001And now, Dr. Vasquez, I will turn the floor to you. Uh, thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, this afternoon uh we will be discussing an issue that has become uh quite a priority uh this school year for us and that is uh electric scooters and ebikes. The board um has previously had conversations about some of the um problems that we have had related to safety. Unfortunately, we also have had students that have gotten into accidents and so the board wanted us to take a look at what we could possibly do to ensure our children are safe as they are riding uh on these vehicles. And so with that, I am going to turn it over to Joe Sylvestri who is the senior director for safety and emergency management. >> Thank you. Good afternoon, Madam Chair Jacobs,
002board members, Dr. Vasquez. Today we'll be following up on the microbility devices. Uh it's good to be in front of you again. Today I have with me my occupational safety and health team with me. To my right is senior manager Leela. Leela is on and to the left of me is Nick Morrisy. So, they'll be here to help answer any questions you may have after the presentation. In this presentation, I'll be giving you all a brief overview of the school survey that was administered in November to all principles across the district. The purpose of this survey was to better understand microobility devices. Thank you. Uh especially bikes and scooters and being used on our campus and to gather feedback that would help the district in addressing this challenge. share updates on relevant laws and local
003ordinances, especially winter gardens that's recently new. Outline actions already that are underway within OCPS. Highlight opportunities emerging from this topic and then recommendations to the district to consider. So, let's review the school survey overview. Survey asked principles to cost the district the following questions. How many bikes and scooters students bring to the campus? whether students are allowed to ride or must walk them on campus. What enforcements systems are currently in place? What strategies have helped reduce issues such as registration or if they use uh sticker type systems, what concerns they foresee if the districts were to implement a standard policy. And what you'll see on the next slide is a summary of what we learned from that survey. These graphs summarize the survey results indicating that approximately almost 12,000 students across the district ride bikes
004or scooters to school. Currently, 23% of the schools do not require students to walk their bikes or scooters on campus. While 77% do require them to be walked, sorry, misspoke here. While 77% do require them to be walked, among the schools that have this requirement, 51% have an enforcement system in place and 49% do not. So about 5050 on whether there's things implemented. The feedback on the standard policy from the survey, we found that the majority of schools do not see an issue with the district putting a policy in place that requires students to walk their devices once they are on school property. Some of the schools that did have concerns were about how they would be consistently able to enforce the policy and not having the staff available to enforce the policy. Another issue
005that was noted is the larger campuses schools have a long path such as Timber Creek. So the pathway from the campus to the bike rack was a concern for them. Other school findings uh that we found upon talking with some of the larger school districts in Florida, we've had found that the big four have not put in place a formal district-wide policy regarding devices. In Miami Dade, many campuses require bikes to be walked once on school property, but it seems to be a case-byase basis. Other counties like Santa Rosa County have pro proposed that students in sixth grade to 12th grade can ride ebikes to school, but only the district issued permit. To obtain the district issued permit, students would have to complete a safety course and get parents approval in order to receive the
006permit. And Sumpter County voted to implement a new ebike regulation for students. The key rules would be students must dismount and walk their device to storage areas, required helmet under 16. Failure to comply can result in disciplinary actions. And in Simol County, public schools require students to walk bicycles on school grounds. And this is also in their student code of conduct and disciplinary code. Update you on the laws and ordinances. There are two laws uh that are um in the process right now through legislation. That's House Bill 243 and Senate Bill 382 providing more restrictions for ebikes. These bills will require mandatory licensing for class 3 ebikes. limits on who can operate certain vehicles, new crash reporting requirements, and penalties for legal modifications. Winter Garden recently passed Ordinance 2605. This ordinance put stricter policies in
007place. They are continuing to state that any operator or passenger under the age of 16 is required to wear a helmet. Kids under 15 are not allowed to operate an ebike on any bicycle lane, bicycle path, ride ofway, road, sidewalk, or other city- owned property. ES scooters cannot be used on sidewalks less than 8 feet wide in commercial areas with a maximum speed of 10 miles per hour. Lights are required on the devices when it's dark outside and their fines increase from $5 to $100. And class 3 bikes are no longer allowed to be ridden on West Orange Trail. Simino County Sheriff's Office spent months educating students on micromobility device safety, but have now started enforcing reckless behavior with non-moving violations. One of the issues in Simol County is students were found to be riding
008e- motorcycles or high-speed ebikes, which is pictured on the slide. E- motorcycles have a different set of rules than ebikes. They fall under the same category as e dirt bikes. These devices are defined as having more than 750 watts of power and can exceed 28 miles per hour and have no pedals. They are legally treated as a motorcycle requiring registration, license, etc. OCPS actions taken. The Office of Occupational Safety and Health is working to find the best solution for the problem at hand. So far, we're continuing to work with our community partners who have hosted bike rodeos for educating students, sharing information with multiple jurisdictions and ebike training development. We are working with a large working group of individuals across the state that is being spearheaded by Orange County traffic engineering department and we're also
009working to develop a process of tracking accidents currently within our district. We're continuing to work with community partners to share data, develop strategies to manage this challenge. We're also working with state and nonprofit partners that are developing training material for students in ebike safety. We are uh currently involved in a task force that was put together with a large group of jurisdictions and the group is broken down into five different areas. education, emergency services, public health, legislation and policy and technical. Nick Morsy is heading the education group and Leela Dison is in the health department health group. The office of occupational safety and health is heading oh just the hope of this task force is to compile all the information to present to a May 19th board of county commissioners meeting and then make recommendations
010on what to put forward. opportunities. We were approached by Metro Plan Orlando, helped them launch their ebike education pilot program. This program is geared toward middle and high schoolers. The program is based virtually, self-paced, and takes 90 minutes to complete and is made up of four sections. We are communicating with the learning division to identify up to 500 students between one middle school and one high school to help in the pilot program and test its efficiencies. This program is also being shared with Oyola and Simol County as well. One thing that's not mentioned on this slide is that we're in communications with the children's safety village as well and trying to partner with them as well. Recommendations safety and emergency management department recommends that we put in place an online student training on ebike safety
011mirror the one that FDO training is being developed right now. registration of the device, parent acknowledgement, and a permit sticker showing that they have successfully completed the training and register their device to bring on campus. We also recommend adding into the student code of conduct that students must walk their device on campus. If dismounting of bikes is added, we would like to add design guidelines signage along school bike paths stating dismount or walk bikes. And while we would also like to look into removing the class three mo micromobility devices and e- motorcycles from being used on campuses in totality. That's the end of our presentation. I'll turn it back over to Dr. Vasquez. >> Uh thank you Joe and the team for your work uh on gathering the information and providing recommendations. Uh, Madame Chair,
012we are able now to answer any questions you might have and listen to comments the board members might have about this topic. >> All right. Thank you so much and thank you for bringing this forward for the board's review and consideration. I know this has been a concern to all of us at the dis. Member Gallo, you're recognized. >> Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for um for all the work that you guys did on putting this together. It's I These things are incredibly dangerous. I I just I've almost gotten run over myself on the sidewalk when they're in the bike lane of the road. They don't follow the rules of the road and they've almost um I've had several kids almost been hit. And I think the biggest part like where I'm seeing
013the influx of these devices the most is where I live because I live right next to UCF which you would expect but in communities that are more um compact like Avalon. I was in Avalon uh doing visiting some people and I was out on the road and right when middle school got out I counted I counted all the kids coming on this electric scooters. We were in the street in the middle of the street in about a 10-minute time frame. I saw 25 people on scooters. Not one of them had a helmet on. Not one of them had a helmet. And they were going like 30 miles an hour. And I kept thinking to myself, well, first I was yelling at them, "Where's your helmet?" But thankfully, I didn't have a badge on. They didn't.
014They just thought I was some weird woman yelling at them. Um, but I I don't you know I know that the law has to change because like right now if you're like under 12 to ride just a regular bike that isn't motorized you have to wear a helmet and there it's not regulated for the ebikes or the electric scooters. Could we could we enforce helmets if they're coming on our campus? Could we at least put in policy that if you're going to bring one of those bikes until the law catches up that you are required to wear a helmet as you get into school? >> Dr. Vasquez. >> So, the board has the authority to do that because they are on our property. Uh the concern is the impact it will have on schools. I
015believe Mr. Sylvester pointed out that less than half of our schools that are requiring students to walk are enforcing it. And that is I believe primarily due to lack of staff uh to follow up on that. And so that would be my only concern is how do you follow up that they are doing it and if you you are not able to how effective is that rule and I understand that and I I agree with you um but part of me believes if we make it into a policy we share that policy with parents e even if it's hard to enforce or there's no penalties for not doing it would highlight the message that these kids should be wearing wearing helmets and it would give us the opportunity to do like all cause letting them
016know about our policy and that they need to have their child in a helmet and I understand it would it would be very hard to enforce but even if we had 10 to 20% of the kids who are rule followers that won't want to show up on campus without a helmet wear a helmet then that's maybe 10 to 20% of kids that may not get harmed if they fall off that scooter. So, I'm willing to take a small bite of the apple until the law catches up and does what the law needs to do. >> Um, if it if it's all right, Superintendent, um, based on the conversation that um, you and Mr. Palmerini and I had on another subject yesterday, uh, I I wanted to hear from Mr. Pomearini about any concerns that he
017might have. I I would love to see a requirement for helmets. Let me be upfront about that. Absolutely. I think it is it needs to happen but I am concerned when the superintendent points out if we're that enforcing is going to be very challenging and after general counsel speaks doesn't sound like it's working um then I can share uh an idea that was discussed at cabinet uh there were some pros and cons but it may be a way to put some teeth into the requirement but I'll wait till Mr. Palmer speaks. >> May I >> please Mr. Palmer? >> So um we had a discussion yesterday in another context about what happens when you put things into policy or you put things into like in a contract. If you put certain provisions in our code
018of conduct and you don't enforce them, it could come back from enterprising plaintiffs attorneys, people saying you have assumed a duty to regulate this particular conduct and if you do not enforce it, you have violated a duty that you have assumed and they could sue us for liability for not enforcing the rules that we put in place. Now, I would fight back and say that this is not required under the law, but if we voluntarily put something in that's not required by the law, then we have a duty under the law to enforce what we've put in. >> So, maybe we could put in the word strongly encourage. >> That's strongly recommended and put signs out that say be safe, wear your helmet. Like we could do marketing signs to encourage or maybe we even
019work with some of our community partners and those who show up on campus that we catch wearing their helmets. Maybe they get some incentive for wearing their helmet so we can promote healthy habits. >> Yeah, Dr. Bask. So, one of the ideas that we we discussed is that what if we required a fee for riding your ebike or scooter to school and that would come with having to take a safety course. it would give you some type of tag that says you've paid let's say the $10 for the year and then that also means you've taken the safety course and aware of the requirements and then if they are found to not be following that then that privilege can be revoked. So we we played around with it. Um, we always have interesting discussions at
020cabinet. Uh, and if that's something the board would like us to, uh, look into further, we could. And so that would help us educate our families, uh, about the issues we're having with the scooters. require let's say a helmet and that they walk it to school or when they're on our campus and then if they violate that we can revoke that privilege. >> I love that idea. I I and again it's it's we want to encourage we want to encourage them to be safe and every and and they're flying and every time I see them on a scooter flying down the middle of the road with no helmet on I I'm just And it's not like it's not like they have the helmet attached. So it's not like they left the house with a helmet
021and they're just choosing not to wear it. I don't see a helmet anywhere on their body. And so I just I I just don't want to see any more children get hurt or a loss of life um because a child going 20 miles on a scooter hits something, falls off, and now has a brain injury. I think that's the worst thing that could happen to a family. So anything that we could do um to ensure that our coming to school get there safely. I I would support. Thank you. >> Thank you, Member Dallow. Member Fon. >> Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you team for the um awesome information. I think it was really helpful to really for us to see and grasp kind of a um how many kids are coming to school using
022the ebikes or e- scooters. Um, you know, just something that I've been thinking about is at what point because I'm all about, excuse me, I'm all about the scooters. I love, like I've got my own scooter and I love scooters. Um, they're fun to ride. But would we allow kids if they were to get, let's say, a golf cart, would they be allowed to be on our campus with a golf cart? No. Right. I mean, that would kind of be like a total no. Um, so kind of trying to think of is it because it's labeled a bike and a scooter we allow that or I'm just trying to think of things that are going to be the most beneficial to could we say there's there's no we're not allowing it because they can use
023a bike. I mean, we all use bicycles. Um, but it I don't know. Just kind of thinking that through. Dr. Vasquez. >> Yeah. So, and general counsel will correct me if I'm wrong. Uh, he does always. Um, but my understanding is that that is the board's role to be able to institute policies that help us run our schools in a safe and effective manner. And so, if that is the will of the board, then staff can begin to work on what the roll out would look like, communication to families. But we would need direction from the board on what next steps you would like for us to take. >> And that's where I think we really need to really think about it because uh at what point it can we can just keep pushing the
024line. Uh I mean take the golf cart for example. So a kid could really just show up in a golf cart and then what do we say? Like well you can't be on campus with a golf cart. Well why? What is you see what I'm saying? So, if we were to say something, we I think we either do like a blanketed we don't allow any kind of motorized vehicle. I don't know if that's really it because then that would be a motorized. How would you say that? >> Well, you would have to revise your policy because your policy does have allowances and I know that um general counsel has the policy pulled up if you'd like to hear it. >> That'd be great. Go ahead, Mr. So, this is policy J Lie E. Uh, vehicle
025usage by students. Uh, students classified as 11th or 12th graders may be permitted to have a car, motorcycle, or other privatelyowned motor vehicle at school. The principal may extend this privilege to any individual in a hardship case. All dulylicicensed operators are may be permitted to have a motor scooter or other vehicle of this type as defined by law at school. So, we would have to have a substantial rewrite of that provision if we were going to do things other than cars and motorcycles. It would be the will of the board on what they would like to have done there, but it would take a substantial rewrite of this provision. >> Um, another question if I may. Um, when we were asking the schools, did it was there more um I I don't think I saw
026anything about high school versus middle versus elementary was the majority of of the the users at a high school or did it did you specify any of that? >> We didn't break it down, but the survey did go across the whole district. Uh we can get go back and look at that data and separate it out for you if you'd like. I don't have it in front of me right now. >> Yeah, because I do think there is there is concern. I mean, I think it's a we're trying to we're really straddling a fine balance of allowing parents to decide what they want their kids to ride to school on. Um, but yet also figuring out what's the best as far as safety on our campuses. Um, and I think moving forward I I would
027support either we say we're not allowing anything that has a certain speed or I don't know how you'd even say that or just nothing with a motorized um >> I think it >> and I don't want to say motorized vehicle because then that would be like a car but um >> but it could be um any motorized vehicle other than a car or a motorcycle licensed by the department of motor, vehicle, whatever. So, we would limit it to your traditional motorcycle, which would limit it to a certain age. Unfortunately, not a requirement for a helmet. Still wish they had kept that on there, but go ahead. >> Um, so one one more thing. So, when we're looking too at um financially, so putting up signage, um those types of things, it's going to cost money.
028I just think we need to be very thoughtful on how we're approaching it as far as finances. And then like you said with do we have enough staff to even like be monitoring this? Do you have your license that we that you took a class with us? I think it's great. I would love for kids to uh have that class. I'd love for us to maybe communicate with families um in that sense where we could create some sort of a paper that goes out or a little notice to families where it would just say, "Hey, I want to remind your your kids this is what's happening on our schools." Maybe even take some photos of them in the streets. Um I mean, obviously not their faces, but just so that they can see. Families may
029not realize what's happening after they get off of our campuses and just say, "Hey, this is a concern. We are, you know, worried about their safety. these are some things you can talk to your kids about. Um but on school campuses, this is what we're um deciding. So whether it's just a a full just it's not allowed anymore or um because otherwise the opposite would be we have to fund the all the the signage on every school. We have to figure out who's monitoring this, how they go through and then if we pay some families might say, "Well, I don't have that kind. I don't have money to do that. And I don't know like I feel like that could almost go the other way where if we just say we're like no more you
030can ride your bicycle, walk a regular scooter. I think that's what I would I'm leaning a little more towards that. >> Okay. Um Dr. Basquez, did you have >> Mr. PCO, you recognized? >> Good afternoon, board members. Uh Superintendent Vasquez, I just did uh the quick analysis. the five highest uh schools with the number of ebikes. We have three middle schools and two high schools, but literally going all the way down to to 15, there's a mixture of them. The one thing that you have to take into consideration is the number of students that they have. Uh the largest one, it is a high school, but is is one of our high schools with the largest number of of students. Then we go to uh middle to two middle schools right after. uh numbers range
031from 1,200 from the one that has the most then it goes to a 50 500 500 464 so that you kind of see that trend uh but uh by looking at the highest 15 I don't see any elementary schools so just to give you a sense probably what you were assuming the the numbers that we see will see the highest in uh high schools and middle schools yeah the high school the highest the one with the highest number has 1200 Uh the other aspect that we did uh were able to also observe when we were doing the analysis was the infrastructure that might be needed in order for to have these devices. As you remember, our schools are being designed with bike racks and these uh devices might not fit on the same space. So,
032um, at least the picture that I saw, they have them going around, uh, the perimeter of the or they just find somewhere that they can they can lean it against or or pretty much put their um, lock into it. So, that's another aspect that we thought about. We were looking at the fee because we will be probably uh, eventually we go on that route for the newer schools. probably even have to plan on on different infrastructure because when they were built they were bike racks but now they will be ebikes or scooter racks. Yes. >> Thank you Mr. Pashco. Excellent observations. Um member for Okay, member Vanos. >> Thank you Madam Chair. Um there's a lot to think about so I'm I'm still in question mode but um I'm curious. So, I know you said
033it's mostly the high school and middle schools that are using ebikes, e- scooters. Do we have data on where the the age of highest level of accidents would be or highest number >> as as I they look at the number? I just wanted to uh make a point of clarification. Elementary schools do have do have them. It's just that the highest number, the highest 15 are only middle school and high school. But whenever the uh uh survey was filled out by principles, even high elementary school were reporting some of it. Some some uh elementary reported very few but but elementary schools were report did report uh the usage of some ebikes or scooters at their campus. >> So would you fit a K8 in a middle school then or is that a separate category? I
034don't see the KA, but the majority of students in the KA there will be the elementary. So, >> well, okay. I I mean, I guess what I'm asking is and and I'm I'm looking at the Santa Rosa policy. So, that this is where I'm going with it. Is it would it is it safe to assume that more accidents are happening with K through five students versus 6 through 12? No. Is that not is that not a good >> So, excuse me. The highest number of trauma cases are in the ages of 10 to 14 and then second highest is 15 to 19. >> Okay. So it's really >> most coming from that middle school age range. >> Okay. Got it. >> And then I think the part of it's when they get to 16 they
035can drive. So it starts to lower. >> Yeah. No, that makes sense. Okay. That that answers that question. Um I I I mean if we decide to move forward with allowing them on campus, I I think your suggestions are are good ones. Um, and I also really appreciate that you're working across, you know, you're working outside of the school district, with the county, with different with entities to try to figure out the best way to tackle this. So, I really appreciate that. Um, I noticed that in the recommendation there's just an online training course for students. Um, what about have you considered like a a road assessment like on the road kind of assessment so they actually can practice using it and kind of learn the skills while they're on it. >> So, right now,
036uh, Florida Department of Transportation is developing a training curriculum and I would recommend that we follow what that curriculum would be. At this point, I don't know if they're going to have like a practical component to that training or if it's just going to be a web-based online training component, >> but I would think that we would want to follow whatever FDOT puts in the requirements for it. And if we want to exceed that, that's good, but that would be our basis. >> Right. Right. No, I think that the online I totally agree using the curriculum that someone else develops is always uh if it's good, preferable. Um, but I I think there's maybe something to be considered for just, you know, um, actually, you know, doing it in a practical way. And I've heard
037some counties or some school districts, you know, have kids practice around a track, um, and have, you know, something set up on the weekend. So, I don't know, just something to think about. And the other question I have is, um, for the parent acknowledgement, is it are the parents just acknowledging that the students have taken the online course or do the parents themselves have to take the online course? I believe that would be an option to you all if you wanted to require that or not. >> Okay. I think it would be really important for parents to also be taking it to have that joint accountability. Um and then another question is you said that you would like to look into removing class three devices and e- motorcycles from being on the school campus. I
038I don't I mean I just ride a normal bike, so I don't know. Is an e- motorcycle different from a motorcycle? >> Yeah, they're powered by electric, so they can exceed speeds of 28 miles an hour. >> Okay. But it seems like if we allow one, we would allow the other, right? >> The others are less than that. They're less than 20 miles an hour and they have pedals. >> A motorcycle. You're saying a motorcycle versus e- motorcycle. I'm just trying to determine what's the like. So the e- motorcycles are in the same classified as a motorcycle. >> Okay. >> So they're the same thing. They don't have pedals. It's just it looks just like a motorcycle except it's powered by electricity or battery. >> Okay. So would the suggestion be that if you're riding
039an e- motorcycle, you would have to follow the same requirements as if you have a motorcycle, which we do. >> They would have to. Yes. >> Okay. Got it. Okay. Thank you for clarifying that. Um, I'm still processing, but I I also did want to point out that um, Commissioner Russell from Winter Park is is holding a community meeting on February 17th um, at the Winter Park Community Center on this topic. Uh, so I I will be there, but just would encourage people who trying to learn more about safety and the proper way to use these to attend. Thank you. >> Thank you, Member Vanis. member Douglas >> and that was one of my concern actually about the scooters and the the ebikes and and we talking about anecdote. I also saw a whole group
040of kids that took over the whole road at a high speed and some of them even had the you know the front tire up and they were middle school to high school age I would say without helmet helmet on and I was just amazed that parents allow this to h maybe they don't see it I don't know but this is uh really dangerous so I am not against scooters. I'm sure it must be fun to ride a scooter. I would love to ride a scooter as well. However, we need to keep the student accountable. We we really do. And I love the idea of um you know requiring a training and uh and a fee if they don't have a helmet. And I would insist on having the student walk to the back to the
041bike rack still to reduce unfortunate incidents within the OCPS property. Okay, I really would like that to happen and I like the Santa Rosa rule and the Sumpter rule. My next question will be how the metrop plan Orlando will implement the the pilot program because I saw that. >> So we're still in talks with them. Um they have a certain amount of credits because it's pilot program that they can give to us and then kind of how we're looking at it as doing a middle school and a high school and we're still figuring out how to kind of give it to the students to have them take the course. Um, and then there's also going to be a pre and postcourse >> to really assess how much they're learning and how much it makes to
042have an effect on them. >> And how often would they do you know? >> So for now just that one time that they Yeah. >> Okay. Maybe we should do at the beginning of the year at the end of the year kind of assess a little bit you know how things going and how much they have learned and implement on the road. That would be great. Thank you so much. >> Thank you member Douglas. member Galla. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, so just a couple of things. When we talked about the pilots, implementing the pilot program with the metro plan authority, are we going to be looking at the schools that have the highest usage? Is that how we're going to determine where we would we would pilot the program? >> Yes. And I
043know we've spoken with some principal leaders to talk with them because they are kind of the ones that know what's going on in the schools. So, >> Okay. Yes. >> Thank you. And um you said 10 to 14 was the age range that had the most use of scooters. No, the highest trauma cases. The highest trauma cases. >> Yes. So, I'm wondering if because 10 is like fifth grade, right? Like fifth grade. I'm wondering if we could add curriculum because I know when my kids were in school, they did they had bikes and they did safety classes on how to ride a bicycle safe safely and they would ride around the track and they would have helmets and it was sponsored. I forget who, but there was someone who sponsored it brought in the bicycles
044and the helmets for the kids to use and at the time they were handing out free helmets to kids. So, I'm wondering if we could do something like that with the scooters, if we could embed it in our curriculum in fifth grade since that's a kind of the age range that is receiving the high trauma to um if we embed it in there, then it's just they're going to do it during PE. If we can get the curriculum, they could be added to the fifth grade curriculum, maybe we can sponsor with a company like we did with the bikes where we could show them, go around the track, show them how to use it appropriately and safely and then give out a free helmet. So then they'll already have a helmet to ride their scooter
045on when they get to middle school. So I mean, I know that we used to do the bicycles. I don't know I don't remember who we partnered with or but I know that my my both my kids came home with a free helmet um and it was in fifth grade. I think that might be a a good starting spot. I, you know, I'm hesitant to without more information to ban scooters because I just feel like we don't we we need to make sure that they're getting to school safely, but banning them all together, I think would be an increase to cost because I know in Avalon a lot of those kids that were riding their scooters would would then be bus riders. They would have to be on a bus because they live more than
046two miles away and they that's why they ride they don't want to ride the bus, they ride their scooters. So, I would just need a little bit more information and kind of flush through that before I was I would be willing to make the allout commitment to ban them. Um, but I would love to see if we could do something in fifth grade. >> All right. Thank you, member Gallo. I wasn't sure if there was a question in there. I thought there was and yeah, talking about the program. I I do remember that and I believe it was the safety council that we may have um sp worked with them and this was several years ago and then I think when that faded we have like the walk safe and the bike safety weeks that
047we participate in. So, we can go back and actually see um how much is in our curriculum already around that and then see if there's anything that um is out there related to the curriculum. We'd also would want to talk with our physical education teachers because again, this is one more thing that we would be adding to their curriculum and we want to be able to get their their input. Abs. Thank you, Dr. Vasquez. Absolutely. I I was thinking more if they're already doing it for bikes, maybe they can vet it in the same week and have bike scooter safety or um but absolutely I would love to hear from our PE teachers on their thoughts. >> Thank you, member Salamanca. >> Thank you, chair. Okay, there we go. Um question, John, on the policy.
048So for 11th through 12th grader, can they ride a bike? That's >> yes, >> they do cars, they can do bikes. Okay. I haven't seen bikes on my campuses, so I was just curious if that was cover because I was we won't advertise that. Um and then so for I I I'm having also a hard time with this one because my area is heavily impacted. I mean, I I get emails all the time from parents. Um, Lake Nona and the whole innovation area has so much space for uh pedestrian walking and and it it is so dangerous. Uh, I've had very severe trauma students that have been hurt um if not almost killed by accidents. One of the biggest things I've noticed that's different from bikes as well is it's a it's kind of like
049a disaster for recipe when you have these scooters of middle school students running around with scooters, high school students who are just learning how to drive and some of the accidents I've actually seen is student on student and it's really really dangerous. Um, and so I I I want to be a lot more conservative on this. I understand that we don't want to have our staff have any more programs, more things to do. These things are really fun and students love them. I don't know that there's any education we could do to have them be reckless. I I it's important. I'm supportive of us doing those things, but if if you talk to a middle schooler or a high schooler about being safe with their bikes, it's just it's it's a nice thing to be
050told, but I don't I don't know that that's going to move the needle. Um, the other thing is, and I've seen it in my schools, nothing is more of a distraction to what we're here to do, which is education and four principles, then when a student is in trauma care got hit or did something stupid. I mean, the principles are in our hospitals, teachers have to figure out. I mean, our entire mental health support team, you know, goes to the schools. I mean it is a lot of work every time a student um has this injury. So I I don't think leaving it necessarily means less work because this is going to be happening more and more uh because just more and more students have access to this. Um and I do think it is
051a distraction to our staff regardless. And so I I lean a lot more on a more aggressive ban. I don't know if it's age, right? Anyone under 16. I know that at the college level, there's now more than 10 colleges, campuses that have banned these devices because they're so dangerous, even for college students that I I I it just feels kind of reckless to think that elementary students and middle school students and newly minted drivers in high school um should be out there just doing this because I do think it's a recipe for disaster. So, I'm still wrapping my head around what we do. I I lean less on the educational parts and the fees. Um, my guess is the type of schools. I have a high number. I don't know that a fee would
052her be big deterrent for most of these schools. So, I I definitely lean on being more aggressive, but that could just be my area. District two has so much of this. I'm willing to bet that I am overwhelmingly up there in the list of schools impacted by it. >> Oh, no. Says >> uh you know you want to you want to give us is it okay to give us the name of the school? >> Yeah. That is not a problem. I can go down the list at least the top 10 if you would like. >> Please. >> Uh number one is Timber Creek with,200. Number two is Water Springs uh middle 850, Horizon West 500, uh Horizon High 500, Innovation Middle 664, Luminary Middle 335. So that's uh Bridgewater Middle 300, Legona High School 300.
053>> Yeah. >> And then 10 is Timber Springs um with 225. Again, this one was was a survey, not a scientific count. It was on the day that they received it. So, if you go, I cannot guarantee that you will not find 301 instead of 300 that I just mentioned, but that was the number that the the principles were able to count the day of the survey. >> Got it. >> You do have a couple. >> And I know we had talked at the previous conversation, we brought this up, that we were going to be talking to our principles about this as well and getting some of the information from them on like was it split? What the my from my conversations and what was gathered through um some of the surveys and from some
054of the executive leaders, the biggest concern the principles have is enforcement. They do not have the personnel to be able to monitor it in a way that they do. Let's say the code of conduct. uh and they have made it profoundly clear that there's a lot on their plates and so for them they do see the challenges that the um ebikes and scooters are presenting to them but anything that's going to put more on them is is causing concern. >> Got it. Um is there a difference in the accidents we've seen between scooters and the electric bikes? Like is there one that's more dangerous than now or is it a little bit all over the place? >> Um, it's hard to know right now just because they're so new the data isn't fully gone through.
055So, we do have some partners that are going through the data. So, it might be something I could find out later on, but right now I don't have an answer for that. >> Got it. Yeah, because what I've seen is the electric bikes, they look like bikes and these are the ones that some students kind of can uh adjust in different ways that they learn online to actually go beyond the speed limit of what they're supposed to be going. Um the electric bikes I think are the most dangerous that I have seen and when I'm driving around those are the ones that have almost killed me multiple times like uh so I don't know if we can maybe look into like a narrow one of which ones are really dangerous just like the way some
056of the other uh ordinances and stuff are looking like there is some devices that are truly a lot more dangerous. Um and like yeah I I just yeah it's dangerous. So I if we have a point of view on maybe like you said class three devices or maybe just the bikes um I would also be very supportive of that um of like an allight ban for those. Thank you. >> Thank you member Salamanca. I u I wanted to hold any comments till I heard at least one round from board members. Mr. Palin, you recognize. >> Uh, member Bird has queued in. I That's why I'm And if you're waiting for one round from all board members. >> Okay. Thank you. No, thank you. Member Bird, you're recognized. >> Thank you, chair. Um, yeah. So, I
057I wanted to not be a killjoy, let's ban them all. But um quite honestly, after looking at this presentation and hearing the work the staff has put in and the concerns of um our schools and our administration to have one more thing to monitor and enforce on their plates, it it's leaning me towards um towards a more aggressive approach, as member Salamanca said, of of possibly even a ban. Um and the reason is that this is another example of where um our schools are having to take care of other issues that you know this is not our core business. Our core business is educating kids, right? And I realize they have to get to school safely for us to educate them, but our business is not, you know, figuring out the, you know, how we're
058going to monitor these devices and enforce, you know, rules and do trainings and like that's all stuff that I'm really quite, as member Galla was saying, quite irritated that, you know, the law is hasn't caught up to these Um, this is a safety issue for our community and it's and it should be dealt with through laws and through community ordinances and county ordinances. And so I'm glad that all of that is being brought forward and people are working on that. In the meantime, I'm not a fan of putting more rules in place that our administration and our schools have to try to enforce. Um, quite honestly, I this is something that I really I wish that we could figure out a way to get our parents more involved in. I know that our uh partners,
059our healthc care partners, Advent Health and Orlando Health are um are, you know, very concerned about this as well. In fact, when we were um member Vandos and I were meeting with Senator Trernow, one of the who's sponsoring the uh bill in the legislature, one of the things he said is that the emergency rooms are just like overwhelmed by these cases. So, I'm trying to understand why aren't let's go to them. They're terrific partners with us. Let's go to them and ask them to lead the way with like the education and the community. they could be putting out all of this, you know, education to parents about the safety and about the data and the stats and um sharing, you know, how many brain traumas they're experiencing and how many, you know, cases um come
060forward. I'm I'm just that's kind of where I'm at that I'm I don't look money finances are tight obviously. I don't think I don't want to put anything on this that's going to make us spend more money either. Um, if we do signage and education, I want to see that from some other way, you know, partnerships or community outlets. Um, I don't want that coming from us. So, that's kind of where I'm at. I'm leaning more towards aggressive, especially after hearing. It's not a big issue in my area. Obviously, I didn't have lists any schools on that list. Um, I don't see them very often here. Um, and I don't get a lot of emails about it, but after hearing other board members talk about it in their areas, um, it's I can understand the
061concern. Um, but, you know, that's kind of where I'm at right now. I'm I'm not really I'm for being a little more aggressive about it at this point. >> All right. Thank Thank you, Member Bird. Actually, I I'm if I can come back. I'm a little confused because I thought I was following you, but the part about being more aggressive. Um >> Oh, I just meant like I'm fine with not allowing them on our campus at this point. If if they're this big of a problem and it's causing that much of a problem in the community, I'd rather do that than try to figure out some way to manage them in a disciplined way. and okay, >> use have to do enforcement and permitting and all that kind of stuff. >> All right. Thank you.
062Thank you for that clarification because um one of the points that you made that I I I think is valid is the question of how is this belt best dealt with? Um, I'm really I struggle with this because I'm very very concerned about the safety for our kids and Horizon West um is an area where similar to what you're seeing down in Avalon, it's very it's pervasive everywhere you go. Um, and you know, I saw a group of kids, the popping the wheelie, all that going on. At the same time, I I saw um a senior, not a senior in high school, a senior, um, who I was surprised to see on an ebike trying to navigate an intersection. And it was a four-way intersection and and everybody was crisscrossing. Um, not like like nothing
063was right about what I was seeing. And so it's a serious problem. But if we try to put in if if we if we go with the, you know, you pay for a license, we still have the enforcement problem with everything that we come up with. tracking and figuring out how to enforce it is not it's just not going to happen. Is it is it worth trying that to just send a message? I'm I'm not I'm not sure that honestly given the fact that we're talking about kids and parents who aren't already engaged in this and concerned about it. I'm not sure that's going to be particularly effective either. So the only I I think the only place I come down is the either we're more aggressive and we just this isn't allowed because it's
064easier to enforce nothing like an all or none than it is this selective process or we recognize what is hard for me to recognize and hard for all of us to recognize is who really owns this in terms of a governmental body and that really should be really should be the state and obviously they're looking at it. Um, school districts don't come up with rules and regulations for who can drive a car or who can drive a motorcycle or at what age or whether or not they need a helmet. That's the role of state government. Um, local county ordinances, city ordinances would be like the second most likely entity that could effectively enforce something, impose and enforce something, school districts, as important as the safety of our kids are, as for all the reasons that
065you've pointed out, Superintendent, and I I think member Bird said it very well and member Salamanca. U I I hate to use the the term we're out of our lane is it's not that it's a lane we don't want to be in. I think it's a lane we can't effectively manage succeed in. So um telling parents they can't their kids can't ride them to school uh would be very difficult. I don't know that I I one of the questions or one of the comments that member Gallow made I hadn't thought about and that's uh the impact on our buses. So yeah, so I'm curious about that because I mean if if we have freezing temperatures, I'm not sure our kids are riding their ebikes. If we have really bad storm and lightning, we're the lightning
066capital of the world still. Are our kids riding their bikes if they're within with eligible for bud buses or they taking the buses. >> So what I can tell you is that the attendance for Monday was um the absentee rate was more than double our normal rate. So I'm I'm not necessarily sure they're using the transportation as much as they're staying home. Uh we could do some comparison data with that. um since you know we we can track days that we've had bad weather and then see any differences. Uh what I can tell you is that we still have bus driver shortages. >> We still um have doublebacks. We still have some buses that are late. And so I I do believe they are helping us um in in that aspect. Although I really uh
067I don't know how many are writing more than like two miles. Um I think it may just be those that are within that area. And the only reason I'm I'm using one example and that is Narusi that um you can see where it starts to splinter off and they're no longer on Narusi. And so I I we could try and see a couple of schools that actually have a system. I think Luminary Middle has developed a system where they are issuing little tags and maybe we can track and see how many of the children that are writing it live beyond the the two mile zone. >> Okay. And at the end of the day, that's that's really not a probably a factor in our decision- making. It just I hadn't occur it hadn't occurred to
068me. Um but I thought if we if we are reducing the number of buses because we don't have kids riding, we still have that obligation when they do want to ride. So um but I think you're right. I think the majority of the kids that I see are within two miles and even in my area in like the goa metro west area. I mean, I make it a point not to ride a bike or walk or as much as possible drive in those areas that I know are routes to and from school because it's it's just not particularly safe during that per but nothing like what you see in Horizon West and those types of communities. Anyway, so um I just I'm not I'm not there with any of the options on the table right
069this minute. So, member Ferrron, let me recognize you. >> Thank you. Um I think the again I think we I've had several board members agree that it is um we're really here to focus on education. So make sure that kids are getting a great education. There's been several things that we've tried to implement that then all of a sudden it's we realize, okay, this is taking a lot of our staff's time and energy to try to monitor. So now they're monitoring things that really aren't focused on education. And um so again, if this is going to be something I mean, we I love them. They're fun. If parents can get on board and I love the suggestion of having some of our health partners jump on board with uh the training and really getting that
070out there and sharing the message that it is a concern. We want to, you know, safety obviously we want to keep all the kids safe. Um but I I'm still leaning towards that either we do the 16 and up like if you have your driver's license then you can because you've had some sort of training. So if you have a driver's license and you'd like to utilize that, no problem. But if you do not have a a driver's license or a learner's permit, um then that wouldn't be allowed. And that way it's just it's kind of cut and dry if somebody says, "Hey, can I just want to double check you have your license on you?" or something of that sort. Um I'm sure to the schools start to see like who is your frequently,
071you know, the kids that frequently use them. Um I like the token idea or some sort of something that just notifies them that they're allowed to use it. Um, but I do think there needs to be some sort of regulation. Otherwise, this sort of gets out of control. It's like the wheelie uh or healy shoes. You remember those? Those are fun. Kids love them, but they cause some issues in school. And it's just um we just got to keep it safe. I know school can we can be kind of like the no fun crew, but um again, it's the focus needs to be on education. And if this is now taking up more of our time and funding to try to educate on something that isn't about education in in the sense of, you know,
072reading, writing, arithmetic. Um, so I think I would be more in favor then if if we don't want to do a full out like not allowed to use them, then I think we need to move more towards permit, license, something where we know they've had some sort of training and then communicate with our health partners to see how they could uh partner to help get that message out there so that isn't on us and more on um helping like using them to help get that message out. >> Thank you, member FR. Member Vanos. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I mean, I I honestly think that's a great idea. I think um you know, limiting ebikes and e- scooters to 16 and up. I think that addresses the concern, too, of students who say they need
073them to get to work. You know, they maybe they don't drive, but they do need to get to work after school. They can use an ebike, e scooter um to get there. And I think there's, you know, I mean, obviously not every 16-year-old has taken driver's ed, but at least they are older and um and we could still require a course for that, but it would decrease the number of people that we have to monitor. Um because I do think about when you know there was the um the metal detectors in high schools and like we couldn't even I mean high schools couldn't even staff just being there around metal detectors. So, I'm not sure how we think now they're going to be able to go out and enforce, you know, permits and tags and
074all of that. Um, and I would say if we're going to put a priority on what we would want would want them to do, I would put it on, you know, assessing that and not assessing, you know, having to assess bikes and scooters. Um, so I just think it's asking a lot. Um, I do think that, you know, and this doesn't mean it's forever. Maybe the state passes some good guidelines that maybe eventually we can get on board with and maybe yes, we can work with our partners in terms of educating. And I do think if it does come to a point where we need to educate students, I do think schools have a role to play in it. I don't think it means it's on us to develop it. But I do think that
075we should play a big role in helping to educate students if we get to a place where there are rules um that the state puts forth or or local municipalities that make sense. Um, but I think until that time I I would lean towards, you know, just allowing 16 and up to be able to be on this the scooters and bikes. Um, I would also say I'm and and this doesn't address this concern, but there are there are some schools that are charging these inside of the school. Uh, and I I I charging to take place. Yeah. Charging. uh like meaning um not financially but yeah plugging in. Yeah, plugging in. Um and I I think that raises other safety concerns. Um so if if we do allow them, I think we need to think
076about how students can uh you know, charge them in that way. Uh but yeah, I I think I appreciate all the the comments of my fellow board members and the presentation. I I I would support limiting it to 16 and up, >> at least for now. Thank you. Uh I need a little help here. Um member Ferrron, I have you queued up next. Is that from before? Okay. Thank you. Okay. Uh so some like member Vanos as soon as she starts speaking she clicks off and and others click off after. And so super efficient. Um so member Gallo, you're recognized. >> I just turned mine off. I just clicked. I'm >> Oh, you're gonna emulate >> I'm following. Yes, I'm emulating member Vanos and her good habits. >> That also confuses me because I look
077down and I think >> but I didn't want to speak but it's okay. It's okay. I'm I'm keeping up. >> I So I think we really need to flush this out just a little bit more. I'm still hesitant to ban them although I understand um the need for that only because we really only ban them from where our property begins, right? We're not banning them on the street. We're not I mean, there's nothing to say that they couldn't ride it to school, find a place to stash the scooter, lock it up, and then just walk in, right? So then we're totally We're not doing any educating. We're not talking about helmets. We're not doing anything that's going to keep them safe. If they get hurt, it's not going to be on I don't think and
078the superintendent can correct me if I'm wrong. I don't think a child has been hurt on a scooter on our property. I think that all the accidents have happened off property. >> No, >> last year, Dr. Phillips. Okay, then I stand corrected. But just just one accident on schools. >> I think there was a there was more than one. I don't have in front of me, but I I know for sure that we've had one because I saw the video, but yeah, they're happening on campus as well. >> So then walking them on the campus would hope instead of writing them and hope it alleviate that, but then we go back to who's going to supervise to ensure that that's happening once they get on campus. I I just think what I would really love
079to see happen is Trunell's bill, not to be talking about a committee to discuss it, but actually action and teeth behind the bill. And I really wish that the county commissioners um that we could work together to resolve this issue because we need to partner with this like right we need I agree with the 16 and up. I think that I think that's a good place to start but it needs to be enforced all around and not just on our campuses. Otherwise, you're still going to have kids get hurt. Kids are still going to get in accidents. It's still going to cost us money because we're sending out mental health counselors because regardless if it happened on campus or off campus, a child got hurt. a child may have died. And so I don't know.
080I just I really wish that the city and the county would kind of step in and I know it's hard for them too and kind of regulated just at the bare minimum require helmets. Can we just agree at the bare minimum if you're on a scooter or on an ebike it's a county ordinance that you have to be wearing a helmet? Bare minimum. >> Okay. Okay, they're meeting on May 19th. That's awesome. So, hopefully that will give us some more information and give me more information to understand better what to do. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you, Member Gallo. Member Douglas. >> Okay. I just wanted to say that I remember last year I went to Horizon High School and they were actually distributing helmets and I had one uh for bikers. So if
081we can implement the safe type for scooters and ebikes will be great. I mean again not to put too much burden on Orange County Public School. And I also would like to I would support 16 and up with driver ed or license. I think also we kn we need to work with the commissioners. We really need to work with the commissionment. if we can have a meeting here with the commissioners just have it planned so we can really address the subject uh the this I can't hear myself. I don't know if it's working. Can you hear me? Oh, it's working. Okay. Sorry about that. Uh so I I really believe we need to plan a a a meeting with the commissioners to really address this subject and put it to rest. uh and not only
082talk about it but really do it and uh if possibly we can you know I don't know superintendent if we can you know talk to the commissioners to to sit together and and plan this and so that way we do not have all this burden on us okay it start with the city and then the student come in and they they don't have as much problems as many problems that we encountering right at the moment talking with the commissioners first. >> Okay. So, I'm sorry. Are you referring to the commissioner at the state level or the local commissioner? >> Local local level would be fine already. We need Orlando to have at least a set of, you know, rules about those scooters because it comes from the road to come to our properties. So, >>
083I know that our team has been in communication with all the LEAs. Um, we we can reiterate our concern, but we we don't know that all of them have the capacity to enforce. And I think that's what's been brought up in Tallahassee is that they where if they pass something, how are they going to enforce it? Uh, and Mr. Sylvester, I think you could speak. Is there any agency? I thought Winter Garden was working on something, but I could be wrong. >> So, Winter Garden did pass a pretty aggressive ordinance. Um, we are involved with the city and the county. Um, and we're also in communication with uh Orlando Health as well, but everybody's taken an interest in this and everybody that we know that's taken an interest, we've tried to reach out or they've
084reached out to us to partner with. I know the Department of Health right now is trying to get data to look at those trauma trends and those age groups as well. There's just not a lot of data out there because we're not capturing it. I would tell you now, everybody's interested in trying to capture that data and we're involved in all those partners that are out there that we can to work on it. And like I said, the county, the mayor was given direction to the staff to um reach out to all the partners and that's what they did forming these groups and on May 19th they are to come back with um recommendations and their findings. >> Okay, great. Because Winter Garden is my area as well, Horizon West, and and I just want
085to make sure that our kids are safe and they can ride a scooter. I'm not I'm not for banning the whole, you know, scooter thing, but at least put some guard rails for our kids to be safe. That's that's my thing. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you, member Douglas. Um, member Salamaka. >> Um, I'll keep it quick and it's just to wrap things up. So, if we have a point of view on bikes versus scooters, the bikes are really so much more dangerous. And I know that there's going to be some data on it that's going to I mean, these bikes are they're taller than even normal bikes. And so, to the point of enforcement, if you go, you see a scooter is a scooter, right? It's like you pedal on it, you see
086a bike that looks like a bike, you could see that. So, even some distinction like that that makes it a little bit easier to actually get rid of that, I would be supportive. Um the other thing that I've been hearing for our principles that was mentioned was bike racks. I mean there is just not enough bike racks. Like when students were riding bikes it would be a smaller percentage of the student population riding bikes and the bike racks were enough. All these students have these. So like there is almost like a five or 10x need for more and that's growing as more students get it. During Christmas it increases. Um, and so there there is a question on how much is it costing us or I don't know if you know principles are going out
087of their own budget to increase bike racks. I know that we're probably going to have to look at prototypes for future schools to amend this. Like it's still costing us something. There is some friction point that we're taking here. I just wasn't sure how how much is a bike rack for if we need to expand it because >> I I I know uh Mr. sound beimi. I believe it's under $1,000. Is it? I'm sorry. I thought that's what it was >> for the whole thing. >> If we were to add a bike rack, like one or a bike rack is how many bikes? >> There was a school that recently requested one and I thought the number that was sent back to me was around $1,000. Okay. Who? Oh, I'm sorry. So, we'll come back
088we'll we'll come back to the board. I think um right the the numbers that I got was to just add another rack within the existing area. So, that was was not adding enclosed area. So, that was about $900 to $1,000. >> That's not the enclosed little standalone. >> Correct. And I do believe it's um being looked at or there's been feedback given as we're looking at prototypes, future prototypes uh to increase the number of of bike racks or to to have accessibility for these new um vehicles. >> Yeah. The the other concern and I'm seeing this in my area. I won't speak for other areas, but students started with the scooters which were a little I mean they're fast, but they were still kind of harmless. They're now upgrading to the bikes which they do
089wheelies on and go much faster and they do all kinds of uh like upgrades to them to make them even faster than what they're supposed to go. And then what I'm also seeing as soon as they get their licenses, there is a ton of racing like car racing. like there is just this culture that our students are having on I really like fast things and faster and it starts with a scooter and it starts young and I I know this a huge issue in my area that folks on innovation road um this goes all the way to Dowen so I'm sure impacts district one as well street raising at night is happening a lot I know we've had a couple accidents of students doing this and really really high cost to to to their health
090so as member Vano said, "I am confident that as time goes by, the health data is going to show us how much more dangerous these motorized vehicles are and there will be recommendations from pediatricians, for children's hospital on how much deadlier they really are." I'm okay with saying, "Hey, let's take a conservative approach today and let the state and localities catch up to us on this." Uh, and some of the health guidelines come up. It's like how we're seeing that cell phones are not good for students brains before a certain age. I I have I would be very surprised if five ten years from now we look back and say, "Oh, actually the scooters were not that dangerous." Uh, because we know it. We see it. We see it every day. Um, I'm okay with
091being cautious. I obviously defer to staff on how we implement it. I know the middle ground is the hardest ground because anything nuance requires a lot and so you have my support to to be more aggressive. Thank you. >> Thank you, member Sala. Member Felder. >> Thank you so much for the discussion has been engaging and quite fruitful. Uh I don't like scooters at all because I think it's very dangerous. Uh and um I was listening to member Douglas and I think uh member Vano said something about uh setting up perimeters. We we are in the business of governance and setting up policy and I I'm assured that we're going to have to come up with a policy of some sort that will match of course the state policies but it's our the children in
092Orange County are our responsibilities and I'm also uh in favor of speaking with city law enforcement and county law enforcement to come together with some type of ordinance because as member Gallo said, we cannot control the traffic on the streets. We can't do that's a city or a county uh responsibility. But once they come in school in that situation, it happened at one of my schools was on campus. School was getting out, the child got on the scooter, started, you know, riding out and and an ex an accident occurred. But I think that we're going to have to be very aggressive in terms of how we protect our children. And it is fun. It's, you know, I remember years ago, thank God, I've kind of matured from that point. I remember the first time I
093got a BMW. I used to have a BMW club in Orlando out east and we would race the car and I drove mine as fast as 119 miles per hour. I did that because you know I just wanted to do it because I would always say BMW the ultimate driving machine could stop on a dime but I was young. I was not the age that I am now but never do that foolishness now. But it is you know a catching young people they like to go fast they love it but we are in the business of protecting our students at all costs. So, uh, I'm in favor with us coming up with policy. It's, you know, it may not be agreeable with everybody, but we are in the business of protecting our students, our children,
094and um, right now they are driving, riding those scooters. You can go down international drive. Our little uh, uh, tourists are jumping out the way. I mean, it's just crazy how they're doing that. And so we may not control the street area, but we can definitely control the school and where the children are. And I I am so much in favor when we get to that point, uh, Attorney Palarine, and we get to that point of dealing with policy that we need to come up with some policy. And I really really am am going to encourage the collaboration with law enforcement because we need them because they control the streets. We're going to have to do that so that we can get a h get a handle on the protection and safety of our children
095and families. We must do that. So that you know I listened and I listened well but I thought I needed to give my comment and that's my commentary. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Thank you member Felder. Uh okay I I don't think that I don't think we have a consensus on this. Let me uh let me just I think that we could reach a consensus on that. Scooters, ebikes can't be ridden on campus. Except we run into the problem that we don't have the means to enforce it. We don't have the personnel to enforce it. So I I think if we didn't have if we had that ability, this would be a much easier issue to solve. So recognizing that we can't effectively enforce it, I still don't think we're going to
096have a consensus on this at this point in time. What I think we need to really be focused on is this upcoming meeting with the board of county commissioners on the 19th, the task force that they've put together. I would love to know that the state um was moving forward. Did you say U member Gallo that they're talking about creating um a task force or something? >> Please. >> Bill had teeth to it initially, but then it was amended and so now they're just looking at putting together a task force kind of like what we're doing to kind of flesh out what they could do >> um to make it better. Um I wish at the very least that they would say anybody under the age of 18 would have a helmet, has to wear
097a helmet to ride one of these devices, but Yeah, it was a >> Okay. So, typically when the state puts together a task force, we're talking about anything that would come out of it would be next legislative session most likely. So, that's yeah. So, that any opportunity for um safeguards are most likely a year away from the state. So uh unless there's you know unan um I'm sorry majority support for a different direction I would say we focus on the 19th as many of us that are able to uh come to that meeting and uh it sounds like that if I understand right it's more than just the county you have the other juris a number of other jurisdictions that are part of this task force >> that's correct Okay. So, I think that's our
098next place to to see what happens there and what we can take away from that. And the the work that you all did was very helpful and that you know we've talked about data to the extent that you can continue to collect data in anything else that other jurisdictions are doing. if we can get a little deeper dive into the data that you have. For instance, when we're talking about uh accident rates or anything else, we need to we need to do that in the context of the size of the school so that we're comparing apples to apples. So anyway, continue that effort, continue to be involved in the task force and um and hopefully we can have at least an update between now and May 19th so we have an idea um how that's
099moving along. Okay, Dr. Vasquez, anything else? All right, stay tuned. Thank you. >> Okay. All right, then. This work session is now adjourned and we are half hour behind in starting our rule development meeting.