of our parents because they're the ones pating bills. got it. that's the first next step. Just to make sure that the parents understand what is available and they can do the leg work in contacting these companies to see if they're eligible for any of those discounted prices. okay, so I know that cool is getting ready to start in a very short period of time and I appreciate that. So are we relying on the individual schools to inform the parents and does the district have a plan to inform the families and how they can access these discounts? I believe some of these have, special promotional code for broward county families. So how will we be able to provide them with these codes and maybe provide them also with a

293flier, some saoert of information with the top two are the best two options that they can access. So are we planning as a district to do that? it will be both schools and district and the website it seems like the pop ups are work. When I hear complaints it seems the pop up is working. We MAY leverage some of that. I agree na pop up should not come up on every page, I tried it and it's a little annoying. Maybe just the first or second page. there is an option where you can put don't show me again, you just have to scroll all the way down. okay. Thank you, DR. Hepburn, I believe it's important that we get the information out to the families way before school start and they're aware of the options and

294hopefully, I know we presented five vendors, maybe we can have the top two that they can make use of. trey davis, chief information officer, john stole my thunder, don't show again, it's in there. There is a student online services and our team constantly vets, those providers that provide free to low cost mobile services, internet services at home. so it's under a new site, under students, student online service sxz then internet access in this particular case. I understand that, but I think we need to have an initial approach to bring awareness to this and hopefully DR. Hepburn you can update on our whether or not families are making use of these discounts. absolutely. thank you. thank you, DR. Zeman. just wanted to share some news with cabinet and the staff up here. If you took today's

295agenda with 95 agenda and several thousands pages the projected time to run this meeting was 12 hours and 15 minutes, by my prediction, we did it in six hours, we did t.We're getting through materials. I also want to commend all of my colleagues for getting questions in ahead of time. It's really meaningful, not just because we get it bft meetings but because we get to read the answers. It really helps be better informed and making better decisions. Congratulations to us and the system and us working through these meeting through. That way we get more public coming. Are we starting at 5:00 o'clock. it's 5:30, I believe. 5:00 o'clock. I am glad because you MAY not have showed up. yes, we cannot start before that. thank you, all for making our meetings better. thank you, MS.

296Bulman. thank you, I have something to fill the time. So, since I have all my colleagues here, I wanted to ask a question that something has been brought to me by a lot of what, and I wanted to get everybody's opinion as well. Policy 80-20, we passed it several months ago. When I was new to the board, and it, seems to be okay. At the time, but in practice, there seems to be a lot of trouble with the usage of it by our community partners, and various people that want to use our facilities. can you tell us what facilities? the use of the facilities and then also the use of this program fa sil tron which is a basically like a bad word when anybody talks to me about it. I have not heard one

297good thing about t ito date. There is numb o othinings. Facilitatetron is not easy to use, the cost f renting and the ease of renting are not good. And then, you know, we depend on so many organizations, become leon our pta, that provide free programming to our students and my understanding is, right now they're suppose to be going through facilitron and they're being charged number to provide services to our kids like the PTAs I spoke with and I think we have a lot more people here if it was not the middle of summer and I don't know if individual PTAs know about it. There is some issues with other groups. i'm very concerned about alienating our partners and the people that are the most involved with making an invested in our schools. That, because it

298seems like they have to now be registered on facilitron to have a feeting at one of our schools to raise money for the kids. As a former pta, PRESIDENT, treasurer, I would not be particularly excited about the prospect to fundraise money to rent a room to run a meeting at the school. I don't know if anybody has been receiving similar feedback? DR. Hepburn. I know, I think we all probably heard from people, there is a clause in there, if they're a partner in education, that it's either reduced by half or in some cases not charged at all. But DR. Hepburn, if you want to expand on that? yes, you're correct. If you're a partner the costs is significantly reduced. When it gets to myself or staff, MR. Shism, we can talk about the costs but

299I do want to go back to where we were. We were wild wile west of facilities, so there was inconsistency across the board for schools. A school MAY be somebody letting them use the facilities and accidents happens and we all kinds of liability issues. Or an organization MAY have been using the school for free for a very long time. When they should have been paying and also uploading their insurance and all of this other thing. When it's used correct, all the information flows through the right way, people put in their insurance to be able to use their insurance. So I think we're at this change in how we do business because I got a call, what was that? MR. Sullivan, I MAY have disturbed you, it had to be friday night or saturday, we're so

300used going to the school and doing this. It was like, you have to go through facilitoron right now. So those are the many cases where people have not been doing it the right way. And knock on wood, I don't think the district has bared a lot of liability when accidents have happened in the past. So we're trying to make sure that we have a clean and clear process, sounds like we need to do more education also. But also, we need to understand from some of our partners, especially the municipalities what their experiences are so we can continue to clean up that process. yeah, I mean that sounds very shiny and happy at the facilitoron usage, this is not what I'm hearing. And MS. Paul has been helpful. Because I've had constituents signing up and they

301get charged thousands and they do not go through. If you're renting a auditorium and bringing having an event, but if you have a scout troop, if it's the pta, we're alienating our partners by having them do this. I mean, I don't even know if the pta has to have liability insurance, obviously we have insurance. I think that's a little bit different. Those are partners. right but having, having writing a little census saying there is a waiver process and not having a waiver process, is why I'm bringing this up. Yes, there is an exception but what is it? And there is a memos floating around, the pta, booster clubs all of these different groups have to be on facilatron I think it bears whether you're pushing people away for in the yep. to rollout facilitoron and

302what that is affecting the community. Because if you have a graoufp five moms sitting in a room talking about how they're going to raise money for the next heart run or whatever, do you really have to go through that the entire process? People are not going to want to participate. yeah, there he is, come around this corner. Kind discuss some of these groups that you're talking b versus, MR. Bust o if you can go to through the school's ptsa versus an organization that wants to rent our facilities. If guk through the scenario so we can understand the difference on how to go through the process. chris a acabuzo. I think we've made progress. The policy has been amended since 2011 I think for the third time. Facilatron is a major improvement it's a software. Facilatron

303is not the problem. Part of the problem is -- for example, we're trying to hopefully, make revenue, orange county is approaching close to 7-8 million dollars. So I'm going to go through the process. So again, the pie 1 and pie 2. And pi-1, we're doing we're reaching out to orange county. For example they only a law like boys scouts, girl scouts to use facilities for one hour for free. Right now the policy does not have a time limit. So, I don't want to use the word, they are making money but they charging them. So the pta, pto, the goal is, the organizations like that is for them to capture usage in the system so we know who they're using the facility. If they're using any specifically for your meeting, pta, pto staff meetings, you don't

304have to provide insurance or pay rent. But if you're using it to raise funds, then the policy is very clear, then have you to pretty much provide insurance, pay rent and then if it's not for a fundraiser, it says you have to expenditure MAY have had that go to the schools. I heard your comments regarding the process. So we felt, can waive for security those are the two things. However it says, we have to show data, because these security need it. These security are going to show up but then who is going to pay. Then we can do our location to cover that cost, right. So we're making sure that you have your checks and balances, so right now, we're working on a process to create a form and then document and maybe if you're

305going to move money around. So we're addressing this comment, but it's continually being improved on. Comments are entered into, you can see every single comment. We're finding out people are making reservations and then they stop payment and go to use another fake name. We're going to be codefining the process for the waiver. Hopefully that helps. I mean, this is not what I'm hearing and who is the most involved families in our schools? The people in the pta and doing the scouts. All of these things. I don't see. Now again, like I said if you can, if you can rent out the facilities for larger scale things and make money, great, I'm all for it. But I really think we need to weigh the balance of what the repercussion of this full scale facilatron is and

306a process and amendsing the policy to very specifically exclude different groups from this, which I think is the best way to do it. I think we, you're going to get a lot more complaints because right now you're in the benefit of being in the summer and I know, specifically people that would be here if they were not out of town, because they're going to be really mad when they find out about this. So I would like to see, some kind of a proposal or some kind of have some ability to really, make this clear about what we're doing so we're keeping our families and not -- particularly the people that are working to raise the money for the kids, because it does not make any sense that we would be making work harder and pay

307money for that. Also in the facilatron even if you get a waiver, they're trying to charge you for electricity as something, like $200 for electricity? I don't know how we're coming wup this number when the school is still occupied. There is a lot of stuff that has been reported to me by various groups that doesn't really, confirm what you're telling me. if I MAY, the user experience is valuable feedback. I don't know if the people who are contacting you, if they're willing could contact us and they can walk us through their experience so we can learn to get better feedback just to understand, is it a click of a button is it something we added unintentionally. The user experience is going to be a valuable feedback. And that's for the whole board if you can

308send them our way we'll be glad to sit down with us and have them walk us through their experience while utilizing so we can see where the barriers are. If we do it this way and we hear the complaints coming through myself also, they call me too, and people on my team, if we do a second hand, somebody told me this experience and then we come back for the policy, still may not solve our problem as if we can get the information from the people who are experiencing this. I'll do the same, the people who called me within the past couple of weeks to see if they can sit down with us and see where the specific barriers or things that we need to update. Same thing, we don't want to lose anybody, we don't

309want to push anybody from using our facilities to enhance our schools and communities for all for partnerships and don't want to turn anybody away. and what about improving the waiver? yes, he just talked about he's work withing MR. Shism. I'm happy to talk to you about it. I'll add to that and I know MS. Thompson and alhadeff wanted to say something on facilatron I have a suggestion with you just to mention, change is hard for every one. And I know people MAY not want to have to do facilatron to even use it's free. Let's say something happens, we could be liable for some of that stuff. I think it's important that it's some kind of notification that people are using, whether it's costing them or not costing them. And we did spend a lot of

310time because I worked on this with MS. Paul and MR. Shism because people were complaining about the cost. The first edit. I would like to make a suggestion to the superintendent, maybe we can do a virtual town hall with the vendors or people using the facility and glean that information staeds of saying, to MS. Bulman have nem call me. Let's have a town hall and invite them to come and share the concerns and maybe be able to address it in a quicker manner as oppose today waiting to trickle in to tell you what the issues are. one of our pta is not appropriate. They're raising money to service our kids they're not raising money to go on a cruise or anything like that. They're trying to raise money for a new media center that we

311cannot designate money. They're hosting money to host teacher breakfasts. Raising money for behavioral incentives, pbis incentives. So again why are we basically putting our foot in our mouth and causing them more strife? I just talked to phyllis shaw who said we're trying to charge the council pta's 4,000 for their training meeting that they had. They paid the $300 in good faith, because their understanding they were a partner in education. That's insane that we are trying to make money off of people who are trying to serve our community and while I get that other districts are making money and I get that we are in the business of trying to make more money there needs to be limitations in my opinion. And I get that that 80-20 policy has been worked on and it has a

312lot of headache. It needs to come back so heads up, I might be bringing it back. those are my comments, I really staff to look into girl scouts and provide an update. I really need staff to look at the charge and make sure that that does not happen again. And making sure that our booster clubs can easily access fa sil tron needs to happen and also the labor process but you're working on it. before we go to alhadeff, the request was to bring it back. Yes. that's what it sounds like. I I thk k thth's's what we're dog. And suggtition isto have the town hall with the vendsers and twek and bring it back tweaked. That's what ma maura was asking. MS. Alhadeff. yes, so I was thinking of doing it interactive webinar to have

313all the key stakeholders who would like to rent out our facilities and help them educate them on the facilatron and get their input or the issues of what is going on to help us bert tweak the policy. okay, okay, anything else. MS. Thompson. thank you, chair. So MS. Bulman brought up one of my item my other item is about the federal funding freeze but in particular how board members are getting communicated with this information. I feel like I did not know enough what was happening to properly educate our community about how much money we can potentially be losing on. What is the break down. So title 2 does xyz and my counterparts was able to say if we don't get title 2 hundreding that means maz suarez is gone. While understand that staff has a

314lot of responsibility and you're focusing on troubleshooting, it's our job to educate our community and we cannot do that without that information. And I'm not asking for a separate memo but if we can be included in the memos, you obviously sent to the congress people because they knew how much money we were losing before I did, I learned on twitter, or x. I don't know this is the first time this is going to happen. There needs to be a quicker communication mechanism to the board so we understand what is happening, it will be helpful but not necessary but if john, or the superintendent could say, hey this is our statement on this issue, or you know, we, xyz talking point but even the basics of what this is what is happening. This is what we

315know so far. Because again, other counties were able to get this information within a few, I would say a day of it happening and we didn't. Furthermore, I would like a more robust conversation or if anybody has any comments. I know panelis county is having on the funding freeze and that is done through their school board. They're educating their community. At the end of the day, I do believe the funding will be released because cording, we're in compliance. At the end of the day, if this funding does not get released and action has to come up, our community is not going to come after the federal, the legislature, they're going to come after us because we are letting go of staff. We need to make sure that the community knows what is happening, how they

316can engage if worried are not worried about it. Would I like a plan or feedback on that idea. And again I know you are focused on solutions so I'm fine with that being a board member responsibility. But I cannot do that without the information and a speedier mechanism. I have a thought on that. DR. Hepburn, what about doing something like similar to what has alhadeff just mentioned or even calling it a parent university. We have a lost parents that participate in that and we have a mechanism and it can be on what federal cuts mean to the district and it could be in a parent university type of, it's a half hour and then have a chance to ask questions. we can work with the communication team and also possibly the parent university or task

317force team since they already have the platform to do that. We'll follow-up with great point, MS. Thompson, we'll follow-up with a specific memo detailing everything we already have the information. I think we already have a memo we can send out this evening after this meeting just to make sure you have that on hand and i'll figure out next steps. Yes, you can do that. I just think in general, -- -- . MR. Zeman, there is people with their hands up. I'll put you down. do whatever you want. thank you for bringing that up MS. Thompson. I think that you know, we have to keep in mind, we're all kind out there in the community and we have to manage the narrative too. It's a lot easier for us to have the information up front even

318if it's not great information, even if it's information that is going to change later so we can tell our constituents or families what it looks like. And I think I also, because we have colleagues in other counties and they have hands-on actual numbers very quickly and I was thinking they're all geniuses but I get it that they're get iting provided to them. So I get it now. I think you know, when we were having the issue, during the legislative session when they were talking about cutting our apo accelerated funds, you know, other counties really mobilized their parents to and really educated them so they were going to their legislature, and I don't know that we did that as affective as we could have. And if we're ready to go and we're not, we're playing offense

319instead of defense, I think that's going to help us as a school district because, when people are looking at twitter or whatever, you don't really know where that is, there is too many sources of information, so we need to have a source of information that we can rely on. You see a little bit of information goes out, every one has an opinion and that becomes the truth. Sxlt whether or not that's the truth, it reflects poorly on us. So I 100 percent agree with the request by MS. Thompson. thank you. MS. Alhadeff. so we have federal lobbyist and we pay them a lot of money and they should be communicating with the board the updates. We should be at the pulse of the information and not find out on x, so I think it's, disappointing

320that there was this lag in time and not enough information to end with specifics because our federal lobbyist should be communicating more effectively with the board. I'm going to push back respectfully, we've emailed the board every time we receive an update to include that letter. Anytime there is an update, I've been emailing the board. but, regardless, at the so but if our federal lobbyist are knowing about this information because congressman is knowing about the information, they're putting stuff on x before we know about it, I think it's a problem. the only thing missing is memo two to provide the impact. We didn't want the board realizing that the funds MAY be releads before they make any drastic decisions. That was the only thing missing, any update, that there is been, I'm in contact with the

321lobbyist, daily these days. So I think the only piece that was missing is true dollar amount and the impacts. I think you did receive something about it, because I heard DR. Zeman say very specific numbers. I just could not find it on my emails. But for sure you got the same email, I sent that email. zeman, has other connections. I don't think we sent that. any updates that we received we sent to the board, we were going to have a more fruitful discussion but we didn't want the board in the position to make difficult decisions if the feds are going to release funds before exhausted. DR. Zeman. I think generally good practice to MS. Thompson's good point is to share as many facts as you can with us. At the end of the day, we

322have to be inside the trust circle of knowledge. And anytime there is knowledge whether there is a third party group. We got 12 days later, it's not okay. All too often, there is knowledge we have that the board does not have. We cannot advocate for our constituents. At the same time whenever I've had a special meeting with somebody is connected, and I have to have a connection, whenever is asked for data, MS. Thompson, it's been quick. that is helpful but it's when I've gone to ask for it and asked very specific questions in order to facilitate meeting. I feel the flow of information for knowledge, not for the analysis of it, not for what should we do to fix the problem, but how many positions, how much money, I think that should come to us

323immediately and then, we'll just have to be tr uft today do the right thing with it. Will it get released to the media as soon as we get it, possibly. But that's not a bad thing either, it's just facts. Or we don't know the answer yet. And that's okay. You're not dwg to know the answer. The second that omb withhold happened, none of the districts knew what they were going to do. To your point, they knew the size. So there is some work that the cfo and other teams need to do to get it together. We would like to know things sooner rather than later. thank you. Okay. MS. Alhadeff, had you something to share. yes, I just wanted to get more information about the volunteer application that is going on right now and is

324there a ded line -- deadline that parents have to fill it out by? I see MR. Schism. it's a great opportunity to say we're looking for volunteers. The window is open, and we're coming wup more creative way to see make sure our volunteers are really involved, really engaged and have more data. There is no deadline, we keep it open all year. If you know people that needs that information, let us know. It's being promoted that way. On this thursday, I'm meeting with a advisory group and we'll talking about the policy 8020 as well as banners and an opportunity to talk about and promote volunteers. MR. Is cervera? so I would like to share some goodwill, if I MAY. The national merit scholarship corporation announced recently the 2025 national merit scholarship winners, including five outstanding from

325broward county public schools, incidentally all of them in my district so. Congratulations to leo junior, dominique, corin, ialan ally and ally wynne all from cypress school. So congratulations to them on that tremendous honor, very very proud and I think it's a testament to their hard work and our educators at those high schools. So kudos to all of them. thank you, that was one of them on my list to announce. And they're additional ones, there was a whole list of other students that were national merit winners from the district. So I think that brings us to like 13 or something. Along those lines, so congratulations to all of those. I have two things that I would like to ask my colleagues about. Well I one thing to ask and just just make a comment. i'm sure

326all of us are having similar questions being asked about the contracts, I'm sure I'm not the only sure they're reaching out to. And it does not matter what kind of contract, the time period of getting a contract through from beginning to end, is in sometimes, a lot of time and it's frustrating. So I did reach out to MS. Batista to ask if she can give us a list. Because they landyn and legal at some point, not that I'm putting blame, I'm not trying to do that, I'm just trying to solve a problem. They're working on, all the contracts, where they sit right now and what is happening. I would like to know my colleague's interest in having a workshop to talk about what are some of the concerns about contracts and possibly writing a board

327policy on the timeliness of contracts and what that might look like so that we can start to solve the issue and find and pen point where the problem is. Is it that they need more training on how to do contracts? Is problem waiting for other legal. I know that it doesn't matter what kind, we're having issues. I would like to know what your thoughts would be on having a workshop and possibly doing a policy specific to contract. That allows MS. Baptist's department adequate to review contracts. And I think say this this from personal experience if you're always reacting to imagine because nobody is put ining things in timely manner, we're reading things that expire tomorrow, we don't have time to give feedback. Something that is kmg in tomorrow. So that it always pushes, when you

328a law I think we -- we need more information. One was stuck in the county legal, but if we had more information, we could call legal county, and we didn't have the information so that contract took a long time. That's where I'm coming from. Doctor, sorry did you have more? yeah, I guess. It's kind of a case by case basis, are we going to have a running list to know that it was at the county? I don't know. There is definitely a problem with some contracts, I voice my opinion earlier r is week. But it seems like it's a management issue, like in the various departments and I think if you're, people need to be on top of deadlines and there has to be an expectation set that you're getting this done x amount of

329time before the contract needs to be presented to the board. We would really eliminate a lot of problems if we had something like that. that's why I'm looking for a policy. When I call, one side of the house, they say it's the other side of the house. And that's why I wanted a workshop to mesh this out. DR. Zeman. I have risk likes exploding in my head. first risk is officials getting involved in contracts. And if a vendor calls you and says, I can't seem to get this done, get out of it. And that's my advise to all of my colleagues. Our privileging. The second is, this is 100 percent operational concern. And I would ask, I would love to do a workshop so we can learn about it. So you know, you want to

330talk to trey about trying to buy laptops you can get a little lesson in some things through no fault of the government in a lot of cases, things go side ways and you cannot say I want contracts to be done at this time because each one has a process. If it's a piggy back, it's great. I do think we can hold the superintendent accountability and ask the superintendent maybe after the workshop to keep a tracker of significant contracts as to which group is it with, how long is it taking? If we absolutely have to know something, which have to know something, and say, do you mind letting me know. He should be summarized in the answers he gives us. Like it's going fine. It's going to take time, this is complicated or something like that,

331but not give us specific information otherwise we open the flood gates of callers calling us, and that's grand jury stuff, you just don't want to be involved in those conversations ever. I love the idea of a workshop chair, so we can all learn about it but I'm reluctant to have a school board policy other than direct senior to say, sir, would you please keep a tracker on any significant procurement so that you know, where it is and you can come back and give us data. I think right now, what we hear is people explaining money from and it's taking too long. But I think we ought to get that information through the workshop and then, I would task our ceo equivalent of please keep track of it. Say it's a security and we're pressing the

332like hell to get the right glass at all the right schools, we MAY want to go to the superintendent do we need security but to make a call on behalf of the vendor is very very scary and for us to write a policy about it, it's almost creeping that line to get involved in solicitations and is would not want to get involved in that. And the last point, do we have enough people work withing contracts and administration and solicitations? Do we know whether we have enough people doing that? That's a bigger issue than a policy that the school board, you must get this done in 60 days, I think learning about it is a great idea. Like do you have enough people to really do it well? Does the lawyers have enough counsel to get

333it done? Some of these contracts are incredibly challenging to review and the back and forth is multiple times to my understanding. So I think those are good things, because we own the budget we can create more jobs but I think a workshop will get us to that point. And chair, do we want to go over that line. I'm not sure what I want to put into a policy about procurement, I want to have as little with it. thank you. I think MS. Leonardi had something. yeah, thank you so much. I think many of us have heard of these concerns from different groups. And I agree with share hixon when you say that when you talk to one side of the house, they blame the others, there is a lot of finger pointing. I'm not confident

334that like in a workshop, we will get to the cracks of the issue. I think, what I would be interested in is, you know, asking the superintendent to do some fact finding to get to the bottom and come back to us with here are the problems and challenges I've identified and here are the solutions. And I do wonder like, if part of the problem is, the lack of for a better term, like project management, like somebody who is, you know, following their, their contract process, and doing the necessary follow-ups. And I also wonder if part of the issue is, like working in silos, so if the superintendent can get all of the stakeholders together and get to the bottom of why these things take so long, I think that would be, a bert use of

335our time. But thank you for bringing up this issue because it's something that we hear about often. so that's kind of envisioning in the workshop and I don't think it's only the there is two pieces to t so I think general counsel would also be part of what is happening and what they're seeing and the superintendent explaining what he's seeing on that side so that we hear together, what both of them, their vision is or what the concern is. Like I said I know MS. Batista is working on it right now to kind of see what is sit ining legal and what is holding it up so she can present that to all of us beinger it's a member that we will share, I think it's due at the end of the month. So I

336think the same thing with the superintendent, so they can both give, it's not just operational, it's also legal because there are pieces of the legal part. And the problem is we're having these conversations on one side of the other, we're not having them with them together. That's what I was envision where MS. Batista will bring the information that she has and DR. Hepburn can bring the information he has and understand the process and see where the gaps are so if we need to fund something or have new positions what that would look like. if I MAY. sorry, sorry, can I just one last piece, thank you. I guess what is, what sorry -- what I don't want to happen is just like overview of how these things work and what I fear is, that in

337a workshop, people MAY opinion be, people will be reluctant to talk about like the messy parts of this. And, so I mean, I'm not going to object to a workshop I just don't want it to be this is how we do contracts. I want it to be like these are the problems these are our solutions. I just don't, I don't have a lost confidence that a workshop will be that. yeah, so if I MAY. So great conversation, is there area for improvement, absolutely. As general manager would say when it comes to contracts and issues, that we need her input and partnership with. So, in the vain of MS. MS. Leonardi is speaking about, the, the as far as the workshop I'm reluctant to do a workshop in the manner of the request. Because the workshop

338is going to be about to educate the board about how the process works. I don't want to create a spectacle for where the MS. Batista are poining fing pezer on what our divisions are doing wrong. Most of the work as far as discovery because we had a process that the sim team facilitated which is our project managers for the district to dive in, because we, MS. Batista are very well aware of the concerns, because we hear them too from vendors about how long contracts take, from a start all the way to to board approval, variance some things are quick and some things take very long and we needed to do some discovery, a lot of system and a lot of processes to figure out what those processes are. I can have the sim team write

339that up, they did a great job writing that up so we can provide to the board to identify the what the gaps are. We are developing a tracker, we kind of did that in the soft way in JUNE to see what we need to work on before the beginning of the school year we can update that tracker make it more robust so that her office and my office can monitor and see how our contracts are flowing through all the way through legal and through the board process. So if if it's a workshop that can potentially look like finger pointing to the public, I don't want to t I want to avoid that. If it's a a workshop about educating the board about procurement processes from the start all the way to board approval so everybody

340understand and all the other mancia that happens. But we have a lot of discovery information already, such as the contract group department that will be oar seen by a director to make sure it's a one-stop shop so end users are not doing the bulk of the work. I know MS. Batista is working on a lot of things in her department as well. We're coming to a happy medium to find the best process that is going to create the best outcome so we have clean contracts, they're done at the appropriate amount of time, not taking a long time, we're saying appropriate because it depends on the contract. Where it protects the district and we can provide the products and service that's we need to. So we can provide a lot of this stuff sd follow-up in

341a white pairp type form. After the board reviews that, if you still need a workshop, I know you all have voiced that and if that suffices, we can address some of those issues on that paper. okay, and my other question since you brought it tup, when will that new department be functional? we're working on that right now. This is a new department, just like we spoke about the timing of the freeze, we had to pause and start looking at some other areas first before we get back to the rigors of doing those things as far as putting employees in certain positions but we're look to go finalize what that department is going to look like and how the contracts will flow. The team already updated the new template in MAY where our staff are currently

342using and how we are leveraging to make sure the work flow is flowing. MADAM Chair, if I MAY. I agree with the superintendent, first of all, we're working and have been working cooperatively, because we know there are issues and things that need to can be improved for sure. As you know, you asked several questions which I'm working on and they're due at the end of the month, when this response comes out, I will not have not only a list of contracts pending in our office as of probably this week since I'm planning on sending it out at the end of this week. So as of this week and then, you will also asked several other questions which were from our perspective on some of the solutions will be so we're ready to set those forth.

343great, thank you so much. And, so the last thing, so then I guess the answer is no to a policy and not a workshop right now. We'll get follow-up and then we'll decide on the workshop. what is the deadline for the follow-up paper? I'm going to talk to the I am team, it's late, I'll talk to them tomorrow, they have a bulk of this information. It shouldn't be that long and then we'll work with general counsel for any additional information if she wants to combine some of the information, some of the operational things. okay, can we say friday of the week of AUGUST first. we respectfully ask for two weeks. that's right about two weeks. that's great. our lead project manager is at home, supporting his new born baby. About three weeks. Either the 8th

344or 15th, we have to educate them tomorrow. So the 8th or 15th. yeah, the 15th. It needs to be timely but it's not an emergency and I know it, like I said, MS. Batista had until the 30th. My last, it is a comment and ask. So DR. Zeman, made mention of a us sending questions to the staff but I think staff would like us to do that a little better. So when we're pulling items, they don't often know. Sometimes I know sometimes you just want to ask the question in public and that's fine. But if you ask them ahead of time, they at least know what the question is so they're prepared to do that. So, I know that there is some time issues but I don't think we're doing the best job that we

345can in asking questions about agenda items before we get to the meeting. So if we can work on that a little bit better and I know the superintendent. thanks, chair for bringing that up. So I think this part of the meet ing has been the vain of feedback and improvement. The vein and feedback, we want to do a better job, especially on consent items. Consent items are consent items, they go. And whatever we can do to support the board to get questions, especially for consent especially for consent items so we can answer those questions as much as possible, here are the concerns, to get the most accurate information and address any concerns. Just to make sure that we're constantly improving our meetings. So whatever we can do to support the board, and also support us

346to make sure that we're provieeding the right information and doing it in a timely manner, especially for those items, greatly appreciated. So whatever we need to do to make that possible. I have a suggestion, why don't we have consent items that are consent items, we define consent items that don't have money. Consent should be things that we look at and say, yep. It's not about money. When you put up a c-1 item like today, it's going to get discussion and we know that. We keep consent, that does not cost us money. It's a big deal we're going to talk about. I don't know who does this, who defines consent versus open, but we don't have consent items that we think people will consent with. We have consent that don't cost us money. If we can

347think about that so if the split between consent and open items makes sense. I don't know, that definition predates me. I believe it's in policy 1020, so we would have to revise that policy. so I believe 1020 is coming back to us next week. next week. amen. we can have that discussion about what it looks like. let's go. so we'll have an opportunity to figure that out. I agree if we can streamline the process. because we're pulling more consent than open items right now. we have to figure it out and better way to do it. Save time. thank you. This scheduled order of business for this regular school board meeting of the school board of broward school board has been completed. Seeing no further obligation, I adjourn this meeting and see you back at 5:00

348o'clock for