001special school board meeting. welcome to today's special school board meeting. Thank you for joining us and for your dedication to our district. This special school board meeting the school board of broward county florida is now called to order. To ensewer a safe and product I ever environment, see the marked emergency exit, all attendees must be seated except for media. Once the raofp reaches xwasty, you will be directed to the overflow area. Fw the siren sounds, you will go outside until the authorities give permission to reentry. Er please stand to give allegiance to the flag 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. as we begin, we reaffirm our vision, 100%
002proficiency for all students. As an a rated school district, we remain committed to s up sustaining this achievement and supporting every student to reach their highest potential. Believer, empower, achieve one bro urpd f browned, we will operate in accordance with school board policy 1020, the board will review the items as advertised and presented by the superintendent. MAY I have a motion and a second to close the agenda. so moved. Er seconds. Er moved by MS. Thompson, seconded by MS. Hixon. All in favor of closing the agenda, let it be known by staining aye. Er aye. Er any opposed or say no? The agenda is closed. MAY I have a motion for item 1, general counsel interviews. Er moved by DR. See mra n and seconded by MS. [Inaudible]. Er I believe you were all sent
003this script last night. Every board member will ask the candidate one question, the candidate will have three minutes to answer the question. Board members MAY also klaoz to ask a single follow-up question based on the candidate's response but are only lied to one follow-up per answer. The first board member to raise their hand to ask the follow-up question will be selected to a ask the follow-up question and staff will be monitoring that today. the candidate will have two minutes to respond to the follow-up question. Each candidate will commence with the three minute introduction followed by the question segment, candidates will have three minutes to respond to each question and two minutes to respond to a follow-up question. Mron xlietion, each candidate will be allotted three minutes for conclusion ra,. At the conclusion, the board will
004select the candidate and contract negotiations. We will begin with our first candidate, talent management, please introduce our first candidate. good morning, board members, I would like to introduce our first candidate is kathy due adian -- dupuy-bruno. Er please go ahead with our opening statement. Er greetings, chair leonardi, vice chair holness, members of the school board, standing in for DR. Hepburn today as well as our general counsel batista, for more than 26 year, I have devoted my career to child advocacy, for nearly 6 year, I have evened as a school board attorney for the lead county skaom district, the 8th largest school district in the state of florida, it is a school district with 100 thousand student and is 2.8 billion dollars in an operating budget and 13 thousand employees. Broward county public schooling is one
005of the largest and most visitable impactful districts in the nation. You have all kinds of challenges and opportunities that require a general counsel who is not only strong in the legal technicalities but one who understands governance and the statutory legal lanes of both the school board and the superintendent. In our one on one's yesterday, it was clear to me you were all dedicate today the students of broward county. It is also clear to me that you desire continuous improvement of processes, strengthening accountability so that you as a school board can fulfill your constitutional obligation to govern and to have oversight. As one of only 47 board certified specialist ins state of florida in education law, I have had the opportunity to represent the league county school board and district in numerous high stakes and extraordinary
006complex legal matters while under intense public scrutiny. What I am most proud of however is creating and building a legal department, a true legal team that is responsive to solutions, focused on proactive guidance, serves the school board while legally supporting the day-to-day operations with the administration. Always keeping the best interest of the school district at front and student achievement as paramount. You have a strong legal department in broward county. They're renowned throughout the state. It would be a privilege and an honor to lead yur legal team and I stand ready for your questions. thank you so much. We will go in alphabetical order and then DR. Holness and I will go last, so I'll maintain that order for the entire set of interviews. So, with that said, go ahead, MRS. Alhadeff. thank you for being
007here today. How do you ensure compliance with state and federal school safety laws while all supporting practical district operations? well, one of the main things is to make sure you stay on top of the laws, so I am constantly looking to see what is happening, what is the new legal lan skaip from both the state and federal as well as other exec tier decisions made from tallahassee or from the federal government as well. It is extremely important that the school board is well advised. That's why I would send out e-mails whenever there's an important legal issue that comes up. I'll make sure the board has it and make myself available to answer any questions related to that, as well as making sure the superintendent, the administration cabinet is aware. One of the other things, it's
008not just to understand there's a new law that has been changed but it's also to understand its implication and its impact on the school district. Oftentimes, I will also reach out to academic k dem services, he's the new law that has come outs, what are we doing to be in compliance. Er thank you, and follow-up question. Can you name one florida state school safety law that was enacted since 2018. so, we have the -- basically marjory stoneman douglas which is to make sure we have safety officers in all of our schools, safety resource officers, there's continue wows imprao ufm prao ufrment on that statute. We have a whistles law with regard to badging and making sure there's an ability to have emergency contact if there's something happening. That law -- the marjory stoneman douglas law
009has been improve and had continuously is improved with the office of safe schools that comes down and does inspects. There's various things in that law that is very broad that we ensure we maintain. thank you so much. thank you, MS. Bulman? good afternoon, thanks for being here. My question is what steps will you take as general counsel in broward county to ensure that the district adopts a proactive rather than a reactive approach to rising management? thank you for that question, that is something that is very important to me to be proactive. I think that it's extremely especially in an organization this size, this is something I have done in lead f lee county, whi first started in lee county, I remember talking to the chief of staff, you guys seem to just react to things
010instead of anticipating what can happen and taking steps to prevent, so for me, again, monitoring the laws before it becomes an issue, identifying it as an issue and make sure that we are preparing for that change that is coming, even before laws become approved or signed off by the governor, during session, my team and I, we watch today see what's coming down the pipe and we evaluate, we start having questions with staff. Once those laws, we know the governor's going to have them, it's going on his desk prior to JULY one, we're already meeting with staff, here's what's going to be signed by the governor so yuer drn you guys are prepared. Er I'm concerned with risk management all the time, I work closely with rising management, not from just a liability standpoint fr, a
011fiscal standpoint, we are always on our toes and not responding but we're anticipating to make sure we're fully in compliance and fully protected. thank you. And we're allowed to have a follow-up question or no? so, let me reiterate, and so if you would like to ask a follow-up question, flag DR. Lozano or MRS. Rokelman, thanks. Yeah, we are allowed one follow-up question per question. okay. Well, okay, so I'm flagging somebody, okay. So, just my follow-up question for this would be can you give us an example of putting this into action that something that's happened maybe recently in your practice. well, the most recent was to be prepared for a potential financial and legal liability by working with our charter schools to ensure that we have some protections and limit the potential exposure that we MAY
012have by amending their contracts prior to them taking specific legal action on a particular issue. That's as far as I can go on that particular matter. and we talked about that in our interviews, so thank you very much. thank you, MR. Cervera? thank you, chair. Is it permissible for us to deviate from the script here? the only thing that I will ask is that you ask one question. okay. Thank you for that. It's nice to you you again, kathy, thank you for coming in, I appreciated your time yesterday and I appreciate you coming here again to address this whole board as one. It's no secret that this district has some problems. We're in financial peril, the public doesn't trust us and perhaps rightfully so, we have transparency problems, we have communication problem and is the
013list goes on and on. That being said, I did some research and a lot of the things we struggle with here in broward county don't exist in lee county. In fact, it seems to be relatively smooth operation over there. So, my question to you for the benefit of this board and for the benefit of the public is why leave lee county to come to broward county? so, first to answer -- I think we need to make sure we're clear on the history. Lee county has had its issues. We're blessed now that within the last couple of years, it's been very smooth. We have a new board, but I tell you, when I started in 2020, there was fires all over the place. And we've had our fires, we ever had our challenge and is now
014we're going through a period of calm and it's cyclical in dwo ft, sometimes things are rattled up, sometimes calms down, I enjoy working with my board to be quite honest with you, I enjoy the system we have, I've been a part of creating that calmness. I've been a part of helping with the integrity and the ethics and the transparency in lee county and at some point, you want to grow and do nt have professional development and you want to continue to challenge yourself sx, for somebody in my position, the next step would be groining to a district like broward county. so, you're ready to be the fireman? I'm ready to partner with you, the board, to be the fireman and the superintendent. before we go on to the next board member, DR. Lozano? just make
015sure for the next -- any follow-up? no, go ahead and make your statement. so, just make sure for the next two candidates you ask the exact same question, thank you. thank you, MS. Hixon? alright, thank you, and good afternoon, nice to see you again. My question is what is your vision for a high performing school board legal office? so, we should always be striving for excellence. Even if we're doing a good job, we strive to be better. We always look for our blind spots, we always look for opportunities because we can always get better and we can improve. That's the way that I practice, tla's what I expect from my team in lee county is to always strive. Ones we get to the point where we're not reacting that now legal is being proact tier,
016that we are on top of laws, that we are in compliance, we're going to continue to mover forward to what else can we do, client, what else do you need, staff, what else can we help you with, what is MISS, what is our blind spot, what are our strengths and opportunities? We continue to grow. At some point, I think we'll be part of that calmness as to what has happened in lee county. thank you. any follow-up? Okay. MS. Rupert? thank you. Good morning, kathy, nice to you -- see you again. what role do you believe general counsel should play in influencing district culture to ensure that schools understand and consistently implement their legal obligations relating to special education law, idea and section 504, I know it was long, if you want me to read it
017again for you. no, I have it here. thank you. so, the general counsel really is responsible to make sure that the legal team is doing their part to assist staff with ensuring we have compliance. This is something that plagues every district to ensure that we're providing the appropriate special services, special education services to students who are in need and we have an obligation to work with staff to answer questions, to make sure that staff is doing child find, for example, lee county's looking at a particular program for elementary students. It is an operational thing. It's an academic thing, however, legal was in the room and legal of course is saying, well, don't forget child find, make sure we do ntss, those are the things to assist, while staff working on their programers that we are
018ensuring we're in compliance and not missing any of the legal loopholes if you will. thank you. MS. Thompson? thank you, chair. Can you share how your past experience anticipating legal and policy issue before they I rise in an educational environment with legislation and technological changes? thank you for the question. So, my past experience is very broad. I've been praising ktsz -- practicing over 26 years and I've had the pleasure of being a private practice, I had the pleasure aof working with kids in dependency, and working in lee county, all of that has given me skills to assist the board. In addition, I've had special training as a mediator, I have had training as a family court mediator, I have had training as a circuit court mediator and I have been trainesed fed as a collaborative
019attorney, those are additional schools in my tool belt that I use often with my board. In addition, I have also been trained as a supreme court arbitrator, tla's also some skills that I use with my board. So, I have an advantage in that I can bring people together, find out what the real issue is and try to get it resolved and go to the core of whatever the issue is. So, that's going to be what I bring forwararto help the board be prprctive. Again, alwaysys looking r whwh is out the, at a a you gointo sssswh doi need to to mamake susure that my bod d is protected. I'll give you an example. Part of my job is to just again look at the legal landscape all the time, what is going on, executive orders
020are coming from the white house, what does that mean for my staff. What does that mean for my board. i send out mem moes, board, I want you to know, here's a new executive order that has come out, staff, we need to review to make sure we're in compliance. We have avid, make sure it's in compliance, yes, we reviewed it websinger have latino ins action, let's make sure we're in compliance. Attorney bruno, what is out there with regards to latinos in action, I have an e-mail that says 80/20. Let me have a conversation with latino ins action, I have a conversation. Now I have to go back to my board, I have to go back to staff, I have some concerns of title 6 violations, so before we have problems, I have already anticipated staff
021has worked and it never hits my board. thank you. DR. Zeman? kathy, thank you for applying for this job, coming over to visit the best coast in florida, I appreciate you stopping by and going through this process and I really enjoyed talking to you yesterday. As I think about your job though or your prospective job, it's two jobs, one, you've got 9 or so attorneys who work for you directly here, the internal counsel, and you need to think about both how you conduct yourself as an attorney and how you conduct yourself as the head of a reasonably sized law firm. That law firm isn't just the or so folks that work here, it's also the dozens of other people that are hired by bro urtd county to handle the hundreds and hundreds of lawsuits we
022have at any one specific time. As the prospective browardbacker broward county general counsel working for the school board of broward county, how do you plan to manage and lead the office of general counsel, the equivalent of a reasonably sized law firm including any management principles you would like to share about your hiring, retaining and inspiring of all of those lawyers? thank you for the question. Supervising, managing attorneys especially well seasoned attorneys is a very difficult task. Very, very difficult, by virtue of the fact that they are attorneys. Now, in my office, I have an attorney who used to be a school board attorney and I also have another attorney for prior to coming to my office used to supervise other attorneys, so I have extra challenges. So, how do I do that? I do that
023by creating a culture -- creating a culture where everybody's voice is recognized, is heard. We do a lot of group think, we all get together and try to solve problems together. We -- I believe in collaboration and I believe that they should be respected for the jobs that they do. And they know that they can always come to me to talk through things with me and I also go to them to talk through thugs with them. So that's the first thing, understanding the relationship you have with your counsels. Staff, I enjoy working with the support staff. I meet with my support staff on a regular basis. Once a week, I meet with the support staff, I meet with my attorneys on a regular basis and then we all meet as a team. I don't believe
024in hierarchy in that sense z. I think that my support staff is just as important and value lids f lid as the attorney, without them, we can't do our job, so we all work together, we have fun from time to time as well. I love professional development, if you ask them, they'll tell you, I have a video that I always have the watch which is a five chairs video in terms of what is impacting and what are the choirs choices you're going to make when you have some diversity, so I love leadership and I really enjoy having team building and having a strong team because I think that's what gives us the best ability to have good compliant services. And for outside counsel, I meet with them on a regular basis, most of the time
025it's quarterly with the outside counsels,s I develop good rapport with them, any case that is high profile that really would be impactful to the board, I am involved in it as second chair if you will, I help with discovery. We lad a case that started six years ago where he f we lad a vendor who sued the district because they felt there was a pretax for their dismissal of their contract based on comments that vendor made and this is a powerful vendor in my area. We stood our ground and I was very involved in that because he sued my board, each individual board meeting in their individual capacity as well as in a professional capacity sued, my cfo was in there, my director of procurement was in there so I took that case seriously, went
026all the way up to the 11th circuit, the district of lee county won every single time. alright. DR. Holness? thank you, MADAM Chair. MS. Bruno, thank you for being here, I appreciate you applying, so the question that I have is beyond meeting the minimum and preferred qualifications for this position, please describe the values that guide your decision making as an attorney. Additionally, explain your understanding of the appropriate relationship between the school board and its legal counsel including how you view counsel's obligation to the board and to the school district. thank you very much for that question. I'm in a leadership class right now and I've always been very conscientious about ethics and integrity. In that leadership class, I discovered that integrity is one of my core values, it's something that is extremely important and I
027really am very careful with the words that I use and the actions that I take because integrity and ethics is extremely important. I know it is for every lawyer, for me, it's extremely important, it's part of who I am, so that is one thing that definitely guides my decision-making. It is hard sometimes to stand up for what what is right and I ever had sometimes to stand up to my board basically to advise them, this is not the correct course of action or there is something that's very concerning or, listen, I send my e-mails about sunshine violations but let's have a conversation, nrot to say that my board does that, I just make sure that I think proactive and give the appropriate guidance that is needed, but I always make sure that all of my
028decisions are based on integrity, ethics and what is in the best interest of the school district and what is in the best interest of the school board. You are the governing entity of the school district and the superintendent's the chief exec tier officer, that works for you to do the day-to-day operations on your behalf and to input your values and your vision of what you want for this school district so my decision is very, very broad as a general counsel, I am not in a particular silo where I'm just looking at human resources or just looking at prokaourments. I have the opportunity to view the entire district. Sometimes I will tell you my attorney will come in and say, this is how I see this, this is what's going on in business services and this
029is where I am and I'll say, well, let's have a discussion because where I am includes what's going to happen to the board, what the public is going to say, what's going to happen to the superintendent, how is this going to impact where academic services is needed so I have a very broad view and it's always to make sure decision ares plead in regards to ethics and integrity and what's in the sb es interest of the school district and the school board. DR. Holness? thank you, MS. Bruno, I have a follow-up question, understanding the values that guide your decision making as an attorney, can you identify at least five current emerging or relevant issues impacting broward county schools that MAY require legal attention including at least two issues specific to broward county public schools and
030how your values will guide your decision-making should legal attention be required? so, if you could repeat that question for me, DR. Holness, if you could. Er based upon your prior answer as far as the values has guide your decision making, can you identify at least five current emerging or relevant issues impacting broward county public schools at this time that MAY require legal attention including at least two of these issues being specific to broward county public schools and how your values will help you to guide -- would help guide your decision-making if there should be legal attention required. so, this is a very important issue, definitely in broward county, you have 100 schools of hope applications, again, making sure that we act in what is in the best interest of the school district in regards to
031that and as well as make sure what the law is, and what we're able to do. That's one. The other one would be now that I know you are in the process of reviewing school closures, I know that you're nr the process of identifying other ways that you can combat this huge deficit that you have. We want to just make sure that any decisions that are made are made with the compliance and all regulatory requirements when we're looking at that. I understand also that when you are closing schools, this is something that is impactful to the community. The county's fo j gnat, we're not experiencing that type of situation, however we know what it's like to close a school. We are currently in that process with one of our schools and the town is upset
032with us because we want to close a school so i understand that and that leads me to another issue that you have. I know that you have some discussions with regards to your impact fees and mitigation fees and that you have some of your municipalities are not very happy with you. I don't know where that's going to go. I want to make sure we monitor that if we need o do the chapter 164 process where there's a government alternative dispute resolution process we need to go into that, legal would be vo fmed in that. I finished one about a month ago that we're still in the process and having some negotiations. I know that the laws with regards to parent rights are always something we need to be mindful of and we need to make
033sure that we are always in compliance with those laws. When this started in lee county, we had our issues, I think lee county was part of the fire storm that began all of this because we had a poster in one of our student code of conducts book that parents were not happy with, so I understand those issues as well. And what lee county has done and what I would hope to do here in broward county is to make sure that every decision that we make is right on the line of the law. I don't want us to go left, I don't want us to go right, I want us to be in compliance and that's what I hope to bring forward with regards to those issues, and you wanted five, I think I had four.
034I think that's five. Thank you, I appreciate it. I know you probably have more but we're out of time. Er thank you. And for the last question, what is your approach to providing guidance to the board regarding legally complex and poetically sensitive matters? that's a very good question e. So, this is what I tell my board. I'm not the political advisor, however, I know that your world, that is very pornts and I know that there's going to be some touch points from a legal standpoint that is part of your calculus. Let me know what those touch points are so I can understand and I can try to come up with the best resolution. We will always and I say this on the dais in lee county all the time, lee county school board will be
035in compliance. I suggest broward county also always say we will be in compliance. It is very, very important that we put students first, first and foremost, that we act with compassion but that we also follow the law. alright. We will now give MS. Dupuy a three minute closing. Er thank you, it is my pleasure to be here with you today, I enjoyed my conversations yesterday and I really -- every time I talk to boards, I always find a neg nugget that shows me that all of these people that are serving in these position ares here for the right reasons and my conversations with you yesterday, I heard that all of you are concerned about your students, you're concerned about your county and you're concerned about transparency and you're concerned about your community. I hope I
036have the opportunity to serve you and perhaps some of that calmness from lee county will transfer, eel pack it up and try to bring it with me, it's a long road, lee county, it took five years or so for us to get to where we are now. When I started in lee county, it was -- there were fires all over the place and it was fires with board member, fires with superintendents not getting along and all of the new laws so we've come a long way but it's because we had a steady leadership, our new board is excellent, they provide great guidance, that goes a long way to have a good board. In addition to that, having a strong superintendent as well as a general counsel that understands the dynamics. I'm not a board member,
037I don't vote, I'm not an elected official, but when f what I am is somebody behind the scene tlas can help you bridge the gap, understand and help you make some sound decisions for your district. So, it is a pleasure to be here with you and thank you so much for the opportunity. thank you so much. We really enjoyed the conversation today. We're ready for the next candidate. alright. Welcome. We'll start with an opening statement. Please introduce yourself. good afternoon, everyone. Pleasure to see everyone once again and imd like to start off with thanking all of you collectively and individually for giving me the opportunity to be here today. I really appreciate it. This whole process has made me reflect and fall on my career here in the broward county school district. It was a
038few years ago, but I was a high school student here about 40 something years ago and looking back, I get a greater appreciation of what this school district gave me, it graver me some skills and the opportunity to succeed. In fact, I remember when I was a high school student thinking going into education, I didn't do it, I went through the legal career instead but a significant large part of my legal career was involved with education. And I really enjoyed it and I can think of one case that really makes me appreciative of what schools can do. Many years ago when I was with the department of education, I was involved in a complaint investigation that involved educational services for juvenile offenders in a state correctional institution so I've spent about a week literally in
039jail observing these students from the moment they come into the institution, how w they're asseseed, theducucatiothey ceivive d d ththtrantition they get for hopefully going out back into mainstream society. And it was a really good experience because it gave me such an appreciation what good schools, what good educators, what good administrators and support staff can do for these students. so many of them were at their lowest obviously being in state confinement. This school in particular was really doing a tremendous job, they really were. And of course most of these students are going to get back out into society. Hopefully all of them succeed, many do not, but this school was really giving them the best opportunity to reintegrate into mainstream society. So, I take that as a huge learning experience for myself but also so
040appreciative of what you as the public school districts do because this is our future out there, these students, some of them need more help than others, but that is why I'm sitting here today. And with that, I will welcome any questions. Er. Er thank you, first up, MRS. Hall deaf? thank you for being here today. How do you ensure compliance with state and federal school safety laws while also supporting practical district operations? okay. I'm familiar with that because I worked on a college campus until very recently and obviously the university setting is not immune from all of the problems that we have out in the world that have impacted unfortunately many public school systems as well. Training is a huge component, university police, local police, being involved with them, having a good liaison, going to
041all of the training, that's very important. And I would say the other component is making sure as an attorney you keep up with what's going on out there about trends that can help improve safety, working with school resource officers. I've been involved in investigations that involve sro's, so I'm fully familiar with that concept. There's advantages and disadvantages to having them in the school buildings. Also I think making sure you understand the process of what the police can do in law enforcement to assist schools. These -- they're not the only onecomings obviously and I would say based in my career in the department of education, so in times, not so many times, but there are students you can certainly see the warning signs, and that's an opportunity to have a robust intervention with school officials, psychologists,
042other support staff who can hopefully get involved to prevent those types of tragedies. thank you. alright. MRS. Bulman? thank you. So, my question is what steps will you take to ensure that our district adopts a proactive rather than a reactive approach to risk management? I'll get this down. I think having -- looking at your internal controls, obviously every entity has them or they should especially big entities, multibillion dollar budgets, that's very important, but I think you can always finetune them and make sure that internal controls are doing what they're supposed to do. Obviously you can't catch everything because obviously unfortunately human ares humans, some are not as good as others, ethical as others, so you're always going to have situations where people MAY not have the best interests of the public money involved but there
043are certainly ways to minimize that type of abuse, so I think that's very important, making sure you have solid internal controls, making sure they are implemented and if there are necessary changes to them being receptive to it. thank you. Can I ask my follow-up question? go ahead. can you give us an example of a time when you've taken a proactive approach instead of reactionary when there's anything in regards to risk management? yeah, I would say one example would be when I was with the department of education and we had some changes coming into the investigative process, how we would receive complaints, saisz f assess them and investigate and resolve them. Presidential administration came in and they wanted to make some changes, so instead of waiting until all of those changes were formalized, I started working
044with -- at that point, I was a team leader, not the deputy chief, I was working with the team to help implement those changes and anticipating challenges and roadblocks that might come up so that when the new changes were formally implemented, we were in a position where we could actually be up and running. great, thank you. MR. Cervera? thank you, chair. Thomas, it's nice to see you again, thank you for the time yesterday and for coming in with us again this afternoon. It is no secret that this district has some problems, some pret tet fty severe problems, we are in financial peril, the public doesn't seem to trust the district, we have transparency problems, communication problem and is the list kind of goes on and on. you do not live in broward, you do not
045live in florida, my understanding is you're in the great state of south carolina still, correct? correct. Er so, my question to you is why broward county? it gooses back to my opening statement, this ising where I grew up, my formative years were here. I like legal challenges, I like working on problems. I like helping create solutions. I think if I could give back to the community that helped me be successful in undergraduate and law school and a legal career, tla's the least I can do. Obviously all of these systemic problems will take a lot of work and a lot of actors to hopefully right the ship so to speak, but legal is an integral component of almost everything that happens here in onebacker one sense or the other, not directly obviously on curriculum or something
046of that nature, but I think whatever I could contribute to making this place a better educational entity, I'm willing to do that and it's not because I need a job, I lad -- had a job, it's more that I have an interest in education and I think it's important to give students the opportunities na I had but so much more, technology has advanced so much since I sat in a classroom here in broward county. It wasthere was really no technology at that point. And those are great challenges that we can use in the right way to help students advance and there's so much you can do for the student language, second languages, engineering programs, vocational programs if you're spending money wisely and using it for the students, so hopefully I could contribute to making that
047happen. thank you, MS. Hixon? thank you, and flies to -- nice to see you again, it was a pleasure speaking with you yesterday. My question is what is your vision for a high performing school board legal office? customer s frs is very important. I've always believed in that. You need to be timely, courteous and accurate. Hopefully you achiever that all of the time, that's the goem. If not, if there's areas of imprao ufrment, you're receptive to those observations ask you make changes. My job as I mentioned probably in some of the interviews yesterday is to get the board to where they want to go legally and usually most legal context, there's not a right or wrong answer in most situations, yes or no, black or white, they there are variations, so I think if I
048can give the board all of the options including the one I think is best but I defer to you as the policy making body about what ultimately is the best way to go and if I can help implement that, that's the role of a good gc and office in general. thank you. thank you, MS. Rupert? thank you. Good morning. I'm all over the place. What role do you believe the general counsel should play in influencing district culture to ensure that schools understand and consistently implement their legal obligations relating to special education law, idea and section 504, I know that's a mouthful, do you need me to repeat it again? Okay. no, I do not because that's part and parcel of what I did with the department of education for over a decade. I did scores,
049dozens of technical assistance presentations to schools, universities, vocational colleges, you name it about their obligations -- and not just special education but other title 6 as well, sex discrimination, things of that nature, but I firmly believe so many -- the overwhelming majority of staff, educators, administrators want to do the right thing in that context but sometimes they MAY not have the full information they need or sometimes they even get inaccurate information and I think it is very, very helpful, at least that was one of my favorite parts of my job was to go out to these school districts, do your presentation, the powerpoint, the whole bit, and explain what the legal requirements were, and they're not as onerous or complicated as sometimes the perception is, so I've always found that gratifying and helpful because I
050would have staff come up to me, my gosh, that was so helpful, I didn't know or that's exactly what I wanted to hear, and as I said, it works both ways, not only for what they need to do but sometimes there's misapprehensions out there, I have to do -- no, you don't, whatever you heard was inaccurate, so I think if you do that, that's a great way of facilitating compliance. Also having -- maybe not a hotline but an opportunity for staff to xlaoun kate, maybe not directly with the general counsel but people on the staff about legal problems. Knowing that you can get helpful information, it's not like calling the irs for tax advice, you know, who wants to do that, but where you're not going to get criticized that the person on the other
051end is going to help you solve the problem you have and mri years at the department of education, at least my regional office, we did a lot of that and I think it really helped advance what you're concerned about. thank you, MS. Thompson? can you describe how your past experience equips you to advise the board proact timely anticipating legal and policy issues before they arise in an educational environment shaped by evolving technologies, and with community expectations. as the general counsel, a key component of that is being yourself well informed, not only on legal developments and of course you can get legal updates every day and I used to do that, but also try to remain cognizant of what is going on in the community as much as you can. And as I think I mentioned
052in some of the interviews when I was at the training center up in colombia, I used to get subscriptions to major newspapers, just to see what the trends were because almost everything that's going on here is not unique to broward county. Of course you have some issues unique to this area but there are trends in other parts of the country that can be very helpful, potential solutions and issues, things of that nature, so that's very important and another nice thing or I think very helpful thing goes back to the previous question about technical assistance and open communication with your schools and administrators. Having good communication with them b it informal or going on site visits to the schools or talking to other senior administrators, that's so helpful because you get information from them that you
053wouldn't otherwise have. So, I can't think of one -- I've done scores of on-site investigations as well. I can't think of one that I didn't learn something new or got some very helpful information from teachers, administrators, advocacy organizations, parents, things of that nature, so that would be very helpful as well. DR. Zeman? tom, thank you for being here today and showing interest in our school board general counsel position. This position can at least in one way be broken down into two different job, one is legal counsel providing support to the school board and to senior staff and second kind of the manager of a law firm, and that law firm has both 9 internal attorney and is dozens external or cadre attorney that is help us with the hundreds of cases we have. As the
054broward county perspective, general counsel, how do you plan to manage and lead the office of general counsel t equivalent of a reasonably sized law firm including the management principles if you don't mind sharing those that you plan to use to plan to use the legal team ins hiring the legal teams. Er its's important to be collaborative and an active listener and appreciate what each individual can bring to the organization to advance the cause. Quality legal sto fs all of you. As a newcomer from the outside, it would be important to meet each individual, get an understanding of what he or she does of challenges that they think are in the office, things that work, things they think should be improved because it really is critical. I was reading about another grocery store chain, about how
055an owner wasn't receptive to the ideas of one of the managers at their store, he was more interested in playing golf, and guess what, that manager left, no surprise, and was the founder of publix, and I think everyone knows about publix down the street, so here is someone who could have greatly advanced whatever grocery chain -- ill forget the man's name -- was working for, instead, he didn't get a very receptive aud yoens and went out on his own and apparently he had some pretty good ideas. So, never discount what people have to offer, sometimes it's good, sometimes it's not, but think critically and receptively to everything you hear and then be selective about what you change. I'm not one who jouster wants to change things for the sake of changing thing and is putting
056my fingerprint on that, see what I've done, I want to make things better and that probably would be an incremental approach. thank you, DR. Holness? thank you, MADAM Chair. Give me one second here. Okay. Okay, so thank you so much for joining us. I appreciate your presence, so my question is, beyond meeting the minimum and preferred qualifications for this position, please describe the values that guide your decision-making, additionally, explain your understanding of the appropriate relationship between the school board and its lelel cocoseseincludinin how w you viview coununses ligagati tothe arard and to the school district. my job is to give the board as my client, sole client the best legal advice I can in all situations and sometimes that probably means giving advice that MAY not be exactly what the board in general wants to
057hear or particular members, but that's the way -- as an attorney, you need to approach revenger legal issue you get. And most of the times, there's more than one potential answer and right answer. Some might be better than others and I will always give my recommendation that I think would work better but ultimately as at the board, as long as if it's not unethical or illegal, you, the policy making group, make the final decision, so that's really the whole impetus of what I want to do. I always like legal challenges, that's what I thrive on. I like interesting novel, complex issues, I like doing the legal research, like fig yaourg out what to do and so many times that involves other components, curriculum, budgeting, transportation, facilities management, you name it. And that's nice because you
058learn about so many other things. I also did a few years in health care law. Amazing what you learn from doctors and nurses and psychologists about how those institutions work and they're not much different than schools. The principal's the same, you assess the problem, you treat it and then you discharge the student graduates and movers on, so all of that interaction leads to quality results if you're thorough, if you're analytical and you keep the best interest of the school district in mind and you're always cognizant of what the policy making entity is in front of me and I just give the best legal advice I can to help you in that regard. MADAM Chair? go ahead. so, I have a follow-up question. Based on the values in your prior comments that guide you in decision-making,
059identify at least five current, emerging or relevant issues impacting bro urtd county school district that MAY require legal attention having at least two of those issues specific to broward county public schools and tell us the values that would guide you in decision-making as it pertains to those issues, so five is sues. -- issues. five issue, one challenge is the use of artificial intelligence and the instructional process. What role it should play and I don't think -- everyone has to acknowledge it's going to play a role, it's ubiquitous, it's out there, but we have to find the correct role and the role that fosters creativity and its student advancement and achievement. Let me just run through all five, and of course you have a perennial problem or issue with charter schools, more generally just the proliferation
060of alternative educational opportunities which in many ways is great. I think I'm all for competition and trying to get the best results for our constituents, the students, but there are a lot of challenges there fiscally and oversight, that type of thing. Safety for schools is always important, you know, these tragedies in the schools happen way too often, mentioned a few minutes ago, there are interventions, strategies that I think help and I don't think you can ever fully prevent these types of things, but I think there needs to be robust use of what is available to try to prevent those issues from occurring. Curriculum, that one obviously there's some legal implications, but that's more for educators, but of course that's always something, textbooks, things of that nature, always something that you have to be cognizant of
061because there is some free speech issue and is inequity. okay. Thank you, MADAM Chair, thank you. thank you. What is your approach to providing guidance to the board regarding legally complex and politically sensitive matters? lengthy and complex? I don't know if the board's receptive to legal memos, those are always very, very helpful. You know, it varies on the context because of course it depends on the familiarity of the board with whatever issue I'm discussing, so obviously if it's something that the board's currently dealing with, you probably don't need as much background information or analysis from me, you MAY want more of a discussion on possible approaches or avenues to take as opposed to what we've discussed previously, you know, about merging trends, things of that nature, that MAY be something where it's more heavily legal
062oriented or a tutorial session where the general counsel are saying, look, this is what I think is going to come down, you know, the next six months or next year or whatever period of time and where you MAY want to give more background information or potential pitfalls in what could happen. So I think it would depend on the situation. I'm certainly willing to give court cases the if people want to read that, I wouldn't highly recommend it unless you're doing it when you suffer from insomnia, but otherwise, I have no problems distilling that information and trying to make it die -- digestible for whatever real issue you want to have addressed. okay, go ahead with your closing statement. alright. Well, thank you so much, everyone. I don't have much to add other than once again,
063it's been an honor to be here. Er I really appreciate all of the time yesterday and today and it has been a learning experience for had me. So, I consider this part of those on-site visits, investigations I did for years that it's something I take away as well to help me in my future endeavors, whether it's here or somewhere else, so that I can always -- my whole goal is always o give my client the the best representation possible, even though sometimes it's not the information the client wants to hear, but you don't take any job especially a job like this or any legal representation to be popular. You do it because you want to help people and that's really why I got into the field of law in general but I think it's why
064I stayed in government service longer than I had initially anticipated. I thought it would just be get your couple of years of experience ask you go to a private firm or some other entity and take off from there, but I think it was the fact that with the government, you really can concentrate more on the true problems, the legal issues and what you can do to help advance whatever cause you're working on and of course there's a huge need for private legal counsel out there, trust me, you know, we say we have too many lawyers out there, there's so many people who don't get adequate legal representation, it's stunning. So, -- and in many cases, government entities for the school systems or other safety nets are the only way these folks get help and I
065found that very, very satisfying through my legal career that doikd that, to help solve problems and I f they didn't give me money, they did in a way through tax dollars and that's fine because, you know, when you have a single mom coming to your office of civil rights because she was discriminated against because she was pregnant, no private attorney's probably going to take that but we were able to get her relief and that to me, that really makes it all worthwhile, that's why I went the government route. Thank you. thank you so much. We really enjoyed the conversation. We're ready for our next candidate. I think we need a little minute, my apologies. alright, on to our final candidate. Please go ahead and share your opening statement. good morning, my name is kathelyn jack
066adrams and I have strong ties to broward count I. Er I went to north andrews garden elementary school, rickards middle school and northeast high school and what I learned from those schools together with the learning from my parents at home, I learned very important skills, skills of respecting each other, skills of work ethic, working hard, working smart, not taking anything for granted. I learned about excellence and I strive to do that every day. I have devoted 29 years of my life to serving the public through public agencies such as department of environmental protection who protects the public from people dumping hazardous waste and hazardous substances, that's where I learned my litigation skills. Being able to collect money from those persons who did not do right by the environment and people because those types of crimes
067affected people as well. I continued my education in litigation by working for south florida water management district, another public entity who is responsible for ensuring that the water flows in our respective cities, towns are at the right level so that we can be safe. And then finally, most importantly to me is I started working for school districts. I have been working for school districts as both a litigator and as well as transactional matters for 20 years. I first worked for the school district of palm beach county doing litigation in the areas of construction. We had all of our work in-house so I was the sole litigator there, and to whatever extent I did not have capacity, I hired out. Then on JUNE 8, 2015, I came to work for the school district of broward county
068where I did both litigation and mostly transactional work. I have a deep love for the issues that are presented to the school board in terms of children, in terms of issues that parents bring. I have a deep understanding and knowledge of all of the issues that affect children in the school district. We have -- with regards to excellence, please excuse me. you can finish your sentence. with regards to excellence, I'm also board certified and in board certification, it takes into account all areas that are involver with school districts, it takes into account construction which builds buildings for children, it takes into account labor and employment which involves employees, which teach children, it involves transactional work, contracts that procure programs for children, it has taught me so much so that I can be able to further
069help the school board in understanding the legal issues that MAY be presented to them. thank you so much. mrs. Alhadeff? thank you. How do you ensure compliance with state and federal school safety laws while also supporting practical district operations? so, first and foremost, the important thing is to have knowledge of the law and that is something that not only myselflfbubuototr expertrtin my ofoffi d dno whatever the issue s there's always a law associated with that, whether it be a federal statute, a federal court of regulations, florida statute, florida administrative code rule, whatever those rules are, we know them and we understand how staff should -- how staff should utilize that law to make good business decisions. Our role is very specific, we need to understand the law, we need to articulate the law to the
070board so the board MAY be able to make good business decisions and by extension to the staff because we primarily work with the staff, we also give that advice to staff so that they MAY be able to make good business decision and is bring those decisions tos the board for their consideration and approval. thank you, MS. Bull mra n? -- bulman? nice to see you. Er nice to see you as well. er my question is what steps will you take as general counsel to ensure that our district adopts a proactive rather than a reactionary approach to risk management? sure. So, the first thing is you always make an assessment of what is going on within the office, so that's the first thing that I will do, make an assessment of every aspect of the office.
071Secondly, it's always important to give -- to know what the issues are, we keep track of not only the legislative issues that are going on, the new laws that are coming out t new laws that are being proposed but we keep track of what's going on in the news. In doing that, you get an idea of what is going on and what you need to be prepared for. So, in being prepared, you must always because it's going to be the same thing for everything, you always need to understand what the law is, disseminate that law to the appropriate people, whether it be to staff or to board. There are certain pieces of information, certain laws that need to be disseminated on a daily basis, a weekly basis, a monthly basis, a quarterly basis, depending upon
072what that issue is, that information needs to be disseminated to the right people, whether it be staff or whether it be to the board, so I would like to also get to know each of the board members to understand how they would like to communicate so, that I could be able to disseminate that information to the individual board members in whatever style you would like. It can even be verbal, so understanding issues means staying on top of the issues. We're very fortunate in that we have a florida school board association that we keep track of information and so do they. So, our sister districts, we keep in communication with each other and so understanding the the issues is pretty easy for us and the key is to ensure we communicate that law to you, figure
073out what your questions are, answer those, be creative up to the line and not over the line of what the law allows for a solution to whatever that situation is and then hopefully we can reach some sort of solution that everybody's happy with. thank you. And can I do my follow-up question? Okay. I was advised that I had to flag you. So, can you give us an example of something that you've encountered recently where you took proact tier steps rather than waiting to be reactive to a potential issue? sure. From a transactional perspective, we have a lot of contracts and so a lot of times in order to be able to mover forward with those contracts, you flexed a template. Our office has created a template for people -- for departments to go ahead and
074populate so that we could move forward with procuring whatever commodity or service that this school district needs. So, sometimes there are special commodities and they need a special template. I create a special template for that particular procurement or purchase. This is a group effort. Nothing in our office is done in a silo. We always confer with each other, so these templates are vetted among all of the attorneys to ensure that it's in compliance with the law because that's what is important and then the departmental staff is -- fills in what they need which is the scope, the cost and the payment for that. thank you. thank you, MR. Cervera? thank you, chair. If I MAY, I don't want to ask the same question because I don't think it's applicable to this particular candidate. MAY I
075go back to my original question on the sheet? I would like to ask staff for their guidance on this because of the interview process and all of that. Whether or not we can change the questions if that's fair and equal per the interview process. Er I think to keep things standard, I would stay to the question you asked the prior candidates. And you can use this as a follow-up. okay. I don't know how to phrase this because she's already here and my question is why do you want to come here when she's already here. Let me give it a shot, thank you. First of all, good to see you again, it was nice meeting you yesterday, I appreciated the time, I certainly appreciate the time again this morning. My question is as follows, we know
076that the challenges that this district has faced over the last few years were in financial trouble, we have trust issues with the public, transparency problems, communications problems, the list kind of goes on and on. I had asked the other candidates who were not residents of broward county why they would want to come to bro urtd county to deal with this, so I'm going put a little different spin on it for you, why do you want the general -- knowing what you know about this district, why do you want the general counsel position and I guess for a lack of better terms, why do you want to stay with us in light of everything tla's going on? so, the way that I make my decisions in my life is I proceed with my values. I proceed
077with what I feel is good in my heart to do and based upon the upbringing that I received from my late parents, lucian and andre jaques, they tell me to follow my heart. I I wanted to work for school districts because I believe in the underlying principle of educating children. Education is what saved me. Education is what brought me absolute satisfaction in my life, having the opportunity to go to elementary school, middle school, high school, college, law school, absolutely stellar, and I would be absolutely proud to participate in ensuring that other children get that same experience. It's not only, you know, just frills of aspirations and desires, there's hard work in ensuring that that takes place. i did not just graduate law school and it was easy and it was all paid for and it
078was sparkles, I had to work hard. Working at the school district, I'm not going to lie x it is hard, it is hard work to ensure that every aspect of ensuring that a a child is educated is done but I have the absolute skill to do that. I have honed my skills in litigation and when you're in litigation, you need to understand what the facts are, what the issues are, what the holes are so that you can be able to win that case. That's the same here. We have issues. We've got to identify those issues, we've got to brainstorm with each other together to solve those issues and they're not just simple issues, they're issues that relate to teachers, they're issues that relates to disciplining teachers, disciplining students, educating students, housing students. There are so
079many different areas that need to happen and take place in order for that child to be educated. I have the skills in a lot of different areas, not only litigation, litigation of procurement matters, litigation of co-counsel with mss batista, labor matters, transactional issues, what does it take to understand the -- what's necessary from different departments to procure the right things, to bolster programs for children, construction issues, so they're difficult but I have never shrunk from anything that was difficult. thank you. MS. Hixon? thank you, and thank you for coming today and for applying for the position. thank you. my question is what is your vision for a high performing school board legal office? so, I want to go back to excellence, excellence in everything that we do. Focusing on every aspect of every issue that
080we need to handle and ensuring that we have the right person for the job, the right tools for the job, that is very important. In going through and evaluating, we need to understand what the issues are from staff as well. Our client, and I want to be extremely clear, I think I was yesterday that understand that our client is the school board. And we do everything to understand the law to protect the school board, but by extension, we interface with staff for a majority of the time. So, we need to establish relationships with staff so that they can trust us to come to us with those issues early, so that we can be able to brainstorm and solve those issues. It's very hard to solve an issue when the thing that goes wrong has already
081happened. In order for staff to trust us to come with those issues early, you know, we need to have a relationship and we need to have trust. In my area where I work, I've had that, you know. We're beginning talks early with regards to safety issues way early. There are aspects of safety that are so vast and so deep, there's so many contracts that are necessary to put in place to ensure the safety of students, that has already begun. I already mad meetings with the superintendent, his staff to ensure that nose specific details are taken care of. So, in term of being proact tier, being proact tier takes communication, relationships, transparency with each other, transparency with the public and nrord to do that, we need to impart and share our legal knowledge with staff so
082that they e can be able to take that legal knowledge and do what they do best which is make business decisions that they bring forth to the school board for their consideration. thank you. thank you, MS. Rupert? thank you, good morning. Or afternoon. what role do you believe the general counsel should play in influencing district culture to ensure that schools understand and consistently implement their legal obligations relating to special education law like idea and section 504? I know has was a lot of words, do you want me to read it again? yes, please. Er what role do you believe the general counsel should play in influencing district culture to ensure that schools understand and consistently implement their legal obligations relating to special education law, idea and 504. okay. So, simply put, the office of general
083counsel takes on a leadership role and they take on a leadership role specifically as it relates to the law. The school principals, they already know what to do, you hired them to be principals of their schools. They know their craft. Everyone when they're making decisions, if there's an aspect of that decision they don't understand, they lean on a person with expertise to be able to answer those question, so if they are beyond their realm of expertise, ie, the law, we take on that role of leader slip to answer the questions they need. They MAY not f not need answer tos all questions, afterall, you selected them as princebacker principals, they have the skill and knowledge to go ahead and handle their school. However, there are certain questions that they MAY have that are outside their
084realm of expertise and they need to look at us, we need to establish a relationship with them so they trust us to ask us those questions in advance so we can be able to answer them, so they MAY be able to continue going about their day handling their business. Now, idea, 504, those are very specific, very unique areas of law that not everybody knows. Our office not only has attorneys that know that law but I'm stud dig dpr the board certification, I needed to know that law as well, not only that, with respect to certain commodities or certain s frs that is are purchased for the programs for children with disabilities, that factors into some of those contracts as well, interagency agreements, different commodities and services that are purchased, so we have that knowledge and
085not only that, the knowledge of the law, the better law, the codes, the statutes to be able tobacker able to answer whatever question they do not understand. I'm a firm believer in training, so our office has already taken on a role of training principles and ap's. We know what the issues are because we know what is being litigated, so we take those issues and we turn it into training and turn it back around and ensure every single principal knows and understands that, so there are principals coming in every day, let me not say that, but there are principals coming in and there are new principals coming in, so everybody can use periodic training and understanding and refreshing on what the law is concerning children with disabilities. We only have one shot with these children. thank
086you, MS. Thompson? can you describe how your past experience equips you to advise the board proactively anticipating legal and policy issues before they arise in an educational environment shaped by e involver technologies, legislation and community expectations? so, my first experience with technology was taking a class at northeast high school in the sixth grade. I knew back then that technology was extremely important so that is always been a part of my education, always been a part of what I do to help me automate things that I need to know and learn in my life even at that young age. My past experience involves a lot of preparation when things go wrong, analyzing what went wrong in this situation, why were we sued, why do we have to sue, is our policy clear, was our solicitation clear,
087was our contract clear, whose fault is this, is it our fault, is it their fault, how is it their fault, how is it our fault, those are all things you look at, minimal things you look at when you're preparing for a litigation case when things do go wrong, when communications do break down. That's a very hard lesson to learn is what went wrong in litigation, but with 30 years of experience in litigation as well as transactional, I've got that hindsight with me right now. I know why things go wrong, I know why people do things that are not right because of the circumstance and I can take that knowledge and apply it on a daily basis. I do now. You know, whenever I look at a ntract, itit'simportrtanthat 's's eaear, 's's concncis it hahas everything
088that it needs to articulate what we're procuring. If you are procuring something for 20 million dollars, you need to be clear and concise. If it's not okay to receive that commodity the day before the last day of the expiration day of the contract, you need to put a dead lao irn in the contract to ensure you receive your commodity, your services timely, correctly. Tloez are things that quite frankly you don't need to learn from litigation but there's nothing like being in a courtroom for 20 days to teach you that you need to be precise, you need to be articulate, you need to be clear. There's nothing like somebody accusing the school board, the -- whoever the agency is, accusing them of something ask then discovering that we did not have the policies and procedures in
089place to ensure that things are dope right. So, in short, I've got a lot of experience with regards to transactional and litigation work and I will bring all of that to bear on ensuring that we are proactive and preventing those types of missteps or miscommune cases because you're not necessary stabler wrong if you're sued, miscommunications going forward. thank you, DR. See ma rn ?Frjts thank you so much, chair, as you know, MS. Jacques-adams, there are critical elements of this job, of the general counsel job that have to do with providing legal advice and then there's other responsibilities about leading the internal office of 9 and then leading the cadre attorneys we hire for the hundreds of cases we have outstanding in broward county. What management principles would yo apply to the management of the 9
090and the management of the external counsel, in particular, as you think about hiring, retaining and inspiring those workforce? sure. In order to understand what is going on in an office, you need to get information, data from everyone in your office, information on what transactions are transpiring, information on what litigation is trancespiring. Er you need to understand the totality of that so that you can be able to manage that. Is this litigation case going okay, are they spending too much, are they spending too little time, is everything going okay, is that the right person to complete that task for us, whatever it is. Internally, it's very great because we have attorneys that are experts in their area, experts and they've been doing this for a very long time. So, and a lot of them -- or
091at least one of them in particular has board certification. And I wanted to stop and say how important that is because in florida, there are over thousand attorneys, there are 27 different areas of different board certifications, and from that is the education certification, and from that, there are only 47 attorneys in the entire state of florida that have that certification, and three e of -- of them are in our office. The attorneys in our office know what they're doing. I work side by side with them, nobody trellises them to come in, nobody tells them to leave, a lot of times we're here at 8:00 at night ensuring that we are doing what we are supposed to do. Nobody needs to tell us what we flexed to do. These attorneys handle what they're supposed to be
092doing, whether it is contracts or whether it is litigation, whether it is employment, they handle what they are supposed to do. We get together on a weekly basis so that we can be able to confer with each other, ask each other questions because there are commonalities with all of what we are doing, so in labor and employment, there are collaborative agreements, those are agreements, in construction, there are agreements so, there are commonalities along every single area of law within education. We collaborate and that's beautiful. So I need to understand what each person is doing, so there will be some sort of reporting criteria to help me to understand so it's not enough to talk with each other, I need some sort of reporting to understand what is going on, on a weekly basis and that
093would be the same with outside cadre counsel, to be able to understand what they're doing, look at their bills, ensuring that the block billing doesn't contain thing that is are not appropriate so we're not improperly billed, ensuring that there are results from their efforts. Tla's the same across the board so it's a lot of evaluation, a lot of reporting and a lot of understanding the issues and disseminating that back to the board. thank you, DR. Holness? thank you, MADAM Chair. Thank you, MS. Jacques-adams, for coming in, we appreciate it. the question that I have for you is beyond meeting the minimum and preferred qualifications for this position, please describe the values that guide your decision making as an attorney, additionally explain your understoodbacker understanding of the appropriate relationship wean the school board and its legal
094counsel including how you view counsel's obligation to the board and to the school district. so, I think anybody who has worked with me understands that I value excellence. I value getting things right. I value complying with the law because that is the only way that you can be on the right side of any issue. People MAY not like what the law is but they have to respect it if articulate it to them, you are clear, your are prancebacker trance parents, you have rationale and reasons, people are smart, even kids are small, I have an example of a child that says that person is kind. How do you know that person is kind. She has kind eyes, five years old, people are smart, and adults are smart, they understand the issues, they're upset but if you're
095transparent, you articulate what the law s you give them the rationale, they MAY not like it and some people MAY not even listen to you, but certain people, they will understand that you have no choice but to do what is right. That's how I guide myself on a daily basis. I ensure that I'm always on the right side of whatever it is I'm doing. I make sure that everything is done to the best of my ability and in accordance with the law. I'll be creative now, I always want to -- there's always a pleasing people a aspect to everyone, soy always want to give people what they want but always within the confines of the law, so if the law has some sort of flexibility, then I will do everything in my power to problem
096solve to get that solution. Now I am very clear in my role of bho the compliant is, within the florida statutes, there is a definition of who the board is. The board can sue, be sued, enter into contract, the board makes the decision. Our role is to support the board and by extension, we support all staff so that they MAY be able to have the law and make their good business decisions that they can bring forth to the school board. There are times that there MAY be conflicts. We let staff know very clearly, you know, who are allegiance is to and that quite frankly has never been a problem in my practice, in my 20 year practice with school districts. Staff always want tos do the right thing, at least the ones that I interact
097with. They are always striving to ensure they have good programs for students, that they build good buildings for students, they always strive to do the right thing, so I haven't had an issue personally with regards to there being any type of conflict but it is clear that our interactions are mostly with staff. We give them the law that they require to do to make the good business decisions they make on a daily basses and then we bring item tos the board for your consideration. go ahead, DR. Holness? thank you, MADAM Chair, so, I have a follow-up question. Based on the values you mentioned in the prior question, identify at least five current emerging or relevant issues impacting broward county public schools that MAY require legal attention including at least two of those issues specific to
098broward county public schools and how your values would help to guide you in the decision making process that could potentially have legal ramifications in these issues. so, first and foremost, the role of the board is to educate children, so there are a lot of emerging issues that are happening, and in handling each and every one of those issues, I hear statements from the board. They're always saying when are we going to get back to issues of educating children. There are a lot of things that need to be done to handle that separate and apart from those emerging issues. And staff is handling those items on a daily basis, on a monthly basis bringing them to you to try to address educating children which is our charge. Things happen on a daily basis to make that
099happen and whatever staff needs in terms of legalities, reviewing of contracts, talking about issues because we also handle advice issues, it's not all litigation and contracts. On a daily basis, staff MAY have questions, we answer them so that they MAY be able to mover forward with their first charge which is education. The emerging -- one of the emerging issues is declining enrollment. We spent a considerable amount of time trying to ensure that advertisement goes out, advertising all the excellent programs that each of the schools have. Ensure that we are, you know, just any issues with regards to declining enrollment from crafting the policy concerning the -- with regards to -- sorry, just one moment. Ensuring that once schools are closed down, you know -- MADAM Chair, I know her time is up, if you don't
100mind, you have given us one issue without expounding on additional issues, can you name four more? yes, abbacker absolutely, co-location which is an issue that has emerged, construction in our schools, the land that we have, additional land that we have, do we want to sell the land that we have and I think that's it. So, each of those issues have policies that are involved with addressing them. With regards to closing of schools or changing boundaries, there's policies,. With regards to selling lands, there's policies. Our role is to ensure that whatever business decision the school board makes, that they're in line with their policies. So, these are very difficult issues, but our role is very simple is to ensure that we support the board to be able to make good business decisions. thank you. What is
101your approach to providing guidance to the board regarding legally complex and politically sensitive matters? so, the one thing with the office of general counsel is we do not get involved with politics, however, it is clear that politics has a play in a lot of issues. So, we need the understand what those politics are, we need to be able to understand what questions each individual board member MAY have with those issues. I need to get to know each board member to understand how do you like information because if I give you charts and graph and is you don't like chart asks graphs, you won't look at any information that I give you, so I need to understand the board, understand what your particular issues or goals are to be able to provide you with the law
102on those issues just in case you wanted to present something with your colleagues for decisions and then provide it to you as often as is necessary. There are things that are happening that need to be updated on a daily basis, you know, baufr whatever the matter is occurring. There are things that you MAY need information on in terms of law on a weekly basis, monthly, quarterly. Whatever is needed in terms of answering your questions is what I will deliver. So, our office is already used to providing you with memorandums, once you have a question, any one particular board member, we will not only give that one board member the answer, we give all the board members that same answer and that MAY elicit additional questions, so my role would be to ensure that I am
103available, that I listen to your questions, answer them, if there are alternative things that you would like to do, let discuss that, see if that's within the confines of the law and then think of creative ways to get you what you want and then you discuss it with your colleagues and make a decision on whatever that matter is, but in term of the politics, we don't opine on it except to know that it exist and is how it MAY factor into any legalities and provide you with legal advice. thank you. Would you like to give a closing statement. yes. So, I would like to emphasize that I stay here with the school district of broward county because I love the issues. And I hope that the way that I operate on a daily basis reflects
104that. I love making sure that things are right, things are correct, that when staff presents things to the board, that all their I's are dotted, the t's are crossed and there's no questions in regards to what's being presented to you so it's clear and concise. I love the underlying issue of educating children, it's wonderful, it's a noble issue. Everyone has a child in their life that they love, a child in their neighborhood that they love, a young adult that they love watching grow, that doesn't happen just with hopes and dreams, it happens with work, it happens with people with absolute expertise, just pouring into that child. I love to be a part of that. I know that it's hard, I know that sometimes people misunderstand what it is what each and every one of you
105do but all I can do is tell the truth, all I can do is disseminate the law and all I can do is support you and I would like that opportunity to do so. I will put the full leverage of all of my experience to make that happen. thank you so much. We really enjoyed this conversation. Alright. I believe staff will escort MS. Jax adoms out and then imd like for us to move to board discussion. So, if anyone would like to start first. Go ahead, DR. Zeman. thanks, chair, I know there's lots of way tos do this. One of the ways might be to think through whether or not there's kind of equal qualifications of all the candidates. There is one candidate in my assessment who is missing experience ever working for a school
106board and my sense is that the other two candidates having extensive experience working with school boards would be a better fit for bro urtd county at this time, so chair, would it make sense to mover forward by suggesting at this point that we drop one of the three or would it be better to just do discussions or votes at the end. How do you want to proceed? would you like to make a motion? I would, yes. er I would like to maouf an excellent candidate and lawyer from lots of other work, tom falkinburg who I was very interested in bringing here, the more I met with him, the more I was impressed with his legal skills and his career but I don't think he's a good fit for broward county because he has never worked
107for a school board, that ta's a five us year experience, and d I can tetellyou u I'm m still learningng this ona a dail basis. So, my motion would be to continue considering MS. Jacques-adams and MS. Dupuy -bruno and drop MR. Falkinburg from this discussion. Er I don't believe there's public comment in this process. okay. There's a motion and a second, board discussion on the motion? All in favor of the motion, say aye. aye. all opposed, say no. Motion passes unanimously. The motion was seconded by MS. Rupert I believe. Alright. Any other -- DR. Holness? thank you, MADAM Chair so, now that we're down to two candidates, I will make a few comments. I think we have major issues in broward county as all of us know requiring cooperated relative experience. We really in my
108opinion, we must get this right and we must baibl choose a candidate that can address all the issues and has the expertise, the knowledge that is very wide reaching in order to address these issues. Now I do appreciate both of the candidates and I think they both did well. One thing that I can see in common is bother -- both of them are board certified among the ones we have in the state and MS. Jacques-adams has extensive experience as well, as well as transactional and litigation work, you know. She did express in her comments the importance of team work and so did MS. Kathy bruno, and also the value of excellence was expressed by MS. Jacques-adams and getting things done right, complying where the law and so on and so forth. As far as MS.
109Kathy bruno, I was very impressed with her wide range of experience. When asked about the five important issues in my question as far as broward county schools and being sfoefk broward county schools, being able to name them, I believe MS. Kathy bruno was able to give some -- to give relevant issues that we are facing including the schools of hope, schools closure, bujts deficit and she even went as far as to talk about the recent concerns we had with the impact fees, the mitigation fees. So, she seems to be although not a broward county person, is well versed on the issues impacting broward county schools. I was very impressed. I was impressed with her experience in lee county, being five year ins general counselbacker counsel, lee county is similar to our county here in some
110ways, they do have about 100 thousand students, they have a reasonable diversity in their student population. Their student population is 42% hispanics, 30% whites, 20% blacks, so it's pretty diverse, so I believe that experience will be relevant here as well, so with what I have observed with MS. Bruno, I am going to -- I just believe with her wealth of experience that she would be an asset to this district and I would support MS. Bruno being our legal counsel for broward county schools. Er would you like to make a motion? yes, I would like to make a motion that kathy bruno be the legal counsel for broward county skaom district. moved by MR. Hol ma ns, second by MS. Hixon. any discussion on the motion? . Inger no, ma'am. Er could I add to that
111to have chair leonardi lead negotiations as soon as possible. do we need to ask for the seconder to second that? so, you can wait to do that once the vote is in the affirmative, make another motion where you're asking to give authority to the chair to negotiate the contract with whoever -- assuming that there is a positive vote, so I would do it in two steps. okay. any other board discussion? MRS. Alhadeff, were you done? okay, MS. Rupert? I wanted to make one general comment before we voted which was these two attorneys that came here today really were top notch, absolutely top notch and they both could be general counsel and have experience with that. But I think it asks for really one thing which is do we want to go with what we've had
112for a while because it's -- we know there's going to be much less of a moving forward and learning on the ground or do we want somebody either that is fresh eyes or do we want to keep somebody who has been here and done the same job. Tla's a tough one, but it would help us to say e either/or which one is -- it depends on what the board wants to do, do you want fresh eyes or do you want relevant experience at our district. That is the justification right now, comments would be appreciated but you don't have to. go ahead, MS. Bulman. thank you, chair. I was very impressed with both of these candidates. Er I think both of them have a breath of experience, knowledge that was demonstrated yesterday when we were speaking
113with them that was demonstrated today as they were answering their questions, their resumes are both very impressive. I love that MS. Bruno did dependency family law, has that background, all of the mediation, I lover that MS. Jacques-adams has extensive litigation experience and has worked in different government entities, she's not just a school board person, she has a lot of other experience, and something that is fo rmg gnat with us and with no disrespect to MR. Cervera, naoez two women as attorneys bring a certain amount of passion and empathy that I think is important for being a school board general counsel when your goal and your mission is to educate children. So, I think that we're not going to wrong either way. The only thing that would sway me one way or the other is that
114we might benefit at this time from having an outside perspective but I don't think we're going to go wrong either way with the candidates we have before us. Thank you. DR. Zeman? thank you, chair. To MS. Rupert's point, I'm gieng to speak in favor of MS. Bruno. One of the reasons I am, if we hire MS. Bruno websinger have MS. Bruno and MS. Jacques-adams f you're on the fence, that's great to get two really great lawyers working together and both of them have this style that you can get the sense they're going to work very well together and do great things. The chair of lee county school board called me though and he went on and on about working with MS. Bruno and about her depth, her energy, her commitment to students and he talked
115a lot about diffusing the drama in lee county for the last five years, she was integral to that. She was not just a lawyer doing the technical work of layering wyer -- lawyerbacking and managing other lawyers, she was a leader who helped the school board diffuse drama and kind of keep things on a steady path. I don't agree with the characterization that has come from this table about how we got to this point but I will always applaud eliminating dra m drama and anywhere we can. She is a parliamentarian already which is a great distinction. I would appreciate kind of a different per specie. I think lee county is interest, 70% of their schools are in the bottom five of the nation's title 1 schools, and they're a b rated district. And to me, you
116know, from kind of a data and analytics per spekt I ever, that's impressive, when you're in the bottom five of title 1 school and is you found out how to get academic performance at this level, I applaud that. The grade in the end is only one thing. I also think the biggest distinction is she has five years of general counsel, she clearly has that, but MR. Person's advocacy for her, just to spend so much time with me talking about very individual cases and a five year experience in lee county is terrific. So, I'm very -- feel very blessed we kathelyn jacques-adams on our staff and if we hire MS. Bruno, I think they would work very well together. Er thank you, MS. Hixon? and I will briefer echo what my colleagues have said. I think
117we have two great candidates. We mad three great candidates, we had two outstanding candidates that really fit our district, so it will be difficult, you know, to pick one over the other, but in looking at just the skill set they have and can bring to the district, I agree that having someone who has navigated school boards with 7 people on it and just understanding the dynamics of what it's like to maneuver, having so many bosses at one time, I really look forward to having MS. Bruno come and join us and I just want MS. Jacques-adams to know that we -- I personally think she did a fantastic job in the interview process and that it was a really hard decision o come to, but I appreciate all of them coming and wanting to be part
118of our team. thank you. DR. Holness and then MS. Rupert. thank you, MADAM Chair, so I want to concur as well with some of the other board members. this was quite a difficult decision. These are both wonderful attorneys with significant experience. It was hard to measure as far as, you know, who the lead candidate was throughout the process but after putting it all ogt and as DR. Zeman mentioned, you know, MS. Bruno has five years general counsel experience already. She was able to easily identify the five key issues that is impacting -- that are impacting our county and one thing that stood out for me, she mentioned that lee county won all of the cases it appears and I thought that was impressive, that lee county had many challenges before and they were able to
119resolve those issue and is create a sense of calm in that county, so when I look at both of these candidates, they were both great and I want to thank them both and I want to thank MS. Jacques-adams too for her excellence in the interview but looking at both of them, I believe MS. Bruno kind of edged out a little bit more and so that's why I made that choice. Thank you. thank you, MS. Rupert? there was one question that I didn't get to ask MS. Jacques-adams and I think it's pertinent to the conversation. We're thinking that MS. Jacques-adams is going to stay here and we don't know the answer. I wanted to ask her when we sat down for my interview but I thought it would freak her out just asking that question, so
120I didn't ask, but if we're voting with the assumption we're going to have fantastic and fantastic as part of the team, not that we don't have other fantastic people with them, it's kind of -- I thought I would throw it out there because we have no idea. I don't know if MS. Batista would know that answer, don't want to share it, okay. But I didn't ask it and it's important to know, just saying. thank you, MS. Tofrn -- thompson? thank you, chair. I agree with my colleagues that there are two very strong candidates before us and both have really strong backgrounds and reasons to pick them. I would lean towards MS. Jacques-adams. I believe we're also having several lawyers retire at the end, is that correct? So, at the end of this year or shortly,
121so having that background knowledge of the different internal issues tla the district has been facing I think is important I also echo ms. Rupert's comments that I don't think that should be your decision making process is that, well, if we don't choose her, she's going to stay because we don't know that that's happening, and I just think her background, the way that she has covered in recent meetings especially in a closed door that obviously I won't go into, I thought she handled really well. But that would be my vote. any other board discussion on the motion? Alright, so, again, the motion is to hire MRS. Kathy dupuy-bruno for our next general counsel. Er isn't it to -- that was the motion. Er we're going do a second one, sorry, thank you. Er all in favor
122of the motion, say aye. aye. Er all opposed, say no. one opposing vote. Motion passes with one opposing vote from MS. Thompson. MRS. Alhadeff? thank you. I mover to give authority to chair leonardi to lead negotiations on DECEMBER 17th. second. any public comment on the motion? no, ma'am. board discussion? mr. Cervera? thank you, chair, I would like to know what that process entails. With all due respect to the xhair and I think you're capable doing this, contract negotiations can be tricky. I wasn't here through the last process when MS. Batista was going through this but I would feel more comfortable if the legal committee was involved in this and also I want to say legal committee, I mean the three of us, and also our legal department. I don't think this is fair putting this
123on the shoulders of one individual esspshlly when we're dealing with various facets of the law and, again, MS. Leonardi is very capable but she's not a lawyer, so I would just have some issues with had this just falling squarely on her shoulders unless I'm missing something with the negotiation process, I would be a lot more comfortable if the legal committee was involved. DR. Zeman? one second, maybe this will help, can you explain what would go into that, MS. Batista? sure, I would be happy to, through the chair. So, the process is that traditionally we have authorized the chair to do the negotiations with either general counsel or superintendent, you know, with the successful candidate, that person is also represented by counsel and the chair is also represented by counsel at those meetings which the meetings
124also have to be advertised and they are conducted in the public. There is nothing prohibiting the board from choosing more than one person to represent the board in the negotiations in addition to the chair if that's the will of the board but that has not been the process in the past. do you feel comfortable doing this by yourself? I feel comfortable, yes. But if my colleagues disagree, then that is -- I will carry tout will -- out the will of the board. Are you done with your comments? yes. Er DR. Zeman? thank you so much. I'm more comfortable with a non-lawyer negotiating than a lawyer because the legal part of this is pretty straight dward, this is an employment contract and you're going to negotiate four or five things and more than just the tradition
125of doing it by the chair because I think there's some instances where we MAY ask for some technical expertise for people like we did, with screening resumes, and I think that that's a real strength of this board websinger have a lot of people with very diverse experience and is strengths, but it would be important I think to -- for the board to provide their thoughts going into this. Is that -- chair, could we spend a few minutes talking after we finish this motion about just kind of ideas we have about the negotiations? I think it would be a ppropriate to make motionsns about that after this. I I fully support ththis moon, I appriate MS. Alhadedeff for bngnginit. mamam chai the on thing I would say is I have requested walter harvey to represent the
126board in the negotiations and he has agreed. He's spoken to his share and he agree tos do that but I believe the 17th is a wednesday which is a board day for miami-dade, so I'm pretty sure he will not be available on that day and I think that's what the motion entails. Er sorry, DR. See ma rn, were you done with your comments? yes. DR. Lozano? it seems that the candidate and MR. Harvey will both be available in person on friday DECEMBER 19th if that's a date we want to consider. Er do we need to determine that date today? we do not, but I was just making aware the availability of -- I think the only value in doing it today is if you couldn't make that date websinger MAY want to pick somebody else
127because apparently the candidate and their attorney can make it. yeah, no one asked me about my availability that day, I will make myself available as needed. Okay. awesome. MS. Bulman? I support the motion as amended to the date since our chair is available. To MR. Cervera, because we're new, we are learning, sometimes you think that something should happen but we don't know how it's always done, I think that's what's happening here, but I think our chair will do a great job with counsel. MS. Hixon? thank you, and I don't know if this is the right time to ask that question, if you're able to do it on DECEMBER 19, how soon would MS. Bruno be able to start ask the reason I'm asking that is because maybe it would avoid us having to task assign
128somebody. Er so, can I respond to that? yes, please. I mad spoken with staff about the -- and you can all see there is a piece about a task assignment in the script, but we had talked about someone bringing a board item to discuss a task assignment on the 16th so next week, so we can work out with MS. Bruno when she would be able to start and determine if thereafter task assignment necessary. DR. Lozano? thank you, DR. Lozano, chiefs resources officer, yes, so that would allow us to seek out internal candidates who are willing to take the task assignment and then bring options for outside counsel to discuss on tuesday if that becomes a need, the board will have that option on tuesday. so, the reason I'm asking is because I would like the
129avoid having to do a task assignment at all and I would hate to put all of that work into it and then not need to have it. Is it possible to wait until they negotiate and see when the start date would be and then decide if we need a task assignment or not? There's a lot of extra work there that if it's not going to be needed, I would rather not stress everyone out that way. I'm going to defer to general counsel, if the task assignment can begin before board approval. well, from my understanding of the timeline, and I haven't had any conversations with MS. Bruno as to when her availability is to start, how many days she needs to provide to her current employer for them under her contract, I'm sure she has some
130provisions in there, but I would say it would be very difficult to have negotiations which even if they are on the 19th or the 18th, whether they will be completed on that day, number one, so they MAY carry over to the week after or further, we don't know, so I think that a task assignment or an interim general counsel would be appropriate. that's exciting. I'm going to say my preference is not to have an task assignment. if indeed we need to have an interim and I don't know the answer to this question, I think we would be very happy to have MS. Jacques-adams as the interim to continue until we're able o go through the negotiation process. If she's so willing to do that, I don't know if the board agrees, but I think that
131would be a good course of action. okay. MS. Batista, could you speak to the motion, any advice you have on the motion? yes, so the motion, I think it would be better to have no date on the motion because we don't have everybody's schedules, we don't know how many times the negotiations MAY take place in more than one day, so just to leave it open and just grant the authority to the chair to negotiate on behalf of the board and to have those particulars then decided when the staff has had an opportunity to find out all the dates that everybody's available. MADAM Chair? DR. Holness? so, MADAM Chair, since we're not setting a date and MS. Batista is leaving on the 9th, MS. Jacques-adams I believe is in the building, and we don't have a
132date which means we could go beyond the 9th or we could be done by the 9th, would it be -- MS. Batista, are we able to appoint an interim at this point if the board so choose? It's just my opinion, we'll get the opinion of the board, should MS. Jacques-adams be interested, that we'd have to negotiate beyond the 9th, to take on that interim role before you're lever soing we don't leave that open? yes, if the board wishes to make that appointment, but that could be something that you consider today. okay. I just want us to stay on the motion and I don't know that if MS. Alhadeff is willing to amend the motion to talk the date out, so I wanted to stay on the motion of authorizing the chair to negotiate. yes, I
133can agree to take the date out. okay. Any other comments on the motion? MS. Rupert? can you repeat the motion again. I move to xw if authority to chair leonardi to lead negotiations. that's simple enough, thank you. MS. Hixon? okay. all in favor of the motion, say aye. aye. all opposed, say no. Motion passes unanimously. DR. Lozano? so, it was brought to my attention that MS. Baoup w I bruno's contract requires a day notice so we will most likely need to have an interim general counsel. thank you. MADAM Chair? go ahead, DR. Holness? I would like the make a motion for MS. Jacques-adams if she so accepts to be the interim general counsel until we complete negotiations with MS. Bruno. is there a second? I would like a second before we comment further. No one
134would like to second that motion. I'll second it so we can discuss it. so moved. DR. Lozano? MS. Jacques-adams is willing to serve as interim general counsel. any other comments on the motion? DR. Zeman? I appreciate all the sentiment about this, it's an excellent idea. I just don't think it's necessary right now. I think we have time to think about options and to bring things back. To my knowledge, how many school board meetings do we have between nrou and JANUARY 9, chair. one. and that would be next tuesday? I would prefer to wait until then to decide what to do, thank you. any other board comment, MR. Cervera? what's going to happen now and next tuesday? nothing. I know the answer to the question. Let's get this out of the way. At least with the
135vote because I'm hearing 60 days so assuming she tells them monday, right, we're still now into FEBRUARY. It's clear bh MS. Batista is levering, -- leaving, we need to account for this, and we have someone who's exprizedbacker pressed an interest to sit in that role, so I don't see the sense in dragging this on any longer, I think we should get this on record now. DR. Lozano? do we need to enter into negotiations with MS. Jacques-adams for the interim counsel? yes. MS. Bulman? I support this motion, I'm very grateful for the grace that MS. Jacques-adams is giving us and she's willing to serve in this position, I think that will be excellent for the district. And we can go to negotiations, we could find an -- you might not be able to make negotiations. I
136don't think that if I was the employee that I would be giving my notice until I had my negotiations under control so you're looking at quite a bit of time that we will need someone to serve in this capacity and so I support the motion, I appreciate you bringing it and again I would just thank MS. Jacques-adams for being a consummate professional and being willing to serve us as she is. MS. Batista? yes, thank you, MADAM Chair. so it's customary for the candidates to give notice after they have been approved -- their contract has been approved by the other board, so if you don't have another board meeting in JANUARY -- until JANUARY or late JANUARY, that will probably be the date that the contract with MS. Bruno is approved, and so you will need
137someone -- she will give notice at that point and then you will need a couple of mothers so I'm thinking that you will need an interim until MARCH. I have DR. Holness, MS. Hixon, and then MS. Hall -- alhadeff. MADAM Chair, I guess MS. Batista just answered my question, besides tuesday, we don't have another board meeting until after the 9th. I just wanted to ask that question, so I'm good. MS. Hixon? thank you. And just in the spirit of equity, do we know if there's anyone else in-house that was interested in being task assigned because that's the concern. at the time when we asked for volunteers, she was the only individual who stepped up. I want to make sure we're taking everybody into account, so thank you. DR. Lozano, do you have anything else to
138add? our chief of staff can talk us through potential dates or a process to get an interim appointed before JANUARY 9. so, the week of the 6th, there's no board meetings, then we have a workshop on the 13th, you can do a special before or after that workshop. Those are your options and before the 21st. Our board meeting is JANUARY 21. MRS. Alhadeff? I have a couple of thoughts going on. One other way possibly if MS. Batista would stay on for a few more months. MS. Batista? did you hear a second? thank you for the kind request, I am unfortunately not available after that. okay. My other concern is that we're going the wait so long for us to have a board meeting to wait for this. Is there any way to do this in
139DECEMBER? I will make myself available for any negotiations. I guess the question from MS. Batista, the 48 hours, would that allow for negotiations to begin on monday? Saturday, sunday. I guess the other thing we could consider is doing a special school board meeting the 19th. is there five of us at least available in person? this is presuming that the contract negotiations happen on the 18th and are successful, a special school board meeting for the 19th, we would need at least five of us available. So, I don't know if anyone has any thoughts or concerns or objections. DECEMBER 19. I'm counting 6 of us are available. So, I don't know if we need to -- [Inaudible] well, I think MRS. Alhadeff, you were speaking to voting on MRS. Dupuy-bruno's contract, because we can bring the contract
140for the interim on the -- we can't bring the contract for the interim on the 16th, can we, that has to be negotiated too. can you do both on the same day? presuming that the negotiations take place the 18th and they are both successful, if they are not, we can always cancel the special school board meeting, right. yes. the canadian dated is unavailable -- candle -- candidate is unavailable on the 18th. okay. how about the 16th, the chair, you would have to step out of the board meeting but you could technically do that. Er can you have two simultaneously public announced meetings, I don't think so. I guess that's up to general counsel. Er MS. Ba t irs ta? you can, you know, I mean, you're talking away from one of the duties that you
141have as a board member. it's great that we have an excellent vice chair. that's true. MS. Bulman? so, I'm confused about why this is such a rush. so, I believe the concern is that MS. Dupuy-bruno's notice would begin the day we vote on the contract, so if we don't vote on the contract this month, we won't -- the days won't start until JANUARY 21 is our next regular school board meeting, we could special a special before that. Er well, then I guess whatever we can do to hasten the process. You MAY not reach an agreement the first time you meet and there's back and forth, so I guess the quicker we start it, but I still think it might be -- we'll have to be prepared for the fact it will take longer than we
142would like. MS. Thompson? have we discussed with her, her available start date? Because she will be moving from lee county here with a family, I understand, but if she's not even available to start until later, there isn't that rush. DR. Lozano? Wench we have not engaged in those specific conversations at this time. Er MR. Cervera? chair, MAY I inquire from MS. Batista how long it took during her contract negotiations when she last went through this. I think we're being way overly optimistic if we think we're going to negotiate an interim general counsel and a general counsel in one day. In my mind, this is going to go on for week, maybe not, so MS. Batista, when you went through, it was a day's worth of negotiations? no, it was many months because there were several
143different chairs that nested the contract over a period of time, it was approximately two months I want to say, not obviously negotiating -- there were like three sessions I believe, negotiation sessions of a couple of hours each. so, this was a multipronged negotiation, this wasn't you guys met on a a tuesday and by wednesday, you were signing documents? no, normally I would say that mine was unusual because of the change in the chairs in the middle of the negotiations, however, I am going to also share with you that you need time to put the contract together, soit's not just going in and agreeing to a bunch of provisions. Somebody has to actually write them out, they have to read them, sign them, get them notarized, whatever the process is, so it's more than just a
14448 hour kind of a process as I'm sure you're aware. and I'm not sure I necessarily want to go down this rabbit home, for MS. Cart wright. would was before? licata. how long did that take. Er it was a -- I'm talking about -- respectfully lawyers tend to overthink things sometimes, with the last general counsel, would was our last general counsel before you. myrik. how long did that take? forever. it's not relevant. well, there seems to be this opinion this is going to be like a quick snappy thing and I disagree, I think this will be a prolonged procedure. I'm hopeful we can get this done as soon as possible but we're talking about contract negotiations on the 18th and approving something on the 19th, it'sunrealistic and no going haen. We shou lolook ababout tryi
145toto get thesnegotiations done as quickly as possible but trying to navigate board meetings, we're wasting time talking about this. We really r. would you like to call the question then? I believe DR. Holness' motion, are we still on your motion? yes. Er can can we address that first? I have several people on the list to speak. DR. Zeman? thank you so much. I think it's gieng to be great to do this, chair, between the 9th of JANUARY to MS. Bulman's point and the 21st of our next regular school board maoets, could we as k assign somebody to be the general counsel for those 12 days. MS. Batista? yes, you can. so, I think MS. Bulman's point then is really important, why are we rushing? It would be great to do this in regular order and
146look like a board that's moving through a good thoughtful process to get to where we want to go. So, I think dish aoem not sure why we're trying to jam all this stuff together and to MR. Cervera's point, if we negotiate with our general counsel candidate and it does go expeditiously, we would know what to do next terms of task assigned and interim thereafter, so I would prefer to just try and get our next general counsel done, brought to the board and then figure out what o do with the task assigned and interim. MRS. Alhadeff? okay, so I think that it is evidently important that we try to execute the contract for general counsel as quickly as possible, so MS. Dupuy-bruno is available to do negotiations on teams on the 17th and then if all
147goes well, we can then vote at the board meeting on the 19th. yes. DR. Lozano? F you're utilizing wednesday to do the negotiations, is that wednesday, then I do not believe that MR. Walter harvey will be available. Because that's dade county's board meet, we would have to find some representation for the board. can MS. Batista, do we have representation for the board? for the miami-dade board? no, broward county public schools, we have a lot of lawyers. I think the candidate's lawyer is not available because he's a school board rep to miami-dade. he's our lawyer, MS. Batista, would you like to respond to MRS. Alhadeff's -- so, I felt that it would be appropriate for some outside lawyer, you know, MR. Harvey has done it before and he is not charging us anything for the representation.
148So, it would be more appropriate to wait for him to be able to be available. but why can't one of our lawyers do it? well, again, I think it would be a conflict if those lawyers are going to be working for MS. Bruno. gotcha. Okay. MS. Rupert? I don't even know where we are with the dates. we're just deliberating MR. Holness' motion, MRS. Hixon? my question is to MS. Batista, would a day be enough to have time to write that contract as you just mentioned and turn it around, we want to make sure it's right, so again, I feel there's couple of things. I worry that the other board -- lee county is going to want to keep her and up some stakes for her and maybe decide she doesn't want to mover so I
149don't want to give a lot of leeway in that respect but I also want to make sure we're not rushing our general counsel's office to do something that's not -- it's just not feasible to do, so thank you. MS. Rupert? thank you, and that was my point. Up at fsba with several of the current school board members begged to not have us pick their attorney, they loved her that much, so that thought process of, you know, they could sweeten the pot. I don't know, I can't be responsible for that, it's going to be whatever it's going to be, but I think that is a concern and it's a valid concern to think about. I don't know if that will make it happen anymore, yeah, she's very well loved there. okay, and then just so we're
150staying to the motion which is to appoint MS. Jacques-adams as interim general counsel, MS. Bulman? that's the motion. I support that motion. And I think these are all valid concerns but we're negotiating with a potential employee who is ultimately going to make her own decision about whether or not we're offering her what she want and is whether she wants to come, so I would rather do this well than rushed and then you could end up having the exact same outcome, you rush it and she still has a better offer from lee county and decides to stay. I think we need to do what's best for us and make sure we have a good contract, good time to negotiate and all those things and I support the motion to appoint MS. Jacques-adams to be the interim.
151any other comments on the motion? MADAM Chair? DR. Holness? so, I guess my concern is really on JANUARY 9, we have someone taking MS. Batista's place regardless how long MS. Braounbacker bruno's contract take, on JANUARY 9, we need someone here, even though MS. Bruno's contract is priority, I think appointing an interim as soon as we can so when JANUARY 9 rolls arnds, we have someone in place regardless of the timeframe for a contract with MS. Bruno, so I think that is priority in my opinion regardless of how long it takes to get MS. Bruno on board, JANUARY 9, we need to have someone. alright, any other comments on the motion? All in favor of the motion to appoint MS. Jacques-adams as interim general counsel, say aye. Er any opposed, say no. motion passes unanimously. Are
152there any other board members who would like to speak or make motions? I believe MS. Alhadeff would like to at some point. DR. Zeman? I want to express kind of a lot of community reaction we sdsh we ever gotten to our contracts with general counsel and other direct reports as it relates to terminations and pay outs to people for how long they've been. I get a lot of feedback from people about our contracts seem tog the community about being very generous, about severance, it's maybe a government employee's contract because now government employee that is are called superintendent and general counsels make a significant amount of money and to fold in 20 weeks of severance without a significant amount of time in my view of what the community wants, that doesn't make sense, so I'm just
153going to share what I heard back from the community with you, chair, because you're going to have to negotiate this. I've gotten a lot of feedback about our contracts just being far more generous than the private sector would ever be and the community doesn't understand it particularly at times of a 94 million dollar shortfall. thank you. thank you, MRS. Alhadeff and then MRS. Hixon? so, walter harvey is available on 17th via teams between 8 A.M. To 10:45 before his school board meeting. So, I think we should do negotiations via teams and have the school board meeting on the 19th to approve. would you like to make a motion? I move to have negotiations via teams on DECEMBER 17th starting at 8 A.M. And finishing by 10:45. seconds. Er motion made by MRS. Hall deaf, seconded
154by DR. Zeman, any public comment on the motion? Before I ask for board discussion, MS. Batista, is that allowable to have the negotiations via teams? yes, you can have the negotiations via teams. if I MAY, the only thing she would have to figure out is how to -- usually caucus at some point, they could arrange to do that via teams. there's no issue with like that it's a publicly noticed meeting? as long as -- you could be here and then the public could attend and it could be via teams as long as you allow for public -- the public to attend, they don't have to speak but they can attend. got it, okay. Board discussion on the motion? MS. Hixon? thank you, I'm fine with rushing the negotiation part but again and I appreciate that
155it wasn't in the motion that you made, I don't know that bringing it o the 19th is something that we can realistically do, I appreciate doing that early but MS. Batista had already said a day is not going to be long enough for them to write that contract. MR. Cervera? chair, I assume you're available at 8 A.M. That day? yes. second, MS. Batista, do you think two hours and 15 minutes is going to be adequate for something like this? it 2 hours and 45 minutes. it could be depending on -- same question. 2 hour and is 45 minutes, so I mean, it could be. There is no harm in trying and to see if that's sufficient and, you know, even setting up the board meeting for the 19th, if it doesn't -- it cannot be
156made to work out into the 19th, you can always cancel the meeting or at least you're trying to get it done. okay. any other board discussion on the motion? All in favor of the motion, say aye. Er aye. all opposed, say no. The motion passes ewe nan nosily. Any other board discussion or comment? DR. Zeman? to you need a motion to have the school board meeting on the 19th, chair? MS. Batista the or MR. Sullivan? I mover that we at some point on the 19th meet -- that we schedule a meeting for the 19th. second. motion made by DR. Zeman second by MS. Rupert, public comment on the motion? Board member comment? I would like the first go to MR. Assault va n? if you guys can let staff know what time you would like
157us to advertise that meeting. the motion was intentionally not about a time and the chair can work with you about a time. Er MR. Cervera? I loved the 12:00 start time today, I would prefer that. if you negotiate on the 17th, how likely is it that we are going to have a solid contract ready to vote on, on the 19th? I would say it's not likely, not only that, you will not have any time to review the contract because most likely, it would be uploaded on the 19th in the morning. thank you. Is it possible to do it early in JANUARY as opposed to trying to rush it for the 19th? Because staff does work during the christmas break, so they could work on it and maybe that first week of JANUARY because not all
158of us are going to tallahassee. I don't know if it was that week anyway. But maybe we come back -- I forget what day we come back? JANUARY. the 6th. would you like the make a substitute motion. I would like to have a motion to have a special school board meeting on tuesday JANUARY 6 to bring the contract back for us to vote on. second. seconded by MR. Cervera, public comment on the motion? Board member comment on the motion? DR. Holness? MADAM Chair, it's likely that I will not be available on the 6th, so I don't know how many board member ares available, I'm just making it known I likely won't be available on the 6th. okay. Any other comment on the motion? MRS. Hall -- alhadeff. again, I think it is really paramount we
159try to expedite this as quickly as possible. If we don't, we're talking about -- what is it, three, four weeks before we approve this and I just think too many things can happen within that period of time. I believe in our -- how many lawyers do we have in the 2025, 9, our 9 lawyers can get this contract done. let's see. MS. Thompson? my preference would be to wait until JANUARY. I'm also confused about the process for the interim because batista, you leave on the 9th and should we negotiate first with our interim and prioritize that because we are about to lose our lawyer? And then we can in JANUARY -- because we can make a special -- once that contract is approved and have that meeting in a couple of days, but I'm not
160available on the 19th. any other board comment on the motion to schedule a special school board meeting on JANUARY 6? MADAM Chair? DR. Holness? MS. Batista, if in fact a meeting was scheduled on the 19th for like 5 P.M. If the ever wantoning, would you be able to get the contract done in time? that's not up to me, it would be something that MS. Bruno -- I'm sure she will have a lawyer, ne have to agree to the provisions and the offers that are made at the the meeting on the 17th. MR. Harvey, I mean, we help him with the contract obviously through the process, he doesn't have to type it up himself, he also has to review the contract and find the time to be able do that, so I would say that on
161a normal process, that would not be sufficient time to just have it from the -- I understand, but if it were to be held on the 19th, would you say having the additional time at a later in the day meeting at 4 or 5 versus 12 in the day or in the morning would be beneficial? any additional time would be helpful. I have to say in the past, the board has decided to look at the contract in advance, you're not going to be able to have that ability, you're going to have to look at it during the meeting because it won't be available prior to that. MS. Hixon? and does MS. Dupuy-bruno have to review that contract before it comes -- before we negotiate it, so there's just a lots of moving parts. I understand
162wanting to do it early and I don't mind moving up a -- I don't know what it would look like, I know there are dialyses people are working during the winter break time, moving it up in DECEMBER I don't mind only because I will be here, I don't know what everyone else is doing, but there is not this rush. I think the bigger rush is, again, to get the interim in place. I want to do it quickly but I don't want to do it in a way that doesn't meet the expectations that are normal for a contract. and in addition if I MAY, MADAM Chair, the -- not only, you know, traditionally, I'm just going to say it that way, the board has changed provisions on the day that you approve the contract, so just
163because you give authority to the chair, whatever was negotiated at that meet is usually at least one or two provision ares changed during that meeting so that means that MS. Baoup w I bruno would have to be available and the lawyer would have to be available on the 19th to be able to attend at least via teams to be able to have a say if something is changed in the contract. and to that point, I think that kind of makes the other points about the timing a little bit mute because historically we have gone back and forth on the dais about the contract. It's approved, these changes are approved in real-time, so I just don't -- I understand that we want to do things right and historically this is what's happened, so I think I'm
164less concerned about having enough lee lead time between the negotiations and a board meeting because those ththgs happen immediately on the dadais. Ththat eases mmmment. Is there any other board discussion on this motion? So, as a substitute motion to schedule a special school board meeting on the 6th of JANUARY, 2025, to approve a contract. The 26th of JANUARY -- sorry, 2026, thank you. Okay, so JANUARY 6, 2026 to approve the contract, all in favor of the motion, say aye. aye. all opposed, say no. no. roll call. roll call on the motion, school board members alhadeff? no. bull -- bulling? can I ask a point of clarification. This is to move mover it tr the 19th? it's substitute motion, there was never an approval from the 19th. when does school start t6th? geez guys, why this
165day? Yes. I'm sorry, was that a yes? yes. . Er cervera? with reservations. Inger hixon? yes. Er holness? MADAM Chair, I'm sorry, whose motion was this again, who made the motion? MS. Hixon's motion. yes. leonardi? no. rupert? no. tofrn thompson? yes. Er see ma rn? no. passes 5-4. any other board discussion or motions to be made? MADAM Chair? DR. Holness and then DR. Zeman? I want to confirm, the motion -- the negotiation for the interim, when will that take place? I don't believe we've made that determination yet. so, we do have to do that today, wouldn't that be correct? MS. Batista? well, it would be helpful if you found a date to do the negotiations but at the very least, even if you don't do that, you don't need to find a date, what you
166need to do is authorize the chair to enter into negotiations for the interim contract. so, do we need a notion do that? MADAM Chair, imd like -- I would like to make a motion to authorize the chair to go into negotiations with MS. Jacques-adams. second. motion made by DR. Holness second by MS. Hixon, public comment on the motion? new york city ma'am. board discussion on the motion? MS. Hixon? if possible, then maybe we could do both of the contracts on the 6th. okay. any other board discussion on motion to authorize the chair -- MADAM Chair? yes? are we able to find out if MS. Adams is available ton 6th? for the special school board meeting. she works here. she could have plans to be absent, I don't know, I want to make sure. we can
167reschedule if she can't. we're checking. the motion was simply to authorize the chair to enter into negotiations with MS. Jacques-adams. Any other board comment on the motion? All in favor of the motion, say aye. aye. Er all opposed, say no. Motion passes ewe nan nosily. DR. Zeman?Frjts thank you, are we toward the end? I don't hear any other motions coming. I just want to kind of make a comment, DR. Fulton, you know, there are staff preparations for a negotiation like this. I would have hoped that we would have known more about the next sepses after deciding date, we had one item to hire a general counsel, the step ares self-evident, we need to know dates and need to know people's availability, we didn't know that today, I would like the staff to be prepared for
168next steps too, not just the agenda item, for whatever we can forecast after those agenda items. alright. MS. Hixon? I meant to say this this when DR. Seize was speaking earlier. I know in the superintendent's contract, we have some staggered diatheses for when -- if something were to happen, what that payout would look like, so just in the negotiations, I would think that would be a good model to use to his point that -- and really any contract moving forward, it makes sense. thank you. any other board comment, discussion, motions? Before we vote on the item, I would love for MS. Dupuy-bruno to come in and make some comments. Is she available? I'll recess the meeting for two minutes while we wait. (Meeting in recess). congratulations, MS. Dupuy-bruno. [Applause]. We would love to hear some
169remarks. Er wow, this is amazing. So, I want to thank each and every one of you very much for this opportunity. It's really an opportunity of a lifetime because we do not have these chances to be able to lead a district of this size and this magnitude every day, so thank you to MS. Batista who opened up the opportunity and I look forward to really working with each of you, each board member, and seeing what I can do, what my part can be to continue on with your mission to make this district a plus grade, make sure board gets what they need to do their job, to make sure the legal staff needs to do what they need to do with collaboration, respect and accountability so we can do our part in the mission of
170this board and this district, so thank you so much. And I look forward to the next steps in the process. thank you so much. [Applause]. Thank you for considering us and congratulations. Alright. Any other comments on the item? Okay. All of those in favor of approving item 1, say aye. aye. all opposed, say no. Item passes unanimously. [Applause]. As amended, thank you for that reminder, MRS. Alhadeff. Do we feed to select a date for negotiations now, or is that something that can be done after the meeting? After the meeting is what MS. Batista is saying, okay. MS. Batista's last day is JANUARY 9, 2026. I do want to thank MS. Batista but we have a much longer, elaborate celebration planned for her later, so I did want to acknowledge that. The scheduled order of business
171for the special school board of broward county florida is now completed, seeing no obligation, I now adjourn the meeting.