School Board Workshop - Jan 13, 2026

001testing testing one two three. welcome to today's school board workshop. This workshop of the county of broward, is now called to order. Please note the emergency exits. Do not block exit doors and all must be seated except the media. Once the room has reached capacity, you'll be asked to go to overflow area. Thank you for your cooperation. Board member thompson will now introduce her school to wlaed us in the "pledge of allegiance" of the flag. MS. Thompson. thank you, I say welcome to all the students. I'm looking forward to the conversations, we will have. So I would like to introduce the new renaissance cavaliers under principal and a p MR. Perez and MS. Knolles and MS. Mckey. Please rise for the pledge. please stand for the "pledge of allegiance". I pledge a allegiance to the

002fwlag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, ubd%backer under GOD indivisible with liberty and justice for all. you MAY now be seated. Board membering cervera has requested a moment of silence. MR. Cervera. today we paws to honor williams. Dawn's journey with the broward school started 26 years ago. Dawn leaves behind a commitment of dedication and touched the lives of countless students throughout her outstanding career. Her two children are left with an abundance of cherished memories of their now passed mother. I would like to extend my condolences to her children and the school, MAY we find so las in the beautiful memories dawn has left behind. We are so sorry for your less and we will continue to pray for you. Thank you. thank you, as we

003begin we reaffirm our vision 100 percent proficiency for our students. We remain committed to reaching this achievement. Our theme believe, one broward achieve. Before we proceed, MS. Hixon had a point of order. thank you, chair, leonardi. I would like to thank the general counsel is there any law or resolution that speaks to whether or not a school board member can call a press conference during a school board meeting? so, hello. So there are two items that I wanted to direct you to. It is policy 1110 entitled general powers duties and responsibilities of the district school board which is from the florida statutes. And specifically, paragraph ic, excuse me, if, which states school board should practice governing excellence by conducting meeting and conduct school board business and ensure that quorum is maintained. That's just an excerpt

004and I would like you to refer resolution 26-124 articles 3, 4 and 7 which was approved by the school board in its entitire anat in parart ates I will positively -- pardon me, I couldn't read it. I will positively promote the public district schools in broward county. And then it goes on to say some other items. So based on those two provisions, one of which is borne in statute, it's important at least during the school board meetings that all school board memebers are in attendance. thank you. We will now proceed with the agenda. Today's workshop will be in accordance and the board will review the items as advertised and presented by superintendent. Our first item for discussion and as MS. Thompson said our favorite one, student and student quarterly fashion. I'll remind my colleagues to

005keep the questions until the end. I was informed that we have 40 minutes to ask questions at the end. I will now turn it over to staff for a brief presentation. so good morning, school board memebers, DR. Hepburn, to our colleagues across the organization, valerie wanza chief officer, within our division, it's lead by MS. Patty brown who is in the back and we now turn it over to our two amazing student advisor to walk the board and the public through this conversation. And we know that the superintendent will have some remarks as well to thank the parents for ensuring that the students got here. to again to our two amazing student advisors. thank you, DR. Wanza. Good morning, it's a great day when we're able to have students here as a reminder of why we're

006all here. Thank you for creating these opportunities for us. I'm landyn spellberg, we want to start with some introductions. So we'll start with cabinet members, if that's all right and sharing who you are so students are aware. all right, we'll start with DR. Wanza. good morning, I'm valerie wanza, I'm the chief strategy and innovation officer. good morning, students. I'm recommendnaoer thompson I'm the chief financial officer. good morning, simone hollings worth. and good morning, alan strauss superintendent. good morning, I'm mark doreset I'm task assigned chief operating officer. great morning, scholars, doctor dfr good morning, trey davis information officer. good morning, central region superintendent. good morning, I am not chief michael gregory who is not here, I'm director larose a of safety and operations. and good morning, students, I'm your superintendent DR. Howard hepburn. thank you, and

007we'll go to board memebers. one more person. and general counsel. I'm catherine jacques adams I'm general counsel to the board. hi lori alhadeff, school board member. good morning, everybody, good morning to the parents in the background. I'm so glad everyone is here today. Looking forward to the discussion, adam cervera, district 6, and it looks like gavin and sophia, where are you guys? Glad you're here. Looking forward to the conversations. thank you, alan zeman, county wide school board member, thank you all for coming. good morning, students I'm jeff holness district 5, school board member, thank you for being here. We're looking forward to discussion. Thank you. good morning, sarah leonardi, school board member representing district 3. hi good, debbie hixon I'm the other county wide school board member. Really excited to seeing students. I do MISS

008Being in the classroom very much. Thank you to the parents, we're looking forward to this robust conversation. good morning, I representative district 2 gabrielle and dillon. Thank you, thank you to everyone. This is definitely the highlight of the job. good morning, again I'm rebecca thompson I represent 2 two, so seria and lucas, I know you're going to out shine the rest but everyone else is going to be great and I look forward to the conversation. that's what happened when you go last. Right. Now we're going to turn it over to the students and go briefly through the conversation and let the discussion begin. We're going to start with mia go around the daibl. I'm mia, I'm a 9th grade and I attend technical high school. hi my name is ania young and I'm from winter

009rogers education center. good morning, I'm gabriel ringland I'm 12th grade and I'm from Mcarthur high school. good morning, I'm dillon cramer, I'm in 8th grade and I attend apollo middle school. I'm seria and I attend everglades high school. good morning, I'm lucas. I'm -- cleveland, from -- board member. lovely to meet all of you I'm ysabel lopez representing douglas. I'm paulerhart, I go to sawdust springs middle school and I'm in 67th grade. marley gene I'm representing board anderson. good morning, I'm ray nanned land and I'm representing middle school -- good morning I'm gavin and I'm in 129ing grade. I'm sophia madrid munoz from falcon middle school and I'm in 7th grade, happy to be here. I'm nisa from pompano beach high school and I'm really excited to be here. I'm king and I'm representing dear

010field beach middle school and I'm a 7th grader. all right, thank you everyone. So we're going to go through the presentation briefly if that could be loaded up for us. We got questions and I want to make sure that everybody knows how the students were selected. Via canvass as well as memo for principals and sent to all middle parents via -- this went over to over 200,000 people in total with communication. So we want to thank communications for make thating happen. We received 140 applications for students to participate. There was two criteria, or one criteria that students MAY have been externally suspended at any point this year. That is the only criteria, there is no gpa, we want to make sure that had the group here is the most cohesive and representative of the district.

011All students have completed media forms and media relaetses and students who were not selected for today's selection are still eligible and under consideration for the APRIL 2026 session. So we're excited that you're all here today. So we did get some board member discussion topics as well as students. And these will be our three areas of conversation. Academic experience, school climate and student life and resource access. And with that being said, we are going to start the conversation. With our first topic being academic experience. So we're going to start because we started with mia last time, we're going to start with king noah this time. The first question is a raise your hand question, raise your hand if the tests you take at cool accurately reflect what you know and what can do? Okay. So with

012that being said, starting can king noah, what types of test, state district and classroom feel most helpful or least helpful to your learning? I think the most helpful would probably be our languages because if you're learning a different language, and when you learn a different language, your brain gets more advanced. And for least, I think it would be, maybe science cause I don't know, I don't like science. [Laughter] That's it. good morning, I feel like the most helpful tests are the classroom ones. I feel like the content that is taught in the classrooms are more personalized so when you get tested on them, you're expected to know it. But for the state wide test, sometimes teachers don't really have enough time to get through the content so you're kind of left on your own to

013learn the content by yourself. So I would say the classrooms are more beneficial because it feels more it feels more specific. yes, I agree, I feel the most beneficial is the classroom. It's what has been taught. Soy feel the classroom is the most beneficial. again, I have to agree the classroom because it goes along with the curriculum within the classroom and the state wide test I feel like it's a little overwhelming for a lot of people too. So the feel like the classroom ones are a little more personalized. And I feel like it puts a lot of pressure off the students even. That's it. I feel like the better ones is are the district cause you get they get to know what you need help and what things you know and they can move your

014class to get like, to help you. I believe the classroom test are more personalized, they're more specific than what we learn in class. The least less beneficial would be the state wide test. there is some topics or things that we learn in class that we don't go over in a test, we're not requested on. That's it. Thank you. again, I have to agree with people that say classroom test are the most beneficial. Again it's what they taught you in curriculum. And least beneficial is the state wide, they're going off the majority of students and what they know not personalized testing such as classroom. so, I like to mention that in my opinion I feel that all of these tests are helpful to my learning. However when I talk to my peers, the state test, they're

015not given enough material to understand what these types of tests are. When we have classroom tests, you have the material that the teachers give you and study guys. However, for the others, I feel like hard to progress if they're stuck in a little bubble. I think the most helpful kind of test is the classroom test but there is a lot of disconnect between district and classroom testing. And there needs to be more unity flowing between all of them and between advance academic and district amenity classes that they don't fuse well together on state testing, like fast. I feel like classroom tests are better than state wide tests because they help for grade and every single student in your classroom also has the same questions as you. And they, and if you have like multiple classes

016in one day, it helps you learn. Like, that's all. I feel like, classroom testing are more better and I feel like first, like district and regular testing like fast testing is more harder, I have an iep and when we're doing our first testing, it's time and mia come daysings, my school does not enforce mia come daysings. It's hard for students like myself to get time on the test. I have to agree with everyone else who say classroom are more the efficient because it's what you studied and what you've been working on. Where as the state testing is an overall of everything you did and it's like, it's kind of a like show of what you actually learned. So it's yeah. I too can agree, a state and dpift tests feel less helpful, because students really

017feel their results and in a way, it kind of like, there is more pleasure and it can over shadow purpose. And classroom tests dwrekly connect to what you're learning in the classroom. District test, they don't. I'm going to have to agree too. Because when it comes down to the real tests, it does overwhelm a lot of people. So I would agree na class tests are better than fast tests. I will agree with classroom testing being more helpful. Because when it comes to classroom testing, you have the experience compared to state testing when they're combining all the stuff that you just learned and sometimes you don't learn half of it because the teacher has missed days and you've missed tests. all right, thank you everybody. Everybody warmed up now. Knows what is going on. Nobody bites

018around here, we're just having a good conversation. So on to our next question which is still on the testing topic and this is our last question on the testing topic. And we'll start with you, mia, which concern is greater, the frequency or the purpose of the tests? And in simple terms, what we're asking there is it too much testing? Do you feel like you're taking too many test or maybe you don't understand why you're taking those tests? I feel when it comes to this, it's kind of similar when it comes to both, because there is a lot of test-taking now that now once a week you're getting test taken. I understand because the teachers need to understand if you're understanding the topic or not if you're not you're not going to understand the last topic

019because it could con join the topic and you're not understanding it. is would say that it's better to be frequent than consistent so you can understand it better academically. can I skip this question. I would say that when it comes to frequency and the purpose of tests it has to be a little more balance between a check mark and what the teacher needs to know for how much you know, and you don't want to be taking tests every other week and that's a little overwhelming. I think the frequency of testing because most classes don't give you a test like every week or every other week so it's really stressful on students. can I skip the question? I think that in terms of state testing frequency, it's pretty on par and that tracking the student data

020is important. I'm also a student t a, so I see the importance of keeping the data but I think in terms of district mandated or monitored classes, the testing is inconsistent and doesn't have a strong purpose. I feel like that we need to have a good balance between the two behind the test. Of course if you're going to be in harder classes, a p classes, it's expect today have a lot of frequency and a lot of tests. But I feel like if we have a good balance, it's good for the students because we don't have another test the where there is a 100 questions. It's little checkpoints that's where I feel it's better. I have to agree with the people that said there has to be a balance because overall, I think to tests that

021are too close together are very overwhelming for some students. And if there is too much free -- frequency and little testing, that it's not helpful to the students. I don't have to skip this question but I have to agree with everyone else in the room. I agree because the teacher can know what you know and she can know what you don't knkn. I haveve to say r the fruency, I feel that it can be overwhelngng for the student body. Because of course for the students, it's expected for the testing and they're used to it. But for the people who are not strongly in their education or aren't on the level, I feel it can be a little overwhelming for those students, specifically my brother he has adhd and it's hard for him to be in

022a classroom, it's hard for him to be in a situations where it's expected for him to be in a computer. He's very smart, he knows how to adapt to situations so I feel the frequency -- they need a little more personalization than stuck in the classroom all day. I agree that it should be balanced, I'm in algebra and I'm in 7th grade, I feel tests every week. But the greater concern is the purpose because it's more points, then you're more stressed. I think it should be balanced. Thank you. yes, I agree with everyone else when they mention the balance, if it has an imbalance, it can be stressful and negatively impact their performance on the tests. I feel like, the frequent city of testing is more of a concern to people. Because, for example, if

023something was I don't know 100 points, people would be more stressed out about it, other than the purpose. So I have to say the frequency is greater. thank you, the last question on the academic topic. What do you think is more accessible. Think of the classes, the opportunities that are offered at your school and maybe you've heard from some of your peers, this is something that maybe, we would rather have instead of this. So feel free to share those items and we'll start with you, king noah. can I skip? yeah, we can come back to you. okay, so I'm really happy to talk on this topic, because in pom pano high school, they offer a variety of classes, like a p classes. I know some seniors were upset because they wanted the opportunity to participate

024in those. I feel that my school has enough classes and programs that are accessible to everyone. We have high school classes for middle school and we have clubs of like everything. So I feel like we have enough programs and classes for everyone. yeah, definitely because, I feel we do have a lot of academic programs like a Ps, and even the club, even students can go and create a new club. I mean even right now I'm in the process of creating a club it's for habitat and humanity. it's varied across the board. I want to skip. I'm very satisfied with the clubs and classes that we have right now, so I would like to skip. I am also very satisfied with the clubs and academic opportunities at my school. However, personally, I think we could use

025funds for the our main focus such as ecos and debate and other classes now. However, of course I cannot speak on other courses because we, we have a, a plethora of classes and programs. But I cannot speak on concern ones. I feel that somebody that also has a variety of programs and classes. However, I do feel for students that want to move into ace, it's difficult for them to understand the difference between the program and as well I came to school in the middle of a year, without having my parents send emails to our guidance counselor. If you want students that has regular classes or anything higher, it's hard for them because they are stuck in this bubble as well. And if you're not in a class if you didn't come to debate since from

026middle school, it's hard to enter. I feel they don't have enough opportunity for students that just moved in to school. I really agree with that, I feel there is a lot of clap with students that are taking honors classes and they don't feel like they have the opportunity to take others. Ft. Lauderdale, we have the ace agree and cap stone and a variety of clubs and other vocational programs which I heard a lot of great feedback on. People are grateful that there is a lot of verity that they have a choice. But I know that a lot of students have also wish that there were more opportunities for brace and that they're grateful that there is now a advisor. my school really does not have any clubs only those for electived like art and band,

027those are are not club, we have falcon flyers which we sign middle school students to flannagan high school but it's kind of considered a club. We just send them to high school and then they come back like an hour later. That's it. I think the schools they have a wider range of regular classes like let's say geography. I'm from the ik, when I was in the U.K., we had geography, we don't have anything like that. And for electives, we should have a lot more electives. We should get classes that focus on what students want to be when they leave high school or when they finish college and stuff. so at least for my school we have dedicated program for engineering and robotics. So it depends on what kind of school you go to because they

028all have programs. They MAY have better law program or speech and debate. So mainly depends on which school you go to for the programs but my school has a lot of academic opportunities for everything. ?Fm is too am glad to speak on this topic because I feel like our school does not have enough elective and course offerings at our school and especially for a p and ace, I feel like we don't have a lot of those classes. It's kind the basic classes, like U.S. History and language arts. But I would like to see more, so things like obviously, things that student base, student focus, like culinary health science, broader science courses, things that can make students feel like they can want to and it can enhance their student experience but at the same time, I

029do see the problem with scheduling and lack of teachers to address those courses. That's all I have to say. I don't see agriculture of programs of that sort. That's all. I would like to say when it comes to my school, we have a wide spectrum, I go to technical school. So it does help you. You have something, let's say you're in a nursing program, you can graduate as an lpn. When it comes to clubs, we have but it's not frequent. Like they won't be telling you, hey, there is this club, this is the date cause I personally am in hosa and we have not had a lot of meet approximatesing. Especially when it comes to the tutoring, we do have extra school tutoring but me and my friend had gone and we didn't have the

030great experience because there was a kid instead of a teacher, tutoring. I'm not going to say that's bad of her because you're not going to understand every question but I do wish there was better help when if comes to the tutoring. all right, thank you. our next topic is school climate and student life and the first question is what do you think about current dress code policies? And we'll start with mia. This is a very popular question submitted. Although I did try to ignore it t I couldn't, I felt like somebody would come after me if I didn't include it. Go ahead mia. so when it comes to my high school since I go to a technical school mix withed college, we have to wear a polo that has a emblem so they can tell

031the difference between high schooler and college students. But sometimes we wish we had one day where we can wear whatever we want. We do have those days when we go on field trips or spirit week. It does get a little bit boring when we always have to wear the same specific shirt every single day. I'd have to agree with that. It's good to switch it up. I would like to say that I don't think it's being very strictly enforced. We don't have a specific dress code but I feel like it can be more enforced as to you know, no saging pants and this. i feel like everyone is doing it because it's not being enforced enough. I think it has to be more enforced. so my school has a uniform where you have to wear

032a polo and pants or matching like a certain color. And I do feel like it's pretty reasonable but I would like it if piggy backing of what was previously said, to switch it up some days. I think that everglades, we don't have a dress code policy just the one from the student handbook from broward county. But students should be able to express themselves how they want to school. But sometimes you can express yourself too much to how you want to come to school. my dress code at my school is pretty good. People follow the dress code, it's one thing that is stupid is they banned hood he's for some reason but that's all. ft. Lauderdale does not have a uniform so the dress code is loosely enforced. But when it's enforced, it's being weaponized against

033female students instead of straight across the board. yeah, and this is a controversial topic, at douglas we're very free, we don't have a uniform but we have a dress code. I do hear a lot of complaints from the females and girls and how it's more strict on them. They should have a little bit more freeness while a lot of us, if they see a little bit of climb skin on stomach, they will freak out and send you to the office which understand some things are needed but at the same time, I remember my bother came to douglas four years ago, they didn't have the sort of policies. I feel they MAY have to be a little bit more lenient from them. MAY I skip this question? only because you're wearing a suit. [Laughter] I don't

034feel any particular way the rules are enforced in my school. I heard there was a pj ban, you're not allowed to wear pj pans. I don't feel particular way about that. It can become a problem when people want to wear a PJs the club student government association I believe and we want to do spirit week when we can wear PJs for christmas or end of the year things, it can become a bit of a problem we have. You know, clothing like restrictions. I agree with everybody that we should have a special day on a friday where we can wear whatever clothes we want. I don't really have a problem with it, because it's lenient in my school, obviously the boys are saging any genre strixes, I feel like we hold it very well. my school

035doesn't have a uniform but they are strict on their policy. I'm thankful that we can dress how we want. But if we show the belly button we'll be sent to the office but I'm happy that we don't have a uniform and we can express ourselves. I'm glad that everyone mentioned, how, I know some students here they're allowed to dress freely however they want, as long as it's within dress code. And here in my school, they can dress however they want, it has to be within the dress code, for example, no shoeld shorts and can't show your holders. -- shoulders. While I'm happy the dress code is enforced, I have to express the one-sided towards the female. If a female wears a short short, obviously it's not allowed and you get sent to the office. But

036when a guy does it, nobody bats an eye. I hear hear a loed of students, complain that it's their voice not being heard. me personally, my school is a uniform dress code school. So, we have to wear certain colors in terms of polo shirts and we can't wear black on black and stuff. And every school year, like, three months or so, they would have assemblies about that. And, actually, for people who have clubs like me, I'm an ib ambassador, I have a labelized black shirt so I kind of wear black on black. I think my school, is not really strict but it is at the same time. And I think that there is a certain balance to that. So, yeah. I would like and I've talked to other students. It would be appreciated, like pajama

037days or certain days of the year, like winter, I feel like a lot of students would be able to dress up more and participate if for example, PAJAMAs were allowed. Nothing too short or anything, but that would also be really appreciated. all right. Our next question and we'll start with king noah is when you walk into your school in the morning how does it make you feel and why? when I walk into the school in the morning, we have like this patio and it's usually filled with a lot of people. Sometimes when I get there early, it's not that much people but, I don't know for me, I'm not a people person. So I have my set of friends that I go to and I agree with them every day and we talk go back

038and forth. And I even made friends just by the patio. So I love that my school is organized that way. every single morning when which walk into my school I feel completely safe and really excited to learn and just have an opportunity to sit with my classmates and just, sort of just relax. I know it's not really relaxing because we're working but I like how it's not too stressful and at my school I feel there is a balance between academics and also student life, they don't like, overwhelming you with work which I really love and I love the time that students get to have especially during lunch. I think 30 minutes is a good time where you can just socialize and have a good time. when I walk into my school, there is a patio

039where we hang out with my friends. Walking into my school is nice, it's clean, it's pretty. So we have time to talk to our friends d when bellllings we gogo to our clclas I love my scolol. I would be lying if I said I like waking up at 7:00 to go to school but overall I feel safe walking into school. I have no problem. same, I feel safe when I walk into my school. If anybody walks in, they ask for your id. I feel the same way, I don't think I have any complaints. This is kind of a small inconvenience but when I have any laptop and check spikes going through the security, it is not just the inconvenience but the beeping. But that's it. when I walk into my school, the staff does a

040good job making them feel safe. They ask you for your id and 7th and 8th graders have to walk in. And overall, very good beginning to your school year. so I feel like this is only a problem for my school because we're not able to park in the senior parking lot, we have to go to the junior lot but maybe it's a mile walk maybe I'm exaggerating but it's a really long walk that gets us to school. And once you get, you have to take out your laptop and if you're not showing your id at the same time, they will stop you again, to tell you all the way back to the back in the line. Keep in mind this line has 40 students every day. And we only have two minutes. I feel the

041morning is very stressful doing that walk you get exercise but that's a lot. And then you get to class and you get marked tardy. Other than that, everything is good. I definitely feel very safe in my mornings but I say that walking in at this point of school year, if somebody beeps and security professionals at the front can be a lilz rushed. I would not rude but they're committed to safety and if you're not wearing your id, they MAY start yelling at you. And that's not a positive way to start the day, somebody forgot something and their bags are being investigated like if they forgot their laptop. And in the morning our SROs when kids are crossing the code, coming into the school, parents instead of turn iting, they're parking at a green light and

042letting their kids out. And rso does not do anything. There needs to be mormon to goer around the cross walks. when I walk in school or get off the bus we just wait until one of the teacher open up the gym and there is nothing really. I don't really feel anything when I walk in. That's it. That's all I have to say. when I walk into school in the morning, I feel very like, like well greeted by our head of security and our RSOs. i agree with esther was saying, they need to have more SROs or police that come in the morning and watch the outside of the school. There is been plenty times when parents are nearly knocked over by their parents in their car. They should focus on the students trying to get

043into the school. so my experience when I go to school, I feel like I'm just walking into another building. There are teachers and staff helping out with uniforms and making sure you got your id it's just normal other than having to navigate through the halls and everything. I think this is kind of personal for me, but of course with the hassle and the metal detectors, it's very tire some and it's just like, but I feel this maybe just directed to me personally but every time I walk in there, I feel there is always a problem. I have a medical problem, I have scoliosis so it's hard when I have a rolling backpack and the metal detector. That kind of stuff sets the tone for the day and it's not very pleasant, yeah. I just wish

044that there is a way for that go by because it's like an every day thing and it's, the securities aren't very like, they're not very polite in the morning. And it kind of sets the tone for the entire day. So. yeah, I love the staff members at my school whenever I come in the morning, I'm always getting greeted regardless, and even if I'm in a bad mood, they out shine. I would say it's pretty good overall. in the mornings, for me it's pretty, it's okay, it's you have to wake up early but that's the only bad thing about it. And sometimes I could feel like a little shaken up because my school is an open campus and anybody can walk in at any time, because I'm mixed with the college. I feel the security is

045very well because we have not had any problem with people walking on. Coconut creek is coming to our school they're aware of who is suppose to be here and who is not. And when it comes to the school code and id badges because of the open campus. But other than that, I feel like the school is very good. I would like to say I agree with isabela and it comes to taking off your laptop and whatever you have beeping through the security. A lot of kids will have laptop coming to school or maybe, an ipad to help concern classes. It can become a bit hectic in the morning with a lot of kids leaving, not leaving but taking things out of their book bags. The lines are very long. But I will say my school

046a little bit more lenient when if comes to taking things out. I would say at the beginning of the year, we did have a little problem it's not like that anymore but sometimes it causes us to become tardy, getting an id or if your book back was not taken out properly. because you have to wait behind everyone else. and on to what I mention there is no way saying that I don't want metal detector. I am from douglas, I do feel that all of those tardies were a little more lenient. Not to be marked late. Is donough that metal detectors are useful for you. Even if metal detect aor do beep over my eyelash curler. I have that problem too. Just kidding. [Laughter] All right. Byway, I just like to say that it was nice

047to hear majority and there is some things that we'll have to do follow-ups on. But it was nice to hear good experiences that people have in the morning. We want to get everybody there. Thank you for sharing. That's nice to hear. Our last question on school climate and student life, what is the one thing that you wish the school board understood on day-to-day experiences. So this question is considering around policies that the school board would put in place. A cell phone policy, uniforms, tardies, this is the things that you would talk about in this question. Who did we start with? We started with king noah, go ahead mia. one thing I wish that they would understand is because, me, I'm tall, my friends were really tall. So when it comes to wearing shorts at school,

048it could be a little bit of a difficult when it comes to wearing shorts. because the shorts are not going to fit us like if it fit somebody short. Shorts when it comes to me, if I don't get most of my shorts don't fit past my fingertips because of my height. So if I want to find shorts longer, I cannot find them. But other than that h -- when it comes to the phone, I understand it. Sometimes I feel like it can be taken overwhelming but for the most part of it, I understand why they don't want us having our phones because of cheating off topickness. But it's a good rule enforcement. I would like to skip this question. speaking on behalf of the phone policy, I believe that I understand why we can't have

049them, but I feel as though we should be able to have access to them during like say lunch periods, during class, if a teacher MAY allow the stutd enters to have access to their phones at the time, that should be acceptable but other than that, I don't really agree. so I don't really have anything other than than what gabrielle said. I do feel that phones should be accessible and even during your lunch, you should be able to have that time to relax and that's pretty much it. like I was saying with my iep I think it really should, especially at everglades, it's federal document so the teachers are suppose to follow with it. Ever since I've been in the state, I've been here for two years, I came in 8th grade and I'm in 10th

050state. Since I've been in the states, I've had my actual accommodations in place and like actually being, what's the worden forced. I think that's something you should make a bit more light, bring towards the teachers. Not just everglades but all the school in broward county. I don't really have an answer to the question. I'll skip. so I kind of a lot on this. I think that one thing that I want board memebers to understand is that drowning and jargon is really combatic to students. My student representative for sac and I wish more students were promoted this opportunity because it's such a disconnect like how long did it take to come up with innovative learning comments and how much time did that take away from policy that affects students, education hands-on. And then also I feel

051like a lot of school board policy almost criminalized teachers and places fear on content, it's losing site on what is really important and I wish that board memebers understand that corrective policies that are really broad, just cause more harm. I want to go off what sariah said; we had a lot of problems with your, I'm in a club called best buddies so for students that have disabilities, have implemented. A lot of your decisions do affect us, especially students that have disabilities, things like that, we need for them to thrive in school. And another issue is dress code, sometimes students MAY feel that the school board cares more about their shoulders showing than their education. It sucks, that they have to think that way. I feel that my school does a really good job of understanding

052the students needs and education. And I don't think that they prioritize anything over our education. My principal MS. Wesing nndser buzz a good job shaping students, experiences by welcoming them and forming connections with them. I would like to say thank you a little bit. I've seen, you guys have been a little bit more lenient with the wi-fi. I was having a little bit of a problem this year. I was trying to get this duo, I was having a problem signing in because there was no wi-fi for my phone to get the notification for me to get into my canvass. There is also, I did also have a problem with my doing my college essays because we didn't have wi-fi. I didn't have access to my college assays. Because I'm a athlete, I don't have a

053lot of time at home. I do have, I did have a little bit of a problem with my essay and getting it done on time. Thank you. I have no answer, so I'll pass it to the next person. I would say that I do appreciate the phone enforcement but it's to an extent. Because there are situations where there could be shooter in the building. So for some teachers to have a phone wall or basket I feel that's too much. GOD forbid if a situation happened, nobody would have their phones. I feel like a even a phone in the backpack would suffice. The over doing of the phone and wall is too much. I agree, the phone policy, I understand it, its has improved focus in class sxz decreased cheating and more. And students are not

054that scared of being recorded anymore. But at lunch we should be able to use our phone if we want to text our moms without a security guard taking our phones. Or we should be able to have them in our backpacks in case of an emergency. yes. I agree and for the cell phone policies students, sometimes they're notified, for example if they have practice after school and they have let their parents know. Which I feel they can decrease their school performance because for example, sports, they also help mentally which also helps the students. If there is anything that I've been notified about, I can let my parents know within that time frame. And I don't really have a problem not being able to use it during class because I'm there to learn. I don't really need

055my phone for it. But I also understand, if somebody happens. What if there is a school shooting and you have to contact your parents and what if there is an emergency in the bathroom. And I also wanted to talk about the tardiness regarding like metal detector. Yes the metal detectors are efficient however if a stud ept before pu forgets to take out their eyelash curl error their laptop that can slow you down. If you're five minutes away from the bell ringing and you just have to walk through the door. And that person is take iting the longest time of their life, that has happened to me. That can result on tardy, that can impact your attendance. And I would like to talk about resiliency. that's the next topic. So if you don't mind saving it.

056thank you. for me it's dress code, kind of. One time my friend, she had literally the shirt that she is suppose to wear but a different shade and she got dress coded for that. And via pants and, she got dress coded for that. It makes me think, it should not be strict. They should have leeway, it should not be a different shade. They're trying, what if they don't have that certain shade and they only have the shade that they have. They should be able to wear that and not get dress coded. And with the phones, I think they're kind of strict wiwiththe e phphonesbebecaus -- not really because if the announcements, if practice was canceled they would say like on the announcements to contact your parents and tell them that you know p practice was

057canceled. They will a law you to use your phones but sometimes they're non lenient with that, because they would, I don't know even if you had your phone for like, 30 seconds, they would just take it away even if you were doing something real quick. And I don't really like that. But that's it. thank you. we are moving on to our last topic which is resource access. Our first question is which students services meaning non academic aspect of schools, so meals, transportation, counseling is the most impactful and which one needs to be improved. And we'll start with king noah. I think for transportation purposes, the bus is very organized. We have a bus loop and we have, a teacher and there is like a little white boyder, it's not little, it's big. And it shows

058all of the buses from one all the way down, which buses are up there. And I think so that's really good, because sometimes it would take me a long time to go up all the way to the front of the bus loop just to see if the bus was there. They didn't have this last year, they just added this. But I think it's really helpful and I don't think anything should be improved about that. I'll really grateful for the activity bus because before I had my own mode of transportation, before I had my own car. I was heavy on clubs, I stayed almost every day after school and having activity bus pick you up, was the biggest life saving. And I'm really really grateful for the counselor. They do an excellent job if not exceed

059expectations. I can go to them for anything. It does not feel like I'm talking to a higher up, it feels like I'm talk to go somebody I respect and they provide you with the necessary resources that you need to for example, go to college, if you're struggling in a class, they can also help you with that. So I really appreciate any counselors. my counselor are also really good. And our transportation is amazing. The only thing I would try to improve is the meal. Now that they cost money, lots of students can't afford to buy them. And sometimes, the food isn't really that good, I've been told. So the meal should be improved but the rest is amazing. I would say the thing that needs to be approved is is the guidance accessibility. Things that I

060heard complaints from is access of the guidance counselor. I experienced going to the guidance counseling seeing if I can go to class or see what graduation requirements I need to fix. And they're like schedule an appointment, schedule an appointment. And I feel with that school, we have a lot of people that need the help or different opportunities for colleges. So overall, I feel like the accessibility should be a lot more clear to the students even if there is a process out there, where we can email them or simply just schedule an appointment, even if it is out there, it's not promoted, and if it is out there, it needs to be promoted. I feel like the transportation at my school is good and organized. Because when we're about to leave, we sit down in the

061cafeteria and they call each bus and we just go out. I'm very grateful for what we have in my school. I will say, I have not went on many field trips while I was high school. It's not really a big deal but I do feel it, it kind of lessons the energy for lack of better words. I do have to agree with gavyn, I don't know how to pronounce his name with the counsel support. Announcements for things like college which is something that concerns me for my last year of high school. It's hard to get noticed of things that happen. We don't really know much. And things are kind of announced last minute and i find a lot of times for my, for my fellow students not from teachers or counselors for what is going

062on. I'm grateful for my high school when it comes to athletes and how we recover. I'm just very grateful for that. I would say that we need more support when it comes to our students athlete because we don't have a lot of time at home when it comes to our academic. Some students, study halls, we don't always have laptops in there. It's a restriction almost. Not everyone has their own personal laptop to study in the study hall. Thank you. so I can't really speak on meals or transportation, because one, I pack my own lunch. And somebody takes me to and from school. But my counseling staff at my school is amazing. They are very accessible to students that don't have much time and very considerate of how urgent the need is or what they want

063to talk to the guidance counselor about and I really appreciate how well, how good of a job my school has done of making students feel welcome and safe. so unfortunately this is one of the most negative I have about douglas for us, meals everyone has a problem with. I know we're a public school but somebody constantly has problem with the food. Somebody is always saying something gross about the food, unfortunately. and I want to mention guidance. For us guidance is not going well. We do have one teacher MS. Maly but some are not helping us. You will go to them, they will tell you one thing, the next guidance counselor will tell you another thing. It's a constant wrap around, it's easy to get to them and it's not easy to get a clear answer

064from them. Another thing that I want to mention, that counts as counselor services. Students are complaining about how dirty campus is. I know we have 2000 students but somebody always talking about how clean it should be. so for me, I really appreciate how much my guidance department does. It is a struggle. There are only four them and there are about 2400 of us. So I, I feel for them and I understand how much they are under and I wish there was a separation between guidance counselor handling other mental issues because there is such a load on them and they're juggling so many hats trying to assist with not only students graduating and students of different levels but behavioral issues as well. And I wish there was more support for guidance and brace. meals at the

065school can be really -- there is not a lot of options for other people because sometimes people are picky eaters like me. And they, even if they have no food, they have no choice to get nothing or just try the food that they want to have. so that's it. I think the transportation at my school, well is good because for parents that can't pick their kids up, they might be, they might be a night shift. So having a bus is a great opportunity for people. And I think something to do with the counselor that can be improved is that outside of the counselor, they do their job really good. With the guidance counselor, the only time I see them is during assembly. And also with the new students, most of the time when I'm in

066guidance and I see new students enrolling, they don't buddy the student with somebody. So the student is walking around around campus not knowing anybody. Especially if they don't have anybody that they know. It can be hard to find, or triggering, because you're starting a new school with new faces and maybe new to the country and you're pushed into a school just to find a class by yourself with no support. so, I don't really take transportation my parents take me to school. And my guidance counselors are amazing, they're fast and reliable. But I would like to talk about the meals, I pack my own lunch because of how unappetizing the meals taste and now that you have to pay for it, it should be a little more like higher quality than what they're serving at lunch

067right now. I want to say that the meals are superb, nothing wrong with the meals. we have a quarterly student, I believe we have a quarterly meal advisory where as the ladies from the lunch, they come over to address the student leaders as like, what can we do to enhance the lunch experience. Like what can we add that appeal to a student. So it's not very much of a problem. For counseling, I want to speak on counseling, it's not very good in terms of scheduling. I feel as though scheduling is a bit of a problem. Because, I have a friend her counselor put her in, it took her like two weeks to get switched into that class that she wanted exchange out of. I feel as though maybe we can up the timing of getting

068something into and out of a class perhaps. I don't really have a problem with that, because I had my ace coordinator but I can speak for my students that have those four counselors that we have to rely on. So that's all. I would say for the meals, it's definitely not appetizing. I don't know if you ever watched matilda but it reminds me of the slop. At my school, the counselor, they give you a direct line, they tell you everything that you need to know. I feel like my school when it comes to transport atesing, they're very well with it. We do have a lot of buses. Especially when after school, we do have an activity bus which takes you to your closest school which I think is very good. The meals at my school, it's

069a little bit different, because there is the meals that the school provides and the meals that the culinary kids make. That one you have to pay for. The kids go with that. I usually go with that too. It very good. Counseling, I have no issues with it. There are some staff members that give you attitude, you can just be in the morning or they can see you going into your back pack for the id and they will yell at you to get your id, and they yell at you. They give you a lot of attitude, it's so early in the morning that they're yelling at you for something you're already do. thank you. Did you have something else. I forgot to bring this up, but ysabel brought it to mind with the food. Unfortunately last

070week, I caught food poisoning from one of the food trays, which was french toast which I was happy to have. I know a lost kids don't eat outside of school, they will have one meal after school. It kind of sorrows my heart a little bit to know that the kids that are not able to pack food after school, they have access to food that poisons them, you know. Thank you. we are running a little bit overtime so I'm still going to ask question number two which is we're just going to do a raise your hand. So would you recommend your school to another student. Raise your hand if you would? Okay. All right. For, you can put your hands down. We're going to move on to your last topic, which is safety and security just

071as a reminder to the students and public staff are aware. Every student was provided a box on nr sheet of paper to write school sp ef comments in an effort to make sure that any specific issues are not brought to light publicly but as always I want to thank tt safety and security preparedness team for jumping into action right away after these discussions to address it. So the students are more than welcome to share it on their paper but when speaking about safety publicly we'll be talking more in generalities. For high school students what safety measure should be put into place? For middle students do you think metal detectors will be beneficial? We'll start with mia. when it comes to my school, it feels like it does not meet that much. Maybe high school students

072they should have more awareness. They should have like a security guard by the game just to make sure that like they could just be, hey a college student, it can be like a little bit difficult when it comes to that. Cause we did have a little issue with like somebody coming on our campus but they were able to handle it. But other than that, my school is pretty good when it comes to safety. same here. I feel like the more comprehensive approach would be enhancing, visibility because I feel as though, especially with with the security, I feel like there is not, a lot most of the times, they're not there. I wish we would raise visibility. so I don't think metal detectors are necessary for my school. We have not had any issues with like

073people students or any staff members coming on. And that's pretty much all. I think that we should have like in the morning when everybody is going for their metal detectors, it can be stressful. So I think you should look into having like something where you scan the id so that you can, kind of so, I don't know how to explain it but you just scan it and if it beeps you're suppose to be in the school, if that makes sense. I don't think metal detectors should be at my school. If they put them in, they would not really do anything, because, at my school everyone kind of just, yeah, I don't really know what to say. is honestly wish there were additional metal detectors, I know they're expensive and they're split between the main entrance

074and bus loop. But we have a front office and you have to go into a gate and into a gate around to the front to get to the main gate if you're coming in through the senior lot and I wish that was a little bit easier. right again, we understand why the metal detectors are in place. I do wish that were higher tech and they did not beep at any metal. However I would like to mention, that we don't really see a lot of security officers around in the campus. Sigh say you walk out of the bathroom, a lot of teachers make us leave the phones. D I like the e idea that sariah gaveve with the bar code. I have seen a lot of students start to go without their id and somebody else's

075id. I feel this is a problem, who knows, some students like on tik tok, you see they bring their friends from other schools, and they just give them their id, who knows what can happen. I really do feel that they're helpful to us. I do not think that metal detectors, if implemented would be beneficial to my school because that would improve that my security isn't doing a good job. And the security, staff, the security staff at our school does a really good job. They patrol all hallways and honesty, they do a very good job to keep keeping the student feel safe and comfortable in their own environment. I do have to piggy back off isabela again whether it comes to adding more high-tech security, I don't know if I'm allowed to talk about substances? There

076is, students are still able to go through them through metal detector. They do get caught for it. They usually hide it on their body. I don't personally like the smell. I think for middle school, I think that medal detectors should be like, they should put one on every middle school. They make kids feel safety. I feel like the metal detectors are efficient with keeping the safety in the school. It's like a double edge sward. If they use it during class but it's good for them to have it for safety concerns. So I don't know if it's a impossible for anyway around that for somebody to have it on their person just in case there was a crisis while I'm in the bathroom because that's an unfortunate situation for anybody. I believe that my school should

077have metal detebt ors, even though I feel very safe. My school is next to cypress, so we feel safe and nothing bad has happened since they have it. But maybe we can have it so we can increase safety. But I feel very safe. yes, I totally agree with everyone who mentioned metal detectors and I also jotted down some notes. My school makes me feel very very safe, they do an amazing job ensuring that everybody has their IDs. There is random id checks. If you're in class, mia my assistant principal will ask the teachers to ask for id. And there is security guards on the first and second and third floor so if you have any help, they're always available which I really appreciate and they're also very friendly. And I love the safe spaces dedicated

078in every single room in the classrooms. It's kind of like this little house and then there is people under it. I love how, they're not, they don't actually make direct contact with the windows. And it makes you feel like this is a safe place that I can go to in case there is an emergency or any unfortunate events happening in the school. And I also like the see something say something, I love it so much. Because in my school it's actually enforced. And I feel like a lot of students take it, they don't play around with it. Especially when it comes to mental health. If somebody is feeling low or they're afraid to talk to somebody. There is a stress room in my school. It's incredible, I really appreciate it. for me, I don't think

079we should have metal detectors because, I've heard a lot of people say, bad things about the dress code and phones, so I think if there was a metal detector, it would just be more of a a regous matter and it would not be very pleasant to my peers. That's it. and one more thing I would like to add for the substance top tick, I think that's true. At douglas we have a problem with that. When going to metal detector, they're not going to detect my vapes but my eyelash curler. I feel that should be enforced having some sort of check to find those types of items. all right. Well, I want to say thank you to all of the students who came today. You all shared really valuable feedback. I want to thank jaecier over

080here. I tried to get him to talk but he was taking notes. It's important that we provide a report to DR. Hepburn after this session. With feedback that we hear from students but also the feedback that they hear from you. Please note that everything that was said today, will be addressed in an after action report. So thank you to jeacier who made that cam. And thank you to the school administrators that got the students here today. There is a lot of logistics that went into this. And with that, I'll turn it back to you MADAM Chair. okay, before that, we will go to discussion. I have john bird. Either one. Speaker: good morning I'm dan bird and I'm the ce of speak life and bullying. For more than 25 years, our organization has lead bullying

081prevention. We have created spaces where students can speak about bullying and suicide prevention. We reached thousands of students with the current focus on south florida secondary schools. Our national ly acclaimed films. Q & a. We began working in broward through a partnership of xhaous peace serving ten schools. This year we're serving an additional ten schools renewable for three years. To date we reached more than 15,000 secondary students and thousands more to come. Last week during a q & a at a broward school, a student spoke in front of her peers and shared that they had planned to end her life. And planned to do it that weekend, she said the fill P.M. Made her pause and made her realize that she there were things that she wanted to live for. The staff got her care.

082Other students came forward with other struggles and also connected to support. These moments build empathy and resilience and save lives fpt a broward high school teacher told us that students have been dis engaged and after seeing the film and learning about our 23 lesson plan said this captured student attention and conversations that we need to be having. Resiliency standards and currently being piloted as long term option. The data we collected is being evaluated through our partnership where another florida district over 86 percent of students report motivation after viewing the film alone. Our work in broward is strengthened with choose peace, behavioral health leader cynthia and kimberly young. I kernl want to thank them for the commitment they bring to this work and I also want to thank this board along with superintendent and staff for

083your leadership and for always meeting the needs of student particularly around mental health. I would like to invite each of the school board memebers to attend one our upcoming assemblies to see impact firsthand. We'll be in tallahassee later this month and I would like to see you there as well. thank you and I hope we can get information for the board memebers to attend as invited. Board member comment, I have MS. Hixon. thank you, and first I just want to say thank you so much for coming today and for being very honest. Very professional and we appreciate the feedback. You are why, you're the reason why we're here. You're the reason that we do what we do. You're the center of what the school board is about. So it's really these meetings are really important

084for us and I think it's important that you know that the superintendent is here and listening to what you're saying. So things will happen that can happen quickly to make changes that you brought forth, sometimes it's a little slower but I do want you to know that we take very seriously what you said. So I just want to go through a couple of things, you know, through academic experience, it was very good to hear most of you saying, you feel like you have the classes that you would like. There were a couple of students that said they felt there were not very many options at their school. And I would encourage you to speak to your administration because often times you can go to the administration and say, hey, I would really like to have

085this course similar to what this, I forgot, I can't see his name over there, next to sadie on the end, you're saying you were starting a habitat for humanity, thank you, gavyn, I cannot see the corner there. You know you can go to your administration and ask them, most of the time, you'll find that if you have a teacher that is, willing to help you out that you can find that there. And I just want to say, we also have amazing sea taste, so if you're finding that you don't have a lot of elective at your school, talk to your administration because we do have them available. They MAY not just know that students are interested in having them at their school. So that was really important. Interesting to hear about the dress code. So

086I somebody said something to me before you care more about what you wear and what time we get to class than our mental health. And that struck home because we spent a lot of money on mental health and it does not come through. But some spft reason that the dress codes and tardiness are in place we're trying to prepare you for what it looks like in the real world and you have to be on time to have a job and you have to dress a certain way. We see a lot of charter schools that they all have dress codes. They all wear uniforms and we're using a lot of students to that environment because people have the perception, it MAY not be true but perception is reality, that you behave the way you dress. So

087if you go to school in your pajamas, you're not thinking of it seriously. Think about covid, you didn't get to dressed to go to school and what happened? Everybody is playing op your phone, looking at the ceiling. You were not really engaged. It is one of the ways like when we asked you how do you feel when you walk into school. When you get ready and dress in the morning a certain way, it puts you in a mind set of what you're going to be doing for the rest of the day. So if you look at it in that aspect, I hope you understand that it's not about we're trying to catch you to not see your belly button or your shoulders are showing, it's about preparing you about what is the expectation when you

088leave school. So I just wanted to address that. I love that most of you, feel really safe and happy when you walk into your school, although it MAY be early in the morning as some of you mentioned. But that really speaks loudly to the administration and to the staff that is in your schools, that they're there for the right reason and they're there to make sure that you're successful. Really, really glad to hear some of the what do you want the school board to know. And I want to point out like something that maybe has not gotten out. We did change the cell phone policy to a -- allow cell phones at lunch. With the paf yet that middle school are not allowed to use their cell phones at all. That's a state law that

089came into affect in JULY of 2025. But we did as a broward school board body change it so you can use it at lunch and you can leave it in your back pack on airplane mode so in case of an emergency, you would not have to take the time to turn it back on and stuff. We're cognizant that we're ground zero for something that can tragically happen and you do need to have access. We need you to know that really intentional in the way that we wrote that policy. So I hope that a leaves some of the concerns. And if you're not allowed to use it during lunch, you MAY want to talk to the administration we did change that policy. I have a concern superintendent, we heard a number of times that not everyone

090has laptop and I'm pretty sure that we approved a contract to make sure that that was important. So I just want you to look into that. we can answer that question right now because it's a phased rollout. They started with some high schools and middle schools and elementary schools. So MR. Davis, can give you a quick update, they're coming your way but he can give you an update on the rollout. is he going to do that now? good morning, trey davis chief information officer. I'm glad you mentioned that. Thank you, MS. Hixon, DR. Hepburn. We still have 1-2 ratio of devices. We're decommissioning devices out of warranty. We have a full on pc refresh at the moment. And DR. Hepburn mentioned the deployment so by the end of JANUARY, around the 23rd time frame, we'll

091complete our phase one of the refresh option as well. With regard to the number of devices that we have in our schools, we will look into individual school cases because we do have enough laptops for every student through our replacement ratio and replacement program. thank you. Also, DR. Hepburn, if you would, we heard a couple of times about some of the distress of metal detector and changing their feeling of walking to school on things that really can't be changed rolling backpacks and things of that nature. So maybe if we can look na, that would be great. I was, a magnet coordinator, I did schedule changes to just to answer that question, sometimes it does take a while because the classes is at its capacity and you cannot just move somebody into the class you have

092to wait until numbers shift out. So don't blame the counselor too much. And I hear you about the food. Impart of the wellness committee and I have to tell you that we talk about stud tent lunches every single time we meet. And this past summer, really excited that our food and nutrition went out and had students test some of the food and give feedback. So I hope that in some of the schools that you're seeing, that, you know, the results of that, that they did hear that they want more options. That people are vegetarians and they don't just want salad. We continue to hear those concerns. But I want you to know we continue to work on it. So if you want to send an email with suggestions but keep in mind, we're also limited

093by the fda on what we can serve, what kind of spices can be in there, there is sugar content and all of those things to make sure they're based on good nutrition. But the food is important, because as you mention, if you don't if you're only eating at school and it's not food that is appetizing, that's a problem because you're not going to be learning as well as you could. I appreciate the feedback buzz I say on big items that you can have the stronger voice on, there is student advisosothat ts on ththwewenessss comtteeee soso ifif you cacan maybe share with landyn or if he can share that person's names. They have options to come to the meetings to bring those suggestions to us, because I think having edible food is really really important. And

094I just want to end with again, thank you again for the honesty. I love, kids have no filter and that's a good thing, because sometimes you need to know the honest truth and that's why we've asked you to come to share with us today. Thank you for bringing all of your thoughts and concerns. thank you, MS. Thompson. thank you, chair. Thank you all for coming. I would like to make and MS. Hixon's already touched but there is a difference between what we can do as a board and what the state is doing. So I think esther brought up that teachers are often feeling attacked by the school board and a lot of that is because of state policies that are coming down from tallahassee that we have to serve as a buffer while being in

095complete compliance with the law. So I think what is important and imperative for not only students and community members is to bring these concerns to tallahassee to your state legislatures and that's something that I'm happy to help facilitate. I know landyn is looking for stud inter voice to see really represent the true experience. And I think your voices can make positive impacts. And you can see that when last year, the state legislature, was trying to defund a lot of our ace programs and the way the reason they did not do it, is because enough students and parents called them and basically said this is idiotic, why would you do this? So while you MAY feel like we came to the school board and they're not doing what we're asking them to do, some of that

096is because we're limited and the actions we're able to take. But a lot will be in complete agreement with your statements and I know that we try our best to support every teacher and staff and students that we can and really serve as a buffer and some of the legislation that was passed over the past few years especially. We fwhaoe to be mobilized and make sure that our concerns are going to the people that can make changes on this. And then, MS. Hixon covered the cell phone policy, unfortunately there is nothing that we can do for middle schoolers that's state law. I kind of wanted to get some feedback. As board memebers we have a unique opportunity to provide students with more, to do student initiatives about how to get your voices connected. To do

097internships or fellowship. and I want to see what you would want your peers would want if that's a board member. I know some MAY do principal roundtables, would you like to see a school board member coming to your school and doing a school lead roundtable. Or a phone call. What would you like to do to make sure that your voices are being heard by us where it's not in this forum where etcher is watching you. Take it away students. anybody have thoughts on that? We'll start on this side, we'll come over. um, I would like a survey. Is would like like one or maybe like a group of school board memebers to come and. Bers to come and -- I'm glad you brought this up. You guys being able to go in the schools, look

098at how the environment is like would be enriching to you guys and also reassuring the students that hey, we're not being shutout and you do actually care. The fact that you're here let's us know that you want to make things better. That's how I feel. Thank you. so I level agree with what they said and it was the internship. And internship possibility would be great for all students and to have it advertised. I feel the reason that many people didn't apply to this specifically was because they didn't know about it. When I told anybody, they were like what are you talking about. And to have a board member come to our school talk about our issues will make us feel understand. so I feel very very deeply about this. Not only am I a member

099our sac but I represent the chair leonardi. I filet -- fill a lot of positions. DR. Licata came to our school one time. Our school has an invested interest making sure that students become teachers and the importance that they have in society. And programs that reach out to students, I lovelandyn so much, they've been so helpful in communicating student issues but a position like theirs is not something you're hearing about unless you're in the know. And the opportunity for students to be involved is the best opportunity that this school can give. go ahead. I personally like to say piggy back of king noah, I like the idea of doing an survey that you can come to the school and like, just like say what are questions that you have. Or concerns that you have about

100school or the school district in general? What can we change or what can we do better. I'm only one person I cannot talk for multiple other people. People have different mentality about what is going on. I'm sorry, I just want to say, I think there was a few weeks before we got an email. We had an a anonymous survey of things that we had to improve. with the way we want to say that, that we've been very thankful for. And I just want to say thank you for having that. Because we had a lot of things that we wanted to talk about or we didn't feel comfortable talking to the administrative school about. I would just briefly say, I say you have to see the students in their elements. Come to their football practice, soccer

101practice, even come have lunch with us. That's the most authentic we then perspective, seeing us there and actually being us and surrounding us, it shows hey, I'm here to represent you not just the adults but the students as well. thank you. And I would like to give a shout out to landyn and jea cier because they did survey. I don't like to get credit for things I did not know. MS. King noah, can you thinking more of a specific like school base one? So you get to see? I think there might be some, some issues with the district and everything is kind of convoluted and you cannot hone down on a school? Is that your thinking is to have a school base survey? , I'm a guy. oh I'm so sorry. I'm thinking in general.

102In general, like. Just anything. You know. okay. Thank you. And then, that is all I have. Thank you chair. thank you, DR. Holness. thank you, MADAM Chair. So landyn and jeacier thank you for bringing a group of students and for your efforts. I would say, the kids have been wonderful. Let's give them a round of applause. I think they did great. And I will try to make it quick, MADAM Chair, I know there is a lot of board members that need to speak. There were some concerns. And when student express concerns, I love when the students come and I look forward to this. Student give you a perspective that is always genuine and pure and there is no pure. They want to get support and help. : as far as the, the benefit of state

103wide testing versus classroom testing to students. And it appears that there were concerns regarding state wide testing as to content acquisition, and being able to perform well on the state wide test as opposed to classroom test which is based on classroom instructions and more easily to prepare for those assessment. So DR. Hepburn, how does the district ensure that knowledge acquisition as it pertains to state ride test is more meaningful. It seems that the student feel that they're not as prepared for that and as far as, as far as benefit to them, they're not quite certain. How can we as a district better prepare students to gain the required knowledge to perform better on state wide test and have a better sense of meaning to it? thank you for the question, DR. Holness. We teach to

104the students which those assessment. I understand the frustration and difficulties when we talk about an assessment in trying to assess you in what has been taught throughout the whole school. I know many of the teachers, because you're going to take assessment. But confidently, if you're taking a state assessment for specific state assessed course that teacher is teaching the standards that are going to be assessed at the end of the school year. Now all of those standards are not often assessed but we teach all the standards that are required throughout the year but all of them MAY not be assess. The unfortunate part too is na many doors that you're going to walk through are going to require a test to get through, all right. Sat. Act, l sat, a lot of other assessment to get

105another post secondary realm, if you want to be a lawyer o a doctor and things like that. I know many of our schools also help you with testing strategies, because you're going to have to face a plethora of assessment beyond high school. So we teach at standards that are going to be assessed and often times, they're not going to test. we try to help students to catch up with things that they learn. thank you, DR. Hepburn. What I would strongly suggest because I did observe that there are concerns but anxiety in terms of these standardizing testing. Any effort in that regards to reduce anxiety as far as prepreparation for these tests would be important for our students. So there were concerns mentioned regarding the frequency of the testing and how this MAY impact especially students

106with disabilities and different challenges? So DR. Hepburn, can there be some sort of and I'm not sure what the right approach is, but can there be a research done to determine if credible research suggests that increased testing, frequency rather negatively impact students with disability and students with different challenges. And if so, can you also come back to the board to tell us what we can do as a district to alleviate some of the issues that MAY impact our students with disabilities? so I know DR. Cohen is back there taking notes. We also have a workshop forthcoming if it does not get bumped, I think it was moved to FEBRUARY to discuss with board of assessment. To provide feedback and input to see how we can adjust our assessment or testing strategies, school base, district base,

107we cannot influence state base. But we have an opportunity to address any changes. I understand, I want to thank gabrielle, I believe gabrielle mentioned that she, like some students MAY have certain medical condition that makes it difficult to stand in line for a while, you mentioned scoliosis, I did look on my phone to determine the kind of effect of scoliosis on an individual and it seems to be quite pronounced as far as the impact on anyone. So for a student to stand in line with a certain medical condition waiting to get through an metal detector, that can be a problem. Can we identify those types of students and have a priority pass for those students that they don't have to wait in line through the metal detectors and also can we get feedback at a

108future date as to any specific date where students are still waiting in line, because my understanding is we had recommend deed that problem. But if isolated schools still have that problem, can, chief gregory, identify those schools and ensure that we reduce the time fwraim for which students go through the metal detectors as well. yes. for the priority pass, is that something that is doable with students that MAY have to wait. I I have noted the concern and I know MR. Larose a is here too and we'll see what he can do to alleviate that problem. I know chief gregory will get the schools to accommodate. I understand and can you bring the information back to the board. I have a couple more things and then I'm done. For guidance counselor, and timeliness of access, so,

109DR. Hepburn, I'm not sure what process we have in place but if a student should make an appointment to see a guidance counselor, is there a time frame that is, that is maximum time frame to which that guidance counselor would have to respond to the student. Can there be a 24-hour period to which that guidance counselor should see that student if it's not something that requires immediate attention. I don't think we have a standard sop across the board for those types of situation. I know danny shao pi ro and his team is in the room. For me p the school counselor issue is the largest issue I've heard here accessibility, and then even if you have access, the knowledge to be able to support student academic needs and other needs. I know his team will

110get together and work with the school counselor. It's great to hear that information from students and so that people understand what the real concern is and then come up with a strategy that is supports the overall system, as far as every school and then have the schools work with to address unique needs that they MAY have. Let's give that team time to absorb some of this feedback and say, this is real, this is what students. So we need to address this. and I just need support from the board when it comes to push back, we know how that goes. There is push back but we're asking within your job responsibility and make sure you're successful in that also. so you'll be able to bring that information back. And I strongly suggest that whatever the plan

111s that there is some time frame to which counselor respond to students that you cannot just be open. So hopefully there is some deadline and lastly, I would like the stress room for students. I believe, nieca, did I say ththat crectly. Shshe thought th the stress room was very affective. I hope that all our schoolsed will be able to implement a stress room for students. I think that's a great idea. I've seen that for staff as well. Staff can use it too. in deed. right. Thank you all so much. I appreciate it, thank you students and I'm looking forward to the next discussion. Thank you. thank you. MS. Bulman? tuz, chair. Thank you, chair. Thank you everybody, I love hearing all your feedback. It a helpful. I have a lot of my personal children but

112it's nice to have everyone from across the county to see what is going on and the varied opinions that everybody has. I appreciate that. that helps us do our job. I will not talk about things that everyone else talk about. But I did hear you say notes and I'll address that. I have two questions that I wanted to ask you guys. So one, one is from the feedback about. Testing I know. We talked about that a little bit. But, based on woo you have said, do you, when you said that you appreciate the tests from actually from your classes versus the standardized test. I was happy to hear that. I was wondering, do you feel that you're learning independently and the subject matter that is being taught. Or do you feel like it's a great

113attention being put on having to take a standardize test at the end of the year. Like basically, my question is, do you feel like you're being taught or do you feel you're being taught the material in your classes, because there is a difference? Does anyone have any feedback on that? is file feel like especially when if comes to e O.C.S instead of making it like a class, it's a test you have to pass. But, mostly when it comes to the e O.C.S I feel like that. But when it comes to normal language arts classes, I don't feel like it. But it's mostly with math and science too. anyone else? so I feel like teachers prioritize, instead of taking a little bit more time. If the class did not do good in this topic, going back

114to it. Instead of taking the extra time, which he no isn't like a lot but to stake that extra time and fix everything that we need to know. Rather than prioritizing just everyone getting the test are all the material. at this. so I never felt like my classes were preparing me. But I do know that a lot of my friends na had to retake it multiple, they struggled a lot with that, because they were not taught or not helped afterwards. It's just like they will push you to retake and retake rather than help you in any way. Most of the classes don't set you up for that h.E O.C., I feel they teach you the normal material and you will have a test at the end but for standardize testing, there is not a lot

115of help. I feel the same way. This year I'm taking it's U.S. History class. And I have to take the e O.C. A lot say because it is such a broad spectrum of U.S. History and it's not what the normal U.S. History class would be for high school class, we don't really really go over the toll ikz. I know the teacher is more professor but it does cause a lot of other issues for kids. Students don't do well in the e O.C. And it's a concern. thank you. so I feel like it's both. They want us to get the material but they also want us to pass the test. So a lot of my teachers, they would give us classroom tests, topic tests, just tests on basically, anything towards what they learn what we learned

116since day one or what we learned from that whole topic. So based on results, they would either go over it, most of the time, they will go over it again and they will explain thoroughly and go over the questions and stuff like that. And I feel like they want, they care about us enough to want us to get the material instead of just, focusing on the test. great, awesome. Thanks for the feedback. I also wanted to add in my school, it's sort of mixed, because especially in a p classes since I'm taking like four, it's not the big deal but still the majority. Since we over prepared for the exams, it kind of covers the standardized testing. And the teachers as they're teaching for example an a p lit as we're writing the essays, my

117teachers are constantly going over the criteria. So I feel like we're meeting it. My concern is s I feel like not every single school gets to cover those topics and it's an unfair balance that some schools cover this and while other schools are struggle to cover and complete it in time. before second quarter, I thought it was just to teach the material but now since third quarter has begun, I think that they're trying to teach us on woo is in the e O.C., so now they give us and they give us material and they say it's going to be on the e O.C. thanks guys for the feedback. Just something that I wanted to know for a broad spectrum not just what is happening in district one. I appreciate the feedback. And I have one

118more question for you guys. So I represent the school board on solid waste which is a group of most of the cities in broward county that are trying to work on solutions for our solid waste problem which is is garbage that we produce and where we're going to put it and how we're going to deal with it because we're having, I have a stat for you guys. In broward county we produce 10.6 billion pounds of waste per year and that's a. We have to come up with other solutions and work together. My question is, what initiative or what do you guys think would help to get students involved at your schools and addressing on environmental concerns like recycling and composting are two things that we're working on. And actually, broward county schools produces the most

119organic waste in the county. So it's something that we have to address as a school district and the only way that we can do it is with buy in and support and interest. So I was wondering if you had any, any ideas about how we can engage the kids at your schools to help us with this? Because we, honestly, if the kids believe in it t I think that the adults will follow p.I think the kids are the most important part of this puzzle. well I kind of think, based on my school we only have so many garbage cans located around the schools. The next one is like a mile away. So implementing more garbage, even outside of the school. Every morning I see the ladies outside of the school picking up the garbage and

120stuff. There is no garbage disposal near by. So it's like, I think we should add more waste to to help that problem. and how about recycling bins, do you think students would buy in? yeah. but we have to educate them. yeah, buzz that's my main thing. -- but that's what my main. I'm going to talk to you separately about Mcarthur. we don't have any recycling bins at our campus. And also to be able to talk about those things and start initiative like different flyers ob be able to talk about the assembly. Some way that we can get the information out throughout our school would be a great idea. thank you. I'm happy to that we brought up that topic. Students would be willing to help. I know a lot of students don't have their hours

121to graduate so they can help, whether it comes to trash distributing. I think they would be happy about that. it like service hours, when it comes to participating. yeah, I would say it's very good to implement within the clubs even. I know it's a mandatory thing, we have to have two or three mandatory campus clean ups which is really good. So with you implementing the recycling bins that would be really good. I feel that would be a very good way of promoting and separating the recycling. thank you. in my school there is a recycling class. So sever friday, they recycle from every class. So yeah, they tell us about recycle and they did a presentation a few days ago, about how we should recycle and help our planet, that's a really good way. thanks. yeah,

122I really agree with isabela and marley as well. In my school we have environmental club that what na basically did every single thursday we would recycle go all around the school, first floor, second floor, third floor and go door to door to the teachers and grab the recycle and put it in their designated spots. However since I was the PRESIDENT Of the club, I realized that a lot of students didn't know how to recycle. They would throw things things that you're not suppose to be flowing in -- throwing in the recycle. I think there should be sort of educate people on how to recycle especially on our county. And I also saw on the headlines while I was watching, like B.C. Ps news, that some schools when there is left over food for example, apples,

123they have a compost and in the schools they throw into the compost. Or if the apple has not been untouched, ne hand it to students and they can eat it. I loved it. That should be implemented and you can use that soil to plant a butterfly garden that would be beneficial and that would also sort of knock two birds with one stone, taking care of the left over food and also how to beautify our school. For example, as gavyn stated his school has two beautification projects and in my school as well in ls and environmental partnered together to do a beautification product. Sure it was not like the biggest thing but we used to clean windows and garden and help students get involved. awesome, thank you. I have to agree with isabela and marley. I

124think educating them, the students and like passing out flyers maybe doing an assembly and possibly doing a club by it. It would help since a lot of my friends say that the campus is kind of nasty. I think, that actually my friends would enjoy partaking in that. Yeah. thank you. You're good. We're going to start, we're going to be starting initiative sxz we have some pilot programs coming and recycling education and then the composting initiative as well. So I'm glad that people are enthusiastic about it. I'll be keeping this list so I can reach out to you guys so hopefully you can help us sphere head this at your schools. I appreciate the feedback. Thank you very much. thank you. DR. Zeman. we're way behind schedule so I j uft wanted to ask a question.

125I think there is a very question that I would ask. All the high school students raise your hand and hold them up real high. Of the people with with the hands up, how many of you and your friends know who to go see at your school if you or your friends are experiencing a mental health problem? Terrific, thank you very much. I appreciate the time. Thank you, chair. I yield the rest of my time. thank you, MS. Alhadeff. thank you, to all the students shout out to bella and paul. I appreciate the conversation on take safety and there was a lot of take away and I'll follow-up with superintendent and chief of safety security on there. Some of your schools have moss class, make our schools safe. And I really appreciate the public speaker today

126about the anti bullying and looking forward to learning more about that. I believe that there should be this roundtable conversation being held in all of our schools, elementary school, middle school and high school. I think it's a tremendous learning opportunity for our staff and our principals and our administrators to learn from our students specifically at the school. So DR. Hepburn, I would love to see that happen. yes, and you know, I'm going to let MR. PRESIDENT, landyn give you some information and then talk about some scaling. thank you, DR. Superintendent. So we, this summer launched the superintendent student initiative which in hindsight we need a shorter acronym for. But we created as part of that the principal pact which is a plug and play for our administrators to xraet groups like this. So we took

127that and made that into a school board version. So it's 46 campuses, but definitely will work with DR. Hepburn. I want the board to know that a lot of feedback is also collected in our quarterly survey. So there is multiple touch points where the administrators at the schools now, this is the first year where they're able to see the favorability scores based on every topic that we discuss today. So we had initial discussion buzz bringing that to the board and I believe in our APRIL session, we'll be combining this brown table with a deep dive on what we've collected this year. you're hired. [Laughter] and in addition, landyn and jeacier presented that. And so we can continue to take action on the feedback from students. So just, a kudos to landyn and jeacier. thank you,

128DR. Hepburn. MS. Rupert? thank you. Thank you, guys for all your information. I totally appreciate it and we learn from you guys every single day. So that makes me super happy. When it particularly is concerning for that my colleague brought up about how we're going to bebe helping g browowarcoununtyenviroronmen I hahavequicquestion and you don't have go around, you can raise your hands. I, we have a little place in canada, it's a little farm house, there are a billion percent better in recycling and using everything that you can. But it's very specific which is nice for people like me because if you have a white bag and green bag and black bag and the compost thing that goes underneath your sink it gets confusing. What they do there, they have a bin in public places and

129schools, they have a picture of what examples of what, so if I'm like fish goes where, there is a speak up and know that you can do that. Do you think that there would be more compliance or more interest in doing that if there was a bin at your school or if you can have, something like that at your home as well? That's my question. Please. I definitely think that would help because I noticed a lot. People don't know where to put their things. If you have seven different bins that does not help. I think having a picture will help. I have to agree with isabela, when you have like 7 different bins it can be overwhelming and showing students what goes in each bin, might help. It's not that students don't want to, but

130that they don't know how to. In my school, they have a class called eco adventure where they help the environment and recycle. And I think more schools should try to implement a program just like that, just to help save the environment as we know it. I love that, thank you. Thanks. I have to agree with paul and isabela. A lot of people at my school, they would litter or they would, put things where they're suppose to be, put trash where they're suppose to be. And it's not that they specifically want to, it's just that again, there is not a lot of trash bags and bins and they don't really know how to do it. So tt kind of confusing for them when they have to walk a mile or just in general what recycling is,

131and what actually goes in the trash. I appreciate that. And there is so hard core in canada, that had you make a mistake and you put something in the wrong bin, they do not take it. Very rural area. You have trash day every other, according to the choices that the bins are. So it's totally all lined up. My husband and I we put the thing up so we know exactly what day is where, because it's a big deal to have the garbage at the end of your driveway in a town of 200 people and lots of animals. I love that you think this is important and it's a learning process for everyone including families and parents. If we can make it easy on people that are not like yes, yes, we have to save the

132world, we're going to be saving the world. So thank you for that. And I will share that more information with my colleagues. Thanks so much. thank you, MR. Cervera. thank you, chair. DR. Holness, hit on a lot of subjects so I don't want to be repetitive. I do want to thank each and everyone of you for coming in. This is one of my favorite session if not my most favorite session. I know, it's not easy to come and speak in public. I think everybody did an excellent job. My man paul is looking very sharp, I appreciate you dressing in a suit and tie. thank you, I'll close this. I was going to shout out esther for being mia y my appointee. She told me this morning she was accepted to barn art college. So she

133is a vital voice for us on the diverse committee and will continue to do well. I want to thank the student advisors. Today I was taken a back by the questions that you were asking the students. They're so well crafted. They're not leading and they really get honest feedback, so much so that I was getting text messages from adults watching, saying, boy these kids tell it like it is. And again, I'll say it again, you do it in a professional and productive way. Thank you to all the students who were here and thank you to the student advisors for organizing such great session south side. I thought the feedback on the testing was en lighting and somebody brought up roundtable, yesterday I was able to do some roundtable with MR. Spellberg and some things that

134the students kept on sharing is the lack of relevance of some assessment to real life. And I think this is a theme that we hear a lot with these student workshops, the way you get kids into school and the way you make instruction is make ing relevant to their lives. So I hope that, the superintendent and staff hear that and try to make our instruction more meaningful. There is not a lot that we can do about the state testing but what we do with the teacher assessment, there is improvement that can be done there. So thank you everyone for sharing that feedback. another thing I think that keeps coming up is is the gap between the high level academic class sxz students in regular classes and opportunities available to those students, meaningful electives that students

135feel that they're preparing them for life after school and that's the things that get kids excited and get them to get to school in the first place. I appreciated the comments about the dress code. And I guess my concern has been when dress code is enforce ited, I cannot emphasize the importance that students are not missing on instructional time to deal with the dress code violation. And I appreciated the comments from isabela and esther about how sometimes dress code is disproportionately, I am packing women. And as a short-term, I appreciate you saying that clothes does not fit everyone the same. So thank you for sharing that. Gabrielle and sariah thank you for sharing your experiences in coming to school and dealing with personal things and the way adults interact with those. Those are real life

136experiences that are important to tuesday adults enforcing that. And one point that esther shared that I think we talk a lot about as a school board in terms of communications, figuring outweighs to communicate policy to students. And I know that we are especially with the student advisors and our social media team trying to improve that but, you know, I think that's also applicable to just our general community. Using jargon in high level, you know, academic terms is not something that is digestable to people who are just trying to get through their day. So figuring out how to meet people where they are. And as a way personal privilege, aniah, thank you for sharing the staff, as we go through the process of consolidating our schools, moving saegle to win rogers, it's reaffirming to hear that

137the staff who greets you, brightens your day. That's always been my experience with the rogers but it's great to hear it from a student as well. DR. Hepburn. thank you, for the continued feedback and in our world and our administration feedback is a, hold on, we've got to do that. Where is my team. Come on, feedback. Help us get a better quicker, thanks for that feedback. Also to our students, if you're in the audience, if puck raise your hand. Thank you parents. [Applause] Thank you for your continued support of our students, our initiative and our mission to continue to do a great work for our kids. And also landyn and jeacier faux for becoming student center. We look forward to continued feedback to help us get better. Thank you for all that you do. And

138have a great rest of the week. It's going to be a cold friday. And I forgot a few people. MS. Santiago. she is getting ready to give everybody pizza. She has the important job. thank you, thank you. [Applause] She is our student district activities coordinator and does a fantastic job. Thank you, MS. Santiago. [Applause] got it, we will take a brief five-minute recess to transition to the next workshop. So five minutes. and if we can take a quick photo. and if we can take a quick photo. thank you. gogood momorning, we ll w momove on the next item. Committee reports. And I believe we have everyone here. Human relations. Thank you, chair. Good morning, school board and staff and superintendent. I appreciate you letting me first, since we were not warned enough that this was

139going to be a later report and I have a doctor's appointment at 1:00 o'clock that is far away so I appreciate giving me the time to go first and hopefully next time, if it's going to be a later meeting, we'll be given more adequate notice. Regarding our human relations meeting, we met on DECEMBER 17th, fruitful discussion about the work that we have forthcoming. I cannot give enough accolades to the student services and all the work that they do. We got a briefing about the holocaust museum that we have taken over. It's something it's an asset that we have that we should be leveling and we cannot rely on, especially when if comes to anti hate training and bullying, this is a really strong resource to do that work and we can, it's our work to

140do as a district. And we should be utilizing our staff to do it. We can also look at using our high school students as doseans and I know that the department is looking for a better to use the museum. There is going to be a community event at 6 P.M. With a reception to hopefully a lot of you can make it there. And I know, looking more broadly, the department executive boards to inform decision-making and direction on things like the holocaust museum and mlk executive board so really looking forward to the work that they're going to be doing. Right before we left for break, there was a legislative meet and greet, held in the leadership days in tallahassee that the students will be attending came to and they met with some legislative, and one legislature

141showed up as well. So that was really great preparation from the kids from the other organizations, I believe we have quite a few organizations represented, black student union, mentoring across broward save promise, all of these are focused on student odd vaca -- advocacy. and we had our school summit just last week and I got a chance to hear from a number our middle school students about what they want to see happening at their schools. The great work that they're doing and what ne want us to hear and the big take away was time and scheduling, they felt that they weren't able to get all the dunce to get done and participate in their extracurricular. So that was something that they asked for us to elevate and bring to the board and bring to the district

142to look at. How we can handle that and better support them to get done the work they want to do and work that they would like to do and make sure that their time in school is both academic rigorous while still enriching for them. Then we also at our last meeting, we talked about priorities and general that we want to see coming from our group and what we want to see the district moving forward on. Like I said with the holocaust museum, we want to talk about combating hate anti hate, anti discrimination, we want to work on programs to help our students as they said, they want to feel support and they want to have kindness and acceptance and what we can do to better support that. We did pass a motion last year about

143a training our principals in, responsive culturally, sorry, cultural leadership, being more inclusive, and we still have not seen that trending forward and that's something that we really think would be helpful in affording these and the students are getting what they need. Aside from that this, I just wanted to have one more ask about our bylaws and policy that are still in holding and we have not heard what is happening with that and I'll be listening to the rest of my meeting because I have to go to my doctor appointment. But I appreciate those of you who did not step out for a press conference to listen to what we had to say. thank you. And the release agenda for the timing of this workshop was released on DECEMBER 30th and an email was sent to

144chairs on the 7th. Thank you. Audit committee? good morning, I'll turn my microphone on here so you can hear. In case I say something brilliant. The audit committee met DECEMBER 4th, 2025. I know had you a meeting and I had to MISS The last one. I want today catch up on this. It was an extra meeting that we had to deal with but also with bylaws and other issues. I would like to take a moment as we do our report to share with you why this department and the work they do is so important to our district. I've served on the committee for years, thank you MS. Rupert for assigning me. I'm still amazed at the way that you save money. I know you deal with a lot of major audits and you see a

145lot of really big important issues that impact various departments and issues but I just want to tell you one that shows you the work, why the work they do is just important to the average family student school. And rhyme going to quote from the report that was rent during the fiscal year. It was discovered that they had sent a memo that taxes were to paid in particular cypress paid 10, 205.61 in sales tax and several other schools also paid several thousands of dollars on sales tax. The excerpt from cypress bay high school recommendation to seek advisement and so, the business support center did, and found out that they didn't have to charge the sales tax. So what does this translate to for students? What does this mean to them as their planning their big day

146at the prom? I think you can figure it out. These are the small things that many of us don't see but this is an outstanding department, it's a privilege to work with them, they're very committed and professional. And they deal with a lot of topics that are very important but also have an impact on the daily life of our students. I hope that you take advantage of the opportunity to have them do more good work and do some of the work that they do. Would I say that when we find areas of concern, areas that need to be improved, they come to you in a professional manner, but they also offer an opportunity to save practices so you're saving dollars so we can save our ultimate goal into teaching and learning. And, so, I just

147want to say our next meeting is JANUARY 29th, you'll see what the audits that we discuss but I encourage you to look at way in the way that you serve students and through your departments that maybe don't get a lot of recognition sometimes but there is a lot of going on here that really does serve students and families and I'm just happy thank you, nora for making me be a part of it. I brought this to you, because I want you to know, that I have a minute and 39 seconds, I didn't think would I go that long. You get a lot of audits. We MAY pass an audit to you, but we MAY we tain certain questions so we can get additional information. Just wanted to share that aspect of our committee as well.

148Thank you. thank you so much. Broward county association of student advisor to the school board. thank you, MADAM Chair, you heard a lot from us this morning. But we want to update you on a couple of things and share our perspective. So, an exciting update is that senator osgood has filed bill 1038 which if passed it would achieve priority of increasing certification opportunities. So thank you to our legislative team as well as the team that we're working with who have helped make that happen. So we're excited to advocate for that and see the benefit that that can bring. Jea cier want to share some comment in addition to district. And we want to be clear that nobody has asked us to do this. Yesterday's characterization of public schools is a unfortunate and disappointing narrative. Let

149us be clear, the 2000 students that we get to represent are not having an overall perfect experience. Frfrngly the challenges of public education and pressure created by current political climate make that impossible. We would not be a back-to-back a-rated school district with proficiency gains if we were one. There is meaningful work still ahead as we continue to address. We are not where we want to be. Students this morning made that clear. When you visit schools, walk the halls and listen to students, the course state holder, you hear pride and optimism and examples of how our schools are making a positive difference. Record numbers of certifications, improving learning gains, expanded opportunities for voice and stronger technology investment highlight what receives less attention. We as students and on behalf of the peers we were elected to represent,

150believe it's important to acknowledge what is working while continue to go advocate in and outful changes that will improve our experience. And that is backed by data. Just last week, we presented results from our new survey from over 55,000 students. The results showed skyrocketing scores and academic engagement, leadership responsive and an 80 percent satisfaction rate across the district. These voices matter and they tell a story that often goes too unheard. We'll end with this, we've had an opportunity to sit with our panel for the employee of the year awards. One expressed this school board saved my life and another teacher was in tears as she spoke about how much she loves her work. This is a district imperfect, evolving and still alive. By staying focused on facts, data and student voices, we can continue moving

151forward together. Thank you. thank you. District advisory council? good morning, board members and staff. I want to echo what landyn said because I had similar experiences last week and it solidifies the gem of staff members that we have working at our schools and working with our students. With the resources that broward schools provides. We were discussing how, you can't find this anywhere else. And we know you hear a lot of the bad but there is a lot of good. Unfortunately during our few minutes here with you, we typically will share a lot of concerns because we have limited time. So last week, we had chief gregory out who talked about the concerns that we were having and lots of other topics. he stated that they would be balancing staff across the district to ensure that,

152schools that MAY be don't have enough security guards or receive one from another school based on population incidents and site specifications. My question is has that happened and if it has not happened when can we expect that to happen? As today, we still have schools who say they don't have enough campus monitors and security personnel. We asked for a timeline on when we can expect all schools to have those in close po ra meter fences. We're still hearing from parents na intercoms and pa symptoms are not fully functional. In some schools, they're not able to hear the intercom in walkways or hallway and they have fear sounding the inability to hear the critical messages. And obviously this is an issue that we brought up since the beginning of the school year. We've already shared, we

153have open communication with chief gregory so we shared with him instances about gates being left open. External doors at schools not being locked and we understand that this is happening more at the secondary level. So we shared some solutions about how we can mitigate those safety issues. There are will concerns with raptor in terms of visitor versus volunteer and who can go around campus unescorted. In terms of finances and hiring freeze, we were told and I believe the superintendent said at one board meeting that district staff would be shifting especially in terms of certified teachers to fill vaik saont he's. Vacancies. But as today, challenges where teachers are not able to get subs. To go to iep meetings. Some teachers realize that they're teachers are not getting the pull out services because they're being add

154sk today cover a different classroom. We see the impacts on security, personnel and also, you know, students especially in third grade at such a critical time, it's not a time to be dissolving the classroom and disrupting their learning experience in a mandatory retention year. So we would like answers on that as well. I heard the students talk about the metal detector concerns this morning. And chief gregory did emphasize to properly run the metal detector you need three to four personnel in order to execute that. We continue to have conversations about food and nutrition. I heard from a parent na is getting robo calls and paid her balance of 20.75 which was the message, however when she loaded that money, her balance was showing as 3 dollars. Because the first charge is charged to the student,

155subsequent charges are charged to the principal's account. So when they loaded her school bucks, she got a robo call yesterday. So we really need to have consistency across the district, if that was her last $20 with a charge of almost 4 percent for my school bucks, it's prohibitive to many families. We continue to have conversation buzz nursing and hazel health, we have a slew of health about hazel health. Student sevensers is coming to our mighting tomorrow, mainly because you have services offered as free. But then, there are inconsistency with opt in and opt out and what is kharnld and what is not. We would like you all to look at hazel health with a fine tooth comb. In collaboration with district staff and we had over 50 participants on and it was great dialogue, there

156continues to be concerns about test iting. We're going to continue to work with academics on that issue to find solutions prior to that board workshop and then typing instruction. In terms of graduation venues, I've had discussion buzz this. Chair if I MAY. that's something that we're going to bring up at the end of the meeting. Speaker: there are solution to see help the district save monies but we feel this is not an area ere we should skskimp out t on venueses foststenents or we cacan find solution to see move fanneder so they're partners with schools that have lower populations so that that costs is not so high. thank you. So much. also, just one last thing, we have legislative reps for all the areas so we reached out to see if we can partner our

157legislative reps with them. Our next meeting is tomorrow night, all are welcome, like I said we're going to have student services out. Thank you so much. thank you, north area. hello I'm lucy I'm going to be the north area report. We passed a motion up north area the motion reads, we move that the district ensure that any student obligation are reflected on focus and a process is created for notifying parents or guardian have I at preferred form of application. Since obligations are handled from different departments, parents MAY not be aware that their child is accruing a lunch debt. This does not send out notification sxz students are prohibited from activities such as graduation. My next issue is about testing. One of the biggest concerns that paneser are bringing is testing and the amount of testing

158that is being done. I'm going to go on record right now, I am protesting. I have protesting, I have defended testing, fast testing if used properly is one of the best tools that we've had. We can identify a student scoring 5 and have access to a data. We can see children that are not making gains and by 3, we should be able to see students at grade level and theory. It's already a great program because it can be utilize for child at their level and help fill-in the job. At that point, if they have not learned fractions they're going to teach fractions and move it up. This is a program that can be used at their level. So you need to do testing to see where their child is. But this year and last year,

159I've been getting more and more complaints so I decided to dig into it. I asked the district to give me testing. This is not an accurate sheet this does not have all the tester so I went to director to director to supervisor to teacher. I passed this around. This is all the testing required. Some some say suggested testing. Every school is doing them. Every school is mandating them, why? Because if you don't, the county comes over and they're saying, why aren't you doing this? So it's very concerning that this went ahead. After I published this list, I put it online. I want today get feedback from parents and teachers to see if this was appropriate amount of testing. What I received was overwhelming.S I had 186 counted messages mainly from teachers most said please do

160not use my name because I feel retaliation. What I learned, the teachers are reporting that the platform is cumbersome, not user-friendly and the actual time always exceeds the recommended. One thing I also learned from teachers, these are the amount of tests, some are recommended two days to take tests. So these numbers are actually higher than what they are. Also broward county say should test should take two hours. It's taking upwards of two days for them to do it. The district says, well if those students are not finished, put knows students in another classroom, that would be great but if half the class is not done, I don't know what you're doing. Do you continue to learning or do you let those kids fall behind? And also the data that you're getting is really not great

161and even if it was perfect, the window to the next test is so quickly that if the entire class failed, you cannot teach the next lesson anyway because you have to move to the next level. Thus making the lesson less valuable. We talked about lap time, how are you doing with kineder eer garden alone has 180 days of school, 59 tests that means 32 percent of the time they have a test. Let that sink in. You sent a survey asking the feedback on the testing, the wordings was cumbersome for me, I cannot understand -- I heard from broward county that this is what some of the other counties are doing, dade county, what I say, broward county should not be a follow fehr, we should be a leader. Get rid of these tests and getting

162the teachers back to teaching what they need to test. So to go over, you have the list. I encourage you to look at this. Figure out why we're testing so much and figure out how much we're paying for these tests and how these were approved in our district. Thank you. thank you, central area. thank you. Thank you. Good morning, MADAM Chair, board members, superintendent hepburn and staff, I'm brooke, the vice chair of central advisory council. We had our last meeting on DECEMBER 15, 2025. Our primary agenda item was hearing from xhaoef gregory about safety, we thank him for his time. Smft concerns from our parents involved front fencing and intercom systems and affect of hiring freeze on staffing. A cup of paneser expressed that their schools have been waiting for years for fencing. We recognize

163that it's something that our paneser are talking about frequently. That's something that we want to raise for you. Chief gregory explained there is a plan to fix and repair all systems not working by fall of this year. While that is great news, we do want to raise the issue for the board. you understand the importance of work withing intercom without getting into details about security, I do want to say on going follow-up is a appropriate to ensure that this project remains on the fastest timeline possible. The primary concern we heard were on qaim pause monitors how the hiring freeze has affected knees position approximates. The superintendent hiring freeze memo has a specific carve out for safety and security. So parents were troubled to hear that the hiring freeze has been applied to campus monitors. The

164need for monitors have been increased since schools have been directed to keep most doors locked. This has resulted on students being locked out from hallways and left out in the open. Crying elementary students if you can imagine and also the risk of emergency response capacity where those have numerous external buildings. We also heard from our regional superintendent regarding the hiring freeze. He explained that vacancies would be filled by certified teachers that are working within the district. And students also brought their concerns to the meetings, one of our staff chairs asked for a follow-up regarding the motion that's we passed, regarding nursing and we had a question about hazel headlight, we explained that the board has not taken further action and that the nursing situation remains the same with nurses only be provided. the last update

165we had about hazel health was in NOVEMBER and the only information was that the staff had been laid off. We later learned about a merger about a company little otter, continues to hear reports about an uneven rollout and MISS Ing medical equipment and how health information is scored and misleading advertising from the district about hazel health does bill insurance. Without staff available to answer these questions, the parental concerns have escalating. Our next meet ising this thursday, JANUARY 15 at 9:45 am. We continue to encourage all of our central areas staff chairs to attend. We had hoped to have coordinator health services speak especially about hazel health but we and other groups have been told that they're unavailable. And instead we'll be having several stakeholder discussions including about pe, and testing and teacher staffing concerns. Regarding

166graduation venues, we're aware that the board is considering a measure. With remaining schools. A preliminary review shows that this MAY have desperate impact on disadvantage schools. While we do not believe that's the intent, it warrants the reconsideration of proposed measures. We look forward to communicating the thoughts and consensus of central area on that subject. If there is one issue I want to alert the board, it's teacher staffing concerns. We were told in early DECEMBER at the time of hiring freeze that student teacher vacant cies -- we heard where students have had their classes dissolved. We learned yesterday that the district is not moving district stuff. Specifically only one district staff has been moved from secondary learning into the classroom and no one from element learning has been moved. Our principals reported that instead they've been

167force today submit proposal for shuffling the staff. This is not how we were told vacancies would be handled. It is sad that the district windows are put in the back of children. I also want to ask that this be undone. We've had thousands of students moved last week and we need them back in their own class with their teacher whether that's a new hire or somebody from staff. That's a big concern and that will be raised at our next meeting. thank you, south area. just wanted to, comment on our meeting from DECEMBER 17th. We did have a healthy discussion on testing, I'm not going to reiterate because some of the concerns were raised the same as the north area. We also had a review of the vr, the goggles, so but I'll go into a

168little further in my technology report. Thank you. thank you. Diversity? Speaker: at this, corey share on behalf of our passionate and skilled chair narnie, she didn't pay me to say that. Good afternoon, at this point. To our school board members, I see many of you have individual stories it's amazing and we really are counting on you and to our superintendent, DR. Hepburn. I'm a son of broward in particular district 5, and DR. Holness, I thank you for not just appointing me. Our diversity is our strength, we can see that in the stars, taking picture all our stars. The diversity committee met on JANUARY 9th for a monthly meeting. And safety and security issues that prept challenges for schools. When chief gregory came to our meeting two months, the committee asked for a break down safety

169and personnel. The committee had questions and concerns as it relates to the arrest info, the lack of continuity from the district to the state attorney's office. The cooperative contracts in affect, as it relates to the equitable actions, the lack of district wide standards as it relates to the sr os, there is a lot of lack here, the lack of police following through on student en incident. The committee is it still waiting for a dpsh report from gregory. We asked that he and xhaoef nasvich come back to the committee meeting next month and we're waiting for a response on that invite also. presented the upcoming events such as team sum sit, update on student survey, upcoming event at the holocaust museum, trip with 120 students to tallahassee from legislative session, while there is park with 120

170male students. We made the motion in OCTOBER requesting information on discipline related issues. That was subsequently asked again by board member holness. Kathy keets presented that information. The committee is still reviewing information and we'll have some feedback next month. However this does not provide clarity on the disconnect between the district and law enforcement in all its forms. The committee has had nine site visits we're observing facilities, discipline programs, resource availability and safety and security concerns. The committee remains committee to the nine conditions and the indicators as we move forward through the school year. The committee will be evaluating last year's visits simultaneous' with this year school visits. We believe this will enhance the annual report with findings. Our site visits reveal communicative issues with the new process, we heard this already with safety and security

171issues that are pro longds with -- pro longed. Still on going issue. You know, I can actually say real quick that we've seen some ship, work orders, incomplete orders paint feeling off the walls. this concerns the concern that we're counting with you to deal with this. The students are dealing with this every day. We still see challenges with maximo. We also see safety and security issues. Diversity committee has sent follow-up to MR. Braford and MR. Darcie. We're wait withing updates for the processes. We did get an update on that. We would like to know how well that process is working. Sent a follow-up to DR. Shapiro as it relates to mental health. The difference between, personal and social career readiness, that process in place of children who have been vapor active and what information back

172to school looks like. We ask that each board member check in with their appointee, it is impair if I have that committee members attend meetings, least affective member. I implore to you encourage your appointee to attend the meetings. The general council chief of staff believe in having everyone participate our goal is helping the district to showcase its excellence in diverse education. We look forward to that collaboration. Thank you, broward proud. thank you, ese advisory council. hello good morning. And happy new year, everybody. Ese advisory meeting, we came up with a number of discussion topics. One of them was protecting stud ens with disability and their rights from the hiring freeze. It's not true to say that there are no impacts, we're already seeing them. We do one school is being directed to fill sub vacancies.

173Can be pulled to cover classrooms if somebody is out. What then happens to the children who are meant to be serviced that day and what if they have iep meeting. Stuff should not be pulled from their duties to sub in classrooms. Moving on NOVEMBER meeting, we discussed a proposal based on years of staying up up and and personal and accountability mechanisms when it comes to dealing with episodes or incident affecting students educational interest and well being. We discussed the need for tracking and accountability system that could start closing the many deficiencies where parents are delivered action. Documentation, oh wait, thank you, I have five seconds back. Is would lolovefor l of you to be liststeninto us d d ultimalylywrwritten close out. That recommendation is on the agenda papers. We were one person short of forum

174that day. We agreed by consensus, the meeting was along the system that we already have a system. One being the elopement of a six-year-old student from the school in early DECEMBER and mishandling. And one being a child in pre-k who came home from a separate school with unexplained bruises and parent fighting with me to find out to investigate. Who was going to communicate with this student. This is a case where some of you know p covers more than 25 pages of emails which went unread by those that they were sent to in some cases until last friday. We cannot have incidents where there is no incident report no internal review of who did what and who didn't. Lack of 'em fa -- empathy. When parents and advocates remain persistent. Some people persistence has a threshold,

175count me p.This needs to include student safety and not solely about ese and iep compliance and I would like to mention, at our last ese meeting consistent in attending, they MAY not like what we hear, they MAY not want to have certain things said, but they come a long. They are engaged. And it's difficult to get others to do the same. Where I sent out invitation, I would like to hear back from staff. I spoke to the superintendent in light of these resent and largely unaddressed cases and we'll be driving change and action to the student first. That's what the -- superintendent want to. Silence evasion and cover up or accountability and integrity 'em pa knee partnership and pursuit of excellence. We need to leave no stone unturned and things swept under the rug. This

176is not a failing district, and it's not a disaster. There is much to celebrate excellence, to commend and there were some incredible things working for our students. But this is an issue that has struggled and that has failed. We will be putting forward from our discussions at esc advisory a framework for a system that can help serve all of these needs. A robust student welfare accountability system is not a compliance tool but a statement of your values by adopting a framework, they can ensure accountability and demonstrate unwaivering commitment. I have to mention as well. Just getting out the door to get to this meeting, I had communication with four paneser with unanswered questions and one of them as a result has pulled her student from school. Thank you. thank you. Esol leadership council. good morning,

177board members, superintendent and ladies and gentlemen, my name is luciana and I serve in the committee for esol. It is my pleasure to share an update on esol continue to do in close partnership with bilingual esol department and welcome center. Over the past few months, our council has remained engaged with families across the district. In NOVEMBER, we soefted our second esol council general meeting, welcoming more than 100 parties and family members p.Families heard from seven district departments about the services they provide and how the services for student success, support student success. Lead with a stronger understanding of broward county public schools. And confidence navigating system on behalf of their children. As a volunteer party we're proud to support the war of the international welcome center. Our standing committee meets bimonthly and with the partnership with

178organization such as the service council and hispanic unity. The welcome center does crucial work not only welcoming newcomer family but also supporting immigrant students who's family are experiencing hardship including those impacted by the deportation and related to the current immigration climate. Throughout this and coordinated support, the center help ensure that this student remain connected to the schools and services and stable stability during very difficult times. We are also excited about the continuous expansion of international welcome center. Very soon, they will open an outfit in the central area at the broward estates, early learning and resource centers. Increasing access to guidance and resource and support for esol families in that community. This expansion reflects your commitment to meeting families where they are. Looking ahead our esol party general meeting will take place on JANUARY 14, tomorrow

1792006 at plantation middle school from 6:30 to 10:30 am. this will share information about esol program and opportunities available to students and families. As always all meeting are integrated with spanish, haitian and portuguese and creole with close captioning available. At the end of the we will hold training at empowering families and recruiting new volunteers for esol committee. This will prospried pardons with deeper tools a deeper understanding of the school system and an opportunity to advocate with our district. Would I like to close by sincerely thanking the school board and district leader chief for your continued support of immigrant and multi lingual students. They provide safe environment where families feel valued, respected and supported. Thank you so much, gracias mercy for your time and for all you do for our students and families. thank you. Parent

180community involvement task force? I'm so sorry. I accidentally skipped two. Facilities task force? good morning, happy new year, this is day 13 of this wonderful year with all the activities that are going on. Kimberly. Facility task force chair. Thank you board member alhadeff for sending your appointee. I remind others to please send your appointees. Raw data for five schools concerning the facilities condition assessment. we received the data and bring it back to our findings. One of the questions is who will be the temporary chief officer. The other is light system project. How are we doing with that project? How is it going with reflation all the lights in the schools in a different facilities? We did receive an email concerning the project and emphasize that a 200,000 price tag in my question was was it

181just for tera vela. Just wanted to find out what other schools need the same, fixture or devices that need to fix the temperatures within the different buildings if we can get a list of those facilities. Other ask is that we MAY be get a new facilities chief if we can get the maximo and xl for us, we would appreciate it so we can assist can finding out how the actual maximo is working. So we would like it in excel please and thank you again. The other thing is long-range facilities committee. We understand there is a process going on with chair not being a part of the long-range committee or not allowing us to select someone within the task forced to represent us. That's another ask. We understand that it's in progress, we would like for

182it to come to us so we can look at it. Hopefully, we'll get a chance to do that. Actually for this year, can we start being a part of advisors. We are advisors. and last but not least, talking about the graduation venues. And equity throughout for district. thank you, gifted advisory council. good morning, everybody. We had our last meet ing last might online. And wealth of information. We red line back. And just to say that our school district. High perve al. Our committee held our JANUARY meeting last night. Our wonderful, JANUARY 7th and partnership in. Not related to the quality of content but to how families find and access these events. We cuss discussds the needs for coordination and local media outlets to ensure families receive information early and often. We also noted, noted an

183issue with parent link, we love the district has started happening now text messages. The issue is that parent sends it in waves because we're such a big district. So some get it after the event is finished. So thinking about that as we sent those messages is really critical. We're excited about several new strategies to extend the impact. We will be promoting parent university sessions through qr codes at future kindergarten readiness events and we're excited to break the session into clips that families can engage with. Looking next, our next session will take place and focus on parent services and excited to support all resources. A big thank you to simone haulings worth for the work on this h.The flier will be finalized this week. So please send it out through your distribution channels. We're excited to

184plan a row source fair in APRIL which will be held on saturday. This will build on the work of our nonprofit forums. We want to create a space where families and school staff can connect directly. Our goal is to support easier for families across the district. We did spend time this month discussing the school choice process. Families have shared that the focus has become more complicationed. Now they have to get access before getting to the forms. So we want to make a note let's try to remove barriers and note when we're unintentionally creating new one and try to figure out how to remove those. Finally, we closed last night by discussing importance of direct communication with families and community members particularly when things are a bit uncertain. The task force feels strongly that now more

185than ever, families needs clear proactive from the district even when the answers are not available even the messages acknowledges that questions exist and information is forthcoming, direct communication helps build trust. So as part of our task to amplifies the ways to engage families. we look forward to partnering with you all and find ways that will enable the board and district to have meaningful conversation wz students and families so everyone feels informed, included and valued. We're energized and committed to supporting the district's effort to welcoming the families and strengthening community trust and we're so grateful for all of your support in this work. Thank you. thank you, technology advisory committee. good morning, again, chair, superintendent, board members, linda, chair of technology advisory committee. We had a discussion of an overview of the erp system and rfp

186process was given to us. The timeline was in JANUARY which we are in. We're convening a committee to develop come prepensive requirement before post ing the new rfp. It includes matrix base category and to require KPIs across functions data migration and performance benchmarks. Since tak was not given the opportunity to review the contract in 2024, yesterday we were able to review the contract and how it supports science. The pilot was launched back in 2025. Currently 58 schools 132vr cards and over 139 via head sets and 300 teachers trained d 15,000 s sdedes s enaijds.S. We had coernsnsabout ththe training and how that is being handled. But moving forward we discussed the quaul -- qualitative data but look at the academic data correlating to PMs 2, and 3. Tac looks forward to future involvement in the

187procurement. As far as diversity goes, we asked an update as to the device distribution, so if I get one, I'll send it to you. Central areas an raptor there is nothing new. Unfortunately, tac was not involved and concerns could have been addressed. Wrote up in sporty and school choice application process having personally been involved in that where my daughter is now registering her child into the school system to go to charter school because of the process and the frustration that she was exhibiting even as I was going through it with her. Thank you. thank you, board member questions? Go ahead, DR. Hepburn. I'm taking notes I just want clarification, I don't remember who mentioned raptor first so I can log that up for follow-up? What was the issue with raptor? so currently raptor only screens

188for offender registries. So when you provide your screen card, it's only seeing if it's on the raptor not other crimes. The only people who fully screened are those approved volunteers. And those why those approved volunteers when they scan into the school, they're able to access the entire school campus. Obviously, that's a level-one background. But, there are numerous instances in schools where visitors are allowed to walk through campus without an escort. Some schools are doing it really great, others are not. And the other piece that we shared is in one instance where I visited a school, the person was filling in at the front desk and she gave me an id badge that did not match mine. So si said, oh you gave me, you checked me under somebody else's name and she was like, it

189does not matter, you just need to have a badge. And I was like, no, it's running a check. There has to be consistent practices and if somebody is filling in, there needs to be reference document to make sure that they understand the importance of properly screening and checking people in into our campus. thank you. before board member discussion, MS. Hixon flagged the multi lingual community. good afternoon, superintendent, chair, board members thank you for the opportunity to directly report to you. The multi lingual advisory committee has not met since the last time I reported to you. Because we meet only four times a year our next meeting is FEBRUARY 18th at choral springs middle, 6:00 P.M. I invite you all to attend. The reason I decide today come anyway, is because we've been active and I

190wanted to give you some advise that I think you will like because it does not require any resources to implement. we attend the broward county showcase at the 'emrin arena in DECEMBER. And we did so by putting on our parent hats and acted like we were just parents interested in duel language. We impressive event and well advertised. But when visitors walk in, I don't know if you're all aware or or if you had the experience being a parent at the event, you're handed a flier that has a map where all the schools are in the upstairs, and nowhere on that piece of paper with the qr code or anything, was the phrase duel language anywhere on that flier. Now being chair of this committee, I know if I navigate to the upstairs floor and go

191to the table marked by laning wal esol that I can get duel language information but I don't think that a normal parent off the street is going to see anywhere duel language when they walk in. And I think it's a missed opportunity because the whole point of that showcase is acknowledging that parents are make ing choices, active choices whether to send their kids to a broward county school versus outside of the district and those are the parent looking for dpaoul language. And anecdotely, condition minutes my colleague and I overheard a student approach the falcon school table and ask if they had duel language and initial that conversation. We were happy to eavesdrop and hear that happen. We brought it up with a liason and told that it's out of their hands. The things listed on

192the flier are the departments so I think it's exception can be made and somewhere in there you can point people where they can get information on the duel language program. I also want to say that we have requested a non miezed data from the district and still waiting on it, about what students in grades 5, 6, 7, 8 are students that started with us in the dpaoul language program. Such a stud sent, if they make it, if there is a 5th grader who started with us in kindergarten, we consider that one form of success in the duel language program. If that 5th grader choose to see stay and go on to middle school, then we consider that another level of success. And if na student finishes in 8th grade, I consider that the highest success

193that we can offer maybe only if they're only to take a p spanish. We're still waiting on that data but we look forward to looking at it and getting back to you about how to make the program better. Thank you. thank you. Now, board member discussion? MS. Hixon. thank you and thank you all fauxer coming today and for sharing some of the good things that are happening because that's always important. And I want to say in the climate that we find ourselves in, right now, it was really nice to have you all start off with we are not a disaster in the good things but acknowledging that there are, there are issues and we need to work together to serve them. I mean to solve them, sorry. We all have a similar mission. It is

194to serve our students, right? That's why we're here, we should be rouge the boat in the same direction. We MAY get off on different paths and we MAY not work fast enough on of the issues that you have but it's important for you to be here representing the community and for us to be able to hear the concerns and address them so that everyone understand that we're rouge the boat in the same direction because we want our students to be successful. So I really do appreciate that you started your conversations with that informed. Just a couple of questions, I guess to the superintendent based on things that I heard. So you've heard, I heard a not a great thing about bylaws and then another that they did receive back. I'm not sure it's superintendent or

195counsel, if you can address where we are with the bylaw. I know that we heard early on that bylaws were stuck in legal to lack of a better term can you give us an update where we are on that. if I MAY, MS. Jacques-adams if we can start with MR. Hill what he has in his queue before we talk about what is in legal. That's the initial blow. thank you, DR. Hepburn p through the board, they can about straight to the board once they're approved. So right now, we're working with the department liason, so we're getting with all the committees to make sure that they're current and confirming that the committees have checked off and the ones that they have not, we're asking our chairs to place them on the agendas as soon as once

196we get to the liason and we will bring them right to the board on an agenda item. so you're going to bring all the bylaws to us at one time? I can, I guess. does that hold them up in any way? We heard about bylaws in the last year. if I'm going to bring them up as one, -- but if -- do you have a stack of them that are ready to come to the board yet? I can follow-up with you on what I have ready to go. because I don't think they have to come at the same time. correct. we can move them along but maybe you can give us a follow-up on what committee so we can reach out to committees if they have not gotten to you yet or where ever. We

197just want to work collaboratively, but we keep hearing that their bylaws are stuck somewhere. if I MAY, and I have to apologize, the we were suppose to provide a memo but we have not done that but we'll make sure that we do so that everyone knows where we're at. the next question brought up by central area and part of a conversation on the earlier press release that we had some morning before the meet ing started was teacher staffing concerns. So superintendent if you can please address that and let flow if district staff has not been moved when that move will happen. so you'll see a lot of movement this week. The team did a good job of specific process p of request and original students and directors to see what is going on in campus.

198This decision is going to be tough because it does volve some shifts in the classroom. If we have a class with small amount of kids we prefer with them going into a classroom with certified teacher and then we're evaluating if they need a district person. One of the things that we're going to have to do, we have probably about two to three hundred district instructional staff that are underfed ral grants. And we're going to have to amend those grants to they can goo into the classroom. So they can support. They've just had I want to say their first or second meeting to find out what the actual needs are and you'll see deployment of district. Normally if there is a school and there is a vacancy, you're going to get a sub and that sub

199is going to be there for two to three weeks while they do hiring. It's not a two to three week it's a couple of day turn around for me so we can get a district teacher in that classroom. They're going to be very rare cases where we allow hiring for something very special but we have tons of people across the organization including myself that are certified to teach specific areas. My team, knows me I like to get my hands dirty, so if I have to go in to teach a couple of days, you'll see me here. We've got other staff members saying they're not. You'll see people start getting gloid. -- deployed. But it's a methodical process. So we can address the needs of the students. cause I just want to reiterate what we as

200a board said, we do not want the cuts that are happening to affect our classroom. And we heard over and over. So to that extent as well something that ese advisory choir braupt was use ago, the, resource people in the school that should be doing things with students as substitutes. Can you also address what is, how are we allowing that to help and not using district staff even at a sub level, I'm a certified teacher. All hands-on deck at this point. . Same process for value -- evaluating the need. If it's ese for having a staff member that teacher at an iep meeting. bless you. they don't like your answer. I see. But it's the same process, but sending out district staff. some schools are, are, doing things faster, right. And making decisions of school

201base. We prefer them to work with the original office so we can figure out woo district staff needs to go out that has the certification. Just to make sure that we get the right people in the right seat. so could you make sure that you're sharing with the regional superintendent that they should not be telling the principal. we just went over that yesterday. It was discussed to make sure that flows down to the schools so principals are not making those decisions without picking up the phone. and along the line, something that we heard is field trips are being affected because there is a lack of substitutes. yes, I heard about those cases and we're adamant that this casing does not impact student opportunity for field trip. I don't know how that got confusionds but we

202cleared that up yesterday also. So again, field trips, athletic competitions, we are not creating a barrier for kids and those experiences with what we have going on. okay, I'll give an example that honestly, I read online, was that there is a debate program and they were told that their debate had to pay for the teacher for them to be able to participate in the tournament. So. that sounds like somebody is not pick ing up the phone before they answer is the question. And you know, for our principals to pick up the phone. We've been meeting on this for quite sometime they were in a five-hour meeting yesterday, just to make sure that every part of the process is clearly understood so we don't have situations like that. At minimum pickup the phone before you make

203a decision. Go ahead, MR. Sullivan. I just want to add that the deputy does have a frequently asked questions on this regard but sending another reminder that the they have an understanding. And they're allowed to do T.D. As. and I would just ask us, we heard about communication issues we're relying just on us passing that along to principals. If we can make a public statement as a school board to say we are not going to allow the issues we're having with staffing to affect any field trip however you want to word that. We have to control our own messaging and if we don't address what is being said out there, knowing that it's going incorrect, it's going to continue to balloon and then we hear it's a disaster. We're doing the right things. They're getting

204twisted in moving down the line, I think it's important that we are messaging ourselves to make sure that we're given the right information and you know, facebook post sending out an email, a a link in a timely manner. that's noted. I think it's important. So my next question, the light project that's pretty easy to be able to answer. Can you give some highlights or an update of where we are without changing out the lights. Most have been incomplete. I know schools and also here, I don't know if MS. Doreset has any information, we MAY have to provide a update. Go ahead MR. Doreset. that project is on going right now through the project. There are a list of schools and I believe we're on phase 4. So I can get you an update on that.

205great, thank you. And if we can share that with the facility task force since that was their question. The parent link message, it's very dis concerning that people are getting it after the fact. That should an sisile fixix if can susure that paren links, I understand going out a wave but start the wave earlier. If there is something na is turning them off about magnet programs, I think it needs to be fixed asap. And my last question is, ese advisor reasked about logging parental concerns and how we're responding to na. And the answer is, there is something in place already. Can you explain to us how it's in place and if it is, how do we improve so it incompasses what parents are asking. absolutely, so is the regional offices, they came together to codify

206and improve an existent process. So no matter if they get a call from the parent directly to the office or if you go to our website, the parent button if you scroll in the middle, if you go to contact, which says submit a parent concern. And if they log it in there too. It is monitored and information is inputed all the way through closure of that issue or concern so they can log it. If an issue, that person can just log on. Or information they can take care of it in a different way. But we do have an improved process of logging parent concerns not just for ese but all concerns that we receive for school related issues or even department related. what you're explaining is people in the system. now if you go to

207our website right now. If you go to browardschools.Com, you go to the parent section, there is a huge button in the middle. If you go to contact us, there is a huge button in the middle, that says submit a parent concern and that's how you submit the concern. I understand that but as a parent and school board member, I don't know how to access what is going on in the system. [Captioner switch] are they meant to think, I must report this and look op on the bcps work site and log a complaint, no, they don't. They expect there to be pre-emptive processes in place not only the prevent that but to enforce when things occur that didn't follow a plan. And I can tell you categorically and DR. Hepburn, you have seen it for yourself,

208when e-mail trail from me and from a parent extends to 25 pages of e-mails across a series of four, five weeks and then it extends to a parent being told, okay, we'll meet with you, we'll discuss this and then getting on that call at 4:30 P.M. On the last day of school and that was deliberate timing and being told we're not discussing this, that process is failing, I love there's bcps care and wants to laufrmg an inquiry on it, great. If they want to a put a commendation on it, great to that too, there's great things has happen but your system is not working. I can give you four parents who called me just even right before this meeting or canting me where systems and procedures are not apparent, have failed or not even in

209existence, staff don't necessarily call back, just calling somebody back isn't resolving an issue. We want issues resolved and then we also want an after action review of why didn't anybody resolve it when they were meant to. These are the egregious cases i'm bringing to people time and time again. nr a case like that, it's not a parent due to bcps care, I'm talking about, hey, my kid came home and someone stole his peanut butter jelly sandwich. That's where the school picks up the phone to say, hey, mom, we had this issue, I need you to sit down and talk about this and figure out what protocols did we not follow versus to figure out to make sure this doesn't happen again. If that is the situation tla -- that the system is failing but that

210is not a typical bcps care. exactly, so bcps cares as much as it likes but there is not to address this and I fully intend at our ese advisory meeting, you can't craft a system without us, without your stakeholders telling you because apparently we have a lot of staff in senior positions who just don't get it, so let us tell you and let us work together on people being open, not just saying, we have a system, we should find something else to complain about, this is a clearly identified issue, we can provide constructive input but there needs to be an openness to receiving that input. I know there is from you but your staff need a word, thank you. noted, agreed. go ahead. I'll turp my microphone on. I think a lot of times we

211say things around our website. I have to tell you when I have a crisis, it's not probably my first thing to go to the website, hopefully it's on the school's website and also been distributed by the school. You have a good process distributed through the schools but I've heard coming to these meetings a number of times and I'm wondering if this would be a good area to audit responsiveness to these issues so that you could see, you know, how timely the response is and you could see how many calls you're getting and kind of try to figure out whether the calls are getting through to the right place and whether tle ear being responded to and you would have some data to go on to actually have for further conversations on how to im prove

212the system. [Inaudible] I know. I think we're hearing this a lot. At some point we need to get the system to find data if there is a system on how effective that system is. absolutely. That's why the team worked to enhance it because they had concerns about not being able to follow the concern, we have different offices, regional offices dweting it, the board office assistants are also getting it, so to come up with a better system for the bcps cares initiative but what she's talking about is more of outreach from the school, also regional offices to a parent when you have that type of concern just to make sure there's follow through on ensuring things don't repeat prostheses again and for those type of situations and worth. I would think people that you would be

213able to quantify for data and make meaningful change. so, on that point, I would just ask when you finish with the after action things, there's a way to communicate it with the parent because when a parent has a bad experience, they're going to share that. When they have a good experience, they're giepg to share it, so we especially the ese which is where I think most of these issues lie in is that they want to feel like their child is safe and that you took that safety to the utmost importance and when it feels like their concerns are being blown off, they don't want to stay and they're going the tell other people we don't care about their kids, so I think it's -- again, that customer service piece we're working on, we MAY be

214doing things behind the scenes so where we can share with the parent, maybe you don't have to give napes and everything but you can at least say, you know, somebody was reprimanded or it turned out it wasn't this because I think I is that tiered the story about corey a number of times where I thought it was somebody on the staff and I found out it was corey's own fault. It's important to know that but we have to be much more transparent with our parents because that's how we're going to get our students to stay and get more to come back. Thank you. MS. Jackeeas adams, you want today say something. although MR. Hill indicated earlier the office of general counsel does not review bylaws, we did review the human relations quit myth tie bylaws

215as a courtesy, we indicated there were no objections or recommended changes and it can go forward to the school board and that was communicate in memorandum of the DECEMBER 22 last year and was submitted as a follow-up. DR. Holness? thank you, MADAM Chair, thank you to all of our committee chairs, I appreciate your work and understand that it's volunteer so, you are well appreciated for what you do. I wanted to add a couple comments and questions. DR. Hepburn, is there any concerns with having student obligations reflected in focus, if not, how can we make this possible? It appears this would be beneficial to students and to parents to have a first hand quick glance at what the obligation is and being able to take care of it. I'll have MR. Davis answer that one. trey

216davis, chief information officer. Great question, we do have some obligations that are available in focus. I think specifically to food and nutrition services, so the team, emily copa is working with MS. Molder to make sure that integration occurs and not rel the tif to payments which is outside of focus. MR. Davis, I guess the short answer to the question is that this is possible that all obligations regardless of what they are can be reflected in focus? yes, through integration, that is what we're working to do to consolidate now. what is the timeframe on that? I'm waiting on some final information relative to our district bus integration, over the next 30 days. okay, so this will likely be on focus way before graduation and all these other events that MAY be contingent on students having an

217obligation, correct? yes, understood, sir. I have a couple more questions, DR. Hepburn. Er again, it came up from the chairs regarding testing. This also came up during our student discussion this morning and the concern is how much testing becomes counterproductive. Do we need all these assessments and quite frankly, I appreciate this list of all of the -- what appears to be district testing that we've done at different grade levels. So, I know some of these are mandatory, but I believe the comment was not all of them are mandatory, so, do we need all of these assessments. What action plan can be put in place to reduce these district assessments and beyond mandatory testing, are we able to determine a number of total scikt tests permitted by each school that is backed by research and data

218that suggesters what frequency is appropriate and what's counterproductive because this seems quite excessive. I would be very surprised if all of these are are mandatory. So, how can we have some sort of a guideline beyond what's mandatory so we're not over-testing students as in regards to district tests? we're going to workshop this so everybody b la a clear understanding of what we're assessing, test k, progress monitoring so we can way in the feedback and as a governance in operation team, we can figure out how that looks moving forward to ensure we're progress monitoring our students' performance to address their needs accordingly without overburdening with too many assessments. is there the first time you're seeing this list? I would have to verify this list with the list that academics has just to make sure of its

219accuracy and what we're testing because I see unit assessments and things like that, that's -- those things are not uncommon when it comes to any teacher. I used to teach back in the day, I gave unit assessments, before you had the district wide comparing apples to apples across the board, that's typical when you see unit assessments and things like that for teachers to progress monitor, so I think wauns sdsh once we workshop this and go over all the assessment strategies and all the types of assessments, the purpose of them, how they're aligned to the instructional process and progress monitoring students for continued growth and improvement, I think we'll have a better picture of where we want to go as a district with our overarching assessment strategy. I understand and I'm sure as a past teacher,

220you are aware that besides these formal assessments, standardized assessments, there are class test and is quizzes and all these things, so I am hoping as you take action on this that also be backed at least some level of credible research and data to indicate when testing -- what frequency and quantity of testing is adequate and when it becomes counterproductive and I think that's a concern that we're hearing from student from the advise -- advisory chairs, there has to be something as far as testing, so I'm hoping there can be a robust inquiry and research into woo would be an appropriate amount of testing as far as district testing and classroom testing and so on. that's noted. thank you, I'm finished, MADAM Chair. thank you, any other board discussion? MRS. Alhadeff? I wanted to make the

221point in regards to having whatever our initiative is to be mindful of how many clicks for you to get to that initiative and how it's imbedded into the website. If it's more than really one or two clicks, it gets confusing and people get lost and then they give up and they don't do it. If this is your initiative, an important initiative, it should be on the home page, thank you. MRS. Rupert? thank you. I wanted to go back to messaging from district to staff and eventually to our teachers and our families, and I understand they MAY have been in a five hour meeting yesterday, there are still letters from principals to teachers telling them there will not be any subs until the end of the year and that moving forward, that the class rao m

222academic field traipses are cancelled as well because there's no money to get subs to go. So, those conversations are still happening. Those e-mails are still out there, so we need to kind of circle the wagons and figure out why is this continually happening and it just -- honestly, it looks extremely not a coincidence, it looks extremely insubordinate, and that's not my job, my job is to hold you accountable as my colleagues and I, so that's what it's looking at. We know how to communicate. We know this. We've done it and the vel l of communicatioioeven to bod d memeers s nonot to snuff. So, this really needs to happen for that and then on the other aspect when it comes down like I said, field trips, and also classes right now in elementary school are

223getting reshuffled. Teachers have left along the way. And their classes are going to be higher than they should be at second and third grade and there's nobody from the district that's down there taking over that classroom which would be preferable than splitting up your class completely. So, those are things that you really need to get a handle, DR. Hepburn, we say one thing and then we're doing another and that's absolutely not acceptable. Thank you. One more thing, sorry, when it comes down to audits and communication, the general auditor did a fantastic form for when things -- there's an exception, what responsibility, what department was in that responsibility, who in that department made that answer to that question, who did not get back to somebody, it's a very simple form, I believe, and correct me, MR.

224Rhodes, but it's like five pages or so, the most recent one, where you sent it out in the last month or so. Do you know what I'm talking about? are we talking about the tracking report? yes. yeah, that simply shows the work that's been done compared to the audit plan, so that we have a snapshot at any given time. right, and that's perfect, but it could be a fabulous template for communication or what needs to be done because the way you have it lined out especially going by department, going by what the -- you know, what was the specific order that had has been doeb done, where did it come from, so we can ask the superintendent to go back and say this is where the information is falling off and this is how I'm

225going fill it. we sent out a bcps full leadership tool kit to all of our principals and we will follow up with them again, but there is clear directions about athletic trips, are they impact, no, are field trips impacted, no, I know they met yesterday and I know the regional said they will get communications out again. we'll make sure to continue to put an exclamation mark. If anybody hears -- this is our committee chairs, if we have school leadership saying no to field trips, we need to know asap so we can deal with that immediately but there's clear xlaoun kaition to our school leaders to make sure that student field trip opportunities, athletic trips, all of those things are not impacted so we'll follow up again and again. absolutely. I sent that back to people,

226the information that staff put out saying this should not happen and yet it's still happening and when I had a phone call yesterday -- my gosh, my brain just went -- yes, there you go, I said, listen, ability substitute teachers, it's extremely important and I shared with DR. Lozano that's important. I'm trying to highlight that as well as I would like anybody to raise their hand as our audit committees, anybody hearing about tough being cancelled or classes being disbursed into other ones, raise your hand. well, disbursement, yes, tla's going to be part of some of the strategies if a teacher -- if a a school has a -- and it's probably a good opportune time to paint the picture why we're at this juncture with this strategy. We lost ten thousand students, we lost 40

227thousand student nrs the past ten years, we lost over 3600 students just this past semester, we're going to continue to lose students this semester and we're already expected by the state calculation to lose students by the start of the next year. We can't continue to hire new teachers when we're going to have to let them go and that equates to -- all of those numbers equates to almost a couple of hundred 348 dollars so we can't bring people into the system paying salaries and benefits, that puts a bind on our finance and is makes us not solve it moving forward. It is a tougher thing we have to do but if we have classrooms that are small because that school has lost students during the first semester also, we can't just replace them with another

228body, we have to implement different strategies. We probably have about 600 or so district instructional staff or people who have instructional certifications that we can deploy out which we're going to maximize that. But we can't continue to bring new people into the system because we can't afford that moving forward so we're trying to exercise every strategy known possible but you will see people deployed into the class rails to address this need but it's tough decisions right now and in some situations if that class has lost a lot of students and they have half of what they had before and other classes in that school are also low, it's a good strategy also to disburse students into other classrooms to make sure they're in front of a certified teacher as well. I want to mention to

229continue to reiterate why we're in the place we're in right now. I appreciate that. I know that but two particular schools are not underenrolled. They're at capacity and even more than that and there's no staff from here that is going to be put in those schools. The students are simply going to be disbursed throughout all the teachers at that school, so it's making their jobs harder as a highly effective school. If concerns like that pop up, I know committee chairs get a lot of information, if those concerns pop up, let us know. I know we gt a couple over the past couple of day and is we'll look at that if it's not an underenrolled school and exercise the best possible outcome, yes. that was wonderful the way you said that, that's what needs to

230be said. I think that's what aaron was referencing, that needs to be said by you to the families in this district and you said it so perfectly, you can go back and listen to the tape. Maybe make it shorter for those who don't like to read, but I just think it's great, yes, we can take information and share it, your principals can take information. The if you have a rumor that's running ramped as no more field trips this year, sports are gone, you know, I think it's important to send out a short, concise mess sthaj you're controlling that message to you know exactly what's being said and it could be you, it could be your CHAIRMAN Of your board, it could be whatever, but those messages need to go out to the community as a

231whole and to take away from the substitute and is field trip and is all, the message of what we find ourselves, a short, concise, the this is where we find ourselves, these are some measures we're taking, we're looking to all of you to help determine what works and what doesn't, I think that's what you were referencing. thankers for that feedback, MS. Verdic. it appears there are other committee members that want to provide feedback to you. if you don't mind, at the elementary level, we do see some grade levels with lowest student to teacher ratio being taken apart and disbursed, my son right here has 24 kids in his kindergarten class, 24, we're supposed to be at 18, and we have had a third grade class picked apart, disbursed, students put into high achiever gifted classroom

232that they shouldn't be in, they're picking up half way through the school year, when you have 200 to 300 district staff sitting, that need f needs to be deployed, this was for a planned retirement, we've been here for a month, instead of providing somebody from the district to cover the second grade retirement, we have an entire third grade level disrupted. Classes with more kids than they should have and a whole class picked apart, there's a social dynamic to this, an academic dynamic to this. .You told me, I'm sorry, we don't have anyone from the district to fill the site, I would be more understanding, we should have these people deployed when the hiring freeze was announced. We confirmed yesterday with staff that one or two people in the bier district has been sent to a

233classroom. Nobody from elementary. And yet we're hearing dozens of schools affected, hundreds or thousands of schools being displaced, that is not adequate. Get your teachers the, can come from the district. and they will, thank you for the feedback. do you want to hear from anybody else? MADAM Chair, can I make a quick comment on the same topic. DR. Hepburn, I believe what's important here is the class size, I'm not sure if that is a factor, it appears it is, even though we are -- I'm having students move to different classes, I think it's important to maintain a reasonable class size because if a class gets too large, I think it becomes problematic, I'm assuming that's one of the impacts of losing teachers and so on and so forth. Is that accurate? correct, so class sizes

234matter, number of student nrs the classes matter, but there's a process and people will -- you will see more people going out to classes this week. So, there's a methodical process for evaluation to make sure the need -- all the min yaoush ya of the how, they're doing a good job for that, we don't want to throw people sxout the school gets the wrong person. We're dealing with different type of issues that are going to impact kids, they'll get the wrong adult in front of that kid. You'll start see ago lot more people deployed this week to address sofm the needs that have been identified last week and that's why that meeting was so long on monday to make sure we identify the right people to go into these rooms. okay, so just to confirm,

235upon identifying the right people and whatever the process is, class size is taken into consideration, correct? yes. okay, thank you. MS. Bulman? I'll keep it short because I think everyone's touched on everything. I really appreciate, every single person brought good information and feedback, I've taken a ton of notes, it's the same when we're talking to the kids. It's great to be able to have feedback about what's happening throughout the entire district. I don't know if people aren't necessarily calling me from other place ins the county. I know we have a similar situation happen witching my son that's in fourth grade, to know it's happening in other places, it makes you more aware of the fact that this is happening throughout the county. So, I'm hoping that all of you can -- with the staffing, this

236is obviously something that's going to require follow-up and making sure everyone's on that and paying attention to it. So, if you guys can provide similar feedback next month, I think that would be important and helpful so we can keep everyone accountable. And also if you are having any concerns in the interim, please let us know so that we can also follow up with it. I think as collectively we'll be able to address this because we're talking about with the communication, it's really difficult, like, I have friends, I have parents that come to me, you hear rumors, you have things, it's hard to on a person to person basis manage something that's happening, like that's happening in one of my children's schools right now and it's difficult to get that message out, so I think tla's

237a great -- I think that's just grade feedback and we absolutely have to be driving the narrative and getting on top of it so that everyone's on the same page about what's happening and people can have confidence that we are doing the best we can to make sure that everyone's needs are being met despite the circumstances that we're under right now, so thank you to all of you, I have lots of notes so I will be following up with you vining. i will gate facility task force and to your point too, I think MS. Mull horne was asking about having input on the rfq before it goes out and that's a good idea to run it by the task force so they have eyes on it because that's why we have them, so thank you

238for that. thank you, any other board member comment? Just very quickly, I want to clear up the bylaw issue. Once a committee -- who does the committee submit their bylaws to? For review. to the district liaison. then what is the district liaison do with those bylaws? they submit them to the office of coordination, they coordinate with the office of coordination to make sure they go on the agenda. We madder from legal counsel that legal does not review bylaws, is that for the office of communications? correct. Rjs once they review those, what's the next step?Frjts the office of communications coordinate with them to make sure it's gets on the agenda, that's our role. I guess what we would like is just -- again, a list of the committee that is have submitted their bylaws when we

239can expect them to come to the board. yes, we have that already, we should be disseminating to the board no later than today. MADAM Chair, there's some information that's not being added, MAY I address it, please. Er yes. policy 1020, policy 1070 which overarches all the committees has not yet been passed by the board. It's now being -- yes, it's being publicly added in meet advising the latest the decision was taken to put it back through dac and for looping and we would hope the same happens with 1020 which intertwines with it. Speaking personally for ese advisory and there MAY be advisory chairs who aren't aware what's going on over policies, I'm not prepared to spend any time on our committee going over our policy and bylaws until that one is in place because that

240then affects what might be in our policies and bylaws. what I'm hear ising we need the the pass 1070 first in order for the bylaws -- okay. Tlfrjts's a process for that, is it being said as if somebody's holding up bylaws. In some cases, it MAY be, it's not tla we're not remiss and submitting them. I don't think that was the suggestion. I'm trying to add more information. thank you. Any other board discussion? MADAM Chair? okay, we all had time allotted and then board members had their time, we are running behind schedule. If there are issues you would like to raise like I've been in communication with dac in this meeting, please feel free to e-mail me. We will now go into a closed door session, that shall last for 60 minutes, all persons not

241scheduled to attend the closed door session, exit the room at this time. (Meeting in closed session). We will go straight to board questions, then we will take public comment. DR. Natalie lynch-walsh. DR. Natalie lynch-walsh, plantation, florida. On behalf of all of the people who get confused as to which meeting we're in, if it's not too much to ask, let the people waiting let them know what they're doing. We're sitting here guessing we should be sitting here or not. I was very pleased to see that all of the indicators for facilities are met once again. Which means if we start checking prints to see if they xlie f comply with the district ed specs, they should all be in compliance. I know that you're not in klein but that's what the report says. So, in terms

242of what the whole point of which was and those of you who are new, for ten years under the former superintendents ago, this was not happening until I figured out that it wasn't happening for ten years. And then it finally started and are we doing it with fidelity, nope. But anyway, next week is I believe DR. Martin luther king JR.'s birthday, so I wanted to -- if I can get to it read under the conclusions, this is from 2009, this was a letter sent to roland folks who was at the time the chair of the diversity committee. And he says I am sure that there are at least as many recommendations as there are issues for our response to you but in this season of reductions and budget cuts, those who understand the definition of

243equity and the difference between equity and he quality must stand guard. What do I mean? Well, certain schools and communities did not share equitably in the resources allocated to similar schools over the last five years these very same schools and communities MAY now be called upon to share equally if the bushd of cost cutting. I would submit equity would dictate that schools share many the cost reduction verses proportionate to their pao ifr year average allocation of resources above and beyond fte allocations as compare today other schools in the district. I fear we MAY again be asking those who receive the lease to sacrifice the most with nothing of a promise of a better tomorrow for that community while others enjoy a more prosperous today. In 2026, trying to save 252 thousand dollars on graduation venues

244while asking underenrolled schools like the big 3 to once again go into the gym and get less. That should not happen and I hope the discussion you end up having will restore the xwraj waysing venues for all schools. You cannot have a conversation about equity in a district that is giving a million and a half dollars to pay referendum supplements and take graduation vennues away. thank you, any board discussion on this item. DR. Zeman? thank you, chair, I appreciate it. This settlement, this report, this review, the effort that we put into this is essential in broward county. I want to thank all of the people that spent the time doing this. It is an annual reminer to us of what right looks like. And it's so important that we have that. I don't like to

245talk about mymy kids or my famimi d things lili that but I n'n't mi tataining abt t seself wa7 arars old before I was allowed to bring my black friends to the beach in fort lauderdale. Not in alabama, not in mississippi, not in texas, but in cosmopolitan fort lauderdale. We had institutional racism right here. I'm not going argue about kind of what level we've gotten to but I just always love this reminder where we sit down and we think a little bit about the difference between equity and he quality. But also just think about what right looks like and it's this board's I think very healthy commitment to continue to make steps towards making it as right as we possibly can, so I'm proud to serve with you, chair, and everybody else on this board

246as we continue on this journey but it is always a very, very healthy reminder when we get this report every year and I'm glad the numbers look better every year. I'm not ready to sleep on this yet, we're going to continue to work as we can be as right as we possibly can and I appreciate all of the time and effort into -- this doesn't get cone with one person in an afternoon and I'm just really proud of us to continue to do this, whether we needed to do it as a result of a settlement or we did it because it's also part of what right looks like. I'm proud of the district doing this every year, so thank you, chair. thank you, MS. Hixon? thank you. And I also, you know, appreciate having this

247information on a yearly basis to keep track of things. It is good to see most of it says met. There are some, the one I just wanted to ask about was condition 5 which was athletic inventory and equipment, if you go to page 26 under -- it's the indicator 1.5, the facilities, so it gives a list of things that aren't met and some of them are I know very costly, some of them about not having their own field, some of them we know we're putting turf in, we've committed to that and there are things about not having bleachers or rights. My main question is there are a lot of these score boards that don't work or need servicing and there's a lot of schools that fall under there and honestly it makes it really hard

248as a participant because I'm always at the game saying what is the score, and it's frustrating, and that's like a basic thing that should be working at the field, so can can you give us an update, a timeline on when some of these things, what the cost would be, do we see it in the defp, how are we going to move this to met? thank you for the question. MS. Hixon, so just a refresher, probably a couple of months ago, the board approved a seg cant amount of money to address our score board issue because a lot of our score boards are out of date and need a lot of repair and some just need to be simply replaced so I don't think we have -- unless MR. Dorsett la an amazing catalogue of memory

249that has the information about the timeline and when those score boards are going to start being replaced and repaired. What we MAY have to provide that in a follow-up. MR. Dorsett, if you have any information we can provide now and I know we can provide a follow-up on the schedule. mark dorsett, task assigned officer.. The board did approve a significant amount of money for score board repairs and we are about the business of doing that right now. I would have to provide you a board follow-up as to exactly where we are right now but I know some of the schools that we've already installed the turf fields on, we wanted to prioritize those to complete their facilities as a whole but I would have to give you a follow-up on where we are with that.

250okay, thank you, and my last ke f questions are on condition 6, so in 6.3, budget expenditures meet maintenance of effort, standards for the last three years, $9.60 per elementary and middle school, $12.80 per high school, it's talking about expenditures in the media center and I noticed that high school has gone down by 16% and I also want to ask about media specialist because I thought we had a discussion about having media specialists, not clerks, in all of the media centers and we just were at an amazing ribbon cutting for a school in plantation and I understand that there's no funding for them to have a media specialist, so that disconnect seems to fall under why this is not met. so, I'll speak on media specialist, the regional team is being strategic as a school

251loses their media clerk, they are to replace it with a media specialist. I talked to MS. Robinson over there at plantation, she hasn't lost the funding, we have a hiring freeze, so the innovative learning team is going to send one of her folks to be one of the media specialists temporarily until we lift that freeze, but for schools with current media clerks, when they lose that media clerk or if they have a vacancy, ne are to fill it with a media specialist. and that question, when you say media -- sorry, the hiring freeze, I think we've been really clear about we don't want things to impact our schools and our students, so if they -- someone retires or someone leaves, shouldn't we still be filling that position? I mean, I hear what you're saying, someone

252from the district is going to be there, is that going to be their permanent job? no, it won't, but remember when the rigors of h rrk, it takes about three, four weeks, sometimes five weeks, that's if you find somebody to fill a position, in order to fill that position now, we have the capabilities of filling that position now for the duration of the school year versus them having nobody and just sitting there vacant and it takes three to five weeks to process somebody and get them in there. they'll stay there for the duration of the school year and that position will be filled -- correct. thank you. The last one, the 6.6, no more than 50% of the collection have publication dates older than 15 years, that's not met. I've been to a lot of

253schools where the book shelves seem very kairs. What are we doing to make sure that -- and I know tla the answer is kids don't read books but sometimes if you bring them in the library and there are books there and they look interesting, tle eel pick one up and read it, so what are we doing as a district to help with 6.6? yes, I know DR. Wilson and her team with innovative learning team, they are going through catalogues and updates catalogues regularly. I know she's in the room or if DR. Cohen is behind me, they can give some information. chief academic officer, so thanks for the question, MS. Hixon, so schools do have allocated spend authority for budgets for allocation for spending, so we just sent that out had week to all regional directors

254and principals to let them know they have unspent funds that they can use to replenish their libraries. So, those schools that have media clerks, that's where the district staff, we have about three media specialists at district level who are going and supporting those schools with media clerks, they want to make sure this replenish them as necessary. thank you, that goes back to my other question. If the district only has three media specialists at this level and we're spending one of them to plantation to be their media specialist for the rest of the school year, how does that work then get done, to me it seems to make more sense to hire mrn -- someone to fill a position. the catalogues are electronic, they know what books are in what schools. The information is readily at

255their fingertips and know what's in the catalogue, what is the publication date of that specific book so they know what books they need to sunset and how many books they need to replace. so then that would indicate on >> an org chart we don't need three of them moving forward, I think you can roll down this -- you're getting ahead of me, yeah, looking at those inefficiencies and becoming more efficient with the amount of people that support certain things. thank you. thank you, DR. Holness? thank you, DR. Hepburn, on page -- so sorry, let me go down to it. On page 16, it indicates the xwraj waysing rate as it compares to the state and two schools are shown here not meeting criteria as far as the chart. What action plans are in place and

256I'm happy with the numbers but what action plans are in place to address these two schools indicated here? DR. Holness, I was goin to save this for the blipping of the special for breaking noise for bcps but I MAY as well, it's on that subject right now, to answer your question with breaking news, right now the graduation rates for last school year have been posted, the federation rate is 94.4% which represents 2.4 percentage point increase from the 23-24 school year, so huge round of applause. [Applause]. Bcps graduation rate has surpassed 90% for the first time in at least 25 years reaching an impressive 91.4%, the graduation rate for ela learners rolls about 5.3%, the graduation rate for black and african american students rolls about 3.5%. 36 out of 36 traditional high schools achieved a graduation

257rate of 90% or higher and 31 of these schools reached a garage ration rate at or above 9 a %. 7 district high schools earn 100% graduation rates, atlantic tech high school, college academy, lauderhills 6-12, cede tech, millennial 6-12, pompano beach high school, sheridan tech are all at 100% graduation rate. [Applause]. There was a plan, it's been execute and had we're ear continuing the ko pt wows improvement process to raise garage ration rates that are not as 100%. thank you for that update. I hope we'll see on this the headlines tonight across our immediate ya. yes. MS. Rupert? thank you so much for that. Quickly, I'm brought back I think probably five years or six years ago in my mind as I was going through this update and indicate 5.1, athletics high schools of the

258schools meet the standard, we've struggled with that, and especially the ones that are in our lower socio-economic schools which I represent many of them there, so we have a lot of work to do still in this particular area. I know we're getting ready and ramping up to work on the fields, the turf fields, then we've already sksh three schools have already started -- sorry, three of my schools already last year have started and six schools are currently receiving the updates so that's going to be a big difference for safety and for equity across the district. And then I'm brought back to score boards which is on page 52 and it's still -- I'm sorry, indicator 5.1, and looking at these, I see that the following high schools I'm not going list them do not work

259or need servicing work to properly and consistently work. This had been such an issue for decades that I literally had to put it in a superintendent evaluation to get bla n blanche ely high school's score board up and working again. This is an important look every single year for our schools and when -- it's important to keep everybody enjoying the same experience with their schools, so thank you so much. I appreciate it. thank you, any other board discussion? Alright. That ends that workshop. We will now mover on to our next item, that would be program -- annual program governance orientation. I think we will also go straight to board member questions, we'll just wait for staff to turn over. MR. Hill, do we have public speakers for that? no comments. okay. Are there any board

260members who would like to speak to this item, the annual program governance orientation? No? Okay. Alright. That concludes these workshops. We'll have some board discussion at the end of the special, but at the direction of the superintendent, the following agenda topics are tentatively scheduled to be addressed during the upcoming workshops, FEBRUARY 3, advisory committee reports, district budget update, supplement rule dwoment, learning community, rule development audit poll osier final bond oversight report, rural development, safety and security policies, that's FEBRUARY 3. FEBRUARY 17 policy review finance den fits district update, mid session legislative update, district strategic plan, policy 4.9, correct I ever action, broward virtual franchise, non-traditional schools, deployment of ai, the instruction assessment and testing ensuring balance, reducing overeating and protecting instructional time. Please note the order of the topics and schedule remain tentative and are

261subject to adjustment at the superintendent's discretion. The scheduled order of business for the school board workshop of the county bro ird kol, I will adjourn the school board workshop and go into our special school board workshop. I will now adjourn this school