001the public hearing at 5:30. pro detective I -- productive environment for all participants. While in the board room refrain from obstructing the exit doors. All occupant sees must take a seat except for the media. Upon activation of the fire alarm system, please exit from the room in an orderly fashion and continue to exit the building and remain outside until the authority that has jurisdiction has deemed the building safe to return. Thank you for your cooperation. All please rise to the "pledge of allegiance" to the flag of the united states of america. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under GOD indivisible with liberty and justice for all. thank you and you MAY be seated. As we begin our hearing, we
002are reminded that our 100 percent proficient. We'll continue to educate all stud toents reach their highest potential. The purpose is for the school board of broward county school of florida, today the business is considering following business, adoption resolution approving at millage rates for fiscal year 25-26. A number two, adopt resolution number 1126-116 approving final budget for fiscal year 25-26. DR. Hepburn are there any changes to the agenda? there are no changes. MAY I have a motion and a second to close the agenda. so moved. second. it's been moved by MR. Zeman and seconded by MS. Bulman fmgt the agenda is now closed. I will now entertain a motion to move items 1 and 2 for input and board discussion at the conclusion of the discussion, the items will need to be separated before voting. The
003budget director will read the resolution for item number 1 into the record before we take a vote. Then the budget director will read the resolution for item number 2 into the record before our final vote. The items must be approved separately and in order. MAY I have a motion and a second to move items to the floor. so moved. moved by DR. Zeman, seconded by MS. Thompson. Good evening, every one, welcome to the second of our two-public hearings for the 2025-2026 millage rates and budget, it's a statutory requirement that provide this opportunity into financial process. This evening marks the end of annual budget adoption process. The board will adopt two resolutions, the first to approve the final millage rates and the second to 2025-26 budget. At this time I'll now turn it over to the
004superintendent to provide a brief overview of the budget. thank you, MADAM Chair, I'm please today bring forward the 2025-26 millage rates for your adoption and consideration. I've asked my leadership team to dig into their budgets because every dollar we save will help us students reach their highest potential. That work does not end tonight, it will continue throughout the year. And make sure every dollar supports teaching learning. We're proud to be an a-rated school district for the second year in a row. That will achievement shows our commitment to academic excellence. I want to commend our teachers and administrators and staff for their dedication and students and parents for their support. My objectives are clear, we'll maintain broward county schools as a a-rated district and working towards 100 percent proficiency, and work on resources are always there
005for teaching and learning. And we'll stay focused making sure that every students has access to high-quality instruction and exceptional experiences. Tonight I'm asking the board to approve the final millage rage and 2025-2026 budget, at this time we'll turn it over to our chief financial officer for a brief presentation after which staff will be available e answer your questionons. good ternrnn,n, board mebebe, supeperintennt,, r r constituents, 'r're gog g to havea brief presentati from our budget director, before we get started, I would like my budget team to introduce themselves. dia na. dia na martin, assistant director. kim, assistant budget director. and jeff whitney budget directer. good afternoon, omar shim director of capital budget. we will have a brief presentation by MR. Whitney. good evening, I would like to thank the community and staff members for attending
006tonight's hearing. I'm guide you through this presentation quickly and we can address any questions you have. Florida law and trim, the truth in millage, requires school to adopt an annual budget. Our main purpose is approving the millage rates and the 2025-26 district budget. The trim timeline, ensures that public notification before adoption, it follows strict statutory deadlines, today is the fiern al public hearing on the budget. Following the adoption, the budget will be filed with the state and county as required by trim. Truth in millage or trim, ensures transparency in setting property taxes, requires local efforts and boards condition adjust it. This budget reflects second calculation based on information from JULY 18, 2025, and the figures for last year, are based on doe's third calculation as the fourth calculation has not yet been released. This slide,
007will includes a look at the historical millage rates, what is important to see on here is a kind of comparison of this year's to last year and to see that this year we're requiring localeter as required of the state of 3.0730 mills, we're also seth the discretionary at point 0748 capital of 11.5 and voted debt at 0.1645. : the roll back rate, is calculation of the millage rate that will generate the same amount of revenue like last year excluding for add jufltments for new construction. The 25-26 millage exceeds by 5.94 percent. This increase reflects state requirement sxz continuing property value growth. Slide 7 goes through, what the different millages will generate for the district, showing that the total local property tax left side generate 2.6 billion for operations, capital and voted referendum and voted debt.
008This slide, is shows how people's taxes are computed based on their assessed value so. If you have an assessed value with a homestead exemptions, your tabssing would be 486 dollars. That's a comparison for last yae, for the average single-family home, the increase this year would be 83 dollars and increase for average condominium would be $47. Now to our budget timeline, again this is our final budget timeline and we'll review general assumptions that were used in the budget. Total fefp, the program funding, only increased from 8,929 to 9,065 per student, this includes the student base allocations which incaesd by 49.62 from last year, bringing it to 5,253 this year. Also shows that some funding areas that were formally categorical have recently been rolled in to the student allocation, this includes the teacher salary increase allocation, reading
009allocation, and instructional materials. Three main revenue sources are state from fbfp and federal that is mostly from grants and the food's service funds. Now, when we look at our projected unwaited f T.D. Compared to our actually f T.D.S where we get to see -- so starting with the third calculation and looking at what we projected and what the state included in their projections for us, there would have been a decrease of 6,847 students. Based on what we're seeing actual, there is an additional 2,360 students less than the previous year. The next page we'll see a little bit about how this impacts our revenues. So we're looking at revenue and cost impacts, the revenue decrease from that initial 6,847 is 62 million dollars. The potential fte loss based on what we're seeing today is 21.4 million
010and these numbers actually change every day. And so if we're looking at the numbers from yesterday, there is been an additional 206 students lost at a cost of about another 2 million dollars. So our total loss in revenue as it stands right now would be about 85.4 million. Below that, we see some of the costs impacts that the district is having. some of the key components to look here is the textbook adoption that we skipped last year, that was 31 million dollars and continuing increases in our healthcare costs. We looked at the tentative budget summary, this is the summary of all funds. This shows that the district total budget is 5.4 billion that includes internal transfers when they're included, the total district budget is just over 5 billion dollars. The general fund on this page,
011I want to point out that that includes 325 million dollars, in family empowerment scholarship or sfe funds, there is pass through funding here. And there is 333 million from the district's portion of the referendum. These next two slides will review the general fund balance, I know we discussed this a little bit earlier during the discussions, so you're familiar with what is here already. We're looking at a number of about, 115 million dollars in the assigned and unassigned fund balance which would put us at a, 4.2 percent fund balance against the revenue inclusive of the charter schools. When you look at the 2025 school budget our anticipated expenditure exceed by 218,000, so we're already having to start the year starting into the fund balance slightly. Next slide is a comparison of our staffing levels, compared to
012what enrollment has been doing over the past several years. On this slide, we'll see the, even though enrollment has declined over 38,000, general fund staffing levels are nearly the same. And the last slide, we have tonight, is the recommendations. So the ask again is for the board to adopt the millage rates and 2025-26 budget this will also authority staff to adopt to ensure requirements. With that the superintendent, has a brief presentation on the budget topic that he would like to discuss and also discussed in more detail during an upcoming workshop. yes, thank you. If I can get the becon back there to go to the deck for additional information. if you leave it up, it was the next slide. you got it. I got it in pdf for you. I got you, appreciate that. Awesome,
013so you can go to the next slide. Yes, thank you. So I just want to tee up what we're going to go through in OCTOBER with the board. We hear you loued and clear, last year with MS. Johnson coming as a new C.F.O. Has been a year of discovery and identifying many of our challenges and many of the things that have facilitated where we are as far as what I would say a budget that is not that stable where we're working hard this year, to make sure that we can present something that is going to fund the district's priorities, and ensure that we're provieeding the best funding opportunities to our students and to our schools. So pretty much, we're going to go over funding and enrollment trends. We need to know how we started historically,
014so we're going to try to go back as much as five years to let the board know what it look like in the past five years, in every division, looking at personnel and staffing and expenditure categories for each one of those. And also talk about our key financial challenges, some str stra taoej I -- strategic goals and some things that we're already working on within this fiscal year and some strategies for development and also discussing the adjustment that's we need to get to get back with a stable place with our slide. So, pretty much this is just going over a quick historical overview, way more than in depth that we're going to go over in OCTOBER. So I want to tee things up. Again, talking about the historical trends within the last five years. Very
015come prehensive view. My team has a lot of work to work with hr, to work with procurement and also the budget team to gather all of that information and do it yearly comparison and then talking about some strategic inside for future decisions that we have to make as a staff and also as a board. Next slide. So basic, key challenges that we've discovered. you know, just some structural deficit, our spending, over many years, have exceeded our income on a regular basis. Also, we've been relying as, just discussed we're already dipping into our fund balance by a couple hundred thousands, already we're depending on our budget to fill gaps and we need to get out of that trend. And also you heard us talk about this, the outdated, our team has put together a work group
016to start talking about that to assist us with that so we can get the message about making those shifts that make sense for us today. The ininternal controls have been weak over the years so we have to make sure that we have better early warning, so we can tackle issues in realtime instead of working at the end of the year, we're discovering that we're out of whack with certain things so we can address those with better warning systems that we're put ining place. And also being more transparent with the public and with the board along this jaourp' when it comes to budget and budget planning also. And we're also reviewing every single contract that we have which is a few hundred contracts and looking at our student enrollment as declined, many of our contracts and
017renewal of those contracts stay the same. So we need to make sure that our contracts are right-size to fit the need or sunseting contracts that we no longer need based on the service and product that we no longer need for our schools. Next slide. So just some goals for financial improvement that we'll dive in this OCTOBER workshop, centralizing our functions and just reporting to just to make sure that we can make better decisions instead of just waiting at the end of the year after budgets have been reconciled for the end of the year. As I mentioned, we're reviewing contracts as we speak. Bert stakeholder engagement, stick point for this board for quite sometime, increasing our fund balance. Automation, we're using better technology including ai so we have better data to make better decisions and inform
018the board what is going on in realtime what is going on in our budget. And ensuring our budget is aligned to our strategic plan and funding our priorities. And also a biggie for me and I know also for this board, for our employees making sure they're well compensated year after year, instead of the constant battle and the constant fight of trying to find money to provide salary increases for the work that is being done by our employees and our schools. And as we're going through this journey about right sizing our district and redefining, that is going to be a key component and getting our budget in the right place for the future. You can go to slide, actually 7, because 6 repeats many of the things I just talked about. Some other complexities that we
019have to think about that we're already thinking about and planning for is state level of adjustments, if we're hearing a discussion about property tax. It does directly impact our required effort for our district, because that's where most of our funding actually comes from. And also, the federal level with our title funding, we know that there is going to be an impact for the 26-27 school year. Especially based on our experience with that 30 to 45-day freeze over the summer. That is going to be most likely a reality for the 26-27 school year, so we're already trying to create preliminary plans to how we address those needs when it comes to staff and services in many of our areas that are supported by title grants. So I just wanted provide those, those four or five slides
020just to let the board know what is to come in more detail in OCTOBER workshop. We'll be going through this division by division, five-year analysis around historical reference, what we're currently working on and bha our outlook looks like so we can create a better and better financial future that is stable and can fund our priorities and can meet our goals for compensation and all the other wonderful things that we should be doing in our school district without the worry that we constantly have throughout the year. That's all for me, I'll turn it back over to you, MR. Whitney. so that concludes our presentation. And return it to the board. thank you, next we're going to go to public comment as soon as they bring me the paper. Yes, I was just waiting. Okay, thank you.
021Okay, so the first public comment is dennis murphy and if you can state your name and the city. Speaker: dennis murphy, plantation. Has the board considered the state of the economy in the budget process? sir, we don't usually answer, you just give public comment. Speaker: okay, I got it. And also the state of the economy and other areas to reduce the budget, ideas like home schooling. That's about it. Thank you. thank you, next is samantha torres. Speaker: hi, I'm samantha torres I'm from the city of hollywood. Every year my taxes go up, up, up, up, up, today I want to see if maybe we can find a solution to assist teachers instead of doing salary raises, get more volunteers in the school. So maybe speak to business giving them a tax break if they allow,
022not teachers, obviously, their workers to take a day a month, like one day every month, to go and volunteer in their classroom or in their school and give it across the board, not just parents but also people that aren't in the community that have something to give to the schools, so you guys can allow some type of budget decrease for what is lacking or missing. another thing, I was thinking is, possibly homes for teachers. Nice apartments for singles, maybe like a little loft apartments, keep it in the community where if anything, you can provide provide transportation to and from the schools that they work at but make it more affordable so they don't have to do have an increase. Dot maintenance on the property properties and maybe have the government pay for the properties, not
023sure, however just a thought thrown out there to you guys. Another thing I was thinking is possibly giving homeowners tax breaks if they want to lower their rental costs for teachers. So just something that sted of putting a budget up, look to our community to see if we can give them tax breaks or something so there is more of a budget allowed for you guys to teach these students. Possibility throw out anything that is not helping students. This culture appropriation thing, my daughter said she couldn't wear her natural hair for a whole year, not okay. More vocational interest for people that don't want to do traditional colleges. I mean, we need welders out there, we need body techs, I work in a body industry for collision, everybody I work with, is over 50, we have
024a 70-year-old that is still doing body work because there is nobody there that is knowledgeable to do the work. I don't know all the schools in the school district, I only know south plantation high school where my daughter goes to school and the other one is elementary school, plantation park, elementary, phenomenal, they just brought the budgets to bring back arts. They just started a debate class, which is important, being able to debate topics, and my time is up, sorry. thank you, and we normally go back and forth but we're work withing something with volunteers in the community and we have phenomenal industry schools so we do do automotive, we do welding, so there is three phenomenal tech programs in our district. So if you have a chance look up Mcfader share and you'll see the
025amazing programs that we do have. But thank you for coming out today. Donna mosley? Speaker:r:good evening. Good evenini. My name isis, we I I'mfrom hol en dale beach, 3309. This is my first time purchasing the home, and me, experiencing this, my first time it's about the hardest thing I could have ever done. The first year my taxes is 5,000 and the next year is 7,000, and not a little increase, a major increase. And only thing you're seeing on here is proposal that is already approved on a left side? Help me understand this? And nobody can explain this to me. Proposal is one thing and approve is another thing. Is a propoet al at the top -- proposal at the top of the letter but approved on the left side, so is it a proposal being
026approved. This is my first time, somebody in here help me understand this! I guess, nothing to be said. thank you. Next up is DR. Nathalie lynch-walsh. Speaker: DR. Nathalie lynch-walsh, I was not going to speak to m th item because GOD knows I thought I was going to be home two hours ago. The thing that rises to the top of my head is maxmo. I recently advised that three months ago, your superintendent said he would provide an update, I concluded those recommendation as well as the critical success factors that maurice woods would prepare who used to work here, I think he was the operations chief at one point. Anyway, and another board member asked for quarterly updates on maximo, because maximo has been several years and several million that was replace the 1980s technology compass
027that staff through one botched implementation after another and this is not necessarily their fault it's a leadership fault, because you have to have people in place that understand the technology so that they pull you up up to the 21st century instead of dragging you back to compass 2.0. That is wasted money, it's inefficiencies that the system was po to suppose, that has not happened so. When we get back to 1020, one of the things and MS. Thompson brought this up at a meeting, when you have follow-up and you direct the superintendent and they say they will bring a follow-up, there needs to be a time certain, I date and the thing that you were suggesting was a follow-up log, which they can use the ai to generate so you can hold the superintendent accountable for
028things they say. Because every time, you have an implementation that doesn't happen t costs money. Both the costs of the soft wai, the program, and then the inefficiencies compound that costs. And what I've been on since 2011, the task force, if you say maxmo, we all start to twitch because of the absolute waste and nothing has changed. In 2018, that was the primary focus of council review. But also the inefficiencies in ppo and costs associated in ground keeping. And look at the list, I would say there is still a lot in there. But if you can get the foum, ask the counsel of great city to do a follow-up and please come up with a system of accountability for your superintendent so we stop bleeding money, thank you. thank you, do we have any other
029public comments? Come on down, remember you have to give your full name and what city. Speaker: identify as john dough I'm out of dane beach. I think there would be a bigger audience if we had our meeting a little more conducive for the people paying the tax board taxes, possibly have it at 6:00 o'clock, we're the people working, paying the bills, we're carrying the freight, we got high lift. So your board meetings are held during the day, I understand that, but we all work. Before I came here, I tried to turn on youtube to get updates, all the videos aren't out there. You speak about transparency, but I'm not seeing t I'm just not seeing t.I think the board, it would be nice if the board would say that we are having these mightings, we
030would have social media, we would get more wave, different programs, even the news, folks. Why is it a big secret? Look at the gallery, we're talk about thing biggest budget that has been passed in the school board and this is what we have? It's concerning. It's definitely concerning. I live in a budget, I'm sure, every one in this room lives in a budget, we don't have a printing press at home, but when my budget gets tights, it's green stamps and group ons and maybe I don't go to the show that week, maybe I don't do something with my family because I have a bill I have to pay. Constantly going over the wealth and assuming that the 3 percent is going to be there and whatever number that we get passed on as taxpayers is
031ridiculous. Yes, those days are coming. We MAY go to no property tax, the government MAY get rid of doe, I don't know but if that's the case, where is the money going to come from? We need to start tightening our belt now, not later. We need to start pulling in and do what is right for not only the students, the community and the taxpayers. And a-rated schools, is everything that is posted around here. That's all I see, a-rated this and that, don't know where that came from. But when I look at the zillow count, the schools are rated c and Ds. I don't know if the enrollment is down because of competition with private schools or did we lose demographics. When you say it's down, is that because more students are shifting over to private
032school? Or not? Or are we just down in population? I guess that's a big question. If such a great a-rated school, why are students leave anding why are my taxes going up? Why is that? If we're just a great school, why do we have private schools popping up all over the place? It does not make any sense. So the people that have children in my area with poor schools are lifting the public school but we have to send our students to private school because you're not doing your job. thank you, sir. Speaker: thank you. and two things to what you said, first of all, we don't have any d-schools in our c-schools are half of what they were last time. So I just wanted to be clear on that. And there was something else, but
033I lost it. The district is a-rated but each schools there is no d or f school, I wanted to make sure that I said that out loud. So thank you for coming tonight. Any other public speakers? Public comment? Okay, thank you so much. We're going to move on to board discussion, I don't normally go first but I'm going go first today. I have one question for staff. Could you please tell us if the school board is increasing the millage rate which in turn increases the taxes? Property taxes? MR. Whitney, have we increased the millage rate? yes, the millage rate is higher than last year based on the required effort from the state. but just to be clear, that's the term by the state, right? That's not the board that is increasing? correct. so that's a
034statement. the discretionary is the same. There was no increase in discretionary but the states required local effort was higher. whatever we're voting on, we're not increasing it on our end, it's a state mandate. yes. and the other part I meant to say, we're mandated by the state to hold this meeting at 5:30 P.M., so we also don't get to do that. I want to clarify, that we're required to hold the meeting after 5:00 P.M., so a lot of jurisdictions will hold it at 5:01, some at 5:15, based on information, the latest it was 5:30 and we're one of those. okay, thank you. Thank you. Okay so I have a couple of motions to make since we're meeting that directly impact the budget. So some of them don't necessarily impact this budget but we're moving forward.
035So, everybody should have goent a paper. First I would like to make a motion to direct the superintendent to centralize the broward payroll by JANUARY of 2026. second. it's been moved and seconded. Is there any public comment on the motion. chair I have a point of order. yes. today's topic is the approval of our budget for school year 25-26, right? yes. would these changes make, would these motions have a net zero impact? Or would these have an impact on the budget that has been presented to us. some of them have an impact on the budget like the payroll because, I went through these with the superintendent and the C.F.O., so they will have an impact on this year's budget. thank you, can chair. thank you. Thank you, it's been moved and seconded no public comment,
036is there any board comment on motion number one? MS. Rupert? what is the estimated cost? DR. Hepburn? go ahead, MS. Johnson. this would be no cost to the system, it will be putting more controls into place and centralizing our payrolls. I'm sorry, you said there is no cost to the system? knoxer we're not going through a zap, we have our erp zap, we're dwg to go to rfp to look at potential changes in our arp system. To centralize our process. And our payroll. okay. point of order. are we on item number 1 with the final millage rate? we brought both of them together. We'll separate to vote out but discussion is on both of them. I prefer to do item number 1 first and letsz -- let's vote on that. I didn't hear you say
0371 and 2. that's how we brought it to the floor that's how we do it normally. I said that in the script. We separate them to vote. Okay. Any other board discussion? yeah, yeah. DR. Zeman. I think we're going to slow down here a little bit. Yeah, there is a lot of questions about this. What is the intended benefit of centralizing the payroll. DR. Hepburn. lesserors, when you have every department and every school doing the payroll. We have many errors that result in overpayment and district trying to recover in overpayments where payroll is actually approved prior to it being processed also. Right now, as the system is, payroll is actually already processed in the midst of approval, so by the time you catcherors, it's already landed in your bank account. terrific, does this require board
038action? that's a. this is a process of moving money which I think has nothing to do with policy and budget and it will not change the budget one iota, so why can't the superintendent prioritize payroll if that's what he want to do? MS. Batista. it does look like an operation al issue and because it does not have any impact to the budget, I'm not sure how it's related to the item on the floor. okie dokie, so superintendent can just do this item. Like I said, I went through these with the superintendent and C.F.O. I have a point of order. We just heard the superintendent say it has an impact by saving money. this was an effort to get to the 60 million dollars that we asked for, so these are items directing him on thinking
039we would like to see coming back and so that's, that's why these motions are being made. right, so I think it's pertinent, it's going to impact the budget by saving us money, no? MS. Batista so I was going by the c.F.O.'s answer that she mentioned that there is no impact. she said it would not cost us money, it would save us money. okay. ?Fm I -- just so help the conversation, the superintendent has agreed to he does not need to be directed. we're already in process. I guess I remove that motion from the floor. Is that okay with you? Okay. The second motion is I move to direct the superintendent to decrease overtime spending by 40 percent. Number 25-26. DR. Zeman. yeah, again, I'm all in favor of finding way to see cut savings, what
040is the impact on schools and you know, some of our core functions of reducing overtime by this? this is something where we have a motion to cut overtime by 40 to 50 percent so we've measured that impact. The other 50 percent is something that we need which is for transportation and ppo and some other key areas that are under staff, and difficult to recruit and hire those individuals. So some of it is actually, good overtime, you can say for a lack of a better term, so that's why our focus for the team is monitoring and looking at a weekly basis is to reduce by about 40 to 50 percent. can chair just like the first item, I think overtime is approved by first level supervisors who all work for the superintendent of schools, is that
041correct? it is but I'll go back to explain in conversation, I believe we all had with the C.F.O., there is a large amount of money going to overtime and I think we as a board need to make it very clear to the superintendent and staff, that we have an expectations and if you look at the list, which I believe is going to be public, some people are making more than their salary in overtime and that was eye opening to me when I sat in the meeting with the C.F.O., and so that is how I came up with this. I think it's important to be clear as a board, this is our budget, we're in charge of it and part of that is, is helping to guide them and I think that overtime is a huge
042issue. and I agree, chair. How did we get to the 40 percent figure? This is motions being made to the final budget at the last public hearing, and I'm curious about some of the research and homework that would be had this been done during a regular schedule meeting. Given that we're doing this on the last day of the budget, how did we get to the 40 percent instead of 50 percent. again, this is after a conversation that we had with the C.F.O. After the last hearing, I had a discussion with the superintendent and C.F.O. And asked them to give me a percent. I had a higher percent, so I can get the superintendent explain. that's from our homework in analyzing dollar spent already expenditures for overtime in the past few years and the roles specific
043who is receiving overtime and the reason why. and normally, if an item came before the board like this, there would be some table sxz documents and impact statements, and you're asking us today to reduce something. What is the saving if we reduce the overtime budget by 40 percent? DR. Hepburn. 12 million. and just so we're not voting on number one but there was no saving but 12 percent by reducing 40 percent? that's correct. and chair, will this have any impact on school budgets? DR. Hepburn. it has impact on district budget, yes. but in terms of school operations, I'm talking textbooks, teachers, and all the money we put in a school overtime, is often for transportation which would affect schools if kids don't get there on time, it could affect ppo if an A.C. Needs to
044get fix asked there is no time can you tell us that this 12 million dollars will not affect our core requirements of education. no, it will not impact that, no. thank you. any other board discussion? DR. Holness. thank you, MADAM Chair. So the question was asked regarding how we came wup the 40 percent and I did hear the superintendent mention 40 to 50 percent. Just a couple of questions, upon realizing these savings with these motions, MADAM Chair, the intend of these motions is to realize savings and to those savings to be spent where? to the 17 million dollars that we asked the superintendent to find for increases. so it would be geared for increases for teachers and staff. yes. okay. So you mentioned 40 to 50 percent and I heard DR. Zeman question impact that
045this will have on the district. If it's 40 to 50 percent, why not 50? we want to start with 40, comfortably. We know there are some services done. So don't want to, we MAY get to 50 percent but I would rather go at the 40 percent and more comfortable strategy just to make sure that we don't hamper any services needed. so 40 percent is a base line. correct. thank you, MADAM Chair. thank you, anybody else? All those in favor of the motion say aye. aye. any opposed say no? Motion passes unanimously. Item number motion number 3 I move to direct the perintendent to reew all ppppments s d d ing themem back toto thehohoolard d with recommendations on which one would be sunseted by the OCTOBER 21, 2025, school board meeting. second. any public comment
046on the motion? Board member? DR. Holness. regarding your motion third or second motion, some first one didn't go through. DR. Hepburn what I would suggest for this motion should it pass, I just think only supplements that are absolutely necessary. Because I also look at the information and data and we seem to be spending a lot of money on overtime on supplements, and should this motion pass, that supplements that absolutely necessary the ones that we're continuing. that's right. thank you. and it does tie in to the supplement to go together because a lot of supplements are the overtime that we're spend spending. Anybody else? DR. Zeman. what is the intended saving from motion 3? DR. Hepburn? not aware of the total savings, it's going to be based off of what we identified during our review to
047see what is supplements need to be sunseted during our review, because we have a lot of supplements that has been in existence for a very long time and loosely, assigned to personnel across the district. ?O. This is, during today's public hearing, you being tasked with doing staff review of supplements and bringing us back a list, would that list chair, as part of this motion p I see, with recommendation which should be sunseted, it's not with a financial saving target necessarily? It's really open-ended as to which one the superintendent and his team would think should be sunset? correct, that's why it says review, they really have to do the research on this, they haven't yet. terrific, so this is a staff action from the board go do something and we'll look at it and see what
048we can agree with. yes, sir. thank you. anybody else? MR. DR. Cervera. that's twice, I'm going to keep it now. How much are we spending on these supplements. it's in your appendix, it's over $300 million that we spend. But you will see the referendum it's inclusive, it will make it 412 million. I'm sorry. if you look at the appendix, it will include the referendum that is approved, so you take out the referendum dollars, it will be around $300 million on supplements. what is the pure number before the reference? You just said 4 something. 412 million. okay any other board discussion? All those in favor of the motion say aye. aye. any opposed say no. Motion carries unanimously. i'm going to skip over 4 and 5 because I'll bring them back another time. So the last
049motion, I move to direct the superintendent to work with transit to develop a partnership with our students to have access to bus passes by JANUARY of 2026 and the rational for that is to help reduce some of our bus costs. second. it's been moved and seconded any other public comment on the motion? Board member discussion? I'm sorry, go ahead. I went too quickly, if you have public comment. You get one minute to make public comment. come on guys. Speaker: only saving 12 million dollars? My taxes, like the lady says, it goes up year, up, up, up, come on, you have to do better than that. next public speaker. Speaker: if we're going to be handing out bus passes, are we reducing our bus load? Or above, transferring some of that responsibility? It seems like there
050is a lot of shifting and the shell games going on here. Nothing is really changing, you know, you're moving 12 million here and there everywhere and 12 million going to salaries. So it goes so fast here, folks you know what you're doing. There was no agenda for me to read today, unfortunately, there is no handouts, no nothing on what is going on here. This is my first time here, I do apologize, if I'm not as professional as you would like me to do, I'm just trying to stumble the best we can. But it seems like the shell game is being played and we're the ones pick ing up the tab. You're moving the furniture and you're talking about supplementals, so the supplements are going to be given back in time. So you're not saving any
051money. This is the point. is there any board discussion. Speaker: it's not right. I have the right to readdress my government and for to you silence us after a minute ma'am, that's just not fair. It's your policy but not law. it is here, thank you. Okay, any board discussion? DR. Zeman? how would this work in conjunction with mto the organization that creates all of the systems for broward county? I think the broward county transit is the group that does the operation but mpo does all the planning? Which group would be bet tore coordinate with to develop this partnership? DR. Hepburn. I'll reach out to monica to find out who is the best person in there, in county government to discuss this so we can figure out a way forward that with assist us in bus
052routes or even bus passes with their transit system. and again, with this one, do we expect any savings? I don't think we can predict what that dollar amount is until we have a discussion with them. But it would equate to savings, as you know, during the summer, we ask asks parents register for your ride and the transportation department establishes routes for the upcoming school year based on ot those registered so. If we have students exercising other options, it could result in savings because they're exercising additional options that are available to families. thank you. thank you, MS. Thompson. as our school board rep to the board, I would say it's the transit department that we should reach out because wife talked to them already, and that's pretty much who you have to coordinate it, as the
053motion as written. awesome. thank you, MS. Cervera. thank you, chair. Is the directive here within this motion to have the broward transit develop, I guess new stops that are closure to schools? Or to give out free passes? Bh we say we're trying to develop a partnership to passes, is this really to just get them on the buses for free or incorporate county buses into rotation if you will? so before I have DR. Hepburn, we used to have a partnership with the county where they gave free bus passes to our students, now we have activities buses and the student don't ride the public bus so it's just an effort to have an discussion what that MAY look like. But there is a history of having the partnership before. I'll let DR. Hepburn with what his opinion
054is. I agree. I've been part of district where the local government provided free bus passes or bus passes to the school district or school at a very discounted rate and also, you know, in our neighbors to the north, we had a partnership with try rail also, to drop students off at a strategic location sxz we pretty much staff security just to make sure that they are safe and secure at those stops. So once we figure out the possibilities, I know eras have changed overtime since school districts had those partnerships with their local transit systems so we'll see the possibility. it's to get the kids on the buses for free with the pass sxz the county buses will make it easier to travel because they will change travel points. yes. duel pronged situation here. okay. anybody
055else? Any other board member discussion? All those in favor of the motion say aye. aye. Any opposed say no. Motion carries, thank you and that completes my concerns. Any other board member? are you going to do motion 4 and 5? I'm going to bring them back another time because they're not relate today this budget. I'll bring them back as a b item later MADAM Chair. MS. Leonardi. I just want to thank our chair for these motions. I think, you know a lost comments have been made tonight about, our how government works and it MAY not be perfect. And we can always do more, but these motions and these actions, take concrete steps towards saving money so we can compensate our employees who have a direct impact to student outcomes, so thank you. thank you, DR.
056Holness. MADAM Chair, I guess this would be a clarification point. And I know you're going to bring your motions back, chair. But, item 4, the motion you have before, just seems very much relate today item 3 and maybe need to be done before item 3. So I'm wondering why you didn't have the two, they just seem very much related? well to answer your questions, because that's for looking at what job changes would happen in the next budget. Item number 3 is to sunset and change some supplements in this budget. So item 4 and 5, don't directly impact and based on some of the push back, I got, I don't know if push back or concerns about point of order, I don't want to continue to waste time if it's not, if it doesn't fit in
057the budget. I'm going to bring it back in our next school board meeting as a b item and we'll talk about and go into motion it just does not impact this budget, the others do. all right. DR. Zeman. your thing is up. I'm trying to get. I'm good at getting it up. Just not at getting down. nora, got me, good job. there we g okay. I would like to thank staff for providing some information that I asked for and in a super quick way so I do appreciate that. However, I want to talk about title funding, we have 89 instructional staff are being paid by title 2. Department of professional department has 3 staff, district senior leadership are proposed cutting 20 out of 31, two-thirds, they're leaving them with 11 people, I said 11 to
058provide new teacher support training and staff development, coach credential and support to school base basis. There is a department that is not being impacted at all, why? There are also ten cuts for a total of 30 position frz title 2. So I would ask for the title 2 budget, how are the cuts decided upon, and how the district support new teacher and support, to school base coaches, what important services will be lost if these cuts are approved? And the budget information, we talk about how are we using staff for optimization by targeted reduction and staffing, primary through attrition and ensuring critical roles are maintained. How does this budget strengthen academic programs? Expand student support and maintaining, programmatic integrity? what does title 2 power? Instructional coaching, mentoring, leadership development, professional learning communities, novice teacher and principal
059induction and mentorship. Forums to lever teacher expertise and leadership, increase constant knowledge for our coaches and our educators. Structures for personalizing learning for every single student in this district and teacher residency programs. We have talked about what is key to having a successful district and a key to having a successful student? Is having a wlt strain, well coached, mentor teacher professional in the classroom. I do not see that this is the plus. These pox right side critical. I understand item cuts are being made, I didn't make a motion because I literally got some of the information during the breaks that I was hopping up and down to get. I also didn't even think of these questions until monday and mia sister ant put them in on tuesday because we were not working on monday, at
060least I was working now. So anyways, I do apologize for the timing of this. I know it's the final budget, I personally will not be voting for this budget, if this is not rectified. I wanted to let my colleagues know because we discussed ad nauseam, what the key most important aspect for a successful student and district is, and it's the teacher professional in that classroom. i personally believe and as a board member since 2010, I'm still here, I'm still asking questions, and we still need to get these answers. So, that's my, I would love to make a motion but I, I would rather hear from my colleagues and see if they agree or not? DR. Hepburn, do you have anything? no, if there is a specific question, you have that we can have the team
061answer for you? what is the total title 2 budget and what is funded from that money? DR. Fulton and doctor, you've been involved and you detail what is specifically funded and what we're actually decreasing out of that budget? good evening, DR. Cohen financial officer, the total is 10.5 million, out of that 10.5 million as you mentioned includes district staff from various departments all are half of them are teachers, half of them are administrators, non instructional staff as well. So all of those will support either teacher development or leadership development, all staff, that are on that grant are considered supplemental, not just to supplant, so every district just lost significant fund ago cross the united states. Our district lost about 1.4 million in addition to the 3 million that we were overdue to our fte, because
062like all federal grants it's based on enrollment, so we lost additional funding. Those resources are having to be shifted and in departments like elementary learning, secondary learning, they all support teachers and all of those departments still provide professional development. They all support new teacher academies, they do all the instructions and so yes, earlier, you heard DR. Hepburn, we don't know the gloom that will happen after this year, because the cuts will happen again, depending on what they inform us of the state of the grant. So we're exercising to recalibrate that teachers are still supported and coaching is still happening, as much as we possibly can in terms of with the limited number of staff that potentially we'll end up with, so we'll continue to do the work and support the teachers. and just to add
063to that, we do expect an additional decline in title 2 funding just, based on the philosophy of the U.S. Doe right now. So we'll be going through this exercise again later. It's just the hopes that instead of doing this, during the summer or getting notification during the summer, that we get earlier notification maybe early spring or MARCH, to make sure that our employees land in a good place. okay I still don't know how our staff is will be able to mentor. DR. Key hen. -- cohen. right now, they're supporting teachers through academy and within the classroom using the grad to release model. We look at the data and determine the schools that need the most support. We fill vacancies where there is new subs and teachers, so they're doing that right now, but all departments
064that have instructional staff are, it's a hands-on deck situation. We do that every year and we've been very successful in doing that. And yes, we will be losing instructional staff due to the grant but we'll be plugging in where we see the need and where there is critical opportunities to make sure that we continue to sustain our excellence. no. I have a question along that line. Chair. sure. last year we spent this much money developing our in classroom teachers, we had title 2, we had other instructional support. How much less does it spend on teacher development compared to last year? DR. Hepburn? the loss in title 2 which is roughly 1.4 million. that is title is greater but there is other parts in our system that help teachers get better. Do we know how big
065that is? That's the reduction in capability, roughly how big g is e, thststructiol suort cacapability fundedat in broward county schools. I don't have the exact numbers but as far as capabilities out of funding other than title grants, it's the same. I'm sorry, so say it's another 10 million. That 10 million is being left alone. correct. is that, causing us to go to human beings who work here right now and tell them they will not work here anymore? Or are they put in classrooms. no they're being shifted in other roles, for the most part, classroom roles. and I'm very worried, school member rupert that title 21 -- title 2 is going to go away, and I don't trust florida, there is a huge medicaid problem in florida and tremendous, kind of interest right now in tallahassee
066in reducing revenue to the state. So this MAY be way to get money. But this 1.4 was a reduction, I think MR. Supervisor of DR. Superintendent, DR. Superintendent, this came from the federal government, we had to figure out how to deal with it. correct. we could have gone to plug a hole, the budget did not do that. We could have left the people there, and instead, you made the leadership decision to move them back to the classrooms and these are some of our best of the best teachers because that's how they got their jobs there? correct. I'm trying to get an understanding of what happened but I'm interested in what my colleagues had to say as well. Making classroom instructions better by 13,000 and 10.4 million for professional development out of 13,000 teachers. MS. Rupert,
067did you have any other? I guess, I don't see any other names up or anything, so I'm actually going to make a motion. I move that these particular cuts from title 2 are taken off the table until the superintendent can direct staff to give us all the answers that show how much the budget is, I know we heard it, I want to see what the job responsibilities are with those people and the money that is attached to them and how exactly they're going to be able to help the new teachers, keep the motivated teachers motivated, making sure that we have the most trained and mentor teachers that we can possibly have. Which I don't believe will happen without that, that's my motion. is there a second? I'll second it. okay. Any public comment on the
068motion? Board discussion? MS. Batista, can you just we had a training today that told us that we were not, there are parts to the superintendent's job that we're not suppose to encroach upon, I just want to be clear, us moving into operations, or not? well, it sounds like the motion is asking for clarification from the superintendent, not necessarily to change any of the operational issues. can you, 'cause that's not how I heard the motion. Can you repeat the motion ms. rupert. I didn't write it down or type it up for you, but I move that these particular cuts from the title 2, be taken off the list here, until the superintendent has time to get the staff to show us in a chart exactly how big, the amount is and exactly 31 figures, ten people,
069what schools do they actually, go to how many people they're instructing, how much mentorship they're dooing, because just cutting it and saying, we're going to centralize it now, is not good enough. That's my motion. so MS. Batista. so what I'm hearing, is that MS. Rupert is asking for an amendment to the budget, by taking off this particular item from the budget. okay, just because, it's not changing money in our budget, it's changing how the money is being spent? No, because it's still, we still have what if she's not asking to increase or title to, she is asking to change how the money. chair just to clean this up for you, it will change the budget, because the teachers and classroom to be back in title 2. So the budget is not just money it's where
070that money is spent. MS. Rupert is saying she would like budget changed so 1.21 put back. so to that point, DR. Hepburn, does this budget that is before us, reflect the change that you recently made. no, I'm confused too, there is nothing to put back. we lost money in title 2 and the personnel that was paid for in budget, is going to fill vacancies that already existing and already funded in the general budget. So there is no money to take out of again to give back to title 2. so what I would suggest, to school board rupert, to bring this after the budget is passed, because the budget is just a plan. So if you want to make a motion in our next meeting to put money back that would be money that can be
071taken, you know, out of the general fund. But as DR. Hepburn pointed out, the federal government took that money, not us, it's just not there. So in order to correct this, we would need school board support to put money in. It's not something you can do today. just to add another variable to this, we have actions that are going to be put in motion very quickly because we're in the balancing stage for many schools just in crease enrollment to decrease enrollment, so this is also being included in that just to make sure those folks that are impacted have a seat to land in. I understand. DR. Hepburn. Just to clarify, so the 1.4 was an additional cut, it was not the total cut. So last year, the grant was about 12 million, it went to
07210 million. But there are when we, when we lose students, we also lose funding because each grant whether it's title 1, title 2, title 3, title 4 is based on f T.D., so as we have lost enrollment, they no longer exist in the grant. So it's close to a 3 million dollars totals, we've lost from one year to the next. So it's a significant number of dollars and support that are coming. So I just want to be clear that again the grant is considered supplemental to what the district already provides. We provide general funds for teachers support, already, in the areas of professional learning, support to teachers, schools have support to new teachers, they have tier, liasons at their schools. We have been very successle over the last couple of years where we've written a
073number of grants, because where we wrote the teacher quality grant and it was a significant amount of grant where we brought in a lot of district teachers to support, new teachers in that vain. I do recall at the time, that the question became you know, what happens when you want to these grants sunset? Because we have to sustain what happens? So for the work that has been done with these grants, we're now at that point, where that grant has gone, right, it was the tiff grant. As much as we want to sustain this, it would become a board recommendation, if you want to continue a very significant initiative which has proven to be successful. But at this point, you have a lost in federal funding from the state, and the federal government due to enrollment
074but you also have potentially as DR. Zeman mentioned, we've been told that there will be a loss in title 3 as well as a loss in title 2. And so the question becomes, you know, we have the continue to sustain because we have general funded teachers that do the work that they've been doing, we wouldn't have a lot of them as we had in the past with these great quality grants that we have. So I want today make sure that it was more than 1.4 million. thank you. MS. Rupert? no, I'm quite done. okay. So, the motion is still on the floor, DR. Zeman seconded, DR. Zeman? I think we're done with that motion. we have not voted. I'll go after we vote, thanks. okay, anybody else on the motion? All those in favor of
075the motion say aye. aye. all those opposed say no. no. was that it? point done. thank you. DR. Zeman. I want to make a motion that we ask the superintendent to bring us back clarity on this issue. This board must know that the capability that grows teachers is there, whether it's funded through title 2, whether it's funded through general fund or volunteers, I think we need a capability description of how we're going to in the face of these cuts and looming cuts make sure that we're continuously investing in professional development of our teachers. MS. Alhadeff. and to add on, I would like to understand how we're using ai technology to, you know, help our teachers with the ai technology with their lesson plans and whatever else. okay, thank you. MS. Thompson. is that accepted by
076the board, chair? anybody oppose? any objections? Thank you. thank you, chair. Thank you staff for all of your hard work that you put into this. I had a couple of questions, the first is, based on 7, 32, page 32 and is seems to me that we're cutting 46.8 positions of counselors/directors can we expand on that? DR. Hepburn? give me a second to get to that page. Page 42 in actual budget? 32, 3-2. It's the one that is 662 pages. 220 on the pdp. Or you can do control find personnel on your computer. I believe we need to follow-up on that question, there MAY be a reduction but I don't know for sure. But we're until pos of hiring critical positions so it's one of those position that's we will not filled. Based on previous year
077last year. For guidance counselor and school of psychologist and I wanted to make sure that that priority is was still being focused on in the future. DR. Hepburn? yes, we've heard the board loud and clear. okay. And then my other question was what is our plan to do public education around the possibility of losing property taxes? DR. Hepburn? that's a big one. yeah. that's a large majority of all public services, not just the school district but police, and every municipality and entity requires on their effort from property taxes. So we're, it's a difficult circumstance and a difficult question to ask, we just hope that the state if they do reduce property taxes, that in turn, they find alternative revenue source that we can depend on to fund public services, it's just not going to impact
078us as a school district but all public services. It is the majority of, of if we go back to MR. Whitney's presentation, I think he actually showed the bar graph of, the amount of money we get from required local effort which is property taxes can alike, federal funds is a very small portion. But it's a largest chunk of our budget. so let me expand on my question, I think we realize it's not a good thing, but what are we doing to educate the public about how we're funded, how property tax, we did the same thing going out further referendum dollars, what are we doing, it's only in committee right now. This is not a done deal by any state. But we could do something now, to educate the public to let them know to reach
079out to their legislatures. I'll let MR. Sullivan know. and not just the lobbyist. so we have a consortium platform, tallahassee has not really said how they're going to do it. So we don't know if school districts will be impacted by the proposed changes. So I think we need to wait a little bit, because when we go to the community, they're going to have more questions than we have answers so we need to wait. If I'm not mistaken those meetings start next month so we'll have a better understanding how that is going to look and they can go into the community how they're fund asked how the impact will change. and will that plan come before the board? it's operational, but we can keep the board updated on our efforts? yeah, and we heard the board
080loued and clear ensuring that the board is well equipped with the right information also just to make sure that we have key point talk as our constituents that you have the information that you need to keep those points of talk appropriate. and I agree with that, any plant even if it's operational should include the board as policy makers, we're the ones that out in the community more and you can focus on the education. absolutely. but that's my question, thank you. okay and we'll end with MR. Cervera. thank you, chair. I appreciate the opportunity to speak on this. I want to talk some generalities, because if I'm a blue collar, hard working resident of broward county who grabs his lunch pail and goes to work every day and comes back and tries to spend their remaining
081time with his family and make sure that they're provided for, maybe you don't follow politics or what my local government is doing or follow what the is going on with the school board. What I want to explain articulately to that resident or constituents as it MAY be, is how the budget that is before this board, this evening, for 5.4 billion dollars which is my understanding is identical to the budget that we passed last year. Is in fact the same when the only difference that, that blue collar worker has probably read in the newspaper between this year and last year is that our schools have lost 11,500 students. And I think it's difficult for that person, or even people who maybe pay a little bit closer attention to what is going on and understanding what the
082main differences are. I have, I have difficulty with it. I have to meet with folks to get a full handle on it. So, MR. Superintendent, to the public out there listening, what is the best way to explain why this budget is the same this year as it was approximately last year when we've seen such a steep decline in student enrollment. I would say the budget is not the same as last year, because it does reflect the steep decline we can only budget for what we're funded. I do understand the pain points of our public and constituents and that's why I specifically I went over those slides. About how we're funded and what our expenditures look like and how we spend the money that we actually receive. What are some of the changes we're going to
083make as a staff moving forward, just is to ensure our budget is in a better place because there is been some issues oefsh the past decades or so, that we need to correct just to move our budget and our district forward into a better place. and I appreciate that, and I have heard tonight and the days leading toup this meeting some good ideas, cutting overtime, that's apparently, a huge amount of money that we're spending and we heard, from the chair about her 40 percent, I also heard about cutting supplements, I heard MS. Thompson on supplements. I heard about the costs at this ststrict is incurri perhapwe can dobetterwiwith that and some partnerships that we can jump into that to save dollars, it's my understanding, we have to vote on this budget tonight, we don't have
084the ability to direct the superintendent to go back and actually, carve some of these things out to affect our budget for our students tomorrow, the day after, next month. We have to vote tonight. And I've got a problem with the number that is before this board, I'm understanding, every day I'm gaining a little bit more knowledge about how we got there, I think it's a lot of pork and I think it's very high and for members, tax paying members of this community, they really don't understand how we got there, I mean we heard from the gentleman who was clearly distraught in fairness some of his facts were a little bit off, but I can hear the emotion in his voice and I can sympathize with that. You know, I know it's difficult out there for
085people with properties and taxes and things of that nature. And when I've got to go back home to my community and explain to people, well we lost 11,500 kids but our budget is the same that conversation does not go over well. I'm hopeful that the these ideas that we're hearing about tonight perhaps some of us for the first time are lucrative, these supplements, my GOD, we can get under potentially under $500 million if we get rid of these supplements, it's unfortunate that we're not able to explore these for them to have a real impact on the school year and we're staring down the barrel of almost 5.4 billion dollars for this budget. And I can tell you, a lot of folks, aren't happy about that and I know we've done some great things here, but
086at the end of the day, it's all about the money, right? That's what 99 percent of people are going to look like and what 99 percent of people are going to care about. Especially those who don't have kids or their kids are grown or their kids don't go to public school, they're just average tax paying citizens of this county. So I hope that these ideas that are being proposed and some of chair's motions, I hope these can be successful. I am a little bit upset that as I sit here tonight and we're still looking the an identical budget from last time, and I hope that MS. Johnson will continue to do her work and they were referred to earlier as miracles, magic, sorry. Magic, continue with your magic and try to make some of this
087stuff, more palatable for everybody but these numbers are extremely high. I want to make sure that I'm correct, I know we're combining the issues and I'm trying not to buy biferindicate too hard. I'm not going to try to identify which powerpoint, there is about 75, in the powerpoint that I'm looking at identifying the historical millage point, at least with that, it doesn't look like that has changed since like 2018. And I would like for, verification for that, I think that's important for the public to understand, as far as what this board can do, we've been pretty consistent and there has not been any increase since 2019, is that accurate? MS. Johnson? that's correct. But I just like to get clarity of this budget, part of the system of building a budget was included is private
088school, the family empowerment scholarship is part of these budget, those students are included. The charter school students are included. The state then through a process, we don't get the money, it becomes a pass through. Family empowerment scholarship, even though they're counting their kids as broward county kids, that money, we don't receive the money but we have to count it as part of the revenue. The state takes a reduction, right at the top so we never receive that. That used to be a pass through but charter school is a pass through, so all the students in broward county, we had to build it, so what you're seeing is all the system in broward system, built within broward school budget. But as a pass through, you've got to focus on the general fund, because that's a specific
089portion where the pass through is cleared. I show that when I built my budget that the portion that belongs to broward county when we do the pass through, when we start doing budget amendments, I take the family scholarship out, because we never received that budget. So our budget is in deed reduction to broward county schools. But when we build collectively, we show all the revenue that is collected for broward county schools. thank you. MS. Bulman. thank you, MS. Johnson. I think that you know, to MR. Cervera's point, and this is just a complicated topic and when you're public-facing, it's very difficult to wrap your head around I'm still learn anding when you know when we're talking about millage rate, it's hard to look at their trim notice and understand what is happening, it just looks
090like we're taxing and taxing and taxing. On something else to remember, if just comes down to the dollars, it's where entrusted with people's children, singular, and with their money so we have a very important job here, probably the most important of all of the board's because we do have the most important job to do which is educate the children. And, we also we're also the largest employer, right? So the money is dwg back out to employ our community. So if we can look at the big picture, there is a lot going more going on than what you're paying property tax es and we're wasting it. And I appreciate the clarification, because the tax money is going to educate all the children, there is just different places where that money is going. It's not just coming
091here, which is why we're having this discussion, less kids are coming here because of other choices and factors that are happening in the county. I do I just wanted to say, I think the board has been asking for some tough decisions from the superintendent, that was haste ened by the chair's motion, I appreciate that you're look at it, we do have to prepare for what seems to be inevitable and I just, I can't say enough for MS. Johnson, I know she came into a situation that was difficult to untangle and, every time I've spoken to her, she has ideas, she stays positive and it's good to see that people are listening to her and some of these ideas are finally being implemented or in the initial stages of being implemented that's because what we need
092to do, we need to stay ahead of what is happening to us, so we can play offense here and make some good strategic decisions so we're at the remain at the top of our game regardless of the outside forces. So, I you know, it's always disappointing to lose money and have to make tough decisions but when we look at the big pictures, I think we're doing the best we can with the knowledge we have because there is a lot of variables and just to MS. Thompson's point, I do think, that we can do a better the public a little bit, with a question and answer, a little one-pager, because people don't know what a millage is. It's, they're or why we're doing what we're doing. So I think that if we just what is my
093trim notice? I think we can solve problems before we come here if we're proactive about that, I appreciate that. thank you and to her point, before, we move on. Okay. I thought DR. Zeman was last. I just want to say, we used to have a one-pager. It disappears. we have a citizens guide. yeah but it's not virtual anymore. Education in florida, where I lived for 25 years, where my older kids, went. They get 30,000, we get 9,000, thank you. 9,000 ain't 30,000. Okay. You tell them about the cost and we do it on a very very slim budget. So do we need to find savings, absolutely? Should we always look people in the eye and say we're spending your money in a way that is best? But we have to start the conversation to say
094we don't get the money, so we have to work out of a hole. If you need a further conversation, you need to read about the theory of public education. Our kids go to school and people throw money in a pot. Whether you have kids or not, would you love kids to grow up with capability and their GOD-given potential. so there is a lot of good things to talk to your neighbors about. thank you MAY I have a motion to separate item 1 and item 2 so we can vote on them separately. so moved fpt moefd by MS. Thompson seconded by MS. Leonardi. Now the budget director will read the resolution for item number 1 into the record. [Reading resolution number 26115] [Reading resolution number 26115] All those in favor of item number 1 say aye.
095aye. any opposed say no. Motion passes unanimously. MR. Whitney please read resolution for item number 2 into the record. resolution number 26-116 adopting the final budget. [Reading resolution number 26116] all knows in favor of item number 2 say aye. aye. any opposed say no. no. motion passes with two dissenting votes. The scheduled order of business for this public hearing of this school board of florida has been completed. Seeing no objection, I now adjourn the meeting and we will resume the workshop. good night. Yes, in five minutes. in five minutes. [School board on five-minute