001Prepared for internship opportunities through ongoing professional development sessions and individualized support from their career and technical education advisors through the strong partnerships of Careersource, Broward Junior Achievement and our key business and industry partners. Nearly 16,006 1600 1600 students very exciting have been successfully placed in internship experiences across Broward County. These opportunities allow students to apply classroom learning in real world settings while developing the technical, professional and employability skills needed for future success. And so my office has had the privilege to welcome Shawna Kelly, who is a 17 year old student at Miramar High School who MAY. Yay! She maintains an impressive 4.4 gpa and is now a rising senior. She is actively involved in several organizations, including Fccla in hospitality, where she continues to develop her leadership and professional skills. Shawna also serves as a
002Vice PRESIDENT Of both the Black Student Student Union and the National Honor Society. Through her academic achievements and extracurricular involvement, she demonstrates a strong commitment to leadership, service and excellence within her school and community. And in the future, she hopes to pursue a pursue a career in nursing. So with that, she's going to lead us in the pledge. I. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under GOD, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Good job. Thank you. Thank you. As we begin, we reaffirm our strategic plan goal 100% proficiency for all students, guided by our vision. Educating today's students to succeed in tomorrow's world. As an a rated district, we remain committed to sustaining this achievement while empowering every
003student to reach their highest potential. Our theme this year is believe, empower, achieve one. Broward. Today's Special School Board meeting will operate in accordance with School Board Policy 1020, and the board will review the items as advertised and presented by the superintendent. The superintendent released a revised agenda with certain changes for this meeting and published it on the school district's website. The chair finds pursuant to section 120 .525 Florida statutes, that good cause exists for such changes and accepts the revised agenda. MAY I have a motion and a second to close the agenda? So moved. Second. Move by MISS Hixon. Second by MISS Rupert. All in favor of closing the agenda? Say, let it be known by saying I I any opposed, say no. The agenda is now closed. We will soon hear from our
004registered public speakers. We ask that decorum be maintained and civility and respect be shown during public comment. Our general Counsel will assist the chair in maintaining decorum during this period. We also want to remind our public speakers that the rules and expectations regarding the agenda, public comment portion of the special School Board meeting, as well as board policy attorney Dupree Bruno, please explain the rules of public comment. Thank you, MADAM Chair, and good morning. 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 public comment procedures speakers must state their name, city of residence and whether they are lobbyists. Before beginning their remarks.
005All public 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 the agenda. During the agenda speaking time, speakers will have up to three minutes per item and up to one minute on motions or amendments per meeting, with an additional one minute. If a motion is introduced, the chair MAY adjust the order of speakers and recognizing speakers and enforce all limits. A visible timer will be used and the microphone will be turned off when the time expires. Speakers must limit their comments to matters related to school board, business and or agenda items, and they must be relevant to the specific item. Comments MAY not address matters that are pending litigation, quasi
006judicial proceedings, active investigation or administrative hearings, solicitation and lobbying activities must comply with applicable school board policy. Abusive language defined as profanity threatening or name calling is prohibited. In addition, clapping, hissing, booing, shouting, yelling or other disruptions from the audience are not allowed. Speakers who 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 press recess recess being called after a warning. The chair MAY also direct removal from the meetingng andndhe buildingng by lawnforcement o or the Sergeanant Arms. M Mamam chaiair. haha youAttotoeyey Dupre ununo, the board wtsts to hear omom you, and we appreciate your cooperation in maintaining a respectful, orderly and productive meeting environment. When it is time for public speakers, I
007will 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 you're. When your time is up, please yield the mic and exit the podium and follow staff direction. I now turn it over to Doctor Hepburn to lead us in our superintendent's scholarship presentation. MADAM Chair, point of order. Before we turn the floor to the superintendent. After consulting with General Counsel, I'd have. I'd like a motion to bring a motion before my colleagues this morning. Specifically, we have a time, certain item number 56, in which this board is going to vote on school board policy. We also have a late addition, if you will, item number
00865, which is my requested motion to pause the implementation of the Magic School ai program. I would move at this time to have the item number 65 held directly after agenda item 56. As I imagine we are going to have a large contingent of folks that are going to want to speak on 56, and I certainly want to give those folks an opportunity to also speak on 65, as it is a matter of great public importance, and I don't want to have to have those folks wait till the very end of the meeting. So my motion would be to move up agenda item 65, to have that heard by the board directly after 56. Second motion made by MR. Cervera, seconded by MISS Rupert. I believe we have to take public comment on the motion.
009Come to you. We also have a check for the scholarship presentation. So yes, if there's any public comment. Public speakers. Yeah. Please approach the podium. Good morning doctor Natalie Lynch Walsh Plantation, Florida on my time and it's summer. I support the motion. There's 65 items on this agenda a special meeting agenda. And most of us are here to speak to the public hearing items. So that would be a great help having item 65 moved. So I totally support the motion. Do you want to speak? Yes. Time. Anna Fusco, Broward Teachers Union PRESIDENT, definitely support the motion. I hope that you guys are taking a position to take your personal feelings out of everything. When you're sitting up at this dais and really looking at what this motion is about and what needs to get done
010for the good of the order, of the 2 million residents that reside in Broward County, that every single one of you, except for the one that made the motion that is appointed, have said, this is what I run for. I'm the difference. I'm going to do what's best for the students and the community. What I need you to do is show it and support the motion. I keep saying that keep in mind and then why they've been elected. I support the motion. I think it's important that you guys remember that you represent other people. You're not here. Just representing yourselves in the community is speaking. Even though it's the summer, it's hot. I don't want to really be here, but we're here. I'm over here. I'm over here, everyone. Hello? Hello. Okay, thanks. Thank you.
011Any other speakers? Okay. Board discussion on the motion, MISS Hixon. Thank you. I don't mind doing that. I just want to point out that there's also some other time. Certains 10:00 and 11:00 for proclamations. So we would have to pause and go to those because people came specifically for that as well. Thank you. Any other speakers? Yeah. So I just want to go through the agenda that I believe was sent out. And usually, you know, when board members request time, certains or staff request time, certains they do that ahead of time. And I'm happy to oblige. But there is a time certain at 9 A.M. And I believe we have students waiting in the audience right now for their scholarships. That's correct. Okay, so. We were going to do the time item 56 at nine.
012At 10:00 we have a time certain that was requested. So if we hear item 56 and then 65, we would have to probably pause those items and go to the proclamation. So just so everyone is aware of how that will go, any other board comment? All right. All in favor of the motion, say aye. All opposed? Say no. Motion passes unanimously. I would now love to turn it over to Doctor Hepburn for our superintendent's scholarship presentation honoring our students. Yes. Thank you, MADAM Chair. Good morning. School board members, students, families, staff and community members. Today, it's my honor to recognize a special group of students whose hard work, dedication, and commitment to their future have earned them an extraordinary opportunity. Broward County Public Schools is proud to partner with Florida Prepaid College Savings Plan to
013educate families about the importance of planning for higher education and the options available to make college more affordable and attainable. Through this partnership, our marketing and strategic communications department worked alongside Florida Prepaid to raise awareness for college savings opportunities for Broward families. At the same time, our school counseling department collaborated with schools across the district to identify deserving recipients of scholarships. As a result of this successful collaboration for Broward County, Public School, students were selected to receive the superintendent's scholarship, funded by the Florida Prepaid College Savings Plan. Each scholarship is valued at approximately $8,000 and provides two years of prepaid college tuition, helping these students take an important step toward achieving their educational goals and future aspirations. This morning, we are honored to recognize two of those recipients. The remaining two students will be recognized
014at our next school board meeting. At this time, I'm pleased to introduce our first scholarship recipient, Jada Tillis from South Broward High School. [Applause] Jada, please come forward to receive your superintendent's scholarship funded by Florida Prepaid College Savings Plan and valued at approximately $8,000. [Applause] Jada, congratulations on this outstanding achievement. We are proud of your hard work and dedication, and we look forward to seeing all that you accomplish in the years ahead. [Applause] Our second recipient, Samuel Carrera from Pompano Beach High School. [Applause] Sam, please come forward to receive your superintendent scholarship funded by Florida Prepaid College Savings Plan and valued at approximately $8,000. [Applause] Please join us. Join me in congratulating both Jada and Samuel on the remarkable accomplishment. I would also like to extend our sincere appreciation to the Florida Prepaid College Savings
015Plan for their generous support of the superintendent Scholarship, and for their continued investment in the future of Broward County students. Together, we're helping make the dream of higher education a reality for more families in our community. Finally, thank you to the parents, guardians, teachers, counselors, principals, and school staff who have encouraged and supported these students throughout their educational journey. Congratulations once again to our scholarship recipients. Let's give Jada and Sam another well-deserved round of applause. [Applause] Thank you, Doctor Hepburn. Do any of my colleagues have any remarks on the presentation? Miss Hixon. Congratulations to both of you. And thank you to the superintendent for for hosting this wonderful accolade. MISS Rupert. Same thing. I won't take up extra minutes. So anyone else? All right. We will briefly recess the meeting for a photo with the
016superintendent and scholarship winners. [Music] Thank you and congratulations again. I will go now to MISS Bulman with a moment of silence. Thank you. Chair. This moment of silence is for MR. Kenneth Bankston. MR. Bankston faithfully served the students and families of McNicol Middle School in many roles, including behavior specialist, support facilitator and social studies teacher, always leading with compassion, encouragement and deep commitment to children. He was a gentle giant with a heart to match to the students. He was more than an educator. His warm smile and caring spirit made everyone feel valued and supported. He also dedicated many years to mentoring young men through the 5000 Role Models program, leaving a lasting impact that extends far beyond the classroom. MR. Bankston's legacy of kindness and service will never be forgotten. He will forever remain a
017part of the fabric of McNicol Middle School. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Could I get a motion and a second on item 32, please? So moved. Moved by MISS Rupert, seconded by MISS Hixon. Public comment on item 32. No comment. Board member comment on item 32. Seeing none. All in favor of item 32, say aye. All opposed? Say no. Item passes unanimously to help make today's special School Board meeting more productive and efficient. Given that we have 65 items on the agenda, I will group certain related items for consideration together. First are the employment agreements. Can I have a motion and a second to bring floor to the floor items eight, nine, ten and 45. Second move by MISS Rupert, seconded by MISS Hixon. Public comment on items eight, nine, 10 or 45. No
018comments. Is there any board discussion on these items? All in favor of eight, nine, ten and 45? Oh, I'm sorry, we do have public comment. Okay, good. We're good. All right. All in favor of eight, nine, ten and 45 say aye. Aye. All opposed say no. Items passed unanimously. The next will be the charter school items. Can I have a motion and a second to bring to the floor items? 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16. Second move by MISS Hixon, second by MISS Bulman. Is there any public comment on items 12, 13, 14, 15 or 16? No comments. All right. All in favor of items 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 say I. I I. I'm sorry, did I take board discussion on those items? I don't think I did. Was there any board discussion
019on those items. So all in favor of those items say aye. Aye. All opposed. Say no items passed unanimously. Next we will take the university agreements. Can I have a motion and a second on items? 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 and 39. Moved by MISS Hixson, seconded by MISS Bulman. Is there any public comment on items? 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 or 39. No comment. Any board discussion on these items? MISS Hixon. I just want to thank all of the colleges that are participating in this. Hopefully we. We build a bench of of teachers and educators in our system so that we can hire them later and just appreciate the partnership. Thank you. Anyone else? All right. All in favor of item 1719, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25
020or 30 and 39. Say aye. Aye. All opposed? Say no. Items passed unanimously. Following public comment and board discussion. We will proceed with voting on each item pulled for separate consideration. MAY I have a motion and a second on item one appointments, title changes and Reappointments. Second move by MISS Hixson, seconded by MISS Thompson. Is there a public comment on item one. One public speaker Dale Van King. Welcome to the podium. Okay, Delvin King, which item is this? We are an item one. Item one. Okay, so the appointments Delvin King, Pompano Beach, the issue that I'm having with a lot of these appointments and, and also which h2 is in the report, it needs to say an effective date, the date that they will start their positions and the date they will resign from their
021former positions. We need an understanding. The general public needs an understanding to know when these principles, assistant principals and whatever positions they're getting hired for or appointed to. We need to know the date that it starts, because we're going to run into a situation where right now, I would assume Blanche Ely High School doesn't have a active principle. So we need to know who is. And then in the interim, who's going to be that leader, because y'all just took leaders all from Blanche High School, shifted them all over the county. So we need to understand the effective date. It needs to say this in the, in the, in the backup and in the information. When you give this information to the community, it it's just total confusion. You approve people at the last board, last
022board meeting, and they don't start until the first people have resigned. In the last board meeting. We don't know when they resigned. We don't know when their last day was. You got people still working for the district like Wanda Paul. She resigned and she's still working for the district. Her name didn't come up for the school board at a school board meeting yet. So we're just not we don't know where we are in the process. So if we can please make it plain, make it understandable. So we know when these people are no longer working, we know the transition period. And pretty much for right now. That's all of my concern. Oh, one last thing is. It needs to the meeting is all over the place. I'm I'm out here trying to listen. I didn't
023even know y'all was on h1. We need something out here or or something on the screen that say the next upcoming item is this, that and the third. So we know where we are in the agenda. You was calling things so quickly, people couldn't even run up here to go speak on the items when you call general public speaking. So we got to make it where we know what's going on, no matter if we're online, no matter if we're in the hallway and you're doing all the student awards and everything, but not these appointments out first so that they can clear out of the building and we can handle business. You should have handled this first so these people can get out of the seats because they're here. Just for one thing, let's get them
024out of the way so we can handle business because they're going to go on to they for their schools. And we need to handle business and we need to be in here to handle the business. Thank you. Thank you so much. Any other public speakers? No. MADAM Chair. Is there any board debate on item one? MISS Hixon? Thank you. I just want to point something out. And actually staff fixed some of them, but on the page that says appointments, title changes and salary adjustments, there are a couple of people where it s ss current salaryy indicatated if chananging a I it s says n a a and then recommended salary indicate if changing. So if it says n a that the current salary is not changing, it shouldn't there shouldn't be any change to the
025recommended salary. But it says pay protected. So they fixed a couple of them. But there's two that are still not in pay protected indicates that they're taking a pay cut at some point after six months. So can you explain there's two of them still left. Michael Scott and Marissa Salido that both still have n a as the current salary, indicating if changing and then still says pay protected. Because if their pay is not changing, I'm not sure why it says pay protected. Thank you for the question, MISS Hixon. The pay is not changing for those. For those employees, their pay is pretty much protected for six months. And during that time we'll make a decision on what that adjustment will be and and update that. But if it's pay protect, it looks like they probably
026missed two in the revision to put in a. But if it's still says pay protect, it just means that their pay is protected for six months as well as the n a's. Their pay is protected for six months until we make a decision of what that updated. But if they're moving from the. This was the issue that I had brought up. If they're moving from the same. It's a lateral change. Their pay isn't going to change. That could. If it will, then it should be noted in there. And then, as I mentioned to you before, you could put the pay protected and say, you know, changes in six months or something, but I, I just people don't know what pay protected means. And if I was looking at that and noticing that I'm going from
027one to the other and it says pay protected, I would be asking questions. So I just don't think it's clear enough on here. I appreciate that they left the knees for the other ones because they were lateral moves, but they missed two of them. And I just think it should be more clear as this comes to us in the future. Thank you. Thank you, MR. Cervera. Thank you chair. I do want to inquire about the speaker's comments. Is is there a reason, MR. Superintendent, that we don't have start and end dates on these Excel spreadsheets we get for these folks? Let's see, Doctor Lozano's, you can repeat that question. For the most part, all of these positions start on JULY 1st. You heard the the question, doctor Lozano. Can you repeat it? Sure. I was
028just I was just following up on the on the concerns from the public. Speaker, the start and end dates are not on the Excel spreadsheet that we're given in this. Is there a reason for that? Can we just add another column? We can add that. But all of these are effective JULY 1st, the start of the next fiscal year, fy 27. Every single one of them. Correct. Okay, good. Thank you for the clarification. Thank you, MR. Rupert. Thank you, MADAM Chair. I hope that the direct appointments for ap and principal specifically, who are moving from another school that they, while they're at that school, showed major learning gains and increased the school, that should at least be one letter grade or more. I believe that information should be provided so we as board members can
029analyze for moving forward to see. Because it's always a surprise to the public, and especially this time around when we did not include community involvement in most of these direct appointments. So I think the public should have the opportunity, as well as board members and anybody else who wants to look at it to see that they're getting a stellar principal or ap moving from a school to b school and why they're doing it. Those are very basic questions that I know people ask me, and I can't just be the only person that people ask, how come we're getting so and such? And I would like to provide the answer as we're getting so and such, because they are a mover and a shaker and they've done really well at their past school. So since these
030are direct reports, Doctor Hepburn, Doctor Dr Fulton, can you share this assertion to help me understand the effectiveness of stopping community school voices usually provided for these positions, and the assertion that these people really were moved because they were the very best to move into the next school? And I asked because Blanche Ely and Coconut Creek High School, we had very abrupt principals leaving, and those schools, tremendous growth in both of them. So what the criteria was for the other principals that are going to be appointed. So thank you, MISS Rupert. That's noted. We'll come up with a plan to, as far as movements, to make you abreast of some of the merits that the candidates that were moved to the other schools, the reason why they're the best fit. Great. And it would be
031helpful for me, and I'm not anticipating since it was such an extraordinary situation, I'm not thinking that this would happen a tremendous amount going forth, because as one board member, I truly feel that the community needs that voice in all areas and all decisions so they can feel part of the conversation and welcome their new ap and principals. So I appreciate that and look forward to the information to be up front. And this year, while we take a breath, hopefully, and return back to that community involvement when it comes to the leaders of their school. So thank you. Thank you. Any other board discussion? All in favor of item one? Say aye. All opposed? Say no. Item passes unanimously. Congratulations to our new appointees. [Applause] We will briefly recess the doctor. Hepburn, did you have
032any remarks? Yes, absolutely. I just want to say congratulations to new team members. Got a couple of assistant principals, campus security managers and also to principals. One for high school, one for middle school. I'm going to ask them to come up and say a couple of comments. Keep it short. First, principal principal of Miramar High School. Chanel, come on up. We're going to MISS Her. Thank you. Thank you so much. Good morning. Superintendent Doctor Hepburn, deputy Superintendent Doctor Fulton and the school board of Broward County. To GOD be the glory. Great things he has done. My journey as an educator began at Miramar High School in 2010. Miramar is where I fell in love with caring for children and the possibilities that education provides to ultimately help them secure a brighter future. Although my time
033here was brief, the opportunity to return as principal is truly full circle, and I am deeply honored to lead the school community. The leader that I am today is a result of the people who poured into me along the way. Thank you to my late grandmother, my mother, my son, my family, my church family and my friends for their unwavering love and support to the many, many leaders who have invested in my growth. Thank you for the seeds you planted, your lessons, guidance, and belief in me have shaped the leader that I am today. To my Coconut Creek family, my William Dandy family, my family and my Tiger family at the a rated historic Blanche Ely High School. Thank you for preparing me for this moment. The lessons I have learned, the relationships I have
034built, and the memories we have shared will forever remain with me as I continue this journey of service and leadership at Miramar High School, I look forward to working alongside staff, students, families and the community to ensure that every student is known, challenged and prepared for success. I am truly grateful for the opportunity to lead the premier experience at Miramar High School. Every student, every opportunity, every day. Thank you. Thank you, Principal Rowe. Next up, we have new principal Sunrise Middle School and Alisa Austin. Come on down. Good morning, Superintendent Hepburn. Members of the school board, district leadership, family, friends and most importantly, my Falcon family. Let me introduce myself. My name is Annalisa Austin and I am the proud principal of Sunrise Middle School. Yeah. First and foremost, I would love to thank GOD
035for his grace and his guidance. Great is his faithfulness in this moment. I owe it to him. Sunrise has been my home for the past 12 years. It has been a privilege to serve our students, support our educators, and grow alongside this incredible community to now lead the school that has shaped me as an educator and a leader is a privilege. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Superintendent Hepburn, the school district and to leadership development. Thank you for your guidance, support and investment in developing leaders. I'm also deeply grateful to my many, many mentors, too many to list. My colleagues, my friends who have become family, whose encouragement, wisdom, and belief in me have shaped my journey and helped me and helped to make this moment possible to my Falcon family. Thank
036you for your dedication, collaboration, and unwavering support not only to me, but to our students students. It has been a privilege to work alongside you, and I look forward to continuing that work together in this new capacity. To my family, thank you for your unconditional love and support. To my parents. Thank you for your sacrifices. Your belief in me is the foundation of this journey to the students, staff, parents, and community of Sunrise Middle School. Thank you for your trust. Thank you for your support. I am committed to ensuring that every student is challenged and supported, ensuring that I empower each of them to reach their fullest potential. As we move forward together, my commitment remains the same. No matter where a school, we will uphold that a standard and we will have an a
037commitment. Thank you for this incredible honor. I am proud to serve the sunrise community, and I look forward to all that we will accomplish together. Again, thank you to all. Congratulations to all of our new appointees. And chair, turn it back over to you. Thank you. We will briefly recess for a photo. Let's do it. Thank you. And congratulations to our new appointees. Again, could I get a motion and a second on item three? So moved. Second move by MISS Hixson, seconded by MISS Thompson. Public comment on item three. No comment. Board member discussion on item three. I don't think. I pulled that one. Seeing none. All in favor of item three, say aye. Aye. All opposed? Say no item passes unanimously. Could I get a motion and a second on item six. Move by
038MISS Thompson, second by MISS Hixon. Public comment on item six. No comment. Board member discussion. Seeing none. All in favor of item six, say I. I all opposed say no item passes unanimously. Some of us have enough to vote. Could I get a motion and a second on item eight? So moved. Moved by MISS Hixon, seconded by MISS Thompson. Public comment. I believe. Eight. Oh yeah, you're right. Eight nine. We already did. Eight. 910. Could I get a motion a second on item 11, please? Second move by MISS Thompson, second by MISS Hixon. Public comment on item 11. No comment. Board member discussion on item 11. Seeing none. All in favor of item 11, say aye. Aye. All opposed? Say no. Item passes unanimously. Could I get a motion and a second on item number
03918. Move by MISS Thompson, second by MISS Hixon. Public comment on item 18. One public Speaker Delvin King. Could Delvin King approach the podium, please? Delvin King, you MAY now proceed to the podium. You're going to grab him. It's pretty, pretty noisy in the Pre-function room right now. Doctor Lozano, can you grab him. With what? Yeah, we did the university. No, we did. Not do 26. For your for the. Sitting right here. Someone here. Oh. We're ready. Welcome. Yes. Okay. Delvin King Pompano beach. Okay, so when it comes down to the. Resignations I think this is h2 correct. This is h2. Okay. So when it comes down to this item, we need to do the same thing on with this one. We need to have effective dates. The date that they were, they either resigned
040the last day of work. We need to have that on here. Also, when I looked at this, I seen an employee on there for something with attendance or not coming to work and things of that nature. It behooves me that we would terminate someone for not coming to work or being tardy. And majority of the school board members are never here, and we have an issue with that. We can't demand teachers, security, bus drivers and people to be here and be disciplined for not being here when school board members are not here, it is important that school board members are here at every meeting. All this being online, being over the phone. It's just a big distraction. We talk about public speaking, we talk about a lot of these things, but you're not here to
041represent us. I had an issue with facility rentals. There was a policy that came up. And there were only three, I would say no. Two school board, no. Three school board members here to address these three school board members here to address the issue. That's not the representation of the district. So we need to have a meeting to say either let's cut down because we're cutting down on we're losing students. It's time to cut down on school board members. It's time to go from 9 to 5 to represent the makeup of this district. It's too many people on the board. At some point, we got to look into a policy or what? How do we cut down on board members? Because one, the discussion is too long and a lot of you guys are not
042asking the tough questions. You're giving a dissertation telliling u howou feelel, t you'u're refusg tgo to staffff a say, bebecausthee only one I pretty much hear is. Cervera. He goes and he asks the tough questions to staff. He doesn't give a dissertation and be done. Stop giving us speeches. Stop giving them speeches because they they don't care. They don't care what you vote anyway because they know you're just going to give a speech. You ain't going to go into detail and ask them for follow up. But MR. Cervera, thank you for representing the people in this community. Anna Fusco, Broward Teachers Union. So we talk about discipline and people being absent. And I, I think we should do better as leadership to help people when there's some absentee problems or they fulfilling their piece about
043leadership, is there medical situations going on? Is there personal situations going on? Are they part of the community that maybe have suffered through the msd tragedy? Multiple things. But I think that some of our leadership misses that. And then let's talk about that. We have a particular leadership who's sitting right there, who sleeps on the job, and he's not getting any discipline. Let's talk about that type of situation. Alan Strauss sleeps in meetings. You know, he sleeps in meetings. And we continue to read. So rank and file $15 an hour employees that are trying to make it work, probably working two, three, four jobs to feed their family, probably have students in Broward schools, and the lunches are now charged and can't afford to pay it. So they're working to pay it. Or they MAY
044be too proud and want to pay it. Multiple reasons of why situations happen. Maybe they chose not to come to work so they won't sleep on the job. And time got away from them. They ran out of days they couldn't get people to donate. But you continue to sit up there and ignore someone who's high in salary, who I have witnessed you up there told me you witnessed. I haven't brought it out totally public yet, but it's coming because I'm waiting for somebody to do something. You say there's equal opportunity, that everybody's held accountable when they make a mistake, a transgression, purposeful or not purposeful. Do I believe we MAY have some employees that MAY not come to work because I just don't want to work anymore? That is true. Do we have tons of
045employees that don't make it to work because they're working 2 or 3 jobs and situations happen, and nobody cares enough to find out to make them better, because I don't see people lining up to work in Broward schools. Or was it just easier because a board member up there said, let's get rid of a thousand employees every year? Instead of cutting programs or consultants that are draining, that has put you guys in a predicament that you have $100 million dollar problem, and now it's on the backs of employees. So I'm never going to stop talking about certain people that make really purposeful transgressions, and you're going to think you're going to continue to ignore it. Not okay, not okay. You just sit there and look like, what could she be taught? You know exactly what
046I'm talking about. It's not okay. Your schools closed school board member and he was sleeping while we were getting people moved, and they're still not done with that. Thank you. Any other speakers? No other speakers? Board member discussion on item 18. All in favor of item 18? Say I all opposed. Say no item passes unanimously. Could I get a motion and a second on item 11, please? Moved by MISS Hixon, second by MISS Alhadeff. Oh that's right, no, I don't think we did. 11. We did, we did. Okay. All right. Yeah. I'm. MR. King was right. This is a confusing agenda today. Okay. I don't have 25th MARCH down. Could I get a motion in a second on item 26, moved by MISS Hixon. Second by MISS Alhadeff. Public comment on item 26. No comment.
047No comments. Board member discussion on item 26. All in favor of item 26ai all opposed. Say no item passes unanimously. Could I get a motion and a second on item 27, please move by MISS Hixon. Second by MISS Bulman public comment on item 27. No comment. Board member discussion on item 27. All in favor of item 27. Say I all opposed. Say no item passes unanimously. Could I get a motion a second on item 28, please? Second move by MISS Hixon. Second by MISS Rupert. Public comment on item 28. No comment. Board member discussion. MISS Hixon. Thank you. First, I want to say thank you to the City of Pompano Beach for this exciting opportunity for our students, I. My question really is to Doctor Hepburn and staff how. How do we do more of
048these? And where else besides Pompano Beach do we have an agreement similar to this where they're providing employment skills and opportunities for our students in terms of emt and things of that nature? Yeah. So I'll answer the first part of the question. How do we do more of these is continuation of meeting with municipalities and other partners and, and talking about the possibilities and kind of narrowing where the, where the support can be most effective when it comes to certain programs and understanding their needs. So we've been doing more of that and also meeting with private sector partners to just to understand what the needs are as far as, as the additional programs similar to this around the county, I have to provide it in the follow up. I want to see MISS For more.
049Foremost in the crash usually has that off the top of her head, but we can provide a follow up as well as some of the other programs that are linked to first responder type initiatives at certain schools. Great. Thank you. I love the follow up. And I just as one board member, I want to say I wanted to know, how do we do more of these? Because I want to make sure we are doing more of these. So thank you. MISS Rupert. Thank you. I also wanted to thank the city of Pompano Beach. I know this has been, you know, having occurred before, but i appreciate that we're doing the renewal agreement and the the education program there for the Fire Academy has been stellar. And they've they certainly have a big interest. So if
050we could like, like MISS Hixon said, if we could actually have more hubs like this in all of our district, it would be fantastic. So thank you so much. Thank you. Any other board member discussion? All right. All in favor of item 28, say aye. Aye aye. All opposed? Say no item passes unanimously. Could I get a motion and a second on item 29. Moved by MISS Hixon, second by MRS. Alhadeff. Public comment on item 29. No comment. Board member discussion. All in favor of item oh, MISS Bulman. So this is a I was wondering, we have a. There's a $67,000 cost and. But it says it's a data sharing. Agreement. So I was just wondering how that all interacts together. Yes. So this is a platform that's been adopted by the state for current
051academic use for our secondary students at post-secondary and the like. I thought I saw MR. Shapiro earlier. Oh, there. Oh, that's that's that's David Azeredo stand up. Yeah. Okay, cool. He can give you a lot more specifics than I can, but it is a, a tool that was adopted by the state that all of all the school districts in the state are using for post-secondary services, academic counseling, for opportunities for, for our high school students to understand some of the pathways that they can take. So and I know what it is, I. So I guess just with this item, it says revise the data sharing provisions. But then there's this cost that's associated with it. I, I guess I would just make the item not, you know, clear about what we're agreeing to. Gotcha. Because
052it is a commitment from MR. Shapiro. This is a renewal, correct? Yes. This is both a renewal, and it's also an amendment that allows us to use a digital tool to track data we're currently using, doing it manually. So it's both an amendment and a one year renewal. Okay. It's just not clear based on what we're being presented in my opinion. Thank you. Any other board discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say no. No item passes with one dissenting vote. MR. Cervera two dissenting votes from MISS Rupert and MR. Cervera. At this time we will go to item 56. So I wanted to provide a brief reminder regarding the policy adoption process. Today's agenda item represents represents the second reading and public hearing on the proposed policies. If approved by the board,
053the policies will become effective JUNE 24th, 2026. This is the first step in our in-depth policy review and conversion in a collaboration with Neola. When we last reviewed 1020, it took a year. We find ourselves in a different situation and on a different timeline. These initial batches of policies mark the beginning of a larger, more complex body of work encompassing hundreds of policies. This process will take a year to complete. As part of today's discussion, please be mindful of the distinction between technical corrections and substantive revisions to policies under chapter 120 Florida Statutes. A technical correction is limited to correcting citations, grammatical typographical formatting, numbering, cross-references, or similar areas that do not affect the substance of the policy. Technical corrections generally MAY be made without additional rulemaking procedures. A substantive revision, by contrast, is a
054change that alters the meaning, intent, application. Implement implementation requirements, procedures, authority, rights, responsibilities, discretion or legal effect of a policy. We are limited to technical corrections in our discussions today. If the board wishes to make a substantive revision to a proposed policy, it will need to re-initiate the rulemaking process to ensure compliance with chapter 120, including providing an additional 28 day legal notice if that occurs, the revised policy at the Board's direction will return through the full rulemaking rural development process, beginning with a future rule development workshop and another public hearing. If substantive changes are brought forward, I will need to ascertain the board's will as to whether it wants to entertain those changes. We will not entertain the substance, but rather whether the board wants to the item for discussion at a later time.
055Thus, I will only entertain a motion to remove the item from consideration. The substantive changes will be addressed at another time. So at this time, we will recess the special school board meeting. Oh, no. Sorry. At this time we will go to item 56. Are there any technical corrections to the policies for item 56? MISS Thompson? I have a question then, because I was going to propose a substantive motion. So does that mean the motion is now just to revisit it at another time? Correct. But I actually I do want to go to MR. Bruno because do we want to do the technical corrections before public comment? Yes. We should do the technical corrections before public comment. I know that I have some technical corrections based on some of the feedback that I've received, and
056I can go through those when the chair is ready. Okay. And so right now we're doing the technical corrections to the policies, the substantive, we would be making a motion to pull out that policy to make the substantive change at a later time in the rule making process. So can I have the mic when it's at that time? Thank you. Any technical corrections? MR. Cervera? I guess I need a clarification. I was going to make a motion to have 0169.1 pulled from the the batch, if you will. So when we vote, it's not just bundled in with everything else. I'm a little confused based on your comments about whether you're suggesting that's appropriate at this juncture or not. So we. MR. Bruno. Yes, we can. We can pull 0169. If there's a motion and a
057second, you can pull that. Okay. So it can be addressed separately. Would now be the appropriate time to do that. You can do that if you wish. Okay. So at this time I make a motion to pull 016, 9.1 from the, the grouping, if you will, of policy so it can be discussed and voted on separately. Motion made by MR. Cervera to pull 169.5. Seconded by MISS Hixon public comment on the motion to pull the policy. Good morning, doctor Natalie Lynch Walsh Plantation, Florida. Obviously I support the motion. I'm a little concerned about the trying to shut down substantive changes. I don't see how MADAM Chair would be able to restrict her colleagues in whatever motions they plan to make. But step one would be pulling it from the batch, because obviously most of us
058have an issue with the public participation policy. Don't care so much about Sergeant at Arms or the name of the school board. I do have concerns about public records, but even if you pass that in the batch, I can challenge either challenge it or petition to initiate rulemaking, because that should have also had more attention paid to it. But I support MR. Cervera motion to pull the public participation. If it's 0169, whatever, the number now is out of the batch. Thank you. Thank you. Any other public comment on the motion? Board member discussion on the motion. Chair. I'd like to talk. Yes. I'll come to you in a second. DR. Zeman just a clarification. That's what I have a subsequent motion for. So when we get to that 169, if I could please get called.
059Thank you. DR. Zeman. Thank you so much, chair. My question is really about the process on this particular one or any others that get pulled. Is the intent of the motion to discuss substantive changes to 169.1 and to vote on it separately or or what? What would the process look like if this motion passes? MR. Cervera. There are multiple dozens of policies that are lumped into agenda item 56. I am not supporting the public comment motion, as most of you already know, but I don't want my no vote to be a reflection that I'm objecting to every other policy within the bundle, if you will. So I want this pulled so we can have a separate discussion. I can voice my concerns and hopefully convince my colleagues that voting in the affirmative for this would
060be disastrous. So the reason I want it pulled is, again, I don't want it lumped in on the vote. I want a separate vote held on that. Chair. Chair, is it also then the case that if we pull and discuss this separately, it would be open to substantive changes today, or would we bring the substantive changes to a subsequent meeting? Attorney Dupree. So we really cannot implement any substantive changes when you're at the second and final step of rule adoption, the public hearing, if there are substantive changes, changing the meaning of the policy as brought forward with the corrections that you've already made at the first workshop, then that policy basically dies. And we will start from the beginning with a new rule development process on that policy. And, chair, just to continue that line
061of reasoning, it seems like it might be valuable to hear people's substantive changes today, so that the version that come back might reflect them. Is that possible, or do we, in essence, kick the can on this? Just take this one for example. 169.1 if in fact this motion passes, will we go through the substantive recommendations that we have for changes and vote today so that the version that comes back is a reflection of the, you know, would would today be a productive meeting or would this be a pure kick the can where we don't talk about the substantive changes, the version comes back at the, you know, a restart, for example, on 169.1. And we then bring those substantive and maybe even technical changes back at a subsequent meeting. Attorney. Dupree Bruno. So the recommendation
062would be to bring back those substantive changes at another workshop. Terrific. I understand the rule making process, and I understand that as well. Last question that I'd have, chair, is would it make sense to capture technical changes to 169.1 if in fact, we're going to bring it back for substantive changes at a later date? So technical changes can be discussed today. And those changes would be made if the board agrees and approves with the final version. That does not stop the rulemaking process for zero one, 69.1. Terrific. And to the maker of the motion, was that your intent? The idea of MR. Cervera, I think, would be if your motion passes, we bring back substantive changes to a subsequent rulemaking meeting on 169.1. But today, we could make purely technical changes so that the version
063we get is cleaned up, at least to the extent that we have technical changes today. My position remains the same. On why I wanted pulled. What substantive changes you think MAY be viable, whether it's technical or whatever? In my mind, the only acceptable change to this is to reject it in full and leave it the way it is. But if my colleagues want to dance around and try to make technical this or substantive that, that's that's fine. I will not be supporting that. Again, the reason I pulled this was because this deserves a separate vote. It deserves separate conversation and it deserves to be away from the bundle. So when we vote on this, we can be voting in favor of other things within the bundled policy without having to just give a no vote,
064even though it's for only for those of us who want to oppose it would only be for this. I totally understand the intent of the motion. The outcome of today's vote, however, is going to be pretty straightforward, which is the technical corrections to 169.1 can be offered and passed or move forward. Without objection, however, the chair decides to do it. All substantive changes would come back to a separate meeting on 169.1, which I support as welel Thank you very mu, chair. hank youou Any o othoardrd member d discussnn n ee motio pull one 69.1 I'm sorry, MADAM Chair. Can the motion be reread for for me. MR. Cervera. Yes, my my motion is to pull policy number 0169.1 from the agenda item 56, which includes MADAM General Counsel, is it 31 policies that we're voting
065on today, approximately. Yes. Okay. To remove that from the. 31 policies, or I guess, from the 30 other policies that we're voting on? So a separate discussion can be had and a separate vote can be had, specifically directed and targeted at the proposed policy. 169.1. Any other board discussion? All in favor of the motion. Say aye. Aye. All opposed? Say no. No item motion passes with one dissenting vote from me. MR. Cervera, you still have the floor. I will yield back. I just want clarification from the chair. Are we now going to focus on the remaining 30 policies first, or are we going to do one? 69.1 first, what is the chair's preference? The remaining policies. Would be first. Yes. Okay, I'll yield my time. MISS Hixon. I want to be on the list for
066the one. Okay. Anyone? Attorney Dupree. Bruno. So there are a couple of technical corrections. 0162. With regards to quorum, there is a should there that's going to be changed to shall. Point of order. Chair. Can we just get a page number on the document general Counsel. Oh, okay. Hold on one second. Okay. It's 0162 quorum but we'll see if we can get you a page number DR. Zeman. On the bottom right, it says 3924. Does that help? 616 of 92. Thank you. Did you tell us to change one more time, ma'am? Yes. The change is. Give me one second so I can get back to it. So it says. However, for workshops, at least five board members and it currently says should it would be changed to shall. MADAM Chair, I just need to know
067if the board is in agreement to that change. Well, actually, I just want to make sure that the board is in agreement to that change. Is there any objection to that change? The next one? And if the board members can help me with the page number, because I'm looking at a different document, it's board policy 0163. Presiding Officer, page 17. And that particular change is just adding workshops to the first sentence. So it reads, the chair shall preside at all action meetings, workshops, emergency meetings. Is there any objection to that technical change? Okay. The next one is 0164.119. Page 19. And there was a request to have in those circumstances where board members have a pre-scheduled vacation, the. The requested change would be instead of having pre-scheduled vacation, let's change the second to last sentence
068to read. In those situations where the board member is required to be out of the county due to business or family commitment. MISS Bulman. I guess the. I mean, I don't know if that's substantive or not. I think that there might be an argument to be made. I think we need to figure out what it is that we want to do here. In terms of like Pre-scheduled vacation is broad because if you're going away for a week, that's fine. If you're going away for five months, that's a totally different situation. I could have a family commitment every single week out of the county. I could make that my, you know, so I think the board needs to decide what it is exactly that we want to limit it to. I think, you know, if we
069wanted to limit it to a certain amount of time for vacation, that's reasonable. I would be okay with that. But a, just an open ended vacation that never ends, I think is not the purpose of this exercise. So I'd like to hear from my colleagues to see what they think. But I, you know, I think a couple of weeks or I would like to have the opportunity to be out of town and appear remotely periodically if that's if that is ever an opportunity that I have available to me. But I do think that like, it could be abused the way it's written right now. I would say for 0164.1, MADAM Chair, if we can get some direction from the board as to whether or not they want to have additional discussion in terms of the
070substance of this change, a technical change is fine. But if we're going to have additional discussion that's terms of substance, then we can't move forward with this policy. Would anyone else like to have a substantive conversation at a later date on this? On 0164.1. I would. DR. Zeman MISS Rupert. MISS Hixon go ahead, MISS Hixon. I, I don't want to make a policy where it limits board members from participating in in any way. We've given the opportunity to be able to participate remotely. And, you know, sometimes some of us MAY use it more than than others, but it's just the situations we're in. I don't think as long as you're participating that you're fulfilling your requirement. So I just, I like the way I don't mind the change that was suggested. And, you know, we
071had talked about this a lot about. How we were going to allow people to participate remotely. So I don't mind having an additional conversation, but I also don't mind just doing the substantive, I mean, the technical change that was suggested by the general counsel because just like I don't want to eliminate or limit public discussion, I also don't want to limit how board members are able to participate. MISS Thompson. Thank you. Chair. I talked to MISS Bruno about the Pre-scheduled vacation. I think just keeping it general with the technical change, because I think there's funerals, there's weddings. There are other events that aren't necessarily pre-scheduled vacations. They're just things as we are all humans that happen. So I would be fine with just the technical change. All right. So I'm only hearing a minority of
072board members that would like to have a more substantive discussion. I heard DR. Zeman oh, sorry, MISS Rupert. MAY I speak now? Go ahead, MISS. Rupert thank you. I certainly am not for limiting public discussion. I'm not for limiting any of our board members from speaking. I think the question that we have to ask ourselves is, if you do not allow people to have the part of their life that they're they're used to and their obligations, then we're basically, you know, cutting off a huge section of the the district with if I weren't allowed to actually be able to speak for my community while I was in Canada. So that's my particular point on that. I have certainly since I was, you know, a board member, have always called in for discussions, be prepared for
073workshops and have participated. Even though I was very unhealthy at the time. So thank you. Any other board members? MISS Bulman. You know, that's fine. I'll I'll listen. I'll defer to my colleagues and conduct myself accordingly. I will as well. Chair. Okay. So we'll we'll accept the technical change upon the recommendation of Attorney Dupree Bruno. Thank you. And that change would be to remove in those circumstances where board member has a pre-scheduled vacation, changed that to board members request that you can vote and participate in those situations where the board members are required to be out of the county due to a business or family commitment. That's the change. All right. The next one is 0165.1. Board members, if you can help me with the page number. Page 25. Thank you so much. So this
074one, based on the feedback provided by all nine board members, the first technical change is on the first page, paragraph one, two, three, four, five. The original sentence read a complete agenda both with all the required items shall be provided to the board at least two business days before the scheduled meeting. And based on the discussion with all nine board members, the sentence now reads a complete agenda package, including all supporting materials, attachments, exhibits, contracts, memoranda, and other documentation pertaining to each agenda item shall be provided to the board. At least 48 business hours in advance of the scheduled meeting. MISS Thompson. What's the difference between two days and 40? Business 48 business hours prior to. So if the meeting is at 9 A.M. It has to be provided exactly 48 hours at that 9
075A.M. Mark. So speaking to your Mike, MISS Thompson. How many days would that be? It's approximately it's two days, but the hours makes it more. But the clarification was business hours, which wouldn't that make. In terms of the technical correction. That was part of it but was also it got a lot of feedback about the word required items. So flushing out what that means in terms of exhibits and contracts and the attachments. I got a lot of feedback from board members on that. MISS Thompson. I mean, MISS Bulman. So it's 48 business hours more time for requiring more time or less time than two business days, because I would like the more time because we only have so much time in our lives and this stuff pops up. The hours is more for the specification
076that if you say two days ahead of time, it can be provided to you at 5 P.M. 4 P.M. 3 P.M. But if the meeting is at 9 A.M. Then 48 hours will be 9 A.M. Two days before. So it's more time, more. Okay, so I, I agree with that. Anyone else? Okay. The other technical correction in this particular policy is the word Non-consent to, for clarity's sake, the recommendation is to use the word action because those are your individual action items that you will be reviewing. Any objection to that? Okay. Just a comment, chair. Go ahead. DR. Zeman. And, and a lot of agendas, local governments, it's non consent items and action items. Is that what you're recommending, MISS Bruno? Yes. Thank you very much. Go ahead. And those were the technical corrections that
077I had for this policy. Okay. Anyone else with technical corrections. Oh just this policy. Is the board okay with me moving with. Oh yes. Go ahead. Okay. And then the final one. Well, actually that's it that I have. Okay. Any other board members with technical corrections to offer? I think I have some. Chair DR. Zeman. Thank you very much. And I'll try and segment these into technical corrections. Then I have some substantive changes, and we'll see if the board wants to pull the policies to make them like we did with 169.1 on page 11. Excuse me. Just give me one minute of the 92 page thing. Nope. That's a that one is fine. On the. One. 22.1, we use the word bylaw. And last time when we met, we were going to make sure that
078we didn't confuse the public by having policies and bylaws. So we suggested that we just use the word policy. MISS Bruno, would that be a technical correction to change the eight instances of bylaw to the word policy? Correct. And I apologize for that. There is a recommendation for all policies that are coming forward to remove bylaw and make it a policy. So that's just a technical correction. Thank you chair, do we need any. Does anyone object. To that from the board? Okay. Keep going. Thank you very much. On 162. On our last sentence, we have a something that seems I don't know. I think this is probably substantive, but the reason I'll recommend the change in here, whether or not it's technical or, or substantive. The last sentence says that if you need a two
079thirds vote on a motion, say you want to call the question that if you have less than nine members, say you have six there at a time there, you would still need all six of them to count as two thirds. Is that still in 162 recommendation to the General Council? So we can remove that. That's basically Robert's Rules of Order. We do not have to have that in that particular policy. Chair, I'd recommend just as a technical correction, we drop that because if we have six there be nice to only need four to do things. Is there any objection to that? Okay. The next one is 164.1, which is on page 19. There's some wording here that I think is just editing. And so maybe it is a technical correction, but when we say something
080like all meetings will be held at kc right. And then the next sentence it says, oh, but we could also change it and move it around somewhere else. That seems kind of misleading to me. I prefer it just to say in general meetings are at kc, right? However, there are times when we have them at other places. Would that be a technical correction? MISS Bruno? That's technical chair. I'd ask if the board concurs with that, please. Is there any objection to that? Okay. Also same policy. 164.1 the last sentence board members MAY only participate in person for quasi judicial hearings. I think that's also true of closed door sessions. MR. Bruno, would that be a technical correction? Yes, that's a technical correction. That's just a correction, chair. Are we good with. That one? Is there
081any objection to that? Okay. The next policy 165. Fourth paragraph 1234. Here's a substantive change that I'm going to explain and then ask for concurrence on bringing this back through rule making. Again, this is our policy on school board meetings. It's incredibly important. But right now I feel like as a board, we need a little bit more pressure about getting done in a reasonable amount of time. I don't even think eight hours is a reasonable amount of time. I think lots of times we have 3 or 4 hours worth of real business to do. We we built we fill up a lot of time. And so my request is to bring this back so that instead of just a simple majority to extend school board meeting past hours, it would be two thirds. And for
082a workshop to extend beyond eight hours, I would want to be able to have the debate about whether we would need unanimity to do that in a in a workshop. And again, the intent of these changes is to try and apply some gentle pressure to us to really put together meetings and prepare for meetings so that we can get through them in eight hours. I just feel like extending beyond that should take more than a majority vote for a for a workshop, excuse me for a school board meeting. And should, you know, take, take, you know, something more than that so that we, you know, kind of in general, not only have a rule that says eight hours, but we do everything we can to make sure that we get done in eight hours for
083the sake of the school board members, the quality of our decisions, and for the public that shouldn't be excluded from attending because the meetings just go too long. So my proposal, chair, is to bring back 165 for rule making. Is there a desire from the board to bring back 0165 to rule making? MRS. Alhadef yes. MISS Rupert. Yes, as well. Anyone else? MR. Cervera would like to. So that's for board members who would like to bring this back for rule making. Anyone else? Okay, attorney Dupree Bruno. So then it would not be coming back. Just the technical corrections. Go ahead. DR. Zeman. Terrific. Anything else? DR. Zeman. I'm sorry. I'm trying to read through my notes to see which is technical, which is substantive. I apologize, chair, it's just going to take me ten more
084seconds here. Yes. On the same one, a technical correction, 165 under special meetings, letter c, it's the same edit as before. MR. Bruno, you know about all meetings. Can we can we edit that so that it doesn't say all meeeengs ll be held I ihe r rm?M? Yeses. Tha youou vereryucuch. I'm assuming there's no objection to that. Okay. Go ahead. Same policy. There's a technical correction under exempt meetings. There's just a hanging letter g. And it's just, you know, we're listening. We're listening examples of such meetings. And we have a through f which are examples of those meetings. G is a general statement. I recommend. MR. Bruno we put that in the first paragraph or just eliminate the letter g is a little bit easier. That's a technical correction. That's fine. Is there any objection
085to that? Okay. On 165.1, page 25 of 92. Under agendas b. I think I don't know. This is kind of on the border for me, but in b we say generally the agenda should be provided no later than seven days prior to the meeting or delivered so as to provide time for the study of agenda by the member, which that last clause, I think is very odd, but I don't like the word. Generally. I would like the resulting policy to say the agenda should be provided no later than seven days prior to the meeting period. So the generally gives wiggle room. And as on the on the last clause or delivered so as to provide time for the study, I think is very subjective. So would that be a technical or substantive correction? MR. Bruno
086That would be technical. I mean, the statute requires us to notice properly seven days in advance. So I don't I don't see that as a substantive change. I wonder if we. Have any objection. Agreement. Yeah. Seeing no objection. Great on. Number two I apologize. Page two letter e. This is going to trip us up again. And maybe we need a revote on this bringing this back or not. But the agenda for special meetings in the middle of paragraph e, along with meeting materials available in electronic format, shall be published at least 24 hours before the special meeting I. I have a really hard time getting ready that fast. Like. Like I have a lot of questions. I have to do a lot of research. If the meeting has to be called 48 hours in advance,
087I would like the material 48 hours in advance because I just, I physically just can't always get ready for special school board meetings, you know, in 24 hours. So I, I suspect quite confidently that that's a substantive change. But that would mean we'd have to bring back this policy, you know, to, you know, reconsider the agendas. So I guess I'd like to know whether or not my board members would like to do that as well. Or do they want to get ready in 24 hours before special meetings? Attorney Dupree Bruno, is this a substantive change? So I'm not seeing this one as a substantive change. We have to publish on the public website within 48 hours. And this is basically publishing on the district's website. So we can simultaneously publish on both websites within 48
088hours. Thank you very much. Is there any objection to that? Okay. Seeing none. On 167. Page number 31. I'm again in my maybe comical interest in getting our meetings down to time. I wanted to propose that school board members could speak for five minutes, and then three minutes for each round of discussion. So it's under time allocated for debate on page two of two, I wanted to replace the second sentence that right now says that school board members can speak for ten minutes and three minutes in the second round, so that if we left it alone, 13 minutes times nine is 100. Excuse me, 90 plus 27, 117 minutes for one item of like approved speaking with nobody running over. If it was five and three, it would be 72 minutes for one individual item,
089which I also think is a lot. And I just feel like we should have a policy that encourages us to get meetings done in eight hours or less, but we don't have that if it's ten and three for each item. So my proposal is to bring back policy 167 so that we can consider a change in our own behavior, so that we can get down to a reasonable length for our meetings. Would anyone else like to bring back policy number 0167? Yes. Alhadeff MRS. Alhadeff DR. Zeman MISS Hixon has a question or a comment. I don't mind bringing it back, but, you know, we've had this discussion before and we do have time limits on ourselves already, and nobody follows those. So I am I, I just don't like to make policies that we know
090we're not going to follow. So I, I don't mind if it comes back. I think we should be doing a better job of monitoring it. The length of the meetings doesn't come from public speaking. It comes from us talking too much. But I just want to be cognizant of the fact that when when the buzzer goes off, people don't stop talking. MISS Thompson. I think since we've had this discussion, we should allow this policy and actually use it to fidelity to be mindful of the five minutes that we have, and also that it's not limiting of our speaking time, because we can come back for multiple rounds. So I would like us to actually follow the policy. And then MR. Bruno, if something needs if a policy needs to come back during this process, like
091we've tried this for six months of everyone doing the five minutes and it's not working, what is that process for it to come back? The board can always bring back policies. You can try something and then if it doesn't work after six months, you bring it back for additional rulemaking. So my preference would be that we follow this and we all are respectful of our colleagues, because that then encourages better conversation and better policies for our public. Thank you. MISS Bowman. I agree with that. I think, you know, kind of reviewing our meetings and what is taking a particularly long time is not the public speaking, but it's the unchecked talking of the board members. So I look forward to having this implemented, and I think that we'll all feel a lot of relief and
092be able to do business in a much more concise manner if we're actually following this policy. Anyone else? All right. So again, I just want to make sure how many of us would like to bring this policy back. Just DR. Zeman and MRS. Alhadeff. Okay, so we'll move forward with the policy as is. Thank you very much. Corrections. Yep. 169.1. Attorney Hold on. If we could hold on. 169.1 DR. Zeman for when everybody is going to be addressing that policy since it's been pulled. I thought earlier we had talked about doing technical corrections today to 169.1, even though it's coming back for rulemaking, so that the version that comes back is a reflection of those. We we can do the technical corrections. My request would be, let's go through the policies that are a bit
093easier. I know some other board members did not talk about 169.1 yet either. Once we finish all of the remaining policies, we'll go back to 169.1 with any technical corrections. Terrific. Can we go to policy 1232, please? That's page 43. Under video. The second page paragraph in r. I just have a question about this chair. We say in the red paragraph, starting with video, that board members. Last sentence. Board members MAY use videos or photos of themselves engaged in the normal activities as school board members to MISS Dupuy. Bruno, would you consider speaking at a school board meeting a normal activity of a school board member? Yes. Perfect. I just wanted to make sure. Thank you. On 6327 policy 6327, which is the next one on page 46. Chair, if I could ask the general
094counsel again who is covered by the cone of silence? It's listed in number three. The vendor. And so it's the cone of silence implicates the vendor, the board members. It implicates staff. So whenever there's a cone of silence, only certain individuals can have communication with the particular vendors, usually procurement, sometimes legal. So to your knowledge, MISS Dupuy Bruno, school board members are covered by the cone of silence. Yes. So a school board member cannot talk about. A vendor or a capability while there's a cone of silence in place. Correct. Okay. I have a technical correction on three c on page four, I think. I'm sorry. Maybe that's not page four. Under public private partnerships, there's. Page 49 page. Yes, sir. Thank you. On page five of 17. There's a section about that. The proposal is
095canceled and there's two options. Unfortunately, I didn't write that down in my notes. Give me ten more seconds, chair, I apologize. Chair. I'll find it and come back to that later. Sorry. On page seven of 17. This MAY be substantive. And again, I don't want to, you know, bring a lot of these back for small purposes. But on. Q. We talk about small business things, and again, I'll have to find that and bring it back later. I apologize. On page eight of 17. We have a lot of detail, and I'm curious, MR. Bruno, if we wanted to delete steps that are listed in policy and replace them with a standard operating procedure, would that be a substantive change or a technical change? It depends on what it is. So there will be this policy is
096a little bit unique because there is some processes in there because of the nature of the policy, and it's very public facing because that's what the vendors will be required to review and follow as well. And this policy is also very heavy with regards to the law that's implicated by this particular policy. So depending on what it is, I'd have to go back and check to see if this is a legal requirement that's very specific to the statute, or if it's something that we have leeway. I can't answer unless I know exactly what you're referencing. Terrific. But to MISS Thompson's excellent point, if we try this out for a while and there's something we need to change, we can bring it back down the road. You can always try something out and bring it back
097to rulemaking. If there's tweaks that needs to be made. Yeah, I think it's a real interesting balance on, you know, what you prescribe in a policy versus what you allow the superintendent to draw standard operating procedure. So I think we'll be keeping an eye on that going forward. On policy 7315 under b trade. And and this is a this is maybe I don't know if it's technical or not, but we say about the board MAY trade. Land or other real estate not of equal value. If the board deems the trade to be in the best interest of the public. If I wanted to propose. To delete that sentence. You know, we've been working under a not a policy, but an a norm that the board has talked about, that we will not sell things for
098less than market value. We won't lease things for less than market value. This is a way that we could codify in policy what we've at least been, have talked through and, and, and have been using as a practice or norm or whatever you want to describe it. But if we have that practice or norm, it seems to fly in the face of trading land, not of equal value, because we think it's in the best interest of the public. Would that be a if I wanted to delete that sentence, would that be a substantive change, MR. Bruno? This one I'd have to double check, because I believe DR. Zeman that statutory language. So let me pull up the statute and just double check that language. But I will also say your policy can be broad, but
099the board, through its processes can or really demonstrations processes can be more narrow based on the board's direction. And when it comes back to the board, the board has the ultimate decision maker in terms of whether or not you're going to accept a trade or not. I just want to make sure that this is not something that's from the the law itself. So I'll double check it now. If you don't mind. And I prefer a policy that tells us we can't do that so that when people come and propose it, we can say it's our policy that we don't give away things for less than what they're worth. Now, if we do remove it, that would be a substantive change. Terrific. I believe we should remove it. So, chair, I'm wondering if my colleagues would
100like to also bring 7315 back the disposal of surplus land and other real property so that we can discuss taking this sentence out, where we give things away for less than what they're worth. Would anyone else like to bring 7315 back? Yes. MRS. Alhadeff, would anyone else? DR. Holness DR. Holness would. So there are three people who would like to bring that policy back. Anyone else? All right. Seeing none. Terrific. Last one I have is c two on the same policy. 7315. This is an area where I think the whole a through g is very prescriptive to the superintendent. Like we're telling him how to do things that are very tactical. I believe all of this that's listed on the top of page two from a through g should be deleted and replaced with in
101accordance with the standard operating procedures. DR. Zeman what policy? Again. I apologize for my being so quick. 7315 page 63. Page two lists like steps a through g. We're telling them how to like, you know, don't step on the crack, turn left, turn right. You know, it's very prescriptive. This to me is a classic case where a standard operating policy procedure would make more sense, and it would allow the superintendent to adjust as the requirements for adjusting that procedure require it without having to come back to the board and change the policy. Attorney, Dupree Bruno. This is completely up to the board. If you want to remove it. It would be a substantive change. It will have to go through rulemaking process. The reason that that language is in there is because the board has
102given a lot of feedback in terms of there are no processes. There's not a good way on how to seek appraisals. When it reaches a limit, you need to have a second appraisal, etc. That's why it's in the policy. But this is completely to the board's discretion. So would anyone else like to bring back 7315 given this additional context? No. Okay. Chair, that's all the changes I have today. I'll look up the one if I can reserve one minute for after everybody else is done talking. Okay. Anyone else? Chair. Point of order. MRS. Alhadeff. So if we're going to follow policy, we should be running the clock on the timing when board members are speaking. So we can follow the policy with timing. Yes, ma'am. Anyone else with technical changes, MISS Bulman? Sorry. Policy 6327.
103One e. I just had a question on that because I might be reading it incorrectly. Hold on. I got to get. Thank you. The definition of lease payment. Any form of payment, including a land lease by a public entity to the private entity, I. I just think the way that it's written doesn't is confusing. Is it? I mean, the lease is from a public entity to a private entity, but the form of payment presumably would be from the private entity to the public entity. Let me pull the statute and just see. So the statute reads subsection subsection one d definitions. Lease payment means any form of payment, including a land lease by public entity to the private entity of a qualifying project for the use of the project. Is that. What the statute is confusing?
104We will find as we're going through, we're going to find a lot of the statutes are very confusing. So and sometimes not worded well at all, but we just we don't interpret the statute. We just put what the language is. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else with technical changes. All right. Could I have a motion and a second to formally accept the. Misshompson.N. I thihink DR. Zememan sdd h he haha h,h, d DR. Zanan. One mor tetechnica change. Thank you very much, Miss Thompson. Yes, it's on policy 6327 on page seven of 17, letter q at the bottom, we talk about how the projects will benefit small and minority businesses. I'm just curious if we wanted to make sure that we included small, local, veteran owned and minority owned businesses. MISS Rupert. Sorry, would the board
105also if they were going to make that small change, have service people, armed service people or veterans. Service? Disabled veteran? Yes. Attorney. Dupree. Bruno. So my recommendation to the board, because of where the board is with certain projects that are pending, I would recommend that we move forward with the policy as written, with the understanding that this p three policy is going to come back to the board. There is some minor legislative changes as well that's going to come into play as of JULY 1st. They're not major, is not going to really affect the substance of the the public private partnership policy. But there will be additional definitions. So if I MAY bring that back at that time. But in the meantime, move forward with this policy as written. I agree with MR. Bruno. Okay.
106Any other technical changes? All right. Could I have a motion and a second to accept all of the agreed upon technical changes today? I'm sorry, point of order today, chair, or were we going to do technical changes now for 169.1. No, we pulled 169.1 separate from the rest of the policies. Attorney Dupree Bruno. Yes. We're just going to vote on the other policies and then we will come back to 016, 9.1. So could I get a motion in a second? So moved. Moved by MR. Thompson, seconded by MISS Bulman. Do we need to take public comment on that motion? Attorney Dupree Bruno. Yes. Public comment on the motion to accept the technical changes. All in favor of the technical changes, say aye. Aye. All opposed? Say no. Technical changes pass unanimously. We will now begin.
107Well, I'll actually take the will of the board. We do still need to take public comment on item 56. We have 16 speakers. However, we do have a time certain for 10:00 for our proclamations. And I want to be respectful to our guests who are invited ahead of time. MISS Dupree. Bruno, you had something. Yeah. MADAM Chair, if I MAY make a recommendation to the board, since we still have to go back to 0169.1 prior to the public hearing, maybe we do the proclamations, then come back to zero one, six, 9.1, and then we can open it up for the public hearing on all of the policies. Okay. Is there any objection to that recommendation? MR. Cervera. If we take the general counsel's recommendation, our members of the public still then able to speak prior
108to any vote and or board discussion on 016, 9.1? Yes. We will still move forward with what it's technically legally called, will be the public hearing on the policies, and that would include 0169.1. Okay. So what do you recommend we do right now? Attorney do you go to the proclamations? Since it's 10:00, we'll go to the proclamations. Once that's complete, we'll go back to the technical corrections. I would request technical corrections first with regards to zero one, six, 9.1, and then determine whether or not there are any substantive changes that requires it to be pulled. Okay. Do we need a table? Do we need a motion to table 56 or can we just. No, I think for the record, just because this is part of the rulemaking process, note that the board did start at
1099 A.M. On this particular item, and we have to move the public hearing after another time certain on the agenda. Okay. All right. Could I get a motion in a second to bring item 34 to the floor, please? Second. Moved by MISS Thompson, seconded by MISS Bulman public comment on item 34. No comment. Board member discussion. DR. Holness. Thank you, MADAM Chair. So I just want to mention a few things, MADAM Chair, and I'm going to read parts of the proclamation. So. This proclamation is being given to Senator Rosalind Osgood. And the purpose of this proclamation is to recognize her significant effort in providing hurricane relief for those who were significantly impacted on the island of Jamaica in NOVEMBER by being hit with a category five hurricane. Now, I was trying to attempt to coordinate
110the receiving of this proclamation with Barrington Irving because the senator flew down to Jamaica with Barrington Irving in in NOVEMBER. But their schedules were. It was difficult to coordinate their schedules because the Senator was in session at the time. So because I could not get them both together, I had to schedule Senator Osgood at a different date, which is today. So it is to recognize her efforts with Captain Barrington Irving as well as Doctor Stewart, which we recognize in terms of the hurricane relief. And just to give some context for the public, there was a category five hurricane called Melissa that hit Jamaica in NOVEMBER of last year. In South Florida, we have over 100,000 Jamaicans in Broward County alone. We also have over 300,000 Jamaicans in South Florida. Besides New York City, South Florida
111has the second largest concentration of Jamaicans. Broward County actually has the largest concentration of Jamaicans in the state of Florida. Now, when you look at Hurricane Melissa, it had Not only impacted the island of Jamaica, but it impacted a lot of families here. Having over 100,000 Jamaicans living in Broward County, and many people suffered significantly, went homeless on the. Many people suffered significant lack of resources as a result. And Senator Osgood, who, by the way, has no Jamaican descent at all, took it upon herself to collect hurricane relief supplies to fly down to Jamaica with Barrington Irving and to unload trucks to support people. Now, that is to me a humanitarian, significant humanitarian effort. It speaks to the heart of Senator Osgood. And so I wanted to recognize that today. And so if you are,
112I would say to my colleagues, if you did not or have not had an opportunity to co-sponsor this proclamation, please let my office know by the end of the day tomorrow if you would like to. And a revised version of the proclamation will be presented to Senator Osgood. So I am going to go ahead, MADAM Chair, if you don't mind, and read the proclamation. Whereas Senator Doctor Rosalind Osgood is widely recognized as a transformative, faith rooted community advocate whose passionate leadership and steadfast commitment to service have advanced opportunity, strengthened communities, and uplifted families across South Florida and beyond. Whereas, Doctor Osgood holds both a master's degree and a doctoral degree in public administration from Nova Southeastern University and has dedicated more than two decades to public service and community leadership, including executive nonprofit leadership elected
113service as the Florida senator representing district 32 education governance. As a former chair and member of the Broward County Public School Board for ten years, authorship of multiple impactful books and faith leadership as an associate minister at New Mount Olive Baptist Church. Whereas, during her tenure in the Florida Senate, Doctor Osgood has continued to distinguish herself as a strong and effective champion for education. Building upon her extensive experience in Broward County public schools and her belief that education is the foundation of thriving communities. And among her many accomplishments, Doctor Osgood has sponsored and supported key legislative initiatives to expand educational opportunities and secure significant state investments, supporting programs that benefited Broward County students and families, and her leadership has supported efforts to strengthen career and technical education pathways, expand learning opportunities, reduce barriers for school
114districts, and invest in programs that promote student success, workforce readiness, and the overall well-being of children and families. And whereas following the landfall of Hurricane Melissa on OCTOBER 28th, 2025, and the significant hardship it caused for residents across Jamaica, Doctor Osgood quickly helped mobilize humanitarian support to assist families facing disruption and loss. Whereas, Doctor Osgood helped coordinate the collection and delivery of essential relief supplies, including hygiene kits, sanitary napkins, baby diapers, flashlights, canned foods, socks, children's clothing and first aid kits. Ensuring that aid was organized with care and delivered in a manner that addressed urgent needs with dignity and respect. And whereas, on NOVEMBER 12th, 2025, Doctor Osgood traveled to Jamaica as part of the relief effort to personally deliver supplies and provide direct support to impacted communities. Meeting with hurricane survivors, relief workers and
115local clergy, and working diligently to organize and distribute assistance on the ground. Now therefore, be it proclaimed that I, district five school board member and Vice Chair Doctor Jeff Holness, along with district one school board member Maura Bulman. District two school board member Rebecca Thompson hereby recognize Senator Doctor Rosalind Osgood for exemplary humanitarian service and compassionate leadership in support of Hurricane Melissa relief efforts in Jamaica, and commend her collaboration with community partners and volunteers whose collective action brought help, hope and encouragement to families impacted by the storm. Thank you. Thank you and DR. Holness. I would also like to be on the record co-sponsoring this proclamation. Thank you, MADAM Chair. Thank you. Would you like to recess for a photo or open up to board remarks? Well, recess briefly for a photo. [Music] Thank you
116so much. And I do want to recognize and call up to the podium, Senator Osgood, to give some remarks. And thank you again so much. For your leadership. Thank you, MADAM Chair, and thank you to the school board. Those of you that were in support of the proclamation. I thought about the 2010 hurricane that hit Haiti, and we took in a number of students who who didn't speak English but graduated, many of them first and second in the class. This school district has always been a welcoming district to those that are in Jamaica and Haiti, and I just felt it was the right thing to do. I want to thank the women of Alpha Kappa Alpha that helped me collect all those goods. I want to thank my colleagues, both Democrats and Republicans. It was
117a bipartisan effort, and I'm committed to continuing to work in a bipartisan way to make sure that our kids have what they need. So thank you so much for this recognition this morning. I appreciate it. I've been a little under the weather, but I'm happy to be here this morning. Thank you to school board member Holness, the naa, cp and all that continue to support me in my quest to make the world a better place for our children. That is my why I get up every day because I'm committed to change. Children have a need to grow every day, and we all have a responsibility to make sure that we're creating those opportunities for our children to grow every day. Thank you again. GOD bless you. GOD bless America. Thank you. Would anyone else. DR.
118Holness MADAM Chair, that's it. Thank you so much. Thank you, Senator Osgood, for being here. Appreciate it. Thank you. And any other any other board comments on this proclamation? All right. We do have several other proclamations that will be coming to us at 11 A.M. As requested, ahead of time. All right, attorney Dupree. Bruno, do I need to table this item for later, or can we just go back to item 56? We can go back to item 56. Okay. So upon the guidance of Attorney Dupree Bruno, we'll go back to item 56 and we will address one, a policy 169.1 both the technical and substantive changes, and then go to public comment on 1.6 or 1 69.1. And then we will open up the public hearing for the rest of the policies. Is that correct,
119attorney Dupree Bruno. So there'll be the public hearing, which will encompass the public comment on all of the different policies from 56. But first, we will go to 169.1. Yes. And and go to the technical and substantive conversation for that. Yes. Okay. So we'll address 169.1 that was pulled separately. First on the list I have MISS Hixon. And if I could, MADAM Chair, if I could, could we please just go through the technical changes first and then we can come back to the substantive change so that we can follow all of those changes, please. Okay. Do we MISS Hixon did you have technical changes? No. Minor substantive. Does anyone have technical changes for one? 69.1 MISS Bulman. Well, I don't know if this is going to be okay. So in number one or I guess
120it's I two on page four. Public comment shall be held at the beginning of the meeting at the designated public comment portion of the agenda, or as otherwise designated. So I guess my question was who's designated this? It could be. Normally it's the board, the reason it says or otherwise designated. There MAY be times, especially during a workshop where you want to hear something after or before. So that gives the board some leeway by giving some direction to the chairs to what you would like to do. So should it say by the board? We could. That would be a technical change. If we add the board. That's just clarification. Okay. Is that. And I guess the, you know, this might all go into, you know, a broader conversation. Probably I'll reserve my comments because I
121think we're going to get into substantive. And if that's the case, then they might be irrelevant. Thanks. MISS Bulman so would you like to propose that as a technical change or your. I. I guess I'll reserve maybe we should. I think we should probably go to the substantive first, because if we're going to change a provision, then I could go and give you the technical changes. But then if we're not going with that provision, I don't. I guess we don't. MISS Thompson's. I just have a clarifying question about this, because if the substance change that MISS Bruno is proposing we can do is only to pull this item to redo rulemaking, then I would like to propose that so that we can end this discussion. Okay. So I would like to make a motion to
122pull one, six, 9.1 to redo rule making. Second. Second motion made by MISS Thompson, seconded by MISS Bulman. Public comment on the motion to Reinitiate rule making for 169.1. Good morning doctor Natalie Lynch Walsh Plantation, Florida. I'm in support of the motion. This action and we need some clarification. This is a public hearing on top of it, which means we get to ask questions. But obviously if you pull it to start rulemaking all over again, rule development, then we would have a real rule development workshop, not one that's embedded in a board workshop, because that just doesn't work. But I support the motion. If that means this will stop this process dead in its tracks today, because you have 99 problems, one of them is you're trying to get a referendum passed. And if the
123board were to move forward with passing this as is today, what you would be putting yourself on the hook for is mad public right before you wanted to ask them for more money, because that's when this would come back and blow up in your face. So ending it today is something I would support and start over, because there's a lot wrong with this policy. Good morning, Alan Bushkin, sunrise, Florida. I am in full support of pulling this policy and taking it back to rulemaking. I can't describe how many issues I have with it. I'm glad some of you are starting to see reason in this. I'll reserve my other comments for later, but I do appreciate it. Thank you. Good morning, Brook Board Plantation. I support the motion, as we saw this morning, the public
124is not the problem in terms of the use of board time. Thank you. Thank you, Jackie Luskin. i'd just like to say that this whole policy is the mother of all hot messes from the hot mess department. It's a hot mess that need not have happened. And doing what MISS Thompson has proposed would hot mess it. Thank you. Trudy Germanovich. I'm in full agreement with also redoing this, but I think you should be very careful about when you bring it back. I would suggest you wait until after the election. Thank you. To you and I support the motion. Kenneth Minshew btu. I definitely support the motion. btu. I also support the motion. Nicole Morris, Coral Springs I support the motion and I would ask that you bring it back at a time when your customers,
125your parents and your stakeholders can be here to speak on it. This this item is to hear the voices of our customers, which are our parents. And right now it is summertime. So you're not going to get adequate public participation on this. Thank you. Anna Fusco, teachers union PRESIDENT, also Broward County resident. My son's a product of Broward County Public Schools. We want to keep talking about what you guys say. We're in a rated district. It's about the students. The students have family members, parents that bring them into our district. You talked about customer service last week of hiring some consulting company to teach you better when you guys should be the main example. I am asking you to support this motion. There should be a committee working with this. There should be multiple things
126that are happening, and you shouldn't be stifling the very group that is Broward County Public Schools. You need to also remember you guys, this is not your meeting. You guys have been elected to run a school board meeting to be the school board meeting. This the meetings are for the community. I need you to take a lot of different comments that are going to be put towards your way to read the room and understand of really why you're there. Remember why you guys said you wanted to sit there. You all have forgotten. Thank you. Any other public speakers board member discussion on the motion, MISS Hixon? Thank you. I don't mind the motion because I think that makes sense, but DR. Zeman had asked earlier about discussing what those substantive changes are going to be.
127So it comes back with some of them. So are we going to do that, or are we just pushing the whole thing off? And that will will start again when it comes for rulemaking? I just want to clarify. Attorney Dupree Bruno. So we'll just push it off. Board members can submit their substantive changes. And at some point, you know, it will be brought back for the board to have a discussion. Thank you for the clarification. MISS Thompson. That was my question, basically to get clarification, but also not structure it as pushing it off, but structuring it as giving us an opportunity to hear more from the public, I think is the way it needs to be framed. Thank you, MISS Bulman. I'd like to call the question. Are you making a motion to call the
128question? Motion to call the question. I'll second that. All in favor of calling the question, say aye. Aye. All opposed? Say no. No. Roll call please. Roll call and call the question. School board members. Alhadeff. No. Bulman. Yes. Cervera. Is that a no? Hixon. Yes. Bonus. No. Leonardi. Yes. Rupert. No. Thompson. Yes. Zeeman. Yes. Five. Four. I believe it fails because it needs a supermajority for public question. If I'm correct. gc you are. All right, MISS Bulman, did you have anything else? No. MR. Cervera. Thank you, chair. I appreciate anything that my colleagues are willing to do to keep this monstrosity of a policy from from going forward. That being said, I do want to express on the record my concerns with this. And when we ultimately vote on it, I will say it again,
129but I will continue to scream this from the mountaintops as to why I'm vehemently against these proposed changes. Let's be very clear about what's at stake here. This is not just a policy about meeting management. It's a policy about whether parents, taxpayers, teachers, students, and community members will have a meaningful opportunity to speak directly to the people that they elected. Public comment is not a courtesy. It's not a favor. It's not a box to check before the board moves on to business as usual. Public comment is one of the most important safeguards in local government, period. Full stop. But these proposed changes move us in the wrong direction. They would limit general public speakers at regular meetings and remove the ability to have a full public engagement in a district as large and diverse as
130Broward County. This simply cannot fly. This district serves hundreds of thousands of students, thousands of employees and communities with very different needs. Limiting public speaking sendshe wrong message. It tells parents, and it tells taxpayers, we don't have time for you. And in my book, that is simply unacceptable. The proposed changes also limit agenda items and comments to one hour, unless extended by discretion of the chair. That means the public's right to speak can depend on one person's discretion. When major issues are before this board, the public deserves more than a clock running against them. The proposal also reduces speaking time when more people show up. If more than 20 people want to speak, the time drops to two minutes. If more than 30 people want to speak, it drops to one minute. Think about that.
131The more concerned there is, the less each person gets to say that is just backwards. A large turnout should not be a signal that the board needs to listen more carefully, not move faster. The people sitting on this dais were put here by the public. They work for the public, and the public must be able to look them in the eyes and say, I disagree with you, I expect better, I want answers. They must be given the ability to address their local government. That is democracy. When a person comes here worried about what is happening in the classroom, they should not have to wonder will their words be shut down when a teacher comes here to raise concerns about district leadership, they should not have to worry about whether or not they're going to be
132able to address their local elected officials. Public comment is sometimes uncomfortable. It's sometimes emotional. But that's the point. The public meeting belongs to the public. We should be making it easier for people to participate, not harder. We should be expanding access, not narrowing it. We should be encouraging public trust, not adopting rules that make people feel shut out, filtered or overly managed. As a school board that listens to the public is a stronger school board. A school board that welcomes criticism is more accountable. A school board that gives parents, teachers and students and our taxpayers a meaningful voice is more legitimate. I am glad that one of my colleagues had the foresight and the wherewithal to at least get this monstrosity pulled for today. But as we move forward, these changes cannot be accepted. Do
133not limit general public comment. Do not reduce people to one minute statements when public concern is at its highest. Do not restrict citizens from addressing the elected officials who represent them. Protect the quorum. Protect order, sure, but above all, protect the public's right to be heard. Because when elected officials stop listening to the public, the public loses confidence in the process. And when the public loses confidence in the process, we all lose. Thank you, chair. Thank you, MISS Hixon, our DR. Holness. Sorry. Thank you, MADAM Chair. So I did. Had a board member request. As far as the total amount of time spent on public comments during the last three regular school board meetings, and I believe all of the board members had the. The response. On APRIL 7th, we had a board meeting that
134was five hours and 25 minutes, and the total public speaking time for that meeting was 29 minutes and 52 seconds. On MAY 5th, regular school board meeting. That was a nine hour, 17 minutes school board meeting. The public speaking time was two hours and 54 minutes and five seconds, which was about 31% of the meeting. And then on JUNE 9th, regular school board meeting was six hours, 42 minutes. Public speaking time was one hour, 25 minutes, which was about 21.1% of the meeting. So Doctor Hepburn, I, I guess my question here is now that we have some sort of a substantive data in our last three board meetings, it shows that the approximate average for public speaking seems to be about 22.5%. If we were to look at these three meetings, how does this compare
135to large districts across the state where. We will have decorum in the audience? Please. Thank you for the question, DR. Holness. I can't speak on the number of minutes I can speak on how public comment is conducted. I don't know if other school districts, if the public comment is are is less or more, but it's it's done differently than Broward County, similar to what the current policy suggests is how the majority of school districts across our state actually conduct their public comment. Okay, so the next question I have, it seems as if the average here, if you look at these three meetings, is probably. Maybe an hour and 40 nutes or so. So with the commendede changnges t that are here I this policy, what would be the public speaking time for the current recommended
136changes? Maximum. I'll defer that to MR. Bruno. I don't think we can answer that. Right. Because every time there's a issue that the public is very interested in, it's going to impact the change in terms of how much speaking time that the public has. So that's difficult to quantify. And I don't have that data. The only thing I could add to this particular conversation is I agree with Doctor Hepburn's. Explanation that most districts, they do not do public comment the same way that we do it. I know that Polk County, Hillsborough County, Orange County, Duval County, so Orlando, Tallahassee, Lee County, Palm Beach County, all of them, pretty much nearly all of the top ten districts in almost every other district in the state of Florida, as many of the other districts in the country
137do not do public comment the same way. The best practice for public comment when you're looking at how districts comport themselves for both. One to make sure that the public speaks. Because sometimes we forget that public comment is not the only avenue for the public to speak. Broward is actually unique in that its public comment actually includes written public comment. Most districts do not have that the policy would retain the written public comment. So I know the board members review that as well. In addition, Broward would also be a little different than the majority of the other districts in that it would also have the general public comment time as part of the meeting for am and pm, which most districts do not have, and many of those that do have it, they actually do
138that outside of the meeting before the meeting begins or at the end of the meeting. So Broward is definitely unique in that. And even the policy would include some of Broward's uniqueness in public comment. Okay, so MISS Bruno, I understand that Broward MAY appear to be an outlier in terms of how the meetings are conducted as far as public comment, but the rationale for making the change has to have some sort of a positive impact, right? Regardless of what anyone else is doing, even if we're doing it differently. So I guess what I'm trying to determine what that rationale is, regardless of who's doing what, what would be the benefit to the district? Are we concerned about time or are we concerned about effectiveness of governing? Even if our process is different from other districts,
139what are we gaining by making the change if time is the concern? And that's the reason I ask my question, right? If time is the concern and the changes, I believe says 30 minutes of public speaking time, and I believe there's an hour for commenting on items that would be an hour and a half. Right. So besides time, because it doesn't seem when I look at the last three board meetings, it doesn't seem as if we we've lost a lot of time with public speaking, the way it's being done now as compared to the changes. So what would be the rationale besides time that would necessitate making this change? Is there a concern with effectiveness of governance outside of time? Because time was one of the variables, but that doesn't seem to be a factor
140when we look at the data from the last three board meetings. So what is the next factor that would rationalize this change? It's the best practice with regards to effectiveness of governance. The districts you normally would put public comment at the beginning of the meeting, so that all of the comments are provided to board at the same time. Once that comment are received, then the board can do the rest of the business, the rest of the work without the interruption, but in due consideration of what they have heard, and this is normal practice, it helps with the efficiency. It would end up reducing a little bit in terms of some of the other things that impact public comment, in terms of discussion on the dais and helps with the flow of the meeting as well.
141And that's why it's recommended that you have it at one particular time. And I would just add, too, because this was something that the board was very concerned about. We don't want to have somebody make a public comment, and then they're not heard again until 3 P.M. Because that was another issue that was going on. That particular agenda item, maybe at 3:00, 4:00. We never know because we go so long in our meetings. Sometimes the those individuals sometimes don't even have an opportunity to speak. So having at it at one designated time for the board's consideration, that was one of the factors. And then because of making sure that the board can react and respond to those high topic, high interest topics and agenda items. Immediately after that, 1.5 hour, one hour, and 15 minute
142of public comment time, those hot topics will then be discussed and addressed by the board immediately thereafter. So that's how the policy was drafted, so that all of those agenda items that the public is very interested in would be answered, resolved. The board will discuss it, the public would see the vote, and then the board can move forward. Excuse me, with its regular action consent agenda items. Okay, so MISS Bruno is there, and I don't mean to be difficult, but this is an important item to vote on. But is is there any measurable. And I and I heard you in terms of the effectiveness of governing, but based upon any comparable districts, is there any measurable evidence to suggest that governing is more effective with these changes? So the only I, I can only I
143have not done particular research to determine that type of data. That's something we can look into. But what I can tell you is just from my conversations with the other attorneys across the state, as well as other attorneys in the greater city schools, the other large urban school districts that when we discuss how public comment is occurring in our meetings, the efficiency of having public comment at one point does help the board in terms of its ability to do its business. And when I share how public comment is done in Broward County, everybody is scratching their heads and is very, very surprised and wondering how the board is actually able to conduct the business the way that it's set up. Not saying that it's not possible because clearly we have been doing it, but it's
144really the efficiency in terms of how those meetings are run and operated. Okay, so Doctor Hepburn, for me, a very important piece because my concern was, and I didn't know the way we're doing it did it significantly create an anomaly in terms of the time spent for public comments as it would compare to other districts. So that's the reason I made the request to look at the time for the last three meetings. And it seems as if the average time is about one hour, 4045 minutes, which is what the proposed change is also recommending. So time is not significantly impacted. The other factor was governing the effectiveness of governing, and it doesn't appear as if we have measurable data or research. It MAY or MAY not impact governing efficiency, but we don't have measurable data
145to which to rely on to make that conclusion. So I wouldn't necessarily say I'm for or against the changes, but I, I am not sure if we have adequate information to go ahead and make the changes. As far as with whether or not this would be a benefit to the board, as opposed to the consequences that it MAY cause beyond our decision. So I would like more information on measurable data. As far as the the variable pertaining to efficiency of government, I believe we've concluded that time is not significantly impacted by just looking at the last three board meetings, not sure if governing efficiency is because we don't have measurable data, even though, yes, you know, when you look at other districts and when you communicate with them, it appears that we are doing things
146differently than they are. But doing it differently does not mean it's not being done efficient. And I'm not saying it is, but I don't think we have enough data to make that conclusion. So I would like to see this come back another time. I don't believe I'm able to fully make the decision on this today because of the the varying factors that have not been substantiated with the with the requests. So that's my position, MADAM Chair. Thank you, MISS Hixon. Thank you. Just quickly based, I think using the last three meetings probably skews the data a little bit, because two of those meetings were about org charts and people losing their jobs. So I think the APRIL 7th 30 minute average is probably like, I think we would want data if you're asking for data
147way beyond that, so that you get a better picture of that, because I think the other two are anomalies. But you know, as I said, when I didn't agree with the changes in the workshop, I, our, our problem with long meetings is, doesn't come from public speaking. And we're here as elected officials and we should hear from our public. I know that they can email us and they can call us. But I think sometimes there's power in numbers. And seeing them come and like, visually show us that there's an issue. Or even if they I'd love if they came when they liked something to tell us that they liked it also, you know, I think just visually, it's a community that's involved and it's really important for us to acknowledge that and appreciate the fact
148that they come to speak. And again, traditionally, it doesn't make our meetings that much longer except when it's big items. So I appreciate that this is going to come back and that we'll have time. And also just I'll say it again, but I don't think when we're talking about limiting time or, or what the time frame looks like that we should say at the discretion of the chair, because it doesn't give consistency. And that puts a lot of pressure on a chair, because if they decide, yes, this group can have longer time, but no, the other group can't. It's just not consistent. So I just want to put that out there again to say our policy should be consistent and not say at the discretion of the Chair Thank you. Thank you, MRS. Alhadeff. Thank
149you. So I would say that public comment has really evolved through the years. I know when I was the chair, we had a lot of public comment. I think in the last two years there has been less public comment and people coming and speaking at our meetings. The problem necessarily is not the public. The problem is us, the problem is us talking and talking and talking. And the problem is it's not being timed. I even asked for it to be timed, but it's still not being timed. So we have to govern ourselves. We don't need data. It is very clear our meetings go over by hours and hours because we do not govern ourselves to speak in a timely manner. So unless that changes and and we abide by our policy to speak on the
150time limit, have it timed, not ask for extra time because you get another round if you want to speak again. And it's not fair to your colleagues who are waiting hours to speak on an agenda item, it truly isn't what I would recommend in some way. Whether we put it in our procedures or the policy, is to have a timed item. If it's a really hot topic, make it four hours. I don't care because we'll speak for seven of it. If we don't. Thank you. Thank you, MISS Thompson. Thank you. Chair, I just wanted to briefly, and I'm going to tie myself because I can't see a timer, but. Well, they're not working and I can't see it. Regardless, I think the reason we were having this discussion to begin with is not needs to
151be reframed. And understanding from. The point is, if you have a set time to come speak, then the moms and dads who have to rearrange their schedule to come to the teachers that might not be able to come at a certain time, that gave them the ability to start it at nine. And I had originally had some hesitation, as I think a lot of us did, because if you come and speak at nine, but the item doesn't come back until 4 P.M. Then you're hanging out all day. So I just wanted to kind of bring that back into perspective, that it wasn't about silencing public comment. It was about putting some structure so that those people who don't tech don't typically come, or the people who come with their kids because I see them in
152the audience, and then they take them in and take them out and take them in, because it's hard to keep little ones entertained during this, have the opportunity to come speak and then go about their their day to day. And then I also wanted to bring up a point because we keep talking about what the other school districts do. Well, when you think about it, Broward County government has it's structured very similar to how we have it currently, where the public can speak per item. They don't have general comment like we do, but I would like to maintain that the municipal governments, the majority of them, both allow general speaking and talking to the item. So I think when we're looking at the best practice of governing, we are are similar to those bodies as
153well. And just to remember that the local government, our local governments, are the one closest to the people. And so we are made to be more responsive to the people. And I know we were supposed to save all this to the workshop, but since we don't govern ourselves, that is my comment and I look forward to talking about this again when it comes back. Oh, can we get a timeline on that or proposed timeline? Are we ready to give a timeline on that? Attorney Dupree Bruno. So I, I'm really going to need some guidance from the board because based on the comments that I've heard, it doesn't seem that the board is inclined to make any real substantive changes to the policy. So are we bringing the policy back to make changes, or do we
154want to just keep what we have? I really want to know from the board what that direction is. Do we want to keep 1020 as is, which is completely to the board's directive, completely to the board's directive, whatever the board wants to do? Or do we want to try to make some changes? I just need direction. So I believe we weren't giving you direction, because you told us that the subsequent change that we could make was only to reinitiate rule making. So that was my motion. I have substantive changes, but I my understanding of your direction was that we weren't supposed to go into that. So my motion is to bring this back so that we can have that. Unless your advice has changed. No, my advice hasn't changed. I was really just listening to
155what the board was saying, and that was what I was getting from the conversation on the dais, that there MAY not be an appetite. And again, completely up to the board. So if if you want me to bring something, I'm completely to the board's discretion. Send me individually your thoughts, and then I'll try to craft something that incorporates everybody's thoughts and bring that to a workshop at at some point. So, Attorney Dupree Bruno, do you need the guidance now or are we still sticking to the motion, MISS Thompson, to bring it back. If that is the process that we're supposed to follow, then I would like to bring it back. If the process that we follow is to start doing it now, then let's dive into it. But I'm just trying to follow the recommended
156process. Okay, Lily. Okay. I was just curious, do we allow video public comment? Like, can someone submit a video. That is not currently in policy? No. Okay, maybe that's just something to consider. Especially, I know we had mentioned the parents who might not always be able to come in, or teachers or even our students who, you know, are stuck in school, like to have them submit a short video. So that way it would keep to the time limit, even if we made it, you know, just something as small as two minutes. That way they keep to the time, but the people who can't physically be here still get to get their word in. Thank you for that input, MR. Cervera. Thank you, chair. I have a couple comments and then I'm gonna have a substitute
157motion. MR. Bruno, that I think, if passed, will give you the direction that you need. First and foremost, I want to comment on this, this notion about what school districts are doing in other parts of the state. And I want to be very clear, I don't care about Palm Beach. I don't care about Dade County. I don't care about Duval County. I don't care about Orange County. I don't care about Lee County. I don't care about Collier County. I care about Broward County. We are very unique. We are a very special place here, and we need to do what is in the best interest of our constituents. And if they do things differently in Palm Beach, kudos to them. I don't live in Palm Beach, and I'm not in the Palm Beach County School Board.
158So quite frankly, with all due respect to them, I don't care. I only care about this county and this board. Number two, in regards to what is going to happen with your guidance about when this needs to come back, MADAM Chair, I'd like to propose a substitute motion. And I realize MISS Thompson's motion is still on the floor, but I have a substitute motion that this be tabled until sometime in 2027, and this not come back within the next six months. So my colleagues can think very hard about this. So we can continue to have conversations with our constituents. And so that we are not forced like this. We feel that this has been forced down our throats as the this policy is extremely important to me. I know it's very important to my constituents.
159So my suggestion for recommendation, MR. Bruno, as far as timing is we need to hold off on this until 2027. So my motion would be just that. Motion made by MR. Cervera, seconded by MISS Rupert. I believe per policy, we need a date. So I don't know if you have a date ready, MR. Cervera. MR. Superintendent, when do the kids get back from Christmas break? Staff. Calendar. Do do do do do do do do do do do. That would be JANUARY 5th, right? Fifth. The kiddos get back to fifth. Yes. JANUARY 5th. So my motion would be no sooner than JANUARY 5th. And second by MISS Rupert public comment on the motion or the substitute motion. I'm looking for something. Somebody go before me. Come on guys, I'm looking for. Oh, Her voice. My name
160is Doctor Trudy Germanovich. I wholeheartedly approve of MR. Cervera substitute motion. And the reason is we need to stop this. This is crazy. You're doing things that are going to make the public think. Why should I even care who gets elected? That's right. Now. I'm sorry. You don't have any time for this. Your policy is fine on public participation. Leave it alone. Have it go through the committee process like we always did. And we cautioned you to do that, especially on policies that affect the the public. So please vote for this. Thank you. Doctor. Natalie Lynch Walsh Plantation, Florida. I support the motion. Because yes, this does need to be put off and it'll buy you time for a couple of things. And just so MISS Dupree, Bruno is aware. One of the things that
161makes Broward unique compared to other districts is I'm pretty sure we're the only ones with four grand jury reports for four and counting. And the five board members recommended for removal hasn't happened anywhere else that I'm aware of. So no, you don't get to behave like everybody else. Negotiated rulemaking that's recommended when you have complex rules or strong opposition. Hello. But that didn't happen here. The looping policy, which is ironically I think, called public engagement and communication, still a policy that you're not following, which would have required this to go to dac in favor of this. Thank you. Next speaker. Hi, Dana Sanders, Davie, Florida. Why are families leaving Broward County Public Schools? This is why people are leaving because we're facing a crisis of declining enrollment. Why? Why are they leaving? I'm a parent.
162I've lived my whole life in Broward County. My children go to Broward County, and you don't care what we say, what we think, what we're trying to tell you. We will listen to you guys for nine hours, but we get a minute. I mean, honestly, it sends a loud, unmistakable message to every parent in the district that our perspective is an inconvenience. And if parents can't find a voice in public schools, why do you think that they're leaving? All of my friends with school age children, this is what they say. You don't listen, you don't care. And it's showing. But my minutes almost up. So I'll continue listening to you guys. Awesome. Devin Lee for our county resident. Okay, I totally agree on tabling this, coming back to it because currently in our society, it
163can be challenging to discern what's going on, what's the truth and what's not. And when you actually have people coming to you and stating, this is what's going on, these are my concerns. Please help us. Please fix it. And you want to just squelch the ability to them, for them to actually come to you and seek your help, that's troubling. You're only going to create an echo chamber for yourself, a bubble where you're widening and separating yourself from the people that you represent. You work for us. You're supposed to help us. So not being able to listen to us is creating such a disconnect, which will harm the county even further. So I do agree with coming back and looking at this a little bit later, but definitely not squelching our voices. Thank you. Then
164for Gerard Oakland Park. So we get to vote and speak power to you. And then when you are elected, we can't talk to you. What are you are telling us? You want us out loud for you. But when we get you are. Don't talk to me. I don't want to hear your issues. I don't want to hear your problems. You don't find something wrong with that. You don't want public engagement because you don't want to know. When we're not upset about something, or when we're happy about something. I've been teaching here 29 years. My son's graduated here. My grandchildren graduated. Well, they're still in school. I don't understand why you don't want me to speak. Why don't you want to hear what I have to say? When my grandson says something, why can't I bring
165it back to you so you can look at it? Thank y. Next speaker. Good morning, Liliana. Broward Teachers Union. And I'm going to say, MR. Cervera, you always have the right common sense. Thank you for speaking up, for caring for everyone. And also, I want to say how contradicted you are at this point. I'm talking about all the board members when it comes to limiting us from speaking. So you are a public servant. We are the public. We come here to bring you concern. We come here to fix problems. We are here because we are the voice of the people out there who have no voice. So by you coming up and saying that we're going to be limited speaking, or are you going to reduce the amount of people who are will be speaking
166in the future? It doesn't make you look good to begin with. And the other part is how sad it is for me to hear that you, the majority of you are teachers, first of all. Second, you forgot where you came from. Third, you know how many problems teachers are facing in the classroom every day and you're trying to stop us? Not okay. Speaker. Welcome. You can begin your remarks. Welcome. Are you doing this? Is Roosevelt McClure, Broward teacher, Union sp vice PRESIDENT. And I do support this motion to table it. One of the reasons is this is the main issue. That public comment is not the issue. You're spending more time talking about this agenda. It's the waste of issue. This is not effective. We're talking about more. Even when we look at the data,
167we're showing that the data that more adroit at the time is the board speaking hours and hours on one agenda on one thing. And that's showing that the effectiveness. So if you want to be more effective, maybe you guys got to consider ways of being more effective on the board, how you can get things done more efficiently and more better. But as in limiting the public and limiting their comment is not the issue. So whoever brought this up is the issue. Good morning, Alan Bushkin sunrise, Florida. Yes, the public is not the problem. This needs to be tabled. I am in full support of it. There are a number of issues that need to get fixed. First, I see the timer going off on me. MISS Alhadeff said. Why isn't the timer going off when
168you guys speak? I think there's a whole bunch of items that need to be addressed procedurally. When I was getting set up this morning, one of the first things I said, and I don't know who said it because I was out there signing up. This agenda is confusing. I can't agree with that more. Why would you want to put a public hearing inside a regular school board meeting? Why isn't that a separate meeting all by itself? And right now I'm here speaking to you while I'm missing a work meeting that is also important to me. I think this is just important as well. So please fix the other things first before the public. We're not the problem. Thank you. Hi, my name is Shafi Zamenhof. I'm from btu and I'm also an employee of Broward
169Schools. I want to remind all of you of something. Do you know how many times I've been at the school board meeting and public speakers come up to speak, and then right after they share their concerns, the superintendent and various school board members will stop the meeting and say, okay, hold on, I need to talk to this person. This is a concern. This is an issue. It needs to be resolved immediately. See, the thing is that the public comes to you with their concerns. And instead of bringing the public down, you should celebrate that they want to come here and share with you with what's going on, with their concerns, what they need to allow our school district to be successful. You are constantly speaking about how you care about our students and our teachers.
170But yet again, here's a perfect example of that. You really don't care because if you did, this wouldn't be an issue at all. Hi Zara, Deerfield Beach the clock is working right on time. And MISS Alhadeff, you said that twice and the clock still wasn't going off. I don't get it. And about the meetings and how long the public speaks on the eighth. When this was a workshop, rural development, whatever it was, the public spoke for nine minutes. Y'all spoke for like five hours. So I do support the motion. I hope that you guys really rethink what you're doing up here. You can't say you want both things at the same time. You want customer service, you want parent parental engagement. You want the children to come back. But then you say something else from
171the other side of your mouth. I used to call that back in the day. Two faced, just saying, get it together. Let's go, let's go, let's go. Kenneth Minshew Plantation. MISTER Cervera, I need you to know I like that hat. I to support public speaker time. Thank you sir. The rest of you, where's your hat? Board members, please, please keep public speaker time the way it is. Last time I checked, in this country we have freedom of speech. I cherish that, right. I believe you all do too. Limiting public speaker time gets in the way of the public from exercising their speech. Don't do that to us. Don't do it to the public. This isn't Cuba, North Korea you ran to represent your constituency. You can't do that if you don't allow us to say
172what needs to be said and what's on our mind. What are you guys thinking? Shortening public speaker time sends a bad message. Thank you. I support the change. Jackie. I support anything that stops the madness. But it shouldn't take a public outcry, more reputational damage, and an embarrassing op ed in the Sun-Sentinel. To get to this point, I appreciated MISS Thompson's motion to and the thought that had gone into it, and the reflection that some of you done. But but we shouldn't be here, MISS Dupuy, Bruno told us last week, quote, this policy conversion is a major project, unquote. So if it's a major project, I will also refer you to existing policy. 1164 on communication and public engagement, which states, quote, the public engagement loop has been designed for use only when a major
173initiative or new district wide program is under consideration. Your schools are our schools. You don't get to govern in an echo chamber or a public engagement vacuum. You are telling teachers and administrators they should engage with parents, but you don't have to. And teaching students about civics while saying that that you need to throttle public engagement at your own meetings. Thank you. Hello, Nicole Morris, Coral Springs. So over the years, I have criticized a lot of things that's been done in this district. But one of the things that I've always complimented is our ability to have maximum amount of public participation, which you're right, is not happening around the country and other school districts, whether it be looping town halls, board meetings. You've always allowed us to come and, and actively participate in the new
174initiatives and the policies that we rolled out. I would ask that that not be drawn back when people are leaving Broward schools. It's not because there's too much public participation. Those are one of the things that we value. I would say also a 9:00 start time for people who are dropping off their kids at 8:00 and 915 is not that's not going to be helpful to the public. And I would say to remember that we elected you to be the voice for us and to listen to what we are saying. And if you take that out, then you've taken what we've elected you to do. Thank you. Hello. School board. Well, I came in to talk about something different, Chris Nelson and you guys are trying to take away free speech again. Really? Come on.
175Like, we've been through this a bunch of different times. I remember years ago when you try, you're you've been trying this or people have been trying this for a long time. This is like the most fun I have. Like during the week, I had a day off today, got to come down and talk. And really, honestly, you guys are the last one to talk because it's really because of you guys that like these meetings run for hours and hours and hours. You guys talk a lot. And you know, a lot of people, you know, dear Natalie Lynch Walsh, we get to hear Anna Fusco talk. And I mean, you want to really take that away. You should be making policies that give that give more public comment because I mean, really like, what would this
176school board be if we didn't get to come in here and share our grievances with you? Thanks. I'd be in jail. Anna Fusco, Broward Teachers union PRESIDENT I'm speaker, time is still very limited, but we need to keep it as is until we can get some newly elected people on the board and maybe can get up there and make some positive changes that actually want to get the Broward County Public Schools out of the what is it, $80 million problem? Nobody got raises. You cut a thousand people. We're going to have over class size. We have security issues of not enough. You cut our mental health. You see what you all should be doing. Those are the problems that you should be solving. And yet you want to worry about what's happening in this boardroom.
177Seriously. I chair my Broward Teachers union meetings, and people come in and have the right to speak and say what they want, and we have to take it again. You said you wanted to do this, do it, and stop bringing things backwards. Thank you. Any other public speakers? I do. We have a time certain for some proclamations at 11:00. So I do know that, MISS Hixon, you had some people who were waiting in the audience. So we'll just table this item for a few minutes so we can honor the people who are here. So we will go back to item 34, I believe, and I'll turn it over to MISS Hixon. Thank you. Thank you. Chair. Yes, I'll just be a few minutes. I wanted to take some time to recognize two amazing educators that
178have given over 40 years of dedicated service to students. So first, I'd like to recognize I would like to give a proclamation recognizing MISS Deborah Ray Sparacino for her 46 years of service, dedication and commitment. [Applause] To Broward County Public Schools. MISS Sparacino, if you could come on up to the front. So the proclamation reads. Whereas MISS Deborah Ray Sparacino began her teaching career in Hazel crest, Illinois, at Robert Frost Junior High for five years before continuing her distinguished career in education at South Broward High School for the past 41 years. I'll just mention that MISS Sparacino was a teacher while I was attending South Broward, and I had the pleasure of being her her coworker once I. I became a teacher as well, whereas MISS Sparacino taught home economics and culinary Arts, providing students
179with valuable hands on educational opportunities, preparing them with skills necessary for life success. And whereas MISS Berardino established the dual enrollment culinary program at South Broward High School, which allowed opportunities for students to earn college credit while in high school. And Whereas, MISS Sparacino established the Paul and Grill, a small cafe in the school where culinary students would serve meals to staff and families for various events and holidays, providing a full working experience in a restaurant environment. And whereas, MISS Berardino was recognized by Broward County Public Schools as Culinary Teacher of the year for the 2223 school year. And whereas, MISS Berardino was recognized as South Broward High School's Teacher of the year in 2003 2004. And whereas, MISS Sparacino was also recognized by Prostart as the teacher of the year in 2023 and 2026
180for her strong mentorship, helping students make the connection between their present performance and their future career. And Whereas, MISS Bacino enabled thousands of students to earn the Safe Serve Serve Safe Industry certification, preparing them for viable careers in the culinary and hospitality industries. And Whereas, MISS Barisano dedicated long hours for 46 years to the field of education and positively impacted countless of students throughout her years of teaching. And whereas, with the ending of the 2020 526 school year, MISS Sparacino has now retired from the Broward County Public Schools after 46 years as an educator and mentor, leaving her mark on the schools and students she taught over these years. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that county wide seat nine school board member Deborah Hixon presents this proclamation to recognize and honor MISS Deborah Ray Sparacino
181for her remarkable 46 years of service, dedication and commitment to educating and inspiring our youth. Thank you so much, MISS Barocio. I. Take off my jacket. It will briefly reassess the meeting for a photo. Okay. Board member Hixon has another proclamation, so you can go ahead. Thank you. The two Debbie's. So this is Debbie. Number two proclamation recognizing MISS Deborah k Batts for her 49 years of service, dedication, and commitment to the Broward County Public Schools, Broward County, Florida. Come on down. Whereas, MISS Deborah k Batts began her teaching career at Henry County High School in New Castle, Kentucky, for 16 years, then at Johnson and Wales University for one year, and then at South Broward High School for 32 years. And whereas MISS Batts taught early childhood education, allowing high school students to earn
182their child development associates cda industry certification while working hands on with 3 to 4 year olds in a preschool with their. Within their high school. And whereas, MISS Batts taught exploratory teaching and was an advisor for the Florida Future Educators of America for over 25 years, allowing students to intern under staff members at their high school to gain real experiences within the classroom and school setting. And whereas MISS Batts was recognized in Kentucky by Carlton Business and Professional Women's Club in 1984 as a young career woman. And whereas MISS Batts was recognized as woman of the year in 2013 by the Fort Lauderdale Alumni Panhellenic Club, an organization that focuses on and supports educational opportunities for under youth privilege. And. Whereas, MISS Batts was recognized as teacher of the year in 2025 2026 from the
183South Broward High School, an award bestowed upon her by her coworkers. For the exceptional educator, she is in her field. And whereas MISS Batts has also dedicated herself to doing charity work with the Winterfest Boat Parade, helping to raise money to further support children education, arts and water safety initiatives in the South Florida community. And whereas MISS Batts continuously went above and beyond mentoring her students, supporting her colleagues and fostering a positive school and local community for everyone. And whereas, with the ending of the 2020 526 school year, MISS Batts has now retired from the Broward County Public School system after 49 years as an educator and a mentor, leaving her mark on the schools and students she taught over these years. Now therefore be proclaimed that countywide, seat nine school board member Deborah Hixon
184presents this proclamation to recognize and honor MISS Deborah k Batts for her remarkable 49 years of service, dedication and commitment to educating and inspiring our youth. Okay, we're going to recess for a photo and then we'll be back. Okay. We have now resumed our special school board meeting. Board member Rupert also has a proclamation. So board member Rupert, you have the floor. Let's do it this way. Every hour I talked, I couldn't find gray shirt, which is cool. I'll take care of it and you should come in. I joined. As an advocate. And I want to leave the same way. So today I bring a proclamation that I hope will open people's eyes. And I forgot my little book up there. Sorry. All right. Thank you. Okay. It was important for me to do this
185because not only will it maybe stop some of the conversation that's going on around me, but also it will help other people in this world. So I have been very blessed to have had the honor of sponsoring resolutions over the years for women's heart health, breast cancer, foster care, adoptions, tomorrow's rainbow. But this one today is very personal to me, and it is critically important for women to really listen. I'm not going to take the time to read the entire proclamation. It's attached to the agenda. But autoimmune disease affects over 50 million Americans, mainly women at 80%. And are among the top ten leading cause of death in women under the age of 65. It acts differently in everyone, and many people like me have multiple systemic diseases. At the same time. We need more
186awareness, more research, and more hope for all of us. And if you are tired, if your bones ache, if you can't see in your eyes are getting worse and the pain in your body, and then it affects your red blood cells. Just how to get transfused. These things happen. Not everybody acts the same with this disease or any of the autoimmune disorders. And then there's a very special group of them. They're called rheumatic autoimmune diseases, and they are extremely difficult on the body. I suffer from several at one time, so I hope this helps somebody, especially a woman. Eight out of ten of us have an autoimmune disorder. That's a lot. And we really need to know more about it. So if you're interested, need more help? One of the particular autoimmune diseases I have
187is called Sjogren's, and it's in the lupus family. So you can reach out. I'd be glad to talk to you. And I will be here through my last meeting in OCTOBER. Still fighting, but looking forward to having advocacy on this side of the podium as well. So I thank you all today. Thank you. I'm sorry. Steve. You're one you're one. Of us. Chair, I'd like to sponsor the resolution. So board member Alhadeff will be sponsoring the resolution I, I am sponsoring as well and I, I is there anyone else who'd like to sponsor the resolution? I would like to sponsor the co-sponsor as well as MISS Hickson's proclamations as well. Okay, great. Thank you. I believe MR. Cervera. Yes. MISS Cervera Arnold. All right. And that's it. Jeff. I'd like to co-sponsor them all. There
188you go. And I am co-sponsoring all of them myself. Thank you. Okay. All right. MADAM Chair, I, I also would like to co-sponsor Miss Hickson's resolutions. Okay. Any other board member discussion. Chair, can we have a better process for proclamations if this is our standard operating procedure now to have proclamations? We don't need an answer now, but I think there's been several kerfuffles, so thank you. Okay. Thank you. Any other board member discussion on proclamations? All right. All in favor of item 34, say aye. Aye. All opposed? Say no. Item 34 passes unanimously, as amended with the sponsorships. All right. We will go back to item 56. We completed public comment on the substitute motion. So we'll go to board member comment. DR. Zeman I have you on the list. Thank you very much. Chair,
189could you are we at the point where we're still talking about the substitute motion? Sorry. Say that again. Are we still discussing the substitute motion made by MR. Cervera? Yes, we are terrific. I just wanted to speak in favor of it and look forward to the vote. Thank you. Thank you, MISS Hixon. Thank you, I appreciate it, but I don't know that I want to wait until JANUARY to come back to to the item, especially if we're in a process of passing the different policies. But I, I also wanted to speak to MISS Dupree. Dupree. Bruno, I think what you were asking us was, did we want to just bring back the policy as it is now instead of the other changes? When it comes back to rule making, is that what you were asking
190us? Yeah, that was one thing. And there's also another legal issue that I'm trying to work through as well. And I don't have an answer just yet, but I will hopefully shortly. 1020 incorporated a lot of the new policies that were related to. 1020 the public participation portion of that policy obviously is in. 1020 I'm not I'm still waiting for the final decision on this, but it looks like we will not be able to just take out that public participation sunset the remainder of 1020 so we can pass the other policies. It's very possible that we're going to have to just start all over again with all of the policies for rulemaking. I'm waiting for confirmation from Neola just to make sure, because that would be a substantive change and we would not be able
191to sunset that policy. So I'm waiting to get additional guidance on that on how we can proceed. Okay. Thank you. Because I you know, as was mentioned earlier, we spent a long time on the public participation part on 1020 about a year or so ago. And we we got to a place that I think was a good compromise for everyone. So I'd like to see it just come back as it is now, and then make some of those changes. About the chair having discretion at time limits. So thank you. Thank you. Other board member discussion on the motion or the substitute motion. DR. Holness MADAM Chair, could the substitute motion be repeated as well as the prior motion? The substitute motion was to table this policy until JANUARY after JANUARY, no sooner than JANUARY 5th,
1922027. The original motion on the floor, I believe, was from MISS Thompson to bring back 169.1 for rural development. Okay, so, MADAM Chair, I do have a concern with the substitute motion. As far as the timeline, I am not sure what the JANUARY date means as far as why the significant delay. And MISS Bruno, if you don't mind, MADAM Chair, in bringing back these policies, what time frame do you need to bring this these back to us? As far as getting answers to your concerns that you mentioned prior? Well, it's really going to be based on what the board's directive is. We would have to do the legal notice again, which is for at least 28 days. And then depending on, you know, what the board wants to do in terms of its timeline, how
193it wants to proceed. Okay. So so, MADAM Chair, I will not be supporting motion based upon the timeline. I think JANUARY is a bit extended, but otherwise the spirit of the motion is is fine, but the timeline is not. Thank you, MR. Cervera. JANUARY 5th, just to address DR. Holness concern was picked because it falls in 2027. If you'd like to propose an alternate date in 2027, I MAY consider it. But in light of where we are with this, I think once I think at the very least, we need at least six months to refocus ourselves, figure out a way to address the litany of concerns within the current version of the policy. So if you have another date in 2027 you'd like to propose, I'm all ears. But JANUARY 5th was just picked because
194that's the first date that the kiddos come back from school within the new calendar year. MADAM Chair. Okay, so MISS Uno,itith t tss timelinss far JANUARY, how will that impact? Because you're bringing to us significant number of policies over a period of time. How will that impact what you're trying to do as far as policy changes and adjustments with Neola? Are you comfortable with JANUARY? Will that have an impact on the objective that you've established in terms of revising these policies and the volume of these policies that we are looking at? And and if JANUARY seems to be a bit extended, do you have a recommendation to the board? Eye for when to bring these board policies back? I don't necessarily have a recommendation. I do know that we have hundreds of policies that we
195have to get through. We have paid 100 for 140 hours. And I asked Neola because it was really 120 hours, and I asked Neola for an additional 20 hours to work with us to get these hundreds of policies through. It's a major project, and it takes a lot of time to look at current compared to the templates, etc. So it's really the pace and whether or not we will meet those obligations is really up to the board. I can bring these policies back whenever you direct me to bring them back. I mean, it's really up to the board. I understand. So so MISS Bruno, I'm trying to understand impact, right. So does pace impact our our financial cost to this? Yes. Because if we don't make those hours we will be paying additional time to
196finish. Okay. So if we cost. Correct. So if we, if we adjust the pace, we're certainly going to adjust the cost, which is not going to be in our favor. Is that correct? Yes. That's true. Okay. So I would so MISS Bruno bringing these back in, say the the upcoming school year in the fall would would that be from your from your opinion, would that be considered a reasonable pace? If we can bring it up in the fall. There are other policies like the ai policies are also going to come in AUGUST. So I can bring those policies in AUGUST and bring these policies back sometime in SEPTEMBER. Okay. So, MADAM Chair, if we're making that change, is this an amendment to the substitute, or do we have to vote on the substitute and then
197propose this change? I believe and correct me if I'm wrong, attorney Dupree Bruno, but you can make a motion to amend the substitute motion. Yes. Okay. So I motion to amend the substitute motion to regarding the timeline to be August. AUGUST. MISS Bruno, do you need a specific. AUGUST 19th, I believe. So we wouldn't have to restart the 28 days and we'd have to legally notice. We'd have to. And I'm thinking that we MAY want two workshops and then one public hearing. Okay, so MISS Bruno, will AUGUST be sufficient or do you need more time? I'm just trying to see how to amend the motion based upon your guidance. AUGUST would be fine or SEPTEMBER. Okay, so I motion. It appears to me that SEPTEMBER might be the best. So I motion to amend the
198substitute to the timeline of SEPTEMBER. What date? 15th is the board meeting on SEPTEMBER. To SEPTEMBER 15th? Yes, sir. Second motion made by DR. Holness. Seconded by MISS Thompson. Public comment on the motion to amend. I know it's not on. That's why my voice is going up. Can someone please make sure the mic for public comment is on? Doctor Natalie Lynch Walsh Plantation, Florida. I do not support this amendment. The reason for the initial motion is to give you time to sort yourselves out so that you're in compliance with your own policies, state law. And just as a side note, because I don't know what you guys are going to bring back the way it is now, unless MRS. Hixon was saying to bring the current policy back as opposed to this fakakta business that
199is being proposed. Section 286.0114 requires members of the public to be given a reasonable opportunity to be heard on a proposition. I have a Florida Bar article that explains how that gets impacted on situations like this, where you amend and change and change. So that's something you guys need to fix. So I do not support this. People will be gone. And again, why are you trying to get the public mad at you right before you vote on a we vote on a referendum. Think think chess, not you. Next speaker. My name is Doctor Trudy Germanovich. I agree with Natalie's heart or I heart. I agree completely with what she just said. I also think you are still missing the point. You need to say, okay, here's a policy that the public's going to be interested
200in. So we won't we will move those. In SEPTEMBER, OCTOBER. I would say OCTOBER would be better than SEPTEMBER. At least you have a month to actually prepare the public. You are not preparing people. If you have to do this, I don't know why you have to do it. I don't know why you can't just wait and do all the other ones. How you have 100 and some to do. Do the other 60 or whatever. 70, however many it takes. Thank you. Zara claims lunches. Deerfield Beach. What's the rush? Just curious. I mean, there's so many policies you guys have on your website. I don't understand, this is why you shouldn't have put them all together. You shouldn't have turned them in. But did the workshop the way you did because now look, now we
201got a back pedal again. And doing it when parents aren't here. And when you don't loop it, like through advisories, the way you're accustomed to doing, you want to change it. It's kind of hard to do that in Broward County, really. The parents just really not going to go for it. Just so you know, referendum doa. Jackie Luscomb I'm not in favor of of SEPTEMBER. I think you have got hundreds of policies you can be working on. I'm still unclear what the haste was with this one, other than stumbling over yourselves or some thinking that it would be an opportunity to diminish public input for the rest of the policy making, I think there needs to be a steep learning curve here, and I hope it's not an expensive one as well. But I don't
202believe that this neola policy conversion, because let's face it, it's not even a review was embarked on with proper foresight and information and informed discussion. I went back on the board meeting you had, where you nodded it through and there wasn't even a second of discussion. And I think now maybe you were dazzled by what looked like a decent platform, but the actual process involved was not hashed out beforehand. And that's where we're stuck now. I would I'd be in favor of sending this back to JANUARY. Hello. Dana Sanders, resident teacher, parent, btu chief of staff. Democracy is messy and it's messy by design. It requires patience. And when controversial or complex issues arise, such as school rezonings, historic budget deficits or massive district restructuring, the community naturally turns out in large numbers, reducing time
203is precisely why more people show up when precisely, more people show up is completely backward. A complex educational issue cannot be effectively summarized in 60s. Squeezing a speakers time forces people to rush through deeply personal stories, often concerning their children's well-being or their own livelihoods. This board should not prioritize time over people. They and alternative methods. I can't with the alternative methods. They're insufficient. We are told that the public can simply send an email or submit a written comment online, and those options are convenient. But let's be real. How many of us have hundreds of emails a day and things get lost, right? And people want the respect of looking you in the face and telling you what they think and how they feel, and for you to say that it's not worth more than
204a minute is it's just disheartening. And, and really, it does only damage public trust at a time when we desperately need to rebuild it. Thank you. Hello, Alan Bushkin again, sunrise, Florida. And gosh darn it, you're making me come up here and speak so much. I just gotta say, I heard something about, you know. Yeah, we've got so many hours to work with. Neola. Okay, I'm going to make a huge assumption here. We know what that does, but you've got 120, 140 hours. I'm assuming that's a bucket. So when you use them, you take them out, you use them, you take them out. You have a balance left. So I don't see if you have that allotment of hours and you use them appropriately, it's going to cost any more. And if that's the case,
205guess what? You've got a whole group of volunteers and public here. And not just quantity. You've got quality minds that'll be more than happy and have helped you with developing these policies over the years. There you go. Thank you. Nicole Morris, Coral Springs I am not in support of this motion. I do think we should not be in a rush to limit public participation. I think that we need to give time to go through looping. I know when we begin our advisory meetings at the beginning of the year, we often do not start having the meat and potatoes until OCTOBER because we don't have our chairs in place and our members in place. So I would say that we wait until we're into the school year so that the public fully understands what's going on
206with these new policies. Thank you. Anna Fusco, our teachers union PRESIDENT. I think the rationale of why it was asked to to move it is to give you guys more time to have fruitful conversation. Whoever's working with you, that group that you guys have decided to pay an outside consultant with to do the job instead of the employees that we have here in Broward County public schools we want to talk about, we're going to start tracking all the wasteful spending that you guys have approved. Pay attention. We're paying attention. You guys want to rush things through that are really important. And then you have a group of people that are making you rush things to keep approving. Again, we're going to be using these terms wasteful spending a lot. We've got elections happening, and we're
207trying to get the community to trust you again so we can get the referendum one. If that referendum doesn't come through, I'm blaming you because you're rushing things and not doing what's right for the community that you say that you are elected to serve and uphold for our students. Pay attention. Thank you. Any other speakers? All right. Board member discussion on the amendment I have, MISS Thompson. Thank you. Chair, I just want to discuss the timeline, because my understanding of DR. Holness motion is that it would start on SEPTEMBER. And then MISS Bruno said that would be two workshops. So truly, the timeline sounds like it's going to be about three months. So then we would be voting on this fully in JANUARY. Is that a correct assumption of the the timeline? So we need
208to legally notice at least 28 days in advance. So if we start sometime in SEPTEMBER, sometime in OCTOBER, NOVEMBER is probably when the policies will come before you for a final vote. Does that account for the recommended two workshops on it? Yes. So if you start like beginning of SEPTEMBER, you'll have two workshops in SEPTEMBER, and then you'll have probably your adoption sometime in OCTOBER, NOVEMBER. I mean, I'm pushing it out by going into NOVEMBER, but really probably OCTOBER or so. Because we typically don't have very many meetings in NOVEMBER. I just, for my understanding, it would still come to a vote around JANUARY, a final vote around JANUARY. If if the board's desire is to bring back these policies. So there's a vote in JANUARY, we can do the calculation to, you know, that'll
209probably be starting in NOVEMBER, going through DECEMBER, parts of JANUARY with a vote sometime in JANUARY, maybe even FEBRUARY. So my, my reason for bringing this up is mainly just so the public understands the timeline and also the amount of workshop and public engagement is going to be during this time. I think when you go past into JANUARY, then you have winter break. Like I think most people stop focusing in NOVEMBER. So if we do it in start the process in SEPTEMBER, then we're voting on it probably that week or so before winter break. If we go to a previous motions recommendation of not starting the process until JANUARY, then we would be voting for it around spring break, more or less. So yeah, that's true. One Thing for the board to consider. I just
210want to make sure that you put this in your calculus. There is going to be other policies that MAY not go smoothly. Like again, ai. We have a whole slew, not just the one ai policy, but we have an acceptable use for students, acceptable use for technology use, social media, etc. Etc. There's a like a packet of almost like 15 to 20 policies, all dealing with ai that has to go through. There's going to be a packet that's dealing with employee discipline, with student discipline, with student programs. I mean, these are substantive policies that a lot of them you currently do not have in your policy book. A lot of them right now, you are probably not in compliance with everything that you're supposed to have with regards to policy. So keep that in the
211back of your mind that we are going to have to move this along, or we will not be able to adopt all of the policies we need to by our deadline of JUNE 30th. We're just not going to be able to do it if we're going to if we if if we're going to go through these processes where, you know, there's going to be all these hiccups, we're looking at passing these policies maybe in three years. I'm being very realistic with you. That's not that's not normally the process. You have a workshop, you have, you know, one on ones with the board members. You go through all their thoughts. You have a workshop where you delve into it more. You make the red lines in the corrections. You have additional one on ones with the
212board members, and then you go to final adoption. And this is a bulk of 30 policies. You're going to have 70 plus policies, some sometimes coming to you at one point. So I just want to point that out because that's very important for you to know. The what we have embarked in is a true labor of love mission that's going to take time. So I think I need to expand on something you said. You said we're not in compliance. Yes. But what does that mean? So there are some policies that, you know, based on statutes that have passed within the past, you know, ten decades or so. And I'm just going by, you know, the ones that I will be familiar that you don't have in your books. There are some policies in your books
213that you haven't touched since 1979, 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010. You know, in my I was responsible for policies in my past life. Every year there was a slew of policies coming to the board to make sure that you are statutorily and compliance. That was my job to make sure you are always in statutory compliance. So I'm looking at your policy books, and I and I know that you embarked on a big project last year to, you know, using a law firm to assist you. And that staff did a lot of work, Herculean work to try to get you there. But that didn't happen. I know that you reviewed policy 1020 last year and you did. There was a lot of this where you did workshop, public hearing, workshop, public hearing, workshop, and you never really,
214you know, finalized it is my understanding. Correct me if I'm wrong because I wasn't there. So I'm just warning the board that we spent $138,000 to hire Neola, which is an expert in this field, to provide us with templates to help us get compliant with the policies. And then at the same token, there's a timeline and there's a number of hours that I have. Once that's expended, we will have to be paying Neola extra. So what are the ramifications of not being in compliance? So if there's a policy that the statute says, you need to have a policy that says this and you don't have it, the Auditor General can come down, say, I want to see your policies that, you know, reflect this particular statute. You don't have that. That's going to be an
215audit finding. You can have a policy that doesn't have the updates that was supposed to have. Auditor general comes down. The Florida Department of Education comes down. Where is where is this policy? Why doesn't it have this additional language? Are you even doing the processes related to that language? You can have a finding. The United States Department of Education can come down and review your policies, because some of these are federal laws. So you have federal laws, statutes, regulations. You have state laws and regulations, and you have case law that comes out every single day. New laws are being created. And it's our responsibility to make sure that our policies are always in compliance. Thank you for expanding on the importance of the timeline and potential ramifications. You did also mention that there were several
216policies that might be as engaging as this one, like our ai policy. And I think employee discipline, knowing now, seeing this experience, would you recommend or put in the timeline that those policies that will get more engagement would get two workshopsirst,o that we dodon't r revisit ts.S. We will certainly review how we're bringing the policies forward. My concern is still I can have five workshops, and if the board does not make a decision, then I'm still back to square one, where I began. So the it's not necessarily the quantity, because I believe the board is very familiar with all the policies, the changes, etc. So it's not really that. It's the it's moving the process along so that we can complete our project within the time that is required. Thank you. And that was just
217a thought process. So thank you for that feedback. And then did you get a response from Neola on if we pull 169.1, if we can move forward with the rest, or do we have to restart everything? The recommendation, the best option that I have right now is just to restart everything. Thank you. Thank you, MR. Cervera. We're going round and round on. On the timing of when this should be brought back and whether it should be this year or next year. I'm going to pose a question to my colleagues as we ultimately decide on on the time frame here, on these substitute motions, are we not listening to what everyone is saying on this? Nobody wants this. This is universally hated. I would challenge anyone on this dais to forward me one email or text
218message that you received from a constituent saying they I'm there in support of this, or they think this is a great idea that we're stifling the free speech rights of people who want to come in here and talk to us. Now, I admit my motion was very reactionary to what MISS Thompson said, because listen to me, it's a win if we can kick this down the road for another six months. But at the end of the day, we have to listen. Nobody wants this. Why are we pushing for this? Because Neola thinks it's a good idea. Pay attention to the people who put you up here. Nobody is in favor of this. We should talk about this in 2032. That's when we really should talk about this. I'm not in support of DR. Holness motion.
219I think at the very least, if we're going to play kick the can, this should be brought to 2027. But again, think of the big picture here. You're making decisions on something that the answer is very clear. Nobody wants this and you shouldn't want it either. Thank you. Thank you, MISS Bulman. Thank you. Thank you for the clarification. And obviously there's a hiccup in the process, which was, you know, taken on in good faith and, you know, listening to the public, listening to the colleagues. I think that there has been and also, you know, like when we originally got it, the idea of the three minutes as the limit was a little difficult, I think, for a lot of people to swallow. So, you know, that it was one part of a very large group
220of policies. So as we revisit this now, though, having. Listened and reflected on how the, you know, how we want to move forward, I don't I don't agree that we need to stop the process because we want to make a change in one portion of the policy, and particularly for out of compliance with a lot of other things, and particularly if we have ai, which is coming, whether we want it or not, we need to have those policies. So I, I disagree that nobody wants this. I think nobody wants the limitation. The speakers here particularly don't want the limitations on the public speaking. I don't disagree with that. I think that there needs to be revisions to that policy, obviously, but going forward, it's our responsibility to make sure that we're in compliance and that
221we're moving forward with the with the process. And I personally think that the neola process is responsible in general, because we have all the support and we're not just trying, you know, like trying to make it up as we go along. This is a true tried and trusted process. And we obviously have some considerations where we would take a broad approach versus a statewide approach. And I think, you know, we've had a robust conversation about that today as well. So I, I support moving this forward, taking into consideration the feedback that we're getting about the public speaking, but I don't see why we would have to stop everything until 2027 because of because of the one thing I think we can address that as we're going to address everything else and just continue to move
222forward. Is there any issue that you see with with that? And I guess if we have to stop this book of policies, we would really just be bringing this one policy back to to discuss, because we've essentially decided already what we want to do with the rest of them. The issue is that they're intertwined with 1020. So you don't want to have two policies that are competing in nature. No. And I and I understand that, but when we go back, it will it really take that much time to, if we schedule to to address this packet, we're really going to be looking at the one thing that we haven't been able to agree on yet that we need to change. How does that look if we're if we're doing that, does that put us behind
223with all of the rest of the policies, or is that something that can we bring those at the same time? So like I said, we can bring like ai has to come forward. The, the plan was to bring your next set of board policies forward. We have. There's so many. Normally you would start with the board policies first because the board. When I say the board policies that used to be the bylaws, you would start with that first because that's the operating part of the policies, and then you would move to the other chapters. But there are so many other policies we can bring them. The only thing is that I foresee that this is probably not going to be the first hiccup. So the board just needs to help flag those, if you will,
224and really figure out how it's going to deal, because I can I can already tell you the ai is probably going to be a policy that's going to have a lot of public feedback and, you know, and your employee discipline, I mean, there's just, I, there's policies that are coming that are that's going to happen. Right? And so I think like the ai policy is pressing because it's something that's happening whether or not we like it. So we really need to be on top of that. So I don't want to delay addressing things so that we're not being responsible and having a policy in place. As quickly as possible. So I guess the question I'm just asking, can we move this forward and still continue on the track of moving? If we determine that the
225ai policy is the most important that we need to address immediately? But, you know, for the beginning of the school year. I'm not sure what you say, but what you mean by move this forward. If we're if we're if we're still if we, you know, have another two workshops on the current group of policies that we have before us today, are we able to also move the another group of policies forward, or are we going to have to wait until we get through this and delay ourselves months before we start to address like the ai policy while school starting and we have pressing ai concerns that we need to. So address. You can you can bring whatever groups of policies you want forward. We certainly can do that. Just bear in mind that capacity. So
226you're going to be dealing with 30 something, even though you've kind of gone through most of them, but you still have 30 something policies, the ai related policies and the ai policy, that's probably going to be another 15 to 20 policies. You have some you just have different batches that are going to be coming. So your volume is going to increase. So instead of looking at 30, you're going to be looking at 60, 70, 100. And that's going to happen at some point anyhow. You're going to have bigger batches. But we can do whatever the board directs us to do. We're willing to do that. I mean, for me, I think we move this along because I think we have heard from the public and we know, you know, I know what I want to
227do with that. And then we continue to move along with the next set as well. That's my opinion. Thank you, MISS Rupert. Thank you. Just a quick question. What specifically is out of compliance with 1020? 1020 is not necessarily a compliance issue there. There are other policies that are. Com you're out of compliance or are missing in your policy book 1020 has some things. For example, the agenda item we were changing how agenda items are placed, you know, versus the double o and the single. So we have one in the beginning. So there are different things in terms of more. And that's what I was saying. Most of the time you bring your board related policies, your board functioning, your governance policies first, and that sets the tone for the rest of the policies to
228come forward, because those policies are your operational governing policies on how you actually conduct your business, if that makes sense. It does. I think what would help is if you could at some time give us a, a list of those compliance issues per policies, you know, as an asterisk, I know that we've kind of had a sequence of how they're coming along. And just to make sure that this sequence is really focused on what's out of compliance, because I, you know, we don't want to be out of compliance, but we also don't want to be forced into a position of moving forward with something just because we're trying to hit a deadline. So I, for me, it would be helpful to have that list of those initial things that we need to do for compliance,
229for whatever items they are for what policy. Okay. Thank you. I'd appreciate that. Thank you. DR. Holness thank you, MADAM Chair. So, you know, certainly every delay is a cost with the SEPTEMBER 15th date, as mentioned, this will be voted on likely in NOVEMBER. And this batch of policy is just the tip of the iceberg. There is a whole lot more coming. And, you know, efficiency is contingent on our pace in with these policies which impact our cost. So as MISS Bruno mentioned, this could take now three years if we don't keep up with our pace in which will be that would be three times the cost, MISS Bruno, wouldn't it? It will definitely add significant cost to the. It would add significant cost. Right. So we did hear the public's input as far as
230the the median, the public comment timing. I believe moving forward at a good pace is important because it's going to end up costing us a whole lot of money with all of these policies. So I don't really see, you know, why we would need to go into next year. I think if we if the process starts SEPTEMBER 15th, the vote takes place NOVEMBER, we would be on a good pace without having to pay more to Neola. And it doesn't mean it negates the public's comments today because certainly we hear the public comments today. I believe other board members MAY have additional suggested changes that MAY be outside of what we discussed today. So I don't see why we need to delay this to 2027, knowing for sure this is going to cost us more money,
231knowing for sure that this could extend us into multiple years and we don't have money, you know, so I, I'm encouraging the board because I don't really see the impact negatively starting SEPTEMBER 15th voting in NOVEMBER as opposed to starting in JANUARY, the impact is going to be cost. And we should try to avert that by moving ahead at a good pace. So I hope the board will support it. Thank you, MRS. Alhadeff. So the board often gets faulted for kicking the can down the road. And the board years ago was possibly going to do neola and decided not to. And they decided. We decided to go in a different direction. And now we are here today with Neola. And so this process is is important and it obviously we have a timing. One of
232the things general Counsel. That is a huge red flag for me today is that you're telling us that we are not in compliance with certain policies. So to me, I don't know if that's all these policies here today. If there's 100 policies still in the pipeline that we're not in compliance of, what I would ask the board is that we ask general counsel that whatever those policies are, that we're not in compliance with, that they are a top priority to be approved by this board statute. It should have been today. And again, I don't know how many that is, but I would like a board follow up to know exactly what the policies are that we're not in compliance with and, and the names and numbers. And then when they're going to be brought forward
233to us, the problem we have today, and I'm not processing, MR. Bruno, why we can't vote on all the policies except for one policy on public participation. Why does that one policy hold us back? It's the way the rulemaking process is designed. Pursuant to Florida Statute 120.54. Basically, when you it's the same thing we were talking about earlier in terms of technical changes and substantive changes. When you in order to move the other policies, there's some of those policies that are also embedded in your current 1020 policy, such as agenda, for example. That's one. So in order to move forward with your new agenda policy, you have to sunset 1020 that contains your current agenda policy. And that's why we are not able to because we can't sunset the entire policy. So we'll have to
234go through that rulemaking process again. And then going back to your other request, because I just want to be very transparent. I am not going to be able to go through the 600 neola policies that we have, and compare it to your 286 policies to make a determination completely as to what is not in compliance. There's no way I'm doing it by sections. I'm trying to go as quickly as I possibly can, but that's that's a large task and I can't do all of it at the same time. And then review all of the Florida and the United States regulations and statutes. I have to do it step by step by step. I'll try to do the fires like I know ai is a fire. We have decorum. Audience members. If you need to have
235a conversation, please step out so we can hear the discussion. I'll try to do it step by step and try to get the fires as much as possible in front of the board. And then as I shared prior, the neoliberal process is to go through chapters one at a time. So right now we were going through chapter 0000, and then we will go through the other chapters. They don't necessarily piecemeal policies to target this or target that you have to go through their process. So maybe this comment might be pertinent to the agenda today. Someone's item. But why can't we use ai to cross-reference these policies with compliance and state statute? Very good question. So I had that conversation, believe it or not, with Neola yesterday, and they told me that we have a contract.
236Their templates are copy written. And in the contract, it specifically says that you cannot put their policies into a what is it, large language model that we'll be able to get their their content and train their company? I just had that conversation with them yesterday evening. So we are not allowed to do that. Okay. So on page 35 of 92, policy 0169.1 is that the only policy that is having issues today? The. 0169.1 the public participation. That's my understanding. Okay. Then I would recommend to the board that we look at this policy today. Go back, change it back to what it was previously, if that's or if there's parts of it that we can move forward with. And let's move forward. Let's move on because we're just kicking the can down the road. And, and
237this board is often faulted for not taking action. So let's take action today. We have already spent hours on this. Please don't call out from the audience. MISS Hixon. I just had a quick question on timing. SEPTEMBER 15th is the actual board meeting. And you said that these would come to workshops. So can this item be brought back if it's going to be brought back on the 15th, or do we need to pick a different date because that's a regular school board meeting. So if we target SEPTEMBER 15th for the final adoption, then I'll have to work with the administration to figure out the dates for the workshop. I don't think I think the idea was to to the first time it's coming back to be SEPTEMBER. So SEPTEMBER 15th. Yeah. So that's a regular
238school board meeting, not a workshop. Okay. So we can pick another date and we have specific neola workshop dates, but I'm going to have to add a second one. Okay? Only because the item that's on the floor says SEPTEMBER 15th. So I just wanted the maker of the motion. Right, MADAM Chair. So the SEPTEMBER 15th was provided as a date based upon staff input that that would have been the first meeting. The assumption is it was a workshop. So the first workshop in SEPTEMBER would be fine. Okay. So you want to a and yoyo motion. anan I I get a a deeor t the fifirst rkrkshop in SEPTEMBER? The first workshop in September is SEPTEMBER 8th. Okay. So the motion is amended to the first workshop in SEPTEMBER, which is SEPTEMBER 8th. Thank you. We
239need a second. Second. Okay. So besides the amendment, MISS Alhadeff made a good point and just asked the the general counsel, because that was kind of what I was asking before. If we just said for the new policy. 1.06 what I mean, 0.162.1 I think it is that instead of what's here, we just want to put what is in 1020 there. Would that also require us to to go to the new part? I mean that would be a whole new motion. I think we have to dispose of these. But I just want to know if that's a new motion that comes forward. We would just be able to do that. Like notice it 28 days and then just vote on it that way. So if you want to keep your current 1020 policy as is,
240there's nothing that you need to do. You don't have to bring it back. You can just keep. 1020 okay, so that would be a motion that we would need to to make. I don't know, we can't have too many motions on the floor. So I'm just asking what the protocol would be. MR. Bruno I have a question about that. So if we just keep 1020 as it is, that means that all of the other changes and all the other policies also don't. We just don't convert to the new policies then, right? For anything related to 1020. MISS Thompson. I would like to call the question on DR. Holness motion to move this to a rural development workshop on whatever day in SEPTEMBER, SEPTEMBER 8th. Second. All in favor of calling the question say aye. Aye.
241All opposed? Say no. Motion passes. All in favor of DR. Holness motion, say aye. Aye. All opposed? Say no. No. Roll call, please. Roll call on the motion. School board members. Bowman. Yes. Cervera. No way! Hixon. Yes. Honis. Yes. Leonardi. Yes. Rupert. Thompson. I'm sorry. Can you speak into your mix, please? Zeman it past. Is he on the line? DR. Zeman. I see you're on the line, but you're muted. I apologize John. Yes. Alhadeff no passes. Six three. All right, MISS Dupree. Bruno, does that dispose of the the item then, since we're going to restart rural development. Yes. So just officially Doctor Hepburn, if you want to just pull that item make sure it's clear. Yes. I want to pull item 56 from the agenda. Okay. We will now. Chair DR. Zeman. I might have
242heard things wrong, but I don't think so. I think we just voted on calling the question. Right. We've voted on calling the question, and then we voted on the motion. So you got both in. Thank you chair. All right. Okay. I will now recess the meeting. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Could I get a motion and a second on item 65? Second. Moved by MISS Thompson, seconded by MRS. Alhadeff. Public comment on item 65. I have 13 speakers signed up, so I'll read five names at a time. If you could approach the mic or approach the podium when you hear your name. Brooke, Anna Fusco, doctor Natalie Lynch, Walsh. Chavez and McNabb. Zaira climbs. Lynch's. Hello. Zaira climbs Lynch's MADAM Chair, superintendent, and school board members. I'm here to speak in strong support of
243board member Sava's proposal to place an immediate pause in the district wide implementation of Magic School ai. This isn't about being anti-technology, it's about protecting our students, teachers, and our taxpayers. As detailed in the document, we cannot afford a full scale rollout without clear answers on student privacy, data security, and the true fiscal cost to this district. Trust is built on transparency and not on rushing unvetted platforms into our classrooms. We need to hit the pause button until the district district addresses three critical areas student security and parent rights. We must have an ironclad cyber security assessment. Parents deserve complete transparency regarding what data is collected and explicit rights to review or opt out. Equity and accessibility. We must evaluate and how this platform impacts our most vulnerable learners, including Esq and Esol students. Artificial
244intelligence must never replace the highly specialized, human centered instruction these students require. Teacher autonomy ai should never be an option of optional support tool. We must ensure it does not undermine or replace a teacher's professional judgment. Classroom autonomy and lesson design. Let's not fast track a trend just to be number one at the expense of our children's privacy and our educators autonomy. Please vote yes on this item. Let's pause, investigate, hold public workshops and forums, and put the necessary place guard safeguards in place first. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Doctor. Natalie. Lynch. Walsh Plantation, Florida. I don't know why I thought this item was going to come much earlier in the day. So I support the item strongly. And before the district embarks in ai, you need to look again at policy 6313, which
245governs research and program evaluation studies. I don't know if anyone on the ai task force is aware of this policy. I suspect not, since staff did not include the policy anywhere in the item from I think last week. But you need to become. This addresses a lot of MR. Cervera concerns about things like informed consent. You cannot implement ai without the parents knowing, and I don't mean sending them something to tell them what you've already done to their kids. It's that they have to consent before it happens. So I support it because you need to pause and really, really, really do due diligence on ai and any other, whether it be policy, ai or anything else. Due diligence m mters. Some ththe's it's n nerer faster, is neverr cheheaperand it's never beerer s So Iupupporthehe
246im.M. Thk yoyou. Thank you. Next speaker. All right. I'll call the next five speakers. Allen Bushkin, Dana Sanders, Jackie Luscomb, Doctor Trudy Germanovich, and Jennifer Dubbin. So if you heard your name, please approach the podium. Good afternoon, Alan Bushkin sunrise. I am in full support of MR. Tzavaras proposal to put this on pause. I think first and foremost, I think we've been reminded by the general counsel that there are still a number of policies that don't exist yet regarding ai. Looking at the presentation, I think at one of my committee reports, I also asked you all some metrics. I did not see anything inside that presentation that was demonstrable. What has been shown to you guys that prove to you that ai is safe? Have you tried to break any of those tools? Have you
247tried to break through the guardrails? Has any of that been done? Has any of this been broken down by grade band? As far as what's appropriate or k through three, three, four, and five? Are middle schoolers or high schoolers. What has been deemed appropriate for them? How is that going to be used in the classroom? These are all important considerations that need to be taken. I don't know how else to say that. This needs to be thought through very carefully. I've spoken to a few teachers and they said, yeah, we've gotten some training on how to use ai during the last ten minutes of a meeting. How was that useful? How was that valid? How many other training sessions have happened like that? Do you guys know of any training sessions that have occurred? What
248was delivered in those to our faculty that are supposed to be using these tools in teaching our students? These are questions that y'all need to ask, and y'all need to get answered. Thank you. Thank you Jackie. Debbie Hixon said earlier that we rarely come or you wish we would come to the microphone more and talk about things we like. So I'm going to talk about something I like, and it's the ai initiative with with caveats. I totally share and or understand the concerns from folks who have concerns about it. I support this motion in that I think it could help lay to rest some concerns and struure the forward path more visibly for the public. I think you need to set a time scale and set an urgent one. I think instead of faffing around
249for hours over policies about dodging public input, you could have been using that time more fruitfully for having making a start on setting a pathway for policy making for the ai policy, which is crucial, and getting that on a fast track could have helped preempt some of the concerns that are out there. I'm not diminishing anybody's concerns. Everybody has legitimate right to to be to be fearful, to be probing, to be asking questions and to be making these incisive comments. So I'm not dissing on that. I just feel that if some of those questions had been taken with urgency and responded to have a web page, have a manual, have a report, all the things that I've tried to suggest at Technology Advisory, use your technology advisory, have webinars, have parent demonstrations online where they
250can see a cursor moving across the page, what it is their kids are going to be provided access to the. What I've seen I love have demonstrations, take it around. All the advisories, show us the training plans, show us the capabilities, have a q and a on the website, and a plan for communication and parent outreach. And really as well, getting on top of the myths, I think of the four big asks in MR. Cervera report, where he talks about the need to ensure that student data is protected, that teachers remain in control of instruction, that inappropriate and harmful content is effectively blocked, and the implementation won't undermine student learning, critical thinking or sound education staff could answer those right now. Let's make a start on answering those rather than just saying, well, let's let's
251make a plan to make a report to do this and that. Let's start writing that down. Let's start getting it on a web page, busting myths showing people what some of the realities are so that the concerns can be boiled down to what still is a legitimate problem and an issue that needs to be hopped over, got around, guaranteed and secured and what's not. Thank you. Hello, Chris Nelson, I'm from Fort Lauderdale, and I'm very glad that board member Cervera brought this up, because there's been a lot of times when the district has been very excited about a new trend, and it turned out to be a bust and a real problem. If you all remember Ft by any chance. But it's great to take a look at this and see really what we're doing.
252First, I want to bring up our state is currently in litigation with Chatgpt and its founder, Sam Altman, for engaging in deceptive practices, prioritizing profits over public safety, and ignoring internal warnings regarding the risk ai poses to minors. There's a probe into whether Openai shared responsibility for the APRIL 2025 Florida State University mass shooting, where chat logs revealed the alleged gunman used Chatgpt kids. These loaners are not only hitting these weed pens that they can get at any of these vape shops, they're sitting there with Chatgpt and treating it like a therapist, and in some cases, it's advised them to kill themselves and then they've done it. I mean, you got to think like, does this does ai really mean good all the time? It's really garbage in, garbage out. And we've all seen the
253movies. I mean, it kind of it's it's not necessarily it's not necessarily going to have a conscience. Okay. So you need to look at that and then. Secondly, with you got there's now this push for ai charter schools, okay, you know, you're having your financial difficulties. Now imagine no schools, no brick and mortar, no teachers. Children are being taught via screen or via those ai goggles by an ai teacher and not even going to school. This is what is being proposed for the future of teaching in Chicago. They're now opening their first ai charter school, and these are coming to Florida. So this is something really to look at. Remember how much everybody loved the the not having in-person learning in 2020? The 2021 well school serves another purpose to socialize people, to do athletic
254training, to sports, music. These things are all very important and would be possibly cut completely out of the loop. So before you dive into this and embrace it, you really need to look at this and look at where this is going and really set up some boundaries for how you want the district to proceed with ai going forward. Thank you. Hello, my name is Jennifer Devon. I'm a Coral Springs resident, a parent of a second grader, and I'm here to support the pause on the Magic School ai. First, I want to express my immense gratitude to MR. Cervera. MISS Leonardi this Thompson, MISS Hixon, MRS. And MISS Rupert, thank you for taking the time to engage in these critical conversations about educational technology and generative ai at bcc. You've been incredibly generous with your time
255listening to passionate parent who loves what technology can do, but firmly believes our children must be allowed to form foundational cognitive skills. Before we introduce generative automation, I'm looking forward to having more open, meaningful conversations with the rest of the rest of this board. None of us can predict the exact future of work, but we can all agree we want our children to have the skills of the future. Paradoxically, as we look, as we break more technological boundaries, the premium on raw human capability is skyrocketing. There is an increasing importance on solid analog foundations. The future doesn't require children who know how to prompt ai. It requires adults with cognitive endurance, critical thinking, and analog problem solving skills that no machine learning model can simulate from a cognitive developmental standpoint. Ai inter ai interface cannot
256build neural pathways. In fact, outsourcing the fundamental struggle of writing, calculating, analyzing to an algorithm actively prevents those pathways from forming in a developing brain. For too long, the edtech industry has preyed on institutional anxieties regarding academic and professional preparedness. They commercialize student data and addict administrators to superficial dashboard metrics under the guise of predictive success. Meanwhile, public tax dollars are continuously siphoned away to private entities. Every dollar spends or is donated or not on unproven generative ai or EdTech licenses is a dollar we steal from proven interventions, such as reducing class sizes and ensuring our teacher salaries keep up with the pace of the cost of living. Research studies consistently show human led small classroom environments, not software interfaces, are what drive true academic achievement. I urge this board to pass this item to
257pause the magical ai implementation bk and let us apply a critical, data driven eye to how we allocate our limited resources, ensuring we prioritize our students cognitive safety, data privacy, and genuine academic success. Thank you. Awesome. Thanks. Hello. Hello, everybody. Dana Sanders, Davie, Florida. Yes. Pause. Ai. Absolutely. In fact, get rid of a lot of it that we have. We don't need more technology in I ai in our classrooms. We're flooding schools with software. Yet student performance continues to decline. Educational research shows that every hour student spends on a school device, 38 minutes are completely lost to off task behavior. More and more studies are showing the correlation between an increase in technology and a decrease in student learning. More importantly, let's look at our financial reality. Broward County Public Schools is facing a massive
2588090. I don't know how many million budget deficit the board just voted to cut 1000 jobs, including vital school social counselors, support staff. If this district is in such severe stress, then why are we forcing that? We are forcing layoffs? Why on earth are we spending taxpayer money on expensive tech contracts and software licenses? Yes, I know that there is a grant for this one for what, a year or two? Who cares? Because what's going to have to happen after that? It's millions of dollars. And you know what else is going to happen? New ai is going to come out, and then we're going to have to keep up and buy that one. It's never going to end. Do you want to know what we do need? Teachers, experienced, dedicated teachers to teach students a
259chat box cannot inspire a struggling child, manage a classroom or provide emotional support. Software cannot replace a teacher. True learning requires human connection, direct instruction and trusted mentors stop funding tech programs. Start investing in people. The people who are actually in charge of shaping our youth. My kids. Your kids. We don't need technology. If it was that easy, everyone would be at home with ar or whatever, and we wouldn't need teachers at all. And teacher's job is to teach. That's literally our job. But we have to be there. You know what we need more of? Paper, books, reading material that they can underline in actual pencils and paper that they could write things on, not more computer programs, computerized tests, ai, this and that. You need to focus on what's important. And that's teachers. And
260I know that you say most of your budget is spent on people. You know what? Your whole budget should be spent on people. If it's not adequate, but it definitely shouldn't be spent on extra ai programs. Thank you. My name is Doctor Trudy Germanovich, and I'm a bit conflicted on this one. I'm 80 and I love ai. I want you to think about this. We really can't go backwards. And I really appreciate you bringing this item so we can discuss this. I also was taking a look at the student representative here, and she looked kind of bewildered because she showed us what high school kids are already doing. What's lacking here is a plan. And that seems to be something that happens in this district all the time. So a pause, I wouldn't call it.
261I would call it preparing to to implement or something like that, because there are pockets out there that are doing this already in the schools, and they're probably doing a great job. Why are you not hiring teachers this summer to write a good scope and sequence curriculum? I'm sure there's out those out there that you can use to develop this. Why didn't you hire teachers this summer? You still have time. You have a whole month. You will find teachers that need the money. I think also, again, you're doing things backward like you did this morning. Why wasn't the ai policy being the first one we when we got that grant, why wasn't that the first policy you addressed? That was the one that needed to be done. So work on that. I know it's coming,
262but I don't know how quickly. So I would set this up so that the schools that want to use it can be the, quote, pilot sites, but let it be a decision of the teachers in the school and the sac Committee have it go through the parents and the teachers and let them be your pilots. Thank you. Hi, everyone. Employee and. btu representative. I wanted to talk to you about why. Why is it that in Broward County schools we are flying a plane while we're building it? Why? Why do we keep making mistakes that hurt our educators and most importantly, our students? Why are we not doing our due diligence to begin with? You know, this policy, if passed, will directly affect our teachers and our students. I encourage all of you to look at
263the aft guardrails. You simply have to Google aft guardrails. It will come up with a list of guardrails that teachers and students and organizations, such as our school district should be following. If you look at the policy that you are trying to pass that MR. Cervera is against, it violates every single standard in the aft guardrails. I want you to look at it very carefully. In particular, the student data privacy, cybersecurity, and vendor risk. I've been here long enough to know that when a few years ago, not a few years ago, about six years ago, when we had a data breach, it wasn't only my data that was breached, but because my children are on my insurance, their data was breached too. And so I take this very, very seriously. This company has not been
264completely vetted by the school district. It is extremely important that it is vetted and has everything legitimized. And our student data, along with our teacher data, is protected. It is a huge concern. Finally, if you look at any ai tool, it is updated on a monthly basis. Magic school is no different. But you know what is different? Copilot. Copilot that we already have. Copilot that has a lesson plan section. An agent for our teachers to use. Copilot that we already own the sources for that that we are already paying for. So we do not need to implement something new when it's already there. You know why teachers aren't using it? Because they are not trained on it. It was something that was pushed down their throats and said, here, use it. They're not trained. Not
265every single teacher in the school district was legitimately trained. It is extremely important that if you ask an educator to even voluntarily use a new product, that you legitimately train them to use it efficiently. Because at the end of the day, it's not your lives that's in jeopardy. It's our students education. Therefore, the future of the state and the nation. So please make wise decisions. Thank you. Hello. Greetings. Devin Lee. For our county residents, I would just like to encourage everyone to consider pausing ai until you find out more information and truly understand what you're getting into. It's very important that you have the proper guardrails and truly understand what ai is. Ai is not smart. It's a machine. And what it does, it can literally take all of the information and pick out what
266you want. And that can be a good thing. And it could be a bad thing. It skims the internet. Someone can go on the internet and use their ai to look for something, and it could have a variety of sources, some legitimate sources, and some unsavory. We do not want students getting their information for papers and research from Sallie Mae's blog page, thinking that is a fact when it is only an opinion. So we need to make sure that t tyy knkn what isis what.T. Theyeed toto be ablble to bebe resnsibible to use I and not just getting on ai because they didn't do their homework last night and they have a paper due. So they go into Chatgpt and have Chatgpt write their paper. And, you know, this is already happening now because I
267have seen some essays from young people and have actually read them. And when I have read them, I stated to myself, this child does not speak this way. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that they would honestly write this way. Most people write in the manner that they speak and true, you can switch it up, but when you have vocabulary words that you do not use and probably do not even know how to spell, the chances are very slim. Many children will take advantage of this, and then they're going to have your educator so bogged down with all of the work that they have to do and get done, will they be able to really put their eyes on it to see if that child's work is legitimately theirs, and that ai did not do it
268for them? There are many things that need to be looked into when it comes to ai. It can do some wonderful things, but you have to have the guardrails in place not only for yourselves but for the young people, because it does more harm than good. When you put something in place which they are not ready for, because you will then have a group of students going through school and they are not able to accomplish anything. You already know young people who lose their mind when their cell phone goes off. Thank you. And there are some additional speakers I have not had a chance to call yet. Lisa Reyes, Heather Vasquez, and Nicole Morris. Lisa Reese from parkland, Florida, former educator with a master's in educational technology. And I have two children in bc. I
269support the pause on the ai implementation. At this point, there is a saying measure twice, cut once. I believe we need to take that same approach with ai. The implementation in our schools before rolling out such a powerful tool, especially one that will be directly affect our students. We need to ensure appropriate safeguards. Checks and balances are fully in place moving forward. Despite a reported 31% failure rate in identifying inappropriate content would be irresponsible. It would also be irresponsible to proceed without meaningful input from the people who will be most affected by this decision. The teachers, the parents and students, including elementary age students, our children's mental health, cognitive development and academic success are far more important than being recognized as one of the first districts to implement ai on a large scale, bcc should
270use this as an opportunity to observe and learn from other districts and organizations that have further along in the ai implementation, we continue to hear stories of ai being promoted as a revolutionary solution, only for significant problems to emerge later. We are also seeing a growing number of lawsuits and concerns related to ai's impact on mental health and well-being. Rather than pushing forward, bcc should evaluate real world evidence, learn from the successes and failures of others, and focus on strengthening the work already underway. Implementing evidence based curriculum with fidelity, and providing teachers with consistent, ongoing professional development on the programs and instructional tools already being used in our classrooms. We are not asking for ai to be rejected outright. We are asking for a pause so the district can carefully evaluate the full impact ai
271MAY have in the classrooms, including the additional monitoring responsibilities placed on teachers, the potential reduction in academic rigor, and the shift away from proven educational practices. Before moving forward, we should ensure that the benefits clearly outweigh the risks and that the people most affected by this decision have been fully heard. I'd like to end with a quote from a show called hacks. This is why I hate it. The force, inevitable inevitability. People like you are always saying it's happening whether you like it or not, but you're the ones making it happen and you could easily stop it if people could say that they didn't want it. But you don't want to give people a choice. Thank you for your time. Good afternoon. My name is Heather Velasquez from Davie. I am here to support MR.
272Cervera pause on Magic School ai. I also would like to throw in. I haven't really heard anybody talk about Khan Academy, which also has a chatbot feature, and I think it's important that we all pause and take a look at that as well. I don't think that this should simply be focused on Magic School, but the ai push as a whole. I understand that there are some great tools within these resources and that our kids are using them already. I am an elementary parent. My my child isn't using anything with ai, and when I spoke last week, I expressed a lot of concern about having the ability for the young children to have the ability to develop the rigor, the cognitive, you know, foundation and keeping things a little bit more analog. I agree with
273a lot of the things that the previous speakers have said. And one of the questions I had last week was accountability. MR. Cervera added that today I would like to know who is ensuring that our teachers are properly trained and what that looks like for them, and how we're going to not load more onto their plate to simply pay attention to the kids, to what they're doing on computers, rather than engaging with our students. Because we do know that human contact, human led education is is strong. So thank you for bringing this today. And again, I ask that you all take a look at the ai as a whole, not just magic school, and create a clear implementation plan. Communicate with the community what it's going to look like. And let's be proactive and not
274reactive because this is happening as a reaction to last week's workshop and a plan that the community knows nothing about. Our kids are going to start school in AUGUST, and then we're going to find out into the school year that these things are happening. Unfortunately, not all parents take the time or have the knowledge on how to pay attention to what's happening in our district, and I'm grateful for all the people that are here that do take the time to share the information that they learn far and wide, to help us all be as informed as we can be as stakeholders in our community. So again, thank you. Hello, Nicole Morris, Coral Springs. So I, I agree with Doctor Germanovich. I know that ai is the way of the future. And I personally think it
275can be beneficial in our schools, especially in our high schools. However, I will say I, I chaired the North Area advisory this year and overwhelmingly the theme for this year was the parents. The parents. They were displeased with the amount of technology and ai that we were using in the classrooms. We had an item come where we received 100 plus messages from teachers in private messages from teachers. We haven't heard that much public feedback since clear backpacks. So they were upset with the amount of technology the. The teachers felt they did not have autonomy in their classrooms. The parents felt that their kids are not learning valuable critical thinking skills because they are reliant on ai and technology. And so I would say that especially with a 30% fail rate on safeguards, I would think
276we need to pause and take another look at this. I support MISS Leonardi's recommendations for child friendly procurement guidelines and ai Student Council creating an ai student council. So the students living with these tools every day have a real voice on ai in schools. Monthly updates on ai, and keeping the parents informed. I think we need to remember that the parents are the customer and right now they are not happy with the overuse of technology and ai in in our schools. And when they're looking for charter schools and private schools, those are the things that they're looking to reduce. So I would agree with MR. Cervera today that we need to pause this. Thank you. Yeah, yeah. Good afternoon. My name is Keisha Glover, educator. I've been with the district 20 something years, and I
277took the Magic School training two weeks ago, and it was rolled out as if it would if it could be something that would benefit educators. But as a seasoned educator, I am concerned with inaccurate information. It just seemed like it was just forced on us too much, too soon. Not, I don't know, not enough time to investigate. I don't know who's monitoring. It's still going to be more work because even though it MAY seem like it's a convenience for us to use for lesson plans or whatever, but again, as a seasoned professional, there are some things in there that are possibly inaccurate. I don't know when you take shortcuts, sometimes you get cut short. So those are my concerns about it and the time. I mean, are we going to be forced to, you know,
278use it or I'm sure it's costing the district and it's not free. So here we go again. Money issues. So I don't know. I think you guys need to sit back and and do some more research on this. Thank you. Thank you. And I'll just call the names of the speakers. We did not hear from who signed up to speak. Brooke, 40, and Anna Fusco. So Anna Fusco, our teachers union PRESIDENT, I stand On the position that this needs to be paused. This is another program being pushed through without any type of real research and accountability of what it can do. You've heard from various people that have taken their time to come in, from the educator to the parent, to the person, which is everybody that represents Broward County public schools. Now, you don't
279have what you guys might think. Well, there's only a few. It doesn't matter. You got to get off of that kick. It doesn't matter if they're not in this room. And I can't bring in a thousand people or they can't bring in 2000 people. You have to understand that you are being live streamed every minute of this meeting through your own portals of beacon. You're being live streamed through my Facebook, through the Broward Teachers Union, Facebook, through other community members, Facebook. So it is being watched across the state and across the country. I came from a conference, people from all over Florida, said Fusco. We watch your Broward school meetings. We watch you stand there and try to have not always would say diplomatic ways of getting it through to you guys, but my version
280is great and it is very effective that. Why do they continue to ignore when it's Captain Obvious? So I'm asking you to pause on this piece right now. The money has been donated. Give it back if we have to. Whatever. It's no different. When science of reading came down the pike, shoved down our throats, forced everybody to take this training that everybody said that we're experienced, seasoned teachers. It was just another waste of time that we actually could have done right in our schools, with our own educators, but being forced to. If you taught at Hollywood Hills, you had to drive out to Tequesta Trace to take a training. So things like that, you put people at risk on driving during the day, taking away from their students and adding more to their plates when
281there's not anything taken off. Let me make this clear. There are things that are put in here that is going to violate our bargaining contract. It is a law. I need you teachers up there that are elected board members. This piece in this agenda that is mentioned, the word mandatory and not proper training. You're putting teacher certificates at risk when you put them in front of a group of students to do some type of programing that wasn't vetted properly, or they were trained properly, and I'm not going to stand for it anymore. And then you guys say, I didn't know. Oh, well, the process has to happen with an investigation. You're not going to continue to put teacher certificates at at risk, because you guys have people that don't want to shove things down your
282throat. Again, asking you to pause on this. It is not a rush. And you got to stop using the words mandatory. You know what's mandatory? Your educators need an increase in their salary so they could survive to live here and not have to have three jobs to come to school to teach the students what's mandatory is that our students get educated by the teacher and not by a computer program. Save lives. Pause this. Next speaker. Any other speakers? Okay, I just briefly want to thank my colleague for bringing this item to codify in the form of an official vote. Much of what we discussed and gained consensus on last week, and I spoke to many of these concerns last week and was asked to wait to bring these motions forward. So I'm glad to co-sponsor
283them today. Doctor Hepburn. Yes, thank you, MADAM Chair. If I MAY 1st, before I move on about the actual item, usually don't correct the record, but I feel the need to correct the record on this. From what I heard from a speaker about our student performance or student achievement declining our student performance, student achievement. One thing we get right here is our core business, which is educating kids. And our teachers and school based personnel are doing an amazing job of doing that, especially the past two, 2 or 3 years. And our student achievement is steadily declining, inclining or increasing, and breaking records for Broward County Public schools. So I want to put that on the record. Also, MADAM Chair and the board, we have myself especially, and my staff. We have no objections to the
284actual item that MR. Cervera and MISS Leonardi has brought to the board today. As MISS Leonardi just stated, these were many of the recommendations that the board came to consensus about last week. In order to ensure we're moving forward in the right way, being very responsible and ethical about our implementation for students, use of any ai tool that we bring forward for implementation in the in the classroom. It's been a very intentional and methodical process in rolling this out. This many of this started in AUGUST of actually this school year, earlier, AUGUST 2025 with ai task force and a lot of action steps in between that. That led to the ultimate workshop to continue to get feedback from the board and from the public. And as I said last week, that's where the workshop is
285for to present information to the board and to the public so we can get feedback to make sure we get this right when we actually do our full on implementation. So we have no objections at all to the actual item. We welcome the feedback, we welcome the concerns. We welcome the challenges. We welcome any additional feedback that any public member of the public, parents, or even students really can get your your student group too, because we want to hear about everything that we need to consider before we roll this out to students. It is very important. You know, just like the Hippocratic Oath, we have a similar oath for us in my cabinet too. We choose to do no harm to students. And we know that any instrument, any piece of software, any resource that
286we release to our students, it needs to be done responsibly and ethically and ensuring that our students are safe and secure, even if it's in a virtual environment or utilizing software. I know oftentimes we think about physical environments, but we also think about our virtual environments as well. So again, we have no objection to the actual item. We look forward to bringing back this information to the board prior to implementation, and all the considerations from all the feedback that we've received last week, and also some of the feedback we just received from some of our constituents here, and looking forward for any feedback that MAY be emailed my way or any any of my staff members. Thank you, MADAM Chair. Thank you. MR. Cervera chair. First off, I want to start by thanking all the
287public speakers for coming out today, letting your voices be heard. And I apologize that it was almost 2:00 by the time you actually got to speak, despite my very clear motion before that should have had this happen at around 11:00. So thanks for hanging in. Appreciate your comments. We certainly hear you and I'm very grateful that you stuck around today. This one's easy for me. We need a full stop on the rollout of Magic School ai in Broward County Public Schools. Until this district can answer some very serious questions, put some real safeguards in place, and bring back this issue to the board and to the public for a comprehensive review later on down the road. I want to be clear, this isn't about rejecting innovation. Artificial intelligence MAY eventually have a useful role in
288education, but when we're talking about placing ai tools in classrooms in front of our students and in the hands of teachers, we cannot and should not rush forward first and ask questions later. Our students should not be the test subjects for a platform that has not been fully vetted. Our parents should not be left in the dark about how their children's information MAY be collected or used, and our teachers should not be pushed into relying on ai before we know how it affects instruction, teacher autonomy, and overall student learning before any full scale rollout moves forward in this district, we must be able to answer some very basic but critical critical questions. What student data will be collected? Who will have access to it? Will it be stored, shared, sold, or used to train other
289ai systems? Has the vendor undergone a real cybersecurity review? What happens if there's a breach, and how will this district ensure compliance with student privacy laws, data security requirements and our own policies? We also need clear answers on safety. What safeguards are in place to prevent inappropriate, harmful, biased, inaccurate or age appropriate content from reaching students? Doctor Cohen, I don't need to remind you, the last conversation that you and I had in which we discussed a 31% failure rate. I said it last week, and I'll say it again that's unacceptable and it's too high. Ai systems can hallucinate. They can give wrong answers. They can produce content that no parart or teacherr wouldld ever want inn ththrr clalassro.He disicic mumu prove t that s strong guardrails are in place before our students are exposed to
290this technology. We also need to protect teacher autonomy. Ai should support teachers, not replace their judgment, not undermine their lesson planning, not interfere with their grading discretion. And it should not weaken that profession and the professional role of our educators in the classroom. We also need to be honest about the educational impact. Will this technology actually strengthen student writing, reading comprehension, creativity, problem solving, and independent thinking? Or will it just increase screen time, encourage cognitive offloading, and make students more dependent on technology to think for them? Parents deserve notice. Teachers deserve training. Students deserve protection. Taxpayers deserve to know the true cost, and the public deserves transparency before implementation, not afterwards. This is why I've called for a full stop on any full scale implementation. Expansion, student facing use or mandatory teacher use of Magic
291School ai until the district provides a comprehensive written report. Holds public workshops, gathers meaningful input from our parents, teachers, students, administrators, stakeholders, and the community at large, and receives affirmative board approval at a public meeting. The proposed agenda item requires this kind of pause. We must look after our students, teachers and the community at large. A pause is not anti-technology. A pause is responsible leadership. We should embrace innovation only when it's safe, transparent, accountable and truly in the best interests of our students. Until Broward County Public Schools can demonstrate that student data is protected, teachers remain in control. Inappropriate contact. I'm not done speaking. Please turn the timer off. Inappropriate content is blocked, costs are understood and educational impacts are addressed. Magic school ai should not be rolled out in our schools. Parents, teachers, students
292deserve answers before implementation, not after. I'm urging my colleagues to vote in support of my motion. Do the responsible thing here. Pause the rollout. Complete a review. Release our findings. Let's hear some more from the public and only move forward on this. And if we can prove that this technology protects our children, strengthens instruction, respects teachers and earns the trust of Broward County families. MR. Superintendent. I heard a comment from the PRESIDENT Of btu regarding some potential legal ramifications, and I think my understanding of the concern was that if this motion were not to carry today, which I'm hopeful that it will, and this rollout were to continue, and our great teachers were forced, with some sorts of mandatory usage of this magic school ai in our classrooms, that that would violate the collective bargaining
293agreement between this district and btu. What say you, sir? Thank you for the question, MR. Cervera. So we've never used the word mandatory, so I don't know whether the btu PRESIDENT Gets that from. We didn't use the word mandatory last week. As with many of our our supplemental instructional resources. These are additional tools that teachers have autonomy to implement just as just like what I'm Microsoft copilot as well. These aren't mandatory resources that a teacher is required to use or have to go to mandatory training. Many of the copilot trainings over this past year were not mandatory. They were actually voluntary. Voluntary by any staff members, teachers, admin staff at district offices or in schools as well. So we haven't used that term at all. MISS Fusco. Please come back to the mic. Attorney Dupree
294Bruno. So we we we have to be really careful about. I want to know where the confusion Cervera. I call them Attorney Dupree Bruno. She has the floor. And then you can respond to what she has to say when she's done speaking. Thank you. Because our rules are that we don't engage with public commenters. They make their comment and then the board has a discussion. My recommendation, if you want to get additional information from MISS Fusco that we go through the proper channels. Doctor Lozano is here. He can ask whatever question that you have or somebody else from staff and provide it. But I would discourage, or at least I would not recommend that we engage with public speakers. We do it one time. We're going to have to do it with with others there.
295And if I MAY, MR. Cervera Doctor Lozano, if you can get whatever document that MISS Fusco has that has come from Broward County Public School staff that states that Magic School ai training is mandatory. I would like to see that that evidence. If if a document exists. Thank you. MR. Cervera. You have the floor. Thank you. There was a serious allegation that was lodged that I think we all, as board members up here, need an answer to prior to this vote. If this motion fails, which I'm hopeful that it will not. And we continue with the rollout of Magic School ai. There has been an allegation that there would be mandatory requirement required usage by our teachers. I need that answer. I need this fully fleshed out. I don't care if it's from Fusco. I
296don't care if it's from Lozano. I need to know where this is coming from. And if that's the case. Certainly myself and my colleagues have a right to know that there's been an allegation lodged. I would like to follow up on it and exercise some diligence and find out where it comes from. Maybe MISS Fusco has access to a policy or something that she can cite to, or maybe it's MR. Lozano, but certainly I don't think anybody on this board would ever be in favor of imposing a mandatory obligation on any of our great teachers in direct violation of their cba. So this needs to be fleshed out right now. If I MAY. MR. Cervera, again, I know no such policy exists for magic schools because we don't have a magic school policy. Again, we
297haven't used the term mandatory, but I encourage Doctor Lozano. I need to see something tangible from Broward County Public Schools that says that Magic School ai training is mandatory. And also in addition, I don't normally do this, MADAM Chair, so excuse me. I do encourage the board that they adopt or vote for the actual item. As I stated before, we have no objections. Many of the things within the item was discussed and actually came to consensus for the board as far as additional information. And we also listened to the public, as we often do when they come up, especially during workshops, to make sure we get this right for our students before there's a full fledged rollout. So we do not object at all. And I'll say that again, we do not object to this
298item. So I would encourage the board to vote in favor of it. Thank you, MADAM Chair. Attorney Dupree Bruno. And the other thing that I would be cautious of is any discussion of any type of potential contract violation, breach of contract of the collective bargaining agreement, I would appreciate that legal have an opportunity to vet that, and we don't vet that in the public, just in case there MAY be an issue that we need to provide legal guidance on. MISS Fusco, this is your first warning. My, my my request remains the same. There was a serious allegation that was lost that was lodged. And I think I have the right to get to the bottom of it. Whether we want to allow MISS Fusco to direct us to where she's coming from or whether you
299want Lozano to get up, which I still think he's sitting I don't know if he wants to get up and talk to him. MISS Fusco, this is your second warning. Please don't call out from the audience. Doctor Lozano, were you able to get a copy of. The issue? I was directed to look at the two documents attached to the item, and I do not see in either of those documents a memorandum or information that came from the district making anything mandatory. Why don't why don't we do this? MADAM Chair, I would ask Doctor Cohn and Doctor Lozano to both go speak to MISS Fusco right now, find out what she was referring to and report back to me. I will yield my time with the understanding that we'll we'll address this once we get a
300affirmative answer. Point of order, MADAM Chair. Doctor Hepburn. MADAM Chair, point of order. We need to be directing our comments through the superintendent. I agree, that's what I was about to ask. Yeah. Doctor Lozano, you can work with MISS Fusco. And if there's any tangible information of the actual allegations, please have her email it and print it out so we can give it to the entire board if such document exists. MR. Cervera, are you done with your. I'll yield my time pending the results of this investigation. Doctor Lozano, if I MAY, real quick at the mic, when you said attached to an item, was it attached to this item that we're talking about right now? Beacon, if you can make that mic hot. Yes. That is correct. That is correct. Attached to this item. Yes.
301Thank you. MRS. Alhadeff. That is why we haven't been timing board members, because we don't follow the time limits. I, I just wanted to ask a few questions and make a few comments, and I just want to reiterate my comment from last week, responding to something that Doctor Cohen said, he asked the question, are we going to prepare our students for the world we grew up in or the world we inherit? And I'd like to frame it a little bit differently. All of us at this table and in this room have the ability to shape the world our kids will inherit. And we can do that today and in the days and months to come. So I believe it was Heather Velazquez who quoted a lovely show, hacks, because there are many of us in
302this room who are trying to change the world for the better for our kids. I have a question to my colleagues. Has anyone used Microsoft Copilot 13 plus, ever the district's student facing ai tool? Has anyone been able to use copilot 13 plus? So not the not the same copilot that we have access to as board members, but the student facing tool. Okay, so that was something that we asked for or we gathered consensus on last week was to give board members student access to these tools so we could use them and see them and see how they're used. We also asked Doctor Hepburn to give parents access to the student facing tools as well. I just want to review what we agreed to last week because for the sake of the public who MAY
303have missed this. Doctor Hepburn, did we direct you last week in the workshop to form an ai student council to bring student voice to these issues? Yes. Doctor Hepburn, did we ask you to come up with a district and school based parent communication plan to gather parent feedback and educate them on these tools? Yes. By the end of JUNE? Yes. Did we direct you to deliver to the public and board monthly updates on the implementation of ai? Yes. Did we direct you to implement child friendly procurement guidelines? Yes. Okay. And then we also, I believe we asked you to make sure that the vetting rubric or the the vetting process for these tools was made public. That's correct. Doctor Hepburn, is magic school being used by students right now? No. Was Magic School for students
304going to be rolled out in the fall? That's correct. Okay. But I had I had a different understanding of of that. But okay. I have some motions that I'd like to make towards the, the end, some of the, some of the things that I was asking last week that I was asked by my colleagues to wait on. So I will turn it over to MISS Hixon now. Thank you. There. I, I have some concerns. I, I don't disagree with everything in this particular item, but I do have some concerns with, with putting a full stop on, on this particular item. And I'll just say we're our students are already using ai, our teachers are already using ai. And the concern I have as a former educator is how are we teaching them and educating them
305to use it appropriately. 78% of businesses in the world use ai for at least one operational function. So that's 280 million businesses out of 359 million businesses. We. It is. It is our job to educate our students to be ready to work in the real world. If we don't teach them the proper protocol and the proper skills on how to use ai, we aren't doing our job. If you ask me, we're negligent in our job. We can't turn a blind eye and say, you know, ai is bad for our students or our teachers. There's choices here. I've heard the superintendent say that this is not something that's going to be shoved down teachers throats, that it's something that if they're interested in using, which many of them use already without knowing how to do it,
306they kind of blindly have figured out because sometimes you just need a lesson plan. And I'll tell you, long before ai came into existence, I use Google to do that. I just had something that I couldn't figure out the best way to teach my students. And I looked at Google to give me some options. So I, I don't want to just put a halt to it and say, you know, paper and pencil is better and we should be teaching students the way we learned when we were younger. That's not how education works. We have to keep moving forward. I do think we need to change some of our pedagogy so that we already know students are using Chatgpt to write those essays. Stop asking them to turn in essays, then ask them to take the
307essay and make it into something different. And that's really where education should be moving to add those critical thinking skills for our students. So I, I don't have a problem with the written report. I don't have a problem with the public meeting, but I, I, so I have a question here to help guide my answer on this item. So. How long would this stop be in terms of all of the questions that have been asked in this item for for the superintendent in the district to be able to get through all of this? Because I understand from the workshop before a lot of these things have already been accomplished. So how long is that hard stop going to be. That's correct. We will. We should be done. By end of JULY to come back for
308whatever workshop is at the latest in JULY, because most of this is already taken care of. You're smiling about the cone. Go ahead, because I know I know where you're going to say. We're prepared by next week to answer all of these questions. I know who's going to say that, but. And I'll be honest, and I appreciate MR. Cervera in in his report, all of these 90% of these are already addressed in the contract already. Specifically, the student safety part of it. Students do not get access to Magic School or Magic Student by their own accord. The teacher has to give them access to Magic School through teacher created rooms which are self-contained within the classroom. They don't get access to it at home. They get access to it in the classroom. No student can
309access any tool without direct teacher authorization. That's in section two,.2.3. It's customizable to student room moderations. It can be configured based on the teacher, the resources that teachers are using. To your point, MISS Hixon, teachers can bring in content, but the adopted core is ingested within Magic School. They can create lessons. They can differentiate within there, they can create the rooms within there. But it's very teacher controlled. We spent all of last year, there were over 30 something trainings for all of our liaisons. They're fully trained, they're micro-credentials in magic school. And so typically student rollout doesn't happen until a year after implementation. We roll this out to all of the liaisons. They've all got Micro-credentials. There is an option this year for us to give student access, but it's only to the teachers that
310are ready to do a classroom intersection with Magic School. It's not required of them, but they have to go through the fully trained micro-credential training that we've established in order for them to give students access within the classroom. Okay, so and that's the contract we already approved. Yes, ma'am. Correct. So and if we were to. So put a halt on it until this information comes back to us. Well, that's just the report. There's something in here also about having a town hall. So I think that would add a little bit of time to what's asked in here. I don't disagree that teachers need better training. I would say as a teacher, for 32 years before I got this job, oftentimes you did kind of feel like you were gliding in the dark on, on things
311that the district rolled out because it looked interesting. And two weeks is a short period of time. And we heard from someone who took the training. So I don't mind pushing back the student piece of it. If we could continue to train the teachers to use it, because we've already made the commitment that we want to, that we've accepted the money and that we want to do this. So I even if I don't vote for the item, I still think the report, the public input, all of that should happen and that teachers should continue to follow that training. And maybe the stop is on rolling it out for student usage until it's really clear that that piece meets all the crcreria that both that t the board has has asked f f.. But I thin
312teaerers will continue to need that training and to, to think that we're not eventually going to get here, I think is not reality. And I would hate to halt it and have teachers not have access to the training if they're interested in learning more about it so that they could use it for their own. But I, I do agree that we need absolute guarantees that this is not mandatory for any teacher or student, and that it's only if they're interested and trained in to be able to use it in their classrooms. So there are pieces of the item I like, but pieces that I don't necessarily agree with. Thank you. If I can add to MISS Hixon, there's already about a little bit over 3000 teachers that have been using Magic School for over a
313year. There's a free version for educators. 4308 yes, I knew it was high. So we already have about a quarter of our teachers already using this, the free resource of Magic School. So this is going to expand the opportunity. But as Doctor Cohen said before, students won't be able to use it until a teacher is ready has been trained. And that's voluntary. That's that's not something mandatory. It's voluntary. So it's up to the teacher if they want to dive into it, if they want to get the training, be comfortable enough, but we won't allow student access unless that teacher is ready to be able to facilitate that opportunity with their students. I just have one more thing to say, and I appreciate that because that's what I'm saying. We already have ai. Nova has an
314ai Academy that's been running for quite some time, so I just don't think people realize how embedded it already is. But my last question is Doctor Hepburn, will Magic School or any ai things platforms that we have, do we have any plans on using that to replace teachers in the class as a chat box in the classroom? No, I think it'll probably replace me long before it replaces a teacher. Our saying from the beginning with Broward powered by ai. And the second phase of that is what Doctor Cohen. I am a human in. The loop. Exactly. You can't utilize the functions of ai without the human being in the loop. The human being is actually doing the level of assurance to ensure everything's accurate. It's above board, especially when it comes to to student use.
315So that's been our motto for Broward powered by ai. Since we initially initiated this journey starting last summer. Thank you. And I'll just reiterate that no one is going to end up in a job that doesn't require them to understand and be able to use ai. None of our students are going to move into a job that doesn't have that somewhere. It's important for us to help them be the human behind it that asks questions in the right way. And those are skills that we have to teach our students, and that's getting lost, I think, in here. And we're getting really wrapped up in in the bad parts of ai, but we it shame on us if we don't teach our students how to be successful when they move out into the real world. So
316thank you. Thank you, MRS. Alhadeff DR. Holness. I love ai and I truly believe that it is going to bring our students education to such a different level beyond what we can even imagine what it can be. And so it is important for us to make sure those safety measures are put in place. Very, very important. I think it's lacking right now. At the last workshop, I clearly said pause on this until JANUARY 2027. So I appreciate this item being brought forward today. One recommendation that I would make, and I think this is a part that we trip over our own feet, like every time a big item gets brought forward to this district is that we skip the looping process. And when we have items like this that's so big, do a full loop,
317a complete looping process where we're going out to all of our committees and having those conversations and vetting it through the students and the different unions. And I think we wouldn't be in this point today if we did our homework, if we did that looping process, because then we would all be here hearing the same song and, and wanting to implement ai for successfully for our students in a very safe way. So I'd like to make an amendment to the requested action, and that is to add a full looping process. [Laughter] Is there a second? That was my motion. Usage does come up. Well to the requested action. Is there a second? There is a second. Motion made by MRS. Alhadeff, seconded by MR. Cervera public comment on the motion. Excuse me. Doctor Natalie Lynch
318Walsh, Plantation, Florida. I support the motion. I think this meets the definition of major initiative and should have been looped, which would put you in compliance with your own looping policy. MISS Dupuy. Bruno keeps saying that they have. You have to be in compliance, but doesn't seem to understand how out of compliance you have been getting in terms of looping things through the advisories. That all being said, the longer you keep me here, the more stuff I'm finding. So now I'm reading the contract, and part of looping would be to help you identify weaknesses in this relationship, because I'm noticing who they're going to disclose educational records to. And I keep bringing up 6313 that you are in conflict with, with this initiative. And in the contract, it mentions that there's a ferpa exemption. You
319don't need parental consent. So there's a host of things. And again, since staff didn't bring up 6313 but I support the motion loop it. So thank you. Next speaker. I, I. Support the motion. I agree with MISS Hixon. I think that ai is the future again, but your customers, your parents, your advisory members, overwhelmingly this year, the the concern was the overuse of technology. And so I think I asked our elementary subcommittee that we formed this year just to discuss technology and elementary. I think that if you had taken it through them and they had a full understanding of what it was, they could have given you feedback. You could have seen where it should be implemented, maybe where it should not. So I do agree it should go through the looping process and we
320would save a lot of time and confusion. Thank you. Hi, Dana Sanders, I absolutely believe that we should all be involved in making these decisions. So yes to looping. Absolutely. You keep saying it's for teachers. It's only if teachers want it. It's only if teachers want to get trained if only teachers want to implement it. Have you asked teachers? Have you asked teachers if this is something they need? I took the the the Magic school training and do you want to know what it is? It's copilot number one. We already have copilot. I have a free version of copilot. And guess what? I could do every single thing that is in that program. Every single one. I love ai, I use it all the time. Almost everyone in here has used it. I know because
321I aid some of my my remarks and I saw the same things that ai came back with for me with some people on the board and some people in the audience, everyone's using ai, I get it, but students need to learn how to learn first before they can use ai. They need to learn that process of thinking before someone else or something else spits it out for them really quickly. You said it's only if teachers implement it. All I heard was teachers are going to get blamed for it. Hi again. Doctor Cohen said earlier that teachers are going to allow their students to use this tool in their classrooms. So the rule of thumb with using ai is students under the age of 13 years old should not be utilizing ai. It hurts their creativity.
322It allows them to think in a way that they should not be thinking. It takes the humanness away from the child. And so yes, looping is necessary because you need to hear from every single group, including the Broward Teachers Union, because it's important that you actually hear facts. Please understand that children under 13 should not be using this on a daily basis. It is absurd to do that to a child. You will hurt their education, educational future. Zara, Deerfield Beach. Thank you MISS Alhadeff for the motion. I do agree with looping through advisories. If you if you guys just did that in the first place, you would have so much less drama going on here. I don't know what happened, but not too long ago, that's just what it was. It was looped. You spoke
323to your bargaining units. Everybody kind of knew what was going on. Yes. Some people are not going to support it and so forth. But you had buy in from your teachers, your parents, students. If you don't have buy in, which I haven't had for months and months and months and months, I'm not going to it's not going to go well. Just saying thanks. Again and again. Good afternoon Liliana. Broward Teachers Union. Let me let me see how this sound to you. Hi, educators. You've been made it to the finish line and we are heading into summer with some exciting news. Broward County Public Schools has officially partnered with Magic School, and your account is already waiting for you for you to use. All it takes is one login through clever to activate it and then
324through the training they said this is a mandatory training and we are looking forward that all of you will take it and everybody is kind of concerned, especially teachers, when it comes, you know, when you ask the teachers to do something and you put that word mandatory, it's a big deal for them. They're concerned to begin with. The other part is that they are saying that you're saying right now is not mandatory. And out there, everybody's watching you, and they know that in every meeting before they left, they say you have to take it because it is mandatory. There you go. Jackie Luskin, I think we need to define what we're talking about when we say looping, because I disagree that it's just looping that we need. Some of it actually was looped. If you
325look at the presentation that staff gave you, was it last week or the week before, and which committees or advisories it had gone through? To an extent. And I think it could have there could have been maybe some more thorough discussion of it and more time given. But no, I disagree that we should just be looping it back to what I said before. I think we need a proper communication plan, drawn up with people who know how to communicate, have a webinar, a parent university, have a manual, have the policy, have a parent contract or a pledge or a guarantee to parents. Have a written q and a as staff say they could answer. Ask half of these questions right now. This doesn't have to be a months long process, but it's about public engagement
326and education and outreach. And it's not just going to be about looping it back through folks who have already seen it. Thank you. Keisha Glover. Again, it MAY not have. Well, I didn't see anything that said mandatory, but there were a barrage of emails. And if you've been with the district for a while, you know that eventually it is going to be mandatory. So I'm speaking on behalf of the way that I felt. So I felt obligated to take the training for two reasons. Number one, I want to stay on top of the game. Number two, I just felt like it would be something that would later be a mandate. So several days there were emails in the morning about magic school emails and afternoon. As a matter of fact, we made a joke about
327it, Magic School Bus, because it was so many emails flying in to us. So it MAY not. I didn't see anything to say mandatory, but it had a feeling as if something's coming down the pipe and it's going to be mandatory. Hi, Heather Velazquez of Davie. I'm going to agree with MISS. Alhadeff and ask to add the looping process. I'm kind of new to all of this and finding out information. What seems like late in the game hasn't been helpful. There are a lot of really intelligent and very useful people in our community that can provide amazing feedback. So I think if it goes through the proper channels and not just going through the proper channels as they MAY be, maybe explaining when questions do come up about, well, who did see this? I was
328a part of some meetings that we didn't get questions answered. And when you say the questions are there are answers for those questions, it doesn't seem like they're so readily available. So, so that feels a little bit misleading to the public at times. So if we can have more open communication, like Jackie said, with parent universities and a pledge or just a different form of communication, would different modes of communication be extremely helpful? Thank you. Trudy Germanovich I was thinking back to my many years in teaching and things are not just mandatory, they are mandatory. In other words, if you want your evaluation to turn out right, you better take this. And that's what's happening, whether you want to admit it or not, and whether there's an email with the word mandatory, it becomes mandatory.
329Now, all of this is because of miscommunication. And I believe Doctor Hepburn gets evaluated on communication skills as one of the things that you all gave him an a on. I don't think anybody didn't give him an a. Think about that. The buck stops somewhere. Thank you. And if. Fusco Broward Teachers Union PRESIDENT. So let me clarify that the insinuation of mandatory that I was referring to was what other things that were put down the pike to come to the teachers that were always said it wouldn't become mandatory. And then it becomes mandatory because your colleagues on team fifth grade are using it. But yet, Fusco, you didn't you didn't get to the training. I get a lower data mark in my evaluation. That is a sign of mandatory that I need to go take
330it to get into the game. So stop playing with words. I wish all of you weren't looking up every which way, because you're just tired of hearing me speak. And this is just the beginning of me speaking. That's all I'm saying. Because I don't need to give my minute here to get my words out. I was just interviewed by the news. So I'm telling you right now that it is mandatory to be able to bring it to the classroom. You are subliminally forced to take it, to be able to bring it to the classroom. That is what I meant. Thank you. Any other public speakers? Board member discussion, MISS Thompson? I'm. I still have the floor, don't I? Go ahead, MISS Alhadeff. Thank you. So through this little part of the meeting. I just found
331out additional information that concerns me even further. We do not have an ai policy. So how do we not have an ai policy? And we're now pushing this item forward. So it's the cart before the horse. So I would like to amend my amendment and add that we need to have an ai policy that is looped. Attorney Dupree Bruno. I second it. I'm Rupert. So the. So we need to. So there's a there's multiple motions on the floor right now. We have MISS Farris motion. Then MISS Alhadeff, you did an amendment to loop and now you want to. Add an additional amendment to include that the ai policy be looped as well? No, I'm clarifying mine to have an ai policy and have that policy to be looped, because I can't loop a contract. I
332have to loop a policy. MAY I suggest a substitute motion where you indicate that you're asking that the recommendation be looped, as well as the accompanying ai policy? If I MAY, MISS Alhadeff, I just want to make sure. Doctor. Doctor Cowan, can you specify what activities have you done thus far? Thank you. And I know you weren't at the workshop last week, MISS Alhadeff. I was at the workshop, I was online. I'm sorry. For the full time. Thank you. There's a slide that actually shows that we actually looped the policy. And I think you heard some certain parents or groups mentioned that it was looped. So we we looped it through tac. We looped it through dac, we looped through some student advisors, teachers through our ai liaison. So it went through the whole process
333of looping in feedback was given to us and we made those changes. We didn't bring the policy to the board because we were waiting on Neola to come forward. And that's why we were waiting for today's section to happen. In order for us to bring that policy to the board. I have a problem with that, Doctor Hepburn. We need to have policy first, then go to this item. Where's the policy? Could we could we please have decorum in the audience? Otherwise, I'll have to recess the meeting. Doctor Hepburn, I have a question about this because I think we had a conversation about this maybe about a year or two ago, about doing an ai policy. And we were advised by staff at the time and by the general counsel to hold off, because it was
334such a quickly developing issue. So I know it was a conversation that I remember specifically, the board gave consensus to hold off on that. But now that things have changed so much and we're seeing it rolled out in schools, that's why I think we've been talking for several weeks about the policy coming to us. So, Attorney Dupree, can et some further clarificatatnn on whahathe prprocss? S So h here, hers where we are wiwi regards to ee ai policy. It's drafted and it has been had some preliminary reviews last week there were additional reviews. And we also contacted Neola to provide us with all of the technology policies that will complement and go along with that ai policy. We are in the process of vetting all of those policies. It's about 20 policies. I just counted
335the policies about 20, and we're going to be going through those policies, and the intention is to bring to the board those technology policies, including the iha policy in AUGUST. That's what I was referencing earlier in our conversation today. Okay, so to MR. Tzavaras point in regards to pausing this, I still will keep my amendment to his requested action to add approving an ai policy and having it fully looped. Okay. And I heard MISS Rupert second to that. Missus Alhadeff. Yes I did. Do you still have the floor or are you done? No. I'm good, thank you. MISS Thompson. Thank you. Chair, I think I am a little confused on what exactly would be looped because are we looping, looping an entire ai strategy? Are we looping the entire concept? And I think MISS Luscomb
336brought up a really good point is that looping goes to specific committees where district town halls and listening sessions would actually be the bulk of our community. And that makes more sense than looping. I think we've also, as a board, had discussions on what looping is and what it isn't. And in that process, and who would it be looped to? Is it every single committee? I think we are kind of getting ahead of ourselves in a lot of ways, but that would be I'm not in favor of looping it. I think. MR. Cervera and Chair Leonardi item of having town halls kind of address that issue. I also, we are getting the ai policy. We've been talking about getting the ai policy. So I would rather see that since it went through different channels before
337thinking it, it needs more looping. If I MAY, MADAM Chair. Go ahead, MR. Sullivan. Yeah, I just wanted to add, I guess we would need clarity on the full looping because there are several committees. And also the other challenge we're going to face if it is going to be looped committees. Well, they don't meet in JULY. So the earliest you can loop if their committee agendas would allow would be sometime in AUGUST. Well, I think in addition to that, the policy has been looped in. The ai is specific to Magic School. Plan of implementation has been looped. So I guess it's in addition to what Doctor Cohen listed. If he's listed several advisories that's been looped through already, is there additional advisories we want this loop through is the question because it's already been looped.
338Policy has been looped. Yes. He he can go back over that again. MR. Doctor Cohen, if you can go back through what advisories the policy has been looped through already. Yeah. So we we had we went through the ai task force, the steering committee, the district advisory, the technical Advisory committee, the regional leadership teams. We did share it with you. We didn't get feedback from them. School administrators, career technical and adult community education leaders. So if there's any additional advisories that we want this loop through, let's see Lily's hand up to chair. Just. Yeah. I added Lily to the list to speak. We didn't take public comment on my motion. I thought we did. We did. Attorney Dupree. Bruno. We did not take public comment on the Second Amendment to loop the ai policy. Okay.
339Public comment on the Second Amendment. Please ensure the mic is on. Ahem. Doctor Natalie Lynch Walsh Plantation, Florida. I support the substitute motion. What I have found very interesting about this ai policy everyone keeps referring to is I can't seem to find where the district has provided notice of the development of the proposed rules, meaning they're going to bring it to you, but you're not even in rural development yet. And I would petition to initiate rulemaking, except that then I think she would tell me I'd have to write the policy myself, which I'm not inclined to do so much these years anymore. So if they could initiate the process, then you could loop it and something isn't looped. If it doesn't come to advisories until near the end of the year. I sat in a
340central area advisory meeting where it was on the agenda, but we had so much drama for elections that we never got there. So and that was just in MAY. It was on MAY. Agendas. You want loop something, loop it earlier like the beginning of the year. Thank you. Next public speaker. Yeah. Again, we're using this term looping as a kind of catch all term for just let's consult the public. I sit on technology advisory and Manny over here and others will testify how noisy I've been about ai and about preempting public uproar, which we now have. I'm surprised that anybody surprised to learn now that there is a draft policy, because I've spoken about it. I spoke about it earlier today. I spoke about it last week. I spoke about it the a week before.
341I sent it. In an email to all of you saying there is a policy. Folks have worked on it, and my understanding is that they were told to kind of hold back until all this other policy stuff had had come first. So whoever told them that shouldn't have done it should have been fired. When I say fast tracked, I don't mean skirting any, any process, but it's it's been out to advisories. Let's get it moving. If there are other advisories that want it. And and frankly, it could be helpful for Esq. But I'm not going to hold it up and say it has to come to Esq. We can deal with that down the line, but let's just please get it moving. Next public speaker, please state your name. It's really important for us to
342look at the policy as a whole. But interestingly enough, I've never heard of a policy coming through btu. So just that we're clear it was not. And being that this directly affects our educators in the classroom, this is a direct effect. That is a huge concern. Just to let you know, I've been at I asked the district three times to be on your task force so that the teachers voices can be heard collectively. Still no response. My other coworker asked to be on the task force. Still no response. Where's the communication, folks? We need to work together. We should be working together. And that's not being had with this. And it's very disappointing. Thank you. Next public speaker. My name is Trudy Germanovich. This is now getting conflated between rural development and looping, and everything
343is out of whack. And what you need to do, I think, is to step back and look at this and say, okay, we really haven't looped it, so it's going to have to be done correctly. You might have had it done somewhat, but in order to get started on the policy, I think, don't you have to advertise it? And, and I hope there's some kind of question answered about that. Thank you. Thank you. Next. Speaker zero claims lunch is Deerfield Beach. I was just looking at this policy. 1164 communication and public engagement. If you guys have a policy for looping, how is it then optional if you loop it or not like I don't or it doesn't say to whom, but it says here that staff shall initiate when when there's a major initiative or
344new district wide program is under construction. So if it's a policy, I mean, why are we arguing about policies if you don't follow the one you got already, what difference does it make? Let's just do whatever we want. Thanks. Next speaker. Anna Fusco, Broward teachers union PRESIDENT. No policy conversation has come my way at all. I am the Broward Teachers Union PRESIDENT. I would just stand before any of you either. You don't like the way I message things. You need to stop about that. When have I ever misled you? When have I ever been untruthful? When have I ever lied? And quite frankly, when have I ever really been wrong? Eventually you come back around and say, Fusco, you were right. So I stand in front of you and I will not accept at all
345that I am making something up, that I am lying, that I'm bringing forth something that is not accurate. Listen, you all have been elected to represent the Broward County Public Schools. You guys took an oath to do the right thing. I don't come forward and bring you a bunch of bs yet. You have a group of staff that conveniently, always does that falls on you. This pause has been asked for multiple reasons why you're so adamant that you want this shoved down students throats is beyond me. Now. You had a legal advice about policies. Where is it? What's the progress of it? When was it started? When did it come to me? Give me a date. Something. Thank you. Do we have any more public speakers? Okay, we'll go back to board member comments. Board
346member Hixon. Thank you. So there's a lot of confusion here. So let's see if we can clear some of it up. So we've heard that the policy, the proposed or the policy idea has been looped in. Doctor Cohen mentioned quite a few places where it landed. So general counsel, can you explain to us for for any policy that is a new policy, what should that procedure be? Are we following the procedure or should rule development have started it? Can you explain that to us? So policies get drafted, they get reviewed, they get revised. As Doctor Cohen said, this particular policy was shared with other individuals at that point, because we are going through a process. It was sent to legal to review as well, and legal is working with the administration on trying to review
347that policy, as well as additional policies that are related to this particular policy. Those policies are not ready to be shared in a rural development workshop. They are still in the process of being reviewed and drafted. The goal is to bring the policies to a meeting in AUGUST, which means that the policies will be legally noticed sometime in JULY, as the statute requires us to provide the 28 days, and we will do that. And if we still need to do additional work in-house prior to bringing the policies forward, then we will do that. It will come later in AUGUST, but the goal is to try to bring them sometime in AUGUST, and we will provide the mandatory required statutory 28 day notice. Thank you. So it sounds as if for new policies. This is traditionally
348what happens. It goes out, people review it, then legal reviews it, and then it's presented to the board. So we're not doing anything out of the ordinary that we've done for any new policy. Is that correct? No. We're following the regular process. Great. Thank you. Doctor Cohn. Can you tell us who the draft who the drafted policy was sent to at the Broward Teachers Union. And when it was sent. Sure. Was sent on Tuesday, MAY 5th at 8:14 A.M. By Manny Castaneda to Anna Fusco. I'm looking at the email right now. And then there was another email as a second request on Tuesday, MAY 12th, 8:59 A.M. To Anna Fusco, again asking for it to bring back to the top of your email. Would love your input on this draft policy and supporting documents. Okay,
349thank you so much for that. So seems as if we've already looped it. If we were to ask for it to be looped different, I think the the item has to include what committees we want it looped to because traditionally the board decides when we ask for looping, where do we want it to go? So if you don't mind repeating where it's been looped already, so that if there's additional places we think it needs to go because you were talking really fast. I only got one. Thank you. Yeah, we, we looped it through our ai task force, which represents a larger group of teachers across the district. Our steering committee, dac Technical Advisory Committee, regional leaderships. We had principals look at it in our case educational leaders through workforce looked at it. Okay. Thank you.
350So if there's any other places where board members think it should go, then I think the the item has to be more specific to where else we would like it to loop to. And again, I, you know, it seems like it's moving in that right direction, but I besides all of that, I think it makes sense, as one public speaker mentioned, was to do and is actually in MR. Cervera item to do that parent university. We did a parent university when we were talking about budget, and there were some concerns, and it was very well attended. And I think people really got good answers to that. So it asked the superintendent and to do that, regardless of where it ends up. But also there was a suggestion to do a question and answer, like on
351the front page of the school board website to be proactive. I think there are questions that people have that we can answer, and we don't need to wait until there's a full report. If we can answer them and do like a question and answer thing on our website, that's pretty easy to get that information. Somebody suggested a little a video of some sort, I don't know. But whatever communications we have, we're making assumptions that people are seeing things and they're not seeing it. So I think we need to try it in a lot of different manners. And so again, I'm not I'm not sure I agree with the new motion or the original motion. There are parts of it I like, but I don't know that I agree with it overall. So thank you. Thank
352you Lily. Okay, so this is mostly just to respond to what Doctor Hepburn was saying earlier. First of all, Doctor Cohen, thank you. I know you had said you got some student input on the original setup for Magic School and all of that. I do really want to say that I love and support the idea of putting together a group of students to really test, specifically Magic School and any other ai that we implement. Obviously, to let everyone know it would be high schoolers that way. It's, you know, relatively age appropriate. They would have to have a consent form from parents, something along the lines of that, make sure that it's, you know, good age group and students would voluntarily do it, possibly provide service hours. But the idea would be to have kids push
353the website the same way that last meeting, Mikhail and I got the chance to and we went on there and we were testing it. And, you know, in the few minutes that we were looking at it, we found out a lot. So I think it'd be really beneficial. I could work with the board on that, on getting a group of students to really push the system to its limits, find out every single thing that's right with it, everything that's wrong. And I think that could hopefully kind of be a compromise between the public and with the school board to implement ai, but make sure that it's safe for students and that there's nothing on there that would make parents, students, board teachers, anyone uncomfortable. So thank you, MRS. Alhadeff. Thank you. I'd like to amend
354my motion to have the ai policy loop, specifically with the Broward Teachers Union, bpa, and the student advisors with additional students. Is there a second? Here is a second. Motion amendment. I'm okay with that. Hey, chair, I just have a point of order. Yes. DR. Zeman our policy doesn't speak to collective bargaining units. I mean, I think it's fine to do that as a as a sum. We could do a lot, but our policy on looping is specific to advisory committees. Attorney Dupree Bruno. Just just to make sure that everybody understands exactly what the policy specifically says. I think that's important. And it's. 1164 it's to public engagement with regards to loop. So it's designed for major initiatives, but it is left to the superintendent on his own, on his or his own or by
355direction of the board. And it does go to primarily dac, the District Advisory Committee, and it is a 60 day process. And there are very specific steps in terms of how this process entails. DR. Zeman is correct. It does not address the collective bargaining units pursuant to the policy. Okay. Motion made by MRS. Alhadeff. Seconded by MR. Cervera. Public comment on the amendment. Doctor. Natalie Lynch Walsh Plantation, Florida. If this is in addition to then I support it. But just to be clear again, and it sounds like even Anna didn't get the email. I mean, if you're going to use an address she hasn't used in ten years, when you loop it, it doesn't count. If it comes at the end of the school year, when when you're doing elections and people are wrapping up
356looping counts, when you have time to loop it through the different advisory. So I support adding butot bybyssssgg a anybo els addg, okay goo Thahank you. Anna Fusco, Broward Teachers Union PRESIDENT I support adding every group I find very offensive. Allen Zeman's comment about not including the very groups that actually work in take care of the students, the principals, and the educators. Where do we find you guys at? I'm confused. I really am confused and I would like to know where this. You said my name. You said there was an email sent to me. I would like to know what the email said and where it was sent, because I do not see an email sent to a f you s as in Sam [email protected]. So if it was sent there and I missed it,
357then I will humbly apologize. But. And you said it was from who? So I can I could check it again. It's really simple. It's amazing how when I get up and I want to produce the evidence and give the feedback, I get shut down by the chair. It's amazing. I hope the public is watching this, that we're here. We're here right now. Thank you. Next public speaker. Anyone else on the amendment? All right, MISS Thompson. I would like to call the question on the amendment to go back to the main item. And I. Yeah. To loop. Yeah. And attorney Dupree Bruno. So I think we have three amendments on the floor for the motion. So help me understand, like if we vote on this last amendment, does that take care of all of the amendments
358that were made? So, MISS Alhadeff, your last amendment was to loop the ai policy and the b item to all of the collective bargaining units, bpa, btu, etc. That's in replacement of your prior amendment, which was just to loop. So it's a substitute. Yes and yes. And the student advisors with students. Okay. So the the amendment that's on the floor because she's substituting is to loop the ai policy and the bib item to all of the collective bargaining units, as well as to the student advisory. Okay. She was specific btu and bpa because we have more than just that. Okay. If you say. All btu thank you, Doctor Hepburn. Btu and bpaa. And the student advisors. Is that capturing your amendment correctly? MRS. Alhadeff. Okay. Now we vote on the amendment. So we're voting on
359calling the question, correct? Yes. All in favor of calling the question, say aye. All opposed? Say no. I calling the question passes unanimously with DR. Zeman and MISS Rupert online. All in favor of the amendment, say aye. Aye. All opposed? Say no. No. I roll call, please. Roll call on the motion. School board member Cervera. Yes. Hixon. Yes. Bonus. No. Leonardi. No. Rupert. Yes. Thompson. Zieman. No. Alhadeff. Yes. Bulman. No. Fails four five. Okay, we're back to the item. MRS. Alhadeff you still have the floor. Disappointed as well. Okay. DR. Zeman. Thank you so much, chair. I like this item. I just want to get some facts out. Chair, what is different in this item than the decisions that we made last week at our workshop meeting? I think there are some some additional pieces
360there. So. I could go through the list. Is that what you want me to do? DR. Zeman or did you want to speak to. I'm just I would maybe if you can highlight it at the end of my talk, I'd appreciate it. It's not pertinent to the beginning. Also, curious Chair Magic School has not been mandated, I know I we've answered that. We also have answered that the magic school access called Magic Student has not been provided to any Broward County student. I understand with this item, which you know, I like a pause. I like thinking about this, and I'm going to offer just one change at the end. But but if this passes, what's the earliest date that we would share access to the students? Doctor Hepburn. I know the goal for us is
361to bring this back to a public meeting. As Doctor Cole mentioned earlier, high percentage of these concerns are are already addressed. And so we will just finalize that plan, bring it back to the board, hopefully in the late JULY meeting and see if we can get get this fully implemented based on teacher readiness of who wants to actually use it and facilitate the use with their students by early fall. So hopefully at the beginning of the school year. Doctor Hepburn, while you're talking, would you view the decision to roll this out to your faculty at school and to students, the purview of the school board or the purview of the superintendent? This is curriculum and resources, purview of the superintendent. Thank you. And I'll come back to that at the end. Doctor Hepburn, third question
362to you at the end of excuse me, the beginning of next month, there's a Council of Great City Schools conference. I know that some of our senior staff are attending that on the last day of the session, Amanda Bickerstaffe, who has worked a lot with districts on ai adoption, is giving the concluding session. Can we get a commitment for you that the people that we're paying to go to that conference will attend that session? Sure. I'll find out who's actually on the team is actually going to the session. Actually, Doctor Cohen just raised his hand, so he'll be there. So we'll make sure and follow through and attend that session. Thank you. And I would love whenever it's possible. And I'll submit a formal question on this just to get a summary of that session.
363I've listened to her a couple times and she's absolutely remarkable on the subject. I wish she was here today. She could add a lot of clarity to the discussion, and I'm going to try and add a little bit of clarity myself. Doctor Hepburn, do you know how many districts in the United States have implemented Magic School so far? I don't have that data on top of my head, but I know it is quite a few across the country. We're, you know, at the tail end of other districts that have already implemented Magic School ai plus some other sweets. Well, we're 198th, and I'm not saying that they did it right. I'm not saying that they did it too fast. I'm not sure that they did it as carefully as as they want. I like the
364item in terms of what it asks you to report back on, but I also think that there's a lot of districts to learn from. Being 198 is a lot. Florida alone, by the way, has 900 schools on Magic School already across 11 districts. Again, I'm not saying that they got it right. They could have they could have had 11 district failures, for all I know. But I do know that there's a lot of lessons out there that that we can learn from. Did Broward County Doctor Hepburn put Magic School through a student facing ai adversarial testing? Yes. What were the results of the latest adversarial testing results across the eight dimensions? Yeah. I got Doctor Cohen and also MISTER Castaneda in here. Either one of you guys want to answer that question. I'll let Manny
365start and I'll jump in. Thank you. Manny Castaneda Executive Director, Analytics and Intelligence. What we did with Magic School was first we formed a rubric and we had educators and it personnel go through adversarial testing. Now, the way adversarial testing works, the the individuals were asked to break it. They were asked to be very creative. They were given several guidelines across the different domains of how to try to break it, using techniques such as prompt injection, etc. We established a rubric that looked for several several items where if it failed in any of the specific safety items, it was a hard no or a complete it was not going to be considered. And then we had other categories, depending on the level of interactions that were flagged, what we were looking for specifically, which is
366something which is, quite frankly not available in many tools that are out there right now, is proper redirection and real time moderation and threat detection. That means that immediately an interaction is not only is the student redirected or the the conversation is stopped by the ai, but it is also flagged. And there's a notification sent. So I know there's been a lot of talk of of 31% or a percentage of a failure rate. I'd just like to clarify what that means. When we ran through this, we ran through 31 separate detailed interactions. There were six that were flagged for further review, which were not outright failures or evidence of actual improper information. They were edge cases. One had to do with one of the very creative prompters that was querying the system in Portuguese and
367in Spanish, and the system actually was able to reply, but that was flagg for further review. One was a student that asked for, well, not a student. It was a prompter. As a student asking for advice on how to sneak out of their house, the ai did not provide a response, jailed the transaction, but didn't flag it. So that was flagged by us as something that we needed to review further. And we and and those results were provided to Magic School so they could improve their model. So we took it through very thorough testing to vet it, I will say, and this is important. And because we we have partners in ai and we all believe in deploying ai responsibly. But Microsoft, which is our our key partner, they offered to deploy copilot 13 plus
368to all students free as part of our investment with them. However, when we realize that copilot 13 plus does not offer this level, the level of real time moderation or threat detection that Magic School provides, we kindly refuse that offer, and that's why we. We were proceeding with Magic School and we'll try to deploy it next year. And we definitely agree with the recommendation that we continue to loop it and vet it. But we did run it through this very detailed process. Well, Obligado and gracias to you, Manny Castaneda. But one question that I have for you is based on these test results, would you feel safe having a relative of yours who's teaching in Broward County schools to use the Magic School teacher version? Yes. In fact, I would feel safer than some other
369districts that have deployed other larger tools that I know for a fact don't offer these kinds of safety features. And, MR. Castaneda, if you had a student in Broward County middle school or high school, would you feel comfortable with the repairs that Magic School did allowing them to use Magic School version for students called Magic Student? I would, under the current parameters, which Doctor Cohen mentioned that it is all teacher initiated. So despite the fact that there is real time moderation and threat detection, it's all controlled by the teacher, and the teacher engages and creates the group and allows the students to interact and can turn it on and off at at on demand. Thank you very much. And the reason I kind of wanted to go through these questions is that I still support
370the pause. I still support answering these good questions. There's one amendment that I'm going to propose here in a minute. But, you know, this testing has been appropriate. It's been good. i'm not convinced that it's comprehensive in every aspect. So I'm looking forward to the formal report. Am I right? By the way, Doctor Hepburn, you said there's 4318 students that teachers who have been active in Broward County on school. That's one third of our teacher load if I got the number right. Yes, that's correct. For for more than a year, actually, when we actually inquired about the data to see what existing teacher use there is in the district for their free version of Magic School. And I know we have a liaisons in all of our schools, which I think is great. I think
371the contract is great. We need to fulfill it. I think the testing is going to be even more rigorous before we get this report back. I think that if there was any criticisms that go beyond needing to complete all of the tests, it's really about agile program management and communicating to the school board and communicating to the community. We need the data. We need much better communications, looping to advisory groups going to meet with our collective bargaining units is great. I just objected to using the word looping. I think we need a thoughtful, intentional plan. And more importantly than anything, we have to execute with fidelity. So we're going to get a mandatory report. Chair, I think one of the things we did approve last week was a mandatory, excuse me, a monthly report to
372the board, which obviously can be shared with the community. Is that correct? That's correct. That's correct. Thank you so much. So at the end of the day, I use the a, I like 10 to 12 hours a day. It's a big, big part of my professional life. It is something to appreciate. It's an amazing technology. It is something to fear, you know, particularly when you think about students and their amazing agility of their own mind, getting into places where they shouldn't go and getting responses back. Magic school, though, is a particularly easy case. You know, it is purpose built for educators and for those being educated. It is not, you know, a general purpose chat bot, you know, like Chatgpt or Claude or Google Gemini, any of those common ones, which is much harder to
373get right. But purpose built programs are contained. And I'm tickled that we're going to ask for this report and we're going to take a pause. It sounds like I do want to offer one quick amendment, though, chair, which is item the three page item that came with the item says number five, is that to come back and ask for board approval required. I just don't think that that's the purview of the board. As Doctor Hepburn recommended. I think the report is important. I think the discussion is important. I, I acknowledge that Doctor Hepburn is going to take our feedback and act on it with fidelity, but I don't think we should be in the operational role that's described there of approving a full scale rollout. There isn't even really a full scale rollout. It's it's
374a teacher rollout. It's probably high school students and middle school students. I don't know if we'll ever get to elementary age students, but I believe that that's really a judgment call for the superintendent. And he ought to get a lot of feedback from us when he makes the report. But I move to amend the item to delete number five that approves where the board approves approval is required in order to implement. Is there a second? Seconded by MISS Hixon public comment on the motion to remove item number five. Board approval required from the item. Doctor. Natalie Lynch, Walsh, Plantation, Florida. I don't necessarily agree with this. You had to approve the contract back in MARCH, so they needed your approval to approve the contract. But now you're finding out that there are a lot of
375holes in the implementation. And when something comes to a workshop, you have to give direction and consensus. So this sounds similar to me, whether this is a board item or it comes to a workshop. You still you should be on board with what is happening and be aware. So I don't support the motion to remove this unless it looks like the majority of you are not going to go along, and we will waste yet another hour on amendments only to have you vote them down when you're not even following policy in the first place. Please, please become familiar with 1164. Chafee. I'm going to humbly ask that you vote that motion down simply because at the end of the day, each one of you is responsible. And so you need to be in the know
376in what's going on. And this is going to ai is going to change the way we teach as educators and the way our students learn as students. It is extremely important that you, as the board, have the final say, because at the end of the day, it's going to be your face in front of the Sun-Sentinel answering for what happens. Thank you. Anna Scarborough, teaching and PRESIDENT. I'm confused that you want to take away the board to approve something. You approve everything. It has to come through you. It's not operational. It was a contract. So now we're moving it forward and policy. There's a lot of things here. I urge you to not do that. It would be really in bad faith to the piece about ai that Allan Zieman talks so strongly that he
377loves it. He has to work on a 15 hours a day. That makes me feel of how and why he speaks her rights. Is it him or is it ai? So we know how I speak because I have nothing in front of me. And again, this is not about the adults. There are adult things to do smoking, drinking, driving, other things, vaping. There are children, things to do. This is another one that we shouldn't be shoving down. And I will stand on the position that it is in part of mandatory. And I don't like it that it's teacher, this teacher that again, it goes to their contract. I mean, it goes to their certificate. Teachers up there, please. This is really serious. Thank you. Any other public speakers? Board member comment on the motion. MR.
378Cervera. Okay, so let's break this down and digest what's being proposed to this board by DR. Zeman motion. We're going to go through everything on my agenda item. We're going to pause implementation. Implementation. We're going to have written reports done on 13 different categories to make sure that what we're doing is just and proper and safe. We're going to hold public workshops. We're going to have stakeholder give us a stakeholders, give us our input, and then we're just going to what. Let the superintendent decide what he wants to do with it. And this board has no contrololvevewhat haens. T linchn n tohihi enenrere agenda item is number five, which DR. Zeman now is desirous of getting rid of. This is 100% something that this board should be able to approve. It's a contractual thing that
379we signed with Magic Magic School. And in the ultimate event that we decide to ultimately get rid of this, I'm going to assume that there's a termination provision in that contract. Hopefully, MADAM General counsel, like there is in all of our contracts, why go through all of this work to have these reports and this input and this community involvement, only to have it come back to the board and what have us not be able to do anything? I don't support the motion. I hope my colleagues will not support the motion, and I would just ask to think about what my intent was when drafting this, do all these things so this can come back to us as the board, and we can make an informed decision on how to proceed forward. Thank you. Thank you.
380Any other board discussion? All in favor of the motion say aye. Aye. All opposed say no. No I motion fails with one vote in the approval from DR. Zeman DR. Zeman. You still have the floor. I yield the floor. Thank you so much, chair. Thank you, MISS Thompson. Thank you. Chair. So I and my colleagues have covered kind of the. Actually chair I think DR. Zeman had started his comments asking what the difference between your what we discussed at the workshop in this proposal is I would actually like that run through because when I was reading this late last night when we got it, I had thought the majority of it was already approved by consensus. So I just want that to be clear that the majority of the board was already on board with
381much of this. Yeah. I think the biggest thing is the official pause on the implementation. I guess I didn't proffer that last week because it was my understanding from my discussions with staff that Magic school for students, like the student facing piece of it wasn't going to be rolled out in the fall. So that was my understanding. But that's, that's the major because we asked for all of the information in that prepare a written report section. We asked for the regular public workshops. We directed, made, gave directives around stakeholder input. And I guess it was kind of inherent to me that there would be board approval required. But that's also why I asked for the regular monthly updates regarding the implementation of this. Thank you for recapping that. Just again, making sure the public understands
382that the majority of the board is is already on board with this direction. I do think it's important to understand because in the conversation today, there's been use of the word stop or pause. So what exactly does that mean? And I don't know if that's to the maker of the item of what a pause is, or if that's to the superintendent's understanding of what this item would mean. Because I, I think the news is obviously watching this, people are going to get an understanding of what we've approved. And if the headline is Broward County schools stopped all use of ai, that's misleading because it's already embedded in a lot of our in copilot and a lot of our functionalities that we as a board learned about earlier, like it is already there. So what does
383a pause or a stop mean to this district? And how are we making sure that that's communicated to the public about what's happening in this item? Doctor Hepburn or MR. Cervera? I defer to the maker of the motion. My proposed motion initially called for a full stop. I know we had some some editing and now it's called for a pause. But in layman's terms, there there will be no more expansion, no more student facing use, no more mandatory or voluntary teacher trainings in regarding the rollout of this. No more full scale implementation. Basically everything to do with Magic School must pause or stop until we do the five items that I've suggested within the motion. So if a student were to have access to this over summer school, the request would be that the access
384would be taken away. If a teacher has a training, whether it's mandatory or voluntary, if there's a training that Doctor Cohen's team has required that our teachers take, I ask that that be canceled until this is resolved. So basically, we are not to advance the ball in any way, shape or form. When it comes to magic school, I. If this motion is granted, obviously, I know a lot of this was discussed at the last workshop, but I think one of the main differences here is the fact that if this is to be granted, we are hitting the pause button, we are hitting the brakes. So that means tomorrow we're not going to be doing anything within our schools or with our teachers involving magic school ai, until we check all the boxes that are within
385this motion. So I'm still a little. Confused by that, because some of these requirements require us to use it to magic school to make sure that to talk to teachers, to have them run through it. Our student advisor recommended having students look at it and give some feedback on it as well. So I think the language is really important. I would be fine with pausing a rollout to the student, to the classroom environment, while still having these important stakeholder engagements, these trials. I just to say we're stopping it is not actually realistic because in your item, it requires us to use it so that we can get feedback from teachers and from not your item, but our student recommendation if we go to that. So again, I just think it's really important that when the
386headlines come out about this, that it is clear what is happening, because I think that's where there's public frustration as well, because they hear one thing and then they find out, oh no, the board is doing something else, or the teachers are having a speech on it. Otherwise, again, like I said, we came to a consensus and I was a affirmative for that consensus. For the majority of this item. I think in particular, I would encourage my colleagues under item three, the public workshop, that the district has to have public workshop to host your own town halls, our listening sessions. I am doing one on Wednesday, JULY 15th that will be virtual to hear the community's concerns about ai and tech. I know MISS Leonardi has already done that in certain ways, and I'm sure
387other board members as well. But that is our role as a board member. We talk about hearing from our public. We talk about public comment. It's our role to go out and seek that. So I am mostly supportive of this item other than kind of clarifying what pause means. And then I just encourage my colleagues to do their own legwork as well. And just one more question, because we had requested a screen time analysis, I think like two months ago, not necessarily referring to ai, but just in general, when we have a discussion about technology in our classrooms, where are we at with that? We're still trying to analyze what what that looks like. And so we can give you as best estimate as possible based on some of the edtech that's used in classrooms,
388because it varies. All right. Based on how what teachers are choosing to instruct. So right now we're focused on what's required, right? For whatever core instructional materials so we can get that to you. Do you have a timeline of. When let me get with the team just to I don't want to give you a timeline. That's not. No. I. I understand the straightforwardness. I think that's important as we. Because I really look at this, this conversation we're having as three different parts. So there's data protection, there's ai, and then there's technology use in general. And I think some of this is getting convoluted, but we do have to have a larger conversation about it. Thank you chair. Yeah, and if I could add for you to Mike, MISS Thompson and also MR. Cervera. So thanks
389for the question and the explanation. MR. Cervera, as far as how you perceive the motion to be, the only concern I have is that we have a third of our teachers already on Magic School. They've been using it for over a year. So I think it would be a disservice to those teachers or anybody else who MAY be using a free service in the future, that we don't provide training to them. As far as the type of use they can have with it and how they can actually implement it with some form of fidelity and and impact to our students, since they're already using the free version of it. So I know those are probably the teachers that actually take advantage of voluntary training that we would put out there. If we continue that during
390the summer. And just to remind my colleagues and Doctor Hepburn and staff, the item did require that we passed several months ago around screen time. Did ask for a parent facing tool so parents could monitor and see how much time our students are spending on screens at at school. And that was supposed to be ready for the first day of school. So I just want to again lift that up so we can all so that that's a priority. MISS Bulman. Thank you. Chair. Yes, I think I think what we're hearing too is, and unfortunately there's a lot of pressure and time, but people I think we could avoid a lot of these troubles if we were communicating properly to the parents of what's happening. So the screen, the screen time, you know, the thing that
391we also discussed last week with making sure that the parents are informed of what digital programing that their students are using in the classroom. I also, we, we've discussed a couple of times about the ages of where we're going to focus on eliminating or reducing using screens. And I think that I don't. When is that going to come back to us too? Because I think that's. So I was actually planning on making some motions today around that, given the time constraint. Well, originally I was planning to bring that last week. I was asked to wait until we get more information. I was planning on bringing those motions today, but in the interest of time, I was. I'll still plan on bringing those items in JULY. Okay, so I think I think the sooner that we
392have an answer on that, the better it'll be for all of our parents who are concerned about this. Because if we're eliminating an age group where they're, you know, like repeatedly hearing from the public, the teachers, parental concerns, if we eliminate, you know, ages kindergarten through first or second grade, I think we're going to eliminate a lot of our trouble with this. So being proactive. Okay. So I appreciate that that's happening. And so I, I just have a couple questions about this as I have a. Point of reference ages that are going to be using magic school bus, is this every single student or is this just, oh, sorry, I magic school, sorry. Magic school. You know, get on the bus. Oh go ahead doctor, if you could detail the grade levels. Sure. So we're
393only limiting student access to middle and high school, and only when the teacher gives them access to it. Okay. So I, you know, again, I think if we. Message that and get ahead of the messaging, then we wouldn't have to have a 25 hour conversation about it because people are particularly concerned about their little kids and what they're doing. And the whole idea that you're not learning how to think properly and you're not getting the basics would not be a concern if you're not if everybody is sitting in the room, knows that we're not going to roll it out until you're in middle school. It's really a it's really a communication issue because if I've been sitting through hours and hours of this and I'm not clear on it, then there's a communication issue with
394that that we just need to bridge that gap. So also when we do roll it out, will this be mandatory for the teachers to use, or is this just something that they can choose to use? If they if this is a tool that they find helpful to in their teaching? So there are parts, I would say at the board's direction, because we heard also from board workshop and also in just some of our stakeholder groups that because the the changing fluidity of ai, that perhaps there should be some required mandatory training like we do with blood pathogens, that teachers have some training if they're going to be able to implement it in the classroom. So there's been a lot of discourse around whether or not the training in terms of just having access to it,
395to be able to do it becomes mandatory, or whether or not we just offer the training in those that don't go to training still have access to it. Those are some things we're talking through. But right now all of the training is optional. Okay. But the I'm talking about the actual use of it in the classroom. So it's not, this isn't going to be a mandatory tool if I'm a teacher. Absolutely not. I don't have to use magic. Absolutely not. So that's something that you guys are working on in terms of how we're going to train properly. In all ai liaison to receive full training. And so did all principals on JUNE 8th and ninth. They actually had pre-work in terms of developing a plan to roll it out to their teachers during pre planning
396week. And there's hot lab sessions scheduled. And so there's hot lab sessions scheduled for voluntary training over the summer. We have voluntary training. Historically for the past several years it's called seasons of learning. Okay. But again, I think communicating that this is something that a teacher MAY choose to use versus that this is going to be implemented in every classroom, would quiet some of the concerns about it, because I agree with some of the with my colleagues. I don't want to be left behind. I think it's very important that we keep up with the times, but the communication and the parents and the teachers understanding what's going on is going to just eliminate these problems. So I think the town halls are a very good idea. I would love to see a memo that goes
397out to the parents that explains this is what we're doing. This is these are the things that we've done, and this is how your, your child will be using it. And then obviously, because I haven't seen, I tried to go to the website, but I don't have a login or anything. So I can't really speak to how it works at all right now. So that's difficult for me when someone else is talking about it and has concerns, because I can't really tell them anything because we don't have that. So maybe we could all. Yeah. So that was a request that we made last week. So when can board members expect to have their student facing ai like magic school copilot access? Yeah. We can set it up just like we set it up for you.
398MR. Leonardi, I know MISS Thompson reached out to us and we got you scheduled. So if if we want to just do a blanket and say all board members, that's fine. If there are specific board members that want that one on one session, we're happy to do that. So they would reach out to you, Doctor Cohen, for that. Absolutely. Doctor Hepburn, are you. Yes. Okay. Could you maybe send us an email this. Absolutely. Thank you. An invitation. So we. And also MISS Bowman on JUNE 5th we did. That was our intent and our very first parent session where we orient parents with Magic School. There were several Magic School sessions set up to to do that. That was just the first. Our intention was to continue to do that. Okay. No, I think if you
399write it out and there's a and there's bullets of what's been going on, like how you intend to use it and just communicate because different people want things communicated in different ways. So it's easier for me to I would prefer it that way. Okay, so I, I really don't have an objection to, again, just to keep beating this horse to death. We already agreed to this last week. The only, you know, the only concern I have is that I don't want to get so drudged in, in kind of bureaucracy and accountability and, you know, thing deliverables that we don't ever actually use this program. So Doctor Hepburn, how can we avoid that? Or do you see anything in this list that would kind of put us in an interminable loop of. Not being able to
400move forward? No, I don't, we're in the summer. Right. As I said before, this has been a year's worth of of methodical approach with a lot of moving parts to get to that workshop. And that's what the workshop was for, to get additional feedback early in the summer so we can close all of those gaps for a better implementation this fall. Like, like DR. Zeman mentioned earlier, there's tons of school districts already using this. We didn't we didn't choose just to bring a contract and then just say, hey, here you go. We took a very intentional approach. And so that's why I have no objections to the item, because many of those things we were going to do. So it'll be easy to put a report together and address. Absolutely. Okay. And then my last
401question here is that it, you know, it says in the item and then on the the recommended action. It not only talks about magic School, but it also says any substantially similar artificial intelligence instructional platform. So. Does that create a problem for us? We don't have and correct me if I'm wrong, Doctor Cohen, because I saw this as more just magic school. We don't have any other suite that our students are using that are language learning model, where they're typing in prompts and things like that that our students are currently using. That's provided by bcc. I mean all of our EdTech software for years have always had ai embedded in it to for more of a, an adaptive function to kind of meet the students where they are and then start enhancing and increasing the
402rigor of, of the instruction that they're receiving on it. But as far as a magic school type or copilot type, language learning model, where you're typing in prompts and you're getting a certain response, we don't have a anything additional unless I'm wrong, doctor. But yeah, so I would, I would say in addition to what Doctor Hepburn saying, almost every support supplemental resource that we have that has a technology component does have an ai component. Even our adopted core has it. And so when read it,t, w was a ao aa litt concernrned t, becsese I knknow what pfeference magic scschool. But then it then to your point, it also extended to other ai related things. So I just need clarification. So I guess that would go to the maker of the motion. I mean, you know,
403because this is the kind of. Yeah. MR. Cervera and I use this to as a catch all. Gotcha. And my interpretation is. The that, you know, if there's something else you can catch, you can like in a nondisclosure or something like that, I, well, I think we need to clarify what that is. Yeah. Clarification is needed. My, my interpretation is magic school only or a type of instrument or resource like magic school. And we don't have any other. We might need to amend this to exclude basic programing that uses ai component. Because if it's a catch all, you're just going to shut every software tool down in the district, every last one of them that our students use because they're all embedded with some form of ai. So I would move to, to, I think
404we need to tighten that up. Yeah. I so if we, if it says, you know. Pause any Implementation, expansion, student facing use or mandatory teacher use of Magic School. Ai or any substantially similar artificial intelligence instructional. Not including generally used platforms that have ai component where ai is not the. I know it's not the. So I think. Like you could say student facing. Student facing. ai that directly communicate like interacts with students in a. In a. But anything that's playing with you is ai. I mean, so if it's reacting to your data and your input, I believe that's considered ai at this point, right? Yes. Maybe MR. Davis has a language or some. Got any language that can help us out there? MR. Davis. We're trying to narrow the field for this catch all language.
405So is this relative to the student facing. I think relative to student. Facing, I think it would be student facing. But also I don't want it to include any program that we're using that MAY have a ai component that doesn't have the same concerns that we have with a full ai, full ai programing. MISS Bulman, would this be around like ai chat bots? Is that maybe the larger concern. Is that the main point of our concern. Maybe general purpose chatbot ai, general purpose chatbot is the the language for Claude and Chatgpt and the like. Yeah. I mean, I think that's pretty, pretty generic. You have to be very cautious about going outside of that because, you know, you could be, you could have other applications that might have ai underneath. But so let me ask
406you this substantially similar, we that would have to come to us as a contract, right? So right now we don't have that. So maybe we just remove that part of it and we say you some magic school ai. What? I have a friendly, friendly suggestion. Yeah. So and it expands a little bit, but I think the title that we're voting on should be implement Requirements for Board Review transparency and Safeguards prior to district wide implementation of Magic School ai. So yeah, there you go. Just take out the substantially similar, I think that needs to come. Up, but that would be the item that we're voting on because I think it's really important that we are clear on not stopping or pausing. It's putting in safeguards and requirements and transparency. So I can repeat that if
407we. It's so similar. So we need to take. That out. Well, that's the whole title would be implement Requirements for board review transparency and safeguards prior to district wide implementation of Magic School ai stop. For the requested action. No for the the title and then the requested action would be updated with that. Okay. Is there a second? So could you just. So I have so we all have clarity. What is the motion. To implement requirements for board review transparency and safeguards prior to district wide implementation of Magic School ai? Is there a second. Second. Second motion made by MISS Thompson slash MISS Bulman and seconded by DR. Zeman. Public comment on the motion. No public comment. Board member comment on the. Oh, we have public comment, I believe. Repeat the motion. It's. Implement requirements for
408board review, transparency and safeguard. Prior to district wide implementation of Magic School ai. And is this a substitute motion? No, this is a regular motion. Go ahead with your public speaking. It's a regular motion. It's not replacing the hold. It's if you're not if we're not clear on the motion, please don't start my time. This is not about you guys. This is about understanding. I'm trying to. I'm not yelling at you. I'm talking through the chair because I don't understand why you guys don't want the public to start trusting you. Please just explain the motion. So we don't so we don't go back and forth with public speakers. I think, MISS Thompson. GOD forbid. We should do something human. Was. Maybe ai should replace all of you. MISS Fusco, this is your first warning. You
409don't, have you? MISS Thompson was very generous and repeating the motion, so I called for public speakers on the motion. Please deliver your comments. Please. Next time I stand up here, you guys video them so the public can see how they're disrespectful and don't listen. I'm back on the phone now. Nora, I want you to know if you can explain the motion when you get the chance to speak. I'm not talking. That's a waste of time talking. They don't listen. They all started chatting when I got up here. Disrespectful. Imagine if our teachers. Did it to the parents. And. The students. Any other public speakers? Board member discussion. DR. Holness. Thank you, MADAM Chair. So, board member Thompson, the motion you made is this under the item where if the school board votes yes, am
410I to assume that this is replacing that first bullet under. If the school board votes yes, the superintendent would be directed to immediately pause full scale implementation. Is that replacing that paragraph? What what your motion is? It is. But also the title, because I think when it gets headlined and covered, it's important to be clear on what actually happened today. Understand. So so your motion will replace the title in addition to the first bullet under if the school board votes. Yes. Okay. So. So I. Somewhat support the motion. And I personally would have preferred to. And doctor, and I'll ask you a few questions, I, I would have preferred to just get rid of that, that first bullet if the school board votes. Yes. So doctor, let me ask you a few questions. You mentioned
411that 90% of what suggested here is already been done. You're going to bring back a report and you can bring back a report as early as JULY. Is that correct? That's correct. Okay. So when you bring back that report, the board will be able to see all of the concerns that's being addressed. And the report will also, should this pass would address 100% of the concerns expressed in the prior motion. That's correct. Okay. So this is going to happen in JULY. So let me ask you a couple other questions. Do you have any intent or was there any intent to have the Magic School bus roll out to students during the summer? No, not during the summer. Okay. So if this is coming back in JULY and the board is going to look at the
412written report that you're bringing back in JULY. We don't need to. Why do we need to pause anything if or stop anything if it's not being rolled out to students at all because, well, here's my question. You're currently putting some things in place. Should it roll out to students in the upcoming school year? That foundation and that framework is already laid, is that correct? That's correct. You make a valid point. Okay, so there's no student facing or anything like that in terms of magics, right? You're just building the framework. Should the board approve it? It would happen in the upcoming school year. Correct. Okay. So the only piece that we're really missing is that report being 100% conforming to the suggestion by the prior motion. And that will come to us in JULY. If we
413have any concerns with that report, then we can address those concerns before it's rolled out in the fall. That is correct. Okay. So it would make sense to me that since we are not having any student face time, there is no rollout to student currently taking place. This is going to come back in JULY. Why do we even have to discuss? Or why do we have to include stopping and pausing of anything? We could just direct you to bring back the report in JULY and then we can make the decision. Then if we roll out or we don't roll out, isn't that correct? Correct. Okay, so board member Thompson I, I, I, I hear your motion. I'm not sure if there's any implication for pausing or any of that in your motion or if it's,
414if it's somewhat implied in there. It's the removal of that wording, because I think the removal of the pause or the stop is important so that the community understand what's happening. That's why I changed the understand. So, Doctor Hepburn, can you explain to us what you understand board member Thompson's motion to be as opposed to what's currently here? And I hear the motion, but I, I will likely support the motion, but I, I also believe it's not even necessary. We should just remove that whole bullet part and just direct for a report to come to us. But if you could explain what you understand emotion. To be. Thank you for the question. So I'll give it my best shot. For what I'm understanding MISS Thompson is proposing, as far as her motion is to make
415sure we have two separate lanes. One lane is specific to Magic School ai or any similar model that the district MAY be using, which we are not. You know, language learning models that require people to put in a specific prompt or question and get answers that MAY be not meeting the board's approval as far as what students are exposed to. And MISS Thompson is removing all the other software that we use that has the back end of ai used to continue to up the rigor for students, making sure they're continuing to continuously challenge every time they put certain information or answer a certain question a certain way. So if I'm. Go ahead, MISS Thompson, if I got you correct. So the the hope was to address the two concerns. My concern of being making sure
416we're transparent with the public about what happened, and then MISS Bowman's concern about it leaking into other things. So by taking out the pause or the stop addresses my concern, then limiting it and saying specifically Magic School, I hopefully addresses the concerns that MISS Bowman was bringing up and staff was bringing up about other ai functionalities. Yeah. Okay. So Doctor Hepburn will the will the motion on the floor somehow limit your continued framework development of the rollout of ai to magic ai to students in AUGUST? No, sir. Does it limit all the things that we plan on doing over the summer? Based on the feedback from last last week's workshop? Okay. So everything you're doing will continue regardless of this motion. Correct. Okay. And and board member Thompson, I just want to understand. So the
417motion would also imply that the rest of the item that's there in terms of the report that would continue. Yes. It's only changing not just for better transparency with the public on what's happening and to address MISS Bowman's issues, but the rest of the items as understand. So I think we we got there in different paths. So I, I, i will be supportive, MISS Bruno. I have a couple of questions. With the current ai framework being built out for rollout to students, are there any legal concerns that you have. As we build the policy, those legal concerns will be addressed. Okay. So the upcoming policies that you mentioned in AUGUST will address all of those concerns. So I just want to also mention, and I. Doctor Hepburn, have we done any type of as we
418are moving forward with magic ai, have we done any kind of student survey, teacher survey, parent survey regarding implementation of ai in Broward County schools? I have Doctor Cohen provide that information. I'm not aware of surveys. I know they've done kind of task force type settings for feedback. Yes. DR. Holness. We've done some surveys. We could do more specifically. Also during the JUNE 5th parent session, where we had a little over 150 parents register for it and they attended the sessions. We also collected survey data on their risk, their perception, and their reality of what the the goal and the plan was to deliver ai, including Magic School. We got a lot of feedback from them, 94.8% of the parents that attended found it favorable in terms of our our plan to execute Magic School.
419They attended a lot of the sessions that we offered. They wanted more. They wanted some q&a sessions. So that feedback we got from tons and tons of parents, we can do more. And so our plan is to offer more and more of these sessions. Okay, so Doctor Hepburn, here's what I would like. And you said that was 150/150 registered. And they are the ones who received that survey. Yes. Okay. Okay. So Doctor Hepburn, I would like it to be more far reaching as far as district wide. I would like to get and I, I don't necessarily have a timeline on this, but I think it would be valuable feedback to get from students, teachers and parents if we could do district wide and capture what their concerns are, how they feel about ai, you know,
420whatever the instrument is to do it. Because I think that would also be valuable feedback to us, not that it would necessarily change the course of how we implement ai, but I think it could provide added information that MAY be valuable to us. So I would love to see it to be more far reaching than 150 students or families. Yeah. And we have more. So there were there were parents, administrators and teachers at the sessions. And again, we started this since MARCH 2025. So we've gotten a lot of feedback along the way. Even though the contract for Magic School didn't get approved till MARCH, we were well on our way last year because we gave access to everyone to a magic school as a free version. So we have a lot of anecdotal data on
421Magic School and its implementation, and teachers who said that they really loved it and what it has already done for them. So I don't want the board to think that there hadn't been a plan. There isn't a plan, or there wasn't a plan because we actually rolled this out fully last year until it was board approved. And then from MARCH until JUNE, which is now consider everything that has been done. A policy has been created. We've had parent sessions, we have teacher training, we have credentialing, we've engaged students, we've engaged looping. So we've done a lot in just a very short period of time. No, I, I fully understand that. I guess what I'm looking for is as you roll it out, I want to know how students feel, how parents feel, how teachers feel.
422I am a parent of a student in Broward County schools. I want to receive one of those surveys. I want him to receive one of those surveys. When you roll this out, as far as ongoing monitoring of feedback, even though the feedback MAY be subjective, it would still be important, I think, for us. And lastly, MADAM Chair, you know, I, I, I did hear not very many, but I hear I heard 1 or 2 opposition to ai. And I will say this, you know, if you were to ask my dad, who is now 93 years old, about his thoughts on the internet, he would say, get rid of it. Right? While I respect his opinion, it doesn't mean he's right. Right. Because I tell you, if he if we get rid of internet, I would
423be out of business in many other ways now. Lily, Lily's generation, Lily's still here. Lily's generation is not our generation. You know, some of us would say the Lily get rid of ai. But I'll tell you this. Are we preparing Lily and her generation to survive and compete in her generation? Are we. Or are we sealing her fate and her peers? In terms of in terms of looking at at what we see as fit in through our lens? You know, I rather have foresight than hindsight when it comes to our our children. You know what I'm comfortable with? Maybe I'm not comfortable with ai, but I can't tell my son not to because his generation is not mine. And I have to have that foresight to make sure he and his generation can compete nationally
424and globally. So I think we have to have a shift in our thinking, regardless of how we grew up, because the way to compete is going to change and it's going to change rapidly. And so I am I am very supportive of ai for the interest of the next generation. And I don't want to look in hindsight and say, did we do them a disservice? I want to have the foresight now to know that we prepare them for the future. Thank you, MADAM Chair. Call the question. Question. All right. All in favor of calling the question, say aye. Aye. All opposed? Say no. No question passes with two dissenting votes. No. No. Four dissenting votes. MRS. Alhadeff, you have the floor. I'm ready to vote. MISS Hixon. On callili the question. n n on t
425thememememe.. H.H.Hahank you hate ask this, but could you read the the motion again just one more time? Sure. So to implement requirements for board review transparency and safeguards prior to district implementation of Magic School ai. Great. Thank you. So my question to that is changing the way it's worded now, would that allow us to continue teacher workshops and those teachers who are already using the free version to continue what they're doing? Yes. So the the only change is that part of it to take out the pause so that the public is clear on what is happening and to limit it to magic school ai. But every other item in MR. Cervera is item is standstill. Well, I appreciate that. That's I really need that information because when you read what it says here for MR.
426Cervera item, it. It would lead you to believe that they could continue teacher workshop. But when he discussed what this item did, he said it stopped workshops as well. I'm not okay with stopping the workshops, so I want to make sure whatever I'm voting for is allowing teachers to continue to take workshops as as they like. Not mandatory, but voluntary. And we've already been told there's 4000 teachers using the free version. I don't want to stifle that either. So I just want to make sure if I vote in the affirmative to your motion, that those two things can continue. Because based on what MR. Cervera said, even though that's not how the item reads, his original item would put a pause on those as well. So taking out the word pause allows them to continue.
427Everything else stays the same. Okay, great. Thank you. Anyone else, MR. Cervera? Thank you. Chair, a couple things. If you don't pause or stop this, what's the point? We're just going to keep doing what we're doing. Nothing's going to stop. You'll get a report. Apparently, you don't even want the board to be able to vote on it. So the whole teeth of this, the whole crux of this is for the full stop. It is for the pause until this comes back and we have that information. And I'm not going to beat a dead horse because everybody knows what my position is on this. But just know, if you vote in favor of this motion, you're effectively doing nothing. Now, I do want to close with this because maybe some folks weren't watching last week when
428I had this engagement with Doctor Cohen and with Manny on this. But we can try to sugarcoat this as much as we want. The reality is there was a 31% failure rate when you went through this on the teacher, the ability to flag teachers when inappropriate content was searched. You can try to say it wasn't that big of a deal. You can try to say this. You can try to say that you could put some sprinkles and cherries on top of it. But the fact of the matter is it failed 31% of the time. Now, I made a comment last week that I said I wouldn't want my son using something like this and having it fail 31% of the time. Manny, I heard you say that you were perfectly okay with your kids using
429this. Okay. That's fantastic. I'm not. And I have to imagine most of the parents, at least in my district, would not be okay with something like this failing 31% of the time and having inappropriate content reaching our kids. So if we want to take away the pause and we want to take away the stop, and we just want to keep going forward, and we'll get a report and Lord knows what we'll do with it, because apparently we're going to give it to the superintendent, and then he's going to decide what he wants to do, ignore the motion, do nothing. And when you go back to your districts, explain to your teachers, explain to your parents why you allowed ts to go forward, because I will sleep very soundly tonight knowing that I at least tried
430to put the kibosh on this. So I would urge my colleagues to think very hard and very long about this vote, because this will have real world implementation. And if you accept nothing else that I've said today in what seems like a 12 hour session at this point, just know the fact that Doctor Cohn and his team are telling you that this fails 31% of the time as is. Thank you. Thank you, MISS Thompson. I'm a little perplexed by my colleagues frustration because the entire item stays the same, minus the the possibility of the public being misled about what's happening. So I don't there was no motion that took away. There was a motion that failed, that took away the board power to vote on this. The the community meetings are still going to happen.
431The data analysis, all the protections that the board gave consensus on and MR. Cervera has in his item stays the same. What gets taken away is the ability to mislead the public on what we are doing. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else on the motion? All in favor of the motion to amend say aye. Aye aye. All opposed? Say no. No. Is MISS Rupert on the line? Yep. I was in now. Okay. So motion to amend passes with three dissenting votes from MISS Rupert, MRS. Alhadeff and MR. Cervera. We are back to the item. I have a list of round two speakers, and I also just want to make the public aware that we did have a workshop that was supposed to start at 330 that is obviously delayed, so I do have around two.
432MISS Hixon. Thank you. I'll try to be quick. First, I would like to ask through the superintendent, doctor Cohen, if you could please resend the email to the btu. You were asking for their input. It was sent to an email that they don't monitor. So if you could please get with the btu PRESIDENT, find out the proper email, resend it and ask them for their feedback. It's not asking for anything extra. You already did that. But there was some issue with the email you sent, so thank you for that. Also, I know we held an ai workshop recently and parents different people attended. Can you just give us a quick overview of what that feedback was from that? Sure. So we had about five different sessions. We had a main session which included keynotes. And
433thank you, MISS Leonardi, for being one of the keynote speakers where we had a panel discussion at that event where we had a parent, a student, a teacher and administrator actually do a round, a rapid fire q&a session that followed a breakout sessions that parents attended. We tailored the session specifically towards our implementation of ai. It included session topics such as bringing together Microsoft Plus, Magic School plus copilot Esq, strategic goals, and ai integration, supporting student success, and what is ai and how students use it. And those parents that attended those sessions, we asked them to rate the session with five different questions and parent responses. Overwhelmingly, 94.8% of the parents rated the sessions favorably. They wanted more sessions. The average parent average recommendation was 9.23 out of ten responses. So that gave us a
434positive indication that parents were favorable to the sessions. They wanted more of that, and they love the fact that we were engaged in the feedback, and we will continue to do that. Thank you. And the last thing I'd like to ask, I guess, reiterate and get feedback from my colleagues is about the having the parent university around ai, maybe adding, i don't know if we have an ai page on our school board website, but to do something on the website that has that question and answer, as was suggested by the one of the public speakers and maybe some social media. So marketing, for lack of a better term around ai and being having a way to garner some of the things that DR. Holness asked for. So I guess if my call. Do any of
435my colleagues have a disagree with that? We're good. Oh, well, I guess the board chair should ask that question. No objection. I just like to reiterate all of those things. So thank you. All right. DR. Zeman thank you so much, chair. I just want to kind of share some thoughts with colleagues and with Doctor Hepburn. I think one of the things we've learned through this exercise last week and this week is that there's much greater fear about ai than maybe we had planned, which means that even if we executed the plan exactly the way we intended to, with looping to some extent, with sending emails to, to people with doing parent sessions, teacher sessions, student sessions, you know, it wasn't enough. You know, the community has been very clear through this item and other communications
436that there is significant fear about anything related to ai. And we need to overcommunicate and then overcommunicate again in every dimension, every day of the week. About Broward County Public Schools powered by ai with humans in the loop, but making sure that there are both opportunities with ai and their safeguards to protect more than anything else, to protect the students that we have. So I'm just going to ask you, Doctor Hepburn, in my right and my assessment, do we need to communicate a lot more with our community and with our school board about ai implementation. Yes that's correct. DR. Zeman. And we plan on doing more of that. MISS Hixon, you asked for certain things that we already have in motion. We actually have our own url for Broward schools.Ai that we're going to actually
437prop up a lot of information for the community, parents, board staff, and anybody else that need additional information. We had a lot of forethought. As I said, this has been a over a year long journey, so it's been very methodical and very intentional throughout. So thanks. Thanks for the question, DR. Zeman. I appreciate that. Just as a quick suggestion, you might think about an ai chat line on the homepage of Broward County Public Schools and just let people walk right in and ask questions and learn all kinds of things about our policies, our meetings, where, what boundary they're in for different schools, anything they want to ask. It would save us a lot of time. I think we have. When I asked MR. Sullivan about this a while ago, 4000 pages worth of content on
438our website, that's just a lot. And a little chat window at the very beginning would let people drill through that in a second and learn a ton about who we are and how hard we work to, yoknow, try to fulfill our mission. The reason I ask that though, is, is, you know, we can't measure, you know, what we do by how hard we work or how many people we talk to. We have to measure it by what outcomes we achieve. And what we've learned from the community is one outcome we have not achieved is that they trust us to implement ai without lots of discussion about the tests that we did. Very clear, you know, descriptions about it. Rather than saying a test failed, maybe we could say it was flagged. And we have to
439be just really crystal clear about what all these words mean, because so many people are walking through this ai journey with us for the first time. And, you know, part of what we're going to do is, is help parents and help students understand what it is and what it isn't. And the better we communicate, the better we hear back from them that they actually heard what we needed to tell them. I think the better off Broward County Schools is going to be, but thank you very much for your attitude and for your staff's attitude today. This is a tough item, and we got through it, and I think we're going to chart a great path forward. Thank you, MR. Cervera. MISS Thompson. All right. Anyone else before we vote on the item? All right. All
440in favor of item 65, as amended, say I. I. I all opposed say no. No. We can we do a roll call, please? Roll call. Roll call. The item as amended. School board members. Hixon. Yes. Holness. Yes. Leonardi. Yes. Rupert. No. Thompson. Yes. Zaman. Yes. Alhadeff. No. Bowman. Yes. Cervera. No. To the watered down version. Six three item passes. All right. Could I get a motion and a second on item 64, please? So moved. Second. Moved by MISS Dixon, seconded by MISS Bulman. Public comment on item 64. No comment. Board member discussion on item 64. MRS. Alhadeff. This is the parkland land. Yes, yes. Okay, so I have a clarifying question. The $850,000 will go back to the city of Parkland, correct? Repeat that. $850,000 will go back to the city of Parkland. Kathy. MR.
441Bruno left 850,000, not the ones or. MR. Adams, do you have that information? I don't I don't know, that's in the. Through the chair. Let me take a look at the agreement to take a look at that provision. Okay. I'll move on to my next comment slash motion in the on page 34 in the Eagles Haven exhibit, I'd like to make a motion. So where it says purchaser has agreed to make a charitable donation. So I moved to add donation of $1.5 million. Second motion made by MRS. Alhadef, seconded by MISS Hixon public comment on the motion. Board member. Discussion on the motion. MISS Thompson. Can you clarify? I'm confused, MRS. Alhadeff. Sure. In the Eagles Haven exhibit on page 34, it now just says charitable donation, and I'm just being specific to the amount,
442which is $1.5 million. But my understanding from when we discussed this last week was that that donation was done through Broward Health, and we weren't a part of that. So I guess I need staff clarification. MISS Jack Adams. That is correct. That is an agreement between both of those parties, not between us. Correct. And but this is a an exhibit within this item, and it is separate from what we're doing in the contract. I'm just adding the specific number of $1.5 million. MR. Sullivan. Yes. Can we just perhaps table this item and go to the next item and then come back to this item once, MR. Russo and also the gcs back? Could I get a motion to table the item. Motion moved by DR. Holness. Seconded by MISS Bulman. Public comment on the motion
443to table the item. Board member discussion. All in favor of tabling the item, say I. I all opposed say no. No. Motion to table passes with two dissenting votes from MISS Hixon and MRS. Alhadeff. Could I get a motion and a second on item 46? Moved by MISS Hixon, seconded by MISS Thompson. Public comment on item 46. No comment. Board member discussion on item 46. DR. Holness. MADAM Chair, I'd like to recuse myself from this item due to potential conflict. Okay. Any other board member discussion on item 46? All in favor of item 46, say I aye. All opposed. Say no item passes unanimously. And thank you for my patience, for your patience with me jumping around. It's hard for me to see these check boxes. Could I get a motion in a second on
444item 29, we did item 29 already? Yeah, it was yellow. Oh yeah. Yeah we did. Yeah we did. Okay, so 3030. So moved. Moved by MISS Hixon. Second by MISS Thompson to bring item 30 to the the floor for public comment on item 30. No comment. Board member discussion on item 30. Seeing none. All in favor of item 30, say aye. Aye. Opposed. Say no. Item passes unanimously. Motion and a second on item 31. Second moved by MISS Bulman. Second by MISS Hixon. Public comment. No comment. None. No comment. Board member discussion. All in favor of item 31? Say aye. Aye. All opposed? Say no. Item 31 passes unanimously. Could I no on that. Oh, with so item passes with one dissenting vote from MR. Cervera. Could I get a motion a second item 33.
445So moved. Move by MISS Hixon. Seconded by MRS. Alhadeff public comment on item 33. No comment. Board member discussion. All in favor of item 33, say aye. Aye. All opposed? Say no. No, no. Item passes with two dissenting votes from MISS Thompson and MR. Cervera 32. All right. Could I get a motion and a second on item 64. So bring it back to the floor. So move. Moved by MISS Hixon, seconded by MRS. Alhadeff. We are back on item 64. MRS. Alhadeff had the floor. Thank you. So my first question is the $850,000 will go back to the city of Parkland. So go ahead. MR. Russo. He was. And he's coming back out. It is my understanding that no, the money does not go back. That is not a part of what is codified in
446this agreement. Will the Broward County School Board be giving $850,000 back to the City of Parkland? The director of Facility Planning real estate, the resolution that the city passed when the property was bought does not give the city. Can you turn up? I'm sorry, MR. Russo. Can you turn up the mike beacon? So the resolution that the city passed when the property was being bought said if the property within close on the buying of the property. The money will not be due to the city. So the resolution is very clear. I discussed that with the office of General Counsel, MR. Cooney. So the resolution as written today, the property was bought, will close on the property. I think the nuance is did we build capacity? We did not. We did not build a school. So
447the resolution has passed is not explicit. That's the e ly thing I can say. That's a resolution that was passed.D. llll rig dtotor heartbu that is absolutely not the understanding of myself as a school board member or the city of Parkland. That money is to go back to the city of Parkland. It was basically borrowed. We they lent us that money. So I don't know what he's talking about about a resolution or it's speaking in a way that can go either way. Absolutely not. I am flabbergasted right now that we're that we are even having this conversation right now. So this needs to be fixed before this is voted on. And the city of Parkland mayor Rich Walker, the city manager, they need to be notified about this immediately. Can I I just want to
448say it again. The resolution said if we don't close on buying the property, then the money shall be refunded. Okay, so the nuance was if we didn't build a school, so the money was given right towards buying the land to build a school. We didn't build a school, but the resolution said if there was no closing on the sale, there was closing on the sale in 2006. So I'm just stating what was in the resolution that the city passed, not the school board. So that's all I'm stating. I think MISS Alhadeff and MADAM Chair will need MR. Cooney and the general counsel here as far as interpreting that resolution from the city, they would need to interpret it based on their legal recommendation before we move forward. And I'm just saying that out of respect
449and good partners with the city of Parkland, that this is discussed with them and clearly rectified before this board votes on this, because I, I was not understanding. I was asking the question just to get the thumbs up, like, yes, this was happening. So I am really shocked right now. MR. Adams. Through the chair, I'm getting a copy of the resolution so that I can review it right now. And I don't know if there's a different strategy that the board can take. I know as far as the deal between Broward Health and Broward County Public Schools, it doesn't have anything to do with it. It's a little it's separate. So I don't know if we close this deal and then the board can make a different decision as a as a board corporate on settling
450or doing something different for the city of Parkland. And so I would I would extend that to the jcs office to see if the board can do something separate, because I know the. The deal before us right now is between us and Broward Health. MISS Hixon. Well, I think MRS. Before I go, missus Alhadeff had made a motion about adding something to the exhibit. I don't know that we finished. That's correct. That. So are we still on that? She has the floor. So I'll repeat the motion on amendment for the Eagles Haven exhibit, page 34, where it says purchaser has agreed to make a charitable donation of $1.5 million to the Jewish adoption and foster care options. Okay. dba Eagles Haven. So I, I think it's fine to put it in there. It's not part
451of our contract. It's just part of an exhibit. It could be in parentheses. So far it's not changing what our contract is. But I know MRS. Bulman had had a concern last week about how do we know they're really going to do it. So if it's at least in our somewhere in here, we know that they've said publicly that they're going to donate that money, but the exhibit isn't part of the contract. It's just like saying they're going to donate the money to that. I would also just say to the other piece, I don't think we should hold up the purchase by Broward Health for a discussion about the money going to parkland. I don't necessarily have a problem with if we owe them that money to give it to them, but I think they're
452two separate things, and I would hate to hold this up for that. I think we could direct the superintendent to bring that piece back to us and still allow this piece to go forward. So. MISS Thompson. Respectfully, I'm still confused because I think there's two different pieces. There's the city of Parkland, $850,000 piece that they had. And then the Eagles haven, by my understanding, was something different that they had agreed to the amount. So the amount wouldn't be the 850,000. It would be like, that's why I'm confused by the motion. The motion on the floor, sorry, motion on the floor is simply to add into that. Page 34. Eagles Haven exhibit that the donation is $1.5 million. That's the motion on the floor. MISS Bulman. My understanding on as of Friday was that the general,
453our General counsel and general counsel and counsel for Broward Health had come to an agreement that the documentation was sufficient for both parties to make the donation so that Broward Health had proper documentation. And then we did as well. Is that true? That remain true. Attorney Dupree Bruno. That's correct. We had a lot of conversation with regards to this contract and this negotiation. The language that is in the exhibit b is language that was negotiated between the parties, where you need to be very careful that we're not commingling the transactions. And that's one of the reasons that it's drafted the way that it is. And we also included Jafco. Originally, there was not going to be an exhibit b to this document at all because we, on behalf of the school board, need to be
454very careful. But Broward Health had some other legal issues that they need to address, and that's why we came to the agreement to attach this particular exhibit b, if you want to put on the record, based on our understanding that the amount that is being donated is 1.5 million, we can put that on the record. I've had conversations with them and they've confirmed with me, and I think it's even in one of my emails that they've confirmed it's $1.5 million. We cannot go back and redraft this exhibit. This is a negotiated language between the parties. So and I, I don't know, I see. MR. Oh. So if I can get MR. Sullivan to add. Yes. MR. David Clark's here from Broward Health, and I know he's happy to share publicly on the record the donation
455amount. If we allow him to come up to the mic, will the board. Good afternoon, commissioners. MISS Bruno is right. We've had extensive, extensive conversations about that exhibit. And in fact, to go on the record, the dollar amount is $1.592 million. That's what, in the spirit of fair negotiations with Jafco, that's the that's the actual number that we committed to. Okay. That works for me. Through the chair and the superintendent. I have a follow up that was sent to the board on FEBRUARY 14th of 2024. MRS. Alhadeff, you actually asked the question regarding the money, right. So the question. Was the school board the response we gave? Because your question was. Anyway, the answer we gave because I have the actual resolution quoted. So we said the school board does not have a contract with
456the city regarding the site. Rather, the school board closed on the site to buy the site in 2006 as a component of the purchase transaction, and then the city contributed 850. Right. So the city commission motion, I mean, I'm sorry, resolution said the City Commission hereby authorizes City Manager to release 850 zero zero $0 being held pursuant to the agreement solely for the purpose purposes of facilitating the closing of the purchase contract to enable the Broward County School Board to purchase the property as described herein, any payment or any payment shall be made only with the express understanding that if the transaction does not close, the 850,000 payment shall be returned to the city. So we closed on the transaction to buy the property. That's what I was stating. That's what the city motion said.
457So again, the city did a motion. The school board didn't do a motion. The city. I mean, I'm sorry, did a resolution. MR. Alhadeff. Okay, I, I don't agree with the angle that you're taking. This is taxpayers money that the city of parkland had given. The school board of Broward County $850,000 over 15 years, that money has sat with us. We're the city of parkland could have invested that money over the last 15 years. They were promised to have a school. We made the decision not to build a school there. And so now, as good partners with the city of Parkland, we need to give them back the $850,000. And I don't think this quivering of words, a resolution, not having the city of Parkland here to to speak about this is, is, is awful.
458This is not being good partners. So I don't know how we move forward right now because this is this is one this is one agreement, part of the agreement. And you see it in the background. History is speaking about the $850,000 contributed by the City of Parkland. We didn't live up to our end of the bargain. We didn't build an elementary school there. We're not building it. We're Broward County Public Schools is the one that's getting the $15 million. And so we need to be good partners with the City of Parkland and give them back their $850,000 that they have clearly invested with us for the last 15 years. So MAY I make a recommendation to the board, another two different transactions. I see the resolution. I need to digest it a little bit more
459and read it a little bit more thoroughly and talk to my team. With regards to the sale of the land to Broward Health, I don't think this is going to impact the sale. Now, what we do with the proceeds from that sale, I think, is what MISS Alhadeff is asking about. So maybe we move forward with the actual sale of the land, and then we'll come back with a follow up in terms of what is our legal obligation and what the board can do, and any recommendations we MAY have at that time. You still have the floor, MRS. Alhadeff. I would like that if we need to do that in a very timely manner and and have the City of Parkland aware of that item so that they can be here to speak about it.
460Because in my eyes, that $850,000 should go back to the city of parkland. Thank you, MISS Thompson. I was going to make a motion to direct the superintendent to and the general counsel to review this, because it happened in 2006, so long before I was here to review the legal agreement and then have the superintendent meet with the City of Parkland and come back with an item as soon as that can be done. MISS Bulman. Oh, sorry. I'm sorry. Motion made by MISS Thompson, seconded by MISS Hixon. Public comment on the motion. Board member. Comment on the motion, MISS Hixon. Thank you. I just can you add a time? Certain. So maybe by the JULY 28th school board meeting, bring it back as an item for us to discuss? That's fine. If both the general
461counsel and superintendent think it can be completed by then. I'll lean on the general counsel, because I know they have to do their own review and come up and interpretation. We have to review both the resolution and the actual contract, so I'm sure we can bring something back by July 28th. Okay. MISS Bulman. I think the protection that in addition to obviously getting the legal review, is that what we move forward with the sale, but we're not spending the $850,000. So that will be put away pending the determination of the parties so that everyone can feel comfortable with that. Can we add that. MISS Hixon, I had you on the list. No. DR. Holness. Yeah. MADAM Chair, based upon board member Bulman suggestion, I believe she wanted to inquire if board Member Thompson would like
462to add her feedback as a part of the item that the $850 $850,000 is reserved. I don't know if that's going to be from the sale of the land, but that it is not spent until we come back and have a discussion. It. Yeah, I can hold on. So my motion was to direct the general counsel to review all legal documents related to this $850,000, and then direct the superintendent to meet with the City of Parkland, and then also to hold that $850,000 separate until that discussion is brought back to the board. Okay. Board Member Thompson, just for clarification, when you say hold that 850,000, is it being held from the sale. It guys. But but is it being held from the sale or is it from the sale of that I just want so
463do you want to include that in the motion? Sure. Okay. So 850,000 being held from the sale of the park trails. Okay. Got it. Second. MISS Hixon. I just want to because that kind of made it a little confusing. It isn't that Broward Health is taking 850 from the sale. You're just saying once we get that $15 million, 850 is going to be put okay. Because it, the way it's worded could go a different my mind went a different way. So I just it doesn't affect the sale. This is something completely. Separate, but MADAM Chair, I just like to finish. So so the the understanding of the motion is clarified by board member Hixon. So that's my understanding as well. And that's what I'll be voting on. So I second the motion. Thank you. Anyone
464else on the motion. All in favor of the motion say aye. Aye. All opposed? Say no. Motion passes unanimously. MRS. Alhadeff. MISS Hixon. I just want to say thank you to Broward Health for stepping up to do this, for hearing the intent that we had for the community to make sure we could could make a sale of a land, but partner to make sure the community is strong and healthy. So and thank you to my colleagues for supporting it. Thank you. Anyone else? MISS Bulman. Thank you. I really appreciate that we were able to come to this resolution and check all the boxes in a creative way. Thanks. Thank you. Anyone else? All in favor of item 64, say I oh, as amended, say aye. Aye. All opposed? Say no. Item 64, as amended, passes
465unanimously. Could I get a motion and a second on item 35, please move by MISS Thompson, second by MISS Hixon. Public comment on item 35. No comment. Board member discussion. MR. Cervera. Johnson. Thank you, chair. Just want the public to be completely aware of what we are doing with this 250 million in short term tax anticipation notes. I'm going to regurgitate, I guess, the superintendent and doctor superintendent, you tell me if my understanding is correct after I've reviewed this. I believe the purpose of this is to address short term cash flow by borrowing to pay district operating expenses before our anticipated tax revenues come in for the next tax cycle. And I believe this is in conformity with Florida Statute ten 11-13, which basically allows us to negotiate these kind of loans, if you will,
466when school funds are expected to be insufficient during the course of a fiscal year. Is that summary accurate, sir? Yes. That's accurate. Okay. So we're basically borrowing against next year's tax dollars to pay for our bills this year. No, that part isn't accurate. I'll let MISS Johnson kind of clear the record. The cfo, of course, I apologize. I should have directed this to you from the get go. You the Chair? We do this every year. We go issue a ten note for cash flow purposes. This is how our revenue comes into the district as sometimes we're low until we get our tax revenue in DECEMBER start flowing in. So this is usual. So this is kind of like a liquidity short term borrowing type of resolution. And you've said we've always done this in the
467past. Yes. Okay. Whether we are financially strapped or not, we always borrow and we invest the money to make more money. Are there. On the rates that we can get the ten at a lower rate than we can actually invest our money. Understood. Are there any associated interest costs? Yes. Yes, there's interest costs, but it's a flat rate. Okay. What is that flat rate. I think it's around 5 million. But we usually invest and get like 7 million back. So it costs us $5 million to do this. Yeah. But we invest, we invest our money and we earn more money than we're borrowing. Okay. So by purpose of the investment, we'll receive ann roi ofof 7 millilion.O o it w wl l n n a 2 2 million,ororctct? Ok.. Thank you for the clarification, MADAM
468Cfo. And I'm not going to give you any credit, Hepburn, because you directed me to her. But thank you for answering the first questions to. Okay. Any further board member comments on item 35? Okay. Those in favor of item 35, say i. Aye. Those opposed say no. Okay. Item 35 passed. I need a motion and a second on item 36. Okay. Move by board member Thompson, second by board member Hixon. Any public comments? No comment. Very good. Any board discussion? Item 36. Okay. Those in favor of item 36 say I. Those opposed say no. Okay. Item 36 pass. Need a motion and a second for item 37. Okay. Moved by board member Bulman. Second by board member Hixon. Public comments on item 37. No comment. No public comment. Board discussion item 37. Okay. Board member
469Thompson. Thank you, Vice Chair. So I had a question about this item related to teacher costs in the classroom. We got an email JUNE 22nd that the teachers are being limited 1000 copies per teacher per month. Is this related to this item? And was that directive given? So yes, I'm going to turn it over to MR. Bradford. He'll be able to respond to the question. Good afternoon. Matthew Bradford, Executive Director of Technology Operations. Yes, that is a quota that we are looking to implement to help us with lessening our spend from a printing perspective. We've not put that in place yet, but we are looking to do that as soon as this item is approved. So then I have some follow ups with that implementation. Will teachers with additional class periods or larger student loads
470receive additional copies? We can look at that when it comes to those particular incidents. The principal has unlimited printing at that particular school. So if there are issues when it comes to volume, we can definitely address those on a case by case scenario. So who would approve that the district or their principal? The principal has the opportunity to actually have the prints from her or his location. But if there's any changes to quota, we we can definitely deal with those individually. So if the printer, if the principal sees that for that particular teacher, we can address that. They could just communicate with us when it comes to those needs. So would the process then be the teacher realizes that they need additional copies. They go to the principal. The principal then goes to you. The
471principal can print those copies from their stead if they need a quota increase for that particular teacher individually, we can deal with that as necessary. And then how will copies be accounted for if the copier jams misprints, or produces unusable pages? That's a great question. We can deal with that on a case by case scenario as well. But we monitor printing so we can know the number of prints per device. And so if there's any issue as far as jams or anything of that magnitude, we can address that as well. So should the teacher, if they encounter that problem just send an email to the principal. So there's documentation of it occurring. That doesn't necessarily have to happen. But they can easily do that. Okay. How will the district ensure compliance with 504 plans and
472IEPs that require students to receive hard copies of notes, assignments and instructional materials? Well, as far as that goes, there's no situation where the print prints can't happen at the school because even if that teacher meets his or her quota, the principal can still print whatever needs to be printed. If for whatever reason they exceed that that amount. Okay, so the concerns about like Ace and Cambridge programing assessments that are paper based, all that can kind of be circumvented by the principal is what I'm hearing. As necessary. Yes. So then if the goal is to have this quota, but then the principal can just circumvent it. Do you see any issues with that? I'd rather not give you my opinion as far as that goes. But at the end of the day, we want to
473make certain that we can manage as much as we can. When it comes to printing the print, the principal is a fail safe as far as that goes. If there are any issues when it comes to printing, printing is variable, right? So it ebbs and flows as far as individuals that are using printers. So it's not a situation where we've seen when it comes to usage that people just don't have the ability to print. We're just trying to do as much as we possibly can to curtail it as much as we can. And I understand, and I think just from an environmental perspective, it's good to have less, less printing and to know that there is that flexibility for them within their their school environment, I think will ease. Some teachers hopefully will ease some
474teachers concerns about it. Thank you. Thank you, MISS Hixon. Thank you. I also have a couple questions and I appreciate all of that feedback, because I can tell you as a teacher, when Kinko's was in business, I was probably their best customer because we had a limit on what we could print. But I have a question on the financial workshop, I mean, worksheet, so on. If originally this item was $15,500,000 and it was for three years, and then it says total invoice to date was $10,654 and 69 $654,691. So the unused, there's an unused portion, which is $4.8 million, and you're asking for 3.8 here. Which brings us to 8,000,008.6, which is about 2 million less than what was in the original ask for the three years. And I personally have concern with that because
475as we're discussing, using less screen time, that will then move into having to use more paper, because that's really what's been asked of us in the elementary level, not necessarily middle and high school level. I have a concern, but I, I know that it's possible if we don't have enough money for you to come back and ask us for more money, and I'm very environmentally conscious, so I'm not trying to just say we should we should use a lot of paper or plastic, by the way. But I, I just have concern that we're, we're looking to do less, but ultimately moving towards asking them to use paper more. So I hope that this is enough. If it's not, I hope that you will not lay it on the teachers to say, hey, there's no more
476money, but you would come back to us and say, you know, based on the changes that we're making in screen time and software use and all of that, that it's just they're more money needs to be put in there because it does fall on the teachers when you're, when you're limit is up, you go to Kinko's or wherever makes copies. Now, I don't, I don't know where they do it. I was never aware that principals had unlimited supply or how I could go to the principal. And I bargained with my my neighbors around me. So I just have a huge concern about how this affects teachers in the classroom if it's not enough money. So thank you. Thank you, MRS. Alhadeff. Thank you so. We're talking about paper being used at the school level, and
477then also paper being used at the district level right now for the money that's being asked what how much money is being allocated for the district? MR. Bradford I think she's referring to the 3.8. What's the budget for district versus the schools? Great question. Thank you for that. Question 3.1 is for the district overall inclusive of schools and departments. Let me give you the average spend. On average, we've spent $2.3 million as far as schools over the past three years. So if you look at that with the $3.1 million ask, around 800,000 or so is district related versus schools. Okay. So would I would like to I'm going to make a motion, the 800,000 to the district to cut that entire budget and have the district go 100% green using zero paper. And and keep
478the the schools at their 2.3 million. Correct? Correct. Correct. Because if we're never going. Yes, we're getting there little by little. But at the district level, we need to be more green and electronic and we have the computers. But if we continue to allow paper, like I'm looking over there, I see a stack of paper that's probably like a thousand sheets of paper over there. So you can't get people to change their behavior unless you just stop. Stop the money being allocated for the paper. So I moved to cut $800,000 from this item, cutting the entire district paper budget. Is there a second? There is a second. Motion made by MRS. Alhadeff, seconded by MR. Cervera. Public comment on the motion Board member. Comment on the motion. Sorry. Before we go to board member comment,
479MR. Sullivan. Yeah, I would have some concerns about a 100% zero. Now, a lot of our items from the board have to be signed physically. So school board records, having those type of records we would need to ability to print. And I'm sure my colleagues might want to jump in to. They might have a need for print as well, for legal reasons beyond convenience, but I can speak for school board records. We print a lot of documents that the chair and the superintendent have to wet sign. There's no ability to do that electronically yet, is my understanding. So I would have a concern zero on that out to to zero for the district. But just want to put that out there. MISS. MISS Thompson. I would also have concerns about Ada compliance and people being
480able to print. For those reasons. I'm fine with lowering the budget, but I think zeroing out. I have some concerns on implementations. Also, we print like proclamations, which we've been doing now a lot like. So our. Are we thinking staff are going to like, I just don't think zeroing out is actually feasible, but reducing it. I could be on board with. MISS Hixon. Thank you. I agree, I was going to say, I know there's a lot of legal documents that require a wet signature, so to zero it out completely doesn't make sense. I, you know, maybe cutting it in half or cutting it by a third and moving along to do that. I understand your point, and I don't necessarily disagree, but you know, education, education sometimes requires paper. And I appreciate you're not touching
481the school Budget. But people in this building are also doing education. Remember, there's a whole group of people that go out to do workshops and things of that nature. So I wouldn't agree with zeroing it out, but I would agree to some kind of reduction. Okay, so I'll amend my motion to leave $200,000. Public comment on the amendment. Okay. I just had I had a question with regards to this because I would very much like to not have to wet sign all of those papers in osb. R why is it that we can't do an. E signature, given that like I did that for my mortgage. I would have to get with the gc, but there's some documents that my understanding legally they need to be wet signed, but I can get with the gc
482to see if what we can streamline in terms of it being electronically versus signing it digitally. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I think to everyone's point, like to be able to, to start streamlining that and do as little on paper at the district as possible would be lovely. Any other board member comments on the motion? Oh, in Lily wants to speak. Okay. So the only concern I'm going to say with that, because I was going to ask about this earlier, is our ace classes as the exams for ace are completely on paper. They're not digital. And it is extremely important that our students practice strictly with paper because the actual exam is on paper, unless a student has a different plan for that. So that's just something I want to make sure we also consider with
483the printing, because I know that if teachers can't print the papers that you need for ace, that might hurt our students. This isn't touching schools, just the district. MISS Hixon. I'd like to make a friendly amendment to make it $400,000. Accept it. Accepted. All in favor of the motion, say I. I sorry, DR. Holness would like to ask some questions. I am so sorry. So through the superintendent. I just want to know. And I support reducing printing. But I also would prefer to have information as to. Based upon looking at all the departments and the needs and what needs to be printed versus electronic signature to have information that tell us, this is the bare minimum to which we could survive with, with not printing, because to throw out a number without data, I am.
484I don't know what the needs are because we haven't done a needs assessment on items that are absolutely should be printed versus those that can be electronically signed. So is this an item that is that has to be passed today or is or could we get information back on this? I believe we do have to pass it today. If the. MR. Bradford from incorrect to speak up, I believe with the reduction of the half for the district. We'll see if that works. And we could always come back and add more money or ask the board for more money. But I believe it does have to pass for the schools today. Okay. So so MR. Sullivan, with the $400,000 being here in this motion, can staff speak to that as to whether or not they anticipate
485problems? I mean, I, I don't want where you you run out of the opportunity to print and you have to wait 2 or 3 weeks for a board meeting that is now going to impact the functioning of the district, because I don't have any data. I am voting on something up in the air, just the number throw out there. I prefer to have information to make an informed decision. MR. Bradford, if you have anything to add, please. Thank you. Again. At the end of the day, we've not necessarily done an assessment when it comes to district spending when it comes to printing, but what I can offer as a suggestion, as we are putting quotas in place for schools and teachers, when it comes to a thousand prints per device, we can leverage the same
486type of quota when it comes to district spending as well district printing as well, to kind of see what that reduction would be versus giving a hard number, we can limit what's printed at the district level to kind of see what that looks like, and then we can communicate what the savings are on the back end of that. Okay. So so here's my question, right? I run a small business. If someone says to me, here's the money to run your small business, I can easily say, this is not going to work. I'm going to shut down in two weeks. What do you think is the number, besides what we're discussing here, that will allow you to function. Without doing that assessment? It's very difficult for me to give you. So no one knows but you
487but you. This item has a number in it, right? As far as district spending. Yeah. Yes. We're looking at around $800,000 that we spend annually when it comes to printing at the district level. Okay. So so you're looking at $800,000. We are deciding on 400,000, right? So how that's cutting it by 50%. Do you foresee any issues doing so? I absolutely do, but it's very difficult to know definitively without having an assessment as to. All right. So here's another question. The 800,000. Would you would you say that's excessive that that 800,000 is doing more than what you actually need? If we start to do electronic signatures on those that can be signed electronically. I mean, that that would lessen the the footprint from a printing perspective. But I wouldn't say it was excessive. Okay. So
488if we reduce the 800,000 because you sort of implied 400,000 might be problematic if we reduce the 800,000, what would not be problematic? Would 600,000 not be problematic. Again, without doing an assessment? It's very difficult for me to accept a specific number. Okay. So I, I it's very hard for me to make a decision and I wish we could actually come back with this item because we don't have information because staff is saying 400,000 could be problematic, 800,000 does the job. What's the in between? What what is the balance? I, I really don't know. I don't have information. MRS. Alhadeff. I think it's about changing behaviors, changing culture, and changing just lily nilly excessive printing. Again, I just look around this room and I see thousands of pieces of paper being printed when everybody has
489this computer in front of them that could be looking at the agenda. So if the board doesn't take a hard stance, then the behavior will not change. It will stay the same. Any other board member discussion on the motion. All in favor of the motion say aye. Aye. All opposed. Say no. No no. Motion passes with two dissenting votes. We are back to the item. Any other board discussion on the item. All in favor of the item as amended. Say aye. Aye. All opposed. Say no item passes as amended unanimously. We still have, I think, 21 items left in the workshop. Could I get a motion in a second on item 38, please? So moved. Okay. Moved by MISS Hixon. Second by MRS. Alhadeff. Public comment on item 38. No comment. Board member discussion. MR.
490Cervera. Thank you chair. Took a look at this agreement and I've got some questions regarding the student mental health data, parental consent, and some third party data sharing parameters that appear to be missing from this. First off, I want to make sure that I'm clear. Sullivan, you're sitting in a chair, so get ready. I'm ready. In reviewing this, it would appear that the the student data that's being collected and share is, is not, you know, your ordinary data that you'd receive in an educational software. My notes indicating t tt we'rere sharing studentt names, idid nbers,, bih d dates,enenr,r, r race, hnhnicity, grade level course assignments, parental email addresses, school information, class rosters, gpa, state test scores, unexcused absences, tardies suspensions, and responses to prior health screenings. What are. First of all, I think we can
491all agree that's a pretty wide, pretty broad data set that we're sharing with these folks. What exactly is being put in place that we feel comfortable with to protect all this data pursuant to this agreement? MISS Hollingsworth, do you have anything to add to that, or should I turn that over to general counsel? I was turning over back to general counsel. Sorry. Please excuse me. I'm reading the portion of the agreement that deals with education records. I would like to make a general statement that whenever a contract is being reviewed, it is always reviewed and approved by the district's privacy officer. And in reviewing the agreement, only the education records that are absolutely necessary for the contracts is placed within that contract. And then also in section 2.8, there is a vendor safeguarding of the
492confidentiality of the education records, and that is a very robust provision that safeguards each and every one of the records. It even has safeguards as to it security. Okay. So are your responses. It was looked at by a safety and security officer, presumably approved if it's gotten to this point. But nothing really out of the ordinary with this contract. Anything else? The way that we review our contracts, the privacy officer only includes the education records that are absolutely necessary for this particular procurement. So each procurement for each contract is different. And so these these education records that's listed in 2.7.2 are the education records absolutely necessary for this particular procurement. So you feel comfortable disclosing this much of our student data to a third party? MR. Adams. Ask that question again. Do you feel comfortable,
493based on the language of the agreement and the review of the privacy officer? I apologize. I improperly identify him as a safety and security officer instead of privacy officer. But you feel comfortable in releasing this data based on the privacy officer's findings and the text of this contract. So the privacy officer did sign off on this, and I'm looking at the provisions. And they are the standard safety excuse me, standard safeguarding provisions. And this these safeguarding provisions are very robust. It even has a provision in there with regards to disclosures and the safeguarding of those disclosures. I also noticed in this agreement that it expressly allows for terrorist metrics to disclose educational records and information to Midas Education, Inc. To create a dashboard for our staff to monitor the behavioral health and academic status. The
494metrics folks, the terrorist metrics folks are ultimately tasked with being responsible for how third parties comply with the agreement. But I noticed that Midas Education Inc. Was not a signatory to the agreement. My understanding is that a party is not a signatory to the agreement unless they are a third party beneficiary, and I'm not sure if that's what Midas Education's position is. But my understanding, if a party does not execute an agreement, it's hard to bind them to said agreement. So what can we do to ensure that Midas Education Inc. Is properly guarding this data? So through the chair, there is no privity between ourselves and Midas. The privity is between us and terrorist metrics, and within 2.8.3 liability, there is a full indemnity for the education records that we provide to them that they
495somehow mishandle, and then also into section 2.10 terrorist metrics takes full responsibility for any negligence or omissions. So our privity is with terrorist metrics. So if there's any type of impropriety, we would we would handle that with terrorist metrics. Well, that's a good that's a good segue into my last question. You mentioned an indemnity agreement. My notes indicated that the liability on here is limited to $1 million for a litany of instances, including a cyber breach, or I think they call it cyber liability coverage. Are you comfortable with only $1 million in coverage in the event of a cyber breach of this type of information with our students? Let me take a look at the liability. So there is an insurance provision with certain limitations. But the general liability and indemnity in section 2.25.2, there
496is no limitation. Okay. So perhaps I misinterpreted the contract. There is no million dollar cap on any of the cyber liability coverage under this agreement. In the event of a leak or breach. I see no limitation of liability in this agreement. Okay. Thank you for the the answers and well done. Just jump in there and be put on the spot. I appreciate you. Not a problem. Any other board member discussion? Just a quick one, chair. Go ahead. DR. Zeman thanks so much. I noted in this contract, when I read it before, that there were 55000 students covered, which 162,000 students will not be covered with this capability. MR. Sullivan. MR. Hollingsworth, if you don't mind. Good afternoon. Simone Hollingsworth, chief student services officer, DR. Zeman the 55,000 students we identify through the data sets of
497the schools and students that have the highest sra and Tas. So that's how we're identifying those, those tier one really, truly in the other direction, students. And looking at the 162,000 students in regards to really early intervention, prevention and identification, other ways, because we want to make sure that all individuals can identify warning signs of our students. So these are really for those schools and students that we see as needing a higher level, so we can connect them with more intense resources. Terrific. Am I right, Doctor Hollingsworth, that this is limited to 15 sites, or is it really for all 224 schools that we have? Well. Sorry, my microphone went out. We do target 15 schools, but we have the ability because it is parent consent driven. So if we don't use those 55,000 site
498licenses, we can look other at other locations. As we organize that with the schools. I'm sorry. Just just to be clear, this contract does not limit us to 15 schools. Correct. We identified 15 schools, but we have the 55,000 site licenses. So we can we try to start with the schools that have the highest sra and PTAs. But then we will expand because we want to be able to, you know, utilize and engage with as many students as possible per their parent consent. Okay. I don't like the way the contract reads because it doesn't sound like, like, like you have more than 15 sites, but I will take your question at face value. Thank you very much. Thank you. MRS. Alhadeff. Could. We get a list of the 15 schools? Yes, MISS Hollingsworth. We can
499do that. Yes. Thank you. Anyone else? All in favor of item 38? Say aye. All opposed? Say no item passes unanimously. Could I get a oh, before I do that, I do need to take a entertain a motion to extend the meeting. I would say an hour moved by MISS Bowman, seconded by MISS Hixon. All in favor of extending the meeting? Say aye. Aye. All opposed? Say no. So motion to extend the meeting by an hour. Passes with one dissenting vote. Two dissenting votes. No, not I'm not dissenting. I'm just wondering what's going to happen with our workshop. Did we decide on that? We have to go to that when we're done with this meeting. Yes. Okay. Okay. With passes with one dissenting vote from DR. Zeman, could I get a motion, a second on
500item 40, please? Moved by MISS Thompson, second by MISS Hixon. Public comment on item 40. No comment. Board member discussion. All in favor of item 40? Say aye. All opposed? Say no item passes unanimously. Could I get a motion? A second item 42 moved by MISS Thompson, second by MISS Alhadeff. Public comment on 42. No comment. Board member discussion. MISS Hixon is saying that 42 was withdrawn. It was added. Board member discussion on item 42. MISS Hixon. Thank you. I this was, I believe, supposed to be withdrawn along with all the other software things. Doctor Cohen, can you. Do the. Do the Chair. Give me one second. Just looking at the list of the items that were supposed to be withdrawn. No, we withdrew 41 but not 42. Unless, Doctor Cohen, you have something different.
501No. And I have Richie Baum here that can speak specifically because I know that the ones that you identified were questions pertaining to the surveys. But we can if we need to go back and withdraw them, we can we can vote against it and bring it back. MISS Hixon. Okay, because I have the same concern on this one that that I had on other ones. So if you look at the financial worksheet, it says that the unused spending authority authority authorized spending is $90,000, that they only spent $900 on this item on. So that's an average. Yeah. So and one of the things I want to do is thank you for bringing that to our attention, because that's something that I think we're taking back as a team to revisit because you're absolutely right. If
502the board approved an original amount and we only spent a certain amount, then technically it is we still have that amount moving into the next year. If the contract still is in play for the next year. And I believe, Richie, if you. Yeah. So what we can do, because I believe some of the items. The contract actually ends now we'd have to bring a new contract to the board, which means that we'll have to do a little legwork on the back end to do that. So I'm fine with taking this off, voting it down, and we bring it back. Okay. And I'd like to ask MISS Johnson, because this was a question we had. So if there's spend authority and the contract ends, what happens to the unused authorized spending? Where does that money go?
503It flows back into the fund balance. So that would increase what's available in our fund balance. So possibly at the end of the year it would be higher based on that because that money does get set aside. So it's counted as spent already. Or do you wait? There was a whole issue between authorized spending and then coming to us to actually spend it. So if it's in a budget and they don't spend the total amount of the contract, it goes back to the fund balance. And then when they come back based on their budget for the next fiscal year, we have to see if budget available for that spend. Okay. Thank you. So I personally, I think this should have gone with the other. They all have the same issue. So I, I guess, does
504it make sense to table this and bring it back with all the other ones or just vote it down? I don't. Know. I'd like to make a motion to table this item until the JULY 28th School Board meeting. Second motion made by me, seconded by MISS Thompson. Public comment on the motion Board member. Discussion on the motion. All in favor of the motion, say aye. Aye aye. All opposed? Say no. Motion passes unanimously. The item is tabled. Can I get a motion? A second on item 43, please. Second move by MISS Thompson, seconded by MISS Hixon. Public comment on item 43. No comment. Board member discussion. All in favor of item 43? Say aye. Aye aye. All opposed? Say no item passes unanimously. Could I get a motion and a second on item 44. Second
505moved by MISS Thompson, second by MISS Hixon. Public comment. No comment. Board member discussion. MR. Cervera, all in favor of item 44? Say aye. Aye. All opposed? Say no. No item passes with one dissenting vote. MR. Cervera, could I get a motion? A second on item 47, please? So move. Motion made by MISS Bulman, seconded by MISS Thompson. Public comment on 47. No comment. Board member comment. All in favor of 47, say aye. Aye. All opposed? Say no item passes unanimously. Could I get a motion to second item 48. So moved. Move by MISS Hixon. Seconded by MISS Bulman public comment. No comment on the remainder of the agenda. Thank you. Board member comment. All in favor of item 48, say aye. Aye. All opposed? Say no. Could I get a motion? Sorry. Item 48
506passes unanimously. Could I get a motion and a second item 49, please move by MISS Hixson. Second by MISS Thompson. Public comment. No public comment. Board member discussion on 49. All in favor of item 49? Say aye. Aye. All opposed? Say no. Item passes unanimously. Could I get a motion on item 50? So moved. Move by MISS Hixson, second by MISS Thompson, board member. Discussion. All in favor of item 50? Say aye. Aye. All opposed? Say no. Item passes unanimously. I have a question to my colleagues. Would we be is can we identify the items that board members will be pulling so we can group them together and pass them? MRS. Alhadeff. 63. MISS Hixon. 54 and 55. Anyone else? MR. Cervera. 54 and 57. And 57. Any other items that have. So I've been
507told that board members would like to speak on 54, 55, 57 and 63. Are there any other items that board members would like to speak to? 5252 anything else before I start grouping them? Okay. So could I get a motion on items? 51, 53, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62 Moved by MISS Hixon. Second by MRS. Alhadeff. There is no public comment board member discussion on the items that I just named. It was again, 51, 53, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62. Seeing none. All in favor of those items, say I all opposed. Say no items passed unanimously. Could I get a motion and a second on item 52 move by MISS Thompson, seconded by MISS Bulman public comment on not seeing no public comment. Board member comment item 52. Chair. I asked to talk on this
508DR. Zeman. Thank you so much. This and the substitute teacher contract are real opportunities for us to think a little bit differently. You know, we hire contracted substitutes and we hire contracted speech language pathologists because we have to. And a couple of years ago, we tried to give a bonus to SLPs and see if we could recruit enough of them. My only request to the superintendent would be that we try and think a little bit holistically about, you know, particularly the SLPs. Did we not increase their pay enough for those that work for Broward County? Are there other opportunities, like paid internships for the college? I think they would be graduate level SLPs that need to do internships somewhere, but just spending $17 million to hire SLPs, while it's critical to our students, seems like
509a very expensive thing to do when we know that by increasing their pay, we did get more SLPs hired and we were able to pay a much closer to market rate for those. So the only thing I'm asking from the superintendent is just respond back within a month to the school board with any ideas or amendments that you'd like to make that would be analytical about, you know, what are the other things we could do that might not cost us $17 million? So that going forward, if the school board needs to increase the bonus or increase the additional salary needs to fund internships that we don't fund before, it needs to think differently about how we market Broward County to graduates of graduate programs from SLPs. I would just like us to get a good
510kind of human capital analysis of this so that we know that $17 million is really the best way to go. What this leaves us with is $17 million worth of contracted SLPs and, you know, a bunch of money that pays Broward County SLPs. And that's a real problem because they compare each other notes with each other. If one is paying more than the other, one has a little bit better benefits than the other. Often what you'll see is, you know, Broward County Schools slp leaking over to the contractor side, maybe because the pay or the benefits or both are better than what we're paying. So the only thing I'm asking for, superintendent, is in a month, if you could get us some information on whether or not there's a better way to do this long
511term, given that we made this change a couple of years ago. Yeah, we can go ahead and do that. I know the team's been working hard on this issue. There's some challenges, but we're happy to provide different opportunities or ideas to the board. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. MR. Sullivan. Any other board discussion? All in favor of item 52, say I, I all opposed say no item passes unanimously. Could I get a motion and a second on item 54, move by MISS Hixon, second by MISS Thompson. No public comment. Board member discussion. MISS Hixon. Thank you. I appreciate the the spirit of this, but I know that we are looking for master planning and I really don't want to to mix into that before they get all of this information and direct the superintendent
512to do things that we don'tnow make senen. So I appreciciate t tha We want touiui somstatee o thertrt replacenentchchools as we consolidate campuses, because we've been talking about it. But I, I personally am not ready to make a directive to the superintendent until we have a master planner in place. And we've looked at all of the pieces first. So thank. You. Thank you. And I know this is DR. Holness item, so I don't know if you wanted to speak to it. DR. Holness. Thank you, MADAM Chair. And I also because I had some discussions with staff as well. So if the superintendent, I would love for him to be here, if he can be to provide some input. So if. But this particular item is, is basically, as we continue to redefine schools to, to
513look at the possibility of utilizing some of these schools for building state of the art schools, I've had a thorough, detailed discussion with staff, including the superintendent. And so I'd like to also have the superintendent give his input on it as well. The goal is for us to continue to not only redefine schools, but to come up with initiatives and plans to attract students to Broward County. So while we're doing this simultaneously, we could be looking at opportunities to, to, to build new schools, state of the art schools that would be competitive and could attract more students to Broward County. So that's the that's the intent of the item. And like I said, I've had discussion with staff and we've had some adjustments and changes based upon staff input. So if the superintendent could speak
514on it, I think it would add a little bit more substance to what what the item intends to do. So I believe he'll be here shortly. MADAM Chair. I'm phoning a friend. He's coming. Could I make a oh, whoops. He made it in time. What was the question? DR. Holness? Could you repeat your request of the superintendent, please? Okay, doctor Hepburn, regarding the item 54 in terms of building state of the art schools, as we go through the redefining process. You know, I know we've we've had some discussions, so I wanted to know if you could expound on some of the discussions we've had. And as I was putting together this item and taking staff input as well to consideration and the feasibility of doing so, as I said, the intent of the item is
515to not only redefine schools in terms of repurposing schools. Some of them we close, but to look at opportunities where we could build state of the art schools and attract students to Broward County schools. We are redefining because we're losing students while we're losing students. We need to have simultaneously initiatives that will attract students. So we can't just be reactive to redefining. We have to come up with opportunities that will bring students back. And just imagine, as we're redefining, we're building great state of the art schools in Broward County. This is an opportunity, I think, for us. So, Doctor Hepburn, if you could. Yes, absolutely. So the the item actually definitely aligns with some of my expectations with redefining. And also in conjunction with our new capital program that will be coming on board with
516the different bids out for long range master plan or program manager, slash strategic advisor, construction managers and cost control. So with the long range master Planner and the program manager working together, as I've said before to the board several times, there's going to be a grand holistic plan for the district, and it's going to redefining is going to move beyond enrollment as far as being one of the main variables that drive us making considerations about what we do with some of our schools. It's going to be age of facilities, which we talked about Margate as one of use case last week, where we can't continue to pour money into 1960s and 1970s buildings when we know they're going to continue to crumble, even when we renovate portions of those schools. So this definitely aligns where
517that master planner is going to come to the board and say, hey, we can't continue to pour 20, 30, 40 million in this. We need to consolidate and pick a site to build a new replacement school, state of the art replacement school with all the bells and whistles of modern times, so that our students get what they deserve in a modern in a modern facility. So yes, absolutely. This this, this aligns. Okay, so, Doctor Hepburn, do you foresee any concerns with having this item being passed as far as your goals for redefining. Do you believe this is supportive of that goal and also winning students back or possibility of increase in student enrollment and at the same time provide the initiation of in having great facilities in Broward County? As we move through this process
518year after year? Yeah. So this definitely aligns with goals and expectations that I have overall for the district, we're going to have to build new facilities. One of our biggest issues is aging facilities that cost a lot of money to renovate. And when they start tearing down walls or digging in the soil, we find a lot of unforeseen circumstances that, you know, increases the cost. And so building new state of the art replacement schools is going to help retain enrollment and also recruit because people want, you know, shiny new buildings. I think for many of our neighborhoods where we do have see a impact for charter is you people look at the facilities first and then they want to walk into those doors versus looking at some of our buildings that are built in the
5191960s and 1970s. So I know this definitely aligns with our goals and expectations as we move forward, because the redefining initiative and the new capital program strategy are going to converge real soon. Once all of the solicitations are done and come to the board for approval, and then that master plan, working with the program manager and strategic advisor, will come to the board with an overall holistic plan about next steps that we need to consider. And it's going to include state of the art replacement schools. Okay, so there there is no timeline in this item. It is really a great opportunity and I believe would be a missed opportunity if we don't proceed to support. As you've heard from the superintendent, I this would be a great additive to our redefining process and to improve
520in our school district. So I'm hoping the board members will support this item. It has no timeline. It is in alignment with what we're trying to do in winning back students and increasing student enrollment. That's the goal of Broward County Schools for my children and hopefully my grandchildren, that they can see wonderful schools coming up, and we have an opportunity to start that now. So I'm asking if you would support it. Thank you. Thank you. Any other board member discussion, MR. Chair? MR. Cervera and then DR. Zeman, you can go. Thank you. I want to thank MISS Hixon for her comments, which I fully agree with. And, MR. Superintendent, how are we paying for all these fancy schools? We. So when the time comes, we do have more borrowing per than we've had in the
521past because our debt ratio is is going down tremendously. So we have opportunities to go out for cops. And this is very advantageous to us to do so when it comes to for full on replacement schools versus piecemeal. So we're going to borrow money to build new schools. Correct. That's a possibility in the future. And that's what we've done in, in that's what every school district does in anyway, is use cops to build new facilities. And if we're still operating at $100 million deficit when it's time to build these schools, are we still going to go out and borrow? So that is different. This capital dollars, you're talking more about general funds when it comes to some of our financial constraints. Is it wise to borrow any amount of money in that. It is wise.
522When you're operating at that type of deficit? So I will tell you what the wise thing is to do the wise thing, and I'll use Margate as a test case. The wise thing is not to pour 20, 30, $40 million into renovating a school that's going to continue to fall apart, and you're spending more money year after year, when that same amount of dollars over time could have bought you a brand new state of the art school that needs less maintenance, that is more efficient, has all the bells and whistles to do what you need to do to support student learning. Hypothetically speaking, and we'll stick with Margate Middle since you brought it up. Yep. If we were to build a replacement school to house the Margate Middle kids, how much do you anticipate something
523like that would cost? I don't know, exact figures. What are we with new middle schools these days? Probably about 60. About 60. 80. Through the chair Mark Dorset, task assigned chief facility officer. The overall cost. Right now, average cost is about anywhere from 90 to 120. But but again, there was money set aside for a cafeteria building. So it offsets some of those dollars. So again, in your hypothetical, I hate to pick on Margate Middle, but you brought it up in your hypothetical. It'd be better to build a new middle school for $120 million than put $20 million into the current structure we have in Margate. Well, correct, because you're building a new building, but you still have this 1960s building and the infrastructure of that 1960s building will continue to erode, continue to need
524maintenance. And then eventually you will be building pieces of that 1960s building because the framework isn't up to par anymore for, for use by our by our students. So now we've got to think about life and safety issues. So we, we just can't continue to pour large sums of money into those old buildings because let's say over five years of that time of pouring all that money you've built, you could have built a brand new school. So let me ask you this, sir. We all know what the data shows on declining enrollment. Are you looking for an upward swing in that before you would start something like this? No. So the plan would be. So you have several under-enrolled schools, right? And all of them are 1960s and 1970s facilities. The. Or you could have
525a school at capacity in several Under-enrolled schools. A plan would come to the board that says, hey, all three of these right now, the fca, the facilities condition assessment, say we have $10 billion in deferred maintenance. We're. Are we going to spend $10 billion or even a couple of billion dollars on renovating old schools? And so you would consolidate schools in order to build a larger replacement schools to accommodate all of these small schools that we would normally close. And then we would, because right now we're closing schools and putting kids in the best facility we have right now. You would close schools and put them in a state of the art facility. So you would you would decide what school to tear down and use that space to build a replacement school. And those
526kids who were at the site that were building replacement schools can swing into one of the other schools temporarily while we build that school. And then you swing everybody into that space, and then the district has the opportunity to decide what they do with that, with the land or the or the actual buildings to continue to garner revenue for me to sell or either from lease. So there's a lot of strategies you can implement. So the declining enrollment numbers, which I guess it depends what media outlet you want to believe for next year, are looking bleak. I mean, you know, that I, I know that as well. So under this proposal, you'd pay no attention to whether or not there was an upward tick in enrollment. Right. It almost your in your scenario, it almost
527doesn't matter. Right now in some in cases it does. In some cases it would not because you're looking at the age of the building. I'll take for instance, Stranahan High School. I'm just having an honest conversation with you. That school should have been torn down a long time ago and rebuilt a long time ago. That is a pre 1960s building that. Over time, the district has put a lot of money into. And probably by this time, that amount of money could have built a replacement school. It still has students. You would have to decide where to swing them in and build a school that's comparable for the size need of the students. So we do take student enrollment into account when you're building a replacement school. But if you have several elementary schools, which is
528the case when we're talking about most of our schools that we're proposing to close or have closed elementary schools, you have a cluster of elementary schools in a small radius. Some MAY be at capacity, some MAY not, but all of them are built around the same ten year window. And is the board going to put 100 or $200 million in renovating 5 or 6 schools within that cluster? Or do you decide to build a replacement school or two and put and, and fill it up at capacity at a state of the art school? So those are decisions the board has to make come in the future. So I'm not going to put on record whether or not I think Stranahan should be torn down or not, but I certainly appreciate your explanation. Thank you. Thank
529you, DR. Zeman. Thanks so much. And I appreciate Doctor Holden's bringing this item and Doctor Hepburn's comments. There are a few other instances that really align very well to this to this search for state of the art replacement schools. We have places like downtown Hollywood and downtown Fort Lauderdale. They're building thousands of units. Downtown Fort Lauderdale is already built, 7500 condominiums. They have another capacity for 7500 more downtown Hollywood, 4000 units. In Fort Lauderdale, we have a single affordable housing project that's going in with 4000 units. So 1200 of them are going to be affordable housing. If, in fact, we can look ahead at that growth. And now people with children are moving into condos, not just single family homes, for a whole bunch of reasons. We could create a new facility near some of
530these new densities. While overall population is going down across Broward County, there are still pockets where there is growth coming and we can see where it's coming. The Live Local Act is a big deal. And again, like with the Galleria, like with Downtown Development Authority and Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale, there are just thousands and thousands of units being built, and they come with children now more than they ever did. I also believe MR. Cervera point that we should be very mindful of the demographics. If you look at the birth rate in Broward County over the last five years, it continues to track down, well, guess what? People born this year are our kindergartners in 2031. So we have a pretty good lead indicator of this enrollment continuing to climb. But we also have thousands and
531thousands, tens of thousands of affordable housing units being built in Broward County. And that's going to attract people if, in fact, we have great schools and companies come here and people want to come here because we have great schools and thousands and tens of thousands of affordable housing units, there is an opportunity to make the economics work the other way. Affordable housing. People like living in condominiums and vertical buildings. Within a mile, you have a beautiful elementary school leading to a beautiful, highly rated middle and high school. You could see pockets of growth while at the same time overall decline in it. So I just wanted to compliment this item. I think there's going to be a bunch of interesting thoughts that come out of the master planner, but some of them are going to
532actually be growth, whether it's Doctor Hepburn's model of, you know, seven elementary schools become three rebuilt or three elementary schools become one rebuilt. Or it's the model where we follow the affordable housing units, because we know that could and will very likely generate a pretty big student load. I think there's a cool opportunity to build, while at the same time, we're closing schools where there aren't going to be enough students to fill them up. So I appreciate this DR. Holness, and I look forward to the master planner working on this and coming up with very hyper localized, you know, zip code level plans where we know we can attract more students and reverse this decline in enrollment by, by building some great schools where we know there's going to be an ability to have more
533children show up. Thank you, MISS Thompson. Thank you, chair. Thank you, DR. Holness, for bringing this item. I think I am really excited about it because I think all of us as a board knows, know that there needs to be rebuilding of schools. We actually last workshop gave consensus on Margate Elementary to to staff and then just build a whole new building. So I don't think this is jumping. This is getting ahead of ourselves in our redefining efforts. In fact, I think it's bringing a positive angle to what we are doing throughout the district. So when we which is the same approach we're taking with Glades conversion to k through eight, like, yes, there's going to be a school school impacts to that. However, you're going to get a better facility with access to indoor
534recess, to gym, to band room and all that. I think it's about making sure the public knows that we are forward thinking, that we are going to build facilities that meet the need of today and tomorrow's students, and also just generate some excitement, because the reason we're having to close schools is not about us having bad schools. In fact, the majority of Broward families still choose us. It's more just this enrollment issue. So I appreciate the positive spin on what we're doing, and I look forward to approving this. Thank you. Any other board discussion? MADAM Chair, I'd just like to summarize. Thank you. So, you know, when I decided to bring this item, I can tell you I, I wasn't so much even thinking about myself or my children. I'm thinking about what will our
535district look like 40 years from now, 30, 40, 50 years. So there's foresight. So this is not even about me. When we look around Broward County, we see aged schools. How long are we going to continue to operate like that? Are we leaving this place better for our grandchildren, our great grandchildren? We'll we'll be gone. But are we leaving this place better? And so I don't want to sit back. If I am granted the opportunity to become an old guy, to sit back on a rocking chair and said I could have done something different, and to see my grandchildren or great grandchildren going into these type of schools. And there are some communities that have recently built schools, but there are others that have significantly dilapidated age schools. And so we have an opportunity, I
536think, to add this to our initiative here as far as redefining and get something really positive out of it. So, you know, that's that's the intent of the item. And I, I think that we will all look back and we will be very pleased with the decision we make when we start to see these wonderful state of the art schools for the next generation of students. I think every parents in these communities will be happy. So I a hopinin everyoyone supuprtrts t this becse ths fesigight. I d't'tikee to be looking in hindsight to say we should have done this or that. So this is a great opportunity to make a difference while we are moving ahead for generations to come. So I hope you all support it. Thank you. Thank you, MRS. Alhadeff. So I
537think we should add also the master planner, so informed by the recent facilities condition assessment and advice from the Master Planner to the item. That's my. Okay, I, I don't have a problem with that, but Doctor Hepburn, do you want to weigh in on that? I just want the item. I just lost it. 5454 I just want to take a look at the language again. Yeah. I don't see a problem with adding the master planner there. Okay, so I am, I am okay with including that addition. Is that. I made a amendment. Amendment to the motion. Yep. Okay, so. Second amendment made by MRS. Alhadef, seconded by DR. Holness. Public comment on the amendment. Board member discussion. Seeing none. All in favor of the amendment, say aye. Aye aye. All opposed? Say no. Item pass.
538Amendment passes with one dissenting vote from MISS Hixon. MRS. Alhadeff, you have the floor. I'm good. All right. Any other board member comment on the item, as amended. All in favor of the item as amended, say aye. Aye. All opposed? Say no. Item as amended, passes with one dissenting vote from MISS Hixon. Could I get a motion and a second on item 55 move by MISS Thompson, seconded by MISS Hixon public comment on 55. No board member discussion, MISS Hixon. Thank you. So I had asked for this to come back because the request from the person who will be sitting in the Chief Strategy and Operations officer seat asked if it's possible under Executive Director, Student Transportation and Fleet Services. If you go down the line right now, it says assistant director and the ask
539is to change that to director. But it wouldn't cost it wouldn't require any additional funding because she's going to rearrange her own budget. And I believe the same person would be sitting in that seat. So I move that we change on page 11 where it says Assistant Director, transportation operations and special Needs transportation from assistant director to director with no budget impact. Second motion made by Miss Hixon. Seconded by me. Public comment on the motion board member discussion. MRS. Alhadeff. Doctor Hepburn, are you supportive of this motion? Yes. Bring some efficiency because the span of control is pretty wide. With so many transportationssues and busses and things like that. Okay. Thank you. Any other board member discussion? All in favor of the motion, say aye. Aye. All opposed? Say no. Motion passes unanimously. We're back
540to the item, MISS Hixon. It just passed, isn't it? No, the motion to change that. Oh. Oh oh, that was, that was. Yeah, that was the item. Thank you. Anyone else on the item? All in favor of item 55 as amended. Say aye. All opposed. Say no. Item passes unanimously as amended. Could I get a motion and a second on item 57, moved by MISS Thompson, second by MISS Hixon. Public comment on 57. No board member discussion. MISS Hixon. Thank you. I just have a question because the title is really confusing. So it's Rethink Autism Incorporated, right? I'm not reading that incorrectly. So when you first look at that, your eye, your thought is that this has something to do with autism. But in the measurable outcomes, the rethink ed life and skills, wellness and
541mental health platform demonstrated sustained district wide impact, maintaining high levels of student engagement. And then it talks about mental health. So this has nothing to do with autism. So I just I want to be clear for the public. And if you could staff could maybe explain because it looks like this is actually rethink. Ed so why does it say Rethink Autism Inc. Because it's very confusing. Go ahead, MISS Hollingsworth. Good afternoon again. Simone Hollingsworth Chief Student Services Officer It is a little confusing, MISS Hixon. It's the name of the company. However, it is our wellness and curriculum that we use. And Doctor Shapiro is here and can speak to it a little bit more detailed if you'd like. I don't really need. I just wanted to be clear for the somebody reading this, because you
542MAY have a student who has autism and think, oh, great, they have this special curriculum for them and be expecting something and that has nothing to do with it. So when I read through it, I was like, wait a minute. Correct. All students can use it. It's not specific, but it is because of the name of the company. Slightly confusing. Okay, thank you for the clarification. Anyone else on the item? All in favor of item 57, say aye. All opposed? Say no item passes unanimously. Could I get a motion and a second on item 63? Second move by MISS Hixon, seconded by MRS. Alhadeff. No public comment. Board member discussion on item 63. MRS. Alhadeff. Yes. So on page 11 of the policy, 11 of. 146363. Where it says enable rapid Communication and Emergency notification
543through the district's safety systems. I moved to then say including the local peace app, public safety answering point. Second motion made by MRS. Alhadef. Seconded by me. Public comment on the Motion Board member discussion on the motion. MRS. Alhadeff. No. Anyone else? Well, it's just important because that's part of Alice's law is that when you press your panic button, it goes directly to the ps app. Any other board discussion? All in favor of the motion, say aye. Aye. All opposed? Say no. Motion passes unanimously. We're back to the item, MRS. Alhadeff. And then on page. Page a 12. Number five employee responsibilities, where it says see crisis alert badges must not be stored loose in bags. So my motion is to say loosen bags, comma pockets. Or. Masks while not being worn. Second motion made
544by MRS. Alhadeff. Seconded by me. Public comment on the motion. Board member discussion on the motion. MISS Hixon. Just a quick question. Why not in the desk? Because the teacher should always be wearing their panic button with them. So if let's say they're on the playground, they need to have their panic button with them. If a student passes out, they have to be have their panic button on them and not at their desk in their room. But what if they leave it in their desk when they go home because you can't leave it in your car? Maybe you don't want to forget it. So that that's where my mind went with. If I left it in my desk, it would be because it's at the end of the day. I would ask Doctor Hepburn in
545regards to when a teacher comes into the school, do they have to have their id or some type of scan? They have to have their id when they're walking into the school, and we're asking them to have their id have the crisis alert badge with their id. Best practice is to take it with you. So as soon as you get into that geofence of the school, there could be something happening in the parking lot. And if you have it in your desk, you know you're coming in in the morning, something happened in the parking lot. You won't have access to it. So that's the concern I would have if it even stayed in the desk when you left to go home, because you could be coming into work and you're within the geofence of the
546school. Now you see something in the parking lot, but you don't have a quick emergency. Alert that I just would say a lot of people leave their IDs in their car. And when we took the training, we were told not not to leave this part in the car. So there's a bigger chance if you have to take it out of your car, that you leave it at home and don't bring it with you. So that I don't want to continue. I was just asking. So you've explained it. Thank you. Any other board member discussion? All in favor of the motion, say aye. All opposed? Say no. Motion passes unanimously, MRS. Alhadeff. That's it. Any other board discussion on item 63? All in favor of item 63, as amended, say I. I I. All opposed? Say
547no. Item passes unanimously, as amended. That means we have disposed of. Oh, I just want to confirm, MR. Hill. We have disposed of all the items on the agenda. Yes, MADAM Chair. Do any of my colleagues have anything for the good of the order, MISS Hixon? Thank you. I'm reading this for MRS. Rupert because she had to had something previous to go, so she. There's a student from Deerfield Park Elementary, Jumeirah, MISS. Who was recognized and honored by the City of Deerfield Beach Commissioners at their meeting on JUNE 17th for her notable accomplishments, which included academic excellence, she achieved perfect five perfect Level five scores across all the disciplines of the fast testing that she took on her role, she maintained straight a honor roll status across all four quarters. She had perfect attendance. She
548serves as a co-leader of the Or. She served as a co-leader of the elementary school marching band and performs in the Frequency drumline as a percussionist under MR. D'Errico, and she excels as student athlete in both basketball and track. So Miss Rupert just wanted us to honor her here at the school board, and I'd like to say congratulations to Jamar Mims for all of her great accomplishments. Thank you. Thank you, MISS Thompson. And I have I have MRS. Alhadeff, and I have you. DR. Zeman. Thank you, chair. So we there was an email sent out during the board meeting about our lunch eligibility, and that 141 schools are going to operate under a cep. Will the board be getting a list of the 141 schools? And then also one of our big one of at
549least my big concerns during that conversation was the impact to title one funds and the email blast. It says that those families no longer have to fill out forms, which, yes, is true. However, it does impact it. There is a ripple effect. So I would like the staff to follow up with a plan to communicate with these families about the importance of still filling out the forms, and what our community engagement plan will be for these schools. Thank you, MRS. Alhadeff. I just had a question in regards to I know one of our schools is being piloted by the state for having drones, and if that is already started, or is that the start of next school year? Go ahead, Chief Gregory. Mike Gregory Chief Safety and Security Officer That's correct. We have started the
550initiative, but that involves the permitting and installation of equipment. That's the phase that they're in now and it is anticipated for this upcoming school year. Okay. And then I also just wanted to bring up to my colleagues in regards to following our policy on speaking time, you know, and it's not easy for the chair when the buzzer goes off and then people just ignore it or say they want more time. So if we're not going to follow the policy, then bring it back and change it. But we should follow the policy. Remember, you always get another round. If you have additional comments. But respectfully to the chair, you have to abide by it. And thank you for putting my time on. But historically, I'm always in the zone of definitely less than the five minutes.
551But I just say like, be respectful to the chair and abide by the time limit. So, so we don't go into these marathon meetings. Thank you. Thank you. DR. Zeman. Thanks so much. Before I bring up my one quick point, I want to agree with MISS Alhadeff. It's it's a really good part of meeting hygiene to follow policies or else change them. And I think we can definitely agree to the time, largely because you should be able to get everything you want in, in a short period of time, both at workshops and at at meetings. But more importantly, it's good to go around and hear from other people and then get that second round, particularly for any substantive amendments or substitute motions and things like that. It makes the meeting go faster, and it certainly
552allows everybody to feel heard before. Before we go to the second round chair, I was going to ask about conferences and travel for next year. Last year we had a agreement of some kind that the school board members were not going to ask for any public funding to go to conferences. Did that end or will that end on JUNE 30th so that we can go to conferences and request reimbursement? I don't know that we contemplated an end time. I think, in correct me if I'm wrong, my colleagues, but I think the spirit of that was that as long as there was a reduction in travel with employees in the district, that that reduction would apply to school board members, there was an exception that you all asked me to go to Tallahassee twice, but other
553than that, I have not done any travel on district taxpayer money. So I don't know if DR. Zeman you have a question you would like the board to contemplate? Yeah, I just I feel like it was a good thing to do. You know, it definitely put us in alignment with school board staff. But I think school board members need to travel, and I think they need to get out and go to, you know, Fsba and council, great city schools and asu, gsb and other places where it's just critical to learn more about our trade and, and what people are doing in other places. So I would be in favor of ending that ban on JUNE 30th. Every school board member that ever wanted to travel always had to submit a request and justify what they
554were doing and where they were going. But I think it's an important thing for the knowledge base of school board members to be able to travel and go to these professional conferences. Is there any objection from the board? DR. Holness MADAM Chair, I just want clarification. When we did decide on doing that, was that through a board vote that we made that decision, and would that need to be done as a vote? I don't recall it being a formal vote. I think it was consensus at the end of the meeting. I think MISS Thompson might have brought it. Up, I agree. Okay. All right. So, MADAM Chair, I believe I had asked some questions when we put this in place, and it appears to me, and I don't know if there's correlation, but there were
555significant decline in the number of board members going to different conferences. When we put this into place as compared to previous years. So I do believe it's having an impact on some of the board members being able to afford to attend multiple conferences. I think it dropped by more than a half in terms of attendance for Fsba and these other things. So there's an impact, and I think it will impact governing as well because we're we're going to be lacking training that is so essential in getting what we need done. So I am supportive of DR. Zeman that we it is too important to ignore. And the facts are there that attendance has actually declined by, I believe, more than half for board members with these essential conferences, so I would certainly like to end
556that on JUNE 30th. Thank you. Thank you, MRS. Alhadeff. So my question is, Doctor Hepburn, what is our funding deficit? For the upcoming school year? Based on the declining enrollment, we expect to lose an additional 80 or so million dollars. But we've put things in place this year and also moving into the next year to continuing some practices just to make sure we can address our shortfalls accordingly. Okay. So with $80 million deficit and we just cut almost 1000 positions, I am not okay with school board members doing any additional travel with the district, paying for that. If they want to do it themselves, then that that's fine. That's where I stand. MISS Thompson. I am also not comfortable with it at this time unless, like when the chair had to go advocate in Tallahassee
557or if there's like a requirement that we are on a board of something, I think that's that's a discussion based. But for now, I don't think it's it's a very good look. Anyone else, MISS Bulman? Do we still have a travel suspension for. So we have limited travel. I have allowed staff. When it comes to issues that are pertinent to making sure. We've continued to build capacity and address certain needs, such as safety and security issues such as political advocacy in Tallahassee by legislative affairs team. Myself and some of the team members went up to Fsba just to continue to get the latest information from the fads group for continued advocacy and capacity. So it is limited. We're continuing travel freeze, but it's going to be limited. There's going to be some things lifted in
558the vein of what DR. Zeman and DR. Holness talking about, to make sure we're not stifling capacity building because everything is growing around us exponentially, and we really need our leaders to continue to learn and grow so they can continue to do the great work here in the district, because we're too big to be isolating ourselves. But they're still going to be some freeze. But some things have to come to cabinet just to make sure it's added value to the district in order for me to approve it. So our next big thing would be the like DECEMBER, right? The fsb. Like our our next pressing travel item would be in DECEMBER. So maybe we can revisit it in the fall. I would say sorry to interrupt. I would say you guys have two big things.
559Some of you go to fsb and some of you go to Council of Great Citit Schoolol I think f f board memberer OCTOBER, Oober. Yes,, hink for board memembers botot ar great.Ndnd opportunities to continue to build capacity. And with the Council of Great City School Schools, you're amongst national schools, across school districts, across the nation, right? Instead of just with school districts across the state when it's fsb. So those are the two things I think are essential for board members. I mean, I think they're both important, but again, the. Right the perception. So maybe we can just revisit it in the fall. Yeah. I am also while we have a travel restriction on our employees, I, I do have an issue with allowing or, you know, taxpayer money paying for board member travel while we're
560not allowing that same kind of. That same kind of allowance for our employees. MADAM Chair. DR. Holness. Okay, this will be my final comment on the issue. So my concern is creating some kind of a drought in terms of the development of board members at key central conferences. I don't think it's so much about the travel per se, because it is more so about what is gained from the travel, right? Because if we if we inhibit, say, some of our instructional staff from having the tools they need to, to do their, their jobs as instructional staff, it will have an impact on, on the way they do and function in terms of their jobs. So I think it goes beyond just travel because if a board member and I I'm not going to ask who
561can and cannot afford it, but if a board member just cannot afford it and they don't go, I think it becomes consequential for the school district because that board member is not being developed in terms of the trends and the things that they need to be able to, to have to do their jobs. So, Doctor Hepburn, I just have a couple of questions. In terms of other school districts, are you aware of any school district in the state of Florida that is not reimbursing travel for board members to attend key conferences to build their capacity? No, I'm not. I'm not aware. So we are the only one doing it. I'm not aware of that either. Okay. Well, can I just say something? Can I jump in because I like, you know, I've attended conferences where
562there are school board members from districts across the country that are paying for their I mean, they don't even get a salary. Like they're, they're paying for themselves to be at that conference. So just because Doctor Hepburn is not aware of any doesn't mean that they. Don't understand understand. So, so. Doctor Hepburn, I believe there was some and maybe staff can respond to it. I, I had made an inquiry I believe, regarding what the attendance is to say. Fsba and the Council of Great City Schools and so on. When we had the the travel ban for board members as opposed to previous years. Can staff make any comments on that? Yes. So Fsba this year we had no representation from board members there this year. Council of Great City Schools. That was prior to the
563actual travel ban being instituted. So we had representation from staff and board members. I don't know if it was 1 or 2, but I know board, board member or two were at Council of Great City Schools, but this year there was no representation from board members at Fsba. So we had no one from for Fsba. And how what did that look like in previous years? We would have at least half at at least half. And you since you've been here in. I forgot what year you came. But have you seen anything less than half attending as far as board members to say fsba. It's always been about half or more. Okay, so I'm not saying that this is something we should do now, but I believe it's having an impact. And I, I just don't
564want to see that the board not get what it's need to, to govern effectively and trend in information that's necessary for the board. So I hope we can revisit it later in order to be able to do our jobs better. Thank you, MRS. Alhadeff. So I would say two things. The Fsba. I know they hold local training. I, I don't know if it was the last one, but I remember I was there. MISS Rupert DR. Zeman was there. That was free. And then also Fsba has online training and so maybe Doctor Hepburn you can. Staff can figure out from the organizations that we are a part of. What is free opportunities for the board to take. You know I know there's the online ethics training that we take annually. Anyone else on this issue. So
565I think we've we will still maintain the travel restriction. DR. Zeman you still have the floor. That was the only other issue I wanted to bring up. Look forward to reengaging sometime this fall, maybe. All right. Anyone else for the good of the order. All right. Seeing no further business this that we. I will now adjourn this meeting. We will recess for a brief minute to turn over to the defp meeting.