001[Music] Good morning. The June 24th, 2025 board meeting is now in order. I would like to welcome my fellow board members and the public. I would like to take this opportunity to remind the public that there the appropriate place for public participation in the meeting is during your individual public comment opportunity as identified on the agenda. Outside of your individual public comment opportunity, your role in this meeting is as an observer. Paul, roll call, please. Mr. Trent, here. Mr. Susan, here. Miss Wright here. Mr. Thomas, here. Miss Campbell, I are here. I'm here. At this time, the board would like to hold a moment of silence. I invite the audience to join. Thank you. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to
002the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible for all Dr. Are there any visitors to recognize? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Actually, we do have a visitor today that I'd like to ask Dan Wilson to come to the podium. Dan is with us from the Military Officers Association. So, you can come on up to the podium right here. Yeah, you're first up. Former special forces, I think you can do it. So Dan represents the Military Officers Association and a couple other hats, but um Military Officers Association is a retired it's a a group of retired military officers and they have a chapter here in Bvard County and do a lot of things for our community. One of the things they do is provide a lot of scholarships to our students who are graduating. They
003also recognize our students who have received either a military appointment to an an academy or an ROTC scholarship. And so I think Dan's gonna talk about that a little bit. All right. First of all, my name is Lieutenant Colonel Hans Hunt. I'm retired military guy. Sorry there. But Dan Wilson couldn't be with us today. He's our That's okay, though. But anyways Oh, there you are. He is. Okay. Oh, there he is. Okay. What is going on here? Navy Seals go. Army Rangers. We're the best though. No deal. Anyway, hey, uh on behalf of the uh Military Officer Association of America, um we thank you very much for coming to our last event that we had and we appreciate that you were there uh being able to recognize the students from your school district who received
004scholarships to um ROC and then so we're we're really appreciative. So, what I wanted to do is come by today and present you some coins from our military association since we do provide a lot of support to the junior ROTC program to the school district. You know, our Good Deeds Foundation, as a matter of fact, our Good Deeds Foundation gave uh our Junior ROC program uh each Junior ROC program $4,000 this past year each. And so, we we have a very strong love for our Junior ROC program. I was a junior ROC instructor for 12 years. So, we really appreciate the support that we get from the school district. And not only that, there's a multitude of things that that you guys do in our community, especially supporting military families, um our active duty service
005members, our veterans, and especially this uh swearing in ceremony that you had here over at VR High School. That was phenomenal, and we look forward to participating in that every year. Now, that that was the first one. We can't wait for the second one and the third one, and etc. But anyways, I want to present you a coin and tell you thank you very much for your support and we appreciate all that you do for our our veterans, our military community and military community family members. Thank you. All right. So, it's Lieutenant Colonel Hunt. He's going to present you with the point. Why don't we just come downstairs? We'll do that and we'll take a picture as well. So, we'll take a short recess. Awesome. We're supposed to have We're now at the adoption of
006the agenda. Dr. Mundo, will you read what's on the agenda this morning? Thank you, Mr. Chair. On the agenda, we have administrative staff recommendations, 26 consent items, two action items, and two information items. Changes made to the agenda since it was released to the public include the following. Revised for F1 meeting minutes F22 sales sir tax in independent citizens oversight committee member appointments 12 code of student conduct 2526. Do I hear a motion? Move to approve. Second. Any discussion? Call roll call, please. Mr. Thomas. I. Miss Campbell. I. Mr. Trent. Hi. Mr. Sen. Hi. Miss R. Hi. We are now at the administrative staff recommendations. Do I hear a motion? Move to approve. Second. Discussion. Paul. Roll call, please. Mr. Thomas. I. Miss. Campbell. I. Mr. TR. I. Mr. Susan. I. Miss. Wright. I. Dr.
007Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have three appointments that we'd like to celebrate today. First, want to celebrate the appointment of Joe Flora to the position of director of school improvement and curriculum instruction. Congratulations, Joe. Thank you uh board members and Dr. Rendell for this appointment. I am excited to uh join Miss Harris and the amazing uh leaders and teachers in uh curriculum and instruction. Um I also want to go ahead and thank Mr. Rymer and Miss Wyel for their guidance and leadership over the years. Um I would be remiss if I didn't uh thank my family who's with me here today, my wife, son, and my parents. uh they have been uh my support throughout the years, unconditional love and uh I wouldn't be where I am today without them. And uh to my faculty
008and staff at Space Coast, it has been an amazing five and a half years. Um thanks for the memories, the friendships, and uh I know they're going to continue to do great things for these students and families in Port St. John. So thank you guys. Oh, board. If I just may, I I want to weigh in on this one because Mr. Flora has been the principal now to both of my daughters. Uh and so I can't see you over there, but as bittersweet as as this is, I know this is for the greater good of the district. So I just want to thank you for all that you've invested in Space Coast and and into all the children in the Port St. John community, but you've been an exceptional leader and I have had the
009privilege of walking what I affectionately call your war room where we hone in on data on what's happening in the classrooms and how we're going to make, you know, improvements and gains. and I just I'm so excited for you to bring that to the district and implement that districtwide. So, I know you'll do amazing. Thank you so much for all you've done. All right, next we want to celebrate the promotion of Cleveland Reed to the position of director of transportation. Cleveland, come on up. Congratulations. [Applause] Uh good morning everyone. I just prepared a short eightpage uh thank you note. I hope you can bear with me uh with this. Uh good morning Dr. Rendell and esteemed board members. I am deeply honored to have been selected as the next director of transportation for Bvard public
010schools. Really good. Uh first and foremost, I want to thank my heavenly father for guiding me and allowing me to reach this point in my life. Without his support, oh I tell you this achievement would not have been possible. Uh thank you Mr. Wilson here somewhere. Yeah. Um for believing in me and extending this opportunity. I also want to express my deepest appreciation to my wife. You don't want to leave her out. Never do you want to leave her out. uh your unwavering support has been invaluable and I am grateful for everything you do. Uh she's not here today but she's out there making this place a better world as she is in the medical field. Uh to our transportation team, oh my transportation team, they are here today. I am excited to work with
011each of you. Together we will strive to build the best transportation in this state. this well well I should say there is uh well much work ahead of us we all know this but with your dedication I am confident we will achieve our goal so let's get started let's get started let's get started and uh trust my pace okay let's get there safe without the haste thank you congratulations Dr. Rendell, can I speak on this one too for a minute? Mr. Chair, can I have a moment to speak on this one? All right. I'm just going to say the North is looking like the shining star right now. So, I have to admit, uh, no, Cleveland, you have been nothing shy of exceptional with your transportation department. We have some amazing leaders there, but one
012of the things that resonates, it resonates with all of them, but there's something special about coming to your transportation department specifically because it feels like home. Everyone feels like a community and is so well loved and taken care of. and I know you're going to do the same thing districtwide. So, I'm excited for you. This is a great opportunity for our county and I know you're going to do amazing. So, congratulations. Sorry, I don't mean I won't interject on every one of them, but like these are my people and I love that why we're here. All right, we also have a the position of principal to celebrate. So, we reached over to OciOla County and stole Wendy Honeyut. She's our new principal at Croin Elementary School. Congratulations, Wendy. Come on up. Thank you. Oh, wow.
013That's a lot. Okay. Um, thank you board. I also would like to thank Dr. Randelle for this opportunity and for being so welcoming. I would like to thank Dr. Remer and Kathy for making the process so easy. Um, thank you to Dr. Harris, Dr. Ivory, and Dr. Clark for your faith in me. I'm coming here after many, many um incredible years at OciOla County. Um I've had the honor to work with some amazing people, starting with my mentor and friend, Dr. Cecil Diaz, who is watching from the West Coast. Um I wouldn't be here without her. She's amazing. Um thank you to my Ocola County family, especially my Narusi Bearcups, and all of my administrator friends who make it really hard to leave. Um, finally, I want to thank my family and friends. I truly
014am the luckiest person I know because I'm surrounded by so much love. My daughters are the best parts of me. Um, one of them is here after getting in at 3:00 a.m. from Wyoming and she still got up and came with me. Um, she is a teacher here in Bvard as well over at University Park. Um, the others are watching online. I am really humbled and grateful for them. I'm looking forward to working with the team at Croin Elementary. I'm ready to get started. I already got to meet a couple of them and I can't wait. So, thank you again very much. Congratulations. Congratulations. Mr. Chair, if we could take a short recess and get some pictures, that that'd be awesome. Absolutely. Recess. All right, welcome back. And now it's the FSBA board of directors
015and advocacy selection discussion. Who would like to open it up board? Um, I can talk about it. Uh, Miss Campbell. So, we made this decision two years ago. Um, and I had made it to where I was going to be the lead director and Miss Campbell was going to be the alternate. And because of some health issues that I had that were on the same days as some of those meetings, Miss Campbell did a phenomenal job of stepping in and did uh two years as advocacy and other items on the board of directors. um being the fact that I wasn't able to attend them, I would like to continue that. Um I would like to stay as the board of directors for the next two years. Miss Campbell has um one year before the end
016of hers. So I would entertain if you guys wanted to keep her there. She's good. Or allow either uh Mr. Thomas or Mr. Trent to be the alternate and then we go from there. But I would like to stay on. But whatever the wish of the board the uh board would be, that's it. Okay. Uh, I'll make the motion to reappoint you and reappoint Miss Campbell as the alternate. Okay. And then is everybody okay with that? I have to exclude myself. I'm not a member of FSBA, so I don't You can still vote though. I don't uh the board is there though? I feel like I I should weigh on this conversation. I I feel like it's probably more appropriate for the members to to vote amongst themselves. Conflict. So, yeah. Not a conflict. Okay.
017Well, then I'll vote for it if you're saying it's not a conflict. We're good. All right. You make the motion. I'll second it. Is Miss Campbell. Oh, there. Miss Campbell, do you want to serve another year? Um, I here would be my request. I've been happy to be the alternate, but my request would be you're going to have to reach out to me if you can't because I, you know, we don't have a voice if the alternate is not there. I just happen to be there each time or somebody else reached out to me. So, I if you will promise me, Mr. Susan, that you will reach out when you can't make the meeting, then I will agree to that. Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay, we're good. Do we have to is a vote or a thumbs
018up? Yeah, this is just a consensus. It's just a consensus. We're good. All right. Welcome, Ben. Thanks. Thank you, Miss Campbell, for uh serving. Continuing. Yes. We'll just be um we we do also need to pick our advocacy representative, which is just a one-year position that has to go to FSBA by the beginning of August. I'll do it as the lead as the board of directors. It's usually that. I'll do it. Is it okay? Yep. Yep. All right. Thumbs up on you, man. But it's good. All right. We're good. Okay, again, thanks for stepping up aboard doing that. Okay, we are now at the public comment portions of our meeting. We have two speakers on the agenda items and each will receive three minutes. Our attorney will call the speakers in order in which they
019signed up to speak. Mr. Gibbs, Keith Becker, and Kelly Colin Birdie. Good morning. Uh, I emailed this earlier, but I wanted to reiterate it. I again voiced concerns on behalf of students, parents, citizens that oppose the proposed invocation policy here at Bvard County School Board meetings. Although it is touted as inclusive and seems fair on the surface, this policy will directly infuse and entangle religion with government. Even with the best intentions, the invocation policy doesn't belong at schoolboard meetings. Every schoolboard meeting is an extension of the public schools they represent. Public schools exist to serve all students and all families, be they Christians, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, atheist, agnostic, spiritual, or nothing at all. As soon as we start opening these meetings with an invocation, no matter how subtle, we promote the idea that faith is
020tantamount to belonging, participation, and achievement. James Madison, the primary author of the First Amendment, warned against this very type of entanglement in his memorial and remmonstrance against religious assessments. He wrote, "It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties. Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity and exclusion of all other religions may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians and exclusion of all other sects." I know you will continue to harp on the word inclusive. Yet, the invocation policy has the likely potential to send a message that belief, any belief, is preferred over none. This pressures, whether intentional or not, individuals, especially our students, to conform or stay silent just so they can feel like they belong. Unlike adults at a county commission
021meeting, there are strong pressures on our students to conform. With all the pressures on students to begin with, adding any unnecessary pressures is the last thing they need to navigate and flourish in their educational environment. James Baldwin addressed this in a different angle in his book, The Fire Next Time. He wrote, "If the concept of God has any validity or use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of him." Baldwin sought to make the point that religion should be used to uplift, not divide. If an invocation invokes gods, goddesses, or an invocator's non-belief, leaving students and attendees feeling less than or excluded, it fails in its mission. A moment of silence before schoolboard meetings allows all beliefs or
022non-belief to be respected equally. During a moment of silence, everyone can pray or not, reflect or prepare for the work ahead of them. This assures the students and the public that the school board and the county does not prefer or endorse any particular worldview. We ask that you keep our public institutions neutral, especially ones that are tasked with the education of Boulevard students. Please, let's ensure that all students, parents, families, and staff see themselves represented, not in words, but in policy. Please reconsider instituting this invocation policy. Thank you, Kelly Colen. Birdie. Hey, Mr. Chair, if I can interrupt for just a minute. I probably should have done it earlier, but it's hard on the phone. We don't have the invocation change to our policy on anywhere on the agenda, not even on information. So, as
023a point of order, Miss Campbell, it's under it's under the minutes from the last discussion for approval by the board tonight. [Music] That's a stretch in my opinion. It's it's something the board votes on and under the policy, anything voted on by the board is up for debate. Okay. What's the speaker's name? Kelly Cullen Birdie. Okay. Thank you. Good. All right. Hi. So, I'm Kelly. I'm here to um uh address agenda item. I believe it was F9 about instructional staff support. And frankly, uh I mean, I'm just not going to let it go that you effectively fired one of the strongest teachers in this county and brought I mean, basically international shame on this area. I mean, there are neighboring counties that are poaching our teachers right now because you have such insane rules that
024you refuse to even reconsider rationally. Um, also I want to say it's a bummer you moved the student code uh edits out of agenda items. I really wish the board would allow us to speak on relevant things without playing mind games because uh under the identity theft rule, I believe it was 45 or something, it's worded so that it's basically uh an infraction, a level four or five infraction for students to be taking unauthorized videos or photos. And I just wanted to bring that to the attention of anybody who cares about kids and who cares about this county because I do. And I'm not going to come to these meetings and smile and clap along like everything's fine because it's not. And I'm just here to remind everybody of that. So that's that's all I
025got to say. Bye. All right. That concludes the agenda items. Only public comments. Thank you for taking the time out of your schedule to address the board with your concerns and suggestions. I would like to remind the public that the board is accessible for further conversations outside our business meeting through scheduling a meeting. We are now at the consent agenda portion of our meeting. Dr. Rendell. Thank you, Mr. Chair. There are 26 items on the list under this category. Thank you. Uh Dr. Rendell, does any board member wish to pull any items? Yes, I'd like to pull F-16 Titusville. Okay. Softball, baseball, fields. All right. make a motion to amend um to pass the consent without that. Okay. Second discussion. Um so just so everybody understands we got first and then we'll discuss F16 separate.
026Correct? Yes. Yes. Paul Roco. Mr. Thomas. Hi. Miss Campbell. I Mr. Trent. Hi. Mr. Susan. Hang on. I made a motion to pull it out. It was started and seconded. We are voting right now on that motion to pull a motion to approve consent without F-16. I miss Right. I can discuss that. Correct. Need a motion in a second. All right. I can't make uh move uh I motion to um take this and table it until the next meeting in July, which I think is the 24th. 29th. 29th. July 29th. Reason for it is just there's a couple of things that I had some questions on. I was calling Sue yesterday about it. Nothing shows up to be completely wrong. It's for a schedule that would be not until August of 26. So, it's not
027in a a rush. Um, and it's for basic second. No, sorry. I'm sorry. All right. So, I'm pulling it. Sorry about that. I'm pulling it because I just some little things that I got to check out before we pass it. um we're within the window of you know what I mean doing a baseball softball field within that time and I'd appreciate it if I could get the support and then bring it back on the 29th for approval. That's it. Very easy. Just for verification that's it. This is uh this project is one that I obviously is near and dear to my heart. It's one that I have let off on and for the community watching it's the Titusville High School baseball field, softball fields being relocated back over to the school property. So, I had
028expressed to the board some concerns because right now they're playing at a facility that requires additional security officers to be present uh because it's just in maybe an area that has a little more crime than than other neighborhoods. So, the ask was can we get the fields back on to the school campus. Uh and I had some concerns as well, Mr. Susan. So, I I'm fully in support of you taking the time to make sure you're comfortable with the bid in its entirety. Uh because I did have some concerns that I voiced with with Sue and her team and I sat down with them, but I know she's out of town. that makes it a little problematic for you to have that opportunity right now. So, I support that. I don't think it'll delay any
029of this. I think this is a 12-month project. I Is there anybody here from S? No, I don't think they should. There's not. Okay. Looking in the room. Um, just I I don't believe it will because she told me it was a 12-month project and right now we're at like 13 14 months out. So, I think we'll still be within the time frame. I hope I'm not misspeaking when I say that, but nobody's here to say that. Just so you know, when I did this, I checked in to make sure that the the main key is is it's for baseball softball. So, it's scheduled for August of 26. Baseball softball doesn't start until January. So, we're okay. That gives it more than a year by the time we come back. Um, also, there was some
030fear about transformers, FPL, that kind of stuff. Making sure we get that out of head. That is not any way conditioned here. And I just wanted to say it's nothing to do, my questions are nothing to do with the contractor or anything like that. We have a very good contractor on it. It's just seeing some processes and I think we'll be fine and come back in on the 29th. That's it. That's okay. That's fine by me. I don't ready for the roll call. Yep. Yep. Call Mr. Thomas. I Miss Campbell. I Mr. Trent. Hi. Mr. S. I. Miss Wright. I. All right. So, we're done with that now, right? Yep. All right. I'll entertain. I will entertain a motion to accept the consent items on today's agenda. Already finished. Already did that. We already did
031that. Oh, we did. We're on to action. That's exactly what we did. All right. Dr. Endell, please let let us know about the items under the action portion. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The first action item is G1, procurement solicitations. Do I hear a motion? Move to approve. Move to approve. Second. Discussion. Yeah, I wanted to um one of the items on here G1 um L employee benefits platform um wanted to kind of follow up with some of the discussions of why I pulled it and where we're going. So, just so everybody understands the this is over the employee benefits platform. Um been a vendor of ours for 23 years. I felt that I wanted to take a look at it to possibly put it out to bid. one of the issues, and just so the
032public understands, this is a three-year contract that has a two one-year renewals on there. Um, we were at the end of the three-year contract. I felt like it was something being the fact that we're trying to work through a lot of the healthcare pieces that we could um see where the market check is and put it out to bid. Um, and when I did that, I found out that there was no way for us to do that. Um, the reason being is is that the contract actually renews on July 1st. And if anybody knows anything about employee benefits contracts um that that process you can't you can't a platform you can't just stop because you have new members coming on you have all these people that need to select their benefits and it would just
033be a nightmare to try to stop. So the idea what I did was I asked um to to pull it so that we could do that and then I asked procurement I was like hey how does these things work? So what happened is is in January of this year they sent procurement sent out an email to our staff saying hey guys um do you guys want to consider renewing this and it wasn't until March that Antonio Scipio had told them yes we would like to that engages procurement to go into a negotiation back and forth and then bring it forward to the board. The problem is with that system um we don't have enough time if we see this kind of stuff to actually put it out to bid in a situation like this. So
034what I would like to do is just kind of get board direction to kind of give Dr. Rendell the direction to please go work on that kind of a selection so that we would be able to if we wanted to RFP some of these have that opportunity prior to doing it because what we basically did was extended this contract without the opportunity for the board to truly make that decision. And I think that although I don't think that's an issue at all I think that the process needed to change and I would just like to give Dr. Rendell that opportunity to kind of look at it, come back with procurement and do it. And this is the standard from across the board. These are all contracts and stuff like that. And in no way did
035our procurement do anything wrong. In no way did some of the other people. I just wanted to kind of fix that process so we could do it. That's it. Mr. Susan, just to clarify, I just want to this this contract had a renewal with a one it had one renewal with a two-year extension and now the procurement process is changing it, I believe, from a Yeah. So it's giving instead of you get two years you can renew it for a year at a time rather than the two-year stint. Is that correct? Is somebody That's it. Yep. So will that still allow I mean that's So you're is you're asked to pull this off of the agenda or No, no, no. My my my ask we've already we're already approving it, right? We're in discussion right
036now. But what it is is that we have to be able to renew it because of the system. Okay. And that one year would give us the opportunity to go out to bid now formally processing it. And then if the if the vendor is able to renew it and win, great. If not, it'll give us enough time to um effectively bring in a new vendor and do all the things because there's a lot of ties to it. Okay. I just wanted to clarify because my understanding of this contract was that it was it was a renewal originally. The original contract would have been a renewal for two years, but this procurement process is changing the terms to allow the renewal for one year instead of two. Correct. And an RFP. Okay. Perfect. All right. Just
037want to make sure I'm on the same page because I wasn't clear if you were pulling it or what. No, no. I'm I apologize. I may not have explained that. All right. So the idea is is that we we approve this but then it's going to be one year but I did want to just follow up with discussion over the why. That's it. Okay. I concur. I would just like to see if Dr. Rendell had any comments. You were No, we're always looking to improve processes. So if we can change the way we issue these RFPs and the procurement process, we can always get better. So totally totally good roll call. Mr. Thomas, I Miss Campbell. I Mr. Trent. Hi, Mr. Susan. I Miss Wright. Hi. All right. Dr. Wendell, will you please let us
038know about the items under the action portion of today's agenda? Thank you, Mr. Chair. The first action item is G2, department and school initiated agreements. Do I hear a motion? Move to approve. Second. Discussion. Call roll call, please. Mr. Thomas. I. Miss Campbell. I. Mr. Trent. I. Mr. Susan. I. Miss Right. I. All right. This will move on to the information agenda which includes two items for the board review and may be brought back for action at subsequent meeting. No action will be taken on these items today. Does any board member wish to discuss this item? At this time I would like to offer my fellow board members and Dr. Mandell an opportunity to recognize students, staff or members of the community. Is who would like to go first on that? I'll go first. Okay.
039I don't have anything to report. All right. Oh, wow. All right. That's right. Can I go second in case I lose you guys in a minute? That'd be great. Um, I just wanted to applaud the whole team that was responsible for the Ascend conference. It was fantastic. And I, in fact, I took my rally towel that they passed out the staff members that came in and showed it off at FSDA. It was a great um, even though I only got to attend the first hour, it was an awesome uh, kickoff. And I I just want to thank especially the teachers that are not and assistant principles who are not 12 months who came in and and did that great work um from their vacation time. Want to remind everybody that the summer musicals um summer
040finance theater workshop new schools are this weekend. So go get your tickets. You can get that off the school district website. Um and then just as a point of information, we finally have a budget from the state. And in case anybody in the public hasn't seen, the legislature did uh keep the additional funding for AP, ACE, IB, and CPE. They just moved it from an add-on weight to a categorical. But I think I want when we were at our FSDA conference, they wanted us to really communicate to the parents and the teachers who advocated so well with the legislature on keeping that funding for those programs. um that the legislature listened and um just wanted to just thank everybody who sent personal individual not copy paste emails but those individual emails and phone calls and
041calling how it affected their kids um because the advocacy works and that's all I have. Thank you. All right. All right. That's right. All right. Well, one of the uh one of the thank yous or the acknowledgements that she gave was one I was going to say to the team that that put on the ascend conference. So, I unfortunately got tied up in some personal things and was not able to attend it. Uh but I attended church that Sunday and I will tell you I had a teacher come up to me that attended the conference and said this was an absolutely life-changing conference. It renewed her love, her passion, her energy for teaching. And so I think those are those are good things to have continually happening. Give a shot in the arm because sometimes
042you feel like you're in the trenches and you just need someone to to you know kind of lift you up. And so I want to give a shout out to the entire team that put that on. I know Mr. Mr. Rmmer, Miss Harris, Miss Dampier, your teams were all very uh involved in that and you guys are doing amazing work whether or not you get to hear it or not, but you are doing amazing work. So, I want to thank you for that. Um, other than that, I don't really have a whole lot of other things because our schools are closed. I miss kids, which that's probably, you know, that's summer, but that's okay. Um, but I don't have anything else. Thank you, Mr. Thomas. Uh, yeah, I'd like to take a moment to to
043recognize Mr. Bernard Bryan. Um he as you all know has comes up and advocates on things that are very important to our community. Um he does so why I'm acknowledging Mr. Brian is because you do so in a very cooperative tone that's something that our entire community could learn from. Um you present things in a way that is in a spirit that is trying to make things better. Never casting a stone but always trying to find a way to make things better. And I just want to let you know I appreciate I'm glad you're in my district and uh representing my district and I just want to say thank you, Dr. Adele. Actually, I have two items. The first, um, about two weeks ago, I had the honor of attending a funeral service, a celebration
044of life for Dick Blake. And I didn't want any time to go by without us at least publicly acknowledging from the deis the contributions to our community that Dick Blake um, gave uh, when I was uh, becoming a principal back in 2001. Um, I I kind of viewed the high school principal as an esteemed position and there was a Mount Rushmore of high school principles in Bvar County and Dick Blake's face was on it. He was one of those legends, a living legend and he was the head tiger. he was Koko High School and um you know he uh probably can't measure the impact that he had on so many lives as he led that school and contributed to our community. Um speaking of contributing to the community, he was a Rocklage City Council member
045for 40 years. Um he was the principal at Koko High for I think 23 years which is incredible. Um I've been a high school principal before. um how he managed to do that for 23 years is it's amazing. So just didn't want to let any more time go by without a public acknowledgement of uh Dick and and the head tiger and all that he did for our community. So um shout out to him up in heaven and I sure he is enjoying himself up there. Um the other thing is this is a business item. Um we did promote Joe Fett to a director's position today that creates a vacancy at Space Coast Junior Senior High School. We do not have another board meeting, a board business meeting till July 29th. That's five weeks for us
046to not directly have a principal in place at Space Coast Junior Senior High School. By our current policies and procedures, um we can't appoint anybody without board approval. So, we'd be waiting till July 29th to do that. That's a long time to go without a principal. We can do the interviews. We can offer the job, but things wouldn't be official until then. So, I talked with our attorney Paul Gibbs about is there a way for the board to grant me the authority to approve a principal appointment be make a principal appointment between now and July 29th pending final board approval and that kind of thing. So, he drafted some language. So, I'm going to hand this to you. Um, basically, if the board were to make a motion granting such authority, then we could go
047ahead and move forward with filling the vacancy at Space Coast and then if there were any subsequent vacancies, say for example, if we promote one of our assistant principles to this position. We could go ahead and advertise that position and appoint that person and that kind of thing. So, I'm asking for the board to consider granting me that authority for this limited period of time so that we can go ahead and make some appointments before the beginning of school. Mr. Chair, yes. Just point of clarification. I know the answer on this for the public's uh knowledge. You were you're going to consult with each one of the board members prior to making any decision. Correct. as uh has been my practice in the past is anytime we're getting ready to make a leadership position appointment
048of a principal, I call all five board members and you know bounce the name off of them just to make sure there's no issues or anything like that. We would do that for sure. I'll make a motion to issue the delegation authority to appoint school principles and others during the time that we're not able to meet. As long as we're getting communicated to as far as the direction and stuff like that, I'm okay with that. read read his specific he he typed out the motion for you specifically. So I have to make the entire motion. You want me to read that whole thing? Yeah. The parameters in there. I move that the school board de delegate to the superintendent limited authority to appoint school principles as necessary between June 24th and June 29th to ensure
049June 24th and July 29th. As I said, to ensure un uninterrupted school operations during the summer recess to ensure each principal has the necessary time to prepare their schools for the return of teachers opening for the 2025 to 26 school year. All appointments shall be made in writing and shared with the board member in timely manner and present formally presented for ratification at the July 29th board meeting. Second the motion. That is the longest motion. Yes, it is. Any discussion of that? Call roll call, please. Mr. Thomas, I. Miss Campbell. I Mr. Trent. Hi, Mr. Season. I Miss Right. I Thank you, board. And thank you, Mr. Chair. That's the last I have. All right. We'll take a short recess to cut uh uh to prepare for a non-aggenda items public comment portion of the
050meeting. [Music]