School Board Workshop - Apr 21, 2026

001Welcome to today's school board workshop. This workshop of the School Board of Broward County, Florida is now called to order. To ensure a safe and productive environment, please note the clearly marked emergency exits. Do not block the exit doors and all attendees must be seated except for media. Once the room reaches capacity, attendees will be directed to the overflow area. If the fire alarm sounds, exit the room calmly continue outside the building and remain there until authorities give clearance to return. Thank you for your cooperation. Board member Hixon will now introduce her school to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. Thank you and good morning. I am very excited to introduce Westchester Elementary under the leadership of Principal Frame Germain, to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance this morning. Please

002stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under GOD, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please be seated. Thank you. Board member Cervera has requested a moment of silence. MR. Cervera. Thank you, MADAM Chair. On behalf of the school board is with heavy hearts that we share the very sad news of the passing of Lucas Eduardo Salazar, a beloved second grade student at Indian Trace Elementary School. Lucas's life, though far too brief, touched the hearts of his family, his classmates, his teachers, and all those who had the privilege and knowing and caring for him. Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with Lucas's family his mother Jessica, his father Carlos, and his older sister, Luciana. We

003also extend our heartfelt support to the Indian Trace community as they grieve this profound loss. Please keep Lucas's family in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time. At this time, as a community, I ask that we stand together in compassion and solidarity, honoring Lucas's memory and the love he shared with those around him. Please bow your head with me for a moment of silence in Lucas's honor. Thank you. Thank you. As we begin, we reaffirm our vision 100% proficiency for all students. As an a-rated district, we remain committed to sustaining this achievement and supporting every student to reach their highest potential. Our theme this year is believe, empower, achieve one Broward. Just as a reminder to my colleagues, we do have a special school board meeting scheduled at 1 P.M. At that time, I

004will recess the workshop if we are still in discussion. Open the special meeting and then come back to the workshop. Are there any questions about that? We will now proceed with the agenda. Today's workshop will operate in accordance with School Board policy 1020 and the board will review the items as advertised and presented by the superintendent. You MAY notice that the room is set up differently today to accommodate maximum public participation, and to facilitate an efficient and safe meeting. As a reminder to everyone who is here to do public comment, please make sure to sign in so that we accurately capture your name and know that you will have one minute to speak. Additionally, once a public comment begins, you will have the sign up for public comment. Will suspend 15 minutes into public comment.

005So if you would like to do public comment today, if you would like to speak today, please ensure that you sign up in immediately. Policy 1020 allocates a total of 30 minutes for public speaking with three minutes per speaker, but also allows the chair discretion to extend the 30 minutes for public speaking and reduce minutes per speaker. I've used that discretion today to allow every single person who is here to speak the opportunity to speak again, sign up for public speaking will cease 15 minutes into the public speaking time. So we have extended that deadline today. I ask that the audience maintains decorum during the staff presentation, public speaking and board deliberations so that we can conduct a respectful, safe and efficient government meeting. Today's agenda topic is the proposed 2627 organizational chart. I now

006turn it over to the superintendent for the presentation. MADAM Chair. Point of order. I'd like my objection noted on the record. As far as the reduction of the speaker time, I feel like this is a very important topic that brings many, many members of the community here. Today I see a full gallery here. I think we have some overflow in both rooms, and I was a little disappointed to hear that the people who took time out of their days to come and speak with us about this very important issue, are having their time cut down to one minute. I understand you have the ability as chair to do this. I would just like my objection noted on the record that I think these individuals should be given their full three minutes, as opposed to the

007the short changing and only giving them a minute. So I'd just like my objection noted on the record. Thank you. Your objection is noted. And again, the reason for reducing the time and this has been noticed since Saturday. I asked staff to put this on the website so that everyone who is here to speak has an opportunity to speak. So thank you for those of you who understand, go ahead, Doctor Hepburn, with your presentation. Thank you, MADAM Chair. Thank you. Board public at large. And that we have actually in attendance in both rooms today is about stewardship and the future of bcc stewardship of a school system that is performing at a high level, stewardship of public trust and stewardship of the long term strength and stability of Broward County Public Schools. I've been superintendent

008for two years, and during that time, Broward County Public Schools has demonstrated extraordinary academic progress and earned significant statewide and national recognition, including back to back a district ratings zero dnf schools for two consecutive years for the first time since 1999. Actually the first year of the accountability system in Florida. Highest graduation rate in at least 25 years. Recognized as a Cambridge District of the year for large districts. Named as an academically high performing school district by the Florida State Board of Education, outperformed Florida's other large districts in most tested areas. On the 2025 faz pm three assessment, and also ranked number one in Florida for industry certification and attainment, and many other accolades that I haven't listed here. These accomplishments are not incidental. They reflect the work of our principals, teachers, staff, and students,

009and they make clear that this district is delivering results. At the same time, I recognize this there is more work to do, especially on the business side of our organization, and we're continuing to make improvements in that area. But strong outcomes do not eliminate hard decisions. They make responsible leadership even more important as it relates to our current budget reality. And make no mistake, this is driven by a decline in student enrollment. We have already implemented significant cost saving measures. However, additional action is also required. More than 80% of our budget is tied to personnel, which is why this organizational chart is necessary. We must also ensure that we remain above the 3% fund balance threshold, which falling behind. That leaves the district at risk of losing local control of our financial future. With decisions

010potentially shifting to the state. And it is important to recognize that the situation we find ourselves in is not unique to Broward. Districts across Florida and the nation are facing similar challenges nearly every day. When I read the paper or go online, there's a report of a school system reducing staff and adjusting programs in response to the declining enrollment and rising costs they're experiencing. With that context, let me explain the why behind today's proposal. The challenges we are addressing did not happen overnight. Enrollment decline has been ongoing for years and has recently accelerated, compounded by rising cost of doing business, including increases in employee benefits, utilities, transportation and overall operational expenses. Over the past decade, our district has experienced a significant and sustained decline in student enrollment. Nearly 40,000 students lost, including about 10,000 students

011just this current school year, with another 10,000 projected for the upcoming school year. That's equating to 20,000 students declining over a two year school school year period. As enrollment declines, so does our funding. Quite simply, fewer students mean fewer dollars coming into our system. At the same time, our staffing model had not been fully aligned to reflect that reality. This proposal is about rightsizing our organization, aligning our staffing and structure with the students we serve today, not the system we had ten years ago. It's about ensuring long term financial sustainability while protecting what matters most. Classrooms, instruction and direct services to students. At a high level, this plan reduces duplication and streamlines operations, aligns departments into more orornated,fficient service momolsls shihift resourcrces closer toto soolshrhrgh regional an integrated s spoport systems. Leveraged data technology and

012innovation to improve decision making, and aligns our central office structure with peer districts validated by an external review. This generates approximately 40 million in savings, with more being realized throughout the spring and the summer. This proposal includes the reduction of approximately 862 positions, making it among the largest reductions in force in recent district history and reflecting our effort to better align staffing with enrollment and peer benchmarks. We were tasked with identifying reductions closer to 1000 positions, and I want to address that directly. This proposal reflects a deliberate and disciplined approach. It achieves substantial cost savings and structural alignment without compromising the core systems that support teaching and learning. At what point do we additional cuts begin to impact our system and ability to sustain student outcomes? That is the line we have tried carefully not

013to cross during this process. The work is not done as we continue this work alongside the board during the spring and the summer, we anticipate we anticipate identifying approximately 200 or more positions for reduction, primarily through attrition, consolidation of functions and continued efficiency reviews, including a focused evaluation of non-instructional and unarmed safety staff staffing allocations. We will work to continue our hiring freeze with the priority on staffing our schools over the next few months. It is important to note that the majority of any additional positions identified will not be new positions in the traditional sense, but rather the result of continued consolidation of functions, elimination of duplication and restructuring in which multiple roles can be combined into more efficient models. It is also important to note that the current reductions are furthest away from our

014classrooms, and the majority of teachers currently assigned to district positions will have the opportunity to return to school based vacancies. Throughout this process, we have been intentional ensuring that these reductions do not jeopardize the academic progress we have made as a district. Maintaining an a rating is not simply about a letter grade. It reflects the strength of our system, the quality of instruction in our classrooms, and most importantly, whether our teachers and schools have the support they need to help students succeed. This plan is designed to preserve those supports and protect our core business, teaching and learning. Before we go further, I want to acknowledge something very important. You're going to hear a lot of numbers today positions, percentage reductions. But behind every number is a person. They're a member of our bc family, individuals

015who have dedicated their time, talent, and careers to serving our students and community, many who have kids in our system right now. These decisions are not about performance. They are driven by student enrollment declines and funding realities. That is why we have made a deliberate effort to handle this process with compassion, professionalism and respect. Notifying employees earlier, providing support, service and ensuring they have time to plan their next steps. I want to address a concern I know MAY exist in the community. There have been a perception that reductions are focused on rank and file employees, with similar changes not occurring at the cabinet level. These leadership functions remain essential to operating the system effectively, safely, and in compliance with state and federal requirements. Regardless of enrollment changes. I understand these concerns. However, compared to similar

016sized districts, we maintain a lean cabinet structure, and it's important to note that approximately 16% of the reductions are at the director and above level, 15% are on the chart, which are mid and senior level, and 13% are below the chart. Before I turn it over to my cabinet team, you'll first hear from mgt, our external consultant, who will present their findings. It was important that this work was done, was not done in isolation, but rather guided and validated by an independent external entity, ensuring that our approach reflects best practices and is benchmarked against similar sized districts within our state and around the country. Following that presentation, cabinet members will walk through their respective areas of the organizational chart, the proposed changes and how they will continue to deliver services effectively within this new structure.

017MR. Sullivan, if you can have beacon, start that presentation and I'll turn it over to MR. Sullivan to get us started with the review of our organizational chart proposal. Yes, I believe mgt is on the line. If you guys can speak to make sure we can hear you and we'll display your presentation. Good morning. Can you all hear me? Yes, we can hear you. So just let us know when to switch the slides and we'll go ahead and control that from here. Okay, great. We currently cannot see those slides. Amazing. Good morning board and broader public. Thank you for having us this morning. My name is Stephanie. I'm a project manager at mgt. Mgt is a social impact consulting firm and I serve on our k-12 team. I'm a former teacher and district leader and

018have had the pleasure of leading the team and working with Doctor Hepburn and his cabinet over the past six weeks on this analysis. And I'm joined by two colleagues today. First is Jamie Vandewalle, a vp at mgt and a former chief portfolio officer of Indianapolis Public Schools, as well as Olivia Cohen, who's a senior consultant at mgt and also an alumni of Broward County Public Schools. So our team focuses on k-12 education. That's our subject matter expertise. We've got a strong understanding of district level operations and change management. And as Doctor Hepburn said, Broward County is not alone in these challenges. And so we have had the opportunity to guide districts through similar work, both nationwide and in Florida. So today we are going to present data driven central office staffing review and our externally

019validated path forward that we are recommending. And as Doctor Hepburn noted, this work is focused on both financial sustainability while protecting those really strong student outcomes that you all have worked over recent years in order to achieve. So we will walk through the historical data and some of the data that the benchmarking shows from peer districts, as well as explore our recommendation and potential future next steps. Go ahead and move on. Great. So this was a fast but comprehensive and rigorous process. We benchmarked Broward County public Schools against five peer districts. We did a deep review of Broward's hr and financial data. We engaged with over 70 department leaders to get their input and worked closely and interviewed and validated data. Alongside the Chiefs, we also worked within clear guardrails. We knew that you all

020wanted to identify at least one scenario that reaches a thousand position reductions. You will see that scenario today. Additionally, we were tasked with protecting students first. So services that are closest to students were guarded to the best of our ability. And then of course, we wanted to ensure full legal and union compliance. So we believe that the recommendation that we're bringing today strikes the balance of being realistic, defensible and also implementable. So what did the pure benchmarking tell us? First of all, Broward is above the peer median in terms of central office staffing and spend. So Doctor Hepburn's instincts were correct. There is a need to right size the central office staffing, both from a monetary standpoint and a people standpoint. So currently, Broward sits at 20% of central office as a percent of total

021staff. The peer median is at 17%. So if proceeded with, if we proceed with 800 to 1000 cuts, that puts Broward right at the peer median of 17%, which is what we would want. We will talk, however, about the timing and phasing of those reductions and some of the risks of doing that all at once. It's important to note a couple of other things here. The first is that Broward does not appear to have a top heavy leadership structure. There are less chief level roles and superintendent direct reports than the peer median. So you will still see recommended cuts at that top level, but based on peer benchmarking alone, those did not appear to be essential. In order to be aligned with the peer benchmarking. So some of the takeaways from this data. The first

022is that we identified that there is potentially middle layer density. So rather than being top heavy, there appeared to be this kind of middle layer, which is managers and managers of managers that appeared higher proportionally at Broward County than it did in other places. And so you'll see, we worked with chiefs in order to really focus on that layer specifically and ensuring that cuts were happening, both at the top, definitely at the middle and also at the lowest level. Additionally, we see some fragmented functions. So in other districts, we're seeing that folks have made changes in order to share resources across departments, to consolidate functions, etc. And we'll talk about some of the next steps that Broward MAY take in order to address those fragmented functions. Additionally, as noted, we did see a heavier non-instructional

023footprint. And so we see that peer districts have consolidated more services, simplified structures. And so this leads us to believe that this is an opportunity not just for cuts, but potentially for broader structural redesign with which the Chiefs have thoughtfully been working on and will present to you today. So all of this data led us to develop two different scenarios, which we will talk through. The first is the superintendent recommendation, which we have externally validated and are standing behind and presenting to you today. The second is that maximum action reduction. And this does hit that 1000 position threshold. However, due to the variety of risks that we have uncovered, this is not the recommended path forward that we are bringing to the board today. So the superintendent recommendation, our approach was to first start, per

024the superintendent's directive, chiefs identified reductions of 15% or more by division. So every single division was tasked with reaching that 15%. Additionally, as noted, this scenario prioritizes reductions that are furthest away from students, including safety and security, which we know is super important to the district, the public, and the board. This scenario complies with all the legal, structural and union obligations. And then we spent time closely evaluating a subset of positions, and those are vacant and unfilled positions, positions that have the highest potential for ai integration or automation in the future, and any outdated programs and initiatives. The difference between this and the maximum action reductions is that the maximum action reductions do cut some student facing functions, and so that includes safety and security. There's some bus drivers, student support services, cafeteria facilities. Those

025things had to be on the table in order to meet that 1000 position threshold. And again, we'll walk through some of the risks of cuts to those types of positions on this quick of a timeline in a little bit. Additionally, we reviewed even more greater positions for automation and even greater cuts to vacancies. So let's next look at the superintendent recommendation, externally validated in detail. So it's important to note that this work is in progress. And so as Doctor Hepburn noted, things are changing every day. This is a living and breathing district. Folks are resigning, folks are retiring. And and chiefs are continuing to evaluate their departments and divisions over the next spring and summer. And so these numbers will continue to adjust. We anticipate that they will go up rather than down, meaning additional

026positions will be identified and some gains or some additional savings rather will be added to the general fund cost savings. But this is where we're at as of today. And the dates that you see reflected here. Currently, there's been 803 positions identified for reduction. And all the way on the right side of the screen, you'll see what that means in terms of general fund savings. As of now, that's 27 million in general fund savings on the lower left hand side. And in the light blue, you can see highlighted what those reductions are by level of the organization. And so directors and above those cuts were 16% of all staff at that level. Reductions to organizational leaders was 15%. And then organizational executor's was 13%. So reductions were identified at every single level of the organization.

027They actually were identified at a higher rate at the top of the organization, rather than at the executor level. As noted, this is the maximum action reductions. We do hit that $1,000 1000 position number rather, and we anticipate that this would generate potential general fund savings of an additional 7 million. And you'll see the breakdown of cuts in the in the gray on the left hand side does show that this would cut more at the bottom levels of the organization than at the top. So that's one important thing to note here. I think additionally, we know that this would require cuts to student facing roles and includes a higher execution risk, especially for the kind of limited additional savings that this has to offer. So it does meet that thousand dollar threshold, but at a

028much higher cost to the system. Looking at some of those risks in detail. First of all, I think there is a high risk of impact to student outcomes and experience because student facing roles were touched during these reductions. And so when we start to play around with roles that are student facing, you potentially put at risk the really incredible academic outcomes that you all have worked to achieve in recent history. Additionally, we can see a breakdown in school level service model and without the thoughtful time to plan for implementation and change management, execution throughout the district becomes at risk. Additionally, ai and automation are real. Your district is taking steps towards ensuring that you are maximizing the impact of those innovations. However, they do take time and are not immediate and so cutting too much

029too quickly, particularly in those positions that are right for automation, can be a real risk to the ability of the district to, to serve students and families effectively. We think that those cuts can happen over time and should be planned for. But cutting too much too early is a huge risk to the ability of the district to deliver. So although that maximum action scenario would provide that 1000 1000 position number, it is not recommended to be pursued all at once. And so what that means is that the superintendent and his chiefs have worked really hard to identify parallel initiatives that would support further savings in order to reduce the deficit. And so you'll see on the left side that pink central office staffing optimization, that's the work that we're talking through right now. And then

030on to the right of that, you'll see other parallel initiatives that the Chiefs have been working hard on in order to identify additional savings. And so I imagine they'll talk through some of that later today. But we know that redefining our schools has hope will hopefully lead to approximately 3.5 million in additional savings. This is school budget reductions that are related to enrollment changes. So right sizing the school budget based on the amount of students that are expected for the next year and the following years after that. Additionally, and similarly, transportation efficiencies can also be found because of adjusting for upcoming enrollment numbers. And then on the right far right side, you'll see a variety of other initiatives, including adjusting staffing allocations, reviewing contracts and consultant work, and looking at overtime controls. And so the

031cabinet believes that all of these initiatives together will hopefully drive up to 80 to 90 million in savings. And cfo Johnson will be able to speak more in depth to the things that you see on the right side of that slide. So as noted earlier, we do think that additional cuts will be needed in future years. So the recommendation is to proceed with the 800 plus cuts this fiscal year. And we know that additional cuts will be needed in order to get to that peer benchmark and also to plan for a sustainable future. As enrollment is expected to continue to decline both in Broward County and in a lot of other places across Florida and the nation, before making additional cuts, there's additional analysis and planning that our team would recommend that the board take

032on. The first is a comprehensive central office reorganization. This work looked at cuts from a division by division perspective. We talked about those fragmented roles earlier. What a central office redesign would do is look kind of across the horizontals. Where c c chiefss sharee resesrcrcetter, whe can funioio b combined, etc. Dd would allow for really thoughtful implementation planning based on the cuts that you all have already identified. When we cut people, there's still work to be done. They all had jobs and duties, etc. And so there's a lot of work to be done in order to think through how does that work continue? How is it structured across the remaining folks on teams, etc. Additionally, there's some other recommendations here. The second is for a compensation study. There's currently some misalignment between roles and bands

033and position titles, etc. That that happens in districts over long periods of time. And so taking a really close look at that and ensuring equitable and sustainable compensation would be a recommendation of ours. Additionally, governance and process documentation and taking a closer look at the service model. So how are school? How is the central office supporting schools and what's the relationship between those two functions? That is a whole nother stream of work that could require some deep analysis, its own peer benchmarking, etc. To ensure that you all have the most efficient and effective system there. And then of course, more stakeholder engagement and implementation planning to ensure that all of this is sequenced in a way that is most supportive to the outcomes that you all are prioritizing. To close. This is an illustrative path

034of what this work could look like over the next few years. So again, if we if you all proceed with moving forward with the 800 positions, we know that there are additional positions that will need to be identified over the next few years. This is the path that we would recommend in order to thoughtfully identify those future reductions and plan for a sustainable future. And so this maps out things like that central office redesign, that implementation work, looking at the service model, etc. Over the next few years in order to get to that 1000 threshold in a more sustainable way and potentially beyond that, based on your enrollment benchmarking. So that concludes our recommendation for this. Again, I think this is meant to balance preserving your really wonderful student outcomes and reaching for financial sustainability.

035So I will transition it back to Doctor Hepburn for the remainder of the presentation. Thank you. MR. Sullivan. Yes. Good morning. Thank you superintendent. Good morning, chair, board members and to the public, I will be presenting pages two and three of the organizational chart, which reflects changes at the superintendent level and within the Office of Chief of Staff Beacon. If you can put page two up. I'm just giving beacon a moment to transition to the chair. While that's coming up, will the team be available to answer questions later from the board? Yes. Thank you chair. Okay, so I'm going to again begin on page two. The primary change here is to elevate the Chief Facilities Officer to report directly to the superintendent. This adjustment was made in response to board feedback and is intended to

036strengthening direct oversight and accountability of our capital programs. Improve coordination and execution of major facility projects, enhance our ability to recruit and retain a highly qualified leader in this role. Given the size, complexity, and visibility for capital program, this ensures facility remains a top priority with clear executive level oversight and alignment. Now moving on to page three. The Office of Chief of Staff has undergone a strategic restructuring focusing on these key areas, strengthening executive leadership and alignment, improving communication and stakeholder engagement, enhancing data driven decision making and execution. As part of this, the role has been redefined from Chief of Staff and Communications to Chief of Staff, while still maintaining oversight of communications. This allows for a stronger focus on enterprise alignment and execution. The Office of Chief of Staff is going from 96 positions

037to 70 positions, with most of those being reductions. We have eliminated and consolidated several positions to reduce duplication and improve efficiencies, including realigning family and community engagement into strategy and innovation, transitioning partnership functions to the Broward Education Foundation, streamlining communications staff to eliminate, overlap, and elevate key functions. Implementing operational efficiencies within our Beacon Department, which eliminates middle management positions such as the manager, two productions manager to school services and supervisor one a print services. These changes reduce redundancies and ensure resources are focused on high impact work. At the same time, we have made targeted adjustments to strengthening core functions. Establishing an Executive Director of communications to centralize elevate messaging, transparency and responsiveness, added a manager of marketing and a manager of mass media and community relations to strengthening digital engagement and stakeholder communications. This is

038in direct response to the board's priority to improve communications across all audiences, realign enterprise analytics and intelligence under a Chief of Staff to ensure leadership has direct access to timely and actionable data, along with a unified governance structure that leverages ai to ensure we no longer operate in silos. Also, centralized project management functions to improve coordination and execution across all divisions. Importantly, all these changes were achieved through reallocation of existing funds, making this a cost efficient restructuring within the division while still contributing meaningfully to the overall cost savings. The overall impact of this realignment is a structure that is more coordinated, more data driven, and more responsive. It strengthens our ability to execute priorities, improve communication, and ensure accountability across the organization. With that, I will turn it over to Doctor Dr Fulton. MADAM Deputy.

039Good morning and thank you, MR. Sullivan. Despite enrollment decline, our responsibility remains unchanged to ensure that all of our students remain supported. Every teacher is equipped to deliver a high quality instruction all day and every day, and also to ensure that every school leader is developed and supported to lead their school communities effectively. So within our regional offices, we have eliminated three director positions. These are Director of Teaching and Learning. These leaders play an important role in developing principles, supporting school improvement, and holding our leaders accountable for student performance, ensuring that every school has strong leadership and the support needed to improve student outcomes. In addition to these staff reductions, we are aligning how support is delivered by bringing our academic department and our student services, which includes Esq mental health and other student supports,

040into a regional support hub model. This will create one coordinated, unified system of support with wrap around services that will will be deployed from our regional offices. Currently, support services to our students are centralized, sometimes unintentionally resulting in services being uncoordinated, duplicated and providing a very slow response to our schools. A regional support hub will address that by providing one coordinated team, one message, one voice, better duplication and avoiding conflicting guidance, better aligned supports, but most importantly, faster, more responsive services to all of our schools. This model will create a clear accountability where each region will own student outcomes and delivery of support for our leaders, our teachers, our students, our parents, and the broader community that they serve. Ultimately, this proposal is about protecting what matters most strong schools, strong support and strong student

041outcomes. By operating leaner, with greater alignment and clear accountability, bcc will be well positioned to sustain excellence and build on the historic academic progress that we have achieved over the past two years. And with that, I'll turn it over to Doctor Cohen to continue with academics. Good morning everyone. Today I'm presenting the academic organizational realignment, which is a critical component of the district's broader effort to right size our organization while strengthening academic outcomes. We reduced 85 positions going from 427 positions to 346 positions. Can you hear me? Yes. We repurposed four existing positions, resulting in a consolidation and streamlining of cross-functional work, attributing to the development of new job descriptions. And this is not simply about reducing positions. It's about redesigning how we deliver academic services to schools in a way that is more efficient,

042more coherent, and more impactful. The challenge we addressed is that, historically, the division of academics operated through multiple independent departments professional learning and development, applied learning and innovative learning. While these departments contributed meaningfully to the work, the structure did create some fragmentation across the system, some overlapping responsibilities, and some disconnection of professional learning. With limited alignment between innovation and core instruction, this structure restricted our ability to scale effectively practices and deliver consistent support to schools. Simply put, we had strong work that was happening, but not always in a unified system. And so what we changed is we addressed it through intentional elimination of consolidated positions, including the director of Professional Learning and Development, the director of Applied Learning, the director of Innovative Learning, an additional supervisor and support roles. These decisions were not about removing

043work. They were about removing duplication. And what we recognize is that teacher development already already existed across all academic departments. Innovation needed to be embedded, not separate, and innovation in applied learning needed stronger alignment to core academics. So instead of operating in silos, we read, we redistributed and strengthened the work within a unified structure. And at the same time, we repurposed key positions at no additional cost to meet evolving needs. So we redesigned positions such as director of ai and Digital learning. On page seven, the Director of Leadership Development and Teacher Support on page six. And we repurposed two supervisors to assistant directors to provide greater oversight and strengthen execution to scale. These are on page six and page seven, and we also consolidated two supervisory positions the curriculum supervisor of social studies and the

044curriculum supervisor of civics into one consolidated position called the Curriculum Supervisor of Writing, civics engagement and interdisciplinary studies. And this provides greater opportunity to provide cross-curricular instruction. This is a cost neutral, efficient based redesign that increases impact, and on page seven, you will see a critical strategic shift to the director of ai and digital learning, one of the most critical academic decisions in this realignment was the creation of the director of ai Strategy and Digital Learning, which consolidates two director level positions, Director of applied learning and innovative learning into a single unified vision. And this is not about technology. It's about transforming teaching and learning for the 22nd century. It ensures that artificial intelligence, extended reality, virtual reality, and digital tools are embedded into instruction, not treated as separate initiatives. It ensures that teachers are

045prepared to leverage ai to personalize learning, increase engagement and accelerate outcomes. And more importantly, it's for students to develop skills required for rapidly evolving workforce, including critical thinking, problem solving, and ai literacy. In this, positions brought not just to adapt, but to lead in how public education evolves in an ai driven world. And this is this was a strategic consolidation that moves us from scattered innovation efforts to a coherent, system wide approach to future ready. And so this new academic model now allows us to operate under a coherent academic service model built on three interdisciplinary pillars instructional excellence, excellence in real world application, educator development and innovation, and future ready in. This creates a coherent academic ecosystem where instruction, teacher development, and innovation operate as one system. And so how does this impact our schools

046and our regional alignment? So for schools this changes the experience significantly. It, instead of having multiple departments operate independently, schools now receive one coordinated system of support stronger instructional coaching, more aligned professional learning, integrated academic innovation supports. This also strengthens alignment with our regional offices, ensuring that services are more responsive. Communication is clearer. Support is consistent across schools and ultimately. But more importantly, this is how we look at results. It's about continuing the path of improved student outcomes for all scholars, even during a significant restructuring. Our fast Pgm2 data results show we are on track to maintaining an a rating, and we are projected to exceed last year's performance. So this reflects stronger instructional systems focused teacher support and now greater alignment across the district. And this model positions us to accelerate achievement across all

047student groups, close performance gaps, improved teacher efficacy, and reduced duplication. And so now it provides us with stronger teachers, stronger instruction, stronger student outcomes. And I pass this next section to of the chart presentation this summer. Simone Hollingsworth, Chief student Services Officer, to review her chart. Good morning. Thank you. I want to begin by acknowledging what many in our community are feeling the roles of Esq counselors and school social workers, to name a few, are deeply valued, and the decision to reduce positions was not made lightly. This was not a decision about the importance of these services, but a necessary realignment in how we deliver them. In response to declining enrollment, school closures and current budget constraints. Over the past two years, the district has experienced a significant decline in student enrollment, which directly impacts

048funding and staffing allocations. In response, we conducted a review of our organizational structure, caseloads and service delivery models to ensure we continue to meet all local, state and federal requirements, including the provision of a free, appropriate public education for students with disabilities. For example, it is important to clarify that while counseling services MAY be included on a student's iep, the positions of eoc counselor and school social worker are not statutory required roles. What is required is that services are delivered by qualified professionals in Florida. That includes school counselors, school social workers, and school psychologists. As a division, the majority of our staff are direct service providers who work directly with students. Those who do not carry a defined caseload serve in a critical support role for students, schools, and families. These individuals are deployed in

049response to needs brought forward by schools, families and the community, supporting areas such as academics, behavior, independent functioning, communication and social services. This structure ensures that resources are responsive and targeted where they are most needed. As a result of this review, we are moving to a more integrated school based model of support. What does this mean for students in schools? First, services are not being eliminated. They are being redistributed. We are strengthening a team based approach where school counselors, school psychologists, social workers and Esq staff work together as a unified system of mental health and student support providers. School counselors will continue to provide direct academic and resiliency support. School psychologists will provide evaluation, consultation and intervention planning. School social workers will support students and families through key functions, attendance, crisis response, and connecting families

050to resources, while also monitoring student needs through ongoing check ins and data informed practices. A significant component of the social worker role will continue to include the development of psychosocial reports, which are critical in understanding student needs and informing interventions and supports. Second, services are embedded within and aligned to schools to provide direct and responsive support at the site level, as reflected in the redistribution of resources. Social workers will continue to be aligned to schools and embedded within school based teams. In addition, our staff are aligned regionally, strengthening the connection between district support and the specific schools and communities they serve. This allows for more consistent communication, quicker response to student needs, and a deeper understanding of each school's unique context. Embedding services within schools will strengthen collaboration with school teams, improve identification of student

051needs and interventions, and enhance school level ownership and accountability. It is also important to note that all departments contributed to this realignment. Decisions are made with a clear priority minimizing impact to students, maintaining required services, and ensuring ongoing compliance with all legal and statutory requirements. Our district Mental Health team will provide ongoing training, guidance and coaching to school counselors, social workers, psychologists and Esq staff to support consistent implementation across schools. In closing, while positions have been reduced, our responsibilities to students has not changed. This realignment was done thoughtfully, equitably across departments and with a focus on maintaining compliance, strengthening coordination and continuing to support the whole child. This is not a reduction in commitment. It is a shift in how we deliver the commitment to ensure sustainability. Moving forward, I want to walk through several

052of the key changes reflected in the organizational structure on page eight. The Executive Director of Esq position was eliminated to reduce a layer of management. Responsibilities did not disappear. They have been distributed across directors to support the increasing complexity of compliance requirements and existing coordinator position was reclassified as an Assistant Director of Esq. This was not a new position, but a strategic adjustment to ensure continued focus on timelines, legal mandates and regulatory expectations with no financial impact. The positive behavior specialist positions have been removed as a formal chartered role. However, the individuals in the work remain. Responsibilities have been redistributed across teams, reflecting a shift from a single position model to a shared implementation approach. Behavioral supports will continue to be delivered. Additionally, clinical nurses have been aligned with Esq specialized instruction to better support

053studedents th complex and instructionalal n needs ensusuring strongeger coordatioion between health and e educaonon. On pe nine, the Director of Coordinated Student Health Services position was eliminated as it has been vacant since JANUARY. The work has been realigned to Esq specialized instruction supporting the clinical nurses, supported party clinical nurses and content experts. This strengthened the connection between health services and instructional needs. The Coordinator of Prevention Programs and specialist of outreach support positions were eliminated, with responsibilities redistributed across existing teams. These services continue. The Coordinator of Attendance position is also being eliminated. Moving from a centralized model to a shared responsibility approach. Attendance will be led by school social workers, supported by wellness teams and implemented at the school level. Recognizing that attendance is connected to resiliency, family stability, and student engagement. Finally, the service Manager

054position was eliminated as it has been vacant for over a year. The work has already been absorbed by the school counseling department, and this action aligns with the organizational structure with current practice. The total reductions are 201 for the division, 18 on the organizational chart and 183 non chart positions. I now turn the presentation over to Chief Narcisse to review safety and security. Good morning. For the Safety and Security Division to better align with our resources with operational needs we are implementing two targeted staffing adjustments within emergency management and safety and security operations. One area security manager position will be transferred from the Emergency Management Division to the Safety and Security Operations Department. One Area Security Manager Coordinator position will be reduced within the emergency management position. Resulting structure will be safety and security operations

055will have eight area security managers and the Emergency Management Department will have six safety managers. Collectively, these changes optimize the deployment of existing resources, enhance accountability and consistency across campuses, and improve operational effectiveness without increasing staffing or expenditures. And then at this time, I will pass to Doctor Wanza. Good morning. The operations division will be explained by three chiefs in its totality. The division has 2650 positions across food and nutrition services, student transportation and fleet services, facility planning and real estate procurement and logistics operations, physical plant operations, capital programs, the building department and the chief fire official. I, along with MR. Dorsett, the task assigned Chief Operations Officer and MISS Johnson, our Chief Financial Officer, will explain the approaches we took to realign work streams, realize greater efficiencies and reduce the total position count to

0562102 positions for a division total of 548 position reductions, with the repurposing of six schools, the Food and Nutrition Services Department reduced an area supervisor position and an assistant director position. Support for school locations will not be compromised by these actions. As the board is aware, the Council of the Great City Schools recently conducted a tabletop review of this department as we work to implement many of their recommendations that we received just last Friday. Additional opportunities to enhance productivity and outcomes through alternate staffing models MAY be realized as well. The Student Transportation and Fleet Services Department continues its work to align resources and realize efficiencies to improve its overall fiscal stability and direct services it provides to students and families. The Supervisor of Special needs transportation position has been eliminated. It's been vacant since SEPTEMBER

057of 2025. These duties have been assigned to the Assistant Director for transportation, Operations and special Needs. This will eliminate silos in the department and ensure direct attention is given to all students. Additional reductions in the department include several vacant bus operator, transportation specialist, route planner, relief operator, bus attendant, laborer, mechanic, stockroom clerk and stockroom assistant positions. There were also reductions in clerical positions, operational specialists and training specialist positions. Lastly, for me in this area, the facility Planning and Real Estate Department is currently under review to determine whether shared opportunities with Broward County government can be can be realized. With the steady declines in student enrollment over the past decade, managing growth is no longer a district priority. The planner for Growth Management monitoring position has been eliminated or is proposed to be eliminated. Additional staff

058reductions in this department also includes a clerical position and a real property analyst. The overall reduction in these three departments garnered cost savings for the district in three financial areas the General Fund, the Food Service Fund and the Capital Fund. At this time, I will turn it over to MR. Dorsett. Good morning. This realignment represents a deliberate and disciplined effort to improve operational efficiencies, strengthen coordination and enhance service delivery across the district. The approach has focused on simplifying and organizational structure, clarifying roles and accountability, and enabling more consistent and timely execution of district's priorities. Position. The elimination was concentrated in areas where duplication overlap and opportunities streamline. Functions were identified on page 11 within the Chief Fire official function. The senior Plans Examiner inspector position was eliminated with responsibility. Consolidated. Consolidated under the chief Fire

059official within the Chief Office of Capital Programs. The Ada Accessibility specialist position was eliminated and the duties were assigned to the Ada manager within the Chief building. Official functioned. The Assistant Chief Building official position was eliminated with the responsibility absorbed by the leadership level in Physical Plant Operation Division, there were 39 filled Non-chartered trade position eliminated, of which ten were clerical assistant four positions. The manager of Business Process and Performance Improvement and Warranty Asset Coordinator were eliminated and the functions were have been absorbed by the facility. The Facility Support Service Manager, the ppo Training specialist and training specialist positions were both reclassified and realigned to Non-chartered positions within the environmental, Health and Safety Department. The Manager of Environmental Conservation and Utilities management position was eliminated with responsibilities distributed across each existing roles. The Project Manager

060two guarantee and energy performance positions were replaced with Energy and Sustainability Coordinator to align with the responsibilities and improve alignment. On page 13. The Office of Capital Programs strengthened the structure through additional. Through the addition of the Director of Capital, budget enhancing financial oversight and alignment under executed leadership. In closing, the summary. This alignment enhanced operational efficiency while preserving stability and position the district for a more disciplined, responsive, and sustainable execution moving forward. And with that, I will turn it over to Esrd and Trey Davis. Good morning. Trey Davis Chief Information Officer I'll be summarizing organizational changes in the Information Systems division to support the district's realignment and sustained gains from last year's transition to a composite and value centered structure. We consolidated additional functions across the division. These changes include a reduction of 28

061positions in our project management office, information security and assurance data intelligence, application services, infrastructure services and technology support services. Additionally, we further refined our administrative pool concept to ensure clerical support delivers maximum value division wide in a composite manner not functionally constrained to an individual or department. As evident on page 14. Project and security assurance remain paramount to project and program success district wide, helping mitigate risk from performance and efficiencies to external threats. While positions were reduced among administrative and technical staff, our commitment and capacity to deliver exceptional services to our schools and divisions remain unchanged as we continue operationalizing its scale. Isd is leaning on our investment in artificial intelligence and other automation to augment our capacity. For example, on page 15, Assistant Director, Technology Support Center, the function responsible for managing client support

062district wide is being absorbed within the Technology Support Services Department, while ai agents will monitor critical KPIs such as time to resolution for help tickets and assist users with common questions. Isd will continue focusing on a holistic approach to cost containment, never at the expense of innovation and improvement. This includes cost efficiencies gained from our methodical and purposeful allocation of resources to operational divestments, alternative funding and concessions from partners. Isd is a world class organization with extraordinary people committed to advancing our district through innovative and fiscally sound technology initiatives. I'll now pass to Doctor Lozano for updates in human Resources. Thank you sir. Doctor Lozano, Chief Human Resources Officer And as the Human Resources Department, we are proud to be and serve the largest employer in Broward County. And as the largest employer, we continually

063look to realign to make sure we support all our employees at all times. So our current hr organizational realignment continues our current work of shifting our division from a fragmented structure to a unified, district wide service model with clearer accountability across the employee lifecycle, from recruiting and onboarding, through ongoing support and supporting our employees who transition out of the organization. The structural changes include eliminating several positions and consolidating responsibilities to reduce redundancy and streamline decision making. The Executive Director of Professional Practices Labor Relations role is removed and reorganized under a realigned Director of Labor Relations, one compliance administrator, three position and one coordinator evaluation position are also being eliminated with duties absorbed. The coordinator of Non-instructional development role is being eliminated as other other departments already manage the development of their own Non-instructional staff. The

064manager of compensation role is being eliminated due to technology advancements and stronger coordination with hr and the Budget Office. The director of hr operations role is being removed to reduce the management layer, with oversight shifting directly to the Executive Director of Talent Management. This rationale for this reorganization is to reduce staff while building a more flexible workforce and removing roles that can be simplified or automated. Work that is increasingly supported by technology and standardized data will shift into existing structures and be overseen with fewer handoffs. At the same time, the realignment diversifies roles by creating a consolidated specialist of human resources designed to flex across hr functions during peak demand. This will broaden skill sets and improve coverage without adding headcount. With clearer labor relations and eeo Ada supervision under one leader and tighter alignment

065between talent acquisition, talent management and hr operations, human resources will continue to provide consistent contract and policy application, faster coordination, and a smoother employee experience, while maintaining timely service and strengthening our long term talent pipeline. I now pass it over to our Chief Financial Officer, Ramir Johnson. Good morning, everyone, and thank you, Doctor Lozano. Our presenting the org chart revision for the Finance Division. The Finance Division has undergone a strategic realignment to improve operational efficiency, strengthen accountability and better align financial function. On the cfo, the procurement and the budget support system was moved from the ceo Division to the Chief Financial Division to create a more integrated leadership model for budgeting, procurement, grants and related support services. The Finance Division has proposed a reduction of over 45 employees. This realignment was developed to ensure clear

066decision making, strong strong cross department coordination and more efficient use of staff resources during the period of fiscal constraint. Several positions were eliminated, consolidated or realigned as part of the restructuring effort. This action was taken to streamline operations and reduce unnecessary layers of supervision while maintaining essential service. On page 17, the Executive Director, Procurement and Logistics operation position previously in procurement was repurposed as the Executive Director Budget. This position now provides oversight for Budget Department, business support centers, grant administration, capital department and indirect finances for food service and transportation financials in the procurement. The manager of contract Administration was transferred for fiscal plant operation into the procurement department. Now report directly to the Director of Procurement and Logistics Operations. The directors of budget and the business Support centers were eliminated. Responsibility associated with the positions

067were realigned to vacant Assistant Director position with respective departments in accounting and financial reporting. The vacant Assistant Director position, which have remained unfilled since last year, was eliminated and duties were reassigned to the director. The County five position was eliminated, with responsibility redistributed among existing staff. The economic development, the coordinator position was eliminated and the manager is currently assuming those responsibilities. On page 18 in payroll, the senior payroll analyst position was reduced in the Benefits Department. Assistant director benefits position was eliminated at the remaining unfilled for over a year. And workman's comp. The division was realigned to report to the Director of Risk Management and the director. Level position were reduced to assistant directing role. These changes establish a more cohesive, effective leadership structure across the finance division by consolidating related functions. Underlines reporting lines.

068The direct. The direct. The district is better positioned to support sound fiscal management and improve oversight. Ensure more efficient execution of financial operation. Now, I'd like to turn it over to Doctor Wanza, chief of Strategy and Innovation Division. Good morning again. The Strategy and Innovation Division is comprised of departments that provide direct and indirect services to schools, as well as leadership and support for major system priorities, namely the strategic plan redefining our school's 21st century grant administration, Florida High School Athletic Association Compliance Magnet Schools of America grant administration, charter school monitoring and compliance, and before and after school care programs. Additionally, many of the departments interact with various community agencies, the business community and government offices. A thorough analysis was conducted to align staffing models, redistribute resources, and maintain a cost savings approach to personnel

069realignment. Currently, the division has a total of 78 positions. 11 positions were eliminated, however, nine positions from another division, as MR. Sullivan noted, were realigned to this division for a new net total of 76 remaining positions. Most noted is the Strategic Initiative Management Department. The Executive Director position has been eliminated to reduce a later. A layer of management. The Director of Performance management position has been expanded to Director of Strategic Initiatives and Performance Management. This position will now be a direct report to the Division Chief. Additionally, the position of Director of Enterprise of the Enterprise Management Office has been restructured to an assistant Director position. The other Assistant Director position in this office has been realigned to the Executive Director of Enterprise Analytics and Intelligence under the Chief of Staff. The entire division will support

070this department in the development and monitoring of the district's strategic plan, as well as performance management services. The Family and Community Engagement Department was realigned from the Chief of Staff to the Strategy and Innovation Division. Family and community engagement and before and after school care will now report to the director of Before and After School Care and Family Community Engagement. The newly comprised department will coordinate and deliver district wide family and community involvement activities, as well as provide leadership and oversight for the district's before and after school care programs. The administration of the 21st century grant and the coordination of summer programing will be major components of their work. Other position reductions in the division include instructional facilitators, program specialists, a computer operator, and some clerical roles. The division will continue to operate as a

071unified body, clearly aligned to the district's priorities. Our cross-functional work will continue to be. And will continue to be coordinated through a lens of collective accountability. And with that, I will turn the presentation back over to MR. Sullivan. Thank you to all the cabinet, page 20. The last two pages are page 20, which is the Chief auditor. He has no changes and the board already approved General Counsel's changes on the org chart. And with that, I'll turn it over. Back to you, superintendent. Thank you. Team, I want to emphasize again that this work is ongoing. It is not done. We've brought this process to the board earlier than normal. This usually happens in late MAY and early JUNE right before graduation. But we wanted to provide our impacted staff the opportunity to transition appropriately with

072the right support. They have great transferable skills that will lend itself to o lping any orgazation I in e c cntnty o o ththtri countnty aa. I do w wan toto g give a quick shout out to Careersource Broward, who's been walking alongside us for probably since JANUARY, just to ensure that they can support our impacted employees with resources and other strategic things to help them secure opportunities outside of our district. If certain roles within our district folks aren't eligible for. Also, the further reductions will occur throughout the spring and the summer through consolidations, restructuring new staff models for safety and security while maintaining a strict hiring freeze resulting in attrition to meet or exceed the initial target set. I look forward to the board's input and feedback on this plan as we work to

073finalize the organizational chart for next week's vote. These are difficult decisions, but they're necessary, responsible, and focused on long term strength of this district. Our obligation is not only to the students we serve today, but also to ensure that Broward County public schools remain strong, stable and a high performing district for those we serve in the years ahead. One thing I want to mention to the org chart it is a fluid chart. It's a fluid document. And also the positions outside of the chart are fluid. We have consistent attrition. People leaving in and coming. But with that said, we've listened so many of the changes that I want to make, we couldn't make just for the for the sheer being published and doing some deep dive research and really thought partnering with the team. As

074a result of that thought partnering and you know, the expression that this is a fluid document that right now we're going to bring back to employee groups, filled positions only after listening to the community, after listen to board members in my one on ones and also sitting back with the team and really doing a cross examination and evaluation and talking to some school based leaders. And also some of these folks in this group, the Esq program specialist, those five filled positions. We're going to take off the table and the Esq family counselors, the 17 filled positions will take off the table, resulting in bringing 22 positions back. We will continue to absorb the vacancies of those positions, which would result in about a $1.6 million impact on our cost savings. But as I said before,

075this is a fluid document. There will be opportunities for us to meet our target throughout the spring and the summer, and also identify cost savings in other areas, which we constantly do every week. With that, MADAM Chair, I'll turn it back over to you. Thank you. Thank you, Doctor Hepburn. This is the time of the workshop where we will hear from our registered public speakers. We ask that decorum be maintained and civility and respect be shown during public comment, which is expected when a government agency conducts official business. Our general counsel will assist the chair in maintaining decorum during this period. We also want to remind our public speakers of the rules and expectations regarding the public comment portion of the workshop, as well as board policy, as was noticed publicly on our website on

076APRIL 18th. Due to the number of public speakers, we will reduce the speaking time to one minute in order to ensure that we hear from everyone who is here to speak. Attorney Dupree Bruno, please explain the rules of public comment. Thank you, MADAM Chair. Public comment is governed by School Board Policy 1020 and is intended to provide input on the board's duties, decisions and the overall operation of the school district. The school board is viewpoint neutral during public comment per school board policy, 1020 speakers must state their name, city of residence and whether they are lobbyists. Before beginning their remarks. All remarks must be directed to the board as a whole. The board will not respond to or engage with speakers during public comment, and no action will be taken unless the item is on

077the agenda. The chair MAY adjust the order of speakers, as she's done today. Recognize speakers and enforce all time limits. She MAY reduce individual speaking time or establish a total time limit. Again, the time for speaker today is one minute, a visible timer will be used and the microphone MAY be turned off when time expires. Speakers must limit their comments to matters related to school board. Business for agenda items must remain relevant to the specific item. Comments MAY not address matters that are pending in litigation. Quasi judicial proceedings, active investigations or administrative hearings. Solicitation and lobbying activities must comply with applicable school board policies. Abusive language defined as profanity, threatening or name calling, as an example, is prohibited. In addition, clapping, hissing, booing, shouting, yelling or other disruptions from the audience is not allowed. Speakers

078who fail to follow proper decorum in the chambers will be ruled out of order by the board chair. Failure to comply MAY result in the microphone being turned off, or a recess being called after a warning. The chair MAY also direct removal from the meeting or the building by the officers. Thank you, MADAM Chair. Thank you. I will call five speakers at a time. When you hear your name, please line up behind the podium with only one person at the podium at a time. Please follow the staff's directions when lining up and approaching the podium. When your one minute is up, please yield the mic and exit the podium and follow staff's direction. Please be advised that any individual who disrupts the meeting refuses to follow the chair's directions, or interferes with the orderly conduct

079of this meeting will be given a first warning, and then they MAY be asked to leave the boardroom or remove from the building to ensure the safety and integrity of the proceedings. We recognize that this is an extraordinarily difficult moment for our school community. The decisions being discussed today affect colleagues, friends and families who have given so much to our students and our district. These are the hardest decisions we face as a board, and they are far more difficult for those whose lives and livelihoods are directly impacted. We understand the fear, frustration, disappointment and sense of uncertainty many are feeling and we do not take that lightly. At the same time, the reality before us is a significant budget deficit that requires immediate and responsible, immediate and responsible action. Like many school districts across the

080state and the country, we are facing financial pressures that are not unique to us but are no less painful. Our obligation as a board is to ensure the district's long term stability, so that we can continue to serve our students now and in the future. The need to reduce staff is not a reflection of the value, dedication or commitment of the individuals affected. Our employees have given so much of themselves to this community, and these deeply difficult decisions are driven by financial necessity, not by a lack of appreciation for the work being done in our schools. We are committed to handling this process with fairness, transparency and respect, and to supporting those impacted as best as we can. We also recognize the intense public interest in advocacy surrounding this issue. There is a reason there

081are so many people here today, and why so many have reached out to us. We thank our community for speaking up and engaging. Your voices matter, and your advocacy challenges us to examine the issues carefully, consider new perspectives, and make the strongest decisions possible as we move forward today, it is important that our discussion is grounded in clear objectives and shared facts. We have seen a range of narratives and differing claims around cost savings, position reductions and impacts. To have a productive and honest conversation, we need clarity about the specific options before us, what each option entails, how many positions are affected, the financial implications and the benefits and drawbacks of each choice. We owe the public transparency, and we owe it to ourselves to ask the difficult questions and leave no stone unturned. We

082also acknowledge the concerns raised by our union partners and respect their right to advocate on behalf of their members. We remain committed to engaging in good faith, listening carefully and working through these challenges together wherever possible. Today, we want to hear from our community. We ask that comments be shared with respect and understanding, recognizing that while we MAY not agree on every aspect, we are united in our commitment to our students, our staff, and the future of this district. These are not easy decisions, but they are necessary ones. Our focus remains on preserving the strength, trust and sustainability of our schools so that we can continue to provide a high quality education for every student we serve. With that, will the following individuals line up? Melanie Birkin, Amelia Gonzalez Abreu, Zaira Klimes Lynch's, Dennis Waters

083and Brooke Burdi. Good morning. Good morning. My name is Melanie Birkin. I live in Davie, Florida and I am not a lobbyist. Stand with you. Oh my time started. I we start over please. I did make it one minute. Okay. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Good morning. My name is Melanie Birkin. I've served as a school social worker in Broward schools since 1999. Thank you for allowing me to speak. I'm asking you to reconsider. Please stop the clock. Please pause for just one moment. There is. Please follow staff's direction. There should be only one person at the podium at a time. And the the five individuals I called should be lined up behind that line. So every meeting I stand with people. Now I. So, MISS Fusco, this is your first warning. Of course

084it is. I'm sure I'll get more. And that's our teacher chair. Yeah. Please restart MISS Perkins time. Thank you. Oh my gosh. All right. Thank you again. My name is Melanie Birkin. I've served as a school social worker in Broward schools since 1999. Thank you for allowing me to speak. I'm asking you to reconsider eliminating student facing master's level mental health professionals, including 24 school social worker positions. School social workers are not central office staff. We are school based, have a teaching certificate and a master's or higher degree. My first year I covered three schools alone. Today, those same campuses have more support because student needs have grown, even as many of us are still split across multiple schools. Students do not schedule their classes. Cutting staff will. While expanding responsibilities reduces our ability to

085respond quickly. Fewer students does not mean fewer mental health needs or fewer attendance barriers. School counselors, psychologists, counselors, and social workers function as one team. Cutting any role weakens the safety net for all. The budget pressure should not come at the expense of student well-being. Mental health. Thank you. Next public speaker. Thank you. Sorry. Good morning. Good morning, superintendent and school board members. Let me tell you what the assessment does not capture our students daily mental health needs and the consistency they rely on. Esq counselor serve students. My younger student is five years old and my oldest one is in 11th grade. The most vulnerable population, many facing emotional challenges that impact their ability to learn. This rule exists because the students need mental health support to function, engage and succeed. For many of our

086students, counseling is what makes learning possible. This work cannot be reduced to a system. We provide direct services with fidelity as outlined in their iep, supporting students who feel overwhelmed, shut down, or ready to give up because of the consistency and continuity, something powerful happens. The student who once walked out begins to ask for a break. The students who shuts down begins to try again. The student who felt defeated begins to believe in themselves. But what? But when consistency is removed, the impact is immediate. Students MAY become frustrated, more angry. Thank you ma'am, for the record. For the record, can we get your name, please? I'm the second one. Thank you so much. Thank you, thank you. And we're very passionate because that's what we. Do. For our students. Next speaker. Hello. Thank you. Good

087morning. I'm Brooke, I'm from plantation and I'm here as a concerned parent. We all know that the proposal defies every direction that the board gave. Knowing that today's conversation must start with the board's previous consensus and not with the proposal. The procedure here, including posting documents on Friday afternoon, is legally deficient and designed to deprive the public and even this board of an opportunity to develop a thorough response and counter proposal. Because of that, the first order of business today should be to schedule a second workshop. Turning to substance, mgt was contracted to determine the best way to downsize central staff, not to assess or provide a recommendation contrary to this board. However, in reliance on mts report, staff have developed a parallel initiative to balance the district's budget on the backs of our teachers

088and children. This parallel initiative is buried in slide ten, just a casual reference to a massive $40 million staffing allocation adjustment. I encourage this board to bite into that piece today. Thank you. The next the next five names, we will have decorum in the audience, please, MR. Bruno. Yeah, we're just going to ask that you please be in line with board policy. 1020 MADAM Chair has already given her first warning. Could I have the next five people line up? Melanie. Taylor, Cynthia. Dominique. Kirsten Hope, Adrian, Clark and Thomas. Go ahead. Next. Speaker, if you've heard your name called, just you can approach the podium. Hi, my name is Dennis Waters. I am b2 negotiator and also a steward. I'm here on behalf of tsp and all the representatives of tsp. I have looked over your

089organizational chart. At best it is a shuffling of cards. It is not taken into consideration all the aspects that the board has directed and requesting. I think that we need to look at this with open eyes and also with understanding that when you're shuffling one from a one position to another position, you're eliminating position because it's been open. Maybe you should look at that. Why is that position left open? Maybe because it was not advertised correctly. It's not been done correctly as far as through the contractual agreements. It's not it's been shared a box so that that money can be diverted to another location. So I asked the board to look, look at what's being done. It's an impact for everyone, everyone that I represent. And I don't usually speak, but this is I've had

090the impact from our board, so I request the board to look at it. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Tom hammer. I see among the cuts are school psychologists and social workers. At a time when students are more lonely than ever, more stressed than ever at a time when the struggles of families are worse than any of us can ever remember. Worse than any day except tomorrow. The board has opted to remove psychologists and social workers from the lives of students. This is emblematic of what's happening. Saving money today on support staffs ensures greater costs for tomorrow. More referrals, more burnout, more crises, more high need support. The board isn't making tough choices to solve a problem with austerity. The board is paying today's bills with tomorrow's damage. It's a Ponzi scheme. You're raising the

091organization rating the organization, liquidating capacity so that you can say that you've solved today's crisis, and then pretending that the resulting breakdown is the unavoidable consequence of right sizing. Hopefully, after you've reaped your reward and moved on to better things when the bill is due. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Hello, my name is Kirsten Hope and I'm from dv. Despite limited time to digest this proposal and to speak today, I oppose this chart for the first. The board's directives were clearly not followed. Reducing student facing positions directly impacts quality and safety, especially Esq. Behavioral and mental health positions. Needs are not being met already. These cuts are delusional and will erode enrollment even more. 119 of the 300 filled positions were cut from student services 40%. That's unacceptable. Second, transparency, including 344 prior vacancies

092to this year and sneaking in the 40% inflation 40% group to inflate the reduction percentages to the top where, with no clear breakdown of staffing allocation adjustments, 40 million half of the savings, we assume more school level positions. Third, please consider having a cost saving reduction to ineffective edtech programs and reinvest in highly trained educators and their support. Thank you. Thank you. Well, Nikki Watkins, Carol Sassoon, Stephanie Gopen, Victoria Trujillo, Cortez and Lisa Maxwell, please approach the line next. Public speaker. Good morning. My name is Melanie Taylor, district school counselor. Thank you for this moment to speak on behalf of the thousands of students my school counseling department serves and the level of mental. 11 mental health professionals I'm beyond proud to call colleagues that were abruptly recommended for termination last Wednesday. I want to

093share a day in the life of a district school counselor. We are all assigned 2 to 4 schools that we report to daily. Boots on the ground. Our day ranges from providing mental health services such as grief counseling, facilitating small groups, conducting risk assessments, creating safe spaces to academic support, such as promoting academic success, helping students create goals, visiting classrooms to promote life skills and wellness, college and career life readiness, and promoting school counselor visibility. I have served this country proudly for 14 years, the past five years, supporting the incredible Marjory Stoneman Douglas Community daily, ready for whatever the school needed for me has been the greatest honor of my entire career. If you remove myself and the additional district school counselors, it will lead to a reduction of high quality student support. Please put

094the mental health of our students firsrsand vote to maintainn exceceencece I supportining the mentntalealth of ourtutunts. ThThank you s so mh. Thank you.Exext speerer. And just as a just before you start, just as a reminder, unless you have called your name for public speaking, you must be seated. Thank you. Next speaker. Good morning. My name is Nikki Watkins, Davie, Florida, resident parents staff chair at Western High School and Central Area Legislative Representative. I urge the board to preserve school based, school facing positions not only in the org chart, but also in the staffing allocation model. If staffing allocations are treated as an afterthought, schools are not truly being protected. Western is already overcrowded as my daughter's chemistry honors class has 40 students, and she couldn't take an ap chemistry class because funding cuts impacted her

095ap diploma pathway. Gifted students are also at risk of losing services when schools like Western lose the funding used to pay the staff who provide them, creating yet another unfunded mandate. I'm also concerned about process. Revised workshop materials were added on APRIL 17th for today's APRIL 21st workshop, while written comments were due yesterday at 1:00 pm, leaving little time for meaningful public review. Broward already has two strikes, the state is looming and students are leaving. There are no more chances at the plate consistent with prior board direction. Choose students, school staff and school based supports first. Thank you. Next speaker. My name is Carol Sassoon. I live in Hollywood. I've been providing in the district for 34 years, and I'm thanking you for pausing to consider the reinstatement of the Esq family counselors who provide

096an essential service to students and to schools to keep them safe, to keep them regulated so they can graduate high school so they could be a fully fledged, productive member of society. And it's important. We work with students, we work with staff, we work with families who depend on us to take care of their children while they're in school, to provide them with a safe, comforting environment so they could we can help them to regulate their emotions and regulate their fears, anxieties and frustrations. We keep them safe. We keep them successful. And we thank you again. Thank you so much. And just as a reminder, we're running out of time for public to sign up for public speaking. So please, if you have not signed up for public speaking, but you would like to please

097make sure that you sign up. Welcome. Good morning board. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Victoria Trujillo and I am an instructional technology facilitator. It says it in the name. I educate students. I support over 22 schools since my department has been decreased. And all I have heard here is that the people that have direct impact with students would not be affected. I am affecting students directly right now. I'm supposed to be leaving a second grade classroom and going to a fifth grade classroom. I work with them on reading. I document all of my data in bc central. When I work with students, teachers, staff, administration, and the educational leadership during Leadership Academy. I have also spent my time here 28.6 years, according to frs, and I heard that we were

098supposed to be respected. During this time, I was reminded of reaching the 30 club. My position is about to be eliminated, handing me my papers and I was told, welcome to the 30 club. That's not respectful, so please board direct your staff on how to properly address them when they're eliminating them. Thank you. Thank you. Will the following individuals please approach the line? Cathy Neves, Joy Haber, Cynthia Tapia Rodriguez, Naveed. Saeed and Alan, it's MR. Bruno. MADAM Chair, we're going to ask that the officers ensure that the rules are being followed. If you are not in line to speak, please have a seat and please respect the boundaries of the person that is speaking has the ability to speak uninterruptedly. Thank you. Next speaker. Please restart her time and the mic is not on. Can

099you. Can you hear me now? We can. Yes. Thank you. My name is Stephanie. I'm an Esq counselor. I've been working with Broward County Schools since 1994. We provide specialized services. We are not duplicative. We are not repetitive. We provide so, so sorry. We provide services to the most vulnerable students, students who rely on consistent, individualized support. If we increase our caseload, it means reduced time in schools, less individual support, and being forced into group sessions that don't meet best practices for students with complex and differing eligibilities and needs less progress towards iep goals would be a result. Missed identification of mental health concerns, possibly more behavioral incidents and increased risk of dropout. I've seen students go from crisis onto graduate because they had a consistent support, someone to help them build their skills that

100they needed not only to be successful academically, socially, emotionally, and in life. This is what we do and this is our heart. It's why I'm so emotional. Our students come to us. They are struggling. Please don't take that away. Thank you, thank you. Next speaker. Good morning. I'm Lisa Maxwell. I represent the principals and the assistant principals in Broward County. The school allocation changes that are before you today are beyond draconian. Your principals do not support this recommended model, and they do not support it because even in schools where enrollment is projected to increase, they are losing staff. And they're not just teachers. They're losing support staff as well. What that means is class size is going to go way up. So you're going to start to see in core classes, 45 to 60 students

101in a class. I've had high school principals tell me I don't have classrooms large enough where students can actually sit. What am I going to do? Principals were not consulted. It's really nothing new, but they have not been consulted at all. So please. Thank you. Next speaker. Good morning. My name is Alan Yablonovitch and I am a proud Broward County teacher for the past 36 years in the e. S realm in many different capacities. Let me tell you where I am today. I went over 108 pages of the organizational chart. I'm certainly not an expert, but I see a lot of shuffling going on. I don't know how much reduction is there. We're in a district. I'm in an a school, I'm at Maplewood Elementary and we're very proud of that fact. It takes a

102lot to get an a school going, and right now I'm concerned that with reductions, the staff is. I'm a steward. I'm nervous. I'm sorry. I'm I'm a btu steward. I have 13 seconds and mismanagement of the budget has brought us where we are today. Okay. We hope that things get better. We really, really do. Everyone's nervous. Thank you. Next speaker. Good morning. My name is Naveed said. And I have served Broward County Public Schools since 2015. I began as database researcher, then transitioned to facilities in 2016 as manager of database administration, where my work helped reduce recurring costs by approximately $250,000 annually. In that role, I supported e builder for general obligation bond and school based construction projects, contributing to oversight and accountability for those initiatives. I also served as the district's only certified e

103builder administrator, helping reduce reliance on external consulting support. In 2024, I transitioned to it supporting infrastructure efforts across schools and departments, including identity and access management support. As the district addresses budget challenges, I respectfully ask that employees with demonstrated cost savings and specialized expertise be considered for reassignment before positions are eliminated. I remain committed to supporting the district in any capacity. Thank you. Next speaker. Good morning. My name is Cynthia Tapia Rodriguez. I live in David. After 22 years with Broward County Public School, the board has decided to eliminate my position as a family counselor. I drew the overall substance use prevention for the district and violence prevention. I understand that this decision ends my role. However, it also undermines decades of commitment and service to our school. I am proud to say that I

104have made a district wide impact through our prevention work, by securing hundreds of thousands of dollars for prevention programs not funded by Broward County Public School. As a result, this work has helped improve the overall school climate by reducing drug use and and school violence. I do not have the time to list everything I have done and honestly, what I have personally given to the district is not what matters most. What matters is the lives that had been impacted. Therefore, I encourage you to review my work and its impact. It is ironic that at this time that I have been selected as a staff of color. Thank you. Next speaker. Hello. Hello, my name is Kathy Nevis. I live in Fort Lauderdale. I'm an Esq counselor. I want to thank you for resending the Esq

105positions. I love my job. I've been doing this for 25 years. I make an impact on students. I see students from kindergarten to 12th grade. I see them graduate. At the end of the day, that's what we do. We teach them coping skills so they can cope, so they can manage their education, so they can do well in school. At the end of the day, the greatest joy I have is seeing my 12th graders graduate. I work them real hard. Get your points, get your points. Let's go. Let's graduate. So at the end of the day, that's what we do. So thank you very much. We love our students. Again, I love I mean, I go to work every day. I say I love my job, I enjoy my students. And I welcome any of

106you to come take a walk with us for a day and see what we do. We do make an impact on our students. So thank you very much for listening to our letters, reading our letters and hearing our voicemails and everything else that we have sent to you all. So thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Could I just get your name one more time, please? Sorry. My name is Catherine Nevis and I live in Fort Lauderdale. Thank you. All right. What could the next five speakers approach the mic? Judy Trunzo, Judy. Million, Venice. Jackson, Joshua James Jameson and Ernestine Ramirez. Next speaker. My name is Joy Haber. I'm an Esq counselor. I live in Oakland Park. For me, I'm going to borrow some words from MISTER Rogers from when he stood before

107Congress to explain and defend what he did when his funding was threatened to be cut. This is what I give. I give an expression of care every day to each child to help him realize that he is unique. i end the program by saying, you've made this day a special day by just your being you. There's no person in the world just like you, and I like you just the way you are. I feel that if we can only make it clear that feelings are mentionable and manageable, we will have done a great service for mental health. Whether or not I agree with your decisions, I say to you all you made this day special by just your being you. There's no person in the world like you and I like you just the way

108you are. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Good morning. My name is Judy and I'm a Esq counselor for the past 28 years, and I'm working for the past five years. And I Esq cluster and like everybody actually have been mentioning before, you know, all the things that we do that impact the life of the students because we are the few of the, with the mental health professionals that actually do bring hope and to our students that they feel heard and they feel a sense of belonging, a sense of pride and confidence. So I'm here today to support our group of Esq counselors who provide vital services to the Esq population. We're a small team of professional mental health counselors, deliver essential support to the most vulnerable students in the county. Any cuts cut would

109severely limit our ability to maintain the same level of service. I can envision our program continue to effectively serve students, teachers, and school staff. Without every counselor currently in place. We need. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Very nervous. Oh, excuse me when I mess up. My name is Judy Chinonzo. I live in Lauderhill. I am a support staff for an awesome principal named Wiley Howard and Wayne Rogers. And I'm speaking for me. Everybody in here, everybody out there, and everybody that didn't have transportation to get here. We matter. Our families matter, our students matter. And that's why each one of us get out of bed every day, whether we're ready or not, to help our kids. So I don't think anybody should be eliminated. I don't have that power. GOD does. So I'm hoping

110he fixes this. And. I didn't agree with him taking away our medicine because that was against our contract. And it's also discrimination against the people that need it. And I guess that's about all I got to say is thank you and please reconsider. Thank you. Next speaker. Morning, Josh Jamison, btu Field Rep I'm the tsp rep. I'm also an Army veteran. Did unit supply. We had a saying in supply that said mission first people always meaning we focus on the mission. We deliberate on the people. I don't believe that this is deliberate because if it had been deliberate, you deliberately laid off or targeted 100% disabled veteran for layoff, you deliberately targeted Stuart's. You deliberately are targeting individuals that are highly specialized, that you think are going to come back and do the same work

111for less money. The only thing I think you did deliberately was deliberately outsource this, so you deliberately wouldn't have to deliberate on the people. Thank you. Thank you. And I'll read the next five names. Eric Anderson, LaToya Richards, Maureen Reuther, Ross, Valerie Blackwell, and Tyler. So if you heard your name, please approach the line. Welcome. Hello, my name is Vanessa Jackson. I'm from Miramar, Florida. I am the training supervisor with the training department. And I just want to say that in the training department, there is no assistant to the training supervisor. I don't have a secretary. It is the trainers, the portables, the busses and me. I process every single document that comes through the training department and I scan it, process it, disseminate it through the district so that they have that information. Okay,

112when I am out, there is no backup if I'm not there to answer the phones, that it doesn't get answered when I am absent. All of that paperwork is waiting for me upon my return. There is no one that knows how to do everything that I do in that department. The one person that did went ill earlier this year and she will not be returning. So I am solely the only person in the transportation department that knows how to do everything that I do. While someone MAY be able to listen to you the responsibilities, I can guarantee you there's nobody that can do everything that it is that I'm doing and keep us in compliance and keep us out of being red flagged with the district. And after 25 years with the district to get

113laid off within a brink of my retirement. It's disgusting. Thank you. Next speaker. Good morning. My name is Ernestine Ramirez. I'm a program supervisor for the before and after school child care department. On Wednesday, I was informed that my position, along with my colleague and my director, was eliminated. Our department oversees and supports over 240 programs across the district, ensuring safety, compliance, and quality for our students and the families we serve, reducing our team from 5 to 2 not does not reduce the number of schools, students or expectations from the county or state. It reduces the district's ability to effectively manage them. With this recommendation, the department cannot effectively serve all schools in the county and maintain safe, compliant and quality programing. This is not just an operational concern. It is a major concern for

114student safety in the before and after school programs. Before and after care generates millions of dollars to. The district, supports working families, and provides students with a safe place after school and before. I respectfully urge you to sit with my director, Eric Anderson, which was also let go to reconsider. To reconsider the recommendation for our Department and develop a plan for safer, safer for our students. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Hi, everybody. Good afternoon. Good morning, Superintendent Hepburn, board members, board chair and board attorney. I'm Eric Anderson, a Broward native, a product of Broward County Public Schools, 36 year veteran and director before and after school child care department. I'm here to advocate to maintain the position of director of before and after school child care department. I don't mean for me, I mean

115for Broward schools. And when I asked for less cuts to the department because it's in the very best interests of the district, the department is not a cost center to the district. It is a revenue producing and risk reducing operation for Broward schools through provider fees. This department returns funds directly to schools and to the district, while ensuring programs operate safely and in full compliance with board and state policies. The director's role is essential into securing 21st century grants and other grants, managing contracts, protecting revenue streams, delivering training, enforcing quality standards and reducing exposure to liability through rigorous. Thank you. Next speaker. Good morning to all. My name is LaToya Richards, the city of Lauderhill. I would like to thank you for this opportunity to speak this morning. I recognize the school board has been

116faced with difficult decisions regarding reduction and realignment of staff. However, all mental health professionals are needed to effectively move students forward. As a social worker, I want to emphasize the significance of the difficult work we are challenged to execute daily in supporting the mental and emotional well-being of our scholars. The impact of social workers direct work with students goes beyond the clasassrm. Social workers arere halays, se space home and c communities having sensitive conversations to safely navigate students emotions, understanding the complexity of their lives, all with non-judgmental language. This daily effort is to minimize truancy, increase social emotional safety and awareness, to name a few. Attendance counts all day, every day, and we need social workers, our attendance warriors to continue to navigate this process, provide case management, therapeutic services and the varying needs on

117school campuses as they arise. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. MADAM Chair. My name is Maureen Ruth Roth. Sorry, ma'am. There's a point of order. So just one second. Is it possible if if someone doesn't have enough time to say what they need to say, if they can email their entire comments to the board? Yes. So if you did not hear MRS. Alhadeff request, if you have not gotten the opportunity to say your entire comments, please email those comments to the board. Thank you for that request. Thank you. Go ahead. My name is Maureen Ruth Roth. I work on the team responsible for PBIs and despite supporting almost 40 schools, I, along with my team, was deemed not critical to student well-being. Your decision to decimate our department, school culture and student support marginalizes our

118most vulnerable student population continually. This morning we heard the line the work will continue. How will it continue when it is not functioning optimally? Now, despite all current hands on deck, before you fracture our department, I urge you to go into classrooms and see what behaviors our teachers face every day. In efforts to impart academics, behavior is just as critical as academics. Be leaders. Fight for the students you serve and seek solutions that afford them a genuine opportunity for success. Allow them and our valuable teachers every resource to make that success a reality. We claim to be the best. Why are we settling for giving our. Thank you. Next speaker. Valerie Blackwell, Oakland Park, one of the PBIs specialists, eliminated. PBIs is not simply a program. It is a framework grounded in data prevention and

119equity that supports safe, structured, and productive learning environments. PBIs implementation has contributed to improved student behavior, school climate, reduced discipline, referrals and suspensions, and increased instructional time and state recognition for model schools. The removal of specialists directly threatens the sustainability of these outcomes. Without specialist school teams lose critical coaching and guidance in implementing tier one, two, and three supports. With fidelity, teachers and administrators will face increased behavioral challenges without proactive support and students, especially those most in need, will lose access to consistent interventions. The reduction of PBIs support MAY lead to increased suspensions, widening disparities in discipline outcomes, teacher burnout, and a decline in school climate and student engagement. These outcomes impact not only students, but also district performance and community trust. Thank you. Could the next five people approach the line? Rhonda Palmer, Sonia

120Johnson, Anna. Fusco, Lily. Liliana. Rubido. Welcome. Good morning. Keyonte Tyler, also PBIs specialist. And in addition to what my colleague just shared, our schools need proactive systems, not reactive solutions. PBIs specialists play a vital and important role in ensuring that our students are supported, teachers are equipped and schools remain safe and structured environments where learning can thrive. This is not just about positions, this is about people prevention and long and the long term well-being of our school communities. In Broward County, we have experienced firsthand devastation consequences when systems fail to adequately support and respond to the student needs. We have a responsibility to strengthen, not reduce, the supports that help prevent and events such as Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Tragedies from occurring in the school in which I do support. We are asking that you respectfully

121go back and we're urging the school board to reconsider their decision to remove PBIs specialists, explore alternative funding options, and. We encourage you to work with PBIs leaders and school teams. Thank you for your time. Thank you. And an additional five doctor Jennifer Bluth, Maria Podesta, Christine Brown, Teri Preusse and Anthony Matranga. Is this the next five? So the first five that I read were Wanda Palmer, Sonia Johnson, Anna Fusco, Liliana, Roberto. And then the next five are Doctor Jennifer Bluth, Maria Podesta, Christine Brown, Teri Preusse, and Anthony Matranga. Are we waiting for. So if you heard your name, you can go ahead and speak. Anna Fusco, Broward Teachers union PRESIDENT. I stand before you to sit in and nail that org chart down to the ground, get some great input, and everybody here is

122going to be listening to what all nine of you have been listening to, all nine of you that I've reached out to and had my personal conversations with all nine of you, that Lisa Maxwell spoke to all nine of you, the p tangent, all nine of you of Dan Reynolds and Dorothy Davis, all union labor groups have come together to say that this is a travesty. This is deplorable. This is unacceptable. I clearly heard almost every one of you say, don't impact schools, don't touch teachers, don't touch educators. You want to get this group. By the way, first time ever they turned around and looked at speakers to sit here and give little semantics of what a teacher is. Speech pathologist, Esq facilitator, guidance counselor, family counselor, whatever you want to call them. They're all

123teachers. You need this revamped and revamped fast. I know we need Chiefs positions. Keep you. Next speaker, please. Thank you. Next speaker please. Maria. Danielle. Thank you for turning around and looking at us because we're human. If we're truly committed to students well-being, equity and achievement, we must invest in our professionals, our teachers, our guidance counselors. They help our students with trauma, anxiety, crisis every single day. I can't even believe I had to take a day off from my classroom to come here and beg and plead with everybody here that we need all of our people. We are all making a difference. Please don't cut these positions. Maybe look within these people here and how we can make a better impact for our students. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next speaker. Hi. Hello.

124I'm Jennifer Bluth, Doctor Bluth from Hollywood, Florida, of Broward County Public Schools. I mean, child, I went to okay, oh, starting okay. I'm reading on behalf of Chanel as an Esq counselor of almost 25 years. I know what we poured into this district work that has shaped students lives in ways that can't be measured on a spreadsheet captured in a budget line. Even the possibility of not having our positions would be devastating to students, families, and community who rely on us every single day. We have been the steady hands, guiding students through challenging times, the voices advocating for families who often feel unheard, and the bridge between classrooms, homes and the broader community. We help students regulate emotions, rebuild confidence, reconnect with learning and feel safe enough to grow. We support teachers, collaborate with teams

125and strengthen our department with your with expertise, compassion and commitment. We want students to know that their voices matter. Their stories matter. Our community deserves better. Thank you for recognizing this and for standing on the right side of history. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Good afternoon. My name is Anthony Matranga. I am a resident of Davie, a member of the Broward Teachers Union and a Broward County educator for the past 25 years. I understand the district faces real fiscal challenges, and I am not here to dismiss that. But the. But as the board makes difficult decisions, I ask that every choice be measured against one question what does this mean for the student sitting in the classroom? Students need consistency, stability and qualified educators who know them. When experienced teachers and support staff are

126cut, it is the child that pays the price in larger classes, fewer resources, and adults stretched too thin to give them the attention they deserve. I urge this board to pursue consolidation through attrition and redeployment, preserving the quality educators and support staff that Broward students depend on every single day. Let the students guide the decision. They are why we are all here. I am asking for that commitment today. Thank you. Thank you. And could the next five people approach the line? Robyn sloop, Eva Rothwell, Diana Sebu, Christopher Pierce and Denise Wilson. Welcome. Hello, my name is Terry Lopez. I'm the vice PRESIDENT Of the Broward Teachers Union. I've been a resident of Broward for over 40 years and a businesswoman in both Dania and Hollywood. I just want you to know that I am absolutely

127disturbed and disgusted. I don't know who the consultants were who said that we're not top heavy. Sorry to all of you, but it seems to us that we're top heavy. And superintendent, you were highly recommended by your predecessor, with whom we had good communications or had begun. So anyway, I feel as if you and your team and these consultants that I don't know why we keep hiring consultants. We should know what we need to do ourselves. But a lot of money goes to those consultants and to those programs that teachers don't want or need, and you should be able to handle. Nevertheless, it seems to me that you have taken a wrecking ball to our people, a wrecking ball. And it seems that whoever made these decisions is not aware that there are three different

128contracts in the Broward Teachers Union, and you are violating them by taking people who are here. Thank you. Next, speaker. Who. Liliana Rydell and Broward Teachers Union. I'm going to ask you to double check. Double check the letters that you're sending to our employees getting fired. Double check the positions that you are carrying out. Double check every time you tell us that you care about the students, but yet you're letting so many guidance counselor leave. That's one thing. The other part is I'm going to ask you to double check with the message that you are putting out there for the employees. I am a teacher of 20 plus years and I never seen anything like this. And I'm going to ask you, I always ask you actually to reflect, but today I'm going to ask

129you to double check because this is people's livelihood, this is people's job. And people have rights. And don't tell me that you send a letter to those teachers or guidance counselor, or anyone who is in that level that's been in the system for. Thank you. Next speaker. Good morning. I'm Christine Brown with beacon tv. Under tsp and I live in Lauderhill. And I thank you for the opportunity to speak today. What I'm asking is that the board. Take a look at chapter 295 laws relating to veterans and general Provisions. Also, sections zero seven Preference and Appointment and retention. I'm a service connected disabled veterans and there are others out there, not just me, but this statute. It says the state and its political subdivision shall give preference in appointment and retention in positions of employment

130to those disabled veterans who have served on active duty and in any branch of the United States. And it says a lot more, but one minute won't give time to it. We all stood and we raised our right hand. Put it over our heart. And within the pledge it said, justice for all. I'm asking that you serve that justice for all, for those service connected disabled veterans. And I enjoyed bringing the pledge before you and telling stories to make sure that people know we're an a rated school district. Thank you for your time. Thank you so much. Next speaker. Hi, my name is Robin Sloop. I'm a teacher, btu steward and proud parent. I've been a teacher in Broward for 26 years. I hear a lot about the enrollment declining, but guess what? I am

131one of those parents who unenrolled their child. I have an Esq child and due to the mental decline my daughter had in third grade due to the excessive testing and third grade retention criteria, i moved her to a private school where she did not have to take the tests. And guess what? Her mental health improved. Her confidence improved. There was a whole school there of parents who were disgruntled, who enrolled their children because of the pressure of the testing. Had we felt more supported, perhaps you would get more parents to come back to Broward. My daughter is excelling at Broward College, and if you didn't treat every child the same way with the same tests, you might get parents to bring their children back. Cutting Esq staff is not the answer. The whole system needs

132to be changed and you should be asking parents. Thank you. Next, speaker. To bring. Everybody back. That one. That was pretty good. My name is Eva Wrathall and I am a Weston resident. I'm here today to speak about the direct and immediate impact that eliminates student support services, that has on both students and teachers in our classrooms. While budget decisions are always difficult, removing essential support positions ultimately shifts critical responsibilities onto the classroom teacher. When these positions are removed, those needs do not disappear. Instead, they go unidentified, unsupported, and often escalate. More students are identified with a bmp or behavioral management plan or a progress monitoring plan, who are identified with less than ten percentile in reading and are not on track academically. Teachers are trained to deliver instruction, manage classrooms, and support diverse learners.

133However, without student support staff, teachers are expected to simultaneously serve as interventionists, behavior specialists, counselors and case managers and on top of their existing responsibilities. This is not sustainable. It reduces instructional. Thank you. Could the next five individuals approach the line? Erica Hahn, Monica Garcia, Mark Carr, Maureen McHugh, and Jackie Luscomb. Welcome. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Staff Sergeant Christopher Pierce. I've been in the Army now 21 years. The most fulfilling time that of those 21 years has been the last six years in which I've worked in the Florida National Guard Counterdrug program, drug demand reduction outreach. So substance use prevention, principally among youth across the 11 counties, is what I do. So this morning I'm here on behalf of the student culture, excuse me, school culture and student support department, specifically Cynthia Tapia

134Rodriguez. I haven't heard much said today about substance use prevention within Broward County public Schools. In the 11 counties that I cover. I think a lot of times that is left to the to the the back burner. Cynthia has done a lot of great work for the district. In those six years that I've been on board, I've come to know her. She's brought a lot of organizations together. I also think that we're. We're not thinking about the third order effects several years down the line of not providing substance use prevention education to our students. So I ask that you please consider any effects that these changes are having on that department. Thank you. Thank you so much. Next speaker. My name is Denise Wilson, resident in a world where everyone wants to be heard, I

135believe the true difference maker is choosing first to understand before being understood. This morning I heard statements such as services closest to students are guarded and the priority is all of our students remain supported. Respectfully eliminating master's level mental health professionals contradicts that commitment, especially at a time when data shows an alarming and significant decline in student mental health. As a district school counselor, I'm part of a team that has supported over 50 schools this year. We provide direct services every day crisis intervention, grief counseling and support for students with high needs. This work is directly tied to student safety, attendance and academic success. When students seek attention, they're seeking connection. Mental health professionals are the core systems that support teachers, students, and learning. Please put the mental health of our students first. Thank you.

136Thank you. Next speaker. Before you put the time on the clock, it's Mary Karr, not Mark Karr. Sorry for my writing and I'm nervous, so not yet. Just give me a minute. All right? Okay, I think I'm ready. All right. So first let me mention that the Artemis mission reminded us that astronauts would not reach the moon without teachers. Every success story begins in the classroom. So why are we here? Why is Broward County teachers and support staff being treated this way? Why are you having to make so many cuts? Well, we know why. It's your inability to manage the organizational budget. We are underpaid, we are underappreciated. We educate, mentor, support and give beyond the school day. Yet many of us struggle with the rising cost of living. It is also a shame that

137teacher positions and social workers are being cut because of the financial mistakes. As a parent with a child with a disability that is deeply concerning. Meanwhile, administrative salaries are robust while teacher pay remains far too low. Stop correcting your mistakes on the backs of teachers and support your staff. That means us. We are asking for fairness, respect and pay that reflects the value that we do every day. Thank you. Next speaker. Buenos Dias, school board members. My name is Monica Garcia, a Coral Springs resident and a bilingual master's level school counselor with 12 years experience proudly serving Broward County for the past four years. Every day, I sit with students in their most vulnerable moments. i see the anxiety they hide, the trauma they carry, and the quiet struggles thahat never make itit io the

138classssom. F For many ofurtudedents, s schoo a eieir onl safe space. The only place they are heard, supported and understood. Cutting school counselor positions doesn't just reduce staff, it removes a lifeline. It sends the message that mental health can wait. But our students are telling us it cannot. When students are struggling emotionally, they cannot learn, grow, or succeed. As a bilingual counselor, I also give a voice to families who might otherwise go unheard when positions like mine are cut, those voices don't get quiet. They disappear. This is not just about a budget. This is about children's families and futures. Please, por favor, don't take away the support our students desperately need. Thank you. Thank you. Will the next five people approach the line? Annette Beaudoin, Vicente Thrower, Kimberly Burke, doctor. Natalie. Lynch. Walsh, Dina. Linero.

139Welcome. Jackie Luskin, parent Esq advisory chair. I spoke to seven out of nine of you in recent days. Thank you. And I appreciate those who have lobbied effectively. Yes, to regional hubs. Good move. Make one director, each region a director of public accountability and customer service because we lack both. Yes to removing a layer of Esq hierarchy and refocusing that wisdom on compliance that currently has too many critical points of failure. No to slashing Esq counselors. Thanks for reversing that. But honestly, what was anyone thinking? Please also reverse the social workers, the school psychologists, or the support service positions and clarity is important. Please. On the Rd and visually impaired positions being cut too. Most importantly, saying that student enrollment is down is a false argument for Esq because enrollment of students with disabilities is

140actually up 4 to 5000 in eight years. They need more, not less behavior support. Behavior management must be built up, not eroded, and is already one of your weakest areas. The hiring freeze is already affecting our students. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Martin McHugh, 36 year veteran teacher in Broward County. That was a great smoke show this morning. Screen show. I heard a lot of reorganizing, not necessarily removing. I'm going to be direct. The organizational chart is top heavy and a backward plan. Cuts are being made at the lowest paid levels. The people supporting the teachers and those closest to the students. While top administrative roles remain largely untouched. Meanwhile, essential school based support like counselors, mental health staff, behavior techs and teachers are not being protected in the same way leadership positions are.

141If reductions are necessary, start at the top, not in the schools. At the same time. District micromanagement, please hear us, continues to increase through layers of directives and compliance requirements. That drain time adds little value to instruction, but fosters toxicity in the schools. Now paper is being rationed, pushing students further onto laptops all day while classroom resources are being reduced. Teachers shouldn't have to decide between following the very limits or delivering effective instruction. You could. The next. I had. Could the next five people approach? Trudy Germanovich. Shakeela. Robinson, Carolyn Harvey and Sabrina Brandt welcome. Good morning, doctor Natalie Lynch, Walsh plantation, Florida. I came prepared with handouts. I hope they got handed to you. One of them is from the former general counsel, because sometimes school boards are confused and think that the org chart

142and job descriptions are the superintendents. They are not. They are yours. I believe these were given to MR. Sullivan to hand to you, so if you don't have them, it's hard to MISS. There's some yellow highlight. The other one are my suggestions. Let's try to do this in 40s. This is about the 3% fund balance and maintaining it at all costs, even at the cost of destroying the district. You need another workshop. That should be obvious, but I just thought I'd say it. And the witness protection program for friends, because that's what a lot of these boxes and saving people is about. I agree with Lisa Maxwell's letter, and I support all the unions that came here today to tell you these are bad recommendations. First concern lack of underlying supporting data needed for sound

143decision making, especially from mgt. For 150 k, you should have some data. No cuts being made at the top. I got plenty, starting with the deputy superintendent attendant. Move public records to general counsel or get rid of the guy that runs it. And I have more and lots of handouts, if anything. Next speaker, please. My name is Doctor Trudy Germanovich. What you say today will be remembered by voters. The bottom line is, do you value the frontline worker or do you listen mainly to those making over $100,000 on this org chart? Make it explicit today for the public to regain confidence in this board. Say no one who receives over $100,000 and who does not work directly with students on a daily basis, should be exempt from having their job eliminated from the written comments.

144Reduce all salaries above paid band d to show everyone is affected by these cuts. Eliminate the Chief of Staff position and add these duties to the Deputy Deputy Superintendent. The board was unanimous when they said that people who provide services which are vital to students should not be touched by this organization. Do your job. Thank you. Next speaker. Hi, my name is Sabrina Brandt. I'm a Broward County Naviance and ceo of students for Change Foundation. I've had the privilege to work with Cynthia Tapia Rodriguez. Cynthia is just selected to receive the Staff of Character Award presented by the superintendent, the first district staff member to receive it, making her the last person who should be laid off. Her programs operate with the best practices of youth engagement, building a culture of community agency and leadership,

145and positive personal beliefs. Data also supports her impact. There are reduced incidents, reports and incredibly low rates of substance abuse. Any doubt on the credibility of the data presents an opportunity to reinvest in the programs, creating incentives for honesty rather than any untrue positivity. But in the meantime, there is no evidence of inaccuracy, and removing these leaders would only make these challenges worse. These programs are what the board should be investing in, and the leaders of these programs should be celebrated. I'm so proud of Cynthia as both a partner and a community member, and I hope the board reconsiders her elimination and allows the community to benefit from her critical work. Thank you so much. Thank you for the next five people approach the line. Carolyn Harvey, Cisco Oliveira, Dan Reynolds, Paula Mitchell and Chris

146Nelson. Welcome members. Of the board. I am Carolyn Harvey and I stand before you not as a teacher, as only a teacher and a speech pathologist, but also as a proud member of the btu. I'm an advocate for special needs students and our students and specialized instruction deserve top tier education, and we need stability to provide that as a cost of living rise. We are struggling as union members. We stand together to ensure our voices are heard. I urge you to protect these jobs not just for us, but for every student and for the future of this community. We stand on. Legacy of greatness. School Board of Broward County has a legacy of greatness. Think about your education. Or the question is, who taught you? Thank you. Next speaker. And if you heard your name

147announced before, please approach the line. Happy Tuesday. I'm Jackie Robinson, Pompano Beach, Florida resident. I serve as a teacher on special assignment in the suicide prevention department. Let's be clear, we cannot prioritize student safety while cutting the very people doing the the work in real time. Our team in schools are training staff, responding to crisis and building relationships that allow students to speak up before it's too late. While coordinator roles remain stable, they cannot replace the teacher on special assignment. The field interveners structure without direct service does not save lives. These positions are not supplemental. They're essential. We are often the first line of defense when a student is struggling, suicidal or in crisis. If you remove the teachers in the field, you are not. You're not streamlining. You're creating gaps where students will fall

148through. I urge you to reconsider this proposal and protect the roles that directly protect students. Thank you, and thank you for allowing me to serve. Thank you. Could the next five people approach the line? Pete Tinjum. Kimberly Mahorn, Lorraine Maurice Vachon, Felicia Alvarez, and Delia Ford. I guess. Sorry, I didn't. Hear my name. I'm Paula Mitchell and I'm here representing the 13 budget support specialists from the Budget Department. You are eliminating all of us. We handle every facet in the processing of all the paperwork of almost every grant in the district, including the two largest title, one an idea. We also have three employees who are the first level of school communication with every school and every principal, including budget transfers, position control. We also handle. In addition to those other two grants, we handle

149150 others. The grants are going to start liquidating in JULY. We will be gone JUNE 30th. I'd love to know who's going to be handling the liquidation. We range from two years to 30 years. We wanted you to see our faces instead of just seeing our job title and personnel numbers, but they won't let them in. But they are out there in the outer room to support me. And thank you for your time. And hi Val, wherever you are. Thank you so much. Next speaker. Hello, Felicia Alvarez, Coral Springs, Florida. If there's one thing that I'm noticing is this is not an effective way of communication. What's lacking is communication with the school based employees. Students are the reason that we're here, and teachers are the ones in front of students and school based employees

150support teachers. Where is the support right now? I see a lot of directors. I hear a lot of managers. I don't see a lot of support. Again, this is not an effective way of communication. We need to communicate with schools, not speak to you and not have you speak to us, but open communication. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Hi. Good morning. My name is Delia Ford and I live in North Lauderdale, Florida. I'm an isp that works with in the sb setting and that is specialized, varying Exceptionalities. For those of you who do not know, we are not only employees, we are parents. We are teachers, we are confidants, we are nurses. We are doctors, we are counselors. We do everything. And I'm here to. In support of all the ISPs, whether they're elementary,

151high school or middle school, that do the job that we do without getting paid to do the job that we do. And I think it's just unfair to hear that ISPs who cannot even afford to live, some of them who lives in their car with their families, have to be cut and have to be reduced because, you know, the board can't budget themselves. And I feel that those that do not support us, we just need to vote out and just get new members in. Thank you. Thank you. And before the next speaker, I'm going to read the names of the individuals who I've called but have not that we have not heard from in case they didn't hear their name or they were in the restroom. So I'll read Annette Bowden, Vicente Thrower, Kimberly Burke,

152Dina Lonero, Diana Sebu, Erica Hahn, Vonda Palmer, Sonia Johnson, Zyra, climbs, Cynthia Dominique, and Adrian Clark. So if you heard your name just now, please approach the line. Welcome. Greetings district leadership. My name is Lorraine Maurice Vachon, b2 Stewart. My adult children and I are proud. Products of Broward County schools, and I have dedicated 34 years of service to educating and supporting this community. I am speaking on behalf of the Broward Teachers Union Stewards, advocating for our members as. As we consider the proposed 20 2627 organizational chart and the anticipated layoffs at the end of the school year, we understand that difficult decisions must be made, but we want to acknowledge the human impact behind them. These are dedicated educators who have invested deeply in their students and school communities. We ask that this process

153be handled with compassion, transparency and respect. Our members deserve clear communication, fair practices and meaningful support as they face this uncertainty. The Broward County School, the Broward Teachers Union stands with our members and remains committed to ensuring that they are treated with dignity every step of the way. I would like to reiterate. MR. Thank you so much. Next speaker, please. Welcome. Hello, Chris Nelson, Fort Lauderdale. And you're moving to lay off 200 teachers, janitors, bus drivers, clerical staff and therapists while we're sitting in a $100 million building. I mean, sell this building. I mean, this thing. I think DR. Zeman had a great suggestion about that, but I have some research here that I really want you to look into that we're talking about laying off teachers to save like 8 to $10 million while

154an elite group of administrators, the million Dollar club, are draining the reserves through a hidden eight year pension bonus system. Really look into this that there are 2142 elites, many of them sitting in this very room right here, who are set to collect a staggering $605 million in pension bonuses. Okay, these bonuses are 39% only go to teachers. The majority of them go to the elites who they make the org chart. So of course, they're not going to remove their positions, they're going to remove the teachers. We should not be removing face to face people that are the core of our district. And by clear cleaning house in here and hiring young, energetic people. Thank you so much. Next speaker please. Good morning, school board. Members. Annette Bowden, City of Margate resident, concerned parent of

155three children in Broward County Public School with one who receives direct services within the school setting. As a parent, my primary concern is simple any restructuring should protect and ideally strengthen the services that directly support our students. Unfortunately, what is being presented appears to do the opposite. We were told positions would be eliminated without impacting schools or student services, but that is not what this reflects. Instead, we're seeing cuts to the people who directly support our children. While higher level positions remain untouched. For families like mine, these positions are not optional. They are essential. The individuals who provide support services are often the difference between a child thriving and falling behind. Any reduction in these roles will have real, immediate consequences in the classroom settings. I also want to be very clear we strongly oppose

156any elimination of sro contracts in the city of Margate. Our SROs are not just officers, they're mentors, protector and trusted figures in our schools. Thank you. Next speaker. Good morning, school board members and Superintendent Hepburn. My name is Dina Linero, music teacher at Silver Palms Elementary, union steward and proud parent, parent of three Broward County public School students, including two graduates. Thank you for listening to our input today. I've been with the district for 15 years, and I'm here to represent the deep concerns myself and those who could not be here today have, with this reorganization chart, eliminating 3000 positions is not right sizing. This decision will inevitably remove some of the very people and critical resources our students rely on to feel safe, supported and ready to learn. These are not just positions. These

157are the counselors students go to when they're overwhelmed. The social workers who help when there's no food at home. The specialists who make sure every child has a chance to succeed. I see these needs every single day in my classroom, and I have to ask, what do you expect happens to those children when those supports are gone? You say this is about budget and enrollment, but families are already leaving because our schools feel stretched and under-supported. Cutting these roles will not fix that. It will make it worse. Thank you. Next speaker. Good morning, school board members. My name is Erica Hahn. I've been teaching in this district for 21 years. I think it's a shame that you guys are cutting jobs. You've cut our insurance benefits. You've cut our medicine. I just feel like, where

158does the buck stop? There are so many of us that have to work more than one job just to make ends meet as it is. And now you're saying, okay, so you have you're cutting that too. So hopefully people can, you know, not lose their jobs and, and continue to, to work for the district and hopefully get paid a livable wage where they don't even have to work a second job. So you have more of a quality educator that's going to work rested and healthy and ready to serve your district and continue to produce, you know, results and maintain that. Thank you. Thank you so much. Next speaker. Good afternoon. My name is Sonia Johnson. I serve as the btu steward for school culture and student support. I'm writing to formally express my concerns regarding

159recent elimination of my position, along with seven of my colleagues who serve as the teacher of behavior support. Our roles were closely aligned with the district's commitment to teacher success. As a teacher of behavior support, I work directly with teachers and address behavior challenges, implement intervention strategies, and and foster a positive and inclusive school environment. These supports are critical to ensure that all students, particularly those with the greatest needs, are able to access instruction and strive academically and socially. The removal of these positions are significant concerns about how the district will continue to meet the behavior and emotional needs of our students and teachers, as well as well as support teachers in maintaining safe and productive classrooms. Our work has been instrumental in in reducing disruptions, improving student student outcomes, and strengthening overall school culre.

160Thankou.. Thanknk you s soucuch. Next, speaker before you begin, MR. Tension, I'm just going to read the names of, again the people we've called but have not that we have not heard from in case they didn't catch their names. I did not hear my name. Okay. Well, thank you for for coming up. So I'm just going to go ahead and read those names. Kimberly Milhorn, Cisco. Oliveira, Kimberly Burke, Vicente Thrower, Diana, Cebu. Vonda Palmer, Adrian. Clark, Cynthia, Dominique, and Zaira Climbs. Links. Welcome. Good morning. My name is Pete Tinjum. I'm a resident of plantation and and executive director of Esq. Ma'am, I'm very concerned about the direction the school board is heading. We're getting a lot of the positions of people that actually do the work. We're losing institutional knowledge. We're not attracting quality candidates

161because of the instability of the board. We also are not looking at revenue first and seeking what can we do to help that increase our revenue. And you're creating positions by realignment which make the task impossible. I suspect that this compression of jobs that you're adding to people is also going to hurt our ability to attract people, to replace those other people. I just would make a suggestion that you really need to add a person in the benefits department to retirement counseling, because I think you're going to see a significant number of retirements coming forth and a modest proposal put on the ballot a reduction of 9 to 5 elected school board members. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Hello, my name is Cisco Olivero, journeyman plumber at zone two. So I'm here in the

162last attempt to keep my position as a plumber of 16 schools that I service, one of them, including Bare Middle, which was on the verge of being shut down. And in no small part, I restored a shower that was boarded up for 16 to 15 years and. Another part is with these outside vendors. I spent one whole year trying to fix everything that they've done wrong, misusing the bond money that you guys are paying for, new valves, valves that I've already fixed. So you talk about saving money. I mean, that's the best way, you know, keep the work internal. And I thank you for your time. Thank you so much. Welcome. Hi, I'm Dan Reynolds. I'm PRESIDENT Of the Federation of Public Employees. MADAM Chair, vice chair, board members and superintendent, we represent the workforce

163that keeps the system going. The maintenance facilities, people, bus drivers, food service, clerical and security. They are the people that show up and do the work. What I didn't hear in any of this is that from 2009 to 2015, all of these units were downsized as much as 40%. We have less people doing the same amount of square footage of maintenance and facilities work. The clerical have been downsized, and a lot of outside vendors have come in. So you can't cut the bone beyond what it is. And when you close a school, it still needs to be maintained and and facilities need to be there. And lastly, if this becomes a cynical effort to privatize these essential services, there will be a. Thank you. I'll read the names that we haven't heard from one last

164time. Kimberly Mahorn, Vonda Palmer, Diana. Cebu. Vicente. Thrower, Adrian. Clark, Cynthia, Dominique and Zyra Klimes. Lunches. Okay, that concludes our public speaking. Before we move to board discussion, I do want to remind my colleagues that we have a special school board meeting scheduled at 1 P.M. And I would like to know what the will of the board is in handling that. Would you like to complete this workshop before we move to the special, or would you like to recess the workshop? Go to the special. Complete the. The order, the order of business for the special, and then come back to the workshop. MISS Rupert. I had a question on this. Did did did any of the items get pulled in our special school board. For a special school board meeting? All of the items are

165pulled automatically. Because we don't know ahead of time if the board members are doing it. I'd rather finish the workshop before we moved. On. MISS. Thompson. MISS Bulman. I'd like to finish the workshop. Same. Okay. Complete the workshop. All right, MR. Bruno, if you could. So we will open the special meeting and immediately close it, because it's it's notice for 1 P.M. And then we'll continue with the workshop. So we'll just we'll the order of business, per the recommendation of our general counsel, is that we'll briefly recess the workshop to open the special meeting, not deal with any of the items, recess the special meeting and come back to the workshop. Okay? Okay. The first board member who would like to speak is DR. Holness. On the workshop. Correct? Okay, great. All right. I'd just

166like to thank all of the members of the audience who gave their response and and feedback. And I can tell you that as board members, we appreciate your input. You know, this board directed the superintendent a few weeks ago to cut approximately 1000 positions this year and up to 1000, but not less than 500 for two additional consecutive years. Why did this board, including myself, made that decision? Well, we have dire financial constraints where we are currently experiencing an $80 million shortfall. Our reserve is at approximately 3.08%. And in the past, DR. Zeman had mentioned that this is about $1.6 million away from falling below 3%. If we should fall below 3%, that would begin the path for possibly state receivership. Now, I had mentioned before that the long standing misalignment of staffing levels, particularly

167among Non-instructional personnel and declining student enrollment, has gotten us to this point in the past. We have not reduced the same number of Non-instructional upper leadership, middle management staff as it would align with declining enrollment. We have done that with teachers, and over the last 10 to 15 years, we have continued to reduce the number of teachers based upon declining enrollment. We have unfortunately not done the same with some Non-instructional staff in as well as leadership, upper leadership, middle management. And because we have not done that as a board and as a district over the last 10 to 15 years, we are now faced with the situation that we have today. It's unfortunate for our current staff who will not be renewed. This resulted from many years of district leadership not aligning Non-instructional staff with

168declining student enrollment, as was done every year with our teachers. I asked myself the same question how did we get here? And I saw clearly for the last 10 to 15 years, our district has been experiencing significant student decline. And while it reacted to reduce the number of teachers, it kept the same number of instructional mid-management and upper management staff. As board members. Whether you just got here or you've been here for a while, we now own the problems and we own the responsibility to fix them. You know, as a small business owner myself, it is a formula for failure. If you're losing customers and over time you did not progressively reduce your staffing. And kept the same level of management. So. Instead, we should have progressively reduced the number of staff in over many

169years based upon the continual student decline. That would make sense for not only the school board of Broward County, but for any business. When you're losing customers, you reduce your staffing, you revise your product, you make your product better, you adjust your marketing strategy, you revise your customer service approach, and you adjust the appearance of your business. We have not done that effectively with Broward County Schools, and we intend to fix it as a board. We frankly, over 10 to 15 years were slow to act. Today, inaction is unfortunately not an option, although I wish it was so. Doctor Hepburn, I have a few questions. I want to talk about the concerns expressed by many. As far as us not taking action, it appears on the readjustment of the org chart as it pertains to

170upper upper management, such as our chief's. So I have a few questions based on that regarding our chief positions. Doctor Hepburn, is there any chief position that we could consider? At the very least, to re sort of arrange it to executive directors such as Chief of Student Services, chief of strategy, or whatever chief we can do to make those adjustments where we can bring it down a notch to executive directors, because I believe that as a school board, we have to have the same approach we have for middle management. For those on the ground, as we need to have for our upper upper management, which include our chiefs. So my question is, is there any chief position that you can identify to the public and to this board that we can bring it down a

171notch to executive director, as opposed to chief of whatever? Yes. Before before I start beacon, I just want to make sure you're ready to pop up any of the presentations, especially the org chart and presentation, because I'll be referring to some of those during the questions. If you can pop up the org chart page two with my direct reports. Thank you. To answer the question, yes. DR. Holness there's opportunities especially to consolidate as well. One of the positions that we actually elevated to achieve that as a direct report to me was the Chief Facilities Officer as well. We actually elevated that due to board feedback and consensus of making sure that reports directly to the superintendent. It wasn't a direct report, it was a combination position previously with our previous ceo, who actually had the

172duties of the Chief Facilities Officer as well. And then we actually broke out the Chief Facilities Officer and made that a direct report to the Chief of Operations. So we can certainly consolidate that. We can bring back to the team to evaluate the additional chief roles and bring back something that MAY be comparable to board needs and asked. So I'll look for consensus for next steps on on any other thing. Okay, so Doctor Hepburn as a board member and to make this equitable across the board, I would like to see at least two of the chief positions be reconsidered for executive directors and at least one of the chief positions to be removed. Is that doable? That is noted, and we'll review it. Okay. So you mentioned the Chief of facilities. Possibly that emerged as

173a position as a result of board direction. Can the chief of facilities be combined with the Chief Operating Officer? And I know we are on the hunt for a Chief operating officer, and I'm hoping that as a board and as a district, we will get the best in the nation. But if we should get rid of the chief of facilities and put those responsibilities under the Chief Operating officer, is that something that's doable? Should this district attract a very good Chief Operating Officer? Yes, I think probably combining it, we're in the midst of interviewing for chief for chief Facilities Officer and Chief Operations Officer. I can tell you this. There's not many people that want to do cabinet level work for school districts. It's not a county issue. It's a it's a public school district

174issue. The pay is definitely not comparable to what the level of work and leadership these folks demonstrate outside in private sector or in federal government work to recruit top notch. You could combine it, but definitely the pay would need to be increased to to attract people to want to pick their families up and move somewhere with a level of certainty. And certainly the pay would be a good attractor for quality candidate. Okay, so if we remove the chief facilities, the chief of facilities, how much would we be saving? If you remove that? Doctor Lozano, what would be the average savings if we combine it and removing the Chief Facilities Officer? So when you look at that position with probably an average salary of about 225 plus fringe and salary, you're probably looking at about 275.

175Okay. So if we remove the chief of facilities, we will save $275,000 approximately. Is that correct. About salary, salary and fringe? Yes. Salary and fringe. Okay. And if we were to try to attract the best in the nation. Chief Operating officer by changing the band of pay, I believe they're currently on s band. Correct. And if we change that to t band, I'm assuming that we would probably get the best in the nation for maybe an additional 15 $20,000 increase. So if we should change from the s band to the t band for the Chief Operating officer and get rid of the chief of facilities, where we'll save 275,000, what would be the difference in pay scale from s band to t band for the Chief Operating Officer? So again, we we would have to

176look at comparative salaries. Combining that position. But you'd probably look at an increase of 25 grand. Okay. So for an increase of $25,000 for the Chief Operating Officer, we'll be able to probably secure the best in the nation or among the best in the nation for that position. And we would eliminate a position that cost 275,000 and pay an additional 25 to get in the top in the nation to take on those responsibilities. That makes a lot of sense to me. Doctor Hepburn, do you have any comments? No. Makes sense. Like I said, it is those positions. Ceo and chief facilities officers are hard to recruit and especially in in public school districts outside of public school districts. These folks are making 50, 75, $100,000 more than what we pay. So to drop what they're

177doing with the level of expertise and bring it to a school district is going to is going to cost. We have to raise the pay if we want the best to encourage those folks to move to this area and be able to do that work for us. Okay, so so Doctor Hepburn, for the record, then I am recommending that we remove the position of Chief of Facilities, that we changed the position of Chief Operating Officer from Pay Band's to pay band t and to, to make every effort to recruit the best in the country for Chief Operating Officer. Note it. Okay, so I am going to. And Doctor Hepburn. Also for the record, please note my prior comment that we look at the current chiefs that are in place and see who can be reduced

178to executive directors, so all of us can bear the brunt of the financial constraints that we have, and not just those, you know, that are middle managememt andnd below. r. Holnene one seconond. eses. inin t tha youou know, that is very clear directive. I'm wondering how my colleagues want to to deal with those kinds of suggestions. If you want to go around now and give consensus around those recommendations. Okay, so, MADAM Chair, I can go around now to get consensus. And then if. I. Want to ask how we want to deal with. Oh. Got it. I understand first. So Missus Alhadeff. Yes. I do not like that idea at all. I think it was a. Let me let me back up. Do we want to deal with. Yes, I would like to deal with it

179now. Okay. MR. Cervera yeah, DR. Zeman. I don't. And let me just explain for a minute. I certainly wanted to talk about that specific item and maybe some of my colleagues did as well. So I'm just trying to if, if we're going to propose ideas and then discuss them and, and get consensus, you know, at that point, because we're in a workshop, you know, I think that's fine, but it's going to take a long time. If we do it that way, a shorter way would be to collect those. And then at the end, maybe we can go through it after everybody. That's how we we usually do it. I just saw you flagging me down while he was talking. So get it straight. Whether or not we do it a or b, I like b

180better than a. Yep. DR. Holness. I agree with DR. Zeman. I'd rather us have the opportunity to give our own thoughts too. I agree if we stop at every single thing, we're going to be here way longer than. MISS Bowman. I agree with that, MISS Thompson. Yeah. Okay, so I've noted your your recommendation and we can move on. Got it. Okay, so Doctor Hepburn, I'm going to move on to my second concern. I have some questions on the after care position, because I did hear one of the speakers apparently in that position made mention that that position bring in money for the district. And with removing the individual from that position and replacing that position with a new person, that there's going to be a learning curve that can impact the amount of funds that

181we get as pertaining to that position. So can you provide comments? Because I don't want us to be in a situation where we're saving a penny and we're losing hundreds. So if you could explain to me or give us confidence that removing the director of after care, what kind of impact will it have on getting funding through grants for those programs and the kind of learning curve that would be required for someone to take that position? Yes. Thank you for the question, DR. Holness. It is a a decent revenue generating program for especially for our individual schools as we consolidate this function into a different director, comparable leadership will be able to quickly learn the strategies that are necessary to carry out the functions of, of all those duties and responsibilities. In addition, we have

182a robust grant writing team that does an excellent job in writing grants, bringing in a lot of money for this school district, not just for that specific function, but a lot of different specific functions. We have a good runway of time just to make sure we dot all our I's and cross our t's for anything that we that needs to be known. Any specific, specific strategies and tasks that are carried out as well as the the current chief of that area and past chief understand intimately the actual tasks that need to be carried out and the responsibilities. Okay, so you mentioned that we have a robust grant writing team. So I guess my direct question then is because I want to make sure we're not going to impact our district as far as getting funding

183in a timely manner. And there's a learning curve. If this individual is removed and a new person comes on, can that robust grant writing team with that new individual hit the ground running on day one to have the same level of efficiency and and success as the person that's currently there? Yes, that's a confident yes. It's not a new person coming on, it's consolidation. So the person that will assume those duties are very familiar with grants that are particular to staffing programs and things like that. So they already work with our grant grant writing team as well. Understand? And do you believe that some level of overlap in terms of the person coming on shadowing the current person who's there for six months or a year would be necessary? Do you believe that would be

184necessary? I don't think so. I think the amount of time up to midsummer is sufficient. Okay. All right. I'm going to move on to teachers. Are we removing any teachers, Doctor Hepburn? No, we are not removing any teachers. We've been very specific. If I can finish. Thank you. I just. Have decorum concerns. I just want to clarify, we have been very specific about not touching schools, school based budget personnel that are tied to those schools and on their specific budget. That has been our charge and our task, and been very careful about how we approach any any reductions. And it has not been on the backs of our school budgets and the positions that are currently at those schools. These are all district positions, various functions across all of the positions that have been recommended,

185recommended or proposed for cuts are on district budgets, and they provide various levels of service to departments, provide various levels of services to schools and other functions across the district. Okay. So those who were involved in instructional intervention and working from a district level, that would be equivalent to being teachers, those individuals will be placed in an instructional role at some specific school based site. Yes, absolutely. We have so many instructional vacancies between now and JULY. For instance, on average, this time of the year, we have about an average of about 200 225 teachers that aren't doing the things that they need to do to complete their certification. And so we have we have to let them go. In addition, we have about 850 teachers that either resign, retire, or terminated for whatever specific reason,

186but more so for, for the for the former. And that's 850 teachers. So you combine the two, we have over 1000 teachers that we expect that will be leaving our system for some specific reason between now and actually JULY. So we have plenty of opportunities to place the impacted district instructional staff to ensure that they have a place to land inside of our schools. Okay, so were there teaching staff or instructional staff on the district level that intervene in schools that were given letters? Yes, we have we have district instructional or teaching staff that are doing various functions that actually supplemented some services at schools. Okay. So when we and they've been given letters of non-renewal, is that correct? Correct. Go ahead. Doctor Lozano, just to be specific, because we have different letters for different

187groups. So again, right now we're in the very early stage of this and we are talking positions, right. And we were coming today to identify positions that have been recommended. So prior to the positions being shared publicly on Wednesday, we wanted the staff that sit in those positions to be aware that their position title was coming as a recommendation. But a position doesn't equate to a person. And so those individuals received the letter and different through the collective bargaining agreements. There's different rights and processes for each group of employees, my team and the collective bargaining leadership teams work together collaboratively, collaboratively, throughout this process to ensure, as our board chair said, leave no stone unturned that we do best by every single employee. Hopefully to be able to find a place for every single employee

188prior to JULY 1st, which is the effective date of implementation. Understand? So, Doctor Lozano, for the sake of the public, what I hear you're saying is that we are removing certain instructional positions, but we are not removing teachers. So if they were in specific positions, they will be reassigned to certain other teaching roles. Is that correct? So we're again, as you talk, classroom teachers, there's also in that instructional group, social workers. And a lot of the individuals we spoke of today that are not certified as classroom teachers. So that's a different process. And I'll pass it to our executive director to provide a little more detail. Good morning. Susan Rockman Executive Director, Talent Management. Yes, we have different different employees that have been impacted in the instructional bargaining unit. The instructional bargaining unit is made

189up of social workers, counselors, school psychologists, science math teachers, literacy coaches, program development specialists. There's a variety of position titles that belong to that instructional bargaining unit. Those that are certified and hold a Department of Education certificate in a specific subject area. We. I am confident that I will be able to place them in a position in one of our schools. I'm anticipating. As Doctor Hepburn explained, close to having 800 positions needing to be filled by AUGUST. Understand? So Doctor Hepburn, I want to make it clear and I believe this board agrees with that because we stated it clearly before that certified teachers will be placed somewhere, even those who MAY have been given a letter regarding the position that they're in, that it doesn't equate to not having a position in the upcoming school

190year. Yes, we have plenty of need, plenty of need. As MISS Rahman said, she anticipates 800, but the trend tells me that it's about 1000 every year. So that trend is not changing year after year. So we have plenty of need and we will still have to go out and recruit and hire teachers, even when we place these specific instructional personnel, we still have to go out and recruit and hire teachers to fill the needs that we have at our schools during the summer. So what we have as far as the the current cuts are certainly not going to fill our needs at all. Probably about about 10 to 15% of our needs will be filled by them. Understand? So for for the public, what I've heard is that we are not cutting certified teachers.

191Okay, I'm going to move on. Doctor Hepburn to Esq. I appreciate the changes I've heard with the numbers in Esq because the Esq population is actually increasing and with the Esq population increasing, which are students with learning challenges, then it's important that they have the required support. I myself is a parent of an Esq child, and I understand the depth of support that our Esq children need, and I am very much happy to see that the adjustment you've made in not removing 22 of our Esq staff Esq students will continue to increase as many of the entities to which our mainstream kids are leaving to. They are not as. They are not as effective in servicing the needs of Esq students as Broward County schools. And so we see that population increasing and we should

192not decrease those staffing. In fact, we should figure out ways to increase those staffing because their their needs will increase as we continue to experience increase in population. Doctor Hepburn, regarding mental health and counselors and MADAM Chair, I'm almost done. We are cutting our mental health and and counselors. What impact will this have on the district? Because I know we recently proposed a referendum to which we are including funding for mental health, but here we are removing mental health counselors. So can you help the public to understand what we're doing here? Yes. Thank you for the question. So these particular two categories of jobs that you mentioned do not directly support students. They directly support admin teams, provide that type of level of support to leadership teams with certain strategies consistent with building capacity. That

193work will, will still continue to be spread out through some of the coordinators within some of those departments to help with those functions. But again, I just want to emphasize that these aren't individual individuals within these roles that actually go out and directly support students. Okay. So based on this, including included in the org chart and having a referendum to increase to, to, to allocate funding for mental health. Can you explain why we were, we are going to need support through a referendum for mental health services? Well, the support for mental health services helps to maintain or enhance the direct services to students. Right. And so if we need additional direct services for students and if the board sees fit with the mental with the referendum dollars to to do so, we can do so.

194But in addition to we talk about technology, leveraging all the innovative strategies that are out there right now. And so we're trying to leverage technology as well to really pinpoint where the need is for specific kids so we can so we can be more proactive instead of reactive. In many instances when our students are having any mental health crisis, if we can identify a trend and hop in and support that student way before they take a drastic measure or having an out, you know, some type of outbreak, that from their situation, that's that's going to create better efficiency and effectiveness. Understand removing the Director of Strategic Partnerships on page three of the summary. Will this have any impact on our ability to benefit from partners? No it won't. We're we're leaning on b e, f

195and that strong partnership that we have with them to really shore up our partnership efforts. We're actually potentially going to help support an additional position with them by probably paying for half of that position, so we can bolster up any of their efforts. We have some specific goals that we're trying to meet as a district when it comes to philanthropy, support, partnership support that we've been working closely with bia for the past couple of weeks as we started this conversation. Okay, so Doctor Hepburn, in closing, there were concerns about communication in whereby some individuals who receive letters, such as those in teach an instructional role, maybe at the district level, were not aware that they would be placed in positions at maybe the school based level. So the letter seems to emphasize not being renewed,

196but it creates some level of panic because they weren't aware that they would likely be placed somewhere. So I would say in the future, if that happens and the concern came to me, but if that did occur in the future, if we could look at how we communicate to make sure that we're not leaving essential information out that would be relevant to to individuals so it doesn't create undue stress on themselves and their families. Thank you. DR. Holness Esq noted. Okay, so I believe in learning from the past and looking ahead. We are a team. We will adjust the plays and we will win. We will win for our students. We will win for our parents. We will win for our teachers and staff, and we will win for our district. All of us are

197accountable and all must work to fix it. We will look back. I am hoping that our pain today as a necessity that will lead to our success of tomorrow. The board will work together to fix the to fix the issues. No one of us here must say it's not me, it's you. Because we all accept to sit in this seat and therefore we accept the past, current and future problems and we will work together to fix them. Thank you, MADAM Chair. Thank you, MISS Thompson. Thank you, chair. And thank you. Everyone who came out to speak took the time to email us or submitted public comment. Before I begin my comments on the organizational chart, I think it's very important to ground this conversation in the reality that school districts across the state of Florida

198are facing. Orange County is eliminating nearly 300 jobs, including 84 safe coordinators, social workers, psychologists. Pasco County is cutting 180 positions. Sarasota County is reducing by 260 positions, including 180 teachers and approximately 80 district staff. Brevard County is facing a 7% workforce reduction. This is something that is happening across the state of Florida, not just in Broward. While better budgeting and staffing adjustments and even school closures MAY help stabilize our individual systems in the short term, the broader reality is this school systems across Florida are going to eventually break. Under the current state funding model, you simply cannot pay $500 worth of bills with $100 of funding. So not only as a school board member, but as a mom with children in our public school system, I will continue advocating for increased funding for public

199schools. I will also continue pushing for greater transparency and accountability for taxpayer funded voucher programs that divert billions of dollars away from our kids and our public schools each year, and I hope those here today and those watching online will continue to advocate for strong public education, not just by having this conversation with us, but by mobilizing across the state and making Tallahassee truly take care of the children of Florida. So now on to my comments about the org chart. Today. I would agree with DR. Holness that there needs to be a common combination of chiefs. I would agree with the Chief Operations Officer and the Chief Facilities Officer being included. I would like to say on page three. What is the Manager of Media and Community Relations? MR. Solomon? Yes, so that was made

200possible with the elimination of one of the communication specialists going from 2 to 1, and it elevates it to manager to capture the board's expectation of increased communications across different audiences, along with also now managing some of the functions that were currently under the director of Strategic partnerships. So that's why that change was made. And then on page 19, we talk aboutt familil e eagagemenow doeses tssosition diffefer f fro wh family engagement does? Thank you. You want me to go? Oh, go ahead, MISS Sullivan. I was trying to get. 19. So family engagement really works directly with our families, the media, the manager of media and community relations really deals more with external partners, but not really families. So the, the merging of the director position with family engagement, that silo will really be think

201about the events we do for our parents out in the community. They really are managing that. And then the other is really managing external partnerships and doing our other work as it relates to caliber. Our community involvement awards and events such as that. Thank you for clarifying. And I do think it's important for us to communicate to the public, because it does seem like a shifting of of boxes and potentially could seem to the public that we are protecting different people. So to explain the rationale for all these positions, I think is important. So thank you for. Thank you for that opportunity. So moving on to page seven, I would like some further explanation on those three new positions included the director of ai and Digital Learning, the assistant director of ai Innovation and Digital

202learning, and then the program manager, technical support. And I'm going to ask beacon to please put up page seven of the org chart. Yes. Thanks for the question, MISS Thompson. This definitely propels the work when it comes to innovation in academics, and I don't want to steal the thunder. So go ahead, Doctor Cohen. If you want to. The left side of page seven, the the consolidations and the enhancement of some of those positions to really propel the work that we're trying to do in Broward County public schools when it comes to innovative learning in academics. Sure. Thank you for the question, MISS Thompson. So this is this position helps to consolidate all of our ai initiatives. As you recall, our initial powered by ai workshop that happened with students. We started to gain a lot

203of traction, not only with the implementation of the contract with Microsoft, but also with the huge donation through the wieners, the $2 million, as well as some additional agreements that we're going to be engaging in. We have a large contract also with prisms. And so this really is to take two existing departments that were fully functioning, doing some of the same work differently, but converge them into one unified system and approach to launch avr, xr together, while also bringing some of the other ai tools and other departments together under one umbrella to be able to deliver quality instructional materials to our teachers and to our students. Where we start to launch next year, our student interfacing component of our student ai, as well as our teacher interfacing component of our ai. It's also going to

204be part of our redesign efforts in some of our schools in phase two and phase three, using ai, xr, vr, as well as some other new initiatives that we already have planned. So it's a huge initiative that needs to be streamlined and focused around some leadership efforts to really promote it. Yeah. And just to add, this gives more of a composite effort for a composite execution and our focus on innovation at the academic level to, to change the student experience and the student engagement in our classrooms has caused other entities to contact us to talk about offering us grants or partnering with grants to continue to help excel this work. So it's definitely been a plus. And then just to create a structure like this where it's more, it's prioritizing these efforts on the academic

205end for the purpose of better student experiences, student engagement and student agency is helping people understand what we're trying to do in Broward County public schools and garnering more outreach to us to support grants and things like that. And so I appreciate the comments. I would argue that we should be putting more of that funding into our actual school system with the people that are going to be working with our students and our teachers to do this innovation, and that having an assistant director and a director aren't necessary. So I would like to see some consolidation on that front. So Thompson, could you just repeat that so I can. Yes. So I would like to see a consolidation of the director and the assistant director. So probably just not having an assistant director on page

206seven, which is ai. Thank you. All right. So moving to page nine, if beacon can put that up. Thank you beacon. So almost a year ago, this board had contracted with Inova Health to review our mental health system and give us recommendations on how to improve this system. They recommended breaking down silos and also increasing the number of Esq support staff, school social workers and school counselors. These proposed changes do not meet those recommendations, and if we go out and spend money on consultants, I think it would be wise of us to heed the recommendations. Since being on this board, I have consistently advocated to increase school social workers, and I recognize during that time that we had funding concerns and that having one social worker assigned per school would take some time to come

207to fruition. But never did I imagine that we would be cutting school social workers at a time where it seems like our students have reported that they finally feel at ease, and they are supported with their mental health. When we have limited resources for something as vital as mental health, we need to make sure that the vast majority of our funding is going directly to our schools. So I have some questions over some of the different positions, and then I'd have some recommendations that I would like my colleagues to weigh in on for the coordinators of suicide prevention, are these positions that actually go into the school, and are they the ones that are providing suicide prevention curriculum? Thanks for the question, MISS Thompson. For suicide prevention. They don't directly support students, their teacher on

208assignment. They offer lessons to schools around some of that. So these are this is required instruction. So what's going to happen is that coordinators within the division are going to pick up some of those tasks. But schools are already doing some of that tasks. Have to do some of that task anyway for required instruction. And there's only I want to say there's only four across the whole entire district for 230 plus schools. So it's better to maximize our efforts with the people who are in school already doing this work to provide the required lessons and provide any, any additional support for pd and things like that for for leadership team and staff. They don't directly support students. So for clarification, the coordinator provides the training to staff or provides like assemblies, like what are these

209positions doing in our school? So I'll get MISS Miss Hollingsworth, if you can provide some details. Good afternoon. Simone Hollingsworth, Chief Student Services Officer Yes, MISS Thompson, those individuals are, to Doctor Hepburn's point, more supporting the school. They can go in and do assemblies. They are monitoring and supporting what the sras. But it is more of an administrative role, not direct student services. So I would argue that the majority of our mental health professionals are doing suicide prevention and can take on that task as well, and to, again, put funding into a district position that could be done with boots on the ground or coordinated through school social workers that have social school social worker supervisors. That is something that could be improved. And then every single student has the suicide prevention accessibility to a

210person that does this, otherwise putting it in the district. So that would be my recommendation to you. Can you can you lost you on that one. Can you repeat it please? I'm sorry. So to shift the responsibilities of the three coordinators of suicide prevention back to the school level. So no changes to the org is what you. Know, to cut that so that we can fund those services. Gotcha. Because we would still meet state requirements as long as they're still being done. Correct. On page nine. On page nine, all the way to the right. Okay. Three boxes down. Cut those, cut that those three positions. And with the expectation that the school social workers and the school counselors would not be cut because they would take on that responsibility. Okay. Which will be the bulk

211of my recommendations for cuts to this district. I'm trying to follow. You cut the three positions on the org for coordinated suicide prevention. Utilize those dollars for an upcoming recommendation of funding social school social workers is what I'm. And counselors. I have a couple more. Okay. Gotcha. Yeah. All right. They're in that same line. There are two boxes that say supervisor of mental Health Services. The top one says, for the bottom one says two. Can someone walk me through why? We have two boxes that are exact same title and what they do. Thank you. The same page. All right. I am capturing what you just said. On that. Last one. Bear with me. I think I typed like 2020 words per per minute, so I'm not that fast if you can. I'm sorry, MISS Thompson,

212if you can repeat. Sure. So on page nine. On the far right, there is a box that says Supervisor Mental Health Services. We've reduced that by one position. Correct. But then if you go down to three more boxes, there is a supervisor of mental health services and that is two positions. Could someone walk me through each box and what they do? I can. Take that one. Go ahead. Doctor Lozano. Thank you. Doctor Lozano Chief Human Resources Officer So is a title change on the box above. So we didn't want to remove that without the public seeing the current title of that box is Coordinator Mental Health Services. So the title was changed to supervisor. So once once if this org chart is approved it will be one box with six people in it. Could someone

213walk me through what each of those positions do and who they oversee? MISS Hollingsworth? Yes. Thank you. So yes, thank you, Doctor Lozano, for confirming that we were trying to consolidate. It was seven. We had somebody that was vacant. So that's why we reduced it from 6 to 7. And then also I do have MISS Winter here as well. Those coordinators are supervisors. Whatever we end up deciding to name them are going and supporting the youth mental health first aid resiliency required instruction. So again, overseeing those programs that are statutorily required. Doctor Hepburn has to sign off at the end of the year that those have all been completed, but really supporting and assisting the schools to make sure that that is occurring in those schools so that we are compliant. I see I see

214Miss Winters here, so I'll let her tag team. Go ahead, MISS Winter. Oh, you can come and sit at this empty. No, no, no, we need the for the public. We need your voice for the record. Yeah, for the record. No, no. Okay. Never mind. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. There we go. Okay, so one of the mental health coordinators oversees our youth mental health first aid program to ensure that we remain in compliance district wide. One of our mental health coordinators assists with our mental health assistance allocation and checking our plans to ensure that we remain in compliance with fl expectations. We have another mental health coordinator that oversees our resiliency education district wide to ensure that we remain in compliance with the resiliency lessons and mental health curriculum. And who am I forgetting? Rsvp'd j

215a. Who am I forgetting? So so. We had one that was vacant. So that's the one that was cut. And then we have two of our mental health supervisors that oversee our students, our student support instructional specialists that are in 44 of our schools. And they support in the north and the South region. Okay, so mental health, the training, mental health allocation, resiliency, coordination, and then two mental health supervisors that oversee the cis positions. Correct. There's one. That's five. There's one missing youth mental health first aid and our mental health coordinator that oversees mha, our mental health assistance allocation regional team and our mha team is the team that coordinates all of our crisis response districtwide to ensure that all of our school communities have what they need in terms of recovering from the death

216of a staff or student member. Thank you for for clarifying that. So two of those positions I would like to talk about more. And then also who they support, the student support instructional specialists. So I have talked about this. I think, again, since I've been on the dais, I think those are positions that are nice to have in times of the budget that allowing it, that allows for it. However, when we are letting go of trained mental health professionals that can do the same kind of community building, that same kind of resource connection, the same kind of check ins, check outs, I think it is an inappropriate use of funds to cut people that can be jack of all trades for one specialized type of position. I have heard that there are I have heard

217good things about these positions as well, but I have mainly heard that people don't know what they are or that principals utilize these positions as catch all, which we as a board have talked about mental health positions and how they need to be siloed. So I feel like this position allows for a loophole for that mission. I know that sis is not on the org chart. However, the two coordinators that oversee those positions is. So as a directive, I will say it slowly. I would like to cut the two positions that oversee the Sis positions with the understanding that those funds will be used to preserve school social workers and school counselors. And then my final recommendation for this page is that I believe, along with a ngohealth who we paid to give recommendations about

218our mental health system, that we need to break down silos. And I would like to see a combination of the director of Mental Health Services with the Director of Student services, and then the boxes would just smush together. Do I need to repeat that? Just that last part, the last position. So combining the director of mental health services and then the director of student services, and then the boxes that I haven't changed under it would. Got that. Thank you. And then. MISS Thompson, the last part about the directors, what did you say? They would just go back. So combine the director of mental health services and student services into one box that is in the top band, and then every thing else would go under that box. Gotcha. Okay, I see you. Other than the

219two positions. And then I have some general questions. I have concerns over the loss of maintenance workers, especially as members go, or I go into my schools and hear concerns about work order, work order delays, unusable bathrooms, and more. So if we are cutting these facilities workers, what is our plan to address these issues so that we don't go further behind? No. Great question. This is more about building more nimble, responsive teams, leveraging the data. We're going to have fca data that that supports, where we can identify key things that we need to address immediately, and also leveraging some software to actually identify and be proactive before things actually break down more structural mechanical things. But the fca data will help us be nimble as we restructure the teams to to respond. In addition, also

220for maintenance maintenance, to be specific, it was 791 positions, 76 of them were vacant. So we only reduced the. As far as impacted employees, there was 38. When you combine it with the 76 vacancies, that's 114, which leaves 677 positions to remain out of the 791. So creating better responsive teams to do the work to be able to to respond timely and leverage that fca data to actually identify where we need to go and address those needs in a quicker manner, and leveraging the data to be proactive, to, to maintain things instead of emergency fixing for mechanical issues. When it comes to Hvac and other mechanical things that we have around the district. So I appreciate the forward thinking planning. However, we have a backlog of maintenance issues. So how are we going to address

221this backlog going forward if we're reducing? Yes, that's a great question. It's about prioritizing. And so combining the fca, fca data with the backlog of work orders and, you know, just probably predates me a couple of superintendents with that backlog. All right. And so all of that is definitely captured in the fca. What's what's vitally important. Right. So we can get to that before that that issue results into another issue. So it's being more strategic on how we approach our maintenance program, which has been very reactive. You know, for a long time, we were trying to be more proactive in leveraging the data that we have. That's not stale at the moment. And also leveraging technology to let us know when mechanical equipment needs to be addressed before actually breaks down. All right. And then

222we'll consultants, our contractors, be brought in to cover the positions being cut. So are we going to see more consultants being brought in more privatization? As one speaker said. No, we're not going to depend on privatization or contractors. We only depend on contractors for very specialized work that we can't do. Or also, if we have vacancies, because maintenance is they have some some form of turnover as well, as well as if you go school based with our custodial oracility staff at r schools, therere's lots s of tuturnover s So forssues l like thatat where torkk needso be dodone, yes, we'll depend on consultants because we can't fill the positions that we have. But as far as what we have right now, we're not dependent on consultants unless it's very specialized work. And if it's a

223vital vacancy that we can't fill and we need the work done will depend on consultants for that. And I just wanted to take a moment and say thank you to all the the Chiefs and the district staff. I know it has been an incredibly. And all the employees that have received these notices, I know these conversations in real time are incredibly difficult. And I'm sure hearing us talk about your positions in real time is also incredibly difficult. But like the chair opened, this conversation with, this is truly about making a better system and not about any person highlighted. And I just wanted to say one more thing. So to say that the cuts we're doing will not impact schools is a false statement. I think we need to get away from that narrative because as

224everyone has called us out to say, it is impacting schools because we are in the business of educating children, which means we run schools. So I think as a board and district, we need to acknowledge that. And when we are moving forward, we need to think of solutions that cause the least amount of harm. So I wanted to just briefly reiterate a previous point that if we have to go in my mind, if we have to go to bare bones model of management so that we can pour the majority of our funding into our actual school sites, this is something that we must do and we must do everything possible. And I know it won't be possible to save everything, but everything possible to prevent losing the programs or increasing our class sizes, or losing

225our amazing teachers and staff. Because all those things help us retain and attract students. Thank you. Thank you, MISS Thompson. MR. Cervera. Thank you, chair. First and foremost, I do want to acknowledge and thank everybody that came in, took time out of their day, took time away from their jobs, took time away from their families and their kids to come in and speak to us in person. And those of you who are kind enough to send us your thoughts via email, some of us do read those emails. So thank you for for sending those, you know, for months and months. My directive on this org chart and these position eliminations has been very clear. Start from the top and work your way down. We don't want any cuts to our great teachers, and we don't

226want any cuts to the positions that deal directly with our students. And unfortunately, this directive, in my opinion, has been ignored. Now. Over the last few days, hundreds of people have reached out to me regarding this proposed work chart. Wanting to know where I stand, wanted to know what my position is, and I want to be very clear what my position is with the current form of this org chart. I don't like it, i don't agree with it, and I don't support it. And I'd like to take a couple minutes to explain why I feel that way. This current plan that we have disproportionately impacts our lower level staff, while sparing some top level administrators. I'd like to, if I MAY provide an analogy in the business world, if you are coming into a business

227that's having operational problems or is failing and are in charge with reorganizing, reorganizing that business, you don't go in and just fire all the cashiers and all the store managers and say, oh, we fixed the problem. You start at the top, you start at the cfo, you go level by level by level, and you make the cuts and you make the changes that you feel will benefit that organization. And unfortunately, that's not what we've done in this case. Instead, we skipped the top and decided to pick off the rank and file. This is not the way you should do business. Instead of looking exclusively at district staff, the folks in this building. We chose to go after a lot of great teachers and a lot of great folks who work directly with our students. Now,

228I'm happy to hear the superintendents backtracking, if you will, on some of the Esq staff. That's encouraging. It's a step in the right direction. But folks, we got a lot more work to do. 119 certified teachers positions have been eliminated on this org chart. Social workers, numerous mental health counselors. That's unacceptable. Full stop. I will not stand for this and I will not support this. We are not going to try to dig our way out of our financial hole in this district, on the backs of our teachers and our students. This realignment, this reorganization, reorganization must start in this building and not in our classrooms. Not one teacher should be affected by this. Despite what we heard from our consultant earlier, we are top heavy in this district and that's where these cuts should come

229from, right here in this building. We can't be on a teacher hiring freeze because of our monetary pitfalls. And then cut certified teachers from this district. That makes zero sense. How are we supposed to put new teachers in classrooms if we're cutting 119 of them, and we can't hire any more? Who is going to be affected by this? Our students. How can we make these cuts to a lot of our Ys, to a lot of our counselors and mental health professionals, and still to comply with our students, IEPs, we are bound by federal law to comply with student IEPs. Hopefully everybody knows that. And I don't see how we're doing it when we start to make cuts like this. And once again, who is going to be negatively affected by that? Our students. The purpose

230of these cuts and this reorganization chart was to cut the bloat in this building. At least that's what I thought going into this. But we've chosen to bypass this directive and instead go after the rank and file. To make matters worse, this proposal cuts 300 jobs that are on the books, but we're not actually funded. How does that save us any money? A handful of these positions that are being eliminated are simply being rebranded under fancy new titles. How does this save this district? Any money? I also want to discuss the use of this outside consulting company to assist us. I'm disappointed with mgt, to say the least. And the report. I know we spent six figures for them to create this, and I think it's very telling that the individual who spoke opted to

231do so over Zoom today. I don't know why they're not here. All of you are here. You took off work and our consultants that we pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to. While I appreciate the work that they did to get to that in a second, I'm a little disappointed that they chose not to join us this morning. Again, I vehemently disagree with the comment that were made that was made by mgt earlier this morning that we are not a top heavy district. We are the epitome of top heavy and Broward County public schools. Now, within the mgt presentation. The one thing that kept running through my mind when I was reviewing this over the weekend and yesterday, was, where is the backup data? I see a lot of general numbers on pages with pretty

232pictures and lots of colors and animations. But where is the backup data? How are we getting to those numbers? I see a $40 million line item for staffing allocation adjustments. How do we arrive at that? Where is this coming from? Where is this money going? On the org chart documents. We've received lots of paperwork on that. Where's the breakdown of the data? What are we saving from each position from each department? I know there's just we just generally throw out I think the number was 45 million or whatever it was. But where's the breakdown of that? MR. Superintendent, this org chart has failed this district. We failed our teachers. We have failed our educators who work directly with our students. We failed the public. And perhaps most disappointing, I believe we failed our students. I

233cannot and will not support this proposed organizational chart in its current form. There's lots of work to be done to fix this, and this is too important, too important to screw up. We've got a lot of work to do, MR. And Superintendent to right this ship. And again, I appreciate the Esq backtracking. I think that's a good first step. But we have to get this right. We've got to protect our teachers. We've got to protect those who work directly with our kids. And it must start at the top right here in this building. Luckily, there's plenty enough to go around. But we've got to get to work now. I've got a few questions on the actual chart, if I MAY. And I will caveat this by saying I still have some some plans and suggestions

234that I'm putting into a viable solution. This is just some of the things that I've stood out to me over the weekend. MR. Superintendent, you will be getting a lot more suggestions from me as the days pass and we get closer to the next workshop, in which hopefully this will be discussed with a different plan. First and foremost, on page two of the chart, I apologize. I don't recall which one of my colleagues said this, but I'm in full agreement with the combination of the Chief Facilities Officer and the Chief Operations Officer and the change of of pay band. I don't know if it was Thompson or DR. Holness who said this, but I think that that is a a good first step on page three under the chief of Staff's model, if we look

235at pay band d, we have a Midi, a director of Media relations. We also have a media manager, excuse me, a manager of media and community relations and a coordinator of relations. Multiple positions. MR. Superintendent, can the manager position and the coordinator positions not be absorbed into one position? Thank you for the question, MR. Cervera, but if I MAY take the opportunity to address some of your comments that you said before, and I'll transfer it over to MR. Sullivan. I want to use your grocery store analogy, because the the cuts actually started from the top, not from the bottom. I'm not Drake. We're not starting from the bottom. We're starting from the top. And that was a directive to my team. And again, the reflection of those cuts are 16% executive directors and directors, pretty

236much directors. And above on the chart, 15% and below the chart 13%, which is more so our frontline workers in in some supervisory supervisory functions. I do want the public to understand proportion matters. The majority of our employees are below the chart, so even a 5% cut is going to equate to a lot of people. We're talking about over 5000 people, 5500 people are below the chart. You do your math. If you do 5%, it's a few hundred people, right? The directors and above are only a little bit over 100. So 16% in the when you look at the numbers seem small, but it's a lot of people when you look at it proportionally. And the same thing on the chart, proportion matters. The largest amount of our employees, 5500 plus are below that chart.

237So even a small decrease in the workforce by a percentage is going to equal a lot of people. Also, staffing allocation model, just to address that, that $40 million for the past ten years, we've lost about 40,000 students, $350 million. We've lost just 10,000 students just this current year, the upcoming year, we're going to lose another 10,000 in just two school years, 20,000 kids. That is a lot of lot of little ones that we're not receiving in our classrooms anymore. Things have to be shifted. Things have to be revised and realigned to meet the realities. As we move forward in the future, we cannot do the work the same anymore. Every school district is dealing with this, trying to evolve and innovate. We cannot go back to current structures at all, at all. Just want

238to make sure the public is clear about some of those comments because we don't take this work, you know, lightly. These are lives, these are people, these are family for bcc. And many of those families have kids sitting in our schools right now. So this is a toughest task that our team has ever done in a very, very long time. Taking the the right steps and demonstrating the right level of compassion. And, and all of us, including myself, are talking to business partners. I just had a meeting with some business leaders Friday and they asked me, Doctor Hepburn, how can you help? How can how can they help us? The first answer, I say, I have a lot of great employees that need jobs right now, and they gave me their cards. We want to

239reach out to your hr department to make sure they have a home in our in our organization. Again, thanks. Career. Career source. Brouwer. Also for your assistance. Unlike private sectors. Because my wife works for the private sector, you don't you don't. We don't just send an email saying you're done. You're laid off, right? We just had an organization in South Florida that just laid off, apparently 950, 50,000 or 950 people. You think they had conversations like we did with our staff? Do you think they talked to Careersource Broward like we did? This is serious. These are lives. We don't take this lightly. Every decision that we made, we've been making, we've been sitting down since DECEMBER to make sure we're making the best decision possible to make sure this organization is sustainable for the future.

240For every kid in Broward County and beyond, those who across our borders that we recruit here as well. Did we? This is this is serious, folks. This is not a light situation. We value every employee in our district right now, and we're going to make sure we assist you in having a place to land every last one of my team members. And it's already started with myself. These are lives, not numbers. MR. Sullivan. Thank you, superintendent. So answering the question specifically on page three, again, we were able to make that manager of media and community relations with reducing the community specialists from 2 to 1. The difference in that is maybe a 5% pay bump, but I believe the return on investment will be huge to align really with the board's priorities of increasing communications

241against for all our audience, internal and externally. And then that coordinator of district community relations is really a different silo from from that work. So I believe it's important to have it separated. Although the manager of media and community relationships would be providing that leadership and that in that in that area. How many coordinators do we have. In general or in this page. In general for coordinators of direct district relations or community relations? Oh, you're just referring to my page. Just just one. We have a coordinator of. So the Coordinator of Governmental affairs. Is that what you're talking about? I'm sorry. There's a Director of media relations. Correct. Direct under that director, there's a manager of media relations and a coordinator of district relations. Right? Yes. So again, again, the coordinator of district community relations.

242That's an existing position. It's just being realigned because the director they report to currently is being eliminated. So to provide that level of supervision and leadership, we collapsed the community specialists from two positions to one to create the manager of media and community relations, which really serves two functions, giving that leadership over community relationships, but more importantly, strengthening communications, which is a top, has been a priority from the school board. So that was our thought process there. Again, going from two specialists to one and creating that manager position is about a 5% difference in pay. Between the coordinator and the manager. Between the specialist and the manager. So we eliminated one of the specialists. We had two and we're going to one. And what that difference we created the manager of of media and community

243relations. And that difference in pay between those two is about 5%. But again, I believe the investment in increased communications internally, externally would be of great return on investment. So in addition to just that, MR. Sullivan, let me be very frank. I've heard it from the board. I've heard it from communities, I've heard it from my advisories. Our communication has been subpar. It's probably not the best term for it. And so with the with the shift in this division, it strengthens the ability to communicate better to our constituents, communicate better with the media, right? Opening up our doors more to, to really show off the great things that we're, that we're doing and also communicating when we have those challenging things we're going through too. But our communications has been subpar across the board. This

244is going to help strengthen that. And we've heard this from our board members and constituents over and over since I've statart and proroblyy befofore bore I statart a wl. Respectfull I I think subrr is being generous, but. Let's move on. That's the cute word I can find right now. Let's. Let's let's move on if we can. I want to get into chief a chief issue on page four. Deputy superintendent, directly under MISS Fulton. We have three regional superintendents and an assistant superintendent. MR. Superintendent, between the deputy and our three regional supers, can they not adequately do the job of the assistant superintendent who directly reports to the Deputy superintendent? No. If we're talking about consolidating the assistant and having the deputy take over that work. This office was created by myself for a specific reason

245when I got here, I think at the time we probably had 14 or so d and f schools, and it was my mission to ensure that the students sitting in those classrooms have better outcomes. The schools have better outcomes. The community has better outcomes and have a high level of pride of what's going on in their schools. So we created this specialized office to provide the services to those schools, building teacher capacity, leadership capacity, and ultimately doing great things in the classroom. As a result of that, we haven't had any d or f schools for the past for the past two years, and also reducing the number of our c schools by 50%. We're not like other school districts right now where we're chasing, trying to get rid of f and d schools. We're actually

246trying to get rid of all of our c schools and become a district of know of nothing more than a and b schools. So the work that's happening in is in the school transformation office and also the enhancement of the regional office that Doctor Fulton talked about to get services closer to our parents, our students, instead of the centralized approach, we get those emails from the centralized approach. And so the consolidation wouldn't be warranted in this. I think it would actually water down many of our efforts to, you know, relish in the accomplishments that we've had the past two years. Chief Academic Officer We've got a deputy superintendent, three regional superintendents, an assistant superintendent and chief academic officer. Can the role of the chief academic officer be absorbed by the Deputy superintendent and our regionals

247or the assistant superintendent? So I would also say no to that one. To the Chief Academic Officer is a very specific role when it comes to curriculum and resources and being able to organize and orchestrate how these efforts ultimately end up creating student opportunities in our classrooms. So the function of supporting, supervising, building capacity at the school leadership level that trickles, ultimately trickles down to the classroom. That's the function of the regional offices and assistant superintendents office. The Chief Academic Officers function is more about curriculum and resources and design and redesign and creating those efforts that are propelling us right now. Many of the the things that Doctor Cohen talked about xr, vr, leveraging ai for more student agency and efficiency of tasks at the academic level. And ultimately, as we do the research and

248monitor that helping teachers regain more time because they're able to personalize their instruction and create better, personalized plans by leveraging ai to do so. So a lot of those innovations are very specific to a certain type of work that that I think, again, would probably be diminished if we absorb that and combined it. Well, thank you for that. But I think this is a great example of when we say this district is too top heavy. We've got a deputy superintendent, a regional three regional superintendents, an assistant superintendent and the chief academic officer. If I MAY, beacon, if you can go to. Side deck page for. If if I MAY finish my. I'm sorry. MR. No. No worries. I don't want to talk about the report. We're going to we're going to get to that. If

249I MAY, I want to focus on the org chart. I've got a deputy superintendent. I've got three regional superintendents. I've got a assistant superintendent, and I've got a chief academic officer. I'm not even getting into student services. I'll leave that one out for right now. I've got six positions that I am a firm believer can be consolidated with very capable individuals. And I think this would be a great start. You want to talk about starting from the top. You want to talk about putting skin in the game. You want to start to talk about having the public trust us and have confidence in what we're doing. It's a good place to start. Page. Six. Deputy superintendent. Academics. Under the Director of Leadership Development and Teacher Support. We have principal coach and we have a supervisor

250of leadership development and a coordinator of Leadership Development. MR. Superintendent, why can those two positions not be consolidated or combined? So I'll have Doctor Connor, Doctor Fulton kind of give the specifics for those two positions and what they support. I'd like to hear from MISS Fulton, if permitted. If permissible, sure. Good afternoon. Angela Fulton, Deputy Superintendent So in our leadership development department, remember we provide leadership support for the entire district. And so it's not just school based leadership. It's also district leadership as well, too. We run a lot of our pipeline programs preparing leaders for leadership roles. The coordinator also supports it. So we have a few pipelines. We have a pipeline for our teacher leaders. We have a pipeline for our assistant principals. We have a pipeline for our principals and also through district

251leadership. So I think it was said earlier today, we are the largest employer and I think that we have the full responsibility for developing our leaders and making sure our bench is ready for when we need leaders to step into roles, they're developed and able to be there. So that's the the lift that we do for leadership development. And if I left anything out. Doctor Cohen, please fill in any holes. No, I think you captured it adequately. And just just keep in mind, being the sixth largest district with thousands and thousands of employees that have different opportunities in the classroom as leaders and also in the leadership of the school, you still have to continue to build the bench as leaders start to go on to other positions and retire. We continuously as a cycle,

252you got to continue to build the pipeline in order to make sure that the system is ready for new leaders in this very changing, dynamic role that they are in. So these roles are very key. They're very specific to the different kinds of roles that this district has. And it also keep in mind, although we just talked about the leadership bench at the school, there's central office leadership. So we have supervisors, we have transportation, we have procurement. So that office also handles the leadership at the central office as well. So I certainly appreciate wanting to have a deep bench. Okay. I think that's important not only in sports but in businesses and in school districts. I also think the depth of your bench depends on what your payroll is and how much money you have.

253Right. And if you want to have if you're flush with cash and you can have the deepest bench possible, good for you. But when you're sitting on $100 million deficit, these MAY be the types of cuts you have to make in order to preserve the district. Rather than worrying about how deep your bench is. Page seven. If I MAY. MISS Thompson, I think you beat me on this one. I agree with the Assistant Director of ai Innovation in Direct and Digital Learning. I believe you called for the the removal of that position. I am I am in agreement with that and had it on my notes as well. 13 please. Getting into the facilities branch, if I MAY. Assistant Director of Capital Budget and directly under that individual, we have several analysts and of course,

254this position reports directly to capital budget within the facility space. Why do we need a director and then an assistant director, and then a ton of analysts in the Department of Capital Budgeting? That's a great question. Just want to remind the public and the board that our capital program are hundreds of millions of dollars. And so to be great stewards of the of the money that the that the taxpayers are providing to the school district to do upkeep, build new facilities, renovate new facilities, and the hundreds of projects that we currently have going on and the expected hundreds of projects that we're going to have going on in the near future. Once we approve a capital program and get a long range planner on here, these are the positions that are needed to be as

255precise as possible to make sure there's no waste, and what the taxpayers are providing us to make sure our facilities start to, to reach a level that's conducive to a great environment. And so this and I know you're focusing on the capital budget, but one of the things too, from the board is about staffing up in our capital program just to make sure that we're not solely dependent on, on our, on our pmo or, or future program managers. So we can start bringing that in-house to actually save money. So a lot of these functions are actually outsourced to our p more because we don't have anybody in those positions. So one of the things that we are going to do and been charged to do is actually staff up as well. So we have more

256internal capacity to actually support our own work. Is that your explanation, MR. Superintendent, as to why we need this assistant director role? Yes. Okay, I appreciate that. Here's my closing thoughts on all of this. We are. In a bit of a crisis in this district. I don't think that that's a secret to anybody. Fortunately, we've been able to put a great educational product out for our kids. I'm very proud of our of our a rating for consecutive years. I'm very proud of the fact that we don't have any d or f schools. I tell everyone within earshot who's willing to listen how big of a deal I think that is. However, as far as the financial management of this district, we have problems. And while I understand looking through this proposed org chart that in

257a perfect world, we would love to be able to keep up a lot of these folks within this building. We also have to appreciate the fact that without our kids in the classroom, without teachers teaching those kids, and without our school based staff helping those kids and principals doing those things with those kids. Nothing really else matters. So we have to make very bold and very decisive decisions about who we are cutting in this district to get this org chart back on the right path. This MAY mean eliminating positions where others are going to have to take on higher workloads. It's unfortunate, but it's a necessary reality. MR. Superintendent, I'm very much looking forward to the continued conversations on this org chart and your continued modifications and changes. But as I sit here today, I

258am not in support of this, and I think there's a lot more heavy lifting that needs to be done if we're going to salvage this. Thank you for the time, chair. Thank you. We will now recess the meeting to go or recess the workshop to go into our special school board meeting, and we'll be back briefly. Thank you.