001Slash mobile phones, smartwatches, personal digital assistants, tablets and other two way communication devices. So I think that what MR. Davis, would you agree that two way communication devices MAY cover that or we need a broader. So so I do think you have to be cautious there. Because you know, a wireless device. Are we talking wireless networks cellular sense. So you would need to call out, for example, laptop devices that are issued to students that are filtered like for example, sip of filtering and all, which we would need to allow them to use those devices, obviously. So I think you would need to make an exception for student devices that are issued by the district that include appropriate filtering and all, which would then make it a viable device during teaching and learning. Also, I'm sorry,
002MISS Alhadeff. I also want to keep in mind too. Once we do distribute devices there, students will be able to opt out of our devices because they have their own. So how we capture that in that language. MR. Davis? You got any suggestions for that one? MR. Davis, on if a student opt out our devices because they have their own. But I know we they're on our network so we can still apply the filters. I'm sorry, Doctor Hepburn, but I missed part of that. So you mentioned about kind of making sure we spell out not applicable to district devices that we issue to students, but I know that we're going to have some circumstances where students are bringing their own device because they're opting out of using our device. And how do we exclude that?
003You mentioned something about language around the filtering. Okay. Yes. Correct. So for example, if we have anyone connecting to, let's say, guest networks with their own devices, not necessarily connecting to, let's say our bc network, I think you would need to make a distinction there because some of the, you know, the firewall configurations, I can't get into those in detail. But, you know, our differentiated between the networks. So I think that's maybe where we need to put some some clarity or include some clarity there. And then also if there could be some more clarification regarding the broader language that maybe MR. Davis can suggest. And then and so I'm just asking the question, so like the meta glasses for example, they would not be able to use them in school or they would be able
004to use them only during lunch if that past. Doctor Hepburn. I'm thinking I have a pair of myself. I only use them for for fishing, to be honest with you, because I never take pictures. My wife bought them for me, take pictures for fishing, but. Just my experience, my only experience with them is to take pictures and listen to music every now and then. I don't know if there's privacy concerns. There'll probably be a Batiste MISS Batista question about privacy concerns, where you have on glasses that can possibly record or take pictures at any time in our buildings with students. Right. And and that would also be an issue for, you know, plagiarism and. Those so test taking situations I know that. That you know. Yeah. Okay. So maybe there can be some further language
005added to address the, the meta glasses or other devices because this is a concern with, you know, our students now going to be wearing their glasses and videotaping their teacher during class or, you know, at other times that might be inappropriate, like the locker room. Or are they going to be wearing their glasses and listening to music? I don't know all the capabilities of the glasses, but this seems like something that we should try to get ahead of and be proactive about before there becomes issues. It's like Alexa on your eyes, pretty much what it's like. Alexa on your eyes. Pretty much. If I MAY. So just remember, and I know Doctor Washington can speak to this better than I can, that many of the actions that you just mentioned are already prohibited in the
006in the code of conduct. So the method by which somebody would be violating the, the, the, the, the code of conduct is just, you know, one more way that the violation occurs, but the violation is already prohibited. Like, you know, there cannot be any videotaping of in the private, private, private sections of the school. You know, you cannot be videotaping in the classroom unless there is an issue of life, safety and so on. So would there be an appropriate time that someone can let me just ask, would there be an appropriate time that someone can wear glasses during school? Doctor Hepburn. Doctor Washington, anything in the policy? I think I think before you answer that, I think we have to liken it to simply just having your phone in your hand in the air. Right?
007If I'm holding my phone in my hand, I can do the same thing. The glass is do I can take a picture, I can take a video, I can listen to music. It's just not on my eyes. It's in my hands. So it the language should be the same no matter what the device is. It's just about what what is capable of and what we're restricting people to do with it. If you want. If you got anything to add. No, I would agree. I would just say any use of personal technology would need to be in line with what is directed by the teacher. I think that falls back in line with what the statute intends as well. Regarding the use of wireless communication devices at the high school level. And just a reminder that
008use of any wireless communication device is prohibited in law k through eight. So we're only discussing high school and in the policy right now, any use of any personal technology is at the discretion of the teacher. Okay. I just think it's something for us to be aware of, proactive about. You know, if we're banning the use of glasses, you know, maybe there also needs to be training regarding it because I you know, I wouldn't if MR. Sullivan was wearing glasses. I wouldn't personally be aware of that. And, you know, so just something to think about because I think that there can be cheating going on, inappropriate videotaping going on, etc. Thank you. Thank you, MRS. Rupert. Before she starts, could I make one comment, please, since this is rulemaking. So in the beginning and we'll
009have this discussion. But I did mention in the beginning that you would have three minutes to share feedback or ask questions. So in your three minutes. That's the only time we get I thought that I know we've been through this before and I I'm going to go through it again because I believe it was on 1070, I don't know, it was on one of the early changes that were being made when we had the public input. The only rulemaking that we felt we had the ability to ask questions, which is, I believe what the law says is to of staff. And the only way that we could do that, I believe, was at that one meeting that we had, and now we're changing the rules, and this is going to be permanent. So you only
010get three minutes. So because I think I had a good suggestion, I'm not trying to get you here. Yeah. No. And we appreciate that. But the the time is to ask questions of staff. That's what's by statute. So we we took to heart what you said and how things went last week. And we will from now on have rule development on the items. So you know, so your time to come up could be to give suggestions or to ask questions. And staff could answer them if you had questions. So I did read that at the beginning of this item. Okay. Well I didn't hear it that way okay. And also I believe that if you really want transparency and you want communication, then you've got to open it up for questions. Even if you put
011out one minute time limit on them like you do, I think you are missing an opportunity to allow the public to give suggestions. And that's all I'm saying. Well, we appreciate that and we do. It's the three minutes that you have. No, no, no, because I don't know what's going to be said until this is happening. That's why we saw rulemaking as a a back and forth between the public and staff. Right. And so you could have had. No, no, that's not back and forth. I was given the same three minutes I give get any other time. That's not rulemaking. Here okay. We appreciate it. Thank you. So you're not going to take my suggestion. Right now, MRS. Rupert? Sorry, it took me a second. I didn't realize that you were done, I apologize. My
012my position hasn't changed from from day one on this, though I will disagree with the lunch period as well as I think it's further on as the earbuds. And that's where I am. Thank you. Okay thank you doctor. I mean MR. Severa. Thank you, MADAM Chair. Got a couple things I'd like to bring up, if you'll indulge me. First and foremost on the cell phone policy, I'm not going to go into the tangent I went at the last meeting we had on this. I think my position is clear. Everyone knows it. But our classrooms are places of learning. Our schoolhouses are places of learning. They should not involve abilities to go on cell phones even during lunch, which curiosity, which causes a grave distraction that I've heard from countless teachers is almost impossible to get
013the kids to settle once they get back into the classroom from lunch, walking in with with the with the the cell phones on the TikTok and all the other social media platforms that they're on. In regards to the headphone issue in section five, subsection c6. MADAM Chair, I had a question just reviewing the perspective language here. The proposed language, I should say it would appear that in no set of circumstances, our elementary and middle school students are allowed to utilize headphones during the course of the day. My question would be what if they're on some sort of electronic I-ready program, or some sort of electronic learning program that would require that. Doctor Hepburn. They are allowed to use those devices at the permission from the teacher. So seat five c6. The way I read it
014says due to school safety concerns, headphones, earbuds and other accessories are prohibited during the school day for all elementary and middle school students, comma, unless otherwise determined as a necessary accommodation by an iep or 504 accommodation plan and specified in said plan. Is there another section of the rule that I'm missing that would allow them to utilize it if they did not have an iep? I noticed the intention of the law, but it's probably not spelled out in here. If it is Doctor Washington. It's not spelled out in here. Okay. What you're suggesting. Is, is that a concern for the district? Yes. Okay. Can we thank you. I also and nobody has touched on this yet. And I know we had had workshopped this and I saw that there were some changes. But if I
015focusing on the discipline matrix for grades nine through 12. There are some edits to the let me see what section it is here. Could you reference the page you're on to? Yes, I apologize, it's 131 of 136 of the pdf. Specifically s1 on this particular matrix dealing with sexual assault or sexual battery and rape. The punishment, as I read this is a behavior intervention program and an out-of-school suspension for ten days. Parent contact notification from regional offices, law enforcement contact and referral to a community youth support and issue a issuance of a Hope scholarship. My concern is, is with the penalty phase of this, I'm looking at some of the other violations, and I found an interesting one that's also appears to be new on page 132 of 136 entitled Simple Battery of a School
016Board Employee. And if you were to batter a school board employee, it appears that your punishment would be the same if you were in high school. For those students who committed a rape, I was wondering if I'm interpreting this incorrectly, but as I as I read this, obviously we want to treat sexual assault a lot different than a simple battery on a school board employee. Doctor Hepburn. Go ahead, Doctor Washington, if you can clarify. Yes. So just for clarification purposes, those are not new in there. They are read based on feedback that we received from the prior. I think it was in rulemaking to have the offenses that are immediately students immediately removed from school to have them stand out. So we did that using red text clearly in here in a red line that
017doesn't work. And I could have changed it another color. So those are not new. Having a mandatory recommendation for a behavior intervention program and a ten day suspension is the most severe discipline that we have in our discipline matrix. It's on par with expulsion. So both of these offenses are also reported to law enforcement. And I'm sure based on the law enforcement agency, they would handle them in very different ways. So if memory serves correct, there are some instances, such as homicide, for instance, where it does indicate expulsion, specifically says it in the column for punishment. I mean, obviously homicide is is a terrible and unspeakable thing, but engaging in sexual assault and rape is is up there too. Why is that not an automatic expulsion listed in the same manner than a homicide is?
018So just for clarification purposes of how expulsions are done in our district, our students are expelled with continuing education services, so they also attend a behavior intervention program. The state law requires three offenses to be expelled. We have actually four. We did include homicide, but the three mandatory under the zero tolerance statute are the threat to conduct a mass shooting of false threat or bomb threat. And the third one is escaping me. But it will it will come back. There. I can't remember. What is it? Weapons, a thank you. Weapons possession. Those three are mandatory expulsion under zero tolerance. Everything else in our in our discipline matrix, we do a mandatory recommendation for a behavior intervention program administratively. And what happens with a student is is essentially the same track. What the school board sees
019for final orders are, are expulsions. And only the our students that do not participate in the Behavior Intervention program are formally expelled from school. We offer expulsion with continuing education services. I'm still not following. Okay. What I think I'm hearing is that there's there's four categories of offenses. One of them being a weapons possession where you're automatically facing expulsion. Okay. So you're telling me, though, that if a student commits a rape at school that they are not they are not subject to an automatic expulsion. They have to go through a behavior intervention program with a ten day suspension. And arguably, if they complete that intervention program and the suspension, they're allowed back on campus. So yes, under zero tolerance, they are not automatically expelled. Our behavior intervention programs are not done within the ten day
020suspension. Our behavior intervention programs at the elementary level are a minimum of 45 days, and at the secondary level are a minimum of 90 days. And in order to work their way out of a behavior intervention program, they must have good behavior, good attendance, and they must maintain their grades. So it's not that they're doing that in their ten day suspension. They are out of the school for a minimum. At the secondary level, specifically nine through 12, they're out at minimum for a semester. Is this a daily thing or is this a district thing. So the the Florida statute requires expulsion for the three things district policy sets, the other the punishment for the others. Do we have the ability to require a mandatory expulsion if a student rapes another student on campus? Yes we
021do. I think that needs to be done. I donon'think t tss I iaa contveversial thing. MADAM Chair, what is the process for changing the for lack of better terms, the penalty phase of the disciplinary matrix. So I believe it's sitting. That's what we're doing right now. So you can recommend what you would like. We have a consensus. And then they would bring the when the policy comes back it would be in there and we would vote for it or against it. I recommend that if a student commits a rape on one of their campuses, they should face a mandatory expulsion in the same category as those for offenses that we heard from MRS. Washington. Is there anybody that disagrees with changing? Is there any objection. Any objection to changing that, MISS MISS Bowman? So just
022just for purposes of clarification, when we're looking at the discipline matrix, first of all, because MR. Rivera just said if they commit this crime on a campus, is that what the is this what we're assuming all of these things are happening on campus, and have they been proven to have occurred when we're doing the discipline, or is this just an accusation? Doctor Hepburn. Go ahead, Doctor Washington. I'll start it. It starts as an accusation until proven. But I'll let you provide any additional details. So once it is proven, then the the process starts going, going through its process to come back to the board as an expulsion for instances like that. So the way that this is reading, just as MISTER Rivera's point, okay, so if we're looking at this number one on page 131.
023Has it been proven yet or are we just disciplining someone for an accusation? Go ahead, Doctor Washington. So an accusation is made and administrators then conduct an administrative investigation before issuing discipline. Once they have determined that the accusation is true, then they would issue the consequences. Parents also have the right to appeal if if they don't feel that the appropriate consequences have been issued, or that the the code that's been applied to the violation is not appropriate for the behavior that was exhibited. So there's the whole process. So how do so how does the law enforcement play into this. Because I, I always get a little concerned about administrative determinations of criminal wrongdoing. So is. Are we assuming that the police are being called or is this is there a situation where there's an accusation
024of sexual battery and there's no police involvement, and it becomes administratively determined that this is the case? Go ahead. So any time there is a sensor related incident, there are a few minor exceptions tobacco bullying, harassment that don't have to be reported to law enforcement, but any other violation including s1 or sexual battery rape. You must report it to law enforcement. Our investigative processes do not. Administrators do their administrative investigation. Police do their investigation. We work together through that, but they are separate and independent investigations. And they we do have an information sharing agreement with the law enforcement. We do have staff that actually work in the courtrooms to gather the information. And so they do work together. But there is an administrative investigation that takes place separate from a law enforcement investigation. So what
025you see on here is the administrative findings, not necessarily what a law enforcement officer has found, but they do, again, in something as serious as a sexual battery or rape, there would be working hand in hand in collaboration with them. Yeah. I mean that's a that's a tough set of circumstances because if you're just going on a he said, she said basis instead of using forensic evidence and all of the other things that go along with a criminal investigation, you know, I'd hate to see a miscarriage of justice either way on that, too. So I guess. I would have no objection to expulsion if they're convicted or if they pose a threat, a continuing threat. I but you could be subject to a false accusation. And then. Agreed, I guess. But on our, for instance,
026on our weapons policy. Right. If you know, little Johnny brings a box cutter to school and the teacher finds it in a pocket or a book bag or whatever, he's going to be subject to expulsion, right? I think if you have a situation where, you know, GOD forbid, a hundred times over, there's a sexual assault on campus and a teacher or administrator walks in and witnesses what happened. I think the the automatic expulsion provision needs to be triggered. I guess maybe this will make MISS, MISS MISS Bowman feel a little bit better. But if you have a situation where someone's accused of bringing a weapon to school, right. There's just a just an accusation or there's a rumor floating around and it's not found. I would assume that the ten day automatic or excuse me,
027that the automatic expulsion does not occur in that situation. Or does it? It does not. We have to have evidence that the weapon was on campus and in their possession. Yeah, yeah. So I, I understand the concern about obviously you want your due process to play out and we don't want to be going on on accusation alone, but at least at the very least have this treated as the category of four that trigger the automatic expulsion if it's witnessed by an administrator or a teacher or an sro or a parent while on while on campus. Yeah. I mean, I suppose if you have an eyewitness. I don't know this. This always makes me uncomfortable with this particular topic because of the he said she said nature of it and doing things administratively instead of through
028the criminal justice system. If there's a if there's an eyewitness, I wouldn't have a problem with it. But if it's just an accusation and I, I think we could be jumping the gun by automatically expelling someone. I would just, I would suggest treat this as the fifth element in your category of four. Right. So whatever has to happen in those other zero tolerance categories, threats of a, you know, mass shooting or weapons have sexual assault and rape in there. So it's a zero tolerance policy. And if it happens and if it's proven or if it's if it's witnessed that they get an explosion, I cannot fathom a situation where I'd want someone to commit a rape in one of our schools and potentially be back after a ten day, a ten day suspension. That to
029me is is unconscionable. It should never happen. I mean, I know I don't think anyone here disagrees with that, but on the other hand, if someone's being falsely accused of something to automatically trigger an expulsion is also a gross miscarriage of justice. So I think we'd have to figure out a way to make this fair to everybody, because I think we're all aware of the fact that people make false accusations and lots of people, you know, suffer from that. Doctor Washington excuse me, doctor Washington can can you explain if it's following the same procedure like a weapon? Let's go to that. They they don't get removed immediately. There's some kind of investigation. There's proof. And then the the consequence happens. So I guess I it sounds like MRS. Bowman just wants some clarity of. If
030we were to add rape into that as well. And I think we would all agree that it we don't disagree with that being the same category, but it would follow the same procedure then. Right. They would have to go through and actually be found guilty in some place, whether it was in a court of law or through an investigation with local law enforcement. Our law enforcement, does that need to be spelled out? Is that what you're asking? I mean, I and perhaps we need to remove the person from contact with the victim in the meantime, while these things are happening, you know. Yeah. And that's done. That's already the case. Yeah. But homicide is also not on this list of the automatic three things is a homicide on there. But that has to happen on
031campus or that can happen anywhere. So if, if I MAY just to provide some clarity when it comes to behavior because there are behaviors that happen off campus that are students are not disciplined under the discipline matrix because it does cover what happens on campus, but they are removed from their school for off campus behavior that could present a threat to the school. So they are removed. And in some cases, students are assigned to an online platform for learning. In certain cases, homicide, attempted homicide, sex related offenses when they are arrested in the community for a sex related offense, we do assign them to an online learning platform instead of having them go to one of our behavior intervention programs. Process wise, the difference between a behavior intervention program assignment and an expulsion assignment. There's
032kind of two primary differences. Both have a ten day suspension. In that ten day suspension is the time that the packet is submitted from the school to my office. And I have members of my team that go through that packet to double check the work, the investigative work of the administrators at the school. We gather the police reports, we look at the statements of the witnesses. We look at the statement of the victim. We look at the statement of the offender. We give the parent the opportunity to have a parent conference, to be able to come in and share and advocate on behalf of their child before an assignment is made to a behavior intervention program that happens, whether it's a behavior intervention program assignment or and it's it's an expulsion. Because again, we offer
033expulsion with continuing education services. We don't just kick kids out of school with no place to go to get their education. The other the I think the big difference between an expulsion and a behavior intervention program assignment under our Code of Student Conduct, a behavior intervention program assignment is a minimum at in grades nine through 12 of 90 days. So that's two semesters. And we don't transition a student back or it's one semester I'm sorry, two quarters, one semester. We don't transition a kid back until a semester break because if we transition them mid semester, it will mess up their their grades, their credits, their ability to earn credit toward graduation. So we only transition on the semesters. So if something happens in OCTOBER the soonest a kid could be considered under a behavior intervention
034program assignment, the soonest they could be considered to return to a traditional school would be the following the start of the following year, but that's only if they have met the criteria that they need to meet for their behavior, their attendance, and their grades. When it comes to an expulsion, say something happens in OCTOBER. They can't be considered again for transition for one calendar year, and then we transition on the semester. So it happens in OCTOBER. They would not be eligible to transition until the following JANUARY at the start of the second semester. So that's kind of the primary difference between a behavior intervention program assignment and expulsion is the length. If they don't engage, some parents say my kid is not going to that behavior intervention program school. I'm going to do something else.
035I'm going to homeschool them. They're going to do virtual school, whatever it is, if they don't engage, they are expelled or assigned to a behavior intervention program for the remainder of the current school year, plus one additional school year. So they there is definitely encouragement for them to attend a behavior intervention program where we can wrap supports around them. We do have additional mental health personnel at the behavior intervention programs. Smaller class sizes, our ability to reach the root of the issue that has caused the student to act in the way that they have, that landed them in the program. We it increases our ability to be able to do that. So I think what we're discussing here is nobody's unless it's not proven, you know, that it happened. Nobody is going to return to
036their school within ten days. Many times in these cases, the students are arrested. And based on that charge, they're going to be assigned to a an online learning platform, particularly with the sexual battery with rape. But we don't rely on adjudication from the court because oftentimes that takes a long time. You know, they can go through months and months, and we don't want kids staying out of school longer than is necessary. So that is really why we rely on our administrative investigations. And then parents also have when it's an expulsion, they have the opportunity to request an administrative hearing if they're not satisfied with the parent conference. And then that does go in front of an administrative law judge on the other side, the behavior intervention side, they don't have the administrative hearing because the
037superintendent has the authority under statute to be able to assign students who are disruptive to the learning environment, to an alternative school setting. So I don't know if that context helps a little bit in better understanding the difference between the two, but. On the point. Oh, go ahead. I asked for information on the behavioral intervention program a few meetings ago, and I never received the board, never received anything, and that would have I think this would help the would have helped the conversation today. So when would we be able to get. Doctor Hepburn? We'll just have to check if that was submitted. We're looking right now for a follow up. See if it was, if we captured. It, submitted. Was it asked here? I said it in. The. Board meeting. I remember saying, is this
038the promise program over again? Yep. Doctor Simon. Thanks so much. Just on this point. In cases of severe behavior like this sexual battery and rape and virtually all cases, to my knowledge, there's a referral to law enforcement. If in fact a student is accused administratively found that there's enough evidence to take them and put them into this other program, and then they're taken through the law enforcement process and convicted what happens to them then. Doctor Hepburn. If there and I want to get to MISS Bowman's point now, administratively, we found enough evidence to say, look, there's a good chance that this charge is true. They go into the behavioral intervention program just in this scenario. Then the law enforcement does their investigation. Either has the accused to plead or go to trial and convict them.
039What happens when a student at Broward County Schools, who is in the behavioral intervention program, then gets convicted of sexual battery or rape? Go ahead, doctor Washington. So depending on what the outcome is in the court system, many times they're sent away to a program for six months, 12 months. When they are sent away to a program, the majority of the time. In fact, all the time since I've been in the seat students, we we step them back, step them down, back into a traditional school so they wouldn't go straight from a residential treatment program that was adjudicated by the court. We would step them back down into one of our behavior intervention programs for the for a minimum of a semester before we would consider them to transition back to a traditional school again.
040The court process takes at least a year. In my experience, over the last three years. So their behavior intervention program assignment would likely have run out by that point in time. But as long as there are charges pending in the court of that nature, they would not be considered to return to a traditional school. And in fact, if they have a charge of of rape or any sex related offense, they would be assigned to an online program. They wouldn't actually physically go to any of our behavior intervention programs. They would receive their services virtually, including the counseling services. Thank you so much. I understand the kind of standard case is a residential facility or juvenile detention. If in fact they go to juvenile detention, how do they get their education while they're. So the detention
041center is the temporary place while they are going through the court system. Typically, students are not held for more than 21 days. They're often released on an intensive home detention with monitoring. They follow up with their probation officers. But the treatment programs, when they are found guilty, most times they're sent away to a treatment program, and those programs, depending on what the judge orders, can be three, six, three months, six months, nine months, 12 months. They don't typically go beyond 12 months, and then they will return them back in that time. When they do return back again, we put them in a behavior intervention program as a step down because they've gone from a very small, very restrictive environment and we don't want to just put them back in a traditional school with a few
042thousand kids. So we'll put them back in a smaller environment, less than a couple hundred kids, to be able to provide them the services. But the detention center is not a long term place. That is not where they serve their sentence in the juvenile world. They serve it in a treatment program. And just in real practical terms, what happens to the student accused of sexual battery or rape found through administrative investigation to to have been administrator agrees that it's likely that it happened. And and what's the difference in their life between being expelled versus going through our behavioral intervention program, say, for the next year. In a behavior intervention program, they could potentially return to a traditional school sooner than if they were expelled. But that's all contingent upon what the courts do. Oftentimes in
043these cases, they will be arrested and they will have that charge kind of looming over them. But in the court system, things get thrown out on technicalities. Doesn't mean that it didn't necessarily happen, but they would still continue to serve their behavior intervention assignment even if it, for whatever reason, is thrown out in the courts. And so it could really it's the matter of how long they have to stay in the program. It's either a semester minimum or a year minimum is the difference between a behavior intervention program and the expulsion. I'm sorry, I maybe didn't ask it in the most eloquent way in terms of their day to day, week to week life. What happens when you're expelled versus when you have entry into a behavioral intervention program? It's the same. Okay. Thank you.
044You're welcome. Doctor Zeman, it's your turn also to did you want to speak on anything else? Yeah, I'm I guess what I'd like to ask MR. Tavares, did you want to separate sexual battery from rape, or did you think this is for both of those offenses? I would suggest that that there for for both. I mean, I haven't read the statute. The criminal statute. I'm sure there's a distinction. However, I would I would classify sexual battery as, as, as up there in severity. So I would leave it as, as currently as. And on our matrix here. What we're deciding today at a workshop is if there's no objection, the final draft comes back with mandatory expulsion. To MR. Rivera's point, if there is an objection, he could still or any member, when this comes back
045for a final passage, could make a motion to change that. Correct. Because I need to learn more about this, because I need to understand the fabric of why we've had it this way for so long. I'm I'm looking forward to learning more, regardless of whether we object or not. I want to learn more before we bring this back, so that we makeke se t thawe're ininrvening in in chchilen's liveve witthe balancesesf allll ings kinind of p t tetether. Eses offenses ee truly offensive, and sometimes it's hard in the moment to like, try and understand the practical implications of these things. But I'm not going to object today to your idea because these things are so offensive. But I do want to learn more between now and when this comes back, so that we can, you
046know, try and make sense of all of these things. Partly because MISS Bowman has shared, you know, kind of some concerns about administrative reviews and administrative investigations, partly because there are false accusations that are made. I'm I just need to learn more before I settle on what I think is fair for the policy. But if it comes back to us with that offense, I'm not going to object today. Thanks. Thank you, MISS Thompson. So just to clarify, if we take MR. Savary's suggestion, it comes back for policy voting, but then we don't like the suggestion it automatically gets kicked back to or we make a motion to change it. That would reinitiate rule making on this policy. MISS Batiste. Thank you, MADAM Chair. It would not initiate rulemaking. It would just the substantive change would
047have to be advertised for 21 days. And then it comes back to another school board meeting for adoption. So I with that in mind, and the fact that we've already talked about the cell phone portion of this policy, what feels like 100 times for over 1000 hours, exaggerating. But there were concerns the last meeting that if we continue that school's already started and this student code of conduct needs to be enacted, I just think it's very important that we get what we vote on to staff, that we can actually vote on and enact when it comes back for the vote. OCTOBER, some OCTOBER something. So just as my colleagues are thinking about what how we want to direct staff for this particular portion, I'm just incredibly concerned that we are going to be in this
048cycle again, for the student code of conduct. I'm fine with. However, staff presents it on this issue. Okay. Thank you. MR. Rhodes. Yeah. Dave Rhodes, chief Auditor I, I just wanted to kind of feed back some of the things that I'm hearing because administratively, the time that I spent with the inspector general's office, we had a requirement if we were going to investigate or even refer something to law enforcement, that we had a definition and we had a threshold, at which point it was determined that good cause was established. And when I'm hearing what MR. Bullmann was talking about, it sounds like that would be something that might help to have good cause defined, so that we know that there's a place where it would be specifically referred to law enforcement. Although these expulsion offenses
049sound like they're reported to law enforcement without good cause, just simply because of the high impact of the offense. But maybe to have that codified might help and identify who it is that would, within the district, would establish that good cause has been met so that we're not looking at the perception or series of a bunch of investigations going on, but we're looking at investigations that are going on simultaneously, because time is of the essence. When you're looking at, for example, a rape. Doctor Hepburn. Yeah, I was going to mention that as MISS Doctor Washington mentioned earlier, they're already required to report it to law enforcement. Most of the incidents are required to be reported in law enforcement. And of course, we know law enforcement is going to investigate sexual battery or rape. So to
050MR. Rhodes point, does it say in the policy all assessor report, all assessor offenses are automatically reported to law enforcement. It does on the discipline matrix. Every single assessor incident it will say reported to law enforcement. Thank you, MRS. Bowman. Thanks, chair. Maybe we could have expulsion as an option, but it doesn't have to be mandatory because right now it doesn't look like it's even an option on that. On the discipline matrix. I don't know if that's just throwing it out there. Doctor Washington. So I think I would need more information on on the suggestion because currently the behavior intervention program and the expulsion continuing education services, the students go to the same place. So they're going to a behavior intervention program regardless of whether it's a possession of a class, a weapon or simple
051battery on a school board employee, they're they're going to go get their education, depending on their address at the same behavior intervention program location. It's a matter of how long they stay there. They're required to stay there. If it's the simple battery on the school board employee, they're required to be there a minimum of a semester. If it's the possession of a class a weapon, they're required to be there a minimum of one calendar year. That's the difference between the behavior intervention program assignment and an expulsion. Okay. That's clarifying. So that it doesn't really matter to that point. It's the time frame right. Time frame okay. Thank you. Chair I'm sorry. I thought you were done. No, I just had another question on the. So are we talking about the. Are we still talking about
052this or are we talking the whole thing? Okay. So I agree with I don't know what we agreed to do with on page 21 and page. Well, first on page 22, MR. Davis's point about, I don't know if we need to add something that the wireless communication devices don't include district issued laptops. Are we or are we just assuming that that doesn't that's not included because it's not in the definition. So you're you're making a suggestion of including it of including district of excluding district. Or a district issued device. In the event that we were giving out tablets for something. I know that Washington, if you can provide any feedback or even MR. Davis, if would that fit under c1 excluding we could district devices, district issued devices. We could carve out an exception there.
053I think what we have to be mindful of is what Doctor Hepburn mentioned earlier. We do have a lot of students who have their own laptop that they bring and utilize while at school, and so this actually used to say laptops. And when the rule was changed last year to restrict Bell to Bell, there was a lot of feedback from schools regarding including the word laptop there, because then it could be perceived as that we are not allowing personal laptops in schools, and that was not the intent. So I think just have to be really mindful of carving out appropriately the language that is put in there. Okay. I mean, I didn't know the background, so I was just going on MR. Davis's what he had said earlier for that. So I don't I don't
054really have a problem with that. The on page 21 to MR. Rivera's point, are we going to change this because it the way that it reads that number six. To add in parent teacher teacher permission. Yeah. Because there's a couple places where we've kind of gone with like we've eliminated all elementary and middle school based on the cell phone policy that's in the statute. But it doesn't necessarily. Address other times when the students would be using that, because I think in number c two, it might say the same thing. We're going to call that out in the policy. I think I think c two also on page 20 also needs to have an exception for. You know, whatever we wrote in there for the other for for academic purposes. So sorry. In c two the
055use of a wireless communication device, I mean in a middle elementary or middle school is strictly prohibited in the law. So I don't know that. Okay. So we're just looking at the headphones then. Okay. That's all. Thank you. And I support the launch. Thank you. Okay. Anybody else? Sarah. MRS. Leonardi. You can call me Sarah. What are. The safety implications of allowing students to wear headphones like during bell change and during lunch? Doctor. Doctor Hepburn. If there's emergency situation going on or somebody is trying to an adult trying to get their attention to direct them, they possibly can't hear, right? So when I when I was in the classroom, a lot of times during Bell change, the rule was that they could have one earbud in. And I just I don't know if anyone else
056shares these concerns, but I do. I am concerned about allowing students to have both in during bell change or during lunch in case there is a lockdown called, and they won't be able to hear it. So I don't know if my colleagues share that concern. I certainly do. I know that in this last year we partnered with fau to study the the, the policy and the implications of how that played out in the classroom. I would be interested in if, if and when this policy does change, how continuing with that study to see what the implication is with the changed policy. I think that data could could be helpful. And then I wanted to respond to one of my colleagues who talked about the research that's available about allowing cell phone use during lunch. And
057I will just reiterate. Research does suggest that it takes 23 minutes to refocus after using your cell phone. And that was something that I had brought up months ago. But I do want to correct that, that there is research to suggest that. And, you know, I, I don't think that I'm going to be changing any minds today, but I again that it is necessary for me. I feel morally obligated to say that changing this policy will be bad for children. And, you know, national experts agree on this. I think the data supports this. And, you know, you look at since 2020, 2010, the clinical diagnoses of anxiety, depression, anorexia, substance abuse and addiction have all increased by over in some cases, over 134%. And that is directly linked to access to these devices. So, you
058know, I. I think we are on the wrong side of history in changing this. And I just need to say it one more time. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, doctor DR. Zeman. Thank you so much, chair. I look forward to learning more about this. And just as a point of order, chair, however, this leaves the the format and the content of this policy today. It still comes back for one more decision. Chair, when is that supposed to come back to us for final decision? This policy. I believe OCTOBER. OCTOBER 14th. And if in fact, that it goes through under this version of the student Conduct policy, when could this be implemented effectively in our schools? Doctor post OCTOBER 14th, you essentially, if the version that we're looking at is passed in OCTOBER, we're pretty much
059just loosening up the reins during the specific time of the day. Okay. Thank you. And like other people have spoken on this, good people can disagree about this. I've gone back because I wanted to kind of appreciate the perspectives of other people, particularly people on this board. But I want to make it clear to everybody, we don't have a 100% high impact, you know, absolute policy in Broward County schools. We have students that are allowed to hold their phones all day. We do not put them in pouches. We allow them to put them in airplane mode. We don't have cameras in bathrooms. Kids know that if they need to text someone, they can go into a stall and text real quick and get out. What they know they can't do is play Fortnite and Minecraft
060for 45 minutes in a classroom. They can't pick up the phone while they're going from one class to the next and and do anything on it where they'll get seen. So I just want to be clear that we didn't do the pouches. With all due respect to our our speaker earlier, and we did that with great forethought. Doctor Hepburn, in fact, was the one who recommended that we do airplane mode, and we did. I also want to thank my Flying Elk colleague who came and talked today. I do appreciate your your perspective on these things. And if I were in your seat, I, I might even have given the same speech. So thank you. Really thank you for coming and sharing. We just have a difference of opinion. And I think the evidence is overwhelming.
061To MRS. Leonardi's point about research. I think if anybody on this board uses the ai tool that we give to students here, Copilot and you type in the question or a prompt that says, what is the effect of providing cell phone access to students in high school? At lunch, you'll get a long list of deleterious effects with research that backs it up and says things like not just the 23 minutes, but you don't enjoy your lunch as much. You don't connect with human beings. You have stilted social development. Stilted social development leads to other long term mental health effects. 134% increase in 14 years should should alarm people. But what MISS Leonardi didn't talk about is what are the social outcomes of an entire generation of people who grew up with an inability to have
062social relationships, and those consequences are very severe. They do lead to suicidal ideation, to actual successful suicides. All of Whom's rates are up significantly more than 134% over the same period. So this is serious, and I'd ask people to be open minded and think about other perspectives on this. For those who want to argue about security. We started this great new thing this year called the Badge, right? We all have them, wear them around. The staff, gets them the school board, have them. The last thing we want kids to do if there's a serious security emergency is pick up their phone. It clogs up the cell phone networks, which our emergency responders want to use. It makes noise, which means bad guys can find out where you are sometimes, and we don't want them to
063know where you are. So we train kids not to use their phone during an emergency. And I know parents are going to want to know where their kids are. We'll get you that information as fast as possible, but it actually can cause damage to your kids and to other kids to have cell phones during it. And in terms of day to day security landing, what do we tell students in school? What's our buzzword about security? If they see something, say something, right? And if your heads down in your phone you don't see anything, you can't say anything. So when you walk through a high school two years ago and you saw ten kids around a cafeteria table and ten kids are down like that, when you hear teachers say, for the first time in my
064career, I had 20 students and I could see 40 eyeballs. Just let that sink in for a minute. How would you feel being a lecturer, trying to impart knowledge into these kids, fully prepared. And you walk in and they're not paying attention to you, and then for one year, you got a chance for 40 eyeballs to actually listen to your lecture that would engage the teachers. It would engage the students. No doubt it makes a better policy. I want to warn people also about legislation. You know, this year, the legislature told us that middle school students no longer could access cell phones. Somebody earlier and I forgot who it was. I apologize, said there's a national wave about cell phone policy. There is. It's not going this way. We are on the wrong side of
065history. If we relax this policy and the legislature is watching. And so what's to stop them next year from saying, oh, you guys want to allow lunchtime in high schools? Great. Now we just strike the word middle and we say high schools. And that's what we're going to get. That's my prediction anyway. There are very real measured, deep research effects about what we get out of cell phones as it relates to cell to mental health. We do need to disconnect, to reconnect. We need to reconnect with human beings, not through technological methods. We have to develop social skills and move on. MR. Superintendent, I have not asked you what your thoughts on this are, and I didn't want to know. But we pay you big money because you have big responsibilities. Are you ready? If
066you were the king of Broward County Public School instead of the superintendent of public school, if in fact you could wave a wand and have a cell phone policy, would you adopt the proposed policy that allows high school students to use cell phones during lunch, or stick with the policy that we had in place last year and up to this point this year. Doctor Hepburn. Thank you, MADAM Chair. I think I've been very clear about this. Every time I've talked to the media, every time I've talked to a parent, student or even this board, that I support the current policy as it is not the proposed policy. Terrific. How many years have you worked in public education, MR. Hepburn? 20 plus years. You couldn't count that high. It was just more than 20, right? I
067want to tell my age. Some number, some number north to 20. I still got id sometimes I want to keep it that way. No, it's a it's a scary thing. I got introduced for Kiwanis Club or something last week and they said I graduated 40 years ago. I'm like, who you talking about, man? 40 years can't be me. This is an important policy and I don't want to joke about it because the cons outweigh the pros. There's plenty of good people that feel like kids need a break. There's lots of pressure. And I agree with you. I've raised a bunch of kids. I'm raising more. I'm not done yet. So I've seen them and their schedule and the pace and the work and all that stuff. But it turns out cell phones are not a
068good relief for that kind of stress. Human connection is developing relationships, is spending some time exercising is going somewhere where you can listen to music? Is our kids don't universally use cell phones to relax or to de-stress, and the evidence about employees at work and students in school is that there are dozens and dozens of negative effects after you let kids use this at lunch. So I don't want to be on the wrong side of history of this. I would just ask colleagues, between now and when you come back to appreciate other perspectives, think a little bit about this. Think about your superintendent and what his preferences are. Think about the shifting the policy. Go ahead and finish up, doctor. I'm going to stick to policy and stop right there. But chair thank you. Thank
069you for your time. How did I do today, ma'am? Very good. They did steal some time for me, but okay. I just have a couple of things to say. And then we have a couple more board members, and we're hopefully going to wrap this up. I haven't changed my stance either. I've said from day one that although I agree with in the classroom, because I was one of those teachers that didn't have all their attention, and it is frustrating and I don't believe in changing classes. They should have it because there's just not a lot of time for putting it away. But I do believe in allowing them for lunch. But I have a question on that. And then I have a question about attendance. So is there is is there a way to say
070they can use it at lunch until they abubu,, like if they w we using g it ring c classomom t time,f f they abused the privilege that they would lose the privilege. Is that is it possible to put it in there? Because we've heard, you know, that there aren't consequences, and I don't disagree with that. So if they're abusing it somewhere else, could they lose the privilege to use it at lunchtime in terms of looking at consequences? Yes. To get rid of the logistical, logistical concern of an administrator looking to police that one kid in a cafeteria. It's something needs to be in there that that phone will be removed from that student. That's probably I'm putting my principal hat on for teacher says, hey, I've been dealing with this kid five times. It's time
071for him to lose his phone or lose the privilege of using the phone. It's hard to police that one kid in a sea of students in a cafeteria, so that's phone needs to be removed from from that student. Well, and I guess the point isn't so much in the cafeteria because it's more if they abused it somewhere else. Because in state statute, it does say that you're supposed to take the phone because and the law isn't new. I'll just quick history 20 years ago, when it first came out not to have cell phones, I did try to take the phone from a student who then lunged across my desk and tried to choke me. So guess what? I never tried to take a cell phone again. And that was 20 years ago. So just imagine
072what happens today. If a teacher says, you know, you're you're abusing the rule or whatever. So I don't know that putting it on a teacher to confiscate the phone is makes sense, because it really is a safety issue for teachers to do that. And then then if they take it, they say, oh, you looked at my, my stuff or you, you know, you. Anyway, there's a lot of things with that. So I don't, I don't think a teacher should do that. I don't know if it should be an administrator or whatever, but just something, because we've heard over and over again in one of the speakers today said the issue is there are no consequences if you're not following the policy. Again, it's a suggestion because we know they're not doing it to fidelity for
073whatever reason. I'm not laying blame anywhere. But how? What? I'm just wondering if there's a way to say using the cell phone is a privilege. So if you abuse the privilege, you lose it. Yeah. Just in general. I wasn't referring to a teacher. We don't encourage teachers to take phones at all. It would be an administrative administrator that does that. But the privilege is during lunch. So that's what I'm saying. If something is happening somewhere else that caused them to lose that privilege, such as they're in your classroom and you keep telling them to put it away, and they've been dealt with a couple of times, you notify that administrator, and they would need to take that phone away from that kid. So which is what's already state statute. What does that look like in
074practice? Because I don't believe that that's what's happening in our classrooms. I think it is happening with this special case at Blanche Ely. We'll have a chat with that with those administrators there. So thanks for the thanks for the information, because we've already sent messages to all principals beginning of the school year to enforce with fidelity that would look like what I just described. If it's happening in a classroom, the teacher would notify the administrator for them to come and deal with that student, which would result in a student's phone being taken away and parents coming have to come and pick it up from the from officer or whatever their protocols are. If it's something that's happening in the in the cafeteria that's causing the commotion or whatever on their cell phone, that's something that
075administrators would deal with in the cafeteria. Okay. So it's kind of implied it wouldn't be something we would need to add into the policy that if you abuse the privilege. I think it's kind of like already in there. Perfect. Then the other question I have is about tardies within the attendance policy. So in student code of conduct, it just basically says state law. You have to go and you know, whatever. But we we have attendance policy and I believe there's a separate one. Is that correct? A separate attendance policy different from. So I guess the first question is that's kind of confusing. Why do we have two policies. And and the second question is in this student code of conduct, it doesn't address tardy, which is also something that the speaker spoke about is that
076students coming in tardy, and I know every school deals with that separately. And I look to see if it was in the matrix, because the impression that teachers have in our district is that there is something in the discipline matrix on it, and they have been emailing me a lot that we need to change the discipline matrix, but it's not in here. So where would we have the opportunity to address that tardy concern? Doctor Hepburn. Go ahead Doctor Washington. It actually is in the discipline matrix. If you look under habitual it's habitual tardiness. And on their fifth tardy they start receiving consequences. And it's it resets every quarter. So can you refer to the page. Yeah. What page. Because I tried to find it and I couldn't find it. What grade do you want. High
077school. Okay. The biggest issue I think. So if you look on page 133, you'll find tardiness habitual. Because it was at the top. I must have looked past it. So what I'm hearing from teachers is that that's. It's just too. It's too many times giving them to be tardy tardy is a huge issue, and that they don't really see any consequence happening. So it doesn't appear that this is being consistent. And, you know, I don't know. We have a couple of students here so they can, you know, share their insight as to whether what's in policy is what happens. But I have had a large number of teachers complaining about that. So I, I think that five is maybe too many to allow them to wait, to start to get consequences until five. So I'd
078like to suggest changing that to two. But it doesn't say if you look on that page that you just mentioned, it doesn't say how many times they're tardy before they get oh yeah, it says first incident, two detentions. But you're mentioning that they get five tardies before the first incident. So if you look on page 42, in the definitions that are in appendix a, it defines habitual tardiness as consistent, repeated five times in a marking period, failure to be in the required place of instruction at the assigned time. So the first five days first incident of. First incident is five days. No, the first incident is one time. So a kid in a high school on a block schedule could technically get four tardies a day because it's every class period. It's not just tardy
079to school, it's every class period. And that's why it's five instead of two, because you could technically almost hit your 5 in 1 day. So I think the issue, though, is each individual teacher and what they can do with the student. I get that's the concern. It isn't so much tardy to school per se, although that's also a huge issue. But what? And that's really what the speaker said when he came up here. Yes, 30% of his class that's coming tardy to his class every day. How how do we stop that? I guess that's basically what I'm saying. And they're what I hear from the teachers is that there's no consequences or they're allowed so many times to be tardy before there's ever a consequence. And it's disruptive to their classroom. So it's not I
080can't be tardy five times to the same class. So I have it as one of my topics of discussion at at an upcoming principal meeting to clarify that making sure that they understand, number one, how to pull the reports to see how many kids, how many tardies kids have so that they can issue consequences starting on that fifth tardy, but it's not tardy. Five times to each class. It's tardy five times. In a day. To any class in the day. So we just need to make sure that that's clearly communicated with administrators. And I have that down to talk to them about. Okay. But it's still I mean, in that instance, they'd get a consequence even faster because if they were tardy to every class, they'd get it. But what I'm hearing is that they're
081tardy to those classes every single day, and nothing's happening, and that they get way too many chances to be tardy before something kicks in. So I don't. I don't know if putting it to two makes sense because it seems like our I mean, maybe there's two things happening here. There's a discipline matrix for an overall general day. Is it would it be better to be specific to individual classes, as opposed to looking at a whole day where the teacher is assigning detentions, because it looks like right now that's not the responsibility of a teacher, which it used to be. Now you're saying that administration looks at pinnacle focus, whatever it is now, and someone at at the office or someone in administration is giving that consequence if they see five or whatever, whenever they hit
082five tardies for the first consequence. Is that. So anything in the discipline matrix is is given by an administrator or somebody assigned by the administrator in a behavior specialist or somebody. So teachers are not assigning detentions unless it's a detention they're assigning based on their own classroom management plan. But anything that is in the discipline matrix is done by an administrator or a behavior specialist, if it's non assessor level. Okay. We can look at this at some point in a different way. And I don't know what's in our attendance policy that's separate from this. But I just know that there is a huge class disruption centered around tardiness. And I think it needs to be more consistent across the district. MISS Thompson. I'll just make my comments really quick as I'm staying firm on on
083what I've talked about multiple times. I want to thank Malachi Malik. Oh, I tried I wrote it down. Mikhail, thank you so much for coming to speak. I really also want to emphasize that the research is on excessive cell phone use 30 minutes, not excessive. I also want to caution when we're talking about the potential harmful effects, saying that our students are socially stunted. I take offense to I think we have three amazing examples in this room. I think the kids that came out from Sunshine Middle probably use their cell phones. Actually they do because they recorded a video that we played. They are not socially stunted. It is a new society where phones are just a part of it. And the fact that we are allowing our students to thrive and grow and put
084boundaries on when they can use them, when they can't use them, I'm just really. Happy that the board, even though begrudgingly, is getting to this place where we can give it back at lunch. I think it shows that we are listening to our parents. It shows that we are listening to our students, and it shows that we are advancing in a world that we are going to have cell phones, whether people like them or not. So thank you so much for coming out. I'm sorry I butchered your name. I tried so hard in my head and that's it. Thank you. Thank you. And we'll finish up with MRS. Alhadeff. Yes. So on page three, number two, it speaks to Alyssa's alert and the app based saver watch panic button. But we now have the wearable
085panic button. So there needs to be some type of language added in there to speak to the wearable panic button. Doctor Fulton. Great point. I just noted that too. So we'll go ahead and make that addition. Thank you. And then on page 21, number six, it does speak to the. The students must leave one ear free of a device so that they can hear an emergency instructions being provided. Okay. That's all thanks. Thank you. Staff, do you have everything? I just have a point of order before we conclude this item. There have been a number of recommended changes. Have we been clear about asking for objection in all of those cases, or could we go through them and ask the board if there are any objections to the things that have been proposed? Okay. Can
086staff read back what your takeaway is? So my takeaways in bringing this back for rulemaking is to leave the the language, as it's proposed today, to allow high school students to access their wireless devices during lunch. And when it comes to the headphones, making sure that there's an exception carved out in there for elementary and middle school students to be able to use those under the direction of a teacher for instructional purposes. Consulting with MR. Davis to have the right language put in there regarding including all types of different devices, making sure the language is broad enough that it is inclusive of anything that MAY come out new, but doesn't limit us in what we are doing. Adding language to page three regarding Centrex and changing the discipline for rape to a mandatory recommendation for
087expulsion, rather than a mandatory recommendation for a behavior intervention program. The only other thing that we discussed was tardies, and I'm not sure if you want a change in there for this upcoming version. Not necessarily. I just wanted to bring it up and if it fits better in the actual attendance policy, I'm okay with including it when we get to that part. I think I covered everything okay? Anybody? MADAM Chair? Yes, MRS. Rupert. I'm sorry. I was trying to count for consensus for lunch. Was that that we had a consensus for lunch? Yes, ma'am. Okay, I'm still with. No, thanks. Okay. MR. Severa. MISS. MISS Watson, we're not. We're not bifurcating the sexual battery from the rape because I, one of my colleagues had mentioned because you just said rape. I just want to make
088sure we're keeping it as is in s1. In in the definition it is sexual battery and in parentheses says rape. So it is the same thing under the csa rule okay. Thank you. Okay. You're everybody's okay with what she said. Yeah. Thanks chair okay. Thank you so much. Well thank you very much for staff and everyone who came to speak today, especially our student. You did a fantastic job. And we'll move on to the next item. After a short recess. Don't go far. We're an hour Thank you and welcome back to the School Board workshop. Our next item for discussion is rule development for proposed revisions to School Board Policy 8020. And I just want to explain better, I it seems like I didn't do a great job on the first item. So today is
089rule makingwhich means theember the publicc will haveve thr minus at the start of each policy.. Thihis is t s second one to either give comments or ask questions. If you ask questions, the time will stop while staff is answering the questions so that you're not eating up all of those three minutes with hearing back and forth. So you can, if you have specific questions, ask questions of staff. Staff will answer those questions, and we will do all of that before we get to the board discussion. So that is how that makes this rule development. So I believe we are going to go straight to public comment. So we'll go with who has signed up. So again you can either speak for three minutes or ask questions in that time. So the first speaker is Delvin
090King. Okay. Next is doctor Natalie Lynch Walsh. Good afternoon, doctor Natalie Lynch Walsh plantation Florida. MADAM Chair, I'm glad you added that little extra explanatory language because my well, I'm not confused. So because the state statute does not distinguish this is procedurally because the prior item, there MAY have been people that wanted to speak that didn't get to speak. It doesn't distinguish between whether you call it a school board workshop, if it's public and it's a workshop, it's a rule development workshop, which you MAY or MAY not do. But if someone requests one, then you must, unless you determine that one isn't necessary. So which now casts a new light on policy 1070 and the thing that's supposed to happen in NOVEMBER. So for this one, and I don't know that three minutes will cover
091it, because there could be people that have a ton of questions because they have more knowledge, or there could be someone that has one question, but I appreciate that staff or whoever is responsible will then answer the question. And I guess that maybe the next thing to clarify is if going forward, just so the rest of the school board understands, you have two choices. You either do rule development workshops with the board here, and everybody gets to ask questions. And it might actually prove more efficient in terms of everybody being in the same room at the same time, but will make the items take longer, or you do it without the school board at a separate rule development workshop, but then staff that is supposed to be there to answer questions needs to be there,
092and they need to actually answer questions or respond to comments and not have a meltdown and end a meeting. And then I would also recommend in terms of feedback, and I send an email suggesting this, if we're going to be saying that we're a district that embraces ai, then it shouldn't be that hard for anything. That's feedback captured at a workshop to be transmitted via ai, where instead of staff manually interpreting your feedback or the feedback from the public because you have ai, you have the tools your advisors have been using ai because most of us didn't have recording secretaries. So I would think that staff would be able to pull that off as well. But I'm glad you clarified. I'm just not sure that the entire school board knows that they're now going to
093be in rural development workshops anyway. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Netzel. Oh no. Rhonda Lang. Good afternoon. Thank you. My name is Rhonda Lang, and I'm the senior vice PRESIDENT For membership and business systems with the Girl Scouts of Southeast Florida. Girl Scouts of Southeast Florida is part of the Girl Scouts of the usa with a single mission to build girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place. When Girl Scout programing is integrated into a school setting, it makes the school a better place to. Our experience demonstrates that when Girl Scout troops meet on school campuses and are made up of students, parents and educators that in school the culture of pride, engagement, responsibility and respect for others is woven into the fabric of that school community. The results
094include stronger school family collaboration among teachers, staff and parents who are already connected, which can lead to better adult involvement and support. We know this is what makes our organization an authentic partner in education with Broward County Public Schools, and we appreciate the time that we have had over the last several years for our troops to meet on school campuses. Girl Scouts provides valuable research backed programs that support students academic, social, and emotional development, aligning closely with educational goals. Our shared values include leadership and life skills development, Stem and academic enrichment, social emotional learning, belonging, belonging and accessibility. Community and family engagement. Girl Scouts foster strong school community connections by involving families, local volunteers, and building a supportive network around each child. In recent years, our ability to collaborate and provide that connection to girls
095in Broward County has been hindered due to the facility rental fee structure. In policy 8020, many Girl Scout troops who used to have access to a classroom or table in the school cafeteria for 90 minutes twice a month during the school year, for a fee of 250 to $300, are now being invoiced 2000 to $20,000 for similar space. A group of 10 to 15 girls meeting twice a month cannot afford that, and that's prior to a pie certificate application. The Pie Process Partner in Education, as defined in the current policy, has been confusing for principals and troop leaders. Despite support and guidance from district partners, including MR. Chisholm and his team, for whom we are grateful for the assistance they have provided, we request and support a more simplified process to be recognized as a
096partner in education for the facility. Rental fee structure to be simplified and reduced to a reasonable amount for volunteer led student group meetings. Thank you. Thank you so much. Next up is Doctor Trudy Jovanovich. Okay, I'd like to. My name is Doctor Trudy Germanovich, and I'd like to start out with a question. My question to staff is how will you address the issues that are talked about by the previous speaker? But many people don't understand how you're going to. Go in and and ask to use part of the facilities. And as a former teacher, I had a lot of things going on that I had outside groups that would come in. And so as, are you going to keep teachers from setting those things up after school hours. Doctor Hepburn. So I think I heard
097two questions. The last one is about, are we going to keep teachers up, not allow teachers to set up? I don't think that's the case currently of not allowing teachers to set up after school or during the school activities. The second part of the question is, what are we doing? I guess you're referring to the previous speaker to address. That's what we're here to update the policy based on many of the concerns we've heard from constituents like the Girl Scouts, Girl Scouts, my daughter's Girl Scout also, and also many of our board members who've been feeling, feeling, fielding complaints from many constituents. So that's why we're going through that policy now. And I think most of the red lines that staff has put in there will alleviate many of the concerns that we've heard, and
098looking forward to additional board feedback to ensure that after this meeting and we bring it back, that we address every concern that we've heard so far. Can you just give her maybe a 32nd overview of what's in that realm, the main topic, like the how easy it is and how affordable? Yeah, I'll have MR. Russo and MR. Chisholm provide a little detail. Good afternoon. Board members, members of the community. I think hopefully you have access. Kriss Akabusi, director of facility planning, real estate at the direction of, I think through the board and the chair and the superintendent, again, we want to work clearly as partners for our common clientele, which is our wonderful students. So the strike through underline. One of the things we've done is, number one, recognize what our internals to the schools.
099Right. Like choral band and things like that. So those have been stricken. So that is just strictly an internal process. We are very specific on the calendar to ensure that the uses of space is captured. Because if we're renting we don't double book. Right. So that's in there. And then in the policy specifically for school group, which is named in the policy, clearly, clearly, right now, the policy when you conduct your regular school board meetings, I mean, I'm sorry, your regular meetings, you don't have to pretty much do anything. And an application rental fee, utility, custodial personnel and insurance. And also now we're saying you don't have to pay consumables, which is paper soap, you know, paper towels and things like that. Again, moving forward, when you are doing anything other than your regular meeting
100and including fundraising, you don't have to do those things either. All you know, they're asking in the policy right now is to provide a certificate of insurance if it's needed, and then security if it's needed specifically, and custodial again, if it's needed. That's pretty much what has been stricken. So again, except if those costs are needed. So everything else when you're doing anything other than that school group for the partners in education, those are our youth groups like the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts. Again, as we know, the policy has come through time and we issued the certificates. Right. Partners in education one and two. The youth groups are Pi one. The other entities like churches are Pi two. MR. Chisholm is here. He can elaborate again for the Pi one. We have actually indicated
101here they will pick personnel costs as in court shall not pay utility shall not pay for consumables. You pay your one time rent for the year $300. That's pretty much it. And then the Pi two. So pretty much I think a lot of the concerns have been addressed. Again, the categories of need MAY just be security and code custodial as in court and then personnel as in court. Thank you for that summary. Does that answer your question? Yes. And I just have one more question. Go right ahead, will you, in the future. Have a supplement that explains to people how they can come and ask questions and how they can put the questions directly to someone on staff when you have a policy like this? Because I think a lot of that could have been
102avoided if we had somewhere that people could reach a staff member and and ask their questions or say, this is my suggestion for how something should be written. Thank you. So and I'll address that and kind of to the point that we had before the customer service place that we were going to make it more accessible, because I know that doctor had a concern and suggestion and reached out to me because it used to be on the website, you could click by our name and it automatically emailed us, that's gone. And so she had and thank you so much. She went through the website, had a lot of suggestions, and I did put her in touch with MR. Davis, but her thought is where instead of having to come here and say it at a
103board meeting, where is there an easy place for them to make that comment, to say there's some issues with the website and then have someone get back to them. See, it has our number, but it doesn't have. So that's what she's asking. And this morning when you were discussing the customer service, I think that would do what she's asking. But I don't think to the point MRS. Alhadeff had earlier today, no one knows how to do that. So we need to obviously. So there is something already set up. But to your point, people don't know where to access it and it doesn't appear to be easily accessible. So we are going to work on that. So thank you. I just want to be I'm sorry chair, I just want to be clear. Are we talking
104about customer service? Are you talking about contacting staff pertaining to upcoming policy discussions? No, I think it was just just questions like she had a suggestion for the website. She wanted to know how to go. I would guess that that would be the customer service piece where she said the website is missing these things and she could email and then they would. Get MISS Sullivan. I know he can. Yeah, we had a pop up for the I think for the first month or so saying that we were migrating. If there was any issues to let us know it's gone away, but we could put it back up. Not sure what the note was about, but my answer remains the same. I think it would. Also, just as we spoke earlier today, you weren't in here.
105The customer service piece has to be on the front page. Yes, the super already let us know that's what he likes so we'll make sure that happens. Perfect. Next speaker is Deidre Ruth. And while she's coming up, can you add Cynthia Dominique to the list, please? Policy 8020 I noticed a few different things. Number one, the charges that you're putting against our nonprofits to help our community and our students and our schools. I'm a little confused because the last year and actually tomorrow, they're having another nonprofit forum to see how we can help our nonprofit community. Okay, i kind of feel like we're still in a lot of similar places of where we were last year, and I'm concerned when I see that there's profit sharing that when somebody fundraises on the campus for our
106students, let's say for a dance, for a school or a fifth grade or whatever it MAY be that involves encouraging things for our kids, they have to share 50% of the profit with the school district when this is already going to the kids. So why are our nonprofits or our community partners that are here giving their time free, their resources free, and things to actually help our students being charged 50% of their profit? That's that is a question. That is. a question. Doctor Hepburn. MR. Or MISS Chisholm, if you can provide some detail. In this category, the nonprofits or again we have pi one Pi two pi stands again for partners in education. Pretty much the Brac and public schools in terms of renting or using this facility. So Pi two say if you are
107providing meaning your Pi and you're providing a benefit to the school, 50% of that cost can be in-kind, then the 50% can be value, right? So that's what it is. So 100%. So when you say charge, I mean we're not we're just saying in in lieu of the value, we are trying to establish a value to the school or to the students. So we are recognizing the value. But that value has to be established in some other mechanism to do that. So there's no charge. So if you look at Pi two to qualify for the reduction in rent 50%, the Pi must provide an in-kind value to support the school that equates or exceeds the initial 50% of the total rent. So that's what the policy says. So in simpler terms, if if a Pi
108is doing a fundraiser at the school, there's no money coming to the school board, the money is going to the school. That's because they're fundraising for the school. And if that money is going to the school, the part they might pay to us, they would provide in-kind services to schools. So there's no money that's coming to the school board. Is that what. That's kind of correct. Just to be clear, in the policy, school allied groups raise funds, right. And the school that is being stricken now. Right, because the policy that's been stricken said if you're raising funds and 100% of that fund is going to go for the school and no more than 20% overhead, so at least 80% right benefits the school. So that's been stricken. But there's language that if you're a sag
109you are supporting the school. So that's. There the correct. But the Pi are mainly nonprofits like churches. And they MAY give something I like Thanksgiving, you know, they MAY do turkey drive blah blah blah. We're just saying at least 50% of that value, 100%. Right. But 50% can be in-kind. So there's no money exchanging hands except, you know, in the rent you're getting a 50% reduction, but you're demonstrating that you're benefiting the school. If I MAY add. Erik Chisholm, director of strategic Partnerships. The beauty of this is to attract people to our schools being a Pi. So the Pi one and pi two, specifically, when you're at other organization, you're a Pi two. We are looking for them to be in our schools. So we're giving them that discount of 50% for rental of our
110facility. We're not looking at what they're doing specifically as far as a fundraiser along those lines there, it's a 50% discount that they're getting. And all of the money for rent goes to a school. It doesn't go to the district. Is that correct? Go ahead. Okay. But is the nonprofit already giving the service that day? Is that not a contribution to the to the community and to the district? Why is that not counted as their service as opposed to charging them rent? Doctor Hepburn. Go ahead, MR. Chisholm. The only thing I was about to say is if they're utilizing the facility and they're providing a certain service, that's how they're getting the actual 50%. So when they're partnering with that school, there is a plan that is created between that school principal and that other
111organization to ensure whatever the in-kind is, and that principal is owning that at that specific school because they're utilizing that school. It MAY be some type of event. They MAY be sponsoring some Thanksgiving, like Chris said, or something along those lines. The goal is to get them to the school and have the relationship with that community, that school, and they get that 50%. So at the end of the day, whatever that in-kind work they're doing and that's worked out at the school is what we're looking for them to have that relationship at that particular school. Okay. What is to what is your scale to determine who falls under? What is the pie? What is more valuable in your pie to another? What Girl Scouts or another community MAY represent MAY help with mental health, but
112then you have churches who MAY be offering other services. So what differentiates does a church give them automatically the pie status. And then what determines something opposite of that? That just because they're not a church, that they're not giving a very valuable thing that should put them into the pie of not having to charge those fees. We're looking to build community partnerships here. This is where I'm going here. You want to build community partnerships, but if you're charging them this amount of money, they're going to go somewhere else. That'll give it to them free, like a community center or maybe their city. So I'm trying to bring this back into the schools, but you're making it very difficult for community partners to want to be a part of this. So I'm trying to get to
113the scale of this. MR. Chisholm, also, MR. Chisholm or MR. Caruso, is that part of the policy new or existing from the first iteration that we actually revised like 2 or 3 times. It it's the pie is a part of the current policy. Not the 50%. The 50% that is new, that is new, that that t s an enhancement to get t tm m b be a pipi a the beaututy of theie goes back t t statute that speaks to patriotic organizations, that identify those organizations that are working with families and community up to age 21. So that was another component to attract them to our schools to become a youth organization. But we've also learned that more of our community, like, for example, shout out to Sunset Strings. They are partnering more and they're
114providing more youth like services. So these are organizations that we didn't used to recognize as youth organizations. We're expanding that. So we're doing more training, more education and telling the community, like even tomorrow, that's another opportunity. When we're in this room, we will have an opportunity to share once again that we want those not for profit, nonprofit, all those organizations to choose for our schools and to be in our schools and not have to go somewhere else. MRS. Chisholm got to clarify the question for MISS Ruth. But one question before that, prior to the policy change for entities like churches, if they wanted to come and do a Thanksgiving turkey giveaway drive, what what would they normally do and what would be the cost? Would it be the full 100%. For the to utilize the
115facility for? Yes. For a church that wants to do a turkey drive. I think they. Would eat that. Well in the past. The versions. Right. A nonprofit got 25% discount. Okay, so you can stop right there. I just want to to compare from before in the past to what's going on right now. So it's actually a deeper discount than what they would have in the past, correct? Correct. Also, if you can expound on how do you become a Pi one and how do you become a Pi two, and what's the difference between pi one and Pi two? Sure. Thank you for that one. I actually like to use this as a great opportunity so that communities know we want them in our schools. When you think about a pie, my office is responsible for the
116school. We made it super simple. It literally takes about 2 to 3 minutes for a school to do the application process. And that application process is online. That school principal builds that relationship with that partner in education. They go right online. They answer a few questions. They identify with that in-kind work is going to be specifically, we issue the Pi certificate within 24 to 48 hours. They celebrate that. They advertise that. And depending upon what services they're providing, automatically, our patriotic organizations are youth one organizations. Those are those Pi one, those are youth organizations that are providing support services like our Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Big Brothers, Big Sisters. They are automatically the Pi. So once you establish that relationship Pi one, once you establish that relationship with that specific school, they're basically school. They
117being the school principals going online, filling out that information. We have other organizations like great, great sport that MAY be doing something very different, and they're not necessarily a youth one organization because they are still a business or they are for profit organization, and they just want to utilize our facility or or just be a partner with us. They will be the other organization because they don't fall in that category of the youth organization. They're still for profit or other organization. We still want them in our schools. We still want our doors to be open. And that's why they are afforded the 50% discount. Very, very streamlined process. And it's it's very expeditious, if you will. Can there be a system for our community partners when schools are already open? This isn't a matter of
118having the building open or the security, because they're already there for other events for our students, whether it's football practice or anything. So is there a system that can be made where it can be waived? The fees, if it's when the school campus is open for for things and events for our students already, can that be waived. Doctor Hepburn. Go ahead. MR. And are you MISS MISS Ruth, are you specifically talking about. Any organization, for profit organization, nonprofit organization, just to be specific? Because I know. Nonprofit anything that is, is is building money for our students to, to to go back into our students in our classrooms. That MAY be a pie. Two. Yeah. That's what it's going. To be. But why this is going to our children. You're realizing that this is a community
119network that you're trying to create. This is to go back into our community. It's to go back into our children. It's to go back into the families that are attending your schools. Why are we charging this amount of money? Thank you. I just close out with this statement. Thank you, doctor Hepburn, specifically, a school principal has the ability to champion, for example, and it does happen a lot. They're having an event, they partner with that nonprofit. It's not even a lease at that point because the school is championing that work. So if businesses are looking to partner with our schools, and our schools have the ability to champion that work, they have, they can do that. But if they're if other things are being brought in like a bounce house, a fun house, the certificate
120of insurance and things of that nature would be would be available will be necessary. But if you're partnering with a school principal and we're championing that event and that's going to bring things into our schools, our our principal can champion that specific event. And the nonprofit is just a guess at the facility. And it wouldn't be a requirement because they would be a part of the event. Thank you so much. Next up is Nicole Morris. Hello, Nicole Morris, Coral Springs I, I just want to say, as a parent who served on pta and Ptso for quite some time, first let me say thank you to I believe it was MISS Bowman and MISS Thompson that brought this item, this item back to change this portion where you would be charging PTAs. I don't know if
121that money was supposed to be taken from the PTAs in the sag groups, but thankfully, MISS Daley at our last dac meeting said that if there were any monies collected that should not have been that they would be reimbursing the pta and sag group. So we look forward to to seeing that come back to the schools. We as parents, we spend a lot of our time and our money and our talents at the school. I know I spent eight hours a day sometimes, and we plan and we do it so that we can give back to our schools so that our teachers will have what they need, so that our students will have a good time and a nice culture and a fun environment. And it's just to give back. So to think that anyone
122would want to take any portion of that money that we're donating our time and our money for free is, is disheartening. But I do want to have it on record that MISS Daley said that they would be reimbursing any groups that were wrongfully taken from. So thank you. Doctor Hepburn. Can you address that? Go ahead MISS. So I'm not familiar with MISS Daley so I can't. MISS Daley is a staffer in the facility and real estate department. And what we've been trying to do as a process improvement, we've been going to the meetings and MR. Chisholm working with MR. Chisholm, we're doing things, meeting with principals. We're going to be putting stuff on the website. So there was some clarity, and that was what the the lady was referring to in that if there was,
123there were some in charges that were made weren't due the policy, apparently they're going to be refunded. That's what she's going to. And I know you were in that meeting, right. Yeah. If I MAY. Yeah, we were at district advisory and the question did come up. And MISS Daley's response was specific. If we had inadvertently charged people for through facilitation and they were charged and it violated the policy, it went through the against the current policy, they would need to be refunded. And that's what she was sharing at that meeting. After the meeting, I follow up with MR. Akabusi to just share that that question had come up and it was specific to if there were cases where people had been charged inappropriately through facilitation that shouldn't have been charged. So the takeaway was, if
124there's a case of somebody who is going to request a refund because they were overcharged, that's what the nature of it, there was no different specific group of people that fell into the category. It was just that the fact that if someone had been charged an error, they would be reimbursed. And that's what MISS Daley was sharing with the group that that evening. Thank you. And just to reiterate, when someone rents a facility, the money goes to the school. It doesn't come to the school district. Is that correct? How the money. So historically, up to recently, right, 100% of the rental goes to the school. Currently through discussions at the cabinet level, 90% goes to the school. And the additional for example, physical plant operations, you know, through the treasurer's office because they have to
125go in, do additional cleaning or whatever. So at least majority of the money goes to the school. But things like utility and then the the cost for custodians, those are line items because the district pays the utility. So that comes to the district okay. Thank you. Next up is Cynthia Dominique. Cynthia Dominique. Margate, Florida. Hello everyone. I guess one of the comments we made at the dac meeting last week or whenever it was, my brain is not here. If there could be an annual or biannual information session for all of these groups so that they understand the processes, and it's very clear because even after the dac meeting and all of these other meetings that have been had, people still remain very confused and there are still so many questions. And I think sometimes some
126of their questions are just more nuanced or some of their. The, the requirements for their organization are just a little bit more nuanced. And they need that hand-holding to be able to make sure they are doing what is policy required, as well as completing those facilitation or other applications appropriately so that they are either getting approved or not being charged inadvertently, fees that they're not supposed to get charged for. Which leads me to the comment about the facilitation fees. You know, through various meetings over the last week, I've heard vendors, community organizations say that as they're filling out facilitation, if they select one thing that they potentially don't need, they get charged for it. And so as they're going through facilitation, they don't know how to fill it out. They're potentially selecting items that they
127don't need. For example, do they necessarily need to select custodial. They don't know that. Do they need to select security. They don't know that there's no clear cut identifiers to say if you're if your event has more than 300 people or it occurs after a certain time or you're serving alcohol, that's not happening, hopefully. [Laughter] But there are these requirements that would be clearly defined and they would know, okay, my event meets the criteria for needing security. Let me put that on there or my event meets the criteria for needing custodial because it's after custodial hours. So if we could have some sort of checklist or I don't know how they create the form, I've never seen it. So I don't know what it looks like to make it more user friendly and very clearly
128defined on what the end user needs to select in order to be charged or not charged appropriately. Okay, thank you so much. That's it. Okay. We'll be moving on to board discussion. And I have MRS. Bowman. Here. Thank you. Chair. Okay. So we've had a lot of conversations about this and that have been precipitated from constituents reaching out to us in various groups. I've had groups, individuals and all kinds of different groups reach out to explain why this isn't working, as it's being. Set out right now. So I get and I, you know, I reviewed the policy and with the intention that I would do kind of a write a mock up to present as a, you know, potential, some potential changes. But when I in doing that, I like to ask my colleagues what
129we're trying to accomplish with this policy in the first place, because I think we have to have an idea of what we're trying to accomplish before we can really get into the meat and potatoes of how it's going to work and what I, what I'm seeing here is, and, you know, listening to the public comments and other people speaking to us, we really have to focus on what is the most important and the number one goal here. When you're in a public school environment, what is it that we want to accomplish? And I think that that is maximizing our student education, our student enrichment, our student experience, our community and our volunteer engagement. And then we have to, you know, make that kind of balance with. With meditating. I don't know, something. Just getting sick.
130We're good girls. Steph went behind her to see if she was okay. We can continue. Okay. All right. And then and then we have to balance that with, you know, obviously maintaining schedules, managing our liability and also, you know, and then finding a way to make an make income from renting our facilities. So I think looking when I'm looking at the policy as it's written right now. It's very complicated. I think in practice it's very complicated. And, and I don't think that it's accomplishing what we want, which is to encourage more engagement, more people volunteering, more groups coming in to provide services to our students. And so I you know, I have a lot of suggestions for the minutia here, but I think that we have to look at the policy from that point. I,
131I just charging people for consumables and this and that and nickel and diming and making all these different groups. It seems to me it's very complicated and maybe unnecessarily complicated. We have. And we've seen the detriment already, you know, with the pta, the pto, I mean, you've got people that are coming in on their own time, that time that is valuable where they could be out making money somewhere else and they're and, you know, coming in to volunteer to make an event, to do something for the kids. And so the idea that then you're going to have to pay something or you're going to have to pay for the custodian, or you're going to have to pay for this or that. I think that that is not great policy for us, because I think it's
132going to dissuade people from from doing these things. I can personally say that I've been at bj's at 11:00 pm with a cart full of stuff, hauling it out for an event. If you for events that are for the community, that create community engagement, that create an environment where people want to come to our schools and to help and to have that barely break even. You do it just for the experience, just for that community. Communality, I guess, of, you know, people inviting people into your school. And when you have to work even harder to then pay for the custodian who's already there because you're getting charged to put on an event at the school for the kids with your volunteer time. It just doesn't send the message that I think that we need to
133be sending in our schools to our volunteers. I, you know, if someone wants to come in, a third party that is going to rent an auditorium, is going to rent the gym, is going to rent the field for a non-school related purpose, absolutely charge them. But when people are coming in to help the kids, to benefit the kids, we need all the help we can get. So for, you know, there's I just think that we're excluding rather than including and bringing more people in. And I, you know, just a couple little technical things. We don't have the Pi. One and Pi two exhibit to this, this and I also and this is just one of the I'm not going to go through all of my suggested changes, because I think we need to look at
134the overarching philosophy that we're doing. But we did change the Pi definition and policy 1930. So it should. I think we did that after we passed the 80 over 20. So it should mirror that in 8020 because they have two different definitions. So I, I'm interested to hear what my colleagues have to say. But I that's my position. I'm the more people we can get in to volunteer to help our kids to contribute their time. Because, you know, if you're contributing anything to the students, I don't I don't know why we would be charging them to come in to give services to the students for free. That doesn't make any sense to me. So I look forward to the rest of what I and I'm happy to help with the wording of the revised policy.
135Once we've decided what our overarching philosophy is. Thank you. Doctor Hepburn. Did you want to address? No. I'm interested to hear the conversation from the board. At this point, I was I think MISS Bowman was trying to make a point about in the current policy, I guess we could still call it because we haven't adopted anything about the potential of, you know, undoing, unintentionally undoing our partnerships in, in preventing other people from partnering due to certain costs within the policy. But I'm interested to hear the board about philosophy and whatnot so we can, you know, get. Can I just say one more thing, another another idea that I had reading this, I think there's a distinction that should be made between elementary school at least, potentially middle school from high school, because you're looking at
136different facilities that are available. And perhaps we should break out the elementary schools and have that just be a principal level, because that's been working for ever until this started happening. And then look at facilities rentals for auditoriums and the other things in a different it maybe in middle and high school or just high school. Okay. MISS Thompson. Thank you. Chair. I would agree with MISS Bowman. I think the point of this is to build community partnerships and invite the community into our schools. And we've really made that a little convoluted. I do appreciate staff. I brought up several different issues with particular groups that are in my mind, are being drastically overcharged. For example, $20,000 for Girl Scouts group. But I appreciate Doctor Hepburn and staff being on top of that right away, and
137I think it got fixed. I'm getting a I trust you, but I also trust them. And so I do. I understand the rationale between having a policy, especially for outside groups, that might want to rent our facilities on the weekend, that are really just using it for the space capacity that we offer. However, with groups like the Girl Scouts, b b Scoutsts Boys and d Gis Club, peopop t that e reay y diding vavaee to our coununity, historical societies that might want to rent our facilities, I, I believe we have to be really good partner with them, and I love Cynthia's checklist idea because facilitation is is complicated. I still don't like facilitation no matter what people say. If it's not the issue, I don't personally like it, but at least making everything crystal clear
138to people because a lot of times these are moms and dads who are volunteering their time. They're not going to read 17 pages of this policy to really understand it, because all they want to do is host their kids fifth grade dance, or all they want to do is lead their Girl Scout troops that have been in the same school for 17 plus years. To me, being able to invite people into our facilities and making these connections is worth far more than we will make of any rental fees. So that's my perspective. I hope that is shared with my colleagues. I did have some follow up questions. When is the use of facilitation required? Because I know there was a memo that clarified that for PTAs, for meetings that they didn't need to use facilitation.
139Is that something that needs to be codified into policy. Doctor Hepburn yes. The memo we put out was specifically for larger venue spaces for pi1 groups. And then I'll have MR. Russo and MR. Chisholm expound on any additional detail. But for the groups, it was put in in facilitation, if you're using, such as a gymnasium or auditorium, so that we can have record of those large venues being used so we don't double book, and then just to make sure we have record of those large venues being used. And if you guys want to expound on Pi, tos and for profit organizations. Sure. So the total goal is for the space utilization in Broward County public schools, right? Every single space to know kind of what's going on in that space, right? Since we are in
140the business of renting out to other parties, we don't want to double book. So that's the point, because if we don't have it in the calendar and then somebody books it and then they pay for it, then we're going to go through the headache of not being a good customer and then having to refund. So I think the goal is to I'm just using the generally depict whatever is going on. So at this point in time for the policy, the sag, it says that they shall notify the principal. Then within 48 hours before the event, then the principal puts in in the calendar again just to document so we know not to double book. I always equate it with an airline seat, right? If I want to choose a seat, it's not available. I can't
141pay for that seat. So it's kind of simplistically, but I think for us as an organization, even in this thing called space planning, we always want to know what's going on so you can maximize the utilization of your space. So I don't know about trying to inconvenience, but that's kind of the goal. So if I MAY want to call chief operating officer, the intent is not to interview or interfere with the normal functioning of the school. So if the school has programs and stuff that they are doing, I don't, you know, we don't need to know that what we're more concerned about is what MR. Russo said in terms of the big venue spaces like auditoriums and so forth that we have at calendar. So there won't be any conflict. So that is the intent.
142All right. So just to be abundantly clear. So if I'm a pta and I want to use Wednesday evenings as my normal monthly meeting, what is the process if I'm a pta PRESIDENT. You go see your principal and you and your principal work out what room and what evening. We don't need to. We don't need to know that unless you are having a large event in the auditorium or the football field or the gym, which are spaces that are rented out by many other entities, sports, youth group sports, youth football, basketball camps, theatrical plays. Right. So we need to know about those spaces. So the pta PRESIDENT For that school would just converse with their principal to, to set aside what building and what time and what day of the week they were used for
143a meeting. And is that does that need to be written into policy anywhere that they don't have to, because their understanding was for pta, that they had to fill out facilitation, whether and I know we fixed it with the memo, but I just does it need to be in writing. So again, it's abundantly clear to these groups. MR. Go ahead. MR. Yes. To specifically the policy pages number five, school allied groups. I think we can further clarify than that is five a school, allied groups, because it talks about notifying the principal in accordance with what the superintendent is saying. But I think we MAY have to further clarify the spaces in terms of what MR. Doctor Hepburn is alluding to. We can further clarify that. Well, and I think the memo did a good job
144like that was understandable. So I think most of the people that I talked to that like the big spaces are blah, blah, blah, blah, the little space, I don't it wasn't called little spaces, the other spaces. Okay. So then continuing on this thread, so if I'm the Girl Scouts and I want to use a classroom for my 7 P.M. Wednesday meeting, we have busy Wednesdays. What is that process and what do they have to do? 7 P.M. Wednesdays for a meeting? It's the same process. They will converse with the principal. Okay, but there's still. So I need clarification on that because I thought they were paying the $300 flat fee. So the $300 flat fee is for the entire year. Yeah. Okay. So previously in other policy, I think it was 250. So it's 300
145flat fee for an entire year. So again to be abundantly clear. So if I'm the Girl Scouts and I want to rent it for 7 P.M. I no longer have to use facilitation. If I just want a classroom. Correct. You paid your $300 for the year. And I paid that, and that goes through the principal. Or like, who am I telling that every Wednesday? Go ahead. MR. MR. Chisholm. Thank you. Just for clarification, we were talking about multiple groups. So there's a sag group that we were talking about earlier and the partners in education, that's a different group. So they are going through a lease agreement. They're actually going through a facilitator and providing a certificate of insurance. There's a one time $300 fee that they would pay for the entire year. However, if they
146are using the facility for multiple things, there's a decision that would need to be made. If personnel needs to come in, security needs to come in. But that $300 is the only fee that they're paying under the current policy. There are some other costs, consumables and custodial security and all those things. The new policy changes would mitigate that. And that's part of the changes that we're discussing here today. But currently there are some additional costs. The rental fee is just $300 flat as they are a partner in education. But then there are other costs that are laid out in the policy as consumables. That's a partner in education versus the sag group. All right. So I know there are two different groups. And that's why I use the two different segments. So if this policy
147passes as written now the Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts or whatever that will qualify under Pi would just go through the principal to reserve their space and still pay, but still have to pay the $300 yearly fee. They would go through. Facilitation. Still, the those organizations would go through facilitation. The all the conversation we were having before were on the school allied groups. That's what the memo specifically. But our Pi groups are outside organizations that do not exist solely because the school exists. So Big brothers, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, those businesses exist separate from a school. They can operate outside of a school. So they are our Pi's. They're our partners in education. It's very I just want to distinguish. Yes. And I understand that. And that's why again, I separated it and then was
148told that Pis would be able to just go through the principal like five seconds ago to rent the classroom. So I just again, want to be clear that if I am a Girl Scout troop leader and most of them are volunteers, again, they are just doing this because they love the Girl Scouts or the Boy Scouts or whoever. Am I going through facilitation? What is that process? Who am I talking to and how are we communicating to them? No. So I'm looking at as you're talking, I'm looking at the Pi one. So Pi one, which is on page six of the structure on the line. I know it talks about Pi one, Pi two when they're conducting their regular business. They pretty much, you know, do the application pay reduced rental fee, custodial if applicable,
149personnel if applicable, provide certificate insurance. But then it goes further to specifically talk about Pi one, which is now talking about paying the reduced rent for, you know, throughout the year, which qualifies them for just, you know, I mean, they have to provide some kind of value. They only pay custodial when it's required by the principal facility director. They pay for personnel as in court security as in court, don't pay for utilities, do not pay for consumables. Right. So it further qualifies. Now to the what the superintendent's alluded to. Again we can clarify regarding because it says when you are doing your normal business. Right. So we can further I'm just we're listening. We can further clarify to make maybe make it simpler. If you just wanted to use a classroom, you just go to
150the principal. We can further clarify. But as of the structure on the line, again, going back to wanting to make sure we capture the usage of the room, remember, I did not paint. They're not paying for anything. They just establish $300. Well, the one year, the one year, which is for. One year, I just because there's a lot of. I know that. It's confusing and we're confused and you're confused not being disrespectful but it we overcomplicated it and an attempt I know to keep records and liability and lawyer speak. But. [Laughter] Like I still don't know if I'm a Girl scout troop leader. I know I'm paying $300. That is that is solid. Got that. But then custodial costs is dependent on the principal. What is personnel cost. Because that's something new that got added.
151Who is that? Well we have definitions you know. So pretend something like a media technician things like that. So in the definition you MAY have a standby electrician, stadium manager. You know it's just some specific categories. This is something just to again I'm going to align with what the superintendent is saying. We're going to further tweak to clarify between the small spaces and the big spaces to not create the confusion to, you know, so we're going to further do that, because right now the policy is talking about still again, capturing the use, but then the only cost that's going to be incurred is if it's required, because custodians are contractual. But so I still think there's a confusion because you're saying that for Pis like our Girl Scouts and our Boy Scouts, that they still
152use facilitation. So I've Tas, I think I think we're good. We're good. We figured that out. But for Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts and or Hispanic Unity, I believe, would fall under that same chunk. So they pay $300. Are they still using facilitation? Yes or no? How much money are we charging them? Approximately. If I MAY. Oh. Go ahead, go ahead. Oh, okay. I didn't want to interrupt. I get what you're saying. But part of facilitation too, is tracking the activity as well as tracking the dollars that come in. So it would be important for us to just have that information in there for historical use. But I think one thing that we have to work on is under on page six, where it talks about pi one and pi two, I think we need
153to just simplify that, that paragraph and I think paragraph two, I think that will bring more clarity to it. So we can definitely work on that. And do we want pta signing lease agreements that that's that's another question that I think that we need to look at. MR. Chair, can I add something. So to the question of do they have to put something in facilitation. So again if there's the custodial or personnel or security is required, you have to capture it somewhere. Right. So if I'm using a class I'm just saying right. But then the principal remember that the principal has to determine if custodial is needed because it's contractual. The school police said security is needed. You know, we don't I can't do anything about that. Right. So to capture that cost it has
154to be captured somewhere. So that's why you're asking it to us putting it in a database. That's the database for the rental, right? Versus putting it somewhere else. But I understand about using the space. Do we say again it's a classroom and then say you don't have to put a classroom in facility or something like that. So that's what I'm saying. We MAY have to clean up that. But in terms of capturing the data in terms of cost, I think it needs to be put somewhere. I don't know if it needs to be put somewhere else other than the one system. And I'm fine with the whatever data system capturing we use, be it facility or not. It's it's more that it's not user friendly, that people don't know how much they're going to get
155charged. And then also just this confusion about Pis and one and two and stuff, which I think you guys know, and I know we're running late. And then my just final question, i know we've talked about this before, MR. Chisholm, but allowing groups that are like umbrella groups, so like the Girl Scouts of South Florida to just have one. Sorry, I'm only using you guys. I'm sure there's other great people that are doing this, but like who have one umbrella group, but then they have troops under them. If we can look into allowing them to just do it. So one point person so that it's not like then, you know, Maria's getting a room for her troop and Sam's doing it for her troop, something like that. And I don't know the legalities of that,
156but I think that would simplify things. And then that's my comments. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Doctor Zimmerman. I note that for the past 55 years, this policy has been in existence. We've we've revised it 20 times. This is not the first time the audience has come together and said, we don't get it. But what I'm curious about, chair, is I thought we were trying to get this right, that the the registration, the information flow and the policy so that we can continue this school year under a rule, under a sensible common sense rule that lots of people should pay discounted rates, lots of groups should be able to use our facilities for free, and we have a vested interest in the community coming in and using our spaces. Are we is there some
157urgency in getting this done today? Doctor Hepburn. Yes, we brought this back at the will of the board. Thank you. I, I'm afraid we didn't give you clear direction. There is tremendous frustration in the community about understanding the rules. There's tremendous frustration about facilitation because people and some people have talked about it today. They don't know what buttons to push, and then they push it and they're like, oh, I don't know if I need that. Maybe I don't I mean, there's no way to go back and facilitation, which I think is a disaster contract, like it's really awful. I hate paying people 10% of our money. We need that money. And so what I'm worried about is we got like a rewrite of the policy, but we didn't get a solution to the problem. So
158there's a policy, there's software in the middle, and then there's instructions that are supposed to go out to these good groups and other people that want to use our facilities, where our obligation is to make it clear to them how they do it and what our fees are going to be. And all we did is come back and say, here's the policy change. But we haven't done anything about the software, we haven't done anything about the instructions, and their frustration isn't going to go anywhere. So no matter what we do today, I'm afraid we didn't give the direction that we should have, which is we need to fix the problem, not rewrite the policy, okay? Because the policy is one third of the problem. In my mind. We still haven't fixed the software problem, and
159we still haven't fixed the clear instructions, the landing page, the website, the communications to to community groups. And and that's a shame. Regarding this policy, I'm afraid. Chair, we're not going to get done with this today. I've, I've noted that one of my colleagues has a list of 40 or 50 changes to this policy that would take three hours to read and to and to decide whether we concur with those things. I don't think we're we're kind of bringing the information that we need to bring to solve the problem. The problem is the community wants to use our space. The board wants them to be able to use their space, and they want it to be simple and easy. And for some groups, very inexpensive. But we don't have that solution today because even if
160we spend three more hours looking at all the changes people want on this policy, we're not going to have fixed the software or the instructions problem. We don't have any information on that. And so I worry that we didn't give good direction about what would really solve the problem. And therefore we're going to have to kick this back. Chair. Do you want me to keep going with some specific changes, or are we going to bring back a whole solution or how should we proceed? So I'm I'm hearing what you're saying, and I would say the policy is one piece, and that's what's in front of us today. If you'd like to give direction or ask for a consensus of the board, or bring an item back to the next school board meeting to direct for
161those other pieces, that would make sense. But the the policy, we still have to address the policy, and that's separate of the other pieces you're asking for. Not not that they're not all important, but we are going over the policy now. So I'd say if you have suggestions to that, do that. And then if you want to make a direction or. And they're not not all isolated. The policy does drive what's happening in facilitation. So if we don't update the policy, the prices in all the many of the structures in there stay the same, which I think is the prices are, let's call it 50 over 50. Maybe the functionality of facilitating for new users because it's been used for the past few years. So I'm assuming we have a lot of new users based
162on the updated policy. But also the additional frustration is some of these new users that are used to not being charged. The increased amount or frustrated with that too. So we have to tackle the policy, which in turn will change the pricing and facilitation. And then for the new users, we already have things in motion to find out what's the pain point for them. Make some videos. I like MISS Dominique's suggestions too, about going out to many of the other groups, and probably a checklist. So that's good feedback too. So we're taking feedback and making updates to get that information out, how to actually use it. And just a reminder that the board at the last regular school board meeting, I don't know if it was postponed. Or postponed. Postponed to bring back some additional
163options to discuss in the midst of of possibly renewing that contract. Yes, sir. Thank you. I just want to make it clear that following the chair's direction, we're going to work on this policy. Some members have dozens and dozens of changes. This is gogog t to ke a long time, a and a lotf tm m are just graatatic t tngngs. And that's not what should come to this board okay. And so I'm frustrated. You probably can sense that. But but facilitation is enterprise software. You don't change the software. You just change the prices. It runs through a menu. It's the same menu. They sell it to thousands of school districts and cities and counties, states, nonprofits and all that. So we haven't fixed the other three legs of the stool. Today. We're going to work
164on one. Yes, ma'am. I'd love to make some changes. I would recommend to the board. We delete the entire section five e echo 501c3 all 501c3 are nonprofits. We talk about nonprofits in 5d5e is not necessary. Do you want me to stop one at a time? Chair. Can you tell us what page so we can. Five e is page nine. And again 501c threes. And the verbiage is the same as nonprofit corporations. But all 500 1c3 are nonprofit organizations. We don't need both sections. I'm I'm trying to catch up. So five e what number you're suggesting to get rid of a section. But I for whatever reason. On page nine five section 500 1c3 orgs is unnecessary because they are nonprofit organizations. They're nonprofit corporations, in fact. And so they're really covered by five d.
165And the words underneath there, okay. This is. Again on page eight. So you're saying we don't need to repeat it on page nine? Yes, ma'am. Sorry. Doctor Hepburn. Thoughts on that? So any thoughts on that? Is there any distinction between. I MAY. Want to. Defer to Missus Battista because I'm kind of looking I'm not an expert on nonprofit because I'm looking at the definitions. Doctor DR. Zeman I'm not second guessing what you're saying. I don't know if Missus Battista can help, because if you look at it, two. The two, it's not quite a definition. There's some reference to the irs. And so I don't know if we can seek some help. I don't have any objection. I don't have any. I will follow the direction. MISS Battista. So the sections do seem to be duplicative.
166Perhaps one way to correct that would be to add to section d not not for nonprofit corporation and then add, you know, in parentheses section 500 and 1c3 organizations, as opposed to having two separate sections with definitions. So my concern, if I MAY, is number four on page nine, section e four, when it when it speaks to superintendents discretion. Couldn't we just add that to the other. Right. We would. Well it's in other section right. We wouldn't need to add it to. As to section d. It's in both sections. Number four is in d e. I do not see superintendent discretion. Yes. At the. Bottom of. Yeah it's right there. Hold on. Just a minute. Number four. In e on page nine right above other organization. Okay. MADAM Chair. MR. Superintendent, just a quick question,
167if I MAY, under just also for MISS Battista, just to help us navigate, if we go back to page three, the definition of youth organizations referenced the 500 1c3. And then there's a definition for nonprofit organizations. Just want to make sure we're we will be okay if it's duplications or along those lines. Just want to make sure based on these definitions, I think Legally Legal has also reviewed that. So at some point we would need to make a determination if they stay the way they are there as well. Right. And I you know, it looks like and you know, it would be great to be able to reflect on this a little bit more and read it with more, more carefully. But it looks like section d on page eight mirrors, section e on page
168nine. So I would just that was my offer to just say nonprofit corporation or section 500 and 1c3 organization to put them both together. I like I. Like that that would. Yeah. Well and then we would have to go back and change wherever those items are referred to throughout the policy. Make sense? Yeah. You might even consider general counsel. Nonprofit corporations including 501 c threes. Are you ready for the next one? Sure, yes. On a more substantive note, we have a section on five, page five. That's about Sag's student school. School allied groups. In the light of MISS Leonardi item last week on sports academies, I would suggest that we get ahead of that. And I hope that MISS Leonardi sports academies aren't the last sports academies in Broward County. I hope we replicate that
169throughout Broward County, where it makes sense and where the community would like to have that. So the superintendent has declared that we are going to have sports academies as a program. And the three schools that we talked about last week inherent in that are some coaches to come on. It's a whole idea. The whole img Academy, the sports academy is to have coaches come on campus. I don't think those coaches should be charged for facilities. I think they should be charged in the same way that sag's are, which pay just the custodial and security cost if there are any and aren't charged other things. Because what we want is students to go to these schools. And inherent in our program is for other people to come on, we don't have enough athletic coaches, we don't
170pay them very well. And it would be great if we could include SACs with the Sags, and the sac would be a sports academy coach. And so what I'd propose is 5ab sports academy groups and excuse me, a school, Allied groups and sports academy coaches. And that we add a definition on page four number 22 that says and I'm happy for the staff to work on this, but sports academy coach could be a paid or unpaid coach for all activities. With Broward County public school students on sports academy campuses. Can I ask for a little clarification on that? So what would a sports academy coach be doing that would require them? Because, I mean, in my mind there, they're part of the curriculum or whatever. The activities of the school are. So so if we
171have a band director that comes in and works with the band after school, we don't we don't separate them out in here. So if you could just explain why you feel like they're needed. And I should be maybe more clear on the definition, because these are not Broward County Schools employees. So this is the specialty coach, the the batting coach, the lacrosse coach, the tennis coach, the diving coach. We want those coaches to come and augment our athletic staff, to do the specialized training for soccer, for lacrosse, for other things. Some of those will be Broward County Public Schools employees. You know, sometimes they're the coach of the I don't know if she left, but he talked about the Sunrise School soccer team, you know, that has a paid coach from a school. But at
172the same time, there might be five kids over doing a pitching lesson with a private coach. There are students. There are only our students. But the coaches that come on by might be hired by the students for a tennis lesson or a baseball lesson. And I just want it to be so easy for them to participate and for the kids to sign up and get that to kind of fulfill the whole ideals of the sports academy. Okay. Okay. Is do you want feedback on that? Yes, ma'am. Okay, MISS Bowman. Yeah. Well, I think we could probably make again. I think we need to look at our overarching philosophy of who's getting in there, who we're charging and who we're not charging. Right. So that should be an all encompassing thing in a definition like the
173sag or whatever. I, I just wanted to make one more comment. Okay. So with the non profit corporations, when I'm when I'm looking at this, since we're going to go down this line, I'm reading it as they're not necessarily doing anything for the students or for the school community. You just have to have registered as a non profit, which I could make them more a nonprofit and pop in with my discount to use, you know, have like a party and charge admission. So I think we need to be careful about that. Again I think it should be what's serving our community in a in a school capacity that's getting the discounts. That's just my opinion okay. But there's a there's just a lot of work that needs to be done on this. Could we get
174amplifying information on that point, like what are some examples of nonprofits using our facilities? Doctor Hepburn. Go ahead, gentlemen. And do they have plenty. So for for example, Doctor DR. Zeman love your questions. We have data. Right. So nonprofits are like I like to call them religious. I don't want to codify churches. So majority of our rental right now are being rented by nonprofit. That's the data. So we have a lot of religious bodies doing services in our facility. So that's a typical nonprofit if I want to kind of say that. Right. And for data, that's who pays the most currently. So I don't know if that answers the question without delineating the additional point. They aren't they're serving students. They're they're serving the community. I mean, there MAY be some students going there as
175well, but but it's a nonprofit renting our space, and I think they get a 50% discount. Correct. That's why we truly, truly that's why we split it up into Pi one and Pi two. So you have your. Normal, normal nonprofit, like the churches who are mainly pi twos, but then you have your pi ones, which are also nonprofit, like the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, but without Pi one. So that's why the policy is further giving those benefits, you know? So that's what we're attempting to do. We can make it better. But that's kind of the split. But but I wonder if to MISS Bowman's point, if you don't want to split nonprofits in the same way, nonprofits that serve students and nonprofits that are not serving students. And you might have different prices. And I
176think I'm just picking up her point. And I think we do that. That's that's the beauty of it. The Pi two can be a nonprofit organization. Okay. So the Pi two can be a nonprofit organization that's serving our community. The paying for teachers luncheons or having some type of event making some type of donation to the school backpacks and things of that nature. And they're leasing our facility that becomes that that group there. But if it's someone that's a non nonprofit organization that is just that, that individual that that organization just leasing our facility and not doing anything at the school level. They are just the a not for profit organization and they're not a. Pi discount. 25%. If they're a Pi, they get the they get the 50% discount. Okay. But it just by
177virtue of registering on some biz, which by the way is you pay $35 and you can be a non profit. So 25%. You know that doesn't mean a whole lot ultimately when you're offering discounts. And then we're charging custodian fees to PTAs that are working their butts off to put on a event. So I think we need to. It's just a lot in practice. It's just I just think it needs more work than we have time for today. And I'm just going to speak to Doctor Zaman's suggestion. I, I have a problem with allowing someone who's going to charge our students the ability to come on campus and not pay, because what about aftercare? So we have aftercare programs. They're they're there just to work on our, you know, to take care of our students.
178We charge the students and we charge that aftercare a fee for doing that. So I don't think that we can pull out. I mean, I understand the intent and we should make it easier for them. But if they're if they're they're just volunteering and helping our students or doing a clinic along that nature, I agree. But if they're charging our students to for batting and, you know, soccer, whatever, I don't maybe we can offer them a discount so they could be in one of those buckets there. But to not charge them, I think you open up the door of, well, what's more valuable a coach that a, you know, a, a coach for a sport or someone who's caring for your student after school, or there's also a program that they come in and they
179do music for the students. They get charged to come in because they're charging our students for those services. So I, I don't agree with that particular thing because I think it opens a can of worms for a lot of other pieces. And again, that's just looking in a silo. If you look at the whole big picture, it really is going to affect a lot of other things. So that's my opinion. And I just to MISS Bowman, I, I see your frustration, but I, I think when you read through here, the ta's aren't necessarily being charged custodial fees. It's it's depends on if they need a if they say I need a custodian, then they're going to get charged for custodian. But if they say, hey, we can clean up and take care of it all
180of ourselves, they're not automatically that. Those are the changes that I see in what's here. So if I were to just sum up what I see different pta, pto, any sag group, they are going to be able to use the facility at no charge unless they decide they're going to incur some kind of of fee. Maybe they it's a big dance. They're expecting a thousand people and they really feel uncomfortable and want to have a security monitor there. Then they would have to pay for the security monitor. They're not being charged for toilet paper or for paper or any of those. All of that has been removed. The only people that are getting charged for things is someone who's not a sag that is doing, not using it to benefit the students. So if if
181I sum it up that way, is that a good summary of the basic change? I know there's lots of them in here, but if we made it simple to say, the changes you brought to us today were what we asked for, which was not all of them, maybe, but that we're not charging the people who are volunteering for our students. And we we want nonprofits to come into our school to see how great it is. So we're offering them this 25% discount if it's a non-school related activity. Is that. That sums. Up. Go ahead. MR. Yes. So the chair definitely summarized Pi1 sag are pretty much the same thing. Pi1 is paying $300 rent per year. That's the difference. But beyond that, Pi1 and sag consumables, no utility personnel cost has increased security and that's
182it. So that's the summary. And I think that's indirectly what the direction was. But and then for the additional direction we can go ahead and talk about the smaller spaces, you know, bigger spaces and clarify that clarify. But essentially you're correct. So if I MAY, MISS Hixon, I think we need to go back and look at the language and deconflict certain things because we need to make sure that, number one, if we have to do lease agreements, we need to be clear on that. So I think we the policy does need some additional work. Okay, doctor. So are you do you want us to continue? I don't know what to do here. Do we want to bring the asking to bring this back and stop the discussion? Now, you want to finish hearing what everyone
183has to say and we agree that it needs we're not done. And maybe some of the grammatical things MISS Bowman has, she can email. Yes. This is a question for MISS Battista. Is it can the can board members email us their notes that they have based on some of the recommendations that they wanted to discuss today? So ultimately, when the policy comes back, the changes, you know, can be based on either the commentary by the public or by board members. So, yes, they can and you can put them, you know, you can include those changes in the policy that would come before the board for adoption. Okay. MISS Thompson, is there a question. To the question on this? Would we bring it back to another workshop then, because it seems like it's not going to
184be ready for final adoption? Yeah, it has to be another workshop. I think that's probably. Yeah. Yeah. I agree with that. So we can start redefining. And chair can can we bring back can we bring back the system and not just the policy. Like can we get a briefing from the staff that starts with a parent or an organization of different types who want to use a facility and the instructions that they see or what they will see the the software that will allow them to pay whatever they got to pay, and the policy. So we can see this, this frustration system, see the solution to the frustration that the community is having. Yes, we can bring that. We'll bring it in flowchart form so we can understand each step by step. Thank you. So
185I have a quick question because I have land and wanted to speak, as did MR. Severa. Should we finish that out so that we have that and then we'll move on to the next item? Okay. So, MR. Severa, you're next. Chair. I'm going to switch gears and talk about everybody's favorite topics. Legal liability. In reviewing this policy, I was going over the, the the preamble, and I noticed that in the last paragraph of the preamble it says, and I quote, the rental use or enjoyment of public school facilities or services by any group or organization which discriminates on the basis of age, color, disability, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, marital status, race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation will not be permitted. Again, this is the last paragraph of the preamble. My question well, mostly
186to MISS Bautista in regards to the classification of gender identity and gender expression, are those protected classes under title seven of the Federal Civil Rights Act, or of the Florida Civil Rights Act. MISS Battista? No, they're not protected classes under either one of those laws. By placing restrictions on groups, I.E. For folks that were saying, you can't use our public school facilities if you in fact discriminate against folks who are non protected classes, are we creating any additional liability for the district? What do I mean by that? Let me give a real world example. Let's say for instance there's an organization that does in fact discriminate against gender expression within their organization. And they come to us and they want to use the the gym for whatever purpose. And we say no, because you discriminate
187on the basis of gender identity and gender expression, despite the fact that those are not protected classes in the state. D Do we face any liabibili from those ororganititions, from sug t t didirictct by saying tt t a are,, in fact, discriminating against them? MISS Battista. Thank you, MADAM Chair. So, yes, if it plays out the way that you have just described it, there would be potential liability for viewpoint based discrimination. Of course, there is also a carve out at the end of that statement that you just read that says except as provided by law or court order, which I think is meant to address the concerns that you are stating. However, I can see how there is a risk of that language being interpreted as potential viewpoint based exclusion, which which by the way,
188we had regarding this particular policy, we had a lawsuit back in 1998 with the Boy Scouts specifically on that issue. So it is well established law that once a public entity opens their facilities for community use, you cannot deny access to certain groups because of their viewpoints. And thank you for the the call back to the Boy Scouts case and for Semi-familiar with that case, MADAM Chair, in in light of MISS Battista's. Suggestion and or clarification there, I would request just to avoid any potential liability, that I know that there's a lot of different things within this policy, and this is probably going to be a giant work in progress as we move through some of the issues that my colleagues have raised this afternoon. But if I MAY pile up on the proverbial list,
189I would say for the sake of ensuring that we do not subject ourselves to any prospective liability from any organizations, that we remove gender identity and gender expression from the preamble. Okay. MRS. Leonardi on the. Yeah, on that. I do not agree. I object to that. If I MAY offer maybe a solution. So what what I would propose is perhaps to add some language at the end of that section that says that nothing in this policy shall be construed to grant or deny access based on the viewpoint of any group or organization. Would that be in addition to what's already there? Yes. Or we can take out, except as provided by law or court order and add this section that I just stated. That is satisfy what you're asking. I wouldn't suggest that we take
190out except as provided by law or court order. I think that would should should have to stay. I apologize, MR. Battista, if you wouldn't mind just repeating that one more time. Sure, nothing in this policy shall be construed to grant or deny access based on the viewpoint of any group or organization. So in that case, even if you had a organization that did in fact discriminate on those categories that we discussed, they would still be able to use the facilities we would not be able to reject, and therefore the liability for the district would be limited. Correct? Correct. I would be okay with that. MRS. Leonardi. I again have to be clear. I do not agree that that organizations that discriminate against people, including children, on the basis of those those issues that that were
191pointed out, I do not agree with allowing those organizations onto our school campuses. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody? I agree with MRS. Leonardi. Anybody else? I emphatically agree with MISS Leonardi. I think we have to distinguish between a statement of some form of moral objection from an objection to the language. I think, chair, if you don't mind, I think you have to ask if anyone objects to the general counsels. And if I MAY clarify before, because I think that. This this MAY, you know, raise very, very passionate beliefs. And what I do want to clarify is that the established federal law is that, you know, once a organization opens its doors to the use by the public, you cannot discriminate on the basis of viewpoint. And it has been established that viewpoint means like, for
192example, for the Boy Scouts, there was a time that there were specifically and openly discriminating against either, you know, gay. I think it was at the time it was children. So the board, this board at that time made it a point saying, well, we do not want the Boy Scouts in our facilities that ensued. You know, there was a lawsuit that happened right after that. And the law has been established by that case and many others, that we cannot exclude an organization based on their viewpoint or their discrimination of a particular, a particular group, because that's considered their viewpoint. What is in policy right now? The language that is in policy is that contrary to what you're saying. MR. Battista. The language, I think the language that follows, you know, that last section that says
193will not be permitted except as provided by law or court order, attempts to capture the fact that there cannot be any viewpoint based exclusion. But I can see how there could be a an argument that, you know, that the language could be interpreted still that way. So by adding that the additional language that I, that I stated, just basically saying nothing in this policy shall be construed to grant or deny access based on the viewpoint of any group or organization, makes sure that that is conclusively dealt with from a liability standpoint. Okay. I agree with the language that is currently in policy since it says except as provided by law or court order, I don't agree with adding anything additional. I don't really understand, like the relevance of this conversation beyond virtue signaling. So I
194think that we should stay with or my my position is that we stay with the language that we have in policy right now regarding this, especially given the plethora of other actual issues that impact parents in organizations that we've been trying to sort through today. Thank you. MR. If I MAY, I think one of the duties of everybody who sits upon this board is to weigh risk and liability for this district. And I think if you have policies that are in place, would subject the board to liability and unwarranted lawsuits and unnecessary lawsuits by things that can be tailored and be fixed very quickly, especially when you're staring in the face of well-founded case law. I'm well aware of that Boy Scout case that MISS Battista was citing, too, and I don't want a situation
195where somebody comes in and they try to rent one of our gyms and we say no on the basis of them essentially disassociating themselves with a non protected class, and then we get sued. And then it's a lot of negative press for the district. There's potential financial windfalls for the district. One of our jobs as board members is to weigh the risks for that. And when I see as anybody on this, on this panel and on this board knows, okay, when I see something in a contract or in a rule that I think will subject the board or the district to legal liability, I'm going to speak up. This is not a virtue signal. This is a liability signal. I want to protect this district, and I want to protect our students and bcc from
196unwarranted lawsuits. And if we have to do if we can do that by adding a couple words, as MISS Battista has suggested, I don't see the harm in that. Thank you. Anybody? Chair, did you register an objection? I, I did. Thank you very much. I agree with MRS. Leonardi that the way it reads is fine with me. Two objections. Great. I wonder if that means we're done with this item, MISS. Well, we're not done yet, because. I object, and. Yeah. Thank you. Landon has a question, and I still have one more question. Yes. MRS. Can MISS Battista repeat the language? Yes. The language that that I proposed would be added at the end of that paragraph, and it would state nothing in this policy shall be construed to grant or deny access based on the
197viewpoint of any group or organization. Okay. And I'm just kind of trying to understand why my colleagues have an issue with that language. I don't know. I know you don't. Right. But it can be proposed next week or when it comes. Back. I mean, it's not going to go in this round because there were objections. I have, I believe the way it's written says as per law or court order, it already encompasses that. I don't think we need the additional information. It to me, it sounds confusing to first say what you say in the first paragraph and then say something that sounds different in the other one. I think it's confusing, so I would prefer to leave it the way it is. I'm fine adding it. As long as we're keeping the gender and gender
198identity, we're just clarifying that sentence. If it reduces liability. And to me, it seems similar to the case of why we changed the banner policy. I don't think it does harm by adding a clarifying sentence. And if it protects us from liability. I'm all for that. Thank you. MISS Battista. Is there anything in the way it's written now that puts us in a position like adding that wording? Will that change what the district does? So you asked me two different questions, but i don't believe the district is discriminating on the basis of viewpoint. I'm pretty comfortable that that's the case because I, I know how the policy is being interpreted and. But, you know, I think adding that language would protect the district from potential interpretation, that this is a viewpoint, discriminatory language. It would
199just reinforce that. This is. I agree with adding language. Okay. MRS. Bowman. Okay. Just stick with me here for a second. But. I guess I'm confused because if we. Have if we open up our facilities to the public and then we rent them to anybody, is that correct? Regardless of viewpoint? Then I don't even know why we have the statement in the first place, to be perfectly honest. Unless it's. Because, I mean, when you're looking at we just said we we many churches rent the facilities. Will many churches have many different viewpoints that don't comply with this. So. It seems to me like we're making a value statement. And that might be separate from what we're doing in terms of who we're renting to. MISS Battista. I'm not sure that there is a question there,
200but. Well, the question is what's I guess, what's the purpose of the sentence in the first place? If we are basically not able to not rent to people that discriminate on any of these things because we're we have to rent everybody if we open it to the public. So why is it there? And I don't know the history of why that particular section is there, but I'm sure it's a value statement on behalf of the board. Anybody else. Do you have. Do we still have a student advisor? Well, just on this point. I thought you were sorry. Do is there a consensus? No. There's two objections. Doesn't seem to be. a majority. There's three. Objections, right. There's three. I did yeah. So it doesn't look like based on until we change our policy to, to
201define majority as before. As it stands now, if there's a strong objection, it doesn't move forward. And it sounds as if there's a strong objection. And, chair, just as a point of order, there's another step in this. This policy has come back. Yes. And at a school board meeting, anyone who wants to make that motion only needs to get five votes to win. Yes. So at a workshop you need consensus. And we didn't gain that today. And but it will come back and there'll be an opportunity at a workshop and then another opportunity at a school board meeting. Yes. Thank you. Landon I'll be two seconds. I just although MR. Chisholm really wanted to join sga, not s a g. I thought that was fine. No it's not. I just wanted to clarify that moving
202forward that the policy applies to Sags, not sga as was communicated. Thank you very much. Free of charge for you. And I'll just finish up with I have a basic question. So based on the conversation we had in that the principal is part of this, how can you explain to us how much the principals involved? Because we have had some information, like if somebody wants to I'm going to put it a different way. If somebody wants to rent the gym and they put it in facilitation, does the principal have the ability to approve or disapprove that because there MAY be something going on at the school. And what's been sent to us is that the principals don't have that ability, which doesn't make sense if it's their campus. So if you could just that's that's
203my last question. Go ahead. MR. Okaloosa. MR. Russo. So. [Laughter] We always trying to do process improvement. And initially if you look at the policy, it's very broad. The principal shall be kept in the loop throughout the process. It's still in the policy initially up to a few, maybe five, six months ago, the principal was the final approval. Meaning through the workflow, facilitator will verify everything, including insurance. You know, legitimate business. And then the principal gets a notice that they pretty much will do the final approval. But we were having situations whereby approvals were being made or entities utilizing the facility without the information being verified. So that process was changed. Now the regional offices are regional superintendents are the approvals and the final plan real estate department is the final approval to make sure
204everything is vetted. But in the process, the principal in alignment with policy is still in the loop. The policy gets notification and facilitation because the principal is supposed to determine if you need custodial or not. So the principal is still in the loop and can make comments. So before instead of the air. Well, when the area superintendent makes the first approval, do they reach out to the principals first so that they have a better understanding of if they don't? I mean, I don't know that we need to put it in policy, but maybe through the procedure part, because I know that the principals feel as if they are not really in the loop, if they're only asking about custodial, that's not really looking to see, you know, is that available? Do they have maybe they're
205having a pep rally or something that they wouldn't put in facilitation. But they you know, so I think it would be important to make sure for any of big events that they're you're always asking the principal first, do you maybe not to approve it, but to ask them, is there something going on? Because what I understand is their calendar doesn't interface with facilitation. So facilitation wouldn't flag that. There's already something being planned at the school level. So and I don't know if there's a way to fix that. Maybe if you could at least dump one calendar in there so it flags it. But that was some of the concerns that came to me to discuss. Will definitely look into that and correct any, you know, mishap. Great. So before we finish up here. So if
206board members have any other suggestions they didn't get to today, some grammatical things I understand. Is it the suggestion here is that they email it to. Yes. If they can email it, to actually email it to MR. Sullivan, and he will make sure it gets routed to the right team members. And if I MAY, sir? Yes. Go ahead. I think we'll schedule it for the SEPTEMBER 24th meeting. When you do email or your assistance email, make sure you're not copying other board members in that correspondence. So it will come back to us at the SEPTEMBER 24th workshop. Okay. Anybody else? All righty. Thank you for your patience and all of the participation. Thank you. For those of you that came to speak, and we will move on to our last item for today, but we're
207going to take a five minute recess to get everybody. Before you go to recess. We we started at 9:00 this morning. We started a meeting at one the workshop doesn't the board, the board training doesn't count as a meeting. I asked MISS Battista. So we started at one so we can go till nine. Okay, I have plans, so that's really unfortunate. Yes. Thank you and welcome back to the school board workshop. The last item for today is Redefining our Schools 20 2526. I now turn it over to staff for a brief presentation. Thank you chair, school board members and to our entire Broward community. Redefining is just is not just about closing schools. It's about protecting what matters most, ensuring every student has the best possible opportunities, making sure every school can provide a high
208quality education, and guaranteeing we can continue to support and fairly compensate our dedicated employees. Like many large school districts across the country, Broward is facing the reality of declining enrollment this year. The tri county area has declined by approximately more than 25,000 students this year. To remain financially stable and strong for the future, we must rightsize our district. That means some difficult decisions will be necessary, including school closures. To clarify, the focus extends beyond school closures. It is centered on maintaining high standards of excellence for all children across every community in Broward County. I also know that it's a lot of misinformation out there, so I want to assure the board, our families, our employees and everybody in our city and across our county that we will be transparent in every step of the way.
209We will engage with staff, parents and community members directly. Together, we will face this challenge and together we will shape a strong future for Broward County's children. Thank you. And I'll turn it over to Doctor Wanza and the team and welcome Doctor Freed. Yes, doctor. Wait, doctor Hepburn, don't take her thunder. So good evening, school board members, obviously Doctor Hepburn, colleagues across the organization, also to our community members and stakeholders that are here, present in the boardroom, as well as those that are watching the live stream. So I'm Valerie Wanza, I'm the chief strategy and innovation officer, and I will say that this is my 34th year in the school district, but probably one of the most challenging in those over three decades. And I will ask my team to please introduce themselves. And then
210we will walk the board through the presentation and look forward to the discussion that will follow. Joe Beck, director of demographics and Enrollment Planning. Doctor Cassandra Freed. Director of Magnet and Innovative Programs. Good afternoon. Dante Collins, director of charter schools management support department. Good evening. Adrian Parker, executive director, strategic initiative management. Good evening, Willie Wood, director of performance management. And joining us virtually there, listening is Eric Anderson, who's the director of Before and After School programs, as well as she'll I'll just say Patty Brown. She does not like being called Patricia Patty Brown, the director of athletics and student activities. So beacon can load the presentation. We're going to begin the conversation. So again this is our second conversation with the board and the community this year for a redefining our schools. MADAM Chair, before
211we leave today, this is what we must have answers on because you like to know what is it that we need. So before we leave today, we need to have an understanding of the schools that will be addressed. We also have outlined a timeline and a stakeholder engagement plan. We do need the board's direction on the composition of the School Boundary Committee, and I will. And there's a slide that speaks to that. And then we will also need what the board would like for that committee to consider as they evaluate what will become the proposals that to be considered, that the superintendent would then make final recommendations. So what what we've done and I'll say this the the next three slides are based on obviously our enrollment data from last school year. As many know,
212yesterday the superintendent released the enrollment for the 10th day of school this school year. So we are continuing to realize enrollment decline. But after looking at multiple factors, staff actually pursuant on the Language and policy, 8010 staff actually came up with some schools that we recommend be addressed through this year's process. So you will see at the elementary level there's four groupings of schools that we are recommending to be addressed, and they are there on the slide. I will not read to you, but obviously the elementary level has the greatest number. And proportionately, we do have more elementary schools than we have at any other level. So that's slide three. Following the same cadence, we did the same thing for middle schools. And there are four clusters or four groupings of middle schools that we
213recommend to be addressed through this year's boundary process. And they are as you can see they reach the north, the south, the east and the west. But there are four groupings of elementary schools. The next slide, we also have three high schools that by policy criteria need to be addressed as well. One two high schools are situated in the central region of the district, and one high school is in the south region of the district, and they are there as well. Then we have three. Three. I'm going to three items that staff has been asked to to look at the first one. I will say the move of Silver Palms Elementary School from the Flanagan Zone to the West Broward zone, that would come up naturally through our redesigning our schools or redefining, I'm sorry,
214our schools process through the boundary process, because if you look at what potentially may be done with 1 or 2 of the middle schools in the southwest portion of the district, this would rise to the level of discussion of a school that needs to be addressed to clean up a a feeder pattern, depending on what happens with some of the middle school conversation, then we know at the MARCH 11th school board meeting, MARCH 11th of this year, MARCH 11th, 2025, there was some consensus action taken at the end of the meeting. It was further discussed at the APRIL 15th school board meeting around directing the superintendent to bring back some options that would reestablish that. Would that not that would establish, not reestablish, but that would establish a choice boundary area for what was then
215known at that time, the c for area for Coral Glades and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. And then we know that there has been much correspondence received by staff and the superintendent and the board around looking at looking at establishing a choice area between Pioneer Middle School and Silver Trail. And we can speak to the challenges with that as well. As we go through the redefining our schools process. And this isn't to say that any any of these schools are up for closure or anything of that nature, but this is really that as we start to look at the services that we are providing our students, we will just look at our alternative high schools and our behavior change schools to make sure programs, services that are being offered are aligned to the needs of
216our students. And, you know, they were referenced briefly in the conversation earlier around the code of student conduct. So this is our timeline that we have proposed. We have already had the workshop on JULY 29th, and then we are here today with today's conversation with the board, you will see what we are proposing as the timeline that includes a robust stakeholder engagement process. What I will say is based on the direction that we see from the board today, we have already secured dates and locations for eight high schools to have the community meetings beginning actually SEPTEMBER 10th. Going through SEPTEMBER 30th, we are already geared up to have conversations with the municipalities that the the majority of these schools reside in, so that we can hear from you, municipal leaders, city managers around ideas and
217concepts that they will have. And then we will come back to the board at the SEPTEMBER 16th school board meeting to actually bring the resolution to establish the School Boundary Committee, based on the direction that we received today. And that's that's the timeline that we are proposing. And the the timeline would pretty much have the superintendents recommendations being made public in SEPTEMBER, SEPTEMBER 10th, to be exact. I'm sorry. DECEMBER. Geez, I get carried away. I'm in SEPTEMBER DECEMBER. And I should note DECEMBER 10th. My birthday is DECEMBER 11th. Right? MR. Dixon, we should know that we're birthday twins, so it would conclude with the superintendents recommendations coming out in DECEMBER and then board meeting in JANUARY. Once the board establishes its calendar for the board to vote on what would be the attendance areas for
218the 2627 school year, we would need direction from the board on the establishment of the School Boundary Committee. The one thing that we will say is that we obviously, as I said, will bring a resolution to the board at the SEPTEMBER 16th school board meeting to establish the committee. The committee will sunset after its deliberation meeting on NOVEMBER 13th, and then the board will obviously give us direction today on how the committee is to be comprised. We do have, you know, just a recommendation there, but we look forward to hearing from the board on what the board directs superintendent and staff to have as the final composition of the committee. And then these are the considerations that were used last school year. So we would ask the board to give us direction on if we
219are to stay with these considerations, or if the board would like to see different considerations for evaluating proposals that come out of the community meetings and community discussions. And just as a reminder, these are the wide range of redefining strategies that we look to implement throughout this process. So they are there. They were explained at the JULY 29th workshop, and we just repeated them here so that the community is aware that these are the wide range of strategies that we would implement, given the needs of different communities, and that's the end of the presentation. We are here for input and direction. Thank you, MADAM Chair. Thank you. Next we will have public comment. And first is Doctor Natalie Lynch Walsh. Good afternoon, doctor Natalie Lynch Walsh plantation, Florida. I'm trying to wake up after that
220robust discussion, and I hope you have an equally robust one because what's not robust is 12 slides. So there's no data. There's no information on magnets. There's nothing under here. And there probably would be had you had a long range facility master plan steering committee, which has not had a meaningful meeting since Doctor Smiley was here. So think about how many superintendents ago that was. Not that long, but nothing has happened. So let me see if I can get through the rest of this definition of community. In schools that have high number of reassignments, the community also needs to include those who are zoned but MAY not be attending, not just the ones that are attending, but the ones who live in boundary. I can tell you in plantation, most of us are not there
221in plantation, middle or high, and it's a school culture problem. Page three mentions Bennett. You just approve 1.7 for sunrise and now you're talking about Bennett. Seems like we're backing into a program there. Northfork building one staff has been hoping that someone will decide to demolish the main building for. I can't tell you how many years now. There needs to be a boundary change there. If you try to put something into the main building, then you've missed the entire exercise page. For if you consolidate. This is where Plantation Middle Plantation High comes in. We have started discussing this. Some of the concerns they had as far as consolidating it into a 6 to 12. The concerns were keeping the middle and high schools separated and then also keeping them separated during in when they're being
222transported and dropped off and picked up, and putting the types of academic programs that might appeal to plantation families, because you're not going to have people coming to a school if you don't know what will get them there. And nobody ever asks plantation what would get you into plantation middle and high and now it's too late. You don't have enough students. So consolidating it into a 6 to 12 that serves Central Park Elementary, Mirror Lake and Peters would solve the problem. Give it a bougie new name, and plantation will come. Trust me, I've lived there since 1998. I know where I live. That's on page four. Then we have attics and Bethune. You're discussing attics, but we're pretending. Bethune, which does not have any playgrounds other than the headstart playgrounds. And then staff is mentioning
223it in passing in for 2028. Maybe they'll fund them for playgrounds. The fpl vault. Other question mark. There's been a Castaldi on buildings one through seven since 2007, and then Stranahan. Stranahan? There's going to be a civil rights lawsuit and they're all going to win. If all of these communities band together, if you guys don't do right by all of these communities. Thank you. Thank you. Doctor. Trudy. Giovanna. My name is Doctor Trudy Germanovich and I wanted to personally thank MISS Hixson for helping with the getting the written comments in. They've disappeared on there now, but there was one that I'd like to read who probably couldn't come tonight. Ask what needs to happen and what can we do? I thought those were great questions. She has some answers. Stronger collaboration with local government that
224needs to be forefront here. Broward County schools should work hand in hand with Broward County governments, cities and municipalities. Together, we need to identify the most urgent needs for families and determine how local policies such as zoning laws, development projects and community investment can support affordability. Affordable housing for educators and families. Other communities across the nation are leading the way with innovative solutions. Some districts are building teacher housing on district owned land as we know here. Others are partnering with developers to set aside affordable units specifically for educators and working families. We need to do more of that in Broward County. Advocacy for living wages raised teacher salaries, and she is a teacher and advocating for livable wages across all professions. It's not optional. It's essential if teachers, firefighters, police officers and nurses cannot afford
225to live in Broward, then the foundation of our community is at risk. Engagement with the business community. We must bring in local businesses and chambers of commerce as partners. Thriving schools MAY mean a thriving workforce if enrollment continues to decline, employers will struggle to attract talent because families will choose communities where education is stable and affordable. And I think a lot of those ideas are great. But I also think you have to start working with the state government and saying, why are our cost of living, especially our housing, so high? And I believe one of the reasons that you should ask them to address is all the properties that are being purchased by mostly out of town people that are doing short term rentals. It's drastically changed my neighborhood. It's drastically changed many neighborhoods. Please
226think about asking your your state government to look into that. Thank you. Thank you. Next public speaker is Nicole Morris. Hello, Nicole Morris, Coral Springs there wasn't any context, but I just want to remind everyone that Coral Springs Middle School is not is not as under-enrolled as as it appears because the school was just built really too big. They their capacity is 1900. They have a healthy enrollment for a middle school, Margate Middle School should be excluded from any conversations of closing because of the reconfiguration of coral of Coconut Creek Elementary School to a k-8, which most definitely impactedd the enroroment. I would hope any y nvnvsations abouou Margagate Middle wouould btotonhnhancehehe scololoo attract more students. As far as the Boundary Committee, I hope that we will have committee chairs or people that are informed
227and research all of the schools, rather than just people from the schools that MAY have MAY just be there for their own self-interest. For the Stoneman Douglas Coral Glades Choice area. Thank you for considering a choice area for the c4 zones that were removed from the msd boundary only two years ago. Imagine that you send your child to high school as a freshman, and the next year you were zoned out due to overcrowding and are told that your rising freshmen will have to go to a school across town. So for two years you have high schoolers at two different schools. And this school you were zoned out of starts giving away reassignment seats due to an enrollment decline. This is what happened to the families in the c4 boundary that were removed from msd. The
228very next year. The school was requesting reassignments. Now you have to join a lottery. These families have to join a lottery to hope that they get a seat back that belong to them in the first place, creating a boundary choice area for the c4 zones would give security to these families. To make a solid choice on where to send their children and their siblings in the future. I think this should be an easy solution to right a wrong and it doesn't hurt anyone. There are several boundary choice areas in the district, and I cannot think of a better reason that than this situation. To create a new one. I understand there will be a choice priority given, but it does not give security to these families and is only applicable if there is space available
229this year. I think this is an easy solution to right the wrong. Thank you. Thank you. Next public speaker is Cynthia Dominique. Cynthia Dominique. Margate, Florida. It certainly would have been nice to have a presentation with more context and data so that we can provide targeted comments. I'm asking that as you consider any recommendations or consensus on schools going forward, that you would also consider schools that are overcrowded, especially those that are adjacent to schools with lower enrollment, and consider boundary changes for that. And what if a school is already overcapacity, whether it's gross, permanent, whatever, by any means, that they should not be given additional programing or choice areas that would further. Increase or compound the overenrollment issue that they have. Additionally, schools that just experienced changes to their feeder pattern because of the
230creation of k-8s taken away from their enrollments should not be on up for consideration. Margate middles facilities have been critically neglected, and there's not enough. And there's more than enough land on there to build a replacement school. While you know that that students can go to Coconut Creek Elementary only had about 67 students show up for that for sixth grade. So I really don't think that we need to be making more any more k-8s or k12's. It takes a lot of resources, finances to grow that school, to modify the facilities, to be able to accommodate middle schools. I think what we need to do is really focus on those replacement schools, if possible, and we do talk a lot about the facilities. Obviously, we know that that's the first thing that parents see, but we
231also need to talk about education delivery and how we change that to really ignite a curiosity and a passion for learning, because that's really a draw for a lot of parents who consider charter or private or alternative education for their children is delivering it in a way that kids gets kids excited to learn. Which brings me to Nova schools. If if we don't have any new pedagogy or educational delivery models coming out of Nova schools and just close it because the impact on transportation is already strained. And as you consider programmatic changes, there are numerous more innovative and magnet programs that can be expanded, not just sports or dual language. And if you ask parents, they can give you examples of a lot of these. And if these programmatic changes are coming to the school
232board for approval, I think the public needs clarification on how you could allocate funding to the sunrise at Fort Lauderdale that did not get school board approval, but these must come the school boundary Committee. I think that there should be representation from Esol Esq diversity, as well as the area chair, so that you can have impartial feedback, especially since some of the considerations mentioned these items and then the timeline is to condense, I would ask that it be expanded. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Aretha Wimberly. Good afternoon. I believe. That Doctor Hepburn once said. That. He could. Tell if a. Neighborhood was in distress by the. Condition of his neighborhood. Elementary schools, such as. North Fork. Thurgood Marshall and Walker Elementary Schools, which. Are three of the five. Schools to be. Addressed. Elementary schools
233to. Be addressed. Hence. It is apparent that the district. Five east of. 441 children have matriculated from elementary school. To high school in substandard or less than pristine, vibrant and celebratory experiences that are true to their academic potential. In other if other if. No other stakeholder is a champion for these kids, Broward County Public Schools should be their champion. In addition to rightsizing, bcc should be resourcing and right investing in North Fork, Thurgood Marshall and Walker Elementary schools. By doing so, bcc can potentially correct the root causes of our schools not being competitive with more Western area schools and private and charter schools being that the area east of 441 where with district five are not as attractive for new charter school sites, it's imperative that bcc preserve feeder patterns for our primary learners so
234as not to punish them for living in less affluent households, and the decisions resulting in smart bond funds and other investments committed to less challenged campuses. It is not okay to expect and expect less from any child's academic journey within bcc, where you all have contributed to its decline. By not taking actions that kept all schools delivering the best learning opportunities possible and the best environments possible, and missed opportunities to eradicate learning gaps. Also, where is the collaboration with stakeholders such as the Central Area Community Advisory Advisory Board in unincorporated Broward and cities and county education board members leverage their community relationships and resources and knowledge. Equal education opportunities for every child has not been the driving factor thus far, such as the Grant pta. We were instrumental in highlighting the disparities in the pta
235access to facilities, yet we were not looped into these conversations that went on. That went on just a little while ago. We expressed the concern that 30% of our grant funding for a grant, we would spend over $500 just so that we could have access to a school where we gave away backpacks, school supplies, books, groceries, and a pizza party. But we still paid more than $500 just to be in that facility. And we were trying to reduce or eradicate the the pta desert in these neighborhoods. Our district five, east of 441 students are experiencing unequal learning experiences, and nearly every lane relative to their academic journeys. But we don't have we don't get any of the follow ups as some of the others in this community. With more state funding bolstering private charter school
236tuition, we're asking that you champion our kids. Thank you. Next is Lori Salazar. Good evening everyone. I'm here just Lori, PRESIDENT And ceo of Junior Achievement of South Florida. I am here once again just to remind you and express our interest and commitment to helping with the repurposing of schools, in particular North Fork Elementary, to use that property for a workforce innovation center. I know you all received this at the last board meeting, so if anybody didn't get it, I do have a copy with me. This is just building on the success of a world. I know you all talk about how much you love Biztown and Finance Park. Those two are setting the foundation. Every fifth grader, every eighth grader. What this center is about is about bringing that innovation. I'm so glad I
237heard some of the comments before me bringing that innovation, that new program delivery to this community east of 441. It's building on that, but focusing on high school education, bringing that innovation that they're looking for in our students want to be engaged. So it's a high school mandate. We'll be in that building where every single high school student from across our community and our county will have the opportunity to experience those that curriculum within their classroom, as well as at simulations at the new center. We can expand the pre-apprenticeship program. As of right now, this year alone, we will we in the last two years, we have put 130 of Broward County Public School graduating high school students into the pipeline in the trades. The expanding on our work based learning experiences this year together
238in partnership, we put 315 students into jobs, 20% continuing on in those jobs so we can continue to build on those stock market challenge. We already serve about 2000. How do we continue to build on that? These are the experiences they want. I want to make sure I mention we have a donor $10 million. There's a time limit of DECEMBER of this year on it. I spoke with her after the last meeting. And I want to share with you because she gave me permission. Why is there a timeline? She has cancer. She is in remission right now. This is in naming her husband's name on this building. She wants to see this happen while she's still here. Okay, so this commitment has been here for almost three years now. We have the support of state
239and local county legislators who are willing to take this to the state, to the county for funding for capital. J is committed to raising all of the money to build this center, just as we did with j world. I also want to mention I have met with the city of Fort Lauderdale with some of the commissioners. So their support there. There's over 400 business partners working with us on this. We bring all of those things that everyone has been talking about before we got here, and what it brings to that community. It will be open to that community, even though during the day it will be used for education. We are more than willing to use that building for that community. So thank you for your support. Thank you. Our last public speaker is Brooke
240Burdi. I think she left. Okay. Thank you. We'll go to board member discussion. Doctor Holness. Thank you, MADAM Chair, for the opportunity to speak first. i do appreciate it. Unfortunately, I will have to leave after my comments to my son's open house. That starts shortly, but I this is a very important topic. So I wanted to be here. So, Doctor Hepburn, what does it mean with the presentation when you say addressing 34 schools. Doctor Hepburn yes. Great question. Doctor Holness. This is the schools that need to be addressed. Schools that are some are perennially under enrolled year after year. Some are not. But they MAY be in a cluster to support a discussion about possibilities for under-enrolled schools. So that's the that's the reason for the 34 that is listed. So we can have a
241very robust discussion with our communities. Any partners. We're starting with our city leaders first. I've already had a discussion with the City Manager Association last week just to tee up that conversation about, hey, we need your best thinking, your best ideas. This is not just a school district effort, is it? It's a community effort. And we need every partner possible cities, county, the school district, of course, our families, our community members, our nonprofit partners, the like. This is a this is an effort that's going to involve a lot of partnership. But this is to start the discussion about possibilities for under-enrolled schools in these clusters. Wonderful. So so, Doctor Hepburn, unfortunately, as many of us have seen there, there are misinformation out there. And so just for the sake of the public, does addressing 34
242schools mean closing 34 schools? Doesn't mean closing 34 schools. Okay, great. Now, have you currently identified any schools in this phase, which is phase two? I believe that you intend to close or we are still in the process of addressing. We are still in the process. Of course, the board is aware, as well as many of the public, the data for many of those Under-enrolled schools has not changed as far as enrollment. So. But there is no preconception about what schools that are going to be closed. It's a discussion that's going to lead to what schools MAY be consolidated or closed, or MAY be realized as other opportunities within communities. Okay. So as as was shown in the in the PowerPoint, redefining encompasses a lot of things. Correct? Correct. Which include possibility of replacement schools
243due to consolidations and so on and so forth. Can you briefly, for the sake of the public, tell us what redefining means in in. Yes, redefining is more than just closing schools. I know oftentimes when the public hears it in the media, the first thing you're going to hear about is the most sensational part is closing schools. It's way more than that. That rightsizing our footprint is also includes about reviewing and really going through our programs with a fine tooth comb. Just as many of the speakers just talked about implementing new programs, working with our industries to find out what their specific needs are so we can continue to innovate and iterate our program offerings to our students, sunsetting things that aren't working anymore, and scaling out things that aren't introducing new programs that that
244are a great fit for our parents and for our industries that are local here. Also, building new relationships, really strengthening our relationships and partnerships with our cities and our county through this journey. Also because like I said, this is a a walk that we're going to take together hand in hand. Wonderful. So I have a few more comments and these are more specific. I do support a creating a boundary choice for the c4 area, which would include Marjory Stoneman Douglas and Coral Glades High. In addition to that, I do support a school boundary committee, and I strongly suggest that the Boundary Committee include the chairs of some of our committees like the dac, the Esq, the Diversity Committee, North, Central and South. So those are my comments. Doctor Wanza, as far as my input on
245this particular item, in addition to that, I see that there is some. I guess, from the public comments regarding North Fork. What I would say, Doctor Hepburn, it is important that any community that we do have significant community input before we make any decision on any school. I understand that there might be money involved with some of these as far as contribution and timelines, but equally important is community buy in. And I think that whatever we do, it's very important that we engage the community in terms of what we're doing with our schools. So I would strongly recommend and suggest that for North Fork that the community is highly engaged and understand and that whatever is going to be done to North Fork or any school that it supports that community in some form or
246way. So that would be my suggestion as far as as far as North Fork. Thank you sir. And that's it for my comments. Thank you for the comments, DR. Holness. Thank you, MRS. Rupert. Sorry. Thank you so much. I would like to talk a little bit about Margate Middle. I'm incredibly proud to be a school board member and have Margate Middle in one of my cities, and one of my very favorite principal, Sabine Phillips is there doing some amazing education. She's brought that school up for the last few years. I think there be now, and it's a great neighborhood school. I was a little worried about going k to eight with Coconut Creek, thinking it would have any effect on Margate Middle. That school needs to be there. We need to make sure that we
247look at the patterns of the neighborhoods that go there and the distance, the schools, also the diversity of our students there, as well as special needs Esol, multicultural. We need to be able to not compound the situation. I'm interested in having options for our people. That is, that's what I'm about. I'm not foreclosing schools. I'm for having options for parents and community members and students to be able to tell us what do they want within our schools, what are we not offering at this moment, or what are we offering? But it's not here at this school. I think this would do well. I do not know if there's a very close relationship from Margate Middle to atc, Atlantic Technical College. I just want to say that because people don't know when we do our our
248abc letters there, I think that's a natural partnership that we should build on that I'm, you know, looking forward to hearing what the community wants with this and will support my communities like I do every community in Broward County. As for the Coral Glades Choice area, yes, moving the Silver Palms, Flanagan's yes, I'm yes, for the school boundary Committee. And what I would like to see is to make sure that we do have a diversity of people that would be represented not only at the school, but also of the area, neighborhoods. And I also want to comment on not only is it Margate Middle that touches district seven, but also Dave Thomas Alternate High School and Cypress Run Behavior Center. Those are all gems. And Dave Thomas is doing some amazing things as well as
249Cypress Run and one of the programs that came to be at Cypress Run was from Reverend Reverend Guice, and he is there on a mission to make sure that the kids that graduate from there, that move on from there, have a marketable and equitable opportunity, no matter what school they come from. And he's a marvelous person, and I think we can build on that. And I know the district under the superintendent and doctor, Licata really worked well to make sure that the programs from Cypress Run could also be a part of the apprentice program in atc, and they worked out a special deal where the students were only had to go, I want to say 1 or 2 days to atc, and then the other days a teacher facilitated the conversation at atc while it
250was virtual, and that seemed to be working very well. I'd be very interested in getting the information. Doctor Wanza through the superintendent, about how well the programs are doing at Cypress Run. What are some of the comments that the families and the students have? And I do hope that they come to the conversation. I really hope, besides Margate Middle, that we have residents from Coconut Creek and all over the northern area so they could represent Dave Thomas and they could represent Cypress Run. I think that was that was the list. Hold on. Okay. And then some of the numbers that were on the the PowerPoint, I know ininially we hadad said,d,ou know, it wasas goingo o o over 70ndnd then I it beca u under 70. And some of them really like Margate Middle, had
25167% enrolled. And to to a point that I think Nicole had said, or it was Cynthia, Dominique, one of you guys, about the facilities at Margate Middle. They had a lot of issues over the years. There was a lot of delays with all the information that was coming out and certainly delays in getting the facilities done, but they've weathered through it and they really want to move on, and they're giving the absolute best to the students. And we really can't measure heart when it comes down to telling people what's a good school, what's not, who should we who should get a school that's reconfigured? Everybody should. Everybody should get a school that has so many opportunities that people are lining up to go in there. And and I think if we lead with heart, it
252works out better that way. And people can be part of that. I think those are those are my comments for now. But I did want to say I also support programs for the gifted dual language programs, and as well as making sure that more of our Esq students are able to have a. A career when they leave with us and or at least have classes in an area and an apprenticeship. So they also can be successful in their life moving forward from Broward County schools. Thank you so much. I appreciate it, and I'm looking forward to hearing my comments. My colleagues say, thanks so much. Thank you, MISS Thompson. Thank you chair. So I want to start my comments just by emphasizing that we have lost over 10,000 students. And that's in my mind, not
253just because we have competition, but people are leaving South Florida because they can't afford it. And that's nothing that changing to k through eight or making a specialized program is going to change. And so while I understand the the desire and obviously I'm a I believe that schools are the heart of our communities. We need to protect them. We also need to face the reality that those 10,000 students aren't coming back. So I just wanted to be very blunt with that statement. And I think, unfortunately, that means we have to take an aggressive. Stance of what we're doing in the coming months, because I think if we want to pay our teachers more, we want to give innovative programs, we want to have programing that wins over the students that are still in South Florida.
254We need money to do that, like we need the funding to be able to have these once in a lifetime programs, these centers, these I technical schools or whatever you want to have. And I also believe that we need to have a district approach. And while obviously I'm a district school board member and I proudly represent district two, we need to look at the system as a whole when we're making every decision. So just advocating to protect one school while I, I recognize where the heart and compassion is coming from, that's not going to get us through this difficult time. If you look at the map, district one and district two are primarily targeted for almost all proposed changes. So if anyone's going to get up in arms, I think it would probably be myself
255and MISS Bowman. But at least for myself, I recognize that this is this is a crisis. This is a crisis of affordability. This is a crisis of what are we doing? How are we going to win the families back? I also want to mention that charter schools lost over a thousand students. So it's not just our Broward County. I want to also emphasize that Miami Dade has lost a significant amount. Palm beach has lost a significant amount. So this isn't again, this isn't just how are we winning back students. This is how are we competing for even less students than we had? So I just I wanted to start that. And I know Doctor Zieman will probably also emphasize closing a lot more schools than I would want to, but I thought he oh, he's
256still here. So I thought he left. So I wanted to take that banner for him, but I do. I know and it it it hurts. It hurts to say like it's it's not I think anything that we want to do. But I think if we're smart about it, if we involve the community in it, then we will make a really cruddy situation better. So I just wanted to start that and just say that I am committed to looking at this through a district wide perspective, not only for district two, but truly what's best for everybody. And so I'm going to start my questions with. To superintendent. If there are programmatic changes, for example, a gifted program or a sports academy, is that something that would need to go through the board first, or is that
257under your purview to just change? Yeah. Those are thank you for the question, MISS Thompson. Those are operational changes. We have programmatic changes all the time. Even principals have some autonomy and programmatic changes in their building to add new programs or new coursework to scale out programs. So then if we're changing through k through eight or like a 3 to 8, is that a board approval? Yes. Because you're expanding grade levels and yes, and it's a financial impact. I was going. To add to that doctor. Go ahead. You're also changing the grade reconfiguration of a school, which impacts the attendance area and the board. That is your responsibility to establish attendance areas annually and facility usage, but particularly attendance areas. So when we change and made those schools k-8, we changed attendance areas for students.
258So I would follow up with that question, because I do think that the board has purview over financial. Yes. Correct, correct. And I would argue that programmatic changes like a gifted program or a sports academy would require more funding. So then, wouldn't that fall under the purview of the board to make those kind of decisions? Doctor. So funding yes, there MAY be instances where a school MAY already have funding by sunsetting certain programs and replacing them with a new program. Absolutely. Yes. Funding. Yes. Oftentimes, for instance, last week, funding to support facilities which initially which in turn are inherently supports a program. So program MAY be pitched or concept for a certain program at a school, but it MAY not have the funding that the board would approve additional funding for that to actually implement
259that program. So I'm having trouble reconciling that, because if we have control over the finances, however, you guys decide that a program would fit best in that community, but it would require funding. How does that work? Because if you guys decide on programs and then we decide actually, no, we don't want to fund that, don't you think there should be more discussion with the board prior? Yes. And Mike, I'm sorry, where's my mic on the last time. I heard you? Yeah. Okay. I'm sorry. So if it involves asking the board for additional funding. Yes. There's going to be a discussion about the why for the use of the money. But if there's no need to ask the board for funding for a specific program, if it's self-sustaining, cost neutral, and by by doing something different,
260sunsetting a program or whatever the case MAY be, it would not come to the board. Can I jump in and give an example? Cambridge, for example. Correct. a lot of high schools wanted Cambridge. They either changed. Well, it's different now. But initially when it first started they rearranged the the budget they had at the school to be able to cover the cost of Cambridge in their school. So that didn't have to come here. Ib is another example, some of those innovative programs. Just to give you some context. And then the piggyback off of MISS Hickson's example. Then Cambridge becomes self-sustaining because there's money from the students passing the tests, and then that money could be used to high school, maybe MAY want to support a middle school to expand out of pre Cambridge program or
261support another high school. So organically you start building out that program even more because it's garnering its own funding and becoming self-sustaining. So then we've had conversations about changing magnet programs. Does magnet programs require board approval? No. Okay. I still think it's worth discussing with the board, because we know that these things typically come with funding. And I get that there's a difference in in Cambridge and Gifted and ib, but the larger scale things I think should be more of a discussion than what was had with the sports academy. I also want. To discuss just calling out a school for a world. Well, I appreciate everything you do. I think it's very scary for a community to have someone come in and say, oh, I'm going to take this school, and here's a picture of
262what we're going to do, and it makes it seem like a done deal when it wasn't, and I think that school is, is at, I believe, 70% or it was prior to this year I know they lost about. 41 kids. If I'm reading the chart. Right. But to me, if we're going to do a partnership like that, it needs to be a school that's or a location that's beneficial for both the district and the group that wants to do it with. And I think there are other locations that that program might fit. And I get that it's centrally located, but that's also probably why our families like going to the elementary school. So I just I don't have necessarily issue with that concept, but issue with that particular school. And if I'm wrong about the
263enrollment. But when I looked at the PowerPoint. Yeah, you can clarify. So based on last year's numbers, enrollment, 20th day, they were at 60% 60.4. This year they're at 55%. Okay. Thank you for clarifying. And then I still have issue with it. Just so that's recorded. And then we also discussed a district managed charter school along the lines of like an autism center. And I just want to get clarification on why we would want to go. The district managed charter school route versus just opening a center for students with autism. Because we do special education services better than anybody else, hands down. No question. We will explore both options to see what's best for the students first, and also the district. And how will that come back to the board? It'll it'll it'll come back
264with information for both. And then when are we going to get the fca? fca will be presented to the board in OCTOBER. And then I also, just as a final comment, I think it's hard to talk about redefining and budgeting separately and like Programmatics and allocations, because really all of this is one issue, and I don't know if there's a way to solve that or if we could be piggybacking our budget workshops with redefining, because I think we just need a better overall picture before we make what I think has to be pretty drastic changes. So thank you. Thank you, MRS. Leonardi. Thank you. I had a really wonderful conversation with some folks from the city of Fort Lauderdale about opportunities for the fire department. And what I really cared about in that conversation was
265providing programing and opportunity to our students. If we were to partner with the City of Fort Lauderdale and the fire department about any of our property, making sure that our students had access to those, those training facilities and training programs. And so I'm wondering if staff can speak to any conversations that have happened or any of those opportunities that might be available. Yes. Great question, miss Leonardi. City of Fort Lauderdale has already approached us, probably months ago, about their desire to acquire space for a possible training center for fire and law enforcement. But as I said earlier, I've already teed up conversations with the city manager, Association based on Doctor Barnes's timeline. We'll be going out and talking to municipalities. Everything is on the table, I told them, I said, I'm going to be honest
266with you. We're going to walk this journey together. Every no, I every idea is a good idea. Right now, we're throwing spitballs on the wall to really try and realize what's possible in the midst of redefining phase two. We don't want to leave any stone uncovered. That MAY be a benefit to communities, to kids, to the school district. And so everything's on the table right now as we have these discussions, and then we'll have more robust discussions with communities when we go out and have those community conversations so we can bring back the best recommendations possible. Got it. And I appreciate that. This needs to be a district wide approach. And I also think it's important for us to recognize that those of us who represent single member districts, we MAY not be advocating for
267a specific school, but we are in our communities talking to different municipalities. And, you know, perhaps like Doctor Holness might not be having the same conversations with the same people that I am, and those same people are not necessarily reaching out to MISS Bowman, for instance. So the reason I bring up the city of Fort Lauderdale and the fire department, as well as some other issues that I'm going to touch on, are because they're like very specific to communities in which that I'm supposed to represent. So another issue that's come up a lot in some of my schools, in some of my communities, is the the opportunities that exist in the marine industry here in South Florida. So I hope that staff can try to explore some of those opportunities. I know Stranahan High School
268looked to partner with bc about opening some marine engineering programs that it didn't quite pan out, but that's really a great industry that that we could try to offer some programing around as well. That is again, very specific to where we are in South Florida. So I'm trying to come to the table with solutions rather than disparaging things that are going on. So I I'm excited about your mindset, Doctor Hepburn, about, you know, any ideas a good idea. But those are two things that that I think are. Really ripe for discussion and development and would provide our students with really wonderful opportunities. And again, like the conversations about education and public education nationally are around, you know, not necessarily forcing college career path on on our students, but opening up different career paths and talking
269about those career paths with our students. i know we do a lot with cte, and we're award winning in the state, but I'd love to be able to build on that as we move forward. Thank you. Thank you, MRS. Alhadeff. Thank you. So I would first like to speak to the Junior Achievement Workforce Innovation Center. We have the the opportunity to to have a possible $10 million donation, which which is incredible. And what I heard today is that there is a timing piece to this by DECEMBER, if we don't move forward with this, then we're going to lose the donation of $10 million. And, you know, I, I know that when you know, you're trying to honor your loved one who passed away, that it's so vitally important that you see that donation through in,
270in when you know you're here to to see it through. So I would love to to see a strong plan to execute this donation for this project. You know, Doctor Hepburn, whatever, whatever that looks like. I'm not I don't know, these conversations that are happening and I'm not really sure where I was with, you know, from this learning today about this donation and it potentially expiring. But, you know, it's it's very upsetting to me when we're struggling to, to fund our schools and we have this incredible opportunity. I mean, I saw the, the, the brochure in the, you know, what what they want to do will make us a leader in the state. And I think when you embrace the community of of potentially what could occur here and you bring people along in the
271conversations, then it's it's really going to make an impact. So I know that, you know, when things go to, to lawyers and back and forth, all that stuff takes so much time. So I would like to know what the aggressive plan is to solidify this donation. Doctor Hepburn. So this is the the plan, this Alhadeff going out to the community, having our community conversations, making sure that they understand all the opportunities available to them. I'm pretty sure Lori and her team will be there to show off some of the exhibits and deliverables that they've given to the board, so they can really understand what this could look like. And based on our timeline, it provides a good time frame for J.R. To and the board to solidify commitment. When we bring back all the recommendations
272at one time so that she has a notice of of what the board's next steps are based on those decision making. Okay. I'd like to break it down a little bit further. I would like to have a week by week identification of what's going to transpire, because it's four months from now. And I know that, you know, we get so busy wrapped up, there's so many things that we have to focus on that I don't want anything to get dropped. I don't want to MISS The timeline. So I'll leave it at that. Yeah. And I know Doctor Wanza has already scheduled the community conversation dates, so we have those already. Okay, perfect. Next I would I would like to congratulate Coral Glades High School and all the high schools inin Cal Springsgs thaare now anan
273a. Wl donene. So I h havaa few. Well I'm going to address this first and then I'm going to address the rest of the presentation. So a few meetings ago, mayor Rich Walker and the city manager Catherine Givens, they they both came here and and they spoke and they said that they do not want to go through a boundary process. And and so I brought forward. Policy 6400 and, and the board changed policy 6400, not just to focus on Coral Glades and msd, but to change this policy to address the entire school district and so on. Page 18 of 27. Number eight, a student who resides in an area that was impacted by a change in the school's attendance zone boundary within the past five years. They would get assignment priority to to be able
274to be assigned to to go back to the school. They they were rebounded out. So we already passed that in the policy. And so that is in place now not only for c4 but also for the future of, of the, you know, any type of reassignments. And so, you know, we've had multiple grand jury report findings, speaking to specific examples of school board members inserting themselves into the daily operations of the school district, which clearly fall under the purview of the superintendent. So the school board approved the revisions to policy 8010 school attendance zone boundaries and school usage at the SEPTEMBER 10th, 2024 regular school board meeting and pursuant to the language in section four a, b, the process to establish school attendance, zone boundaries and school usage, annual Notice and superintendent recommendation, as well
275as section seven, which clearly defines the responsibilities of the School Board, is the consensus action taken by the School Board at the conclusion of the MARCH 11th, 2025 regular school board meeting, in conflict with violation of the board's approved policy. That's a question. Doctor Hepburn or MISS Batista. So I wouldn't say it's in violation, but the first time that the the board is in the process, under its current policy, the school board only enters the school attendance zone process after receiving a recommendation issued by the superintendent, which is under part four d before that, it. The policy speaks about the board or actually the superintendent. Each year in the fall, designated staff shall notify the Superintendent of schools, and that's how the process begins. So even if the board was going to express a preference
276as to something that they wanted the superintendent to bring forth, it ultimately would be the superintendents recommendation that would come before the board. Thank you. So, Doctor Hepburn, does Coral Glades High School and msd meet the criteria to be addressed for a boundary change? So for and I'm be honest with the board, I know we got some board members that, you know came to consensus about that. Right now I don't have time. I'm focused on redefining addressing our under-enrolled schools, which is going to be a tall task for everybody that's sitting in front of you who would have to spend time on that process. And I don't know if I would press them to the point to dedicate bandwidth to both, because I know that boundary change is going to entail a lot of effort,
277a lot of conversations between both communities trying to tackle what's in front of us right now, which is, you know, from day one to day one, day ten to day ten down 10,000 students and tri county area is down 25,000 plus students. It's not a charter school and even a voucher situation. It's affordable affordability situation. And we need to tackle this and do what we need to do to rightsize ourselves and create some better opportunities for our for our students and our families in Broward County Public Schools and to address the needs of schools that don't have an enrollment issue right now, is I just don't think we have the bandwidth to do both of those. So that's just my take. Of course, I work at the will of the board, but I'm just talking
278about what's in front of us right now, what we have to do moving forward, starting immediately. MRS. Can I ask a question to maybe clarify what that is? So through the superintendent, maybe Doctor Wanza what would because the change that we made addressed it for the students. If there are seats open at msd, right. And the original boundary change was because the it was overcrowded. So what would be the difference, really, of going through a choice boundary as opposed to the way it is now? How that how would that I guess I'm trying to word this better. So right now msd has seats available, right. Or let's just say there are seats available. And they opened it up to reassignment the way we wrote the policy, if you live in c4 or if you we
279change some other boundary and you live there, you will if there are seats, you are going to get a seat there. You have an assignment priority. Okay. Right. So you get consideration before people who do not have an assignment priority. So that that's the first thing. And the other part of your question, if you want me to answer because you said what's the difference? Okay, so what the board will eventually because 6400 has to come back for final. The only thing that was asked for is to change was to take out some of the redundant language. But the board was in support of an assignment priority for students who live in an area that was impacted by a boundary change within five years, so that that would hold for any school in the district for
280which there was a boundary change within five years. And the school now, for whatever reason, has room for reassignments. The difference is establishing a choice area. We would have to, for that community, do exactly what we are doing for the communities of under enrollment, the communities that we have to address. They would literally be back in a boundary process where we would have to have the community meetings, you know, hear from the different stakeholder groups, bring some recommendations because they they MAY come with proposals that are different than what the board even recommended. So it would really be putting that school, those two schools back through the full boundary process. So one more. Question and I'll turn it back over. Is there a way in the policy that we have in our choice policy, instead
281of saying priority to say if there are seats open, they would get the first seats if they applied. So when the policy comes back, if that is a motion that you know, and MISS Bautista, I'm looking at you because that because the policy has to come back to the board on it's coming back on SEPTEMBER 16th. I think it is. It's coming back. And if motions want to be made again, then it's, you know, the board has the opportunity to opportunity to do that. And if it is determined that that motion, if it's passed, is a substantial motion, substantive change, then it would come back for another reading and final adoption. So MISS Bautista is is it is it allowable by law for us to say that if there are seats available, the people who
282are in that boundary change the seat has c4 that they would get instead of where it says priority? Because I'm looking at this as a compromise between the two that they would if there were seats available, automatically be accepted as opposed to just priority. So I think, and MISS Bautista, before you, we do have to look at statutory priorities first. Right. So military there's something around homeless children. You know we'd have to look at those first as we prioritize. So I don't want to but I'll let you be the lawyer. I'm sorry. I know I don't mind help. So there are there are, there is. Thank you for that, doctor Wanza. But, you know, I don't have the policy before me. I do know that there are other sections in there that are or also
283categories for priority. And so if it's the will of the board, we can, you know, you can tweak some language and to try and make that, you know, maybe more of a priority. I don't know how it would, you know, play out with the other categories that are that are there. Okay. All right. I'm just trying to find a happy medium. And if I MAY, I, I believe the reassignment process doesn't really start until like next year. Right. Like in the spring. Oh no, it's going to start probably around OCTOBER, NOVEMBER for next school year. So that is why whatever the policy is needs to kind of sort of be finalized SEPTEMBER, OCTOBER at the very latest. Yes. So there is time for one more substantive change. That's what I'm trying to figure. Out if
284need be. We did that this past year. Yes. Okay. Thanks. Thank you. Okay. So I do not think that we should do a school choice area for Coral Glades and msd. And those are my reasons why? Because I think that we have already addressed this in policy 6400 with assignment priority. And when this policy comes back within the assignment priority, if there is threshold after the statutory requirements that we want to maybe boost that up to the next threshold within the assignment priority of policy 6400. And then my other comments, you know, I would I would just say that it's very difficult. And you know, I know there's a cadence to this Doctor Hepburn, but it is challenging to not have any data to support any of these decisions, to say, you know, which which
285of these schools should be addressed or how they should be addressed, or, you know, the the facilities assessment. So I need to have that data to be able to make a better decision as a school board member. And and so I look forward to getting more information regarding that. I did have a question regarding the is there a long range master plan steering committee. That is being developed as we speak in conjunction with when the fca comes out? So we have a good committee to help us long range plan for facility needs and concerns based on those reports. And then what will be the cadence of when they meet. Probably monthly in the beginning and then quarterly after that. So they can they will go through the facilities condition assessment themselves and be great thought
286partners based on their level of expertise and community affiliations or school affiliations, so they can start giving some recommendations about some next steps as they develop the master plan. And then the last thing I would just say is that, you know, I, I think it is so important that the conversations with the community, with the commissioners of the cities, that that that is absolutely had to to have this conversation. But again, I, I would like to see the board when these decisions are kind of trickle down that we need to to vote on vote on it. Because even even if it's in the primary stages, because I don't want us to go through or have to go through all this work, and then the board ends up voting it down, you know, months from now.
287So I think that's that's really important. And and then also I think that just in general, you know, we need to be leaner so that we can pay teachers more money and staff more money. And, and, you know, eventually build brand new schools. But I'm, I'm just going to go back to the Junior Achievement building. I think that is a really amazing opportunity for Broward County Public Schools. And it would be horrible if we were to lose that donation. Thank you. Thank you, MR. Severa. Thank you, MADAM Chair. In going through this, this list of 34, which on my tally is about 14 middle schools, 17 elementary and three high schools, if my math is right, I was trying to think of of some practical, real world solutions on how to address some of these
288enrollment issues and what we do with some of these, these schools that aren't meeting the the enrollment thresholds. And I came across some schools, mostly elementary and middle, that are in very close proximity. And by way of example, Alston Middle in Dania Beach and Dania Elementary are approximately, I think, a quarter mile from each other. I think they have very similar bus routes and things of that nature. And upon looking at the the enrollment numbers for the, the middle school and for the elementary school, it became apparent to me that we could probably house all of the elementary kids that are currently in Dania Elementary within Olson Middle School. And if we were to combine that and make that a k-8 center, you'd fully utilize the middle school building to have a k-8 center. Potentially
289we would have a now empty elementary that sits very close to us, one prime piece of property. My understanding I'm not a realtor, but it looks like a pretty prime piece of property for the district to do what it can with it in order to generate some funds. So my question is, has an analysis been done as far as elementary schools and middle schools are concerned, to determine about combining some of these in very close proximity? Now I understand if if sometimes the distance doesn't match up, it MAY be a problem from some of our other members of the community. I don't want to go across town or whatnot, but I'm wondering if any analysis or any research has been done just in my, you know, quick research that I did in preparing for the
290meeting today, I found a Olson middle as a prime example about getting some of these middle schools, combined with the elementary schools and making them k-8 centers and getting rid of one of the two empty buildings that are no longer necessary, whether by a sale or lease or whatever, just to generate some funds for the district. Doctor. Hepburn. Great question. So, yes, very intensive analysis has been done. Many of these schools were on the list last year. So what I can do to just to get you up to speed because I know you wasn't here last year, probably have Doctor Watson and MR. Beck meet with you to go over a lot of the data as far as adjacent capacity that is needed. Also, facility requirements for elementary for especially for k through two elementary
291age kids that become barriers of why you can't put them in a secondary school building. So yes, there's a deep analysis that's been done about possibilities. When we meet with the city managers and city leaders, first, we're going to go over those possibilities based on restrictions and all of that. And then as we go out to the community, have the same conversation, we will and I know heard a lot of folks about data. This is more about based on certain criteria for enrollment and letting the board know we're about to tee up. These discussions come. The next workshop will bring a lot of data associated with all of the schools, especially those that are going to have the largest concerns that we really need to address based on those conversations, just to paint the picture
292about some next steps in the why behind some schools that are having perennial enrollment issues. But just simply answer your question. Yes, it's been a deep dive in all of those possibilities. I'd love to see the research and the the white papers on that, if you will, whether or not that was done last year or not, I don't know, but I'd still like to see it because it seems like a very practical solution to me. Yeah. Doctor Hepburn, you mentioned restrictions. What particular restrictions would it be that you can't have kids under a certain age physically being educated in a middle school building? I mean, what type of restrictions? So a simple restriction for k through two. They need a bathroom in the classroom. Secondary schools aren't built that way. They're built with bathrooms outside
293of the classroom in a common area in usually on one of the floors. But in if you've toured elementary school and you go to k through two, there's a bathroom. And other than the bathrooms in the classroom, are there any other restrictions that that come to mind? I can't think of the others off the top of my head, but I'm pretty sure there's yeah, I'm pretty sure there's a couple more that we can that we've identified, that we looked at many of those ideas, and those were some of the barriers of why we couldn't turn certain middle schools into k through eight. It's easier to turn a elementary school that has enough capacity to add six through eighth grade to k through eight. Understood. And and I guess my same question, although there's only really
294three high schools on the list. Right. So I guess my same question would go to Under-enrolled middle schools where you have high school capacity to serve those and maybe have those through six through 12. Right. Those are possibilities. Okay. Was the an equal amount of research done in in regards to high schools and middle schools and possible combining those? Yes. So many of the high schools do have capacity to add the middle school. If the middle school population is is small enough, it just depends on the capacity that the high school still has to absorb those students. So if a high school is 1500 kids presently and there are maxed out at 2000 and that middle school has 700 kids, it's not possible, it would be 200 over. So those are some of the situations
295we look at. But yes, in some cases that MAY be possible. I'd love to see the research on that. Absolutely. Doctor DR. Zeman. There was a magic number that we had that represented how the decline in enrollment over the past 25 years has left us in a situation where I think what we're trying to do is spend more money on the kids we have, and less on the empty seats and an oversize footprint. It's really just that simple. We would like to spend money educating our children and not maintaining schools that we don't need anymore. And I don't know, I don't know how any other way to explain it to people. Is there a cost to doing that to families? Yes. Is that cost because it generates a much better, more robust, higher academic achieving
296system? A good trade off? Absolutely. So, MR. Superintendent, your demographer staff last year calculated that at the enrollment we had day one last year, if you looked at our school capacity, we could close 40 schools. Now, that's not really possible because of the boundaries and feeder patterns and the like. But to get to only 90% capacity last year we calculated 40 schools. This year we're down at least on day one enrollment 8700 students. How many schools could we close this year? Theoretically, and still stay at 90% capacity. Doctor Hepburn, MR. Beck. MR. Beck. Through the chair. Thank you. Doctor. Superintendent. Doctor. DR. Zeman. So actually, last year, just a point of correction at 90% based on last year's enrollment and last year's capacity, it was only 21 schools that could be closed, 43 could be
297closed to get the district to 100%. Oh thank you. Yeah. So this year though, yoururumber is 45. So we couould 'r'rdodown smumu.. But that alsohahaststill does not allow us to close any high schools. High schools remain enrolled at about 89% utilization overall. So we are pretty much at that target. But elementary and middle schools have have plenty plenty to give. Okay. So to to to get our school facilities that are open at 90% capacity in in a in a county in which we've had 25 years of declining enrollment, this is not new. This has been here for this board, the last board and going back many, many, many boards. So for 25 years we've had this decline 1% a year. Then all of a sudden we get this big drop. This year we could close
29843 for next year and still be at 90%, still have room left to grow 20,000 or so students back, right? Doctor Hepburn correct. And have you done, MR. Beck? The analysis that goes from the theoretical number 43 down to the practical number, I know that we're asking you to do some really heavy analytics and no time, but are you at that point where you've known that number as well? Yeah, it all depends. I think that you you understand this very well, but I'll try to recapture your idea is that there's two ways to close schools. Right. The easiest and most straightforward is to use adjacent under-enrolled capacity, which means that's why we've introduced the concept of clusters of under-enrolled schools, because you can consolidate one school with low enrollment into another school that has space
299next door, or maybe two schools that have space next door. When you get to chasing a number like 43 or 45 schools, you're no longer able to use adjacent capacity because you have to to look at the totality of the space in the district. So when when we get to that, just to get to this exercise, we would say, well, what's the average size of an elementary school? To calculate that estimate of a middle school of a high school, we would in order to do that, you would you would erase all of the current attendance areas. You'd have to start from scratch and to determine which schools you would rebounder, you would have to use some other set of criteria, probably the size of the facility, the condition of the facility, and the adjacency of
300populations to fill the school. So it would be, you know, that would be something we have not previously undertaken, but that would be, you know, the very drastic measure that would have to be undertaken. But within the adjacent capacity, we couldn't close 43. How many could we close? No, it's a much, much lower number. It's, it's it's less than ten actually, because, you know, we've already exhausted some of that capacity through the first year of redefining unless we want to. Let me let me take, for example, a cluster of elementary schools in the North. There's Charles Drew Liberty and Coconut Creek Elementary, Coconut Creek, we turned into a k-8 this year. It sits between the other two, so it's no longer available adjacent capacity for those other two schools. Coral Springs Elementary in the north
301is one of the most under-enrolled, if not the most under-enrolled school this year. It's surrounded by schools that don't have space to to take its enrollment. So the actual consolidation number, when you're using adjacent capacity without doing cascading boundary changes, when you're using only immediately adjacent capacity, is fewer than ten this year. Okay. And I appreciate that. But that gets me really to my next point, which is when you have meetings like this and you don't flood the market with data, you've just invited the public to think that you're hiding some. And so I don't know why the data wasn't produced today. I don't know why it's not online. We have, if not all this data, most of this data in our possession right now and and we just need to flood the zone. Like
302here's all the data that we have and that makes it I mean, not only makes it transparent, but it provides the community an opportunity to see that you're you're giving them all the data about criteria. You're going to use criteria you're not going to use all in one place, easy to find so that they can take advantage of that. So I hope we follow that model this year. I thought we learned that last year. But but I was wrong. MR. Superintendent, will municipal meetings be open to the public? As far as our community conversations? There's something in our schedule for municipal meetings. Yes. Those are those are meetings with the city managers. Are those open meetings? That would be the that would depend on them right now, those are meetings with the city manager and
303staff. I'm sorry. Let me just understand the answer. If a city manager wants it not to be a public meeting, we're willing to have it. Typically, those aren't public meetings. They're in a conference room at a either here or in their facility. Okay. I think it would be fascinating to invite city managers to public meetings and let the Broward County Public Schools and the city manager have an open discussion about what's going on. I'll just leave that at that. I don't I'm not asking a question. I just at some point, we need cities to come and partner with us to help us re-envision feeder patterns, facilities and flows. And I believe those meetings should be in public. I also believe that within a reasonable number of schools this year, we can send students to better
304schools, schools that have higher academic achievement, schools that have newer facilities and are at greater capacity. Again, to the first point, why do we keep spending money on facilities we don't need? And knowing that we could spend that same money on students to improve our core mission, which is education for our wonderful colleague, from Junior Achievement to MISS Thompson's point, if you can specify what your requirements are, we can look across 239 campuses and try and figure something out. But I think it's I think it's it's kind of it's not an appropriate step in the process to identify one school. Because now to those parents, it looks like there's this big pot of money that's pushing us toward that decision, rather than saying, hey, we got 10 million and here's, here's the here's what I
305need. I need this much acreage. I need these kinds of facilities, whatever you want. And then we might do a better job of finding out. Right now, it's a zero sum game between one school and Junior Achievement. And I love the $10 million. But if we had what your requirements are, we might be able to place that with with greater flexibility. I also think, MR. Superintendent, as part of this, we need to get real about selling the land we don't need. You know, we sell a little bit every year, but why do we keep holding on to land in a declining enrollment? We have facilities. We have we have truck facilities and maintenance facilities and and bus transport areas. Let's look at that and figure out, you know, where is it? We don't need that
306land. And let's work with our community leaders. They MAY have affordable housing. They MAY have transit hubs. They MAY have, you know, other government needs that they have for that land. And I think we should be flexible about that as well. I'm sensitive, MR. Superintendent, about your decline on the on the boundary process. So I don't want to add commercial properties to what you're doing, but I don't know why we hold on to land that we're not going to use. We need the money. And so we can't say we need the money and still hold on, hold on to the land. We found some amazing use with the old Dave Thomas site in Pompano. We've got a hospital coming up in parkland. This could be the bee's knees and I can't wait to see that.
307To MISS Thompson's point about opening programs and budget and making those kinds of decisions, I will, I will. I will tell you that the opposite problem has been in Broward County a long time, which is we've designated programs and not given them money. So here you've got a robot, you know, Stem, no Stem books, no robots, no room, no lab equipment, no teachers that are certified to teach it. And we just put a label on a school. I would challenge anyone in Broward County to point out, well, I'm not going to go there, but we put labels on schools and sometimes there's not a lot behind that label. And that's really frustrating to me because if we're going to have something, make sure we have the books, we have the facilities, the labs, the whole
308thing. Otherwise, you know, you're putting lipstick on a pig and before long, the public knows it's just a pig. I'd also ask whether or not we need a lot of help from the long range facility master plan group. What I think we need about our facilities is what's the deferred maintenance? And what's the material condition of the campus? And from that, we can decide, you know, if it's an even mix between this school or that school. And this one has $40 million to deferred maintenance, and this has one. That's an easy choice, because someday we're going to have to come up with that $40 million in deferred maintenance to keep the school open. It MAY be 4 million a year for ten years, I don't know, but but there's really good data about facility conditions,
309and if we can get to that by OCTOBER, as promised, that will help round out our thing. There's a couple criteria here that I don't like, and this is just one out of nine. I don't like gifted pathway schools. I like schools that do great education for everybody. I'm not in favor of dual language pathways, but I do think we ought to figure out what languages parents and students want and give them to them, rather than saying, oh, I've got a Portuguese teacher, we're going to offer Portuguese. We should figure out what the customer wants and deliver it there. I've never been in favor of dedicating our money or facilities to early learning opportunities. It's not our mission. And one thing that's missing on this table that I'd ask you to add, MR. Superintendent, is
310the effect on Esq students. We can't forget them. They're not a number. There could be 40 of them at one school. If the solution about that school is we move 40 kids 12 miles away to give them the services they need, that's probably going to be a difficult thing to do, but we've got to make sure we know how we're going to teach those things. Oh, yeah. Thank you very much. Thank you, MRS. Bowman. Thank you. Chair, I wanted to start out. I wanted to ask, I guess, through the superintendent to Doctor Wanza. What the when you started your present, if I MAY, when you started your presentation, we were supposed to take away a couple things today, and I. I was just wondering if you could go through that again so I knew what
311we were. So thank you for the question. It's okay, Doctor Hepburn, if I. Okay. Thank you for the question. So I want to say that on the at the JULY 29th board workshop, where we had a much more robust presentation with a lot of data and slides, we advised the board that we were coming back today with the specific target. And what we talked about were the things that are on slide two, where we said, these are the four things that we need to know today, some kind of direction on the schools to be addressed, the just where the board is in favor of the process and the timeline with the stakeholder engagement, which is very extensive. The composition of the School Boundary Committee, as well as the considerations for evaluating whatever proposals the School
312Boundary Committee would be making recommendations for. So those are the four things. And what I'll say is, is after today, I don't want anybody to think that we're going to have today's workshop, and then we're not going to come back until the superintendent makes his final recommendation. We're coming back two times, once in OCTOBER and once in NOVEMBER, once we have gone out and had all kinds of conversation input with the community data programs, you know, all of that. Have a conversation in OCTOBER with the board, then narrow that down to in NOVEMBER. We then have our regional community meetings. And then based on that, after that conversation, the school boundary Committee then takes all of that information into account. They start to then make recommendations for the proposals, and then the superintendent obviously will
313then publish what will be his final recommendation sometime in DECEMBER. So but as of but for today, it's what's listed on slide two okay. Thank you. Okay. So. Obviously this is a very difficult conversation to have. But like my colleagues I think that, you know, because we've lost a significant amount of students. And you know previously that was surrounded by kind of a negative narrative towards our school district. And I think as the time has gone by, even in the past year, it's become apparent that there are a lot of different forces that are acting upon our enrollment. And so that while disappointing, also makes it easier, potentially easier for us to accept the fact that we really have to make some changes. And I think that we really have the opportunity to make this
314district better and stronger if we're willing, and we have the fortitude to actually make the tough choices to do it, because we have to. We have to always remember our reason for being here is to educate our kids, and to do so in the best way possible, and make sure they have as many resources as we can give them. So I agree with, you know, holding on to extra properties that are not going in that direction and holding us back from making sure that every single kid has those opportunities is not the direction that I would like to go. So while I don't want to close schools and I understand the impact that it will have in communities, I, I think we have to really keep at the forefront the education of our kids and
315how we can do that the best way. And I think this we have an opportunity to right now because we're going to be making these changes to really reimagine how we're delivering public education in Broward County. This is our chance to really make a change in a difference, because we're going to because we'll be making changes that we will, I think, collectively be able to think outside the box and really be able to look at ways that we can impact our kids. Outside of the ways that we've been doing it. We can't keep doing the same thing because obviously we have all these changes going, you know, all these changes and other forces that we can't control. So I would like to look at it as a positive that we're going to this is the
316time when we have to do this. I agree with MISS Alhadeff that, you know, we all have to work together and with the staff is working very hard to put together proposals and come back with a plan that we need to be committed to making tough decisions, and that's going to require that we have transparency and we're talking to the communities from the beginning, otherwise they won't trust us. And if we don't have the trust of the communities, we're not going to be able to do this. So if we're all working together to do that, I think we could actually have a very positive outcome at the end of this. So that being said, I just have a couple a couple things. I know that we're our high schools, that we have some under-enrolled high
317schools, but we're not looking at closing any high schools. So we're looking at making some programmatic changes and doing some other things there. I just want to encourage us as a district that we can't, that we need to be making sure that we're fortifying the high schools because we don't want to be losing our share of students there. I think you know that that's one of our great strengths, and we have to make sure that we're keeping our keeping that strong, because that's an attractive even when people are going to different middle school and elementary choices, they come to our high schools. So it's really something that we have to keep a focus on and not get lax on. I. I, I want to make sure while we're doing the when we're while we're making
318these plans, that we in addition, if we're going to be, you know, making recommendations for changes in in different schools and potentially closing them if we are going to be closing any schools that we have a very. Good and. Well, I'm trying to think of the right word that we have a proposal for how we're going to use that property. If we can offer not only a proposal for how we use the property, but also a plan for where the students will be going, because I think something that happened last year was that there was a plan to, you know, proposal to close schools, but no one knew what was going to happen to them. That causes panic within the community. So if they know that there that the community knows they're getting a different.
319A different choice, and something is going to be coming to contribute to their community, I think that we'll have a better conversation if we have all those boxes checked before we come to them, and then when we're when we're looking at boundary considerations. I know I talked to Doctor Wanza about this last week. I hope that we're considering when you're looking at the boundaries, who's actually coming to public school in within the boundaries of schools. I know I have a school in my district where they have what seems to be a large pool of students, but a very large neighborhood basically goes to private school. The our schools never getting those kids. So while it looks like they're they have a lot of potential students, they really don't. So we have to look at that
320too, when we're making our boundaries to make sure everyone's getting kind of the same. You know, pool and being realistic about who's actually going to be coming. And when we're looking at enrollment, Doctor Hepburn and when we're looking at what what schools are under-enrolled at this point in the process, are we is it pretty accurate, like, have we removed the portables and the decrepit buildings from the calculations that we're looking at? Pure numbers at this point and not. Yes, I'll let MR. Beck kind of go in detail with explanation about what the what entails capacity as far as the the school itself. Thank you. Doctor Hepburn through the chair. Thank you for the question, MISS Bowman. So when we when we calculate under enrollment, it's based strictly on permanent capacity. So that's only the the
321brick and mortar buildings that sit on the ground. It doesn't even include any more modular buildings which are concrete but movable buildings. So it's only permanent. So it does not include any portables, doesn't include modulars. And where there are schools, for example, Bethune or Elementary is another example where there's redundant capacity that was supposed to have been demolished decades ago. That's not included in the calculation either. Okay, good. That's good. And if if we're going to consolidate schools, do we have a way to analyze the likelihood that if you close this neighborhood school, those students are going to go to be consolidated into our other option, public school? Because I think something to take into consideration is if you have three charter schools in the neighborhood, that might not be the right school to close,
322because then the kids are going to just go down the street because they like to walk versus a, you know, like just make that strategic in terms, you know, I mean, I know there's like a lot of strategic, but. There strategy. Yeah. Go ahead Doctor Watson okay. I'm about to say no. Just say yes. Yes. That's why we're called strategy and innovation. Yeah. So just something. To think. About because. We look at it all. Okay. Yeah. Just because even as a parent I've had that kind of thought in my head. It's like I'd rather have my kid. It's easier to just go down the street. So if we're looking at all of those things. And I, I liked MISS Leonardi idea about the marine opportunities. I think when we're looking at programing and I don't
323know if we want it, how we want to treat magnet programs going forward and what the cost is versus just programing in the school and streamlining it. We've talked about this as well. You know, maybe looking at quadrants and making the school programs feed into each other more naturally than they do right now. It would be a lot easier for us to retain kids and then to expand programs, because I agree, like the marine industry gives such a wealth of potential employment opportunities for our kids that I think we could probably, you know, do different programing over in Fort Lauderdale versus in Hollywood and capture even more kids without, you know, you knowow, challenging the otherer prprogramsnrollment.T. S So I, I, I I look forwa t to seeing what you guys bring back. I know
324that you have your work cut out for you, but I do. I think we should look at this as our opportunity. We have to seize this moment right now to make some hard decisions so that when we get out the other end of this, we will have a more robust school district. That's going to be very attractive, because we're not going to have a lot of this kind of dead weight holding us down going forward, and we'll be able to be the innovative district that we have been and should continue to be. Thanks. Thank you. And I will land this plane. I a couple of things. So first of all, I, I just want to give a shout out. South Broward has a fantastic because they had a great magnet coordinator. [Laughter] I wonder who
325that was. Great marine magnet program. And we were actually there for the first day of school. So it's marine science and marine technology as they do also at Mcfatter. So there are programs that could be replicated. So I just want to shout that out. And I also, I think really important are the community engagements. And I just want to point out that I know everybody or a lot of people have been saying about there should have been more data, but I want to also remind us this really was just a conversation about the clusters, because you're going to go out to the communities now based on data we gave you before. So I don't think it was a big deal that we didn't get more information because we need that later. But I would say
326when we go to the community conversations and, and I asked about this before, that there are baseball card like. We will have the scorecard. Where they where you see because what happens is whoever is coming from school a doesn't know what school b and c offer and what I think needs to happen in that conversation is to explain to them you in school a only have 200 students, so you get one special. But if we were to combine school a, b and c, you would be able to have five specials or whatever it comes out. I really think you need to explain that to them, because we're getting really stuck in the building instead of what are the educational opportunities? And I don't think we did a very good job. And we can say from
327now till eternity that we told them that. But perception is reality. And they didn't understand it clearly, just based on going back and forth with Broward Estates and how that moved. So I think we should learn from our mistakes and or maybe not mistakes, but make sure that we're giving it to them in ways that they can understand it better, because I think they missed the point. I know the building is important, but they also want to make sure their students are getting all those opportunities. As for the municipal input, I have a suggestion because I do think people feel like there are backdoor deals going on, maybe in different municipal meetings we can ask that the school board come. So after you've had the discussion with the city managers, the city manager can present
328it at a, let's say, the city of Hollywood. They meet on Wednesdays, invite us like we invite other people to come and have that meeting in an open public meeting where they can understand what the discussion has been so that we can kind of give a presentation. And then then the city has the opportunity to have the discussion in public. So I think that might be a way to capture what people are asking for. I also would say a couple of other suggestions. We have behavior centers that are doing great work, but maybe they're on a facility that's larger than they need because as we've mentioned, there's only a couple hundred students that go to some of those behavior centers. So maybe you move the behavior center students onto a campus that has the capacity,
329and you can release the building that they're in, if that makes sense. So it makes sense, being a principal of one of those schools, they were only built to hold a certain capacity because of the nature. But the other part, I will say and MISS, and we'll have the conversation with MISS Batista. There's some statutory language about them not being on the same property as, so we just need to have that conversation to make. Sure we right, maybe put up fencing or whatever. But in the buildings that because people are very attached to buildings for you and the superintendent to look at ways to bring like to be able to leave the students in the building, but bring and use those spaces that are available in other ways, whether it's administrative offices, p-3's right where
330we're inviting people to come in, but not necessarily moving the students that are already there, if that makes sense. It makes sense. But I will tell you and I will use the three behavior centers. Yeah. All of them were built within the last 20 years. Those are very brand new buildings. So I don't know that we're going to take those and do. But yes. Understand. Yeah. Yeah. You get the idea of what I'm saying. And if that if it's statutorily not okay, I'm fine with them. Just trying to throw out some ideas that because people are so emotionally attached to the buildings that our students are in, maybe a different way of looking at it. Is that where which we've talked about like, for example, Olson, the city had given the idea to put the
331emergency center in there, which means they would have rented out that space. So we would be capturing financial things in our students, you know, would have the other side just figuring out how we do that in other places where maybe it's a municipality, maybe it's, you know, a different nonprofit that needs the space there or whatever, so that if there's ways that we don't move the students because that really is the stressful piece of it. I think people are attached to the building, and if we can figure out a way to get money from the spaces, and also because of the laws that have changed, we know that charter schools can move into those spaces if we don't find a way to occupy them. So I think that would be really essential to do that.
332And you have to put my glasses on. Let's see. Oh, the last thing. So kind of to go to what you had so schools to be addressed, I think you did a good job of showing targets there. It doesn't mean they're going to be closed. It just means that oh I know what I was going to say programing which would tie into here magnet programs are amazing. And I know we spent the summer figuring out which ones worked. I would really love to see to help transportation to replicate. Like for example, South Broward has a great magnet program. How do you put one of those out in the northern area? Because we had students that came from parkland, which means they got on a bus at 4:00 in the morning to participate in our marine
333science program. So how do you make those programs to keep people in their boundary schools? Because they have programs that they're seeking in other places, similar to what we did to Cambridge, right. Fort Lauderdale was the only Cambridge magnet program, and now all of the schools have it so it can keep them in their own, their own boundary. So then proposed boundary process timeline. My question to that is, do you the first stakeholder engagement is coming up soon in SEPTEMBER. So the only concern with and it's a very aggressive timeline is do you feel that we are going to get the information out to the stakeholders soon enough for them to be able to start? Because that's like in two weeks. So so as we leave here today, tomorrow, we are going to publicly notice
334the the entire meeting schedule, right? And it's for two weeks in step two. Well, actually it's two weeks. And then one day is the week of the 10th. We did one meeting because we wanted to be very respectful of the community. In our calendar. We know that we have two holidays in the month of SEPTEMBER that we do not want to have meetings the night before. Right? Because. Because a holiday begins at sundown. So we didn't want to have a meeting that night. So the first meeting is SEPTEMBER 10th, and then we go the next week and we have like three meetings, and then the next week I think it's three and then two the last week. So we are prepared to to begin advertising the meetings beginning tomorrow. So the question so the answer
335is yes, we will have time. And it's kind of the same schedule that we followed last year. We just had to add a meeting on SEPTEMBER 10th. But yes, the answer is we believe that the timeline that we're proposing is doable. But of course, we had to get direction from the board today. Okay. And will those meetings be live streamed? So we did not live stream meetings last year. We recorded them. They will continue to be recorded and the recording will be posted on the school board website as well as, you know, links available to them. We recorded them last year. We didn't live stream them, okay. And there's a cost. That's why we did that. Right? Okay. And the so the idea is looking at the clusters eight you're going to. Have we have
336eight meeting scheduled in in in high schools. Right. Because we're having multiple communities. So we need the space. Many of the board members came to the meetings last year. So following with MRS. Leonardi told us last year, we're not lining anybody up in an auditorium. We're going to set up gymnasiums and cafeterias like Florida rooms again, and let them come and have the family conversation. Okay, perfect. And can we also. Make sure what I was going to say just left me, but to ask the city, each municipality to advertise along with their make sure that we're putting it out and in as many places as possible. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Great. School boundary committee, I, I. Think before we get there, because I don't think we nailed number one. Okay. And the only reason I say
337I don't think we nailed number one. So I, we, I think we understand the clusters for elementary middle school high. We know that the the conversation and Doctor Hepburn correct me if I'm wrong. The conversation around the the the seven nontraditional schools is more an internal than a community conversation because those aren't neighborhood boundary schools. Right. So so that's not that wouldn't be a part of those conversations. But what we do want to know is, you know, obviously, staff has said that on slide six, the Silver Palms situation would naturally be a part of and come out of the redefining our schools process for this year. However, the second two are not recommendations that would come up as staff recommendations. So we need to know so that we aren't, you know, assuming anything. We need
338to know where we are with those three as it relates to schools to be addressed. So I was getting. Okay. I'm sorry to that. That's okay. And the. I apologize. That's okay for that was part of the school boundary committee. So I think if we're going to make a committee to look at boundaries, I would like them to discuss those two choice area. That's not so. Remember, the committee only comes together after we have come back to you on OCTOBER 7th. And we have our three regional meetings. The committee then gets together to look at the proposals that are going to come forward in order for the committee to consider something, these two items have to be a part of SEPTEMBER meetings. Okay. You mean like you'd have to have them as a discussion in
339your community meeting? Yes. Okay. Which is what I was discussing about the bandwidth. Right, right. Okay. Yeah. Because I'm just like I said, I was trying to find a happy medium, but in terms of the boundary committee, I, I, I think besides just to two people from each school impacted, there needs to be an Esq person on there. There needs to be an Esol person. I don't know if it needs to necessarily be from each area, but when we go down to where we say, these are the things that we want to recommended, boundary considerations, the school diversity and students with special needs is part of that boundary consideration. So I think there should be people on the boundary committee that can be specific to those things, as outside of just the school that's being
340impacted, because they MAY you MAY pick someone that doesn't know anything about s and and have an issue there. So that's just my own, since we are putting that as a consideration, someone from the diversity committee and someone from the s committee, in addition to the two people from each school impacted. Chair, can we consider people from our own staff in those roles? We have like world class talent in Esq and world class talent in Esol, and I hate to press our volunteers, who are already very busy doing their advisory committee work. Sure, but. I'm not asking them to vote. I'm just asking them to be staff assigned to help people. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, they would do that anyway. But yes, we can make sure there's staff available to assist and help guide some
341of the conversation around with their expertise. So let's see. Proposed the considerations for value I'm not sure that part considerations for evaluating proposals. So that's on. The that's slide ten okay. So you want to know if we. If you agree with these these elements if you want to remove any add any keep them as they are. I'm fine with what's on slide ten. And I so to those two questions because on page six I would guess the superintendent feels similarly to pioneer Middle and Silver Trail being a choice area because that also is a. Correct a bandwidth issue. So those are. I would say those I don't know I'm feeling because I, I do believe I would like to see the policy come back so that we can fix to to make sure those student.
342Here's the issue I have is that students who were in that boundary area then had to move, and then all of a sudden seats open. So now we're allowing people who don't even live in the vicinity of msd to have the opportunity to go. That's what I would like to correct. So I don't know what the best way to do that is. So I don't know if it's to fix the the policy that comes back, understand about the choice area, and now is probably not the time to look at it. So if I MAY, Doctor Hepburn. So the the issue with and I'll take the pioneer silver trail one. Right. Pioneer is already overcrowded so why. So the question would be we're going to entertain a process that would potentially further. Don't accept reassignments. And
343that school has not accepted reassignments with you know in a long time. Right. So that so that's that one. As with respect to Coral Glades and Marjory Stoneman Douglas, I'll let MR. Beck tell you what the current you know, what both schools are currently or definitely msd is that capacity. But I do think that there MAY be opportunity in the language of 6400 to accommodate what the board is, you know, MAY collectively be trying to do. Okay. MR. Beck. Okay. Thank you. Chair. So the Marjory Stoneman Douglas this year is enrolled at 101% of its gross capacity. It is full. And that's largely because we allowed 150 reassignment seats in this year. Of those reassignment requests, I think most of there was not as many as we anticipated from the c4 area applying for seats,
344but I think everybody who applied in one of the grades that had seats available, I don't think there were 12th grade seats available, for example, was granted a seat that was without the priority. So 6400 has now is now in the process of being amended to to create a priority for boundary change. People who have been impacted by boundary change. I use the word victims. I'm sorry. However, so Stoneman Douglas right now is enrolled at 101%, creating a boundary choice area, which is in essence a two way boundary. You can choose whichever one you want to go to. There are 439th through 12th graders living in the c4 area right now, so the potential there is that you you could over enroll Marjory Stoneman Douglas again and then be back in the position of having
345to reverse the choice area after, you know, adopting that to mitigate the the boundary change. So there's that's a tremendous number of students that could go straight back into msd. Right. Which is why I, I'm trying to find the balance if there are seats available. My preference, and I think we collectively agreed to that, would be that those students that lived in the boundary that got removed, if they wanted to go, had the opportunity to go there before other people who don't live in there, because that's really a slap in the face, right? That's really it's disrespectful to them in that, in that aspect. So that's really what I'm trying to because I understand I hear what you're saying, I know it's it's this isn't the time and we don't have the bandwidth to do
346that whole boundary piece and have all the meetings and and I don't disagree with that. But I do want to be cognizant of the fact that we we impacted them, and I want to fix it. And the last thing I would say. Chair. Before you go there though, could you, could you tell us where we landed today on that issue? Well, what is staff believe? Where does staff believe they landed? And could I have it in plain English and not in your elevated brilliance? Well, thank you for that. What I believe or what I've taken away from the discussion is particularly for that one, for number one, that we are really at the 34 schools that are expressly named in the slides three, four and five. And also number one on slide number six. I
347have two to add chair whenever there's a minute to do that. Okay. I have 18 seconds. So the last. Thing that I want to say is that I do want to see, when you come back, something that has an autism academy, district managed charter, whatever. But we need to have something beyond preschool for our autistic clusters because we are losing them to Dade County. Okay. Thank you. All right, doctor. Thank you so much. I think we have a neat opportunity too, which is odd because we're not usually talking about expanding capacity while we're also trying to do some serious repurposing. But we have two high schools that are over 110%, and my business owner, brain says if we don't do something to serve that extra 10 or 12% that we have at Fort Lauderdale High
348School and Western, they're going to end up at Saint Thomas and Cardinal Gibbons and Home School and other things. There's just a there's this wonderful thing going on at those two schools. There's lots of people that are in that area. I think they do. They accept any reassignments right now. So Western does. Well, Western had the capacity to accept reassignments. They absolutely did. Western High School. They did well. And so that's something that we need to work with schools in process. Right. Where we allow where we actually give a nber. And then the schoooo c c aust nunuerer So Westerabsolutelyly had the abili t takake resisignment t Typical Fort Lauderdale does not take reassignments because of their magnet. Popularity. Either way, I would love the board to be educated on what it would take to
349create room for that extra 10 or 12% so that we get capacity to 100%, and then if more people that are in the boundary area really want to go to those schools, we can get even more fte. But what I'm worried about is it's so crowded at Western and Fort Lauderdale High School that people in that boundary area are going to private schools and charter high schools and home schooling, just because it's hard to get a seat at the cafeteria. So I would just love to know kind of how could we expand classrooms and anything else we need to to accommodate those kids, rather than just live at 10% or 12% over capacity? So we have definitely an answer for Fort Lauderdale High, and we'll bring that back in the conversation and we'll bring back
350an answer with for Western as well. But yes, sir, definitely understand for those two. Schools, you guys can come back and tell me that my business is wrong because I'm not in the business of education and that's fine. But I'm worried about losing those kids and I, I really am. Besides, more agrees with me. So there I'm just worried about that. And if we have an ability to increase capacity, it doesn't cost a ton and it makes the school even better off. I mean, Fort Lauderdale High School has a property right across the street, I think. Listen, we we we will bring back the and I will never tell you that you're not in the business of educating kids. Every day. You learn as as I have found. In any case, thank you. But thank
351you so Western and just look at okay options for them. This is Alhadeff. Yes. I just wanted to add to the voices on the boundary committee, bcc staff Planning and demographics, transportation department, facilities department, having students on their principals, pta, pto, parents, teachers, city officials, Esq and Esol. And then in considerations for evaluating the proposals program access like the academic offerings, extracurriculars, art, a ap, ib and then also transportation efficiency. Thank you. Did you capture all that? So? So I did, and I just want to make sure I manage everyone's expectation. While district staff can be available to answer questions, to opine, to provide input, district staff are not voting members on the boundary committee. I just want to make. And so as it relates to Esq and Esol, we will so and the diversity.
352Right. Because those are clear call outs and the criteria, we will go to those three committees and ask for a representative to serve in addition to the two individuals per. When we get down to these are the schools that we're going to focus on. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Do you have do you feel like we've what else what else do you need from us? I think we're good, chair. Yes. For the record, MRS. Rupert wanted to indicate her support for the World project. Oh, yes, I will agree to that also. Chair. Can you can you remind the semi forgetful human being what the Boundary Committee does? Doctor Hepburn. Doctor Wanza. So on the SEPTEMBER 16th board meeting, we're going to bring a resolution that says specifically what that committee does. So they're going to have to
353come to an orientation. They're going to have to attend the three regional stakeholder meetings where we actually talk about the proposals that are going to go forward for final input from the community. They have to go and listen to all of that. Then they're going to come to a meeting with district staff where we actually discuss each and every proposal, and they give their recommendation as a committee as to whether or not they believe it should move forward as a part of the superintendent's recommendations to the board. Is it hard to get volunteers to serve on such a large committee to do such so much work? What I will tell you, the answer is no, because typically. So last year we had, what, eight, eight, six or whatever the number of schools it was and
354each school gave two members per school. And then we had some committee chairs, with the exception of one school, because there was a family emergency, everyone showed up to the meeting. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. And thank you for that. So at this time, do any of my colleagues have anything to bring to the board or student successes to share? Doctor DR. Zeman, thanks. Two quick things, both very important. This is a workshop, so we can't make motions, but I just want all my colleagues to understand that we are at the point of crisis with laptops. We have students that are going to school and don't have laptops to learn. Right now we're in a bind and, and, and we just have to kind of announce that. And we have to figure out, you know,
355what we're going to do. But right now we're in our is this the third week of school I think. And and we have kids in classes that are supposed to have laptops just to get the normal curriculum. And there's one for two. So we have two kids standing like MISS Leonardi. And I would be looking at a laptop to do the learning. That's not high quality learning, that's not going to win back fte. And so I understand that we might be in a pickle, but I hope that we can find a piggyback or some other solution that gets the $20 million of computers. We need to do the very basics in our schools. Thanks, chair. Thank you, MRS. Leonardi. Thank you. I wanted to celebrate and recognize today is Women's Equality Day, which celebrates the
356adoption of the 19th amendment, which prohibited federal and state governments from denying the right to vote on the basis of sex. So in plain language, today we celebrate the day women won the right to vote. And I bring that up because it's important. But also, in honor of Women's Equality Day, I was able to go to a presentation from the Florida Girl Scouts this weekend where they presented a report that they've issued the state of the Florida Girl Report. And there was some really interesting findings that I think are very pertinent to the work that we do. They talked about the the physical health of the Florida girl. There's obviously some issues with health insurance access, homelessness, sexual and physical violence, community support and safety. They talked about the academic performance of girls in Florida
357as it especially as it relates to math improvements after Covid. They talked about the emotional health and wellness of our Florida girl, and specifically on mental health and suicide, as well as the social well-being. The Florida girls living in poverty, substance abuse and things like that. So I encourage you, if you just Google Florida Girl report, the Girl Scouts issued it. They used data that is publicly available issued by the state. So it was very methodologically well done. And, you know, it's it's 80 pages. It's really worth a read. And I hope that it can help inform the way we make policy. Thank you. Thank you, MR. Sarver. Thank you, MADAM Chair. A quick a quick comment and then a moment of recognition, if I MAY, just to address my colleague's comments. I don't control
358the distribution of laptops, at least last not last time I checked. I'm all for our kids having laptops. I'm all for our kids having the best available technology. But that being said, that's something that needs to be properly brought before the board and we need to make a collective decision as a team as to what's best for our kids when it comes to any type of technology. I'd also like to recognize the fact that today is the four year anniversary of the suicide bombing at Abbey Gate in Kabul, Afghanistan, in which we lost 13 service members who were working on duty, answered the call to try to evacuate a war torn country. And unfortunately, their lives were cut short by a suicide bomber who came into the airport and designated a a bomb. And we
359lost 13 service members from the Marine Corps, from the Navy and Army soldier as well. So I would just ask that everybody keep those 13 service members in their thoughts and prayers. Tonight is the four year anniversary. Thank you. Thank you. And I'll finish up. Congratulations to be in a bc aa right for another successful national football showcase. And congratulations to Dillard. They won their game 42 to 6 on, by the way their brand new turf field. That looks beautiful. And also congratulations to American Heritage because they also won their game. In addition to Dillard having a ribbon cutting for their beautiful turf field, South Broward did. I was very sad to MISS It. And Deerfield Beach High School is having their ribbon cutting this coming Friday, so great things in athletics happening in Broward
360County. So thank you. And the scheduled order of business. Oh I'm sorry, I forgot. Doctor Hepburn had something to. What's his name. Sorry. No. So thank you, MADAM Chair, because I need want to address something. A few months ago, we discussed about the rfq for Seymour contract with the board, and there was a question about bringing that item back to the board for discussion before the solicitation goes out. Unfortunately, the solicitation has already been posted and contractors are submitting their questions. I wanted to ask MR. Cooney if there's any way of bringing that back for the board, and I'll ask for consensus. What you once you give them an answer, if they want to direct me to bring anything back based on your based on your answer. Sure. Thank you. I don't. Know if it's
361on or not, but Assistant General Counsel Thomas Cooney here, we can make changes through addenda to the currently posted rfq. Okay, as long as we don't get within the seven day window of the opening. So the opening is on September 9th, so we have until next Tuesday to post any revisions we want. Obviously if we keep the changes minimal, we wouldn't want to extend the opening date. If there are significant changes, then we might want to consider giving them some more time. And obviously we need to entertain questions on any changes that are made, but that's the method that you can do it and try and stay on schedule. And so can you clarify? The reason for the addendum is we're responding to questions from from the contractors who are who are sending questions to
362us based on the rfq. There are two responses that could be a response to a question for one or more proposals. Or we could initiate our own change. We can initiate a change at any time that says we're deleting this and adding that, etc. And say, you know, we're maintaining the same opening date and then they can ask questions upon that change. We've already answered several questions about specific items within the rfq to this point, and we've answered all those. Okay. So based on that, I know I feel that some questions from some board members. And so is there any consensus of, I guess that SEPTEMBER 9th that's do we have a workshop that day. Or school board? Yes, I think it's a workshop of of bringing of directing me to bring that back for
363workshop to. Discuss. I have a question. Wasn't it didn't did. And I guess it's for MISS Battista. Is it in our purview? Like, are we stepping over a boundary by having a discussion about an rfq? That's not really in our purview, if I'm not mistaken. I'll defer to general counsel. MR. Cooney. Or MISS Battista. So I think I had asked answered this question when MRS. Leonardi asked it before. There isn't any legal prohibition from having a discussion regarding the rfq. I would just, you know, be mindful of the fact that, you know, depending on what things MAY be discussed or requested to be changed by the board members. You know, you you MAY be you know, you don't have any particular expertise that I'm aware of on, you know, rfqs in this type of area.
364So I think you have to be careful in what kind of things you discuss generally on the rfq. Thank you. Let's see, MRS. Alhadeff Alhadeff. No. MRS. Bowman. So I appreciate the superintendent bringing this back or to late. I, you know, the I think the issue at hand was the way that the conversation went at the workshop, not necessarily that the board members need to have a say in the content of the rfq, if that's not our process. But there was a miscommunication about what our process was. So I think we just need to clear that up for the public that we were. Having a, I guess, incorrect conversation. And some of the information provided was not was not correct, because it is our understanding that we should not be making those changes. So I
365don't feel like I need to have the rfq brought back. I just wanted I just appreciate that we're clearing that up for the public, that there was a little bit of a misstep in how it was presented when we were at the workshop. Absolutely. Thank you, doctor. Seaman. Can I here's the issue that we have. I think that's the bigger issue, which is there were multiple school board members who asked multiple senior leaders, including the superintendent, whether or not we'd see the rfq before it went out. And then we didn't get to see it. There is a huge like value in whoever does this work for us, and there are policy issues related to the solicitation, including how much of the award is a minimum for certified businesses. There are restrictions that are built into
366solicitations that can limit the competition, and those are things that will come back and and be a reflection of the school board members, not the superintendent, that we narrowed the field too much or didn't narrow it enough, and we did not include enough or did too much on certified businesses. So I would like to I've already heard one objection. So there's not going to be any consensus here with the board, but we have, you know, some damage control to do with the public, because if the school board asks for something in three senior leaders here say they're going to do something and they don't do it, you know, the public rightfully will ask, you know, what is the legal authority of the of the school board? And I just hope that this is just something
367that's a very rare occurrence. Thank you. MISS Leonardi. Do you want to weigh in? No. I, I don't think it's appropriate to bring it back. This is MISS Thompson. Okay, MR. Severa, so it doesn't look like you have consensus to bring it back. Thank you. Thank you. And just a reminder so that we're not taking it back next time. We do have a board training from 9 to 1 on SEPTEMBER 9th. So our meeting will start at nine. So our eight hours I mean our meeting will start at one. So our eight hours would extend till 9:00 pm. So I just want to give you a heads up that that's a possibility. But look it's only seven. MADAM Chair, I'm sorry to jump in. Can I add something real quick? Sure. An email was sent
368on Friday requesting for board members to designate topics for our next student and school board discussion. So if you could take a look at that and share back with us the topics you'd like to discuss with students. Thank you to those of you who already have by Friday. I'd greatly appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. The scheduled order of business for this School board workshop of the School Board of Broward County, Florida has been completed. Seeing no obligation, I now adjourn the meeting and we will see you SEPTEMBER 9th. Thank you.