001Good afternoon everyone and welcome to the Orange County School Board's work session which has been scheduled for today, Tuesday, August 26, 2025 for the purpose of discussing JFB BD magnet school programs and JICK threats. The public will not have an opportunity to participate in this work session to provide public comment because it's not a regularly regularly scheduled schoolboard meeting and no action will be taken. Thank you so much for joining us whether you're here or on Orange TV or some other means. Vice Chair, let me do a quick roll call. Vice Chair present. Member Fant. Good afternoon. Member Douglas present. Member Vanos. Good afternoon. Member Gallo. Good afternoon. Member Felder. Good afternoon. And member Salamanca is not going to be with us on she's out of town, but we hope she'll be able to join
002us virtually at a regular meeting. And as a reminder to board members and staff, talk really, really closely into your microphone. They're extremely sensitive. With that, I would ask the board and the audience to join us for a moment of silence. and we'll invite you to join us in the pledge of allegiance. And now for the pledgece to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. the superintendent cannot could not be with us to today due to some family obligations, but we are in good hands with Dr. Armbster, deputy superintendent. Dr. Armbster, you're recognized. Thank you, chair. At this time, I'd like to introduce Greg Moody, who will introduce his team to talk about
003JFBD magnet school programs. Madam Chair, before they get started, just wanted to announce I think all of the board members are aware we originally had IHAM on the schedule, our school wellness policy. my staff is reviewing it. U we were looking at it. There's some inconsistencies in language. We need to take care of that before we bring it back to the board. So we have withdrawn its consideration today. It will be coming back sometime within the next month or so for the board's consideration. But I just wanted for you all are aware but for members of the public who see it on the agenda today that we are pulling it and we will be bringing it back at a later date. Thank you Mr. Palarini and thank you for sharing that for those who might
004be tuned in or present. All right back to you Dr. Armbster. Over to you Mr. Moody. Thank you Deputy Superintendent Armbster and thank you Madame Chair, school board members. thank you for having us today. we bring before you JFBD magnet schools and magnet programs policy as we always look to increase opportunities for choice within the district. So I'd like to introduce again Michelle Thomas. She is our director of school choice. She'll walk us through recommended ch language changes to this policy. Thank you. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, board members, and Deputy Superintendent Arburster. I am Michelle Thomas, the director of school choice, and I'll walk us through the recommended changes to the policy JFBD magnet schools and magnet programs. On page one and two of the policy, there are formatting changes. The first substitive change is
005section 5A. formal language stated the application would be open november November 1st to February 15th of each school year. The recommended language is as determined by the superintendent or design the office of school choice services shall make the application for magnet programs available. We recommend opening the dates of the magnet application as early as midocctober and closing the application just before winter break. We recommend that the first lottery take place mid January and the second lottery midFebruary. This will allow parents to know if they have been accepted to a magnet program earlier in the year. Families are making decisions as early as January for the following year. Subsection B simply reflects the recommended language in a subsection A by the date established by the superintendent or design. Page three of the policy, section 5C states
006that if a student has an individual education plan, IEP, at the time of the application, the IEP will be reviewed to ensure that the magnet school or magnet program can appropriately implement it prior to placement. The process aligns with the procedures and policy language outlined in JCA, which student enrollment follows for student transfers. Section 5D2 is formatted to add clarity to the to existing language. 5D3 states, "A parent legal guardian residing outside of Orange County, Florida, who does not meet the exceptions outlined here in not eligible for consideration to enter the lottery, but may apply for a magnet school or magnet program during the designated summer application period. Seat offers to outofcount applicants are contingent upon seat availability. This board previously expressed an interest in opening magnet seats to non Orange County residents. This recommended
007language will do just that. Page four of the policy subsection F1. The recommended change allows 11th and 12th graders to apply for magnet programs. In the past, we limited it to 9th and tth graders. Section F3, applicants for high school magnet programs are ranked by GPA. Former policy language stated 60% of the available seats will be computer assigned using a GPA academic ranking system and 40% of the available seats will be assigned by the lottery process. The recommended language moves the assignment of seats by GPA ranking system to 80% of seats available and the remaining 20% will be assigned by lottery. Members of the board have expressed the desire to make high school magnet programs more competitive. The rema the remaining changes on page four of the policy are non-substantive formatting changes. Page five of
008the policy includes non-s substitive formatting changes and clarification to existing policy language. Page six of the policy subsection 7B, we recommend moving the language that limits our offer office to offering the magnet seats before the first day of school. We would like to offer magnet seats through the first 10 days of school. Page seven of the policy, we have a few non-substantive changes for clarification. In section 10 C, we changed the name internal academy to Scholastic Academy. And we deleted the requirements that restricted enrollment to an academy to zoned students. We recommend that students from across the district be allowed to apply for a scholastic academy. Page eight of the policy. non-s substitive formatting edits. Page nine, non-subsided for formatting edits and page 10 formatting edits. I now turn it back over to the sup
009to the deputy superintendent for comments. Are there any questions? Member Ferrant and member Delo. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you all so much. I think you listened to the board really well and I think a lot of what we were the desires that we had and needs that we were seeing have been reflected really well on this page four where we're talking about how many seats are available for like where we base it off of the GPA. I'm really happy to see that it's 80%. I do think that is going to make the magnet programs a little more competitive where kids now are saying, "Hey, I've got to I really have to push the line a little more to get make sure I'm in and my GPA is high for that." So, I really
010appreciate that with the 20% is great as well. So, other kids can jump in if they're struggling a little bit on that. my only question is so for the families I know we put in there that so they can apply for a magnet program from October through like winter break. but then magnet seats are also open through the first 10 days of school. So is it basically you can sign up anybody who's in we go through that the 80% 20% lottery. and if there's still open seats, people could still be applying afterwards. Yes, ma'am. So, the 8020 would only pertain to the lottery process. The summer application is based on first come. We go on the wait list and then it's first come, first serve. So, that's a different lottery, that's a different application system.
011So the first 10 days we would first go off the wait list if there is a wait list based on the GPA and then we just open it up for all summer applications and then that's where we would go into the 10day. Okay. Let me add to that too as far as the timeline. So we're looking you know as far as October we're looking about midocctober to open up this cycle of application. So in October, parents will be applying for the 26 27th school year, right? So we do it almost a year in advance. I think moving that timeline up will and in discussions with others in the district too as we try to recruit students to OCPS and keep them in OCPS, you know, the sooner they have that knowledge that been that they've
012been accepted the better. So in October through through December they apply for the 26 27 school year, right? So we actually for this past year we kind of did a pilot so students and so the let me back up and just say the lottery will happen in in January, the second lottery in February, right? After the second lottery, we still continue to put ch students in seats, right? If a school says, "Hey, I have three more seats. Two of them didn't come or I have whatever." We continue to to make seat offers throughout the school, right? So, we used to this past year for for August of this what year are we in? 25. we were putting typically we would stop just at pre-planning before the last day of pre-planning. No more seed offers, right?
013So, we thought, well, why do that? And I think members of the board have said, well, let's let's open it up. Let's continue to put kids in seats if they want, right? And so we would have programs that would have empty seats. So in the interest of choice, in the interest of filling seats in and viable programs, we said, well, let's try it for the first 10 days. And we've never done that before. We've always stopped. So, we actually 47 we actually seated 47 students in magnet programs between the first day of school and the 10th day of school. So, we thought we'd try 10 days, see how that works. and we'll I didn't put a date. You notice we didn't put an end date of when it would be. So, it would we would
014leave it open so that if this board and the superintendent decides, well, let's offer seats year round. and see how that works. There's some flexibility, if you will, in the language, in your policy language that would allow us to say, "Okay, well, let's try, you know, first semester and see how that works. See how many seats we get, see what kind of interest we get." So, that's what we did this year. Michelle and her team worked with that and we put a more a lot more kids in seats that we would not have normally had done. Right. Okay. Excellent. That was really what I was what I was interested in and I think this is exactly what we're looking for. Just kind of opening that up, making sure that if there are available seats and
015there's kids on a wait list, we can get them right in. So, I appreciate all your hard work. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Member Fer. Member Gallo. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you all for all your hard work on this policy. I think we finally got it to a place where we're all we're all very very happy. I think as we move forward and families discover all the choice we have within OCPS, it's my hope that they realize how fabulous we are and they they come back to our schools. I do have just a couple of questions. So changing is it the same amount of time that the magnet school applications will be open from October to December as it was in January previously. It's about a week and a half shy. It's
016a and statistically we didn't see a lot of the applications. That's why we monitored it this year within that week and a half. But it is so we can close it right before winter break because a lot of our parents are making those decisions early on. So it is about a week and a half shy from the prior application period. Okay. So my tiny little concern is that it's it's happening over the holidays, right? So October and then Thanksgiving and Christmas are really busy for our families and I'm scared that it's going to be lost in the shuffle. Are we going to do more marketing of the programs so that parents are aware? Because usually you what you have to touch them like seven times before they remember, oh, I need to do this. Yes,
017ma'am. We are working closely with Scott Howitt's team for the marketing component. our schools already have the tentative timeline, so they are preparing their marketing videos currently right now and working closely with Scott Howitz's team to ensure that we have the correct procedures out for marketing and make sure the word is getting out. Absolutely. Wonderful. And then the pilot went well. Like we didn't see a decline and when we did the pilot, parents paid attention and applied. Yes, ma'am. We had several students apply and to have 47 extra students in seats was astonishing and some of ouries as well we had about 87 seats and placed in for the first 10 first 10 days of school. And for the 80% what I what was the GPA that they need to have? It doesn't ma well
018the GPA it ranks. So if you have a 100 students applying for a particular high school magnet right the system will take those 100 rank order them by GPA and we'll take the if this language is approved we'll take the 80% or 80 students the top 80 students place them in the lottery first. So it really doesn't matter. You ask what GPA they have. So it's like a rolling. It ranks order, right? Okay. So if I were to apply, my GPA is a 1.0. I may be number 81 or 99. but there's still a chance that I could get into. Right. Okay. So it doesn't cut off or require certain GPA. It is rank orders them take it will take the 80 seats. Okay. That makes sense. And the 20 is just random. Random. And
019then for schools like our performing arts schools that may have auditions to get into the magnet, how does the G how does the GPA coincide with the audition? Because I know if you have to audition to get into the performing arts, there might be somebody more talented with a lower GPA than someone with a higher GPA that has less talent. Yes, ma'am. So for all for all performing arts magnets, they all audition. So if they apply, they all go through addition. It's not based on the ranking of Okay. Yeah. All right. That's what I needed to know. That's awesome. Thank you so much and thank you for all your work on this. I appreciate it. Thank you, Member Gallo. Member Vanos, you're recognized. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for your work. I have a
020and I think I am reading this wrong because I know that we talked about this for so long, but I'm looking on page five at 6D and towards the bottom it says magnet schools, for example, Howard Middlerest are not eligible for the sibling transfer. I thought so. What does are you so those schools aren't included? magnet school or siblings of magnet students can't transfer into those schools. Madam chair. Yes ma'am. So it's so when we speak about sibling transfers there's a couple things to consider is within this policy we have and within JCA the transfer policy there is language that says if I'm a magnet student at let's say Dr. Phillips High School, right? And I have a sibling that wants to come to that school, but not be a magnet student. I can apply
021for a sibling transfer and I could be granted that transfer to go to Dr. Phillips with my with my sibling. I will not be in the magnet program, right? But I'll be at that school. Okay. We have two schools for the public information for the public. As you know, we have two schools. Howard, Hillrest and OGA, three schools that are full magnets. Right. So, those are magnet. We call those magnet schools. So, if I'm in a magnet school like how Howard or Hillrest, my sibling has to go through the lottery application process, the magnet application process and be selected that way instead of having what we call the sibling transfer, which is almost an automatic where if I'm at another magnet program, they can come to the school with me but not be in the
022magnet. Right? So, in order for a sibling to be in the magnet, they have to apply for the magnet application and go through the lottery process, selection process. Now, however, there is I think in the elementary piece, there is a and I think in the middle school piece too that let's say that I'm at Hillrest language magnet. I'm already there as a first grader. My siblings wants to come in as a kindergartener. My parent still has to go through the application process, but that lottery process recognizes that this student has a sibling already attending and enrolled. So, it gives them preference. It gives my sibling preference to that lottery for those for those schools. So, it's not an I guess simple way of saying it's not an automatic transfer to the three magnet schools. Okay.
023I understand for OGA because there's are there are other requirements there, but I did personally and maybe I'm just wrong. I personally thought that we were all of these were included so that if a sibling was at Hillrest or Howard, you know, that then the other siblings could be could move there. I don't I'm not sure I understand what the distinction with those schools are, especially because we're talking elementary and middle. and you know, new students are kind of coming in all the time. So, I guess I was not clear on that. but that may have just been my misunderstanding. Hold on just a minute. is that I think it's readings and body language. Are we all on the same page? Okay, thank you. Back to you, Member Vanis. my body language IQ is not
024as high as I thought it was. And is that just I guess my question is why is it why are those schools different? Back when we discussed that and it's it's been a couple years now I think when that policy came too it was just shared or thought that those were magnet full magnet schools. So, if I were you know, not every student is not every sibling is interested in in in Howard Middle School's performing arts magnet or or my sibling may not be interested in the magnet program per se at at the at Hillrest. So, it's just been in language that you can go to the same school as long as it's not a in the interest of keeping students together, but it you can't be we don't transfer into magnet programs. Okay. I'm
025I don't know. I I'm curious what other board members think. I'm not sure I think that we should consider that to be a separate category again, especially with elementary and middle school students. I did also want to ask, this has come up actually recently for me. I wanted to ask about the IEP, and how that interplays with magnet programs that, it sounds like from the policy that schools don't have to accommodate an IEP if they feel they can't, but is that legal? So, so hold on. When Go ahead. When the questions asked, is it legal? Okay. Allegedly that's me. So what happens is allegedly exactly know when a student has an IEP there are certain particular types of services that can be offered and it depends on the severity of the students disabilities right it
026could be occupational therapy you know physical therapy all the way running up the gamut and certain students may have to be in a unit right so for example if we have and I'm just making this up in autism spectrum disorder unit there and the student needs to be because of their disability in that unit. If a magnet school doesn't have that particular unit, we're not transferring a student over there because we would by definition not be able to implement the services required there. We're if there are services available that are on that campus that can serve that student, we'll most certainly make them eligible. And that's part of the reason why we're having the review of the IEP here, just to ensure that if we allow the student to go there, the services are there
027on that campus. But we wouldn't put a kid who is in the ASD unit over on a campus that doesn't have those services because then we would have to replicate services for one or two students and that's just not possible budgetarily and it's not required under the law. Okay, that that makes sense. thank you for that. the other point I wanted to to address was about the GPA. looking more towards GPA to determine who can go into a magnet school. I and again I'll bring this up because this has been a huge huge issue in my community. I would like to consider other things when we look at magnet enrollment. And one of the things I think is really important to look at I'm curious to see what other members think is just the geographic
028diversity of where we're pulling students from because you all know I have student I have my own students in who have been to magnet schools and non-magnet schools and I'm a huge supporter. I think they are the best template we have for for school choice and again I always say public school parents love public school choices so I support wholeheartedly our magnet programs. but I do think there have been some unintended consequences of opening up particularly the full magnet schools on particular neighborhoods. And so I would just support a conversation about, you know, making sure that we are looking to different areas to pull students from. And if we have a situation where okay, you know, there is this particular neighborhood that's coming to this magnet school, you know, maybe we need to recruit and
029really look hard into other geographic areas. and if that means finding a way to bring transportation into it, like maybe that's what we do. I don't know if maybe our magnet schools could start 15 minutes later so that we could kind of have two drop offs from buses after the neighborhood school. They could come to a magnet school. I don't know how it could work. but I think it's again though a huge supporter of magnet schools, I think there's some unintended consequences and I'd really like to look at that geographic diversity piece of it. thank you. All right. Thank you, member Vanos. Member Felder, you're recognized. Thank you so much. And I appreciate the work that you all do. and I was really trying to address something board member Thanos was saying about the magnet
030program and siblings. We did go through that quite a bit last year in terms of because there was a situation we had some Asian students one was five and I think the other one was six or seven or something and they and they were not fluent at all. The baby was not fluent at all in English and the parents were very concerned that they would be at the school by themselves. So we did come up with a policy that if you are a sibling and this was not a full magnet school just had a magnet program but I think we talked about the fact that sometimes it's difficult to grandfather siblings in a full magnet school because the seating may not be available and they may not have the interest or they may not have
031their their learning may not be may not be the same with with the children in this particular magnet program. Let me give you an example. If we had a full theater magnet program at one of our schools and a and a sibling wanted to come. Well, in theater you need to audition and say they have some other type of concern where they could not learning concern they could not do that. It would be difficult if that was the only way to get into the program. But I do I believe that we do have with students in magnet programs they are they do have 504 plans and all you have to address that I know because when I was teaching at Dr. Phillips in theaters in fact most of my better students in the theater program
032had 504 plans. In fact, most of them had. And so those were the ones that did quite well because I taught them their lines through a tape because reading was very they had this dyslexia and just difficult for them to look at a script and read, but I put the script on tape and they were able to to memorize. So I think a lot of the teachers in our various magnet programs, I do believe that they address accommodations. I hope I'm, you know, answering your question. They do address accommodations because magnet or not magnet, we're still a public school. We have to meet the needs of all of our children regardless, you know, of their specific, you know, needs. But I do know we went through this quite a bit last year trying to determine
033how we could get siblings in magnet program. So, we did allow if it wasn't a full magnet program, it's easier to do that than if it's full because it's a question, I think, of seating and whether or not there's going to be enough room for the sibling to come. on if they did come, they wouldn't be in the magnet program. You know what I'm saying? But I think we kind of worked it around. Am I Am I correct, Mr. Moody? Last year we talked about that. Yes, ma'am. I think it was last year, if my memory serves me. It may have been the year before. Uhhuh. Okay. So, I hope I helped you understand. Okay. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Member Felder. Member Douglas, you're recognized. Okay. Thank you for Okay, it just scares me.
034Okay, thank you so much for making a difference between the mag magnet school and magnet program. You know, I mean, it wasn't really in my mind, but you kind of brought it in the forefront of my mind that yes, there are magnet school and magnet programs. I appreciate that. And I also want to thank you because two of my kids went to magnet schools and they did very well, you know, and I really appreciate the magnet school and what they they make our kids more competitive, you know, and I love that and thank you for for that. My question is about the lottery. how do you did you have any problem with minorities thinking that they don't get as much in the lottery as others? How do you determine to make it fair for all
035kids to be in the magnet programs? And how do we know that? Do you have a survey? Do you have a paper that show us that you know all the kids have the same opportunity as others? Mr. Mayor, you recognized. Thank you, ma'am. great question. years ago, a few years ago, we did we had that question come up and so we did an analysis of of the lottery and the students and the demographics of the students. we can do that again and share that information with the board. But as I recall a few years ago when we did that it was pretty well balanced the kids that were selected for seat offers as far as race I forget about gender and such but and I forget who applied more boys or girls but we'll get
036that's a great question and it's time we look at that again. Absolutely. So give me some time and I'll get that to all board members. Wonderful. Thank you ma'am. Great question. Yeah. Thank you member Douglas. All right. That is that concludes the board members input and questions at this time. Madam Mr. Pomarini, please. So I need to know from the board if there is consensus to move the language as is because with the way our new policy process is. I have to advertise it and then I need to know if the policy is good as is or does the board there was a couple questions here that the board said they maybe wanted to look at. Do you all want us to look at that, bring it back for another work session before we go
037and advertise the policy? Yeah. So, let me let me ask this. Is there anyone who's uncomfortable with the language would like to pursue changes because we certainly can do that. Okay. All right. anybody else? All right. Then I think we consider those changes and we'll bring it back. So, we'll bring it back for a work session out of the work session then. I'm sorry, member. I am. Okay. here. Yeah. So, here's the Yeah. We usually if there's not a majority on most things, but I on policies, it is not uncommon when it comes back that somebody else says, "Oh, wait a minute. I haven't thought about that." So, I we really try to make sure that there's a lot of comfort level rather than going through the advertising, having the next meeting, and then there's
038you raise it again and somebody else goes, you know, the light just goes off. So, we have two members out of the five of us sitting here. So, after my body language IQ, I'm checking to make sure I can still count. I would say we bring back and talk to the two board members that have raised issues and see if with the staff you can work out and come back with us. All right. With some options. Yes. So, can I just for their sake get clarification of what the specific language and what it is you would like to have reconsidered? I heard the conversation, but I want to make sure that they're addressing the specifics of your request. That's all. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Arster. member, thank you. It sounds like I just misunderstood
039the sibling piece, so I'm good with that if everyone else is. but I did want to look at just maybe looking at some like geographic diversity of of how we're recruiting students for our magnet programs. Madam Chair, may I So, member Vanos, thank you for the question and so I'm trying to so that I serve at your pleasure in trying to craft the language. I'm trying to determine how or or what type of language or where that might fit in the policy as far as or is that just a question you want me to come back to and explore how we like for example I would see that we encourage schools to look at their population of magnet students and some may say you know what I'm not pulling we're not pulling from a certain
040geographic area or we're not pulling from a a certain demographic student. how can we target certain schools or certain areas certain populations that would increase a certain demographic you know free and reduced lunch or or or by race or by gender. m Mr. Moody, let me let me ask this. Yes. because as you're talking about policy language, I'm wondering if this is language that goes in the policy or if this is more operational in terms of the information you're going to gather. And so that's food for thought and then the other opportunity is always to move forward what we have knowing that we can come back and change this policy very very easily. If you're able to find some, you get information in terms of the diversity and what neighborhoods we're pulling from and then
041based on that information, it might be possible to figure out what policy language we could insert to address it. But I do feel like we're kind of missing some data to know. I know what your concern is and I know what member Douglas's is, but I think it's another step before we would get to the point where we would know what policy language and operationally what we would do different. Member Vanos, I mean, that's fine if we need to move forward with this policy and then come back and have the conversation. I mean, I'm I'm fine with that. It's just it's Yeah, it's just something that I think we need to think about. I wholeheartedly agree. So if the board's not uncomfortable member Douglas I'm feeling the same way. I just don't want you to
042do double work do worse and then we come back to and say we change again. So let's look at it one time with the data and all that and then bring it back one time and be done with it. What do you think? Yeah. Member Mr. Moody. thank you Madam Chair. So, and another thing and of course I don't I don't set the board's timeline or or or schedule. So, but I will share that and if this is not right, you know, I don't want to move forward. I as the board would not want to move forward with something that policy language that you're not comfortable with. from the office perspective of school choice is that if since we are looking to move the application and lottery sooner that involves other departments as well and
043that's a little more entailed than than just me deciding we're going to flip the switch on October. It's a little more complicated than that. And so if we don't move forward with it today, then this will be paused. I would say logistically and operationally, this would be paused. Any changes that we would want to do for this coming year as far as the lottery timeline would have to be paused until next October, next November. So just for the board's consideration. I understand. So you have a deadline that we're trying to meet and while Yeah. I mean again we can adopt what we have. We can analyze the information. We can come back with recommended changes that will probably apply to the following year or we postpone the lottery the whole process. So I your comfort
044level. I don't feel I'm fine with not postponing. I'm I am fine with a agreeing, you know, approving this, but then having a truly a bigger conversation about it after that. Yeah. Okay. And I and I would Dr. Arm Brewster, I would encourage u Mr. Moody and his team to meet individually with both board members to make sure whatever information you're collecting is consistent with what we're hearing in terms of concerns. I think I understand them. They're slightly different what I'm hearing and I think they're both valuable, but I just don't I don't want to see any effort that's not productive and efficient. Okay. Absolutely. Thank you. Okay. if if we're clear, we'll excuse you two. We're not clear. I just wanted to make sure you're not going to postpone anything, right? But we're going
045to have that discussion again after. No, we're going to move forward. We're going to advertise this as is and Yeah. And then they're going to meet with each both of you and look at what information we need to gather in terms of the population we're serving and any recommended changes that would apply next year if it comes back and the board approves those changes. Okay. All right. I think we have a good plan. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you, Madam Chair, board members. And I would say just add I think it's a policy that probably needs to be revisited revisited more often than we have in the past as we try to increase choice and make a positive choice for our or fresh choice as Vicki member Felder says. Absolutely. for our families. So thank you.
046And we'll meet with board members individually. Thank you. Yes. And the work you do is more important than ever. So thank you. The team. Thank you. Yes. All right. Okay. If we can, we'll bring up the next policy for review. That's policy JICK threats. And we'll have the team join us. Calvin Messiah, district threat management coordinator will introduce and we'll get started. and members of the board as they get ready to go do this. Most of these changes, as you're getting ready to hear, are statutoily mandated or rulebased mandated. So, we're not going to have much of in the way of choice on that. So, I just wanted the team to be aware and point that out where this is basically just tracking Florida law as recently amended. Thank you, deputy superintendent, madame chair and
047is another one and board members. our updates are as follows. Our first is regarding the is naming convention to align with the rule that's section I is also in alignment with rule as well as section F. this is also in alignment with rule. R changes to R is also in alignment with rule. So section subsection W is also in alignment with rule Voluntary admission is also in alignment with rule. Section two is also in alignment with rule. The chair of the SBTMT shall be the administrator. Oh, the vice chair of the SBTMT may be an administrator or instructional personnel. This is an update that is one its alignment with rule, but it's also an a change that was recommended by our schools and superintendent. Core 4 is alignment with rule. Section two is in alignment
048with rule. Section three is an update to the policy as of the 2526 school year. It reads, "A primary and secondary district management, district threat management coordinator, excuse me, DTMC shall be designated by the superintendent or designate and shall serve on the DTM." A reads, "The primary district threat management coordinator, the PDTMC, shall oversee the district's threat management, including charter schools, serve as the chair of the DTMt, assist SBTMts, and serve at the direct as the at the direct leaison between the district and the department. The PDTMC shall ensure that all of the district level and school level threat management team personnel are trained in threat management and on the floor the model. The PDTMC reports directly to the chief of district police. The secondary district threat management coordinator SDTMC shall provide support to the
049district's threat management process at the discretion of the PDTMC. The next is a an update in alignment with rule. These are also updates in alignment with rule. these are in alignment with rule. DTMs shall meet as needed to review and consult the SBTMts and must meet time frame set forth by Florida set forth in the Florida threat management manual but no less than monthly to discuss relevant data strategies and interventions with collaborative stakeholders provide ongoing support to SBTMts and ensure continuous improvement and fidelity in the implementation of the Florida model. This is new as of this school year. These are Oh yes. this is an update which allows the school safety specialist or myself to manage reassignments of program. It is the school safety specialist, SBTMT or DTMt may recommend to the superintendent or designate
050the assignment or reassignment of students to schools or programs located in or out of their assigned zone for the health, safety or welfare of the student, other students or staff. Finally, reporting section A. All threats of harm to others that may result in level two, sorry, level three or level four discipline shall be immediately reported to the SBTM chair and the district police communication center and to law enforcement. this is an update through collaboration between the district police and the disciplinary team. or student services. Yeah, those are all of our proposed changes. All right, member Galla. Oops. Thank you, board members. Hold on just a minute. We have a question for member Galla. We just have to find her. Okay, member Gallo, you're recognized. It's been a day and I just want to say I've
051only been here for an hour and a half. I'm sorry. So I did miss the last half of that because they're calling us back individually. the I only had one question really and that was on section I. I understand that we're doing it. It's on the was it section I? It was on the Baker Act. where we're just citing the statute versus kind of spelling it out. Is it on it's section Z, sorry, voluntary examination. And so we're reclassifying it voluntary admission and then we're basically scratching out what that means and just putting in a statute. And that concerns me because I think when we're removing a child off of our campus, I would prefer in this instance to have the statute in there because that's the policy we I know that we have a
052separate policy on Baker Acts, but I would prefer that it's just kind of spelled out and not just listed as a statute. That would be my preference just because I have I've done a lot of work on beggar acts and I don't know who's going to just pull up the statute unless because I did miss half of the presentation unless it's spelled out somewhere else in the this policy and I may have missed it. If it's just a duplication then that's fine. But if we're strictly striking everything else and just putting in as defined in section 394.4625 4625 Florida statutes. I would prefer it to be written out so people understand what the statute says. Mr. Pomerani, do you want to respond? I'm pretty sure that this is taken directly from the administrative code rule
053and their manual like we track their definitions verbatim. I'm pretty sure that's what we've done here. But I'm going to look to Alkeia and the team just to make sure that my understanding is correct. And but that doesn't preclude us from listing the statue out. I mean, I understand that we're taking it verbatim, but that doesn't mean that we can't be a little bit more substantive in our explanation. And I see Sarah's capacity. This one's a little bit of a baby for me because I did so much work on legislation and Mhm. So anytime I just No, I understand and I think you know a statutory number doesn't mean anything to anybody and they might not ever look at it. So the more specificity the better. I that would be my wish. Yeah, you're right.
054Just to explain the reason it was modified is only because if they go if the legislature comes back and changes the statutory definition, we'll then have to come back through rulem again with the policy. is it something that we could keep in there? Absolutely. but it's just recommended by legal just because if legislature changes, that way we don't have to come back and change the policy, too. Thank you. And I appreciate that. But we'd also have to change our Baker Act policy. So, we would we would be bringing them both back at the same time because our Baker Act policy is from the legislation that passed. It cites that legislation. So, we'd have to bring that back anyways. Okay. So, I don't know. I' I would rather it be spelled out, but of course I'm
055at the will of the board. But I would rather it be specific and not just list a section because then we could do the same thing in the Baker. I guess I don't want to set a precedent of just listing a statute so that we don't have to come back and change it because that means we could just our baker policy could just list a statute, nothing else. and that doesn't detail the steps that we're supposed to take prior to really baker acting a child and remove them off of our facility. So, I would prefer to be more specific if possible, understanding that if it does get changed in the legislature that it would have to revisit this board. Although, I thought that if it's a legislative change, I thought that we gave authority to
056legal to make those changes without it necessarily coming to the board. So, just because there's a statute change doesn't mean it needs to come before us prior to it being approved. What that Madam Chair, may I please, Mr. So what that policy did is we remember we had the whole work session rule development workshop in in before we made the change to our process. What that policy said was if it was just statutory change I could just bring it straight to the board as a technical change to make it. It would still have to come back to the board for a final adoption in that case. Even if it's just a statutory change to reflect what the current statutory language is. So, if the legislature changes the language and we have it in here, we're
057going to have to bring it back to you all for final approval. Anyways, in this scenario, if the legislature made changes to the language itself, but we still have the statute cited, we're saying we're it complies with whatever the version of 394.4265, I think it is, is so that wouldn't have to come back to you all because it just incorporates the statutory definition that's then currently listed. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Pomearie. And I understand that. But as a board member, even if they change the statute, I would still recommend that our language remain as is because we can go above and beyond what the legislature wants us to do. We just can't go below it. I would still want this language in and our Baker Act policy to remain and just then add whatever
058the legislator whatever the legislative change was to our policy. like I would still advocate as a board member to keep this as is and just add in any changes because once again we can go above we just can't go below. So if I can interject I hear what you're saying in terms of we can go above terms of providing it. I hear what Mr. Pomearini is saying that language as written if it changes currently what we would have is it still comes back to us. My question, Mr. Palm Marini, is could we amend our policy that provides that when that change happens, here's the process to also include that if there's a change to the actual language in the statute that and then keep it as a simpler process for us to make that change.
059I'm not quite sure what that is, but to save us a step, but still be able to include what I really like is just put a link in there. and then if it changes, it is a link. But I don't know that gets you. Madam Chair, if I may, could we keep the language and then just put some type of verbiage that says and whatever is included and the same meaning or just include the statute. So, if there's statutory changes, can we put verbiage in there that says refer to the statute, but what above it doesn't change? That way, if there is change in the legislative, since we have the statute listed, then that would cover that change, and it wouldn't need to come to the board, and I would still kind of get what
060I'm asking for, but the language that somebody would see in the policy would mirror the whatever the current statutory language is. Correct? Yes, it would mirror like what if they clicked on the statute, it would mirror that language. So if there's changes, those changes would be recognized, but we wouldn't remove the definition of what our because this information in the voluntary examination, this basically came from our baker policy, which we have in policy. So we're just re-emphasizing that language. And so I would prefer to keep it. And then if we could figure out a way to say and you know as determined by Florida statutes 394.625 that way that might encompass any legislative change for future reference. I don't have any problem with that. We can keep the language in and we can say additionally
061it's subject to the requirements of 3944625 and we can even include a link in it like sort of what we do in the code of conduct that should take care of all eventualities and potentialities and take care of it. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you member Gallo. any other questions from board members? Okay, Dr. Arberster. So, we're just for clarification, we're going to make the one change that we've just discussed and we have the board's consensus to go ahead and advertise. Is that correct? Yes. Unless I hear otherwise from any board members, but since there are no other questions, I believe we are in agreement. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair, the superintendent and board members. Thank you. I did want to share that some of you have received phone
062calls. The rest of you will receive phone calls because of our tight timeline today. We wanted to make you aware of something before the board meeting tonight. so you'll be getting those calls if you would answer it between now and when you get to the next meeting. It's just a quick it's just to give you a heads up. Thank you. So we can the next meeting is an executive session that we've advertised for the conclusion of this. If everybody wants to be there by 2:00 so we can get started. That would give you time to take the calls and then we can get started at two. I'm a little Hang on. I'm a little confused. Are we getting information now? Yeah, you'll get a phone call if you see the phone. If you I'm sorry
063if you'll answer it. There's nothing in this meeting. No, this meeting. I thought you were saying we're going to be hearing from constituents. Please make sure we answer all the questions before the meeting. No, I apologize. No, we're we are reaching out to you through phones. Got it. Thank you very much. To share some information. All right, then. at this meeting is now adjourned. I'm down.