##VIDEO ID:oGymEeK-LBo## morning I'm feeling all right a new day is on not a clight a smile smile smile upon my face and a bright bright happy day [Music] yesterday Sorrows are all in the past there's always tomorrow so they never last I'm going smile smile smile upon our face and you have a bright bright happy day right happy [Music] day sooner or later thees come around you got to [Music] face you smile smile smile your face and you have a right happy [Music] day you get the message it's all up to you for wor for better you get to choose smile smile smile upon your face and you'll have a bright bright bright happy day so just put a smile smile smile upon your face and happy day happy day by Happy Day by happy day happy [Music] [Applause] day thank you Mrs Leonardi will now ask for a moment of silence Mrs lardy yesterday a Fort Lauderdale student Christopher granados tragically lost his life due to gun violence I'm asking that you keep his family friends the employees and students at Fort Lauderdale high school and the Fort Lauderdale community and Wilton Manners community and your thoughts and prayers thank you thank you as we prepared to be in this school board Workshop we are reminded that our vision is 100% proficiency for all of our students as an a-rated School District We Begin the vital task of sustaining this achievement we will continue educating all students to reach their Highest Potential our theme this year is believe Empower achieve one Broward today's Workshop will operate in accordance with school board policy 1020 and the board will review the items as advertised and presented by the superintendent our first item for discussion is our quarterly Joint School Board and advisory committee groups discussion thank you all for being here today and for the Broward Education Foundation for providing today's Refreshments I want to begin by expressing our deep appreciation to each of our advisory committees and their members for your ongoing dedication and hard work your contributions are invaluable as we strive to continually improve Broward County public schools for our student staff and the entire Community as some of you may be aware there have been concerns raised regarding a bullying complaints I want to clarify that we will not be discussing that matter today as it is now being handled by an outside investigator however I can share that the superint superintendent heern is actively working on updating the district's bullying policy in association with our respect and civility policy to ensure that there is clear separation between policies addressing students and adults we anticipate that the updated policy will be presented to the board at a subsequent school board meeting for today's discussion we will be open we will open the item with presenting advisory Representatives with the opportunity to provide a brief five minute verbal remarks for the board's consideration followed by public comment and then board member remarks and discussion I look forward to hearing your insights and ideas on how we can improve our district for our students our first step speaker will be Mary fdick okay Rebecca dah Matthew fredman o groski h okay y okay we'll just start right here you may you may be good morning good morning good morning I know what it's like looking at a wrong list um just a few a couple of housekeeping items that we need to go over we would like to set up an appointment with our communications director uh Chief whatever they calling these days uh we have a number of items that are still outstanding from the March meeting that have not been resolved and also items that um the chairs need we need to discuss the motion process because it's not working um 6 weeks is too long to respond to a motion uh especially if you're looking for feedback for something uh we've had uh two months ago we were asked for uh emails for the chairs and the process to access those emails we still have not had a response liais on list so we need there's a number of things we need to go over and I don't think this is the venue to do it um as U Linda Ferrara tech technology advisory committee chair um we've had two meetings so far uh both have been very productive we're going over policies and um rfps uh the main focus is still Focus I'm getting complaints left and right teachers cannot access IEPs to address their students needs so um it's very frustrating for everybody at this point I've got parents complaining about accessing it um trying to process through it even the um tutorials that you have to some are a little confusing so I mean I I don't know why it's confusing them but that's part of the process um we continue to you know work with staff uh very um positively in moving forward with all items and I think one thing that U Pac needs to look at is uh strategic plan um I don't you know the last one that I saw was from 2014 and I know there's been interim strategic plans but one should be focused on a strategic technology strategic plan for the district too thank you okay thank you hello I'm Danielle Hoffman and I'm proudly representing Broward County Public Schools the multilingual advisory committee we are a new advisory promoting multilingual education throughout the district we had our first meeting on August 27th where we passed our first our first motion approving the bylaws we had 25 people show up in person and 43 people show up via Zoom parents concerns were brought up in regards to a teacher investigation that led their students to have un certified teacher that was addressed by the principal and they're working with the parents there was a common concern with teacher turnover and no pool for teachers to backfill positions and the lack of support to help bridge the gap um there's a desire to have a Jedi program which is a program that um is tutoring after school that's supported by a grant um but there are limitations and teachers are not wanting to sign up to teach those programs the request is that we look at a teacher pool in the area where there's some proximity where maybe a teach teacher that is at a different school might come and do that program at another school that needs it they also request that we look at a potential um opportunity to partner with students like AP students um kind of common like similar like Latinos in Action where maybe they can get some credit or service hours for helping some of these um elementary and middle school students there's also a concern for lack of resources in curriculum for the teacher coupled with large classroom sizes of 31 plus kids in those upper element grades um there was also concerns of the teacher vetting process in the middle schools as some teachers are teaching Spanish speakers and it's not in line with the pace of how the curriculum is being executed from elementary to middle so now um that is causing these students to pull out of the program lowering matriculation um and some even withdrawing from Broward County Schools uh teacher compensation was a big topic and terms of additional work for certifications and um and how can we help uh bridge the gap so that teachers that are being asked to do more work are getting compensated for their work the committee has requested data regarding enrollment and withdrawal um this data is not captured well um as we asked the district um to be able to pull it and we're told that it's not easy to pull nor capture and we're hoping that we can put a better process in place we are interested in seeing what is the matriculation of monolingual versus multilingual households um in these areas in terms of enrollment and withdrawal how many kids in the program are coming from other areas in terms of choice programs um we're trying to see how this school benefits enrollment as in the the people present it helped Bridge a gap of low enrollment schools for them the committee is also working on scheduling visits with um site visits with the goal of learning successes and areas of improvement across all of the district and identifi a standard for Success we do have our first visit today with westg Glades Middle School and we have another visit today um later this week with Eagle Point Elementary so our ask is to um have more transparency on the data and if there's no process in collecting the data what processes can we put in place so that we can really identify how this program helps matriculation and therefore merits additional funding or um additional assistance Dr eer yes um just a clarifying question for me and the team what specific data I just want to clarify is it um enrollment data for the specific school and students who are categorized um as be it dual dual language um um program Learners or just to provide some clarity so we know absolutely so there's um a a few data points that we're asking one is um when you and rooll you are asked if you are part of like a monolingual home or if there's other languages spoken so we're trying to understand how many students that actually are in the program come from a multilingual home we don't need to know the language we just want to know that there's more than one language in the home versus monolingual we want to look at the TR rates between multilingual and monolingual homes um we also want to see how many of the kids in the program are Choice kids so what percentage of these families are driving out of their District to attend these schools um and then we also wanted to see um attrition like does when you add this program how does it lift enrollment you know from the school that I went to I know that we were struggling with enrollment they put that program in and now we don't we we don't struggle with enrollment so we're trying to see how can we utilize this program also to help enrollment in public school in Brower County in general thank you MH thank you so much hi good morning morning um my name is daao and I am the central advisory chair um even though I hold that title I a parent first and seek to ensure that my children and all children get what they need um I'm happy to see that this is here but initially I was unsure if I was going to attend because like myself and the other chairs we weren't initially invited um it was UN it was going to be uncomfortable for me to walk into a space and not have a seat with your name on it the way the others do so I do thank you to see that this is here I'm not sure you know but I do thank you to see that that is there um I at first I thought it was intentional for us not to be included so it was going to be disappointing for me to be here even though I want what we all want which is what's best for our children you know we work tires tirelessly without compensation for the sole purpose of seeing our babies Thrive I want all our children to thrive I want all the children to be in spaces where they are safe have clean air a proper playground and equipped Media Center where they can check out books and read I want to know how we are handling how the push-ins the push outs support putting in supports in place to help ensure that our Scholars succeed ultimately we all want the same thing to ensure that our children are ready for the next we want them to be able to read at 100% proficiency it was even said so that's why we should be here I want to say that Central is having their meeting on Thursday at 9:45 at Indian Ridge and we would invite you all to attend if you would like to thank you thank you and um thank you for being here and when I was told that there was a problem with maybe a misunderstanding and I said absolutely they need to be here they need to have a seat at the table so welcome and thank you for being here hi Jackie lusim I'm the chair of ESC advisory good morning to everybody um our I'll give it I'll get a plugin for our next meeting which is tomorrow night we're looking forward to having the superintendent with us I hear he's with us for about an hour our meeting is two and a half hours and we could fill every minute with you that you can give us so if you can squeeze more we would love that thank you very much um and um and I hope everybody understands and knows that um what ese advisory is and what it isn't we are not a set body of people who sit around a table um each with us you know a function and a role and a title we are anybody and everybody who shows up and then a core elected board so if at times there is dialogue that is perceived as negative I would like to invite any of you around this table to come to the meeting and see what actually in reality that is that can be anything from from parents coming and saying they're not getting compliance with their child's IEP at school to parents who if they didn't come to that meeting were really about to just lose it all together they find being in a room with other people who understand and letting it all out and being able to have a shoulder to cry on is important um and at the moment I still don't see that there are channels for that through BCPS um it's felt that coming to somebody outside of BCPS to get Solutions sometimes is the kind of um their last route and um I'd like you to understand what we do and how hard that work is out here doing the work that folks don't feel that they can have confidence in BCPS to do I'm a collaborative partner I work with regional superintendant I try to move parents to the right um place that they can get help but I think that customer service piece I'm really happy to hear that that's being focused on it um at BCPS under Dr um but we don't yet see it and I don't yet know how that customer service is to be obtained um biggest problem um in our community I think the most regular complaint is still compliance compliance compliance and the F-word Focus um in uh 2014 um there was something called The Evergreen report which uh was a review of ese in Broward County things had kind of hit chaos and crisis point and um an independent review body was brought in to look at and did and it made recommendations and and a lot of commendations too and I think if the same thing was to happen now there would be a lot of commendations for BCPS and ese uh and Dian Ean who's sitting behind me and her who's the executive director of ese she and her team do an awesome job but there are so many holes and so many gaps it almost feels that we're back at that 2014 point I have never seen um the the the under resourcing the compliance issues now with focus on top of compliance with IEPs you have problems of compliance of IEPs and I'm not ever going to do I told you so I just want for there to be a forward plan from here because a forward plan was never made when you were warned that this chaos was coming I still don't feel that the um the how Focus um uh has impacted Ese and what you have taken away in closing Edan is well understood what's ever I see nods from people who I know do understand it um but with all due respect sit down with an ESC specialist each and every one of you I can connect you to plenty who would love you to know what the system did that you took away from them and what the system that you have now handed them doesn't do and will never do we're not talking about just training things out of them and getting them through a frustrating um transition period we are talking about key elements that involve compliance due process and legal cases are going to follow you had to take on a new lawyer last year I remember standing here at the mic and saying if you don't spend money on having another lawyer to defend against ESC cases that are being brought to you have some more staff in that are going to be able to provide um uh proper supports and services and to fill those gaps in the hole um I Echo what Linda said about motions we don't have a very orderly process for when we have a motion for it to work its way through to you folks in in a timely manner um uh what else um Communications I think um with the redefining schools process um I would love to see um a lot more emphasis on ese without working in silos I think there were things that were not being um necessarily factored into decision making before I'm glad some of that decision making got um undone and we're starting again but we really want to be in there and not just be talking about um the the closure and the mergers and all that but what we're going to hand back and not just redefining schools but redefining education thank you thank you morning morning all right so um as a div as a diversity chair I would like oh narni Pier Grant child you just see theice diversity but you don't see my name um I would like to first thank the board for their commitment to meeting with advisories and um the chairs uh as mentioned mention at the last meeting the diversity committee is well on its way scheduling and starting our site visits this month I met with several department heads to ensure a progressive monitoring process that will yield us with positive and annual positive joint annual reports the committee will take concerns observed during side visits to appropriate departments to investigate as well as check the districtwide to ensure equ equ is is Equitable or equitability I'm trying to say the right word um of response resource and maintenance the goal of this committee will always be to implement adhere to and maintain the indicators of the CCC settlement and give the board sound recommendations um I'd like to address a few things and I hope the superintendent and the board can provide me with some direction on this um the board chair gave a disclaimer this this morning so we can't really address The Bullying thing and I wasn't planning on doing that um I did receive Miss Batista's email at 7:23 this morning and and uh counselor I will review it and if I have any further questions I'll send it your way um so the first item I was going to touch on I can't um the second item um diversity per the CCC settlement is is to have site visits and to Monitor and Report um now I'm noticing that several or maybe one which is multilingual that's the only one I can I can refer refer to has do site visits as part of their policy and their bylaws um when it was loped to us initially we had some concerns about site visits because site visits are already um disruptive when we do it and so now we noticed that um another committee is doing that and so our question is um and the question I did get from um area chairs also is that if they're able to do site visits um so can any other advisory do s visit as well um I think that they would benefit from it I mean if if one group is doing it why are not every group doing it and I'm not saying that it's an issue I'm just saying that um uh we are doing it per a settlement and I believe now we have we're setting precedent that now site any advisories can do site visits so I'd like to get some direction on that um policy 6400 was looped to all pertinent advisories and we agreed with most of the changes um with the Department the department took all our recommendations and worked them in to the policy but yet still the policy is now being pushed back till October um it kind of gives us um those of us that worked hard on being part of the process with the looping process with policies kind of feel like we're not being taken um or provided value uh if when we provide input so I'm just a little bit confused as to um how 810 which was problematic went through but 6,400 which wasn't too problematic for all the uh advisories that went through the looping process was put on the back burner um but if I can get some some direction on that um and then the last thing I'd like to say is that um I appreciate the board and the superintendent for listening to advisory chairs I know some of you board members are not really too fond of us and um not sure why but we try to give as much value input as possible because uh we love our babies and we want our babies to thrive and that's the reason why we're here unpaid and doing countless hours of research um to make sure that we provide sound recommendations to the board uh so um moving forward I hope that this new board and the current board understands our value and appreciates us and um take our recommendations um not as uh demands but more of a collaborative way to make sure that this District thrives so we're at a a school we want to maintain it there um and we want to bolster like the other chairs mentioned about customer service I think that's key um but more so um that we know what our roles are and um that we're all here for one reason so if you put the kids first we'll always be where we need to be um I think that's it for me thank you thank you toess something y okay can you hear me okay good morning my name is Elizabeth cely I'm a registered dietician representing the wellness and learning supports committee um just I thought I'd tell you about the purpose of our committee because I I don't think we've been or I've told we've never been at one of these meetings before because we're not a traditional advisory committee um so the USDA requires each local Education Agency and participating in the National School breakfast and national school lunch programs to establish a wellness policy with stakeholder participation in the development update and periodic assessment of said policy and Broward County Public School wellness and learning supports committee determines and monitors All Wellness initiatives of the school board of Broward County and the committee recommends and monitors objectives of the wellness policy so the wellness and learning supports committee stakeholders include the district leadership rep representatives from physical education before and after care early childhood education employee Wellness coordinated student health services applied learning DAC and PTA Representatives teachers and food and nutrition services Community stakeholders include representatives from Broward County Health Department local municipalities hospitals brow County Extension child health nonprofits and local universities in the past the committee has served as a platform for child health stakeholder stakeholders to identify issues and share Community initiatives in child health the committee chair is Mary Moulder executive director of food and nutrition services a board representative is Miss Deborah Hixon and the liaison between the board and district office is myself Elizabeth cely I'm a registered dietitian and I overse the organization and follow through of these meetings thank you so much thank you could you just move the microphone oh oh here Sarah can I brow your microphone okay thank you would you like to speak they in the same yeah we're in the same committee but my name is Christopher R I'm also a registered dietician and I'm the assistant program manager of the food Nutrition department thank you thank you good morning sorry I was a few minutes late um um so I am Mary ferdig uh I am the chair of the parent Community involvement task force we actually gave a report last week but I just want to let you know that we do have this outstanding motion that I'm going to read again and I know you'll be bringing it up at a future meeting but it's somewhat timely so I wanted to share with you again that that our group which again thank you it's a very energetic engaged group with a lot of conversation and they passed this motion at our last meeting ask the school board of brard County to develop or consistently apply a standard protocol for building level or District level administrators to communicate to their communities in times of a crisis emergency or unforeseen circumstances at a school in a timely and safe manner to empow empower parents with information build trust Foster Equitable practices across School communities and allow families to support their children at home um this came out of a conversation about all kinds of different things that happened at school from Air Conditioning going out to um an incident at one school where someone off campus had a knife to I mean it was just a whole variety of issues but what came out of the conversation is often the the the um notification is um delayed and varies by school as to what it is so one of the things I know that um was suggested to us by Miss bu Grant was to uh that we look at how schools and this was this summer she and I thought this such a good idea we look at how schools are get are are delivering their weekly message to their parents we look for the consistency in that I know you're doing a secret shopper approach this is kind of an extension of that and this motion takes it a step further it says that in an um that and that if something happens on canas it's going to be quickly reported not hours delay um and that's something could it it doesn't have to be a a safety issue is as we traditionally think of those it may be something else but it empowers parents to talk to their children when their children come home and start telling them about it so I wanted to uh say that again uh we're really excited about our parent University this week and that's because we're doing literacy through parental engagement and I cannot even believe the things that media centers now offer um I just make sure you want to go back and be and just start school over again and maybe kindergarten and work your way through that Media Center every day so I encourage you to uh watch with us and thank Dr Wilson and her staff for putting it together and I just wanted to comment on our Central Area chair being here I'm so happy she is she was at um dard last night for the very first meeting um and Dr wanza actually had her speak as a Central Area chair um I've been a lot of chairs of a lot of things but I have to say that Central Area chair was a very bus position because you're actually in touch with each of your schools it's probably the the one position where you have you know the most access to what's happening in every school in your area and I know they're going to be critical as we go through this uh process in coming months to look at our schools and see what new programs and New Opportunities we can offer our community so thank you for coming and um I just would tell you that from a parent Community involvement task force we look to be as inclusive as possible the more people we can have at a table the uh Stronger we will be as a committee thank you chair for setting this opportunity up and for setting up the process for motions and so forth thank you you're welcome Dr Lynch Walsh 10 minutes good morning good morning um I'll be speaking on the audit committee and District advisory Council so uh we've been having issues when we forward motions the way they're coming to the the the issue initially was staff was responding to motions that were recommendations to the school board and that the school board should be weighing in on so we thought that we addressed the issue by having the Motions go to the board except what's been happening over and over is that they go to the board and there's no discussion about them and then staff's interpretation is oh so sorry um but they didn't agree with your motion well it's different saying for the board to discuss the motion have a discussion about the content of the motion the issues surrounding it and then decide yeah no we're not going to do that versus nobody talks about it at all which is what's been happening so my question is what do I do with these motions that we keep passing in the future because one of them as far as the audit committee goes we pass multiple MO motions related to the HCT audit that's the intercom audit uh because now I have to tell people well it went the audit went to the board I don't know what the discussion was I don't think the board took any action on what to do next with the audit but your audit committee has a ton of unanswered questions and so I was tasked with retransmitting all of our previous motions and questions which I did and which was in your additional information and and what's the response to all of this nothing because then we have to decide either I can decide because I'm the chair and there anybody on the audit committee can decide what they want to do with what we know or the audit committee can take a stance on all of these motions so the last round came from our 718 motion but understand we have discussed this at length we've discussed the fact that the specifications came after the solicit we discussed it on April 11th June 20th July 11th July 18th and finally August 8th and we're going to be wrapping it up um and it'll be a follow-up item on this week's agenda so what happens and how are you guys handling motions because they seem to just now be going into a black hole um this week additionally we'll be looking at booster club update fund balance update um we have some audits for review the office of Inspector General Public awareness campaign how is that we need some clarity on how that what that's going to look like is there a link to the Brad county office of Inspector General on the district's site is that being pushed out to everybody and the subject line says creating oversight and it doesn't really explain what an inspector General is is why uh so lots of of questions there and like I said I I'll happily help uh but in terms of pushing it out this week all of the areas and I'm going to segue to DAC this week all of the areas are meeting is is Staff going to each of the area meetings are they giving anything to the area chairs to help create public awareness cuz there were tons of visits and tons of materials for the referendum where are we on the oi G initiative that this board wanted everybody wanted it this was a recommendation from the 2011 grand jury report that is finally happening I've been a tireless advocate for it Madam chair you were a tireless advocate for it but right now there's a lot of Silence so I'd like some clarity on that and then if we have a date for the chief auditor negotiations that's the next step in the process and thank you I can tell you for the first time since 2015 that I've been on the audit committee um other than when we had Mr Riley here initially it's been the most productive and functional the audit committee's ever been with Mr rhs so I just want to make sure the next step in the process goes off without a hitch and thank you again Mrs fam I look forward to your appointee when we discuss fund balance this week uh DAC we just had a meeting we passed three motions and for our October meeting we're going to be looking at the basics what is District advisory Council for what are your area advisory councils for what is your school advisory Council and saaff for because they're all related and by the way the areas are separate Schoolboard established committees they are not subcommittees of DAC which is why we wanted the area chairs here I hope that's been I hope while I wasn't here that got sorted out that they will be invited officially moving forward um so for October meeting we didn't have anyone there that could speak to academic achievement we have a lot of questions we had a pretty robust discussion the first and again what do I do with these motions because I can transmit them as a you know to advisory correspondent at brow schools.com but then what so first motion we uh we recommend that the workshop for cell phone code of conduct policy be completed by November 30th and that the workshop include looping feedback through all advisories per the Schoolboard looping [Music] policy second motion we recommend this one was on uh academic achievement we recommend to the Broward School Board that they place on their legislative platform that the Florida Board of Education create a task force composed of an academically diverse group of Educators to address ways to improve academic achievement of all students by the way so far they that first one passed unanimously there were three opposed on the second one I think it was just over how it was whether it was worth telling the state that uh the third motion actually I think we did four we move to support the ESC advisories motion regarding deficiency in ESC case management that passed unanimously and then our fourth motion which we might need to redo if only because the person that moved it is not officially a member of DAC as it turns out because the DAC policy does not include the multilingual someone didn't follow through on minutia um but it doesn't change the fact that this would have passed which is we move to support the gifted advisory motion regarding accelerated opportunities for students scoring a level five on fast pm1 that passed unanimously so again though the issue is what what do we do with these motions what action should the the board be taking how should staff we we all know now and it's sort of burned into our psyche to not use the word move we say recommend but then it comes to you and there's no discussion and when you read the executive summary it's sort of like well if you if you support it what are you supporting and if you don't support it are you really rejecting it what is the point of voting yes or no to advisory motions because our expectation and it seems reasonable to me is that you would discuss all sides and then decide what to do about the recommendation coming from your school board established committee we're not a rogue group of people with nothing better to do these are Schoolboard established committees sta stock full of volunteers volunteering their time to make this District the best it can be for all children and staff we have zero power to do that there there's um seminal work on what power is there are six bases of power we have tons of responsibility but no power legitimate power is what the board has legitimate power is what your general councel has legitimate power is what anybody who can say they're going to do can make something happen and then we're subject to it we don't even have the right to do process so we need to look at Power how the district handles conflict and I came with a handout because I almost always do the Thomas kilman conflict model when there is dissonance between how one side is coming to the table versus the other I was reminded that I've been in collaborating mode this whole time the problem might be that there are people in competing mode for their own reasons and expect us to always be in accommodating mode and then there's also the ever popular avoiding mode so deescalation how you handle conflict all of these things are important in terms of this being functional because we came and we did a PowerPoint together that those that staff uploaded to the website and had all the legitimate power in the world to do anything they wanted to but didn't and then when nothing came of that we did we had a list of concerns and started down the list some of that included back to school items the only thing we heard about that was a memo about 180 days and the affir mention bullying complaint that's been the the tangible outcome of two meetings so far so part of your strategic planning is self-examination please start there thank you hi Nancy fry she her hers a human relations committee chair uh thank you for the opportunity uh to once again speak in front of the board uh we uh my committee does not have a new report because our meeting is tomorrow uh but there were just a couple quick things I wanted to touch on uh first I wanted to uplift what uh Miss Pier Grant said about working in collaboration I think she stated that perfectly and I just want to uh Echo her remarks because she said it way better than I ever will um next I wanted to uh discuss a little bit what I had mentioned in my last report and I believe I've mentioned in a couple other reports before uh discussing uh in general how admin is trained in the schools the our administrators our principes and uh APS that we're getting a lot of feedback and I'm already getting it again this year that uh a lot of our administrators seem to operate from a place of mistrust or at least that's the perspective or the perception of the students and sometimes even the teachers uh that they're operating from this area where it's starting off feeling antagonistic whether it is or not that's the perception that's going on and I get it like especially in Middle School working with middle schoolers is difficult working with teenagers is difficult uh but I would love to see if we could investigate some ways to uh train up our administrators or or just look at the approaches that they're taking taking and ways that they can operate in the schools where our students are not feeling so mistrusted and that they feel that they can come to their administrators and that these are safe people to talk to that these are people that want to see them succeed because I know they do that's why they're there that's why they're in those jobs and if the students aren't feeling that then it's more likely just a communication or approach rather than anything that's inherently wrong with our administrators and um it's just something I would like to uh see looked at this year uh this school year and um just one last thing I wanted to uh uh briefly bring up in uh the memo that was distributed this morning um and this is not in regards to anything regarding staff or adults or that uh it was just something that I had picked up on in the definition itself of bullying and um how it seems to differ from how we approach it with the students and because it's as often characterized by an imbalance of power whereas that's a mandatory level for students and I feel like with the students it's actually more difficult to Define that imbalance of power than it even is with adults and I was just curious if um I I don't know if you if you all are responding right now to this or just in general at some point if there could be a response as to um why there's a difference why our students are being set to a higher threshold uh than adults just because I know that that's a sticking point for uh many of the students that have reported bullying over the years and um that's obviously a more difficult thing to prove within a peer group group and I want to make sure that our students are getting the type of resources and responses that they need when they're bullying incidences and uh that's all I have for today thank you okay Kimberly Burke mohorn um facilities task force um chair um it's new to me I I've been a vice chair for um a year so this is the new um um position for me um we have a lot of issues going on in the schools you've seen them um on the news and we just ask that um that we can work together um the last we had a meeting uh last week and we only had one um staff member that came and I understand that there may be a statement that the statement was made that they will not be returning so I hope wholeheartedly that we can resolve this and understand that we need to work together staff and the community um we are volunteers we want what's best for our children and I hope that that was a statement that was made out of just you know being frustrated and we hope that we see um staff members come to the meeting so that we can have candid conversations about what's going on with um all of our facilities all of our construction and that we're not um wasting um taxpayer money on things that can be resolved with us coming together so um Dr heurn I would really like to make sure that we have staff members come to the meetings as they were before so that we can discuss have candid conversations okay so um one of the things that um came out of the meeting that like Dr um Natalie stated that um we have not been able to get a um results from um one of the Motions was um and I have copies and I'll pass them out whereas on 11 November 9th 2021 the school board AB Bara County approved aecom's proposal to develop a two-phase long range facilities plans framework and whereas the framework included a facilities condition assessment and long range facilities master plan and a steering committee and whereas the steering committee is defined as a the team of BCPS senior staff and Community stakeholders to guide the creation of the capital planning framework aligned to the Strategic plan manage cost and review policy whereas aom submitted the deliverables as approved by the school board we recommend the school board formally adopt the aom framework and adopt a resolution governing steering committee um we have been back and forth with this for the past three years um I think that um we would just like to know if you're going to have it if you're not going to have it um could you tell us why and um can we move forward with working together I'm I'll follow up um on that question because I I just think there's some confusion on long range steering committee long rage planning committee so we just need to provide a followup of of what the the name of the committee is going to be called and how we're going to move forward but we already have dates scheduled um for the rest of the year for meetings and so we can uh follow up and collaborate on how that will look and the purpose um I've reviewed the um I think it was you reference 2011 or 2014 aom so um right now we're reviewing that and also trying to figure out where are the deliverables from aom cuz there is none U and where do we stand at recovering some things so not true are we going to do the followup in the email in the meeting meeting or email either or probably be both just to make sure we have some clarity okay thank you thank you do you have anything else no okay thank you all right so looks like everyone spoke I'm going to kick it off for the board uh first I'd like to just speak on the customer service uh comment and I I agree with you um that we need to have better customer service and I really would Dr he like we need to peel back the layers on that what does that what does that actually look like and what deliverables or action items that we're going to take to provide a stronger customer service for our district can I respon yes y um thank you chair good point um so we've uh launched the customer service initiative uh we can bring that as a workshop for clarity for understanding for everybody the board and the public um many of the things that we're trying to uh change as far as practice and behavior and and unwind those things are are decades in in in the making so it's it's we won't see an immediate um 180 shift U but you're going to see a gradual shift throughout the first semester but we can gladly add that as a workshop topic just to bring clarity on a lot of aspects about what we're doing for customer service this year go ahead Mr uh thank you superintendent so we're very excited about this initiative we believe it goes a long way in attracting and retaining our students uh so the next step in the process is that we're uh this is a work is being done by a led by Dr Wilson and we're uh including uh a lot of our stakeholders so maybe we'll make our rounds also to advisories and the committee so they're aware as well the next step in the process really uh you know the superintendent wants to make sure we're measuring and accountable so in the next couple weeks you'll start seeing QR codes in all our schools uh we're going to utilize thought exchange that's an investment that the board made into that program so principals will be able to review those uh the results U from their stakeholders in terms of how they responding to the customer service uh QR codes uh um surveys that we're going to having as well the superintendent also wants to ensure that we're not holding the schools uh accountable different from the district so this also is going to apply to to District Department because we want to ensure that we're also having a timely response and customer service to our main stakeholders our schools who support our students so all that will be willing out in the next couple weeks also the superintendent plans to highlight uh key uh the the top schools who have performed customer service based on that tool that we're going to be utilizing through uh thought Exchange in the QR code thank you uh so my next point is the area chairs as I stated in the beginning of the meeting you are invited to be here and thank you for being here here September 23rd at 2:00 will be the negotiations with Mr rhs September 23rd at 2:00 and then um there is a a link on our homepage to the expanding oversight for the school board of Broward County there's a says ballot measure expanding the oversight for the school board of brow County on no November 5th there's an introduction what's on the ballot ballot language what happens if the amendment passes if it fails background information voter consideration and then there's links uh to different resources uh and then there's an actual sample of what the the ballot language will look like and so I just wanted to bring everybody's attention to that it is on our website and and I was going to make the recommendation to put it on the slider but it was already there good job John Sullivan if if I can add chair um have Mr Sullivan kind of clarify what we can and can't do um over the years there's been new legislation around how school districts can actually um campaign or or promote um such things go ahead Mr s uh yes so the main difference is uh for the referendum we were able to use uh certain funds uh for for banners or what like um we're no longer allowed to expend any public funds in that regard we are allowed to provide factual information to to educate and Advocate um but there's no way around it there is a lot of work to get done in terms of that awareness campaign especially uh as we get closer to when the voters will have to decide whether they want to support this or not uh so we do have a a plan to get out into the community we want to make sure we're meeting uh folks where they're at so the Civic organizations that we're trying to get on their schedule the superintendent will be doing an opit as well to leverage that uh Avenue to make sure we're getting the the word out um we did a press conference to kick it off uh last week there were several stories on several news outlets so it's getting out but um there is a lot of work to be done uh we'll be sending information to board members because we know board members also have interactions with their stakeholders so they're empowered as well um so me the superintendent and others on staff will be out in the community as they uh take up um all types of measures to make sure that we're able to explain what uh the voters have to vote Yes or No but we're allowed to educate and Advocate perfect and and that's what I was going to ask for the the toolkit for the board members I know the board asked for that previously if we could have that so we're exactly informed on how we can educate and then my last point is everybody should be getting a piece of paper that speaks to how a a recommendation can come forward to the board so so basically all number one all committee motions will be uh placed as one item in the chief Communications legislative Affairs agenda section there will be included initial agenda delivery two weeks prior to the scheduled meeting the requested action is for the board to receive the motion request submitted by the respective advisories and committees the executive summary will be included the motion language and information provided by staff for the board's consideration after reviewing the motion language and the information provided by staff for the board's consideration if board members wish to make motions on specific advisory committee motions the respective board member will will re create a a BB item outlining the requested action and then this item will be processed and distributed to the supplemented agenda delivery so so basically what I would recommend is that you get with one of the board members to Champion your motion and then that board member brings a BB item to be placed on the agenda Dr NY Lynch Walsh uh thank you so I think that this demonstrates uh exactly why I'm handing out the Thomas kilman conflict model uh I'm because we talk about collaboration compromising is in the middle accommodating is um what we're usually expected to do I did the board vote that this would be the process I don't remember the board discussing this process did you include the people that have to live with this process because we're asking so that we have a discussion and you had a pre-prepared that you didn't share until after everybody spoke a prepared s Rec way that you want this to work which may not work for us we shouldn't have to get with a board member to Champion a cause these are not personal um missions of ours and you who's the right board member to get with something you all represent the entire County in theory so this this in theory is doesn't necessarily solve the problem but we need to discuss it as does the board or else you're coming to us saying collaborating but you're actually competing because only one can win and it had better be me meaning whoever suggested this sheet of paper or are we really looking for collaboration and compromise where we're going to discuss whether this will work so I've been told that this sheet was given to everybody uh in an email May 21st 2024 what but okay never seen we can discuss it further let her talk we can discuss it further Mrs xen thank you I was wasn't discussing that part um that just came up but I'll just go through some of the things that I just wanted to address um I agree we've heard from two different committees maybe even more that Focus still has a concern and I know that the superintendent um through a a recommendation by Mrs Le board member Leonardi is compiling um a gap analysis to to speak directly to what um lusum said about what what does Focus do and what does it not do and how are we going to bridge that Gap so I'd like to ask the superintendent where we are with that um analysis we're close to finishing that up um had some discussions with team members this morning to see where we are they gave me some updates um we're working between ESC and also the IT department um so hopefully we can get that to you by early next week is my is is the goal but I I do want to add to addition um I've hear I've heard anecdotal information um I'll be at the ESC advisory meeting tomorrow um and I've did my due diligence as I go to schools to really seek out ESC Specialists and have conversations with them also but I do need um you know evidence um um I'm a very objective Guy and um the anecdotal stuff I can't chase around I can't chase rabbit holes around so uh tomorrow I'm hopeful that um the group I'm pretty sure some ESC Specialists will be in in there love to have a sidebar discussion with them to find their pain points but definitely some evidence um to support moving forward with this implementation um and that's that's all I can add right now but we're hoping hopeful that between it and ESC ESC will have some information to share with the board next week and and also our our ESC specialist in our schools okay and I know that the ESC Specialists are excited that you're going to be there they are ready to share but I'll say the issues are not just ESC um as I've gone around to schools as I mentioned to you there was an issue with not being able to see the students prior Rec um prior prior history so example homecomings coming up and if a student is um a guest and there needs to be emergency information the principles don't have access to that information and yesterday I learned the notes that were very helpful in terms did not move over with focus and there's no there's a place in Focus but it's very difficult to get there and new principles coming into a situation if they cannot see the notes are working from a blind area on discipline because they don't know what the past history was so it's not just an ese concern and they can be worked out it's it's not saying that I mean we're here so we have to figure it out but it's really important we identify all the gaps and then make sure we're working diligently and quickly to fill them so that um you know anything new is Growing Pains I understand that but there are things that um we want to make sure we can if if Focus won't cover it what are we going to do in yeah and 15 plus years uh of focus so great tool um there's Growing Pains has been a part of two implementations at two other large school district so what I'm hearing is is um Not Unusual um I do want to because I've heard this concern about principles being able to see students at other schools I've never been in a district where we've allowed that um I for I I forget the term um um general counsel um Miss Batista the was it educational interest as far as student information another another school administration doesn't have educational interest of students at another school so they're not supposed to be looking at students at another school typically when you have those prom or homecoming things what I'm used to in the previous two large school districts I work with there's a com form that's developed they send that to the other school and this the other school fills it out as like a reference sheet um because there's if you don't if that student is not your student you should not be able to see the information of a student at another school it it's there's no great area in that so we'll we'll address that with our principles um because I think uh they probably weren't supposed to be doing that with with terms either so we'll address that with our principles uh just to make sure they understand and um the whole fura and the educational interest that they things they should not see for students at another school all right I'm just sharing concerns appr a couple other issues so um the multilingual advisory you were mention you said the name of a grant but I didn't write that down fast enough what was the name of the grant it's the Jedi it's the Jedi program that's funded I want to say through FAU um I can get you the exact way it's funded um I'll ask Vicki nalina okay perfect because I just want to make sure the district needs to help you because I wouldn't imagine there's a problem with having teachers from other schools come since it's after school or we have um a lot of the students that need volunteer hours that would probably be helpful so if there's something we can do as a district to help I want to be able to help I don't um do you want to say something good morning I just wanted to clarify Jedi is the name of the camp stands for just educate dual language instruction it's funded through title 3 okay we use title 3 funds for that okay so is that something the district can help them so title three funds were a little tight this year and we also fund our language enrichment camps for our English language Learners so once we receive our funding and we distribute there just might be less funding than in previous previous years but we've been talking to the committee about finding other ways like Danielle has shared maybe looking at high school students to come down and help uh maybe tutor for service hours we've talked about parents there were some parents that were also interested and possibly serving as volunteers okay great as long as we're helping them with that um just a couple other things customer service was mentioned a number of times um I agree and I'll have to say I've done my own secret shopper kind of thing when we go to a school visit we've added it to our little checklist and often if the front office is not um very pleasant we immediately tell the principal you know you just need to know they may be new but sometimes they don't even say hello when we're standing in they waiting they just wave us along like this we can't have that so we need to be sure um I think all of us should be doing that and you making sure that we let someone know and not just complain about what the the um experience has been and um let's see what was the other one um I think that was the main thing so and I just wanted to say than I I do appreciate all of the effort that you put into it which was why I took all that time to try to make the policy work the 810 I think it's 8010 there's too many numbers um because I looked at all of the input that you sent and thank you m grant for doing the chart that kind of went through each piece of it cuz it really did end up that were just there were minor words that really needed to be added in in different places and once we did that it worked so it was important to have that collaboration between the staff and the advisory to find that happy medium so I know sometimes you all feel like you do a lot of work and we're not listening but you know I I for one very much appreciated I took it under consideration and put a lot of time into blending it together so um I I think we all have to do a better job of making letting our teachers and our staff and our advisory know that you're valued we hear you we see you we do love you very much and we appreciate so much the time that you give us so thank you Dr Zan thank you chair um Kim thank you Nancy thank you too uh Natalie I appreciate what you do I don't know our new dietitians but um I'll get to know you and uh thank you for what you do Mary uh I wish in a 100 years I will do 1% of what you've done uh for Broward County Schools narni uh Jackie D right and Danielle and Linda thank you for what you do the fact that we know you except for our two new people are new to me anyway um um says a lot about our relationship uh we read your emails we listen to your phone calls um I think it's important to recognize chair when we had uh the a district come through uh we asked the demographics Department how many people directly contributed to making us an a district and the answer came back excluding some groups but knowing the numbers of the groups that they knew that there were 82,000 people in Broward County that directly contributed to us being an a district and when I think about that number and and realize that only 25,000 people get paid by Broward County Schools that's 3% of the total so 97% of the people who directly contribute to making a state are unpaid they're students they're parents they're volunteers like you um and we need to make sure that we stop every once a while and tell you how much we appreciate that there is uh always an interesting puzzle of putting together a group that big and moving them forward in any way uh that group by the way is larger right now than our active duty Navy and our active duty Army you put the Army and Navy together it's less than 82,000 people it's huge to think about a group that big all working on a common purpose so when the chair starts meeting and says hey this is our strategic goal the intent is to get everyone kind of marching and moving and and acting and teaching and and getting kids to do homework and getting them to school on time or to the bus stop on time uh in an important way and your role as chairs of Advisory Group is incredibly important um and we need uh to work um Better Together in my mind in some regards I believe that the conflict management tool the TK and the TK in instrument and all those things are useful for describing relationships um but what we're trying to do is figure out how to get 82,000 people to move to together and you're a fundamental part of that uh I hope that we can continue to explore the partnership model I hope that we live up to our side of the partnership which certainly includes to hear and to listen and to see what you hear listen and see um but it doesn't always include us taking action on it um Landon represents 200,000 of that 800,000 people our students um and when Landon talks we listen and Landon do we always take action do we always do what you think is a good good idea thank you for not saying cell phones I appreciate that uh but we we even as a board uh we partner and debate and and engage in uh what I think is useful policy uh conflict Debbie want something I don't Jeff might be in the middle we're you know having good honest discussion about it and I think as a board we do a good job of uh of having that we clearly do it in public um unlike uh some other groups but I think it's important important to clear up our language I think it's very important to distinguish between requests of staff and demands on staff uh we all want to get to data we all want the staff to do things for us uh we ask the staff questions constantly do you think we get all the answers we want in a timely fashion uh we don't a couple more points there uh some people have talked about power um but there's resident power in our parents there's resident power in senior staff there's certainly resent power in advisory committees coming to us and saying our committee is deep and knowledgeable about multil linguistic things so we're in in the process of redefining and and repurposing schools we'd be fascinated about some of the ideas that have come in through our constituents things like do we really need to think about a Haitian Creole school just so that um so many of the immigrants that we have here from Haiti are recent recent arrivals and would it really benefit them to do that KN that that increases transportation and takes people out of other schools and takes up you know some of our facilities to do things in that way and we'd love to learn about things like that in every of your advisories we have challenges where we don't get enough research we don't know what they're doing at Miami dayen Palm Beach in many regards we certainly don't know what they're doing in the other 12,800 school districts across the United States and you guys have the opportunity to go deeper to go further uh to talk to other people uh whether it's about ESC Jackie or diversity real diversity issues uh uh you know those are the things that keep me up at night you know how do we really do Equity based funding I'd like to know examples of other districts that do that so my point in bringing all this up is I believe that we're doing well but I believe that we could do even better with all advisory groups I think a lot of that is not personal in fact none of it is personal on my behalf I love you all to borrow deer I love what you're doing I know that 97% of the people that work in our in our process of becoming in a district or achieving our goals are unpaid volunteers and you get you represent them and you represent them very well last point on on recommendations to the board um I believe that we're handling them okay maybe we could do even better uh I don't um I don't uh know how to balance General counsil the statutory requirements of school board members who are legally allowed to commit funds you know we all are responsible for things like $6 billion of taxpayers money being spent in the right way way we're responsible statutorily for setting policies of our County School Board um I don't know how we could extend that beyond that because the law is the law but I do think that we need to find a way to make sure that you understand that we hear and we see what you're doing and it's incredibly Valu to us and we want to make sure that that partnership gets better um and how does that get better you know it's for us to act like good partners it's for you to act like good partners and for us to realize that we're all on the same team and we're all trying to achieve uh the same strategic goals goals last just factual point I don't want people to be confused about our looping policy so I went back and read the looping policy the looping policy does not say that every item we discuss will be looped or looped more than once it says that the school board will direct a loop that's appropriate for the item and so sometimes we might um through the superintendent say you know there's three uh advisory groups that need to know about it sometimes we'll say nothing and it's just up to the soup and the senior staff to kind of get to the right people and then we'll be on the receiving end and say hey did you Loop this with um parent and child group under Nancy ferdig and if the answer is no we might defer the item until we get that input right but uh uh our looping policy doesn't say that every item coming before the board will be looped with our advisories it's it's something that the board is supposed to direct and say hey for this item it's a weight item we'd really like these several committees to do that and if we're not doing a good job on that uh that's an area for us uh potentially to to do better as well but I'm completely invested in this school system uh if there's a way that I can partner better I'd like to know what that is from each of you um and I will continue to hold everybody that we work with to the same standard of partnering we really need 82,000 people all moving at the same speed in the same direction uh all working to aieve uh uh creating a better Community thank you all for your uh time Miss rert thank you and for all our shares in the room thank you so much you don't get to hear that very often I apologize if I don't say it enough but I started as a board member in 2010 coming from the North Area learning my basic stand up for your kids rights as a mom of three ESC kids those are important positions that you need to understand and and the board of how important and not easily um sorry I'm still having a little problem with the the concussion sometimes so you have to give me a little measure of Grace here um start again okay so it's very important that you really work hard and you do but it's more important that you actually feel wanted we want you to be here we want to hear from you we will listen text me phone me grab me in the hallway I'm open to those ideas and I couldn't do my job all these years if I had not gone to the Committees okay I I would I would not be able to uh do my job if it was not for the very people in this room when you're PR predecessors um The Evergreen report if I remember and please correct me if I'm wrong there were 110 recommendations and we as a board and I believe I'm the only one left I think um from when we actually got the Evergreen report so I can honestly say when you really care about something and it really matters to you put a date on it get some accountability and put that on it make it transparent we did that with the Evergreen report until one board member decided it was just too negative to talk about anymore I'll give you a hint it wasn't me so the point is this is a different board I hope so I see what I want you to see is loud convers ations passionate conversations about our kids what I don't see very often is those same conversations about our parents and our leaders who do not get paid a cent to do these jobs and the practices and the areas that are important to keep track of we need to look at that and I've asked a few times now now over the last couple months about the Evergreen report when are we going to do a repeat um study with them and uh Dr heern do we have um any conversation on that coming sooner I I know when we talked about the small minority businesses we were um engaging into um another company to do that and I I believe and once again correct me if I'm wrong that the Evergreen report was done beforehand and should have been up for me I thought it was five years um Miss can I know I'm not supposed to back and forth Madam chair may miss L Lam answer Miss Lum thank you um so the Evergreen report rolled into then a sort of monitoring phase that we've lost and I have asked multiple multiple times you have got a template right there with recommendations that there were red lights and green lights and then they all got on green lights and we used to have a report at every ESC advisory um meeting on you know what was being worked on in the Evergreen report in terms of achieving those um recommendations we don't have any of that anymore I've asked so many times and I've said repeatedly here in this room you could save yourself one year and a six figure sum by going back on that report not necessarily commissioning a new one although as time goes on and now with a focus issue if we we're going to talk about use words like anecdotal and rabbit holes I despair I I'm I'm just sitting here trying to trying to still believe that anybody's listening because we are in serious serious difficulty with the new system that does add things on top um so I do think you could have the Evergreen report you could go back on all those recommendations and have a task force or have a committee or have some kind of a body and and to include us we're ES advisory I feel we feed things into the system but we never hear back and then conversations are had which I can only assume people are saying she's wrong or you don't want to listen to her or she's got it wrong or that's not factual and hey don't worry about this we don't hear back as to why it is we're getting this push back and rejection to suggestions we make or issues that we bring forward not not necessarily recommendations and and I'm in despair about hearing words like rabbit holes and anecdote I think there are serious serious problems I wrote a report on that particular topic I asked a whole ton of questions how are you going to monitor compliance how this how that how are you going to replace these loss functionalities I didn't get an answer to a single one but somehow seven board members got comfortable with not answering any of what was in that report and forging ahead and I think similarly with the Evergreen report that was done for a reason so that there could be continual monitoring and we turned we went from a a point of of having achieved things on green lights but now needing that maintenance and I think it needs to be gone back on use that as a template for a forward plan thank you and and that's what I really had wanted to to share um Dr he do you have any news for for us about that because I know I have I'm not the only board member that's asked for um an update to the Evergreen report um Andor going back out for a uh um RFP for for this for to do yes my mic's off yep um yes so I did look into um working with some companies and they've given me some preliminary um quotes those quotes are you know ranging from 4 to $500,000 um right now at this time as far as funding is concerned for a review like that it wouldn't be feasible at this moment while we're working on our budget right and like I like I've told the board um since this Summer that the team is going through every line item to try and find a robust amount of cost savings so we can do a lot more in our district for our employees and also um leveraging opportunities to do a deep dive we've also talked to the Council of course you know they have a long list of uh things that they do for school districts across the country so we're in a queue for a lot of things that I've asked them to do so I I'll continue to provide an update you know with the council which is significantly less um versus some of the other companies that want to charge us for $500,000 I appreciate that I do um that that we're movement but I I think Miss lum's um comment about pick it back up and let's see what we can go from from there and that that is a wonderful uh I'm going to just say this example of cooperation and I think that we we need to be leaning more that way um thank you so much for all that you do you really do a lot and um when I visit other districts and talk to my friends around the state they always comment how amazing we have our parents and our staff and our our people everybody together and students um and our vendors that everybody's working together for the vment of kids and when you do that compromises can be found and successes will occur more often so I look forward to being part of that thank you Dr Lynch Walsh is it on this point exactly on this point actually um so a few years ago um the entire staff under of the ESC Department marched into an audit committee meeting to respond to our concerns about uh the E the Evergreen report and the report that was done after MSD and we had asked for it to come back as far as updates and that I do not believe has happened in a couple of years so actually I'm very glad that Jackie brought it up because now I got to go look at it past audit plans to see if it got dropped prior to Mr rhs coming back to the district because that would be the place to potentially put it to ensure that it got monitored um so I've made a note to put it on the agenda audit meets next week and to to look at where we left off on the Evergreen report updates because I think it's been a couple of years since that been done and that would be the natural place for it to be so I just wanted to add that in there Miss Grant on this point um I on what they were talking about no okay Miss leonardy thank you and I'll be quick I think we have three minutes left um first I just want to thank everyone involved in our advisories for all of the work that you do um you've many of you have dedicated your lives to our public schools and improving um the quality of Education that we provide our students so thank you um I wanted to speak to the customer service um and focus so in the last night we had our our first red defining schools community meeting and in that uh at at one of the tables I was at um families were talking about the importance of communication and I know we send out a lot of communication text messages email blast Robo calls from the district but what I'm hearing over and over again at schools and last night at this this community meeting is the importance of um paper communication you know a lot of our families um don't necessarily engage with technology so also including that paper uh communication but a lot of the communication needs to be coming from schools you know I hear from a lot of parents that they don't necessarily pay attention to what the district is sending out but they when it's coming from their child school they do pay attention um so just making sure that and I I think this really does tie into customer service because a lot of people don't feel like they know about things that are going on that they're not being shared with with them so um just really focusing on the information coming from our schools and making sure that um we're meeting people where they are not necessarily relying on technology um and I just had a question about Focus because we hear one thing in the meetings and the we hear other things in schools is there a way for teachers to access a student's IEP in Focus right now Dr yes I I can pull up Focus right now on access an IEP um I think it's um and I can have uh Miss uh Egan address that also but I think it's more of training more of having uh some reference sheets that they can refer to all those other things it's a it's a system that takes a little getting used to cuz it's new um I'm used to it that's why I can go in I know exactly where to go to pull a student's I AP when I search for it um but yes you you can and also uh past Year's IEPs are available too because I've gone in there I've heard some of the concerns um and you know my I we just do we have a focused meeting every Friday at 7:30 uh a.m. to go over every concern that we're hearing be it from board members constituents teachers the like and the team does a really good job of really going through that information with the IT team and getting the appropriate response and also the team gives suggestions to how to Pivot and change uh the modality of how we're presenting information and training and things like that so it's an ongoing process but the simple answer to the initial question is yes they can access it um that my concern is that there are people who you know either don't know how or there's some sort of disconnect there um so the reality is that some IEPs are not being accessed um so you know I hope that we can you know train and communicate immediately with how how to get students their services um I do very much appreciate your willingness to uh get to the ground level and figure out what the issues are I'm glad that you're going to the meeting tomorrow um and you know it's very refreshing for me as a board member when I come to you with these issues um that you take them seriously so thank you for that um those are my comments thank you thank you please add 10 more minutes to this item uh next up to speak is Dr holness thank you madam chair so it is great to have all of our uh chair speak and it's it's an honor to have you here and I thank you so much for everything that you do and we hear it loud and clear you are volunteers and you're doing a phenomenal job in keeping us informed as to what's happening in the district and I believe all of the board members appreciate what you do um it's great to see our bilingual chair here thank you so much it's good to have you with us as well on the team and um the Central Area chair thank you for being here we appreciate that we appreciate you and I saw you last night at Dillard as well thank you so much for your input um I have a quick question I believe there was a comment made regarding bilingual chair that they're not a part of daac um uh because of the way the item was written uh is that accurate and if it is uh how can we move ahead to include the bilingual uh uh committee as a part of thec Dr I'm going I'm just going to defer that to Mr Sullivan but oh there he dist me we're shorten that interview Ari Dr her um I just want to clarify multilingual multilingual yes you um I think I understand understand the question so we just would we need to redo the policy to include them in um DAC or the bylaws someone's going to pH a friend good I know how to work a mic there you go good morning Valerie wanza Chief um strategy and Innovation officer I have to remember um so thank you for the time thank you for being here today I I do think that um that is not the only committee that is not a does not have a seat if you will at DAC so there's a conversation that probably needs to be had as it relates to the total composition there is a policy that speaks to DAC I see the DAC chair's hand is up and she's chomping at the bit so I'm not trying to take your thunder I I'm not but but the the entire policy and bylaws would need to be Revisited because that is not the only committee that does not have a seat at DAC that's all I wanted to add okay so Dr Herb bur uh I appreciate that Dr wanza uh currently my interest is in the multilingual and we can subsequently discuss the others who are not there um I want to know uh uh based upon what we're talking about today uh is there relevance to the multilingual committee being on the DAC and if there is uh can we proceed to direct you and your staff to go ahead and go through the process to make sure they're there so the first question is is there relevance to having them there and if there is then uh we can proceed to make that happen if there are other committees were not there then that can be had at a future discussion but right now the comment was made regarding multilingual I just want to add that I'm sorry superintendent um if it's okay that the bylaws are really up to the the Committees not not District staff okay so John their bylaws would um it would have to address adding more members to it I believe but the the the chair has her hand up so maybe she um Dr n Walsh wants to add to it but my understanding DAC would have to change their bylaws and staff doesn't have that ability to do so okay so so for everyone that's here what I need to know is um and I I appreciate that John and maybe the DAC chair can also comment what is the process to get multilingual uh a part of the AC and is it relevant for them to be there Dr Lynch Walsh oh um thank you yes what Dr wano was pointing out is that they're not currently in DAC policy we've had discussions about whether diversity should have a SE on DAC it's not that everybody has to be on DAC it's just whether something's relevant the problem was that the multilingual policy was written independent of the DAC current language and so you needed to have both at the same time getting amended getting created and amended so that they would actually officially be a member but we haven't discussed adding people to DAC because the problem is every time you add a seat that create starts creating Quorum issues so it's important if you create a seat that the understanding is that they will actually be there in attendance so that they're not hurting Quorum so far she was there she even made a motion so that's probably not going to be a problem but um they're not there diversity isn't there um there may be others and we've never had a discussion about increasing the seats on DAC but to Dr Wan's point that would be a discussion whether it's just multilingual or other groups that's a discussion that DAC would have to have okay so mad can correct anything if NE if necessary okay now that I have a better understanding uh can there be future discussions on the Committees not a part of the AC as to whether or not they're relevant to be a part of the AC and if they are can we proceed to make that happen Dr Lynch Walsh uh that can happen um like I said we're focusing on academic achievement so anything that better informs academic achievement would be great um we would probably start with a policy subcommittee meeting which uh that way we can hash out things like that and then bring it back to the body take it to the areas and all of that so it just come and since Danielle's already attending um the simplest thing might be well we're going to have to have a discussion in the coming next month probably so that this doesn't linger for months and years okay all right I want to make some more points because my time is running out as well that's not just your time I'm sorry okay so I'm going to quickly say what I have to say well um thank you so much I wanted to um just comment that uh as a board we receive recommendations and we gladly receive recommendations and I believe all of us actually um strongly are appreciative of the recommendation my understanding is that the board receiv received the recommendation we digest the information we decide to act or not to act and uh even before we had this uh five U steps process um I had acted on a few of the recommendations I believe from the uh ESC as well as diversity and then we had a we now have a process in place so I just want everyone to be reassured that when we get your recommendations I know personally I do read all of them and if I see any of the recommendations that I think is warrant uh a board item then I bring it forth I was bringing it forth before we had a process and I will bring it forth even now with this process and I believe what the chair was saying is that if there's something that you're overly you're really um passionate about that that is really something that's significantly important to you then you can speak to one or several board members to say hey this is something that uh uh has great relevance to me and um I'd like you to consider it um but at the same time I I think all of us consider all of these recommendations I don't just throw them aside and I don't think any of us do um we take them seriously uh and we act on them if we believe there warrant uh to be a board item so just want to reassure you of that um and I just want to thank uh Miss lusam as well um for the uh information regarding the the focus aspect of the um especially the ESC portion of it because I've heard several concerns and I spoke at the last board meeting uh and I ask Dr heurn to look into the challenges that we're encountering with that to make sure that we move ahead and Dr heurn I hope that we will have greater staff training so they can have better access um or at least be able to know how to access the information for the IEPs and so on thank you so much thank you okay speed round we have four more speakers Miss Fam thank is it on yeah just keep talking Beacon you have Miss mik keep talking Miss fam here use this one thank you that's better thank you um first of all I want to thank everyone for coming this morning and I think that um what you've experiencing is a lot of what the parents experience that you're uh not being validated your concerns are not being heard and you're just being glossed over and I want to applaud you because I think you made great strides today I really do I think the way you came in the way you presented this um you are making people respect and listen to you as opposed to just getting something and shuffling it off so I I just wanted to thank you because this is the way you get our attention at least you got mine I'm up here nodding all the time so um I really appreciate that and I just wanted to remind one other thing about we're going through boardsmy later on it talks about Civility and and last board meeting there was some name calling and I just wanted to bring it to everyone's attention because I don't know who was involved and who wasn't but to that um woman that had five children someone walked up to her and said which your five children are going to be the next school shooter so I just want to please everyone check the egos okay if you want to work together you have to be professional and work as a group and you have to respect and understand that people are always not going to agree but what we can do is we can agree not to agree so thank you so much okay Linda far okay um I just wanted to address the um membership is dictated by the bylaws we are in the process of wrapping it up so if there are any other committees that you see need to be on there please let us know within the next couple of days so that when we bring it to our policy Review Committee that we can address it um the new bylaws include language that was provided by um general council's office that allows us not to um count people who are not in a position as part of Quorum because it uh just because many times board members were not sending appointments which affected our Quorum uh department or whoever entities were not sending people so we do have language in there it's in policy 1070 um that would allow us to uh address those issues uh in a more easy manner because we were looking to reduce the number we have like 52 members on DAC so trying to get 27 people there is not always easy so with that language you're now allowed to you know um have a quorum number that's truly workable so so that's what I wanted to address thank you Mary fdick thank you hold on one second thank you um first of all I just want to recognize that you've made great strides here with what you've done in having these meetings and that you've got a process in place but I want to go back to the pro to the process that you've presented us and I think for many of our motions it works because we might be for example asking you to look like we might be asking you to develop a new customer service model and that's something you can do over a period of time but other motions we bring you are going to be timely and I I think the issue is going to become how do you respond to that we've brought you a motion on on communication during a crisis during an emergency during a and the failure to identify some to address something like that for two or 3 or four months because of a process could and I'm just using that as an example could so I I listen I you guys in all the years I've done this and that's probably more than you know anybody else here in the room I haven't seen meetings like this and that's a wonderful thing that you've done and you've established process and we've come so far and I just think we just do the next step which is to ensure that if there's a timely motion or if there's a need to supplement information or something that there's a process in place for that so that something doesn't kind of get lost um but thank you for what you've done and um John I know you're going to come up you're going to be up to coming up with a process for Pro for bringing things forward quickly if they need to be thank you Dr h y um thank you chair thank you for the feedback M fdick always um value value your feedback um I do want Mr C to go over the current um emergency process when we have an emergency at a school um so we have an understanding of what we actually do right now um and in addition uh probably offline together we can work on some some additional feedback from you to kind of enhance that process if needed uh thank you superintendent yeah so anytime there's a crisis situation at one of our schools there's a couple things that principles must do so the First Communication their first goal is to make sure that their students are safe so what ever crisis Communications to their student body that's uh first and foremost then they have to send a parent link a parent link is registered to the parents who have or Guardians who have students in the school um so that has to go out there's uh some that are mandatory by law but we we go far beyond that in terms of communicating with the families as it relates to a variety of issues that happen then usually um we're reacting to Media we typically don't go to Media they come to us there's been a couple exceptions that we have leveraged media to get out the message quicker depending on the situation but the audience main audience is again the the students and the staff on the campus and then the parents and Guardians of the um those uh students on the campus thank you so we'll talk Miss lascom thank you I just wanted to um respond to um Mrs fam's Point um we all have a platform and I think how we use our platform is important if we abuse it for prejudice or discrimination or hate or for calling out folks who are different and saying they're wrong to be different um I think it's right to stand up to it and I would like to really applaud our student advisor um Landon and Alana at the back there um it was an ugly scene at that last board meeting um I can hear what's being said behind me uh and it wasn't nice uh but I've I didn't hear anything of the type that you just said but you said it while looking at us as if any of us might have said something um of the like that you just quoted so I would like some clarification on why that's being directed at us some of us certainly I did stood up and called out the fact that there was some prejudicial and discriminatory language being spouted and it's right to do that and the student advised were right to do that and I'm happy to see that on the on coming up in the boardroom um shortly uh you folks are putting together um a mechanism for censoring each other if if and holding each other to a standard and I think that's right you're holding us to one rightly uh we need to exercise standards not abusing um that right to hold us to an to account is important too I think you know how we all feel about what's going on about the bullying complaint at the moment uh and certainly I'll be putting in writing what I feel about it um but abusing one's platform isn't okay in the boardroom and um I would like to see that not only do you have a structure in place for censoring folks who abuse their platform but also a process and protocols for what you do about it when you decide there is which we found pre preempting um situations where you put something in place and then you're posed with a situation and you don't know then how to follow through with it and then things will go uh wonky and off the rails um I hope you would be able to take that into account but I I just wanted to call that out I think um it's okay to have different opinions on people's differences but it's not okay to uh voice discriminatory language certainly um uh the the illusion to lgbtq people being mentally ill was absolutely atrocious and seeing that kind of talk in a boardroom with people who are meant to uh be exercising uh their time at the microphone productively and constructively was horrendous and I think we want to all see an end to that thank you thank you last two speakers go ahead oh wait thank you and I just sorry um no I just want to T on to what Miss Lum said and take it a step further that this wasn't just discriminatory hateful language it was discriminatory and hateful language toward our students we have lgbtq students in our schools and every time that we allow this kind of rhetoric to come from the public or from the board that is harming our students and at the end of the day that is our number one priority and we should not be harming our students so we need to remember that this isn't just a nebulous hypothetical of lgbtq people this is about our students Miss gr last speaker thank you I want to applaud you board for board chair uh for such an organized meeting today I really appreciate that um I just wanted to have followup from Mr Sullivan on the thought exchanges and how is that being used for the um customer service and then also if Dr Zeman could uh follow up on his resident power if he can give me some clarifications on that and then also he mentioned real diversity issues if he can also give me some clarity on that and so we can move forward and work collaboratively thank you thank you so much all right thank thank you everyone was there any public comment on this item any public comment yes yes Jesus now that this has been brought up I have a public comment you today are also bringing forth can I speak on both topics because I'm also want to speak on boardmy in regard to this can I have my time restarted cuz I want to ask that's a different item three minutes okay can I have my three minutes started again I sit here and listen to people again calling parents who have walked into this District hateful and bigot again because of differing opinions because of people's religious beliefs because of how they uphold their morals and household religious beliefs this is disrespectful to the very parents of your District you say you represent all of the students all of them but what you said to parents last week calling them hateful amb bigoted the ESC president calling parents hateful amb bigoted I'm supposed to be able to come to all of you for assistance especially ESC cuz I'm an ESC parent and I can't even sit in an ESC meeting because that person has come up to me personally more than once to call me hateful and bigot it and I'm supposed to come to you to ask for assistance from our children so you may disagree with what we have to say but in Miami Dade the board members disagreed with the parents but they never once called them hateful or bigot it or any other name how dare you we represent the children of your District these are our children we represent our children speaking if a student came in here and said that would you call your own Brower County students hateful and bigot it I never once watching the Miami day meeting on this very same resolution saw a board member call them anything I saw board me saying they didn't agree fine say you disagree but you shouldn't be putting your own bias against parents that are standing with their religious beliefs that's discrimination against parents of religion against parents who want to form their own children's morals and religious beliefs we're not telling you you can't believe what you want to believe but you're telling us we can't believe what we want to believe that we can't stand with our religious Faith you wonder why parents don't want to walk in here you wonder why parents don't want to be on committees because anytime a parent says something other than your opinion your thoughts your bias were bigoted and hateful realize you are representing all students and all parents I had to sit here and listen to this in the room people again calling parents bigoted and hateful you want us to come together then realize to agree to disagree thank you so much and I'll be back for thank you and thank you again to the Broward Education Foundation thank you for coming please enjoy some coffee and treats as you leave and we appreciate all of your help and put with our students and helping us to continue to be an a school district we're going to take a 5 minute recess e e e e e e e e e e e e e e okay we're back redefining our schools and Boundary process discussion I have some public speakers we'll start with them Kathy nanaker good morning morning morning my name is Kathy nanaker and I'm am the Chief Financial Officer at the Museum of Discovery and Science and I want to thank you for letting me speak today uh recently uh Dr heern and Dr wub were visiting the museum we appreciate that they came over over and saw some of the things that we're doing at the Museum and one of the things that we wanted to speak about today was that the museum is excited to bring innovation ideas into your schools and in particular to North Fork Elementary School you know we work every day to bring Alternative Learning at the Museum and one of the ways we use that is learning through play and children learn in such a of ways as you know and one of the things we can do is help you implement a new and exciting environment in this elementary school so we appreciate that we already have a great working relationship with the Broward School System and we look forward to building building on that uh I also wanted to thank uh Debbie Hixon she's also on our board and we appreciate all of her input and working with us and that is what I have to say today and thank you for your time I'm open to any questions thank you thank you Sam from Fort Lauderdale good morning everyone my name is Sam leech I am the chief of staff at the Museum of Discovery and science I was here today in support of Kathy our CFO and Joe Cox our uh president and uh CEO who was unable to attend we're so excited to enter in these conversations about expanding our relationship with the Broward County School District especially again uh working with North Folk Elementary uh and reinv reimagining an environment there that kind of incorporates what we do at mods and um what you all do with your elementary schools so thank you thank you bernardet Hughes good morning my name is Bernadette Hughes I'm the government Affairs manager from the City of Coconut Creek I will admit I tend to be a talker so prepared a couple of really short comments um the City of Coconut Creek would like to thank super superintendent hebburn for involving Us in conversations about redefining schools in Broward County and in particular in the City of Coconut Creek we appreciate the opportunity to speak on this agenda item today and also the administration's engagement of our city in this very important conversation the City of Coconut Creek is home to the education Corridor which is an Innovative Corridor adjacent to several Coconut Creek schools including Coconut Creek High School Broward High School Academy and college Junior Achievement of South Florida Dave Thomas education center and Atlantic Technical high school and college it's also very close to Coconut Greek Elementary School we are an Engaged and active partner with our education facilities and also with Broward County Public Schools from our active and involved SRO to being the first police department in the country to implement a Vapor Wake K9 as a school safety dog to our annual City School Ward ceremony in our commission Chambers celebrating our Coconut Creek students to quarterly Lunch Bunch meetings we hold with our principles and administrators to Foster open communication and collaboration thank you Miss Rupert I know you're always at those meetings and we've extended an invitation to superintendent heurn and also miss wanza um as the school board moves forward with discussions about how to address under enrollment we welcome the opportunity to continue to be involved in these discussions last week City staff had a very productive conversation a zoom call with Dr heurn Dr wanza and Broward County Public School staff about overall under enrollment in the district and imp particular opportunities at Coconut Creek Elementary School one option discussed for under enrollment was a transition of Coconut Creek Elementary School from a traditional Elementary School into a k through eight school that would serve as a feeder for Coconut Creek High School and provide additional continuity for our Coconut Creek students from kindergarten all the way through High School while our commission has not met formally to discuss this issue um we are looking forward to hearing the community feedback at tomorrow's meeting I Envision many of them will be there as well as staff and also having future conversations with Broward County Public Schools about this and other options to address under enrollment in Coconut Creek um before I leave I have 30 seconds I would be remiss if I did not mention we also had a very productive conversation about traffic at Lions Creek Middle School um and appreciate that the district is moving forward with a plan to address this in the City of Coconut Creek thank you for your time and your consideration we're very much looking forward to tomorrow's meeting at Coconut Creek High School and look forward to speaking with you thank you thank you Anna Garcia good morning everyone my name is Anna Garcia I'm the city manager for the great city of Dana Beach brow first city I want to put on the record that it's been such a joy I've been the city manager for and a half years and I've gone through five superintendents and I hope this is the last one that I ever have to go through because he it's outstanding Dr wanza it's been a joy um I'm I'm a proud uh public school graduate uh went through the public school system in Miami day County and um I want to align our words with actions particularly when you all discuss Olen middle school because realigning our school and reimagining our school is something that we need to do collectively and we at Dana Beach we want to be that poster child for the rest of the 30 municipalities and Broward counties and um we know that there's an enrollment challenge um and ol Middle School was a school that was designed and constructed for 2500 students um so whereas today we're on our way to 700 School uh students we know that's never going to be a school for 2500 kids but we wanted to let you know that on the campus the adjacent 7 Acres um we the city of Dana Beach is investing approximately $10 million with tracking field bringing in more Sports basketball and this is a school could be an example for sports physical fitness like we used to do back in the day of um the presidential physical fitness Awards because we know that our kids could certainly be um more fit additionally since Olen has so much space and the city has needs we were going to invest somewhere between $8 and $10 million to build an EOC an emergency Operation Center but since you have space in Olen we would be looking to partner with you and partner with Olsen so we would invest those $8 million in the school so the school doesn't close we continue to invest in the school and that EOC building when it's not activated hopefully never is because we don't get hurricanes um it could be a great magnet school for broadcasting Communications meteorology you all have to think outside the box and I'm here representing Dana Beach to align our words with action we're very very sound in regards to our bottom line and we have money that we would like to invest in the school so the school stays open and it's a win-win for everyone thank you and I look forward to working with all of you thank you so much Mary fdick thank you um first of all I just want to tell you I think after going to that meeting last night I'm looking to see if Dr want is in here thank you it was great I five of you were there so I don't need to tell you that you had tables for Community people to come and speak with each other and then share with the group and that is where this needs to head to the community so I I compliment Dr wanza and all I see many people in here today the staff members who were there last night you did a great job you're going to get to the point where I think that you're going to potentially suggest some some boundary changes and I just want to speak up again for a process that is community-based and you've already got all you need for that right in your school district you have schools those schools have sacks and saffs those feed to an innovation Zone those zones can meet and as we did many other times over the years elect representatives to take their ideas not just for boundaries but for other things to the area and that's where those area chairs are so important because they have the the ability to have meetings and bring things forward so there's an ability to have a very orderly process that is community-based that's inclusive that gives lots of people an opportunity to speak and that will hopefully result in stronger schools new programs lots of new ideas which we heard last night and again you guys were great this morning because you had a lot of other ideas so um thank you for doing what we requested and opening this up to the community and I look forward to being at uh myam Mo Fort Lauderdale High uh tonight for another great conversation thank you thank you narni Pierre Grant nni Pierre Grant loud out here I can't even hear my name sorry I was like I was looking at the video to make sure um so thank you so much uh for the first meeting I I wasn't there be able there to attend but I did send someone from diversity to be there um they said that it was organized um they're a little bit still kind of off about the thought exchange thing or whatever but I figured you know you guys paid $100 something so you got to use it um moving forward you got to use it right so moving forward I'm going to be going to the next few um and I'm looking forward to um hearing what the community has to say I know that you guys are talking about some makeup of a committee um um I look forward to that and if you uh feel inclined to include diversity great if you don't don't don't make me feel no bad I don't feel bad about it um and um it's as far as boundaries uh I think that it's important to not only have the people who are affected but also people from other communities so they can give an objective view um I think it's it's uh it helps because you know when you're close to the to the to the um issue you tend to be a little bit more emotional when you're outside you probably be more a little bit more objective so that was my two cents all right guys have a great day thank you okay redefining our schools and Boundary process discussion I will now turn it over to staff for a presentation Dr heern Dr won team good morning um school board members colleagues across the organization our student advisors as well as our um very valuable community volunteers Partners chairs everyone under the sound of my voice so we thank you for your time and attention this morning I do have with me I promise I'll get the names right Adrien Parker the executive director of strategic initiative management as well as Jo the director of um demographics and enrollment planning if Beacon can load the thank you very much Beacon um we just want to walk the board through a conversation as you will remember there we go last week the board did pass policy 810 which is the new um School attendance Zone boundaries and school usage policy and in that policy it talks about us then coming back to the board to actually talk about the formal boundary process process for this school year so that is why we are here so that we can have a conversation with the board and ultimately after this conversation we will come back next week with a formal resolution that will um begin the work of what will become the School boundary committee and we can start the work formally for this school year in our conversation today um we do need to get through these six items the first one is prop the proposed list of schools to be addressed the timeline the stakeholder engagement plan the School boundary committee um composition as well as the considerations that we need to consider for communities that would want to submit proposals for School boundaries or School attendance areas so before I do that let me back up I I do want to take a moment of personal privilege I know we've heard it a couple times we did have the first of our eight Community meetings last night at Dillard High School and I think it's only fitting that um we do pause and we thank the all eight of the high schools that are hosting these Community conversations because they are doing an exceptional job I tell you if Dillard is the standard then we're going to see great things throughout the um remaining seven conversations but I also want to thank the beacon staff the staff in marketing and Communications um Safety and Security and our custodial grounds Department because we all came together obviously with my amazing team and walked each one of the school campuses making sure we were ready making sure that there they were environments and they are environments that will welcome that intimate close connected conversation so I do want to do that before we move forward so I don't forget um to give them their flowers while they can smell them well so um the on the next slide slide four while we have not um specifically said these are the schools that will be closed or repurposed but we do need to kind of sort of narrow our Focus for at least this year understanding that redefining is a iter iterative process that never ends so um for the sake of this year's um list of schools that we're going to focus on this is the potential that we have listed and we're ready to discuss with the board at the appropriate time why we believe that this is the potential list for us to start with and we have some schools that we would look at repurposing and we know repurposing can take on a number of different options but then we do have some school communities as you've heard one here today as well as a couple in the past that really and truly want to look at grade configur grade reconfigurations for their respective schools and then we have two additional schools at the bottom that we want um to get some guidance around conversation with just to remind everyone so we are on an accelerated timeline um don't want to read to individuals but we will say that we are here today and our work will take us through um the board ultimately coming to the final vote for uh School boundaries on as as Mr Landon spellberg told me that is his birthday January 14th 2025 and we will have a cake to celebrate with you on that if this is but this is our proposed timeline on Slide Five it is aggressive but we do believe that it is doable because we know that these are decisions that need to be made sooner rather than later but that is the proposed timeline it would take us to um the January 14th as the final this is um the decisions that will be made to impact the 2526 school year stakeholder engagement is the um the the big piece obviously that the community is most concerned with and rightly so so what we are looking at potentially is as we know we've already um started eight Community meetings and those will continue through September 30th um what we are proposing today is that community members at the five schools identified for consolidation or repurposing that they be afforded the opportunity to develop boundary proposals and they would have access to the staff in the office of demographics and enrollment planning to work on um developing their boundary proposals and of course we would share the the proposals once they're complete on the district's website community members um will be invited to attend every meeting that will be held but in particularly um the school board workshop and then ultimately the um board meeting for School boundaries as they become realized for the next school year I think the thing that most people want to talk about is the actual composition of the School boundary committee this is just a starting place for us we we do believe that membership um of the committee should consist of stakeholders that are um really representative of the schools that are being being addressed through redefining we think that a manageable number is two representatives from each School a parent and you know parents and our commun um community members excuse me from the selected schools that will be impacted we would want to work with our area chairs to identify the parents to represent the schools there has also been um an ask and you heard it very um briefly from the chair of our diversity committee that the diversity committee chair and the facilities task force chair also be members of the School boundary committee that is certainly up to the board's um uh discretion as to the final composition of the commun of the committee but the committee members we will have them come to an orientation just like we have um the chairs of respective committees go through an orientation we will have them come to an orientation we will explain to them what the scope of their work is we'll also take them through some training on the Sunshine Law and other elements that are necessary for their work the committee would then meet in November as we work through proposals to discuss all of the proposals that have been presented and they would actually vote and give voice to whether or not specific proposals um should or should not be considered uh presented to the board I'm sorry for final consideration by the board and the one thing that we want to stress is that the committee's work would end once that meeting in November occurs where each um proposal is considered and we have the actual proposals that will be submitted and those that will not be submitted but their work would end after that November meeting the next thing we have um on slide eight is really what for the board to give us some direction on what parameters if you will committees will use as they create their own School boundary proposals we know that we must look at an impact on enrollment feeder patterns neighborhood Integrity distance to and from school and also School diversity so we just want to put that out there make sure um this is what the board believes as well and for them to give us Direction on and for the board to give us Direction on this and then finally um as I said we will come back next week once we have final direction from the board today we will come back next week for the board to adopt a formal resolution for this year's process as you know we are continuing our on ongoing review of our magnet and Innovative programs we're continuing our community meetings and then after next week we would start to work with the community on proposals for the impacted schools and then our next formal point with the board will be in November when we come for that first um School Board Workshop to discuss the proposals that the committee um voted to come forward to the board so that's the quick presentation Madame chair and now we're ready for the discussion with the board can you just confirm on what page you want the board members to weigh in on when they speak with their talking points yes ma'am so we need the board to slide four make sure the board's okay with the timeline on Slide Five definitely slide seven and slide eight okay all right so my colleagues when you speak can you please weigh in on slide four slide five slide seven slide eight Mrs leonardy the thank you um so I'll I'll speak to some of that and then I I have some thoughts um for page or slide six on stakeholder engagement um again I'll harp on this over and over now notifications need to come from the schools and they need to come early um so I think maybe there is a disconnect with the schools and US in terms of like when they can send out information from with their parently links um so I just want it to be very clear to our principles that that they are to be communicating early um and not necessarily just the day before uh these these events and Community meetings happen um and I would really encourage again like I'm hearing over and over from community members um you know someone said this last night like you know when they want us to buy photo packages for school pictures they send paper home over and over and over again but when it's something about a community meeting we don't necessar do that so I would really encourage us to use different kinds of media to communicate with our our families um I have some questions about the School boundary committee uh and I so one I do support uh the chair of the diversity and FTF being on the committee um and I you might have spoken to this but I maybe didn't he here um how are the two Representatives being selected again so we were going to work with the ACT ual area advisory chairs because they they work with the um sack and saff chairs through the um through the area advisory process so we would once we know what the schools are we would incorporate you know whether it's the North Central or South area advisory chair to work with the Schools administration so that we can identify two parent two parents to serve parents or community members and we want people that we are confident that are willing to make the commitment that's all okay okay um I would maybe recommend that we do some sort of like electoral situation within that process just because there may be a perception that like certain people this is just my opinion I don't know if anyone else agrees with it but there may be a perception that people were hand selected for different reasons um you mentioned parents and community members what about is there any opportunity for employee involvement in the boundary committee so typically we try to keep employees neutral so that we aren't you know having employees weigh in and then people feel like this is a district employee they've come with the message of the district so we try to keep it to parents and community members but we will take whatever you know the board direction is yeah I mean I I just I think about our teachers and our you know our clerical and you know cafeteria workers the people who work in our schools and a lot of them showed up when we had our first iteration of these meetings um several months ago um I think their perspective is important I understand also the perception that like oh they're here be you know representing the district but I think you know we do need to involve the people who work in our schools in this process to some extent um bless you may I ask if um and it's certainly up to the board we can do two parents and a staff member i i i whatever the board wants to do the only thing is is that depending on the number of schools what we don't want to do is then make the Comm but we are here for whatever that's just a I get it I get it um I'm interested to hear what my colleagues think about that um The Proposal that Miss verdict mentioned so doing a process where we go to sack and saff um then going to the Innovation Zone elect representative and then go to the area is there you know is there room for any of that um because I do think that makes that process makes sense to me um I don't know about my colleagues but so um it's not that it isn't doable it will extend the time so I I just want to put that put that so that we're all as long as we're fine with amending the timeline and the second thing that we have to um acknowledge is that over the years the true Innovation Zone concept um has become significantly different than it was when Innovation zones were first developed but we can um go through the Zone process it would just extend the time Z yeah I mean I think these are really big decisions and so extending the timeline for me um is it means we're doing our due diligence and I think when these proposals come from a Grassroots approach um and they're vetted through the community and those tough discussions happen in the community Community um I think we really get best results so I also support that process um I'll wait to wait on four and five seven and eight but I I did have I'll come back to those but I do have some questions so I thought we were going to wait for feedback from the community meetings to make determinations on schools for repurposing and reconfiguration um so I was kind of surprised to see those those schools identified on this presentation Dr I'm going to have Mr Beck start and then if as needed I'll jump in through the chair thank you Mrs Leonardi for your question so these are not schools that are necessarily being identified or targeted for any specific purpose but we did feel a staff that we needed to draw attention to the schools that were the lowest enrolled or the uh had the most challenges because we didn't want those to get lost in the conversation of of creating you know soliciting proposals for example for every school in a particular area that we're looking for we wanted to draw the focus around schools that might need you know the most immediate attention like I'll use Boward Estates Elementary is an example no one has proposed closing the school but it is enrolled at 222 students this year so some of these schools most a lot of these schools on that the list um have fallen below what a what a typical operational threshold might be okay so I'll push back on that a little bit you know the idea that these aren't identified for any specific reason because because when you look at the slide it says potential repurposing Broward to States North Fork silver L and then potential grade reconfiguration it lists those schools so I mean I'm a board member I see that and it makes me think okay so these were decided um so again like I'm a little bit confused about I thought we were waiting to hear from the community meetings to identify schools I hear you saying we didn't identify schools but it looks like on the slide that we did identify schools so thank you Miss Leonardi you're right we so it does have potential repurposing potential grade reconfiguration these are all schools that are that are identified in the 11 grouping of schools and while um while we couldn't put every school on on the list we we're we're trying to start somewhere because we do know that and even if the timeline is extended we do have to get to what the board directed the superintendent so these are the schools that experience um the greatest I would say need for attention but it could be that at the end of the conversation the school even though it's potential it may come out of the potential depending on what the community conversation is and where we land after our last meeting on September 30th um and I I I will tell you what what we are experiencing is the balance between time and process and and we're trying to balance time and process but we have not specifically said this is the school these are just potential options and if you know if the board wants us to come back in October then that's something that through the superintendent we can do that but we do know that we are trying to balance time in process and the other thing that we're trying to balance also is at some point um I'm certain once decisions are made we the the board will would expect that we're going to have some type of a window or something for school choice if necessary so we're just trying to balance all of those variables okay I feel like it is maybe a little bit disingenuous to then say we're looking for Community feedback in these Community meetings when we've come forward and identify these schools and I think it definitely does not help um the perception out in the community where you know you know I'm going to civic association meetings and in different groups and saying like hey we want to hear from you and some people say well you guys have already made up your your your minds um so this does not help um so I I'll say that and I guess my other question is when we're talking about repurposing and Rec configuring schools why weren't why wasn't any programming mentioned if we're willing to have the conversation about repurpose in and reconfiguration why haven't we talked about any programming so the programming is actually what we're getting in the community conversations that would then come when the superintendent and Dr he don't put words in your mouth when the superintendent comes with his final recommendations because um I I can tell you um we heard some conversation last night as it relates to at least two of the schools but one in particular as around programming that they would like to see as the method for repurposing if that helps yeah and I I don't mean for this to all be concerned um the community meeting last night was amazing um I think I thought we you know it was very well run so kudos to you and and your team um I think you know the conversations that we had were very very enlightening and and uh solutions-based um so I was very excited to hear about you know the different the the interest in early learning opportunities and you really highlighted that um I I'm just really struggling with this presentation that is focused on repurposing and reconfiguration which brings me to you know I I don't really see a path forward in terms of growing our student population so some of us have really advocated for marketing and bringing our kids back in and we are told over and over again that that's what's going to happen and then some of us have made this process only about closing schools and made the narrative about what's wrong with Broward County Public Schools and by only talking about closing schools we are sending a message to our community that we are closing down right any major corporation that announces that their closing offices people don't think oh that business is doing well you know and and we have continued to make this conversation about closing schools I was really really hoping that you know in conjunction with the the conversation about stream lining and and reconfiguring and repurposing that we would also be talking about programming and I hear you that we are waiting to hear from the community meanings but I don't know why we wouldn't wait to hear from the community meetings about the repurposing and reconfiguration like this presentation sends not a great message in my opinion so we appreciate that feedback I just want to remind the board that we did talk about um when we passed policy 8010 that we would be coming back this week and why we would be coming back but I certainly appreciate that um feedback We are continuing to work with our colleagues and teaching and learning around um programmatic not only enhancements but looking at something Ju Just programs that we've never done before right in in um in places that we've never done certain programming so we are looking at that um that that is definitely a part of the redefining process and um you know we we are still working toward what what the board directed the superintendent on June 18th and but we will slow down as we're directed We Will We Will Follow whatever Cadence but in order for us to meet certain timelines like I said we are trying to balance timeline in process but we will certainly um take whatever direction is given to us and make the most of every situation and I agree with you miss Leonardi um the community is very excited but right now they feel like we are actually a part part of this we are part of the conversation and so we don't want to do anything that will reverse that Trend thank you um and then just real quick uh to weigh in on the slides um I'm I'm not sure for slide four what exactly my weighing in on so I think the question is as we narrow our scope of work um and I'm I'm going to use a term that I used before and I'm I apolog if I offend anyone but we can't boil the entire ocean so as we start to narrow our scope um can we narrow the scope at least to these schools for this year and narrow the scope could and re repurposing has a number um of options associated with right um and obviously there are some communities who have come out and and expressed an interest in a great reconfiguration so so as we start to work with communities can we at least for this first iteration this year look at these schools to make sure that we are given the time and attention or if the you know the board can say but I also want you to consider one or two others it this is really to give us um the ability to work within our bandwidth and um provide some some um attention to communities that really want to work with us on reconfiguring and redefining um the options in their Community okay um I'm not really comfortable weighing in on slide four yet um in terms of Slide Five I most of all support the approach uh of going to our sacks and staffs going to The Innovation Zone and the reason I think it's important that we go to The Innovation zone is because those line up with feeder patterns um and then going and and then having uh the The Innovation zones elect representative that then go to the areas so that may stretch out the process um I you know first Slide Five I do support you know if if if that means that we you know expand the amount of time that we're spending on this that's fine um I think it's better to make detail oriented decisions instead of Reckless decisions just for the sake of speeding things up um on Slide seven um again I think I've outlined you know the the way I think that should work um if that's not the way the board goes I do support um having FTF and diversity chairs on the the boundary committee um and then slide eight um I would also add to slide eight and again this is just my opinion um impact on ESC populations because a lot of these schools have very large ESD clusters um that they serve and so I I think that's important to consider thank you may I just ask for one point of clarification Mr leard on slide seven um is it the two parents and then one employee um or or is it a parent parent or employee you know what I'm saying or is it one I don't think I mean I I could go either way I don't you know if an like you can't force an employee to participate um I think it should just be open to to those school-based employees thank you thank you m rert bam that was the quickest yet thank you um on on number four um a little a little upset that the name of one of my schools was was written on there and having to get phone calls last night at 1:00 a.m. 3:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. this morning um why am I closing schools why am I closing schools why is the district closing schools that's not the that's not what we need to be talking about and we're doing our job we just need to get it out a little bit further and may I ask some journalistic newsletters and letters and uh papers that are out there um not a big one I don't want to think that you guys are I'm upset with the TVs or anything but it's what I want to say is please don't put something in the paper unless it's been checked double checked triple checked if you can't reach John you know his staff is great or even call your board member I'd rather see something or call me on the phone and say that that's true um yes and I'm I'm inviting you to come to Wednesday's meeting cocon Creek High School 6 p.m. I mean that's just kind of how I work but I don't really think it's fair um to to actually push that conversation to the point where uh quite honestly we haven't talked about so I mean my if anybody could listen to me it would be please we have our eyes wide open but we're also listening with our ears obviously and making sure that um we hear everyone and that we also uh want to hear more more ideas more programs more zones and I did like what Dr wanza said about how about things that we haven't never done before you know there's great great great programs all around this beautiful country uh and other countries Finland that are doing amazing things so I think we need to keep our our eyes open with that I'm very happy um however that the superintendent and um Dr wanza had conversations with the City of Coconut Creek um on that end of it it's very important especially for cities like cogon Creek and Margate who had for decades been left off a map invited to a com conversation it just wasn't done um so I I applaud Us by being inclusive and that's part of the board it's part of the administration down here you have to have um compassion when you're looking at this because people are making decisions now about where their child is going to attend next year and then two years people are looking at the real estate and saying you know which school is is attached to this and you know what can I expect so um programming 100% can't wait to have that conversation I know it's um it's it's well needed in some of my areas and the conversation needs to be um very inclusive and very for me um and I didn't go last night so I'm and Wednesday is going to be you know my initiation basically and I'm looking to visit all the round tables hear the conversations what parents say that they need what they feel is lacking you know is it a facilities issue is it um is it supplies is it curriculum you know how how else um you know do you plan on helping our students so I think that conversation is great and I think it's wonderful to have um our parents actually asking those questions because just think about that for a moment you're going to be heard by the Broward County school board or you're going to be heard by the Broward County School Board now you're going to be heard with with a exclamation point so um I invite everybody come to Coconut Creek 6 PM Coconut Creek High School um going back to the questions on the um particular Pages um number five I wholeheartedly agree with Innovation zones same thing feeder patterns um and you're dealing with the same people who have our our smaller um chairs and they they already collaborate with the North Area and the other chairs when it comes to DAC so um I think that would be great plus the parents are familiar with the schools and it's um a lot easier to do that um very important the impact on the ESC community and that would be I guess page eight um it's extremely important we have so many of our schools and one of them Elementary School um it has has a tremendous um ESC population there so much so that I believe it was last week's meeting or maybe the one before um where I asked about because I know our schools have been doing their jobs and let me to stop for one moment and just say this our staff at our schools have always work their face off for our kids I mean they have they have things that they're doing trying to bring enrollment back and um they they pitch ideas to to North Area or to downtown and I think it would be great to think about um ESC on on that level that we do need and understand I'm not going to stop but okay though just just another two minutes um it it's important that the Community feels included you know as a mom of three kids under that umbrella there's often times you feel like the doors are always closed before you even get to the door so that's an important aspect for me um the potential School conversation does not have to be on this list and I think that was one of the most important things that was said today is that a school that that's in your neighborhood just because it's on a list and just because there's opportunities doesn't mean we're not going to Listen to Opportunities we have we go through boundary processes so there are areas for everybody to weigh in even if it's not this because you know what you are our end user you are our customers and the minute we forget that we're defeating oursel so um I look forward to the conversation on Wednesday and um excited about program changes and um really excited about that actually I have some things uh that I went through over in um in Canada when I was up on vacation and they have a tremendous amount of opportunities for for their students there especially dealing with um cultural areas so I look forward to sharing that did I answer the questions on the t i I think so I just need the question about timeline but Madame Vice chair if I may I have a question go ahead I I want to make sure we walk away with we are to work with the whole way sack saf PTA everybody but are we talking about the Innovation zones that are impacted and I want to make sure that there isn't an expectation that it's all 28 Innovation zones or is it the Innovation zones that are impacted it's a good question I I I just don't want to walk away you know with us thinking one thing and the board intending something else right so and and we can get that once everybody else gets back in the room Madam Vice chair but I just want to get that ironed out because I don't want us walking away thinking one thing but the board intended something different well I'm going to need a minute on that one so you have to come back to me but I I think I handled the other ones right okay thank thank you so much looking forward to moving forward oh and I I don't have a problem with extending the timeline you know it's kind of like talking for me if it's if it's important that we need to get it done we're going to get it done so thank you thank you okay I'm just going to go around Mrs fam you have any thank you um I just wanted to say that I appreciate all the work that everyone's putting into this um I'm very fortunate in that my uh District really is not heavily involved in um the repurposing but at the same time I I would like to say I think I should remain in a hands back position and the people that are directly impacted directly um affected by all these changes that are going to be implemented for their their neighborhoods their students the teachers I think that um the conversation should be controlled by those people that have a stake in what's going on so it's not that I'm disinterested but I think that we need to have the drivers of this bus are the ones that are that are really going to be impacted about what's going on so I I'm taking a listen and learn um perspective thank you m can you maybe just weigh in on a couple of things though Mrs fam are you the timeline are you okay if it needs to be extended or you want to hold to the timeline that's on page five okay one thing I was noticing about I have the time here um is it follows the second week of no November I would not um put that any closer to Thanksgiving or the holidays but and you might want to additionally schedule another meeting in case there is some kind of conflict for people so we need to avoid any holidays um fortunately we we have a meeting the last one in December is December 11th and then again we started in January 14th so we have a month Gap there but um I would try to if we could even possibly pull that um November meeting even to an earlier date if possible only cuz we're going into those holidays some people go away ahead of time they try to book an extra week on top of that week and or back it up afterwards so um let me see and the last date that my calendar goes up to is um5 so yes I am comfortable with that you do have two U meetings directly on top of each other the 14th and 15th I don't I would put a gap in between those in my opinion just because one um just to let it absorb in um and get the word get out exactly how um the 14th meeting went to anyone else that might want to chime in on a later time thank you okay and just the other two sides so side seven was about the boundary committee you don't want to weigh in on that no they do not okay and then the boundary considerations because remember we all have to I would again reiterate that I think the people directly involved in the situation should be on that boundary committee and that would include parents as well as stakeholders um that can when I say stakeholders it's homeowners that don't have children they still pay taxes and they're entitled to have their voices heard because in my um District I have one specific neighborhood where on one side of the street they go to Western High School on the other side of the street they go to Cypress Bay and they're very upset about that so I think the people that are absolutely yeah I they used to play football together they all used to be friends um they they need to be the ones that are in the Forefront here and carrying the flag okay and then on slide eight where it's considerations um the suggestion so far has been to add impact on ese are you okay with that add impact did you say ese on ese the impact on the ESC students okay you're going to have to elaborate a little bit more impacts a very general statement so all of them say impact impact on enrollment impact on feeder patterns impact on neighborhood Integrity so these are the consideration ations of changing the boundary like for example impact on distance to school that might be we you might decide they shouldn't have if we change the school they shouldn't have to ride a bus for that change that's an impact so impact is General so um it's been suggested by two board members to include which is not on here yet impact on ese are you okay with adding that I am but again those people directly involved those neighborhoods those parents those are the on in the Forefront and that's who we need to uh defer to to to provide valuable input thank you okay Mrs Hixon thank you okay on page four um I sort of want to e last night was wonderful and I appreciate that but I was a little surprised when I left because there were five I think five schools on there right anyway the conversation centered mainly around Broward States so kind of they flushed out the one sort of that was most important but I kind of thought we were going to have a discussion about all of them and it didn't I know we wanted to give them their space but I think it would have been important for the district to guide them a little more about you know tell us what you'd like to see at brow States what would you like to see at larkdale what would so that all of them were included I mean I was using Broward States as an example for something so that's kind of how my group got focused on that um and we just never had that bigger conversation because as Mrs Leon already mentioned what I've said to people going around is that we haven't selected any schools you're going to have this community meeting and when we leave there you may select one school that you want to see closed or repurposed and then discuss what you'd like to see at the other ones if they're under enrolled so just as a suggestion moving and not to say last night last night was wonderful and I think they were very clear on what they want to see happen with Broward Estates and I have a particular question about that I don't know if Now's the Time but maybe for tonight's meeting or as we move forward here's the schools that are on the list we'd really like you to address your thoughts on each of them so we could walk away with a bigger cuz we may have picked Northfork on here but in the conversation that might not be what gets flushed out of the the discussion and I'd like to ask the question I already know the answer but I'd like to ask it because I I saw something already on Facebook so potential repurposing does repurposing mean closed repurposing means a lot of things it does not just mean closed re re the repurpose can mean a grade reconfiguration it could mean a programmatic shift it can mean a number of different options as we showed last night I think it was on slide four or five um it it means a number of things thank you thank you for that absolutely and my other question on page four great reconfigurations I think I also know the answer to this question but are these suggestions that came out of your conversations with the city um I will say one of them definitely is the other um actually two of them are um and then the other two were conversations that have been um a part of previous um conversations with communities as well as municipalities but um obviously we have one city here today or two cities um that are advocating for specific um School uh facilities but yes the city of coconut Creek was very very enthusiastic about doing something different because in their um experience and what they want to see is they have a pathway that a student can start kindergarten and go all the way through college on the same street yeah and and I know the City of Hollywood has and the City of Hollywood has asked yes and it just was important to say that the this was not the district just saying this is a good idea these were community input that said they would like some kind of grade configuration and um a question and then I'll move on to the other pages so the conversation yesterday was around Broward States and the idea of using pieces of it I not not the only conversation but what came out of last night was there was a very big um push for early learning using the Broward Estates facility and one of the suggestions was to change Broward states in the conversation I had to um a k through three similar to what we did to Sunland and then make Parkland a 5 through eight or 4 through eight so my question to that is when we if we use different non-traditional grade separations is that allowable by the state is there something special we have to do are we in charge of how we configure our grades in the schools so um the school board is responsible for assigning kids to school schools and the and the district obviously has the final the board has the final say so on how um the school grades are configured within a school we have done models similar to that in the past where we had at one point um Eagle Ridge was the K3 school and what okay I got it I got it I got it backwards Country Hills was the K3 school and Eagle Ridge was 46 so so yes we have done different um grade configurations in the past the only thing that we would have to make certain is that what that whatever facility is designated meets the facility requirements for the grade level C okay great I just wanted to um ask that question um and I will just say it has additional discussion I know Coral Cove is very interested in becoming a magnet program so I'll just throw that out there um and you know they have a fantastic art program there that includes not per just Performing Arts but art so it doesn't say that's what the discussion is going to be about but I know that they have been advocating for a little while on that but I would just ask as we move forward in these discussions to I know we said the names of the schools but really ask the participants to weigh in on each of those schools because walking away from that if they say yes it should be should be closed or which they probably will not but that there's a better understanding of all of them as opposed to just one so I will say thank you for that Miss Hixon we will certainly we have seven more um tours to go and we will certainly um incorporate that but what we also captured last night they told us what they wanted to see in lale they told us you know there were questions and I think I even answered a question around Monas programming in one of the schools and they were very vocal about what how they wanted to see L Hill Paul Turner return to its prominence of what some families had experienced so we will make certain that we're more deliberate in the conversation because those are very general I mean to say it goes back to its Glory Days you know what does that mean in particular but but they did talk about that they wanted to see some um more science programs they wanted to see something around robotics there was um a lot of conversation even though Parkway wasn't named specifically we did get some feedback around what they would want to see in Parkway but we thank you for the guidance and we'll make certain that we're more deliberate in the next seven conversations thank you I appreciate that on page five I'm fine I've said it over and over if the timeline has to be adjusted because we want to do it right the first time and if that means an extended time for more Community conversation or maybe there's a way to reconfigure what the timeline is so that um we get it right I'm not trying to kick the can down the road I'm just saying that I want to make sure we're we're doing what our due diligence and not being rushed and I've said that from day one um so School boundary committee page seven couple of questions so if there's if we're looking at five schools we'll just say five it may be more than that but that would be 10 people already if you started with um two representatives from the school right who else are would you be looking to have I mean it's our committee so what do you think is a good number for that kind of committee so so let me um let me back up and say that if the if the board agrees that these are the schools on slide four that we are going to focus on um it would be representation from all of these schools right no I know that but two people from each of those SK the other I I want to do the math right so there's nine honestly the district struggled when there was a member from each Innovation Zone that's why I want to make sure we're talking about are we is it the zones impacted or is it every Zone when we get a number larger than 25 to 30 we start to lose Integrity okay yeah that that's what I'm trying to ask so I think what would make sense there is if there was a vote I do agree with the vote because just hand selecting someone you could go really sideways on that um but maybe through the Sac or saf meeting or PTA or whatever for that particular school um I would say because this is boundary that really doesn't need to involve a staff member because they're not really impacted by the boundary change they're more impacted by the programmatic change so I wouldn't add a staff to that because you're already going to be over 30 almost um and I I do think that I would say maybe not necessarily diversity in facilities but definitely the area chairs for each of those areas because they could bring in you know the conversation from from diversity and Facilities to to keep that number a manageable number um and so that's on that would be on that I mean I'm fine if diversity in facilities is added as well but I think if you had the area chair you'd at least have that bigger P um perception and since you're having people from each of those different schools you would really be able to balance those in the community and those out because they're all talking about all the different ones so I don't think you'd have to add too many other people and finally um I would say a couple of things so I I think it's important to add the the impact to Ese and I don't know if you wanted us to to talk about what we thought the impacts should be limited to if that's the discussion for today um so I for me the biggest issue we've heard people say is we don't want you busting us out of our community so where it's impact on distance to school it should not make a student have to get on a bus to to go to school I mean most of those changes that are going if someone well let me rephrase that so if you make it a magnet or a choice school it could but the idea of of making someone in the boundary have to take a bus to go somewhere else that to me would not be what we're trying to do um because that's the biggest concern I've heard from the community are trying to bust us out of our area so I don't know what that exactly looks like or if I'm even communicating it very well but that was a huge concern um and of course we want to make sure that our schools remain diverse so thank you Landon thank you madam chair I'd like to start off by talking about the student involvement in this process uh we've had some great conversations with Dr wanza and Dr heurn about our involvement with our students to find uh different opportunities for programmatic enhancements through our superintendent advisory and our County student government Association that will be doing some redefining our schools activities with over the next few weeks as well as incorporating a programmatic part into our speak up speakout sessions um Alana and I were were talking about finding a way that we can involve student input in these changes it's difficult because uh the majority of these changes will be made in elementary schools uh so we're going to try and find a way that we can maybe talk to those students and find a way to involve them uh I have a question and I had to write it down because it didn't even make sense in my own head so I'm sorry if it doesn't come out this way that it that it should so essentially my question is and I'm going to use two schools as an example if Western High School was under enrolled and the boundary committee wanted to make I believe the word is a Taz a a change and take a Taz out of for example the Cypress Bay boundary and put those students in Western to increase the enrollment which would take students out of Cypress Bay and put them in Western would the Cypress Bay Community then be involved in that process as it's the Western Community that's the boundary change that's affecting another school so I'm going to start to answer Mr Beck is going to jump in if I need me so the actual um boundary committee does not make proposals the committee is going to receive and um evaluate proposals that are submitted but if something so if now a proposal is drawn up submitted to impact a school that was never in the process we would then bring that school into the process thank you and I'm sorry that I I should have said if they receed a proposal follow a lot of words here all right so I just think it's important that you know just highlighting that that communication certainly happens um because I could see where that would just get lost in the in the in the talking and especially if we're talking about Innovation zones and we're switching in you know so uh would like to bring set up but we will be working on ensuring that student uh input and student feedback is Incorporated in this because at the end of the day when it comes to programmatic enhancements and programmatic changes we're hearing some really vital feedback from students uh about what they want to see so we will definitely bring that up I also would like to highlight that I had uh the opportunity to meet with the principal of Coral Cove Elementary who highlighted some of the amazing things that they're doing and it got me thinking about looking at this redefining our schools as a feeder discussion right because we take a school I'm going to use Coral Cove as an example as an amazing arts program right and then students are leaving to go to Charter School for middle school because surrounding charter schools have an arts program but then they're going back to Everglades because they have a great drama program so it's important that when we're looking at this and looking at the feeder patterns that we're also looking at opportunities to be able to keep students in that pattern um so would like to to highlight that but uh again thank you to Dr wans and her team for ensuring that student voice is included in this and we really appreciate that thank you thank you Dr holess thank you madam chair so going back to slide four um so I know that we have several meetings coming up and um the concern I have with slide four is that the meetings that we have that we are uh capturing the feedback from the community um my understanding is uh one of the reasons for that is to not only um gather information on um uh potential repurposing and from the community and what those schools what we could put into those schools but also to use the information to determine the school that will be considered and at the meetings that we have scheduled I believe I counted 43 schools within several clusters so my question is um or my concern is that it appears to me that it would be better to uh conclude the process of capturing Community input before we have any indication at all of schools that will be potentially repurpose or potential grade configur ation for those schools so with slide four I am just concerned we have nine schools here and by the way three out of the nine are from District 5 and uh that would represent onethird of what's uh proposed here so if you could help me to understand are we having these Community meetings which we have seven more to go to really have the community help us to narrow the schools down or are we already narrowing the schools and if we are then what is the point of having these meetings with 43 schools on the consideration so I'm a bit confused if you could clarify what we're doing Dr he Dr wson okay um thank you Dr holess so um we did publish a list of 11 groupings of schools right um many of many or all of them are s are um experiencing enrollment challenges to begin um what would become the actual boundary process we we know that re redefining has multiple layers elements components um around programming around um looking at potential grade reconfigurations A a number of things different options and as I said a few moments ago and if if it's and and if we're premature we will accept that we we will outright accept that but we were working with a timeline and I said before we are somewhere trying to balance process and time so when we brought this list these are the schools that um ex that have the greatest un of under enrollment or enrollment concerns but what we are learning from the community over that started last last night and'll go through obviously seven more meetings are ways that they would like to see the under enrollment addressed um we only had the first conversation last night we know that um yes there was conversation around brow Estates but there was also conversation around this is how we would like to address the under enrollment at lale at um Westwood height didn't come up but lot of Hill Paul Turner did and so while we're not trying to put the cart before the horse so to speak we are trying to at least get to a place where we can start the conversation and the board could say these are not the schools pause get through come back and so we're but but we had to start somewhere and so this is the start we are willing to take whatever direction we're given from the board through the superintendent and move in that fashion okay and I understand that but also you know from a board memb perspective and having to respond to the community's concerns and when we have a slide with nine schools the these now become the focus schools and these are the schools to which we have to respond as board member uh Rupert mentioned she had three phone calls in the we hours of the morning so um you know I prefer in my opinion um uh as you mentioned um it appears to me to be premature uh because I would like to see us get through the process of meeting with the community okay that we have already in place because what we're saying to them is regardless of what you say and I'm not saying that's what it appears to them these are nine schools that we're going to look at and I don't want to give that impression because it lends itself a lot of burden on us to now having to respond to community stakeholders what we have in front of us um so I want them to know that we value your input and that's why we have these clusters and these 43 schools that we want all of you to weigh in on and then once we take that input then we're going to narrow that down but it appears we're narrowing the scope of work as you mentioned before prematurely and it lend it sends the wrong message in my opinion to the community that we're listening to you but we're not really hearing you um and that's not what we're doing but unfortunately because we come down to a number of schools without concluding the process with the community it appears that we're really not hearing although we may be listening so I would like us to get through the process then we come back with schools by saying to the community we hear your input there are some things you've mentioned that we didn't consider before and as a result here are substantive reasons why we now have these 10 schools or these 15 schools but this is presenting schools to us without the collaborative effort with the community and sir and I I would prefer not to comment or weigh in on four because I think it's as your word is it's premature okay right okay so um I can go to what was the next Slide the timeline yes sir um for the timeline it it I'm okay with the timeline being extended as long as the process is done where it's Community Driven it's collaborative and whatever we're going to do it's Community Accel and so on and so forth so I'm not concerned about timeline as much as I'm concerned about the community's input and what they believe we should do moving forward so if their input warrants us extending the timeline then then uh their input would be priority yes sir and then I believe seven um yes the committee composition the committee so I know that when we have boundary changes and we we've had uh it will impact um schools and students and I particularly wasn't very pleased with what happened with the MSD um situation about a year or so ago so I know that there will be polarizing views um from impacted schools when we have boundary changes and proposals being uh examined must be done objectively I believe if we only have parents involved in those uh in the boundary committee then it will not lend itself to a fear unbiased um uh decision-making process I believe it needs to be more diverse so I would suggest that um we have at least two representative from each school from the the staff the PTA uh parents I support um having someone from the diversity committee the facilities task force and area chair as you mentioned and I also believe that we should consider a a board of appointee to the uh our board appointees to the to the um boundary committee I don't know if if that's possible or if that's something we can do um we we can appoint uh individuals to the boundary committee as well so I would like to consider that and um you know I would even go as far as say because the the uh the situation that we had there were concerns before in the Coral Springs Community about particular groups of students um being affected by changes and so even uh whether or not we appoint to the committee or not I would like us to have the input from stakeholders like the NAACP uh to give input on what we when when it comes to boundary changes so that we can we can look at what they have to say and and see how it impacts the decisions that we make as well because I think um input from a diverse uh group of stakeholders would benefit the process Dr or is there any other and page eight I am I am okay with all of that and and add the ESC impact on ESC cor correct okay got it Dr Zan thanks chair um I just uh want to kind of reset just a little bit because um in the weeds and in the detail and the timelines and the lists of schools and the meetings last night which is terrific um I don't want to lose sight about why we're doing this um there's a theory out there that says that our allocation of money to facilities and facility management versus our allocation of funds for actually educating students which which requires schools but doesn't require 239 campuses for 200,000 students could be balanced in a better way to allow us to achieve our strategic goals I don't think uh we ought to imagine calling parents of a school that's potentially being closed and asking if they like that idea I I don't need to do that I don't I know they're not going to like it the idea is do we do we go through this process which is perceived as negative for some so that it's a positive for the whole District including them longterm because they would get to go to a school that is funded better for our job which is K through2 education and that's the challenge that we have is how do we make a decision about some people perceive a negative but overall uh we have to make sure that we design of positive I love this process I am so excited that Anna Garcia is here you would not be here if you weren't on Dr one I'm going to call it your list ma'am if you were not on Dr W's list right we have City commissioners we have Mayors we have uh County Commissioners uh we have people who run hospitals and people run major corporations calling decision makers about this and saying oh did you know you own this land that you're parking trucks on it's on US1 in my city I want to buy it can I give you some other I mean all these ideas are coming through it and I'm loving that Dr heurn is continuing to consider all of these ideas through the process because at the end of the day our sacred duty is to build a better school system um not to make uh 2 million people happy we will make some people unhappy in the process sometimes of making our school district better second major point we committed as a board to closing or repurposing at least five schools we have voted on that 27392 times I mean that is what we said we will lose tremendous credibility as a board if we can't figure out how to take this process and land at five closings or repurposing or more I'm very concerned about the timeline but in a different dimension which is I wanted to make decisions in November we told everybody in the community we're going to make decisions in November and now we just added two more months to this process we're going to get feedback from them about why did it change if it changed because we wanted more Community input and we wanted to make better decisions I think we can talk about that um if we changed it because we just didn't work hard enough early to get there um that'll have a different reaction my concern is about school choice which is if decisions are now January and then they get delayed to February March we are I mean I understand we can open up the school choice process but we are now taking people and asking them to make major changes in their lives in three or four months instead of uh 10 months and so I loved the idea of finishing November so that people that are affected by these changes can move can apply to private schools can apply to Charters can apply to home school can do whatever uh they want to do uh based on the options that they have before them and I feel like January is is later than uh would be most respectful uh to them uh so that's my thoughts about Pace uh I do not like slide for uh I know there are uh Advisory Group people there are City people in Fort Lauderdale that asked about reprogramming significantly Bennett but Sunrise I think it should be on the list I want I want to hear from them about that if it's not on the list it won't bring Anna Garcia here and I need the Anna Garcia for the Bennett Sunrise uh idea that has been widely vetted out there related to becoming sportsy like uh uh daa Beach Fort Lauderdale has invested significantly in the facilities of Sunrise Middle School and and there is an option to do a sports academy uh based on that and some other other things I don't like the boundary committee at all that's being proposed why CU I don't go ask parents of a closing school do you like what we're doing um not helpful what is helpful is to have a group within a feeder pattern or an innovation Zone that can talk about look you've got seven elementary schools three uh middle schools and two high schools we're looking at kind of rebalancing our facilities versus education budgets um one of your elementary schools and maybe even one of your middle schools and maybe even a reprogramming of grades uh would make sense the other thing I don't like about four is reconfiguration is a subset of repurposing so why do we have two list that's confusing to John Sullivan who's not here unfortunately the communication around this could be better the community last night didn't understand what they were supposed to talk about so they talked about one school I would recommend that when we present this list plus others that people are actively talking about and make sense from the analytics to be to be on the list uh that we ask people to uh give us feedback on on more than that um quick run through thing things um and I'll give you my votes on the slides when you go back around chair um but we committed to five schools uh we have to be very uh uh cognizant of that and we'll lose credibility if we don't repurpose or it I love and I love and I love the process because we are learning from other people about how much they value our schools and how much they can bring more value to our community so at the end of the day if we do five repurposing but there's significant repurposing and it draws people back to Boward County Schools then that's a victory for us right and we need to be open to that but the process of getting there is working because we have the County Commission city managers Commissioners Mayors uh all involved in that I just hope and I don't see their kind of inclusion in this but I believe deeply that cities know more about the land that we're talking about than we ever will they know where the development's coming they know where the permits have been done they know how it's growing um and I would like to see them included I've talked actively about gstream Academy I don't know why it's not on this list uh but um it's something that we need to think about because according to our metrics um that is a school uh that I believe just literally according to the data ought to be on any list that we put together for potential uh repurposing and reconfigurations thank you Mr fog Holly want to get his b chair are we going to go back around again we can go back around I'm going to go back around okay so thank you very much chair so thank you Dr wza thank you staff um I know this is a fun process to go through um but I still use the example Dr wza that you used uh when we had a community meeting right that the district is now Kmart right and we need to adjust because we have new comp competition in the neighborhood and this district is going to continue to use the same formula that they've done for the last 20 years and expect change um and I still think it's the best example and you should be saying that every single night by the way I have to give credit my mother worked for Kmart for 48 years I am a blue light special that's right that's right so I appreciate you um and so I'm going to run through the the slides I don't want to take too much time here but I appreciate it um I think you've heard very clear on slide four um on the feeling of slide four having names being put out there even before the first time first go around when we talked about this repurposing and re redefining schools we talked about when names go out there it causes panic right it causes stress in our community and and parents get stressed out students get stressed out um but I do want to focus on the slide and we're looking at just like the first situation when we look at olssen middle school and we look at Hollywood Central Elementary School and this is going to relate to slide eight also um I appreciate city manager being out here um I always brag on Dania Beach doing a fantastic job of always being on my doorstep and asking how can we make our schools better how can we help all cities should be doing that right that that is your children your constituents your families how can we make it better how can we make our schools cleaner look better the playground looks bad when we drive by how can we help the park across the street we can do better what are we going to do what do you want us to do how can we work together having that conversation should be ongoing not just when we're redefining and I'm going to brag again Dania Beach has always been a partner in this they've been fantastic to me and good to me so I appreciate it as a board member I appreciate it um you know but going back to that point and I'm going to go to slide eight as well because we talk about it so yes for ESC and adding that in there chair but I do want to add the impact on student culture and activities I don't think that we should be talking about redefining and taking kids from a community school such as olssen that we're talking about brand new fields in investments into that Community knowing what they do with after school care knowing about the the activities that they have for the community kids of not only there but also Hollywood kids are coming over from other cities to take part in those activities Hollywood Central for example Dr wans and please correct me don't have a field correct so they don't have a field and as it relates to um no they no I I I understand what you're saying so you understand so for us to close Olson Middle School and say those kids are going to go to a k through eight in Hollywood and not have access to a field telling those kids you're not going to have a soccer team hey you're not going to have an after school activity that's going to be doing Outreach but also be able to teach you about working together and having teamwork with soccer programs we're cutting that out so for me now we are saying hey this is going to be better for our community better for our district we're moving kids but also we're taking something away and now you're making my kids from Dania go down to Hollywood to have something taken away what benefit is it to those families what benefit is it to those kids so I really want somebody to think you know think about that and I do believe that that needs to be on there student culture is important Student Activities are important um and I really want that to be part of it and and for me I have to ask a realistic question here and I really want superintendent to think about this our staff to think about this because if I'm outside listening into this board meeting I'm starting paperwork right now to start a charter school in Dania Beach if you close that school cuz if I open one up I'm cleaning up easy every city you close a school and you want to bust kids out to a different Community I'm starting a charter school in that City and I will clean up and these numbers aren't going to get better it's not going to help us and it goes against everything we're talking about so again I want us to be very strategic by not hurting our communities or hurting our families by busting them out against um what's going to be better for the community so I want want you to think that that um so again on slide eight yes to that one chair Slide Five the timeline right I believe to Dr Zan's point this vote should have been taken months ago but of course being pushed back I know how it works I have to say why not keep pushing it back that's fine you know what I mean it's going to be somebody else's hands but again I I've said this before people incoming to these seats I wanted to protect them from that I would be okay with people being mad at me outgoing but now you're going to put new board members in a situation that the community is going to be at an uproar putting it against them so I think it puts them in a tough place so again the new team's going to be able to do that the new board's going to have that decision and have those tough conversations with community members when they're closing down their middle schools and elementary schools so again I wanted to protect them from that but okay so good with the timeline uh slide seven um let me make sure I get down confusing boundar yeah with the Committees I'm okay with that as well um little shaky about board members you know appointing someone right if we're going to have trouble doing that then it's a time thing again we're waiting somebody doesn't have an appointee what are we doing whatever it is to speed up the process to get that going but again it is important I'm open with having teachers be part of that staff be part of that uh Community leaders but of course Community input is important but I just really want to focus in on that point to me is student culture and activities and and not to hurt our communities again Olson Middle School to be on that list it's not a surprise right it's not about the name being on there I've been telling people for months when we said hey we're going to go back to the drawing board we're saying hey we didn't change the criteria it's going to be on there again just giving you a heads up be prepared um so again I just want you want to speak Dan is only Middle School only Middle School okay we got to put that into thinking and again it's okay for us to tell hey you going to beat me 19 times Andre hold on you you extended it four times for everybody else I'm almost done I promise but again we we we tell the community it's understandable we have to adjust right Dr wanza Kmart we have to adjust but if it's not fair it's not okay if it is not a fair process and we're not looking at every single Impact Zone I don't know what to tell you I can't go with a straight face to my community and say we're doing this with the right process in mind and we did it fairly if I can't say it's fair it's not right thank you very much ch thank you so I've said this previously as far as bringing something to the board to vote I feel the next school board meeting Dr heurn there should be an item with the takeaways today and make this board vote on what we're considering this it could be this whole Workshop item make the board vote because I don't want you to go through this process Community input and then then 4 months from now it comes to a board meeting 500 people come here to speak on it and the it gets voted down we can't do that we've been here before we're chasing our tail and it's frustrating it's frustrating for me as a board member it's frustrating for the community and it's frustrating for the parents and and I don't want them to be frustrated I want them to have these collaborative conversations in the meetings to decide what amazing opportunities we can offer a Brower County Public School schools but we as a board have to make a decision and if it's the the five schools if it's 10 schools whatever that schools is and whatever those schools names are we have to vote on it and and then we can move forward with this process and it could be a lot smoother and everybody knows the deadline the timeline I think also the process Beyond um January 15 on page five it should be analyzed a lot further what are those next steps like visually put those down because people need to be able to process that as a parent I want to very easily understand what is the next step in this process and as a board member I want to be able to communicate that as effectively as possible um as far as the considerations how are you analyzing all these impacts Dr heurn Dr wo okay uh thank you M for the question so uh actually some of these uh minus the diversity well we've been actually providing that as well for for for time in Memorial these impacts these are not there we are not proposing that there will be lines in the sand that students will not drive x amount of distance to school there will not be x amount of acceptable uh number of such and such a group of students that can be moved but the impact of the school on the schools what what it was in its existing form and what it will be in its proposed form for for the diversity metrics which includes ESC currently by the way which would include you know the race ethnicity elll FLL andl and for the the other pieces for travel distance to school that will be um that will be um what we've done in the past is to quantify the number of students that might be put on a bus who are currently able to walk it it's never been the board's policy to not do that but the board does want to be aware if that's occurring um for neighborhood Integrity we would indicate if a neighborhood were being split um by a proposal um and for feeder patterns the the same if for Feer pattern is being split or further split or if it's being repaired hold on sorry sorry sorry Dr hurn so I feel we cannot live in these broad like examples for these things they have to be mathematically if it meets this threshold whatever that number is then it's meets the consideration or doesn't meet the consideration there has to be like something that is factually based to be considered does that make sense yeah I think um if I may chair yes it makes perfect perfect sense um I think what um U Mr Beck is trying to convey is that when the boundary committees are established they go through their their um their task and responsibilities as it comes to that as as far as that committee and proposals are reviewed these are possible impacts that we need to be aware of um to convey to the board as we bring information back it could impact a school enrollment if we're taking schools from school a to school B it could affect the uh the continuity of a feeder pattern because this school that's repurposed is not part of the original feeder pattern it changes um and and so forth and such as Miss hion brought up too just the consensus from a lot of community people is they don't if they're currently walking to school or being dropped off within a 2- mile vicinity they want to ensure that that's that's still possible so we need to bring back the information if that's not the case for a certain percentage of students um so I think that's um as far as considering the impact as we talk about boundary changes for for uh specific schools that come out to tell in this process okay so I think for what I need is a more specific breakdown for each of these categories so like when you say impact on ESC what does that specifically mean I don't need you to tell me now I'm just saying I need that written out so when community members are going to go through these considerations it's not just this broad fluffy thing it's very specific in what it means because words matter and when I interpret something you might be interpreting differently Dr Zan might be intereting different Dr holess might be thinking something else we all need to be on the same page and we need to vote on this I got it so we'll we'll make sure and provide information that establishes common language for everybody so you don't hear and metc I think is what the chair's get metrics that we can all vote on and agree on agreed I think the metrics though they come during the process they don't preempt the process correct we those now so I'm going to take the first one impact on enrollment we can't consider a boundary change that is going to critically over enroll the receiving school right so it it it's specific things like that feeder pattern we start to look at and I think um Landon brought up this example we start to look at so now there's a proposal where you have now taken an elementary school out of one feeder pattern and potentially children now go to three different middle schools and two different high schools it's it's that kind of integrity and I'll just I'll just say I am a person in Mar I'm not going to cry I promise I'm not but I'm a student who went through this District my neighborhood was divided into eight elementary schools four middle schools and four high schools so if there's anyone else who's more committed to Neighborhood Integrity feeder pattern Integrity student experience School culture I think I can help in that area thank you Dr onza um so my other thought and I don't see this anywhere on page eight is the impact on the facility right the the facilities like my mind if you say you had a school that was built in the 90s and you have a school that was built in the the 50s the '90s school why would we be closing that school and then sending everybody to the school that was built in the 50s so that should be also a consideration I will say that is probably one of the most Unwritten considerations words matter in this entire process but we no no but we will certainly put it down because um we have one or two schools on the this list that were built in the 50s that are you know we're having conversations about I'll just leave it there yeah so thank you and Facilities I mean I didn't even want to go through this process until we had a facilities assessment done because that is like uh the north star that we should be that you know looking what our what our facilities looks like so that should definitely be consideration but I'm also going to make a recommendation that whatever the decides today that it comes to a board the next school board meeting and we vote on this because at the end of the day you know we I don't want to come back and then it's we should have gotten more Community input we should have delayed the process by a year and and then and then we go through this process and then the board votes down the the schools um I believe it's supposed to be in November uh TW on page 9 November 2024 School Board no that's still discuss it we need to vote we need to vote chair just to clarify do you mean voting on the potential list of schools that might be repurposed or closed yes and also like really just whatever the outcomes from this slide is today that should be in the item we should be voting on what the considerations are the process are we adding you know whatever we're adding put it in the item and we need to vote on it okay anybody else want to speak Miss lardy yeah just to um a few points that were just made when we talk about the facilities impact I think it is important that we so it's important to understand that you know some of our older schools have extreme historical significance um and they've also experienced recent upgrades so for instance um Stranahan High School is an old school one of the old old um but it's getting a brand new cafeteria so it's not for me it's not so black and white that like it's an old school it's facilities are old and needs to be torn down um there are some nuances there um I have you know I I guess I'm still a little bit confused about what we will be voting on but I I have to say I feel very uncomfortable voting next month on the list of schools that were Clos closing and I again I have to reiterate it is very disingenuous for us to go to the community and have these Community meetings when we're picking schools it seems like today to close um and then we're also not talking about programming the message that this is sending about Broward County Public Schools is very very problematic um and I I feel like you know I I I just feel very uncomfortable with having gone to different Community groups and and encouraging people to come to these meetings when we're making up our minds today and we're not even having conversations about how to improve um or or install new programming to our schools um so yeah I I I don't I don't believe in moving things up even more um without hearing from our community we we messed up last time with the community feedback we can't for to mess up again this time so I just want to thank you Miss lardy and I appreciate those comments but I'm not I'm what I'm saying is I want the board to vote um basically this this word this item it doesn't say what schools were closing it says potential repurposing potential grade reconfiguration that's what we're voting on and then some board members were adding things to the conversation today like the ESC consideration that's what we're voting on Mr fulan yes chair just to clarify um because of course like you said we're going to be voting on this but this has school names on there so you're saying we're going to vote on these with those schools in mind and that's going to stay that way or we're going to have change because that to miss Leonard's point it's not going to matter what we're listening to the community this week what what are we listening to um that that's really one of the concerns right and then we talk about this process was started like I said I agree with you about voting early or voting overall but that time and ship has sailed like it's gone it's been pushed back the can's been kicked already right so we can now you can't fast forward to that point because now this new process has started for us to go through this Pro like we have to go through it Community input you're doing everything all over again and then it's going to go to it so I like I of course we're looking at the new timeline whether it be November December and let's just say this if we take a vote earlier right let's say early November late October whatever the case is like I said there's going to be new people in this room would they not just be able to bring the item back and say no then or change it like this board did think about it we came up in first week was bring a decision back and change the whole dynamic of the board so again I don't want to find ourselves in that position or put them in that position this is the bed we made I think we just have have to move forward with the process and not speed it up because it will be a disservice for our community and people including staff also because it's not going to allow them to continue with the process Mrs thank you um a couple of points there so Dr wanza Dr heern again repurposing does it mean closing schools no that is correct so repurposing does mean closing schools that's what I just asked you I'm sorry you said so does repurposing mean closing school okay what I thought I heard you say repurposing does not mean I'm I'm sorry I maybe my words are get repurposing does not mean a school has to close thank you because some it's being said here that that is and um and then that we should open a charter school or a charter school should open in that particular City I think that is a very disingenuous thing for a Schoolboard member of BR County Public Schools to be saying to a community we are not looking at necessarily closing those schools repurposing is the plan and the community conversations that we're having are supposed to dictate to us whether closing make sense or what would repurposing look like so potentially we could on those five schools not talking about the the re the re the What's the title reconfiguration but the five schools under repurposing could we could walk away and none of those five schools would be closed is that correct that is correct they could be um programmatic they they could end up being great reconfigurations they could end up being a number of things other than clothes perfect thank you because the conversation is going towards everyone saying these five schools are going to be closed and I know that that's not necessarily what all of us believe in some might believe in that and think we're going to sell the property but I think I've Al been very clear that selling property that sits a school sits on would never make sense because in 10 years we could never buy it back um but anyway I just wanted to make the point clear we're not necessarily closing any of these schools we could be repurposing them so I would say when we're having again whatever comes back to us whether we're voting on it or not we finish our Community conversations next week right so we finish our community conversations on the 30th after Dr hold cuz I saw his hand go up after Dr holess speak I kind of want to um take the board to what I feel like consensus is and then we can have a conversation about that but obviously after do the holess speaks but but we don't finish our community conversations until Monday September 30th because we rescheduled the one for next right right right okay thank you so my thought process here is that after them you could if we direct the conversation differently could come back with solid recommendations then we could vote on that so I want to be respectful to Dr holness and I can tell you what I think I heard as consensus okay thank you then okay sorry I I didn't put a plugin I would just say for North Fork especially thank you to the Museum of Discovery and science for coming today um and you know I know there's a conversation that has been had for a while about that so I was happy to bring it back up again North Fork would not be closing they would be joining with a community partner to look at new programming that would be an exciting opportunity for students participating in that school that is correct there um we um obviously the Museum of Discovery and science is here they have approached the superintendent and I and a number of other individuals about truly um having wanting to partner with the district to transform um North Fork into a model school for um the work that they do and they have National models around that and that is something that we've never done before and I hope we'll be explaining that tonight at the at the meeting or mods will come and explain mods is coming awesome and the only other thing I just wanted to put out there is on page eight I think it's important that we understand these are not impacts for determining what schools get repurposed it is specifically proposed boundary considerations so the idea that I just don't want us to be mushing things together and that they're separate so it's not about these aren't the considerations for determining repurposing it is for the boundary commit to look at boundary proposals and and make sure they fall within the realm of whatever we've decided was important that is accurate thank you Dr hus thank you so I don't believe in voting early I believe in voting as early as possible and that is contingent on as I said before um completing the community process getting that information from the community and digesting that information and then the superintendent uh use all of that collaboration with the community and come up with a number of schools to repurpose so I don't want to preempt the approach and we're considering schools before we finish that Community process like I said before so I want to see that we vote as early as possible but contingent on our vote being Community Driven so let's finish the process of the community meetings uh the superintend and his team digest all of that information come back with substantive reasons that is community based why we should repurpose these schools and present schools for us to vote on that's what I'd like to see Mr F thank you very much Shar and um I'm going to need clarification I feel like now last time I checked so this board passed to re boundary five schools that's what the conversation was because it feels like we're just talking about rebounding now I'm talking about closing schools because olon was on the list to close so I could could talk about Dana Beach I could talk about that but I'm talking about Ari maybe you might want to help me NBC 6 here headline says Broward School Board approves plan to close five schools by 25 26 year that came out in June what was the motion that we were talking about about the plan and I understand there's going to be different reasons of what redefining or repurposing means the motion was to close five schools correct correct so what conversation are we having here this is a list of five schools or six schools that are on here be honest and transparent with the community five schools to close if that's going to change then be honest and tell the community that you can't expect people to come to community meetings and then we talk about oh well just we're going to get a group of people and then you could tell us if you want to cut out reboundary if you want to go to Western or you want to go to Plantation where where do you want to go what do you want to do you said you were going to close five schools this board passed that motion so superintendent can you please clarify what we're looking at here drer thank you chair uh currently we're looking at the process for brry committees right and and within that process is a proposed list of potential schools to create boundary committees around so we can start that work um I just want to be clear there are two two lanes um that we're working on right now and they're kind of parallel one has already started this summer which is about re redefining when it comes to identifying schools for repurposing consolidation all of that going out to the committee having those conversations the other parallel work is also trying to address boundaries which we're trying to do simultaneously to start that lane that that onramp so we can do this process before we start diving into March and may because again that's not fair to the community also when we make decisions around boundaries and uh the choice Windows already opened up and possibly closed that time so right now we're talking about boundaries and potential schools that may be involved in this boundary process again um as i' and Dr wanza is going to kind of U bring attention to what what she's heard as far as um consensus from the board but um a lot of this process some of this may actually changed by September 30th at the after all these Community conversations some of these schools May May shift this that's why it says potential and not actual or finite go ahead Dr won based on the conversation I've heard from the board members today thank you what I see is or what I interpret the board consensus to be and I would like to some affirmation or some redirection is that staff actually is going to finish the community conversations on October 8th we will come back to the board in a workshop laying out everything codifying language that will then come to the board on October 15th in a resolution for the board to pass or change amend but what I clearly heard today and I you know need if the board says otherwise but it sounds like the board consensus is to finish the community conversations come to the board on October 8th which is the first board Workshop have the conversation lay out what are the the clear swim lanes for the work and then we will draw up um the board resolution the language there and then bring the resolution to the board on October 15th what I will say is um we can just start to have some conversation with some of the like the area chairs I've heard yes we want diversity just to have them early to start talking about orientation what a committee process the structure but we won't actually n you know name all of the committee members until the list of schools are finalized because it would be disingenuous to do that now when schools that people think are there may not be there we've heard another school needs to be added to the list today so I think the convers ation is uh we will finish with the community on the 30th and on October 8th we will come with a workshop item that leads the board to a conversation that gets us to language for the board to vote on on October 15th that's where I believe I am and I await direction thank you can you speak specifically to the resolution what is in that resolution that you're speak it is everything that we're talking about and it's going to be everything on slide number three the specific schools the final timeline the stakeholder engagement the committee composition and the actual um elements that we will use to consider boundary proposals okay and the update again is what so um what I see is October 8th we're going to come back to a workshop and October 15th is when the board would vote on the resolution okay and I don't see that in the timeline is that because you that's because I just based on this conversation today heard the board say they rather go slow to go fast and to finish the community conversations and then we would amend the timeline Mr Fen thank you and I feel like it's a lot of deflecting but I still didn't get an answer to the question are we closing Five schools by the 25 26 school year so I go ahead the board has tasked us to identify a minimum of five schools to recommend for close or or our consolidation so we will bring that information to the board so they can exercise their vote as they wish how they want to move forward so the answer is yes yes okay thank you Dr Zan thank you so much and I appreciate the consensus I really like this when I think about the community understanding what we're doing what you've described Dr wanza is you're going to bring the whole total package including schools uh that are still eligible for reconfiguration for redefining for closing um and you're going to bring that up to the board and the board at that huge meeting is going to decide what schools to keep looking at what ideas make sense to them uh we'll by that time have ideas from municipalities and correct other organizations on what to do around that we'll have pros and cons from the community conversations and and at that point the board will own this which I think chair is really important this is not the superintendent's decision it's our decision he gets to like um assign values to things we get to assign criteria but at the end of the day five votes from this board have to decide about closing consolidating reconfiguring in any way and I think by October 15th we'll have a lot of information to to to for the board to say yes here's the list of things we may still decide at that point we still reserve the right to add to that list later on but we get to Define what we know at that point and we get hopefully to neck it down a little bit so then again the community will get round two to come back and say well I know we're on the list but you know we're mods and we want to take this over and we want to do this really cool thing those are great ideas that's the big benefit of this process is is people are coming out and they see when and what to bring to the board and so then we can make uh which I think are very important boardled discussions leading a board L vote on what we think is best for Bri Kon Mrs Hixon thank you um a couple of questions so there were eight clusters selected right and you had specific schools within each of those clusters so there were 11 we just combined a few for the sake of community meetings because it was the same group of parents and we didn't want to bring them out twice okay so 11 okay the schools were identified based on the criteria we gave you right so I would say um and there's a consensus from the board to add a school just having one person tell you to add a school doesn't necessarily mean the school should be added um also I would say again here's what I explained to people as I went to explain Community meetings we've identified schools that could potentially be closed repurposed or closing is part of repurposing so the discussion we're going to have in these Community meetings is what would would you do with these schools and if one had to close which one and what would you want to see done with that piece of land right like for example Broward States they had a great conversation yesterday about early learning so I would walk away from there with if we had to close brow to States here's what the community would like to do with it that's what I'd like to see us walking out of every conversation with so that the community says we understand we don't like it but if we had to close a school from this here's the one we would close and this is what we would want you to do with it and I think it needs to be really clear again yesterday great meeting I'm not saying it wasn't but it wasn't clear to anyone that it was really a discussion about which one of these schools should we be closing because at the end of the day there and there may not be some may not want to we have 11 clusters and knows okay but um I think it needs to be very clear we want to walk away from those meetings with one of the schools that everyone understands is a high probability of closing so that it's much more transparent then I don't think anyone walked away with the idea that that bar States might close so I would respectfully disagree but yeah I I that's not the what I got cuz they wanted the K through three so anyway I just want to walk away from that meeting okay with a really strong understanding of we as a community understand we don't maybe like it but we agree that this makes the most sense but and thank you for the guidance for tonight's conversation M Fam thank you so much Madam chair um I my mouth is open over here I'm I'm in shock I last thing I said it um the last meeting when we voted is we have to make up our minds we C we have to stop vacillating going back and forth because me I feel like we're idiots we're saying this we're saying that we went from 65 schools down to no schools then back up to 60 schools and then we're eight or 10 schools it's all over the place we have to be consistent we have to make the hard decisions we can't be driven by emotion we have to decide what is in the best interest for this County and that includes considering Financial aspects what and what what and how much we can afford so with that being said I'm not going to sugarcoat things and I want to thank you for the people that told me of of my reputation now fam I don't give a damn you're going to get transparency thank you I like that nickname we're down more than 50,000 students the last time we calculated and that's this the data that's been provided okay after this meeting of September 10th I've had Parents contact me whether they can pull their students and go into Dade County or Palm Beach County because they feel abused and they don't want to stay here anymore they've been driven out so I wouldn't exactly say we're attracting people they're running they're running from us the plan now as presented or the plan was just in June that we were going to select schools and we were going to closing schools one cuz we were under enrolled and two because we don't have the financial capacity to sustain them there's a double consideration here now we're saying today that we're not going to close these schools that we're looking at we're all talking about repurposing and we're sugar cating it whether that's not repurposing is not the same as closing schools you pointed it out so what it comes down to is you're giving people hope that these schools are going to be sustainable and not only are they going to be sustained but there's either going to be um improvements to them or um other alterations that brings them back to life and hopes and hope that we're going to increase enrollment but let's look at the reality of the situation right now there was teacher or there was staff members or employees that we couldn't even give a raise to this year we could we didn't have the money to do it still the teachers are not happy with the ways they received and other employees we didn't have the money to do it I I think if we did we would have made people happy we would gladly given them a greater compensation because we can see how the High Cost of Living and the um economy right now is going so my question is if we can't afford to um accommodate our staff with wage of uh cost of living increases and how are we going to afford to bring competitive uh how are we going to afford to repurpose 10 schools with improvements and make them better or alter them when the district is facing an unenrollment crisis and I'm going to say it out there I think it's a financial crisis that we don't have this extra money to toss out where is this going to all come from so I'm asking for clarification here can we do this whole thing safely without sinking this District are we putting oursel in Financial Peril by making a commitment we're going to take these schools when we're under enrolled and we're going to make improvements make it better and we're going to hope people come back and we're going to be able to satisfy all the wage requirements of uh the teachers and the other staff because we have we have a a mass SE in this every time I look it's more than 50 people every month more than 50 people so and if they are going to be closed where where are we going where is this the list that's are the potential SCH schools to be closed or is this just a list of potential schools that may be re revitalized and brought back to life so I I just want clarification are we closing are we not closing and who's involved in this because now we're talking Mr Z wanted to get this done in November I just got the whole thing spun uh like I said a whirlwind and we need clarification for this community once and for all no going back and forth anymore the the buck stops here today what are we doing do we need to close schools Dr heurn that's my first question drer all right um I heard about like 10 questions Miss Fam I'm going try to answer all of them um with one statement uh first of all just want to be clear again that there's two streams of work we're talking about number one uh that involves going out to community getting feedback um um uh consolidating all that feedback to make some good recommendations to the board about the minimum of five schools for closing or consolidation the other stream of work is about boundary committees because we have to start that work um now so we don't find ourselves in the predicament of trying to start that work in January which just throws the whole uh redefining um um in the in the tail spin so here I can tell you miss fam we will bring back um uh the specific date Miss uh Dr wza just mentioned I forgot October 15th October 17th so we're going to start October 8th Workshop October 15th board meeting yep so the October 15th board meeting you will have information um that we've gathered from Community engagement meetings um and also conversations with our municipalities about the support they want to leverage in certain schools and conversations we've had with nonprofit Partners or for-profit Partners they want to leverage in schools so that you and all the additional metrics for each school that we're going to give you all of that information so that the board is well informed so they can make the best decision possible about what schools they're going to decide to close or consolidate along with additional information about some programmatic enhancement for schools that we're not even talking about closing or consolidating so that you'll be able to make a vote um uh as Mr um uh Dr holess mentioned uh you know making a vote um quick or or or in a timely manner you'll be able to do that in October oober 17th if you so wish so followup clarification chair thank you oh so are the five schools that you're looking at to close on that list or there other schools that are not included on that list that may be closed I I need to know and narrow it in what are we looking at these five are in Peril or out of the 10 you're going to pick five possibly but are you saying this is the only list that's out there or there's other schools out there that we don't know about that are in consideration so we have seven more Community meetings so be the feedback we receive from the community and the input will change list over that span of time so we will consolidate that information so we can give you the best information possible so this is just a proposal this is not the fin uh final list and there are other schools out there that may be added to this list correct that's why it says potential and not actual and so the total amount you're looking for when other schools are added is what what are we looking at for total closures we're going to suggest a we're going to suggest a minimum of five a minimum so the maximum of I don't know what that maximum is going to be yet miss fam that I I'll know more after all of the community conversations thank you for clarifying that for uh the community y thank you all right we're good everyone good rer no that that we're done yeah we're done Dr he staff has their takeaways we'll see you October 8th and and October 15th and all right get to the eight first the next item is standards of boardsmy for members of the school board we'll give staff a minute to get to the table and then do we have any public comment on this item do we have any public [Music] comment no Ruth DJ Ruth on the standards of boardmy for for members of the school board thank you right now no speak sorry go ahead m m great are we Mo have we move forward to the next agenda item everyone in the room we're in public speakers okay does it just seem like a lot of people left the room go ahead M okay okay I'm looking at the Articles here that you have listed in the resolution for boardmy and I'd like to point out a couple of them especially number six it says I will uphold Schoolboard policy 1010 by modeling the eight character traits of Brower County Schools kindness respect self-control and tolerance got did that happen last week number seven in the articles I will exhibit contact conduct that encourages safe Equitable and harassment free working and learning environments by condemning all acts of bullying harassment or discriminated as outlined in Broward policy 5900 anti-bullying did that happened in this boardroom last week with parents you wonder why par parents aren't involved in the district well it doesn't help when parents of differing opinions and religious beliefs right here from the dis are called hateful amb bigotes or comments called hateful igot it would you have said the same things if a student expressed the same feelings of what US parents said or is it just selective bullying in this boardroom what kind of example are you setting for students by calling people whose opinions differ from yours hateful amb bigoted are we teaching children that when you disagree you just call them hateful bigots or their comets bigotry do you just tell students that they're not allowed to have their own religious beliefs we have a right to our religious beliefs and our first amendment rights it's all part of our first amendment rights we have a right to that we have a right to celebrate our religious beliefs and our morals you don't have to agree but you don't have a right to bully parents of students remember you work for us our taxpayers pay you how would you feel if you're um hold on how would you feel if the superintendent who works for you called you hateful and bigot bigot it in a very public matter on this bi would you be not submitting complaints about bullying or about being told your religious beliefs are wrong would you not be filing those complaints because I'm telling you now the parents last week that had to go through that are subing complaints you bullied parents of your students you did not represent all you you represented your biased not that not every student in the classroom not every parent who stood in front of you thank you so much any other speakers now turn over staff for presentation thank you I'm sorry chair before we get into the item I yeah do know that there were a number of bus operators here earlier today yeah I spoke to them so can somebody speak to them I know that they wanted to share something to them but is there anything that you would want to share when we get to the impass okay thank you thank you madam chair in in the caution of time I know that we're behind I'll keep my comments very short but before we begin a board member left their comments by me on this item does this look familiar to any of the board members no okay okay um so we're here today basically um because the board presented or sorry approved the revisions to policy 1110 on May 29th at the school board meeting for a resolution to be signed by each board member at an organizational meeting each year in November but this is the first time that the board has to now draft whatever that resolution is that would then of course Carry On from year to year um so today is an opportunity for the board to then come up with topics or themes for each of the articles for the resolution and on slide number five well the slide's not up but on slide number five are the themes for each board member but oh sorry and I'm not sure what I did there so I'll just put that down I asked the board members basically to look at it number H um sorry slide number five and look at the themes of the particular articles and not to focus so much on the wording we can word Smith the words I know there you know maybe a a typo it was strive instead of uh stride on one of the particular articles but to look at the themes and come up with um basically the things that they would like and we will wormit they run it through our legal department to make sure that it is um legally sound and bring it back to the board for board consideration at our organizational meeting I believe it's in no um in November November 6 19th or 17th I can say though that whatever is presented to the board today is a little softened other or um governing bodies that is on slide three they have similar work uh resolutions as well as policies and standards they are a little stricter so we kind of try to to soften it a little bit for the board as this is their time first time coming up with with the resolution but of course you can change it as as well um so with that Madam chair I now turn it back over to the board so that we can receive the feedback on the particular articles um for the resolution Miss lardy yeah um thank you for for bringing this to us I just had two quick well one comment and one question um there are numerous grammatical and spelling errors throughout the resolution so I I just hope that those are fixed before they come to us um so there's that uh what mechanism do we have to enforce this or or I guess what do other government agencies or entities do to enforce their standards for boardsmy Dr colon Mr Hill Mr resy thank you so other governing B um some governing bodies have the the right I'm sorry the authority to find themselves as well as to remove themselves from from the board I don't know if this particular board has those particular authorities but other than the censorship then they have other options they can make you CH take a training I believe that that was done where basically the board censored some behaviors and came back with you know some board members had to take some trainings uh maybe some fin so those are different things that we can look into for um reinforcement okay yeah I mean I'd be interested to hear what my colleagues have to say or if they have any ideas about enforcement or Consequences for violating these standards um because you know I think it's a great gesture but there's a lot of things that or a lot of policies that we have for ourselves that we don't necessarily follow so I just want to make sure that there's teeth in this um yeah those are my comments thank you m Mrs Hixon thank you I I had similar questions on the last article it says school board members who repeatedly fail or or adhere to these fail to adhere to these standards of boardmy may be formally censured by the remaining members of the school board so I think it would be important to understand what censured means for the public and what that would look like for example I'll bring up um something that was brought up before it article number seven right where it's talking about harassment free and bullying bullying has a specific definition and by just mentioning something in a school board meeting isn't really bullying so but that may look like bullying or feel like bullying to somebody so how do we even there needs to be maybe definitions in here I mean I know we have a policy but I may think that someone bullied me and someone else may not feel that way so how do we who determines that they're repeatedly failing to adhere to the rules and then what would censorship look like Miss Batista well so let me start with the easier uh question an answer uh and that would be what those uh censorship would look like um what I have seen in other districts um in other governmental entities is that they prepare uh something like a resolution type document that is then voted upon by the entire board and so it would be like a public reprimand of that particular board member um that's what I what I have seen before um related to that um what were your other I just in I just the idea at the bottom not the I like the idea of this I just again cuz we had a discussion about sensorship earlier and kind of the answer was it really doesn't mean anything so if it doesn't really mean anything what's the point of going through the steps of it I I guess is my thought and board members who repeatedly fail to adhere repeatedly how many times who gets to decide that they're not adhering I'll give a different example besides the bullying um because I know this happens often I will demonstrate respect for the managing process and administrative procedure set forth by the lawful authority of the superintendent and accept the superintendent's expertise to supervise District staff well we've seen it in board meetings where the superintendent brings forth a list of either reprimands or Consequences or new hires and people vote no against it would that be going against item number eight so there's it's just that it it looks really good but when we're looking at how do we implement this I don't want to have a policy or have something that again just checks the box and it doesn't have Fidelity to it nothing against what you're I just have sat here for four years and I know that I don't know how we would actually implement the the part at the bot so um I think it's great that we want to have a boardmy a resolution that says we're going to follow this and be good board members but I don't know about the the censor the last part of it um I just don't know how that would work so I'd like to see what my colleagues think okay anyone else would like to speak Miss fam ma'am all right thank you okay I have a few things here I'd like to say thank you board members accuse parents of bigotry this is from an article in the newspaper I'm quoting from this article during the discussion multiple board members accused parents of making bigoted remarks about the resolution board member Leonardi said some of the ments were disturbing and bigoted board member Hixon said it was unfortunate that adults exhibit hate and bigotry and disrespect to students and staff in our school district Miss fam how does this have to do with the item because it talks about censorship it talks about the rules of what letter are you on because I think it's disrespectful right now that you're calling out your colleagues I'm not calling out I'm reading an you are you just said their names and that needs to stop I'm just quoting Mrs fam we are talking about a resol olution you need to speak I'm on the same I I don't have any other names I quot it from that article this one does not name anything this is from a parent I watched the end of the Miami day public school board meeting last night and I want my time back too and I was so impressed with the professionalism of the board members the board chair the board chair pictured below allowed every single public speaker to speak went on for hours out of respect to the public and give them and gave them the opportunity be heard she also printed out close to a thousand emails and received that she received about the topic and brought them to the meeting to the public and she read them and none of the board members called Speakers by names or that had any different viewpoints like board members here in Broward County even their student advisor gave a very professional and eloquent speech that showed appreciation to all the speakers I am very disappointed that the two School members here in Broward County called parents names from the Das simply for expressing different viewpoints this is unacceptable and bullying Behavior why did the board chair allow that why are elected officials on Broward County School Board calling parents' names this is unprofessional and not right these are just some of the opinions that others have of us okay moving on from there one of the things the board member down and dat did was she had a special meeting everyone had three minutes to speak and they went on until everyone voiced their opinion and everyone seemed very pleased with the way that meeting was conducted hold on article six you're asking board members to uphold these standards those standards at alkaline include respect civility self-control um a tolerance a way for a meaning to be conducted in a safe Equitable environment with others yet the yet in the last seven days board members including and I'm not going to mention any names were allowed to call speakers of religious Faith supporting biology and science bigots and it certain because they view that we're two that there's two sexist male and female hate speech these labels and derogatory comments directed solely at the people are protected religious beliefs and it was discriminatory harassing bullying and tending to humiliate and intimidate speakers and violation of our school board policy 519 the chair was sitting there quietly and did not stop or condemn the behavior the biases of this board are self-evident and that the board members discriminated against en lodged personal attacks against parents and residents with protected religious beliefs this is not civility that we're asking for that's what you're asking for in this resolution civility we can't even demonstrate it when we can do it on our own these speakers did not feel welcome they felt targeted and board members St stoop to a new low of engaging in mean calling and mislabeling these people and we're part of a mudslinging mob the content of speech is protected if you don't agree with speech it doesn't mean that it's bigoted it doesn't mean that it's hate speech and the board cannot discriminate on bias of what they prefer and what they don't prefer it appears that bias is here that difference it the difference is conservative people experience bias while liberal beliefs do not and we cannot have that in our district it's not acceptable at this point in time I wanted to bring a news to may I continue you allowed others to continue you have one minute thank you I want to bring an incident in where I was censored that's because censor a part of this where I had gone to a book Review Committee where they had reviewed books to see whether or not they were appropriate in the schools the finding of the book Review Committee was they the book that was reviewed was not acceptable was not uh oh I'm sorry the the finding the committee was that the book was educational and was allowable within 24 hours we had a school board meeting and I brought that book over and I attempted it to read it into the record so parents would know what exactly is considered acceptable my microphone was turned off I was threatened to stop and the chair at that time was saying this is inappropriate inappropriate so how does a book 2 hours earlier be deemed appropriate for Schools elementary middle high school whatever school was in but not appropriate for adults in the room at a board meeting that doesn't make sense however again I was censored and every time I try to bring this to the attention of the public I am censor I get interrupted and I my speech is cut off mam shair Miss Batista I just want to um um make sure that there is a difference and um between sens censorship and censure um as it's expressed in this resolution so censorship would be um along the L lines of what mrsam is speaking about which uh um is meant to be prohibition of something or you know something is obscene or unacceptable uh censure as it's um looked at in this resolution would be to denounce or condemn Behavior so they're two different things I just want to make sure that we're talking about the the right one thank you Dr Sean thanks just a point of order chair how many votes does it take to censor a member of Brower County School Board five M to censor um with a u censure oh censure okay so um it would be thank you very much to this uh particular item then uh chair um we have to be really really um I would like us to consider um making sure in the future that items that are brought to the school board are error free and typo free uh this is read by the community it's read by us there are missing words in this resolution and um we've asked about this for I know my two years on the board board uh but there doesn't seem to be any reaction on behalf of the superintendent and staff I would like that to start now uh if we have an item if it's a summary if it's worth nine people and hundreds and hundreds of people in the community and 25,000 employees to read it it deserves to be legible uh I don't want to lose students because we can't present ourselves in a professional way two um to the main point and I've heard this from my colleagues um I would love for us to consider uh chair Maybe if this is the will of of the group um you know to reach uh consensus on this that um 14 Roman numeral XIV which I think is 14 if I can remember my Roman numerals um uh says Schoolboard members who repeatedly fail and it just repeats the factual statement that any legislative body in Florida can censor a member um who through egregious behavior is doing something that that warrants that kind of behavior I also think that for barard County Schools we should add a few words there that say and may be counseled by our school board chair and my point in doing that is if in fact um there are people who serve on this board who get close to these or trip over the line a few times I believe that we should Empower our chair to have that conversation and they might want to do it with the general counsel there to make sure they're not talking about anything that we might vote on but it is important for the role of the chair to make sure in my mind um that people are made aware uh when it's apparent that they've either cross the line or or or come close on multiple occasions there is of course real teeth to this because anybody who serves on this board that doesn't act in this way is going to have a difficult time getting reelected you know Broward County expects us to act in a civilized kind generous you know warm collegial way I mean these are kids we lead an army of 82,000 people in the pursuit of our goals uh the leaders of that group cannot be acting in a way that is disrespectful or unprofessional and one one way of having teeth in this is you're not going to get reelected the other is we have uh some members of the media still here uh but they make great um stories about anyone who engages in behavior and they can point to a resolution that you sign and said you won't do X and then you turn around and do X that's hypocritical it'll be in the newspaper it'll be online it'll be posted everywhere so I believe there are some in it I just wonder if the board would like to also add this little parenthetical that says and may be counseled uh by uh the school board chair just as a way to remind that I think that the role of the chair may include in the future an ability to just have um a little mentoring for a newer member or you know just some five minute conversation someday uh in a in a in a in a professional and formal setting uh just to remind any member that gets closer trips over these lines to Main times that we do have standards and it's really important in the pursuit of art uh goals that that we adhere to these things thank you m rert thank you um has any of the fsba uh verbiage for requirements and certified training has that been Incorporated in any of these Dr fion Mr Hill I'm so sorry I was paying attention to the clock and make sure it was right for you so I'm sorry can you repeat the question for me I'm sorry no problem H um I asked if there was anything from fsba that part of their requirements to meet a certified board member status or a the board itself can take a boardmy and get the entire board trained together working together um has that been incorporated into any of these uh ethics codes or requirements for uh Schoolboard members etc etc I didn't put it inside of the resolution because we put it inside of a policy a previous policy that the board just passed on professional development for school board members so that's however I embedded that but if we want to include that you will basically follow that policy as well which I think it may be in here I can add that as if you want to make that one of the articles that would be that would be one suggestion of mine and and also I'm just going to say this and it's probably going to upset people because I'm originally from New York big surprise this is how it goes we have to live and work together in this room in this building and in this community can't like everybody but we can at least have a level of I think kindness might be too much reaching for some people a little bit so instead of saying kindness mayble just say um impartial snarky ship okay something like that that that's what you know you could use the word an another way but what I'm saying is this is an awful long job we have incredible amounts of responsibility for us to handle and these are the children of tomorrow they're going to be running the world and if we don't get our job done and we can't get along together this way there's no way that Broward county is going to maintain it a we got it we got the a back with some little bumps and other things in the road and several superintendence and Grand reports let's try to go and get an A+ and keep it for 12 years by learning to get along a little bit better and I'm not saying I'm going to change my views about people and they're going to change their views about me but let's just please not have to be crazy when we're around here you know when I go to fsba and go to different meetings people are like how do you get things done down there I said well because you don't see the stuff that actually goes on in here yes there's some of this but there's also working together so uh I'm just saying that it would mean a lot to me if we could all just be a little bit more kindly thank you um so I don't know if it's in here already and I and it I guess kind of sad that I have to even ask for this to be in there but there should be something to speak to school board members being an advocate for Broward County Public Schools oh it's on the first line first line yes ma'am that's what I read in the first line anyway chair yes that it's about all children but it maybe and it says entire District but maybe it's not clear enough no I'm I'm speaking to like schol public Brower County Public Schools like promoting Public Schools like not promoting like hey this is where you can go get the voucher and leave Brower County Public Schools or um you know constantly promoting Charter Schools I know they're Public Schools too but I'm talking about our traditional Brower County Public Schools so in in some way the wording I think needs to be in there do you see it Deputy superintendent thank you Mr Hill thank you I'm not sure if Article 2 is what you're referring to um basically that you won't do anything as Schoolboard members that will be detrimental to the to the district as far as budget enrollments you know those type of things no now so you're saying that basically to be the advocate and to uh promote bar count of public schools that Bo school board members will POS positively promote advocate for Brower County Public Schools okay we can add that Madam point of order what's your point for Mr uh Miss Batista Miss Batista would that not be discriminating if we did not promote all Broward County Public Schools Charter and as you want to say the normal Miss Batista that would not be discrimination so we can not we can be um required not to promote Charter Schools not allowed to do that that would be seen as inappropriate well there's a difference between um promoting or advocating um from what the chair is stating can you define advocating then what you mean by advocating um yeah uh for sure I mean I think it's in your actions right I mean like if you're um you know if you have your your Facebook page and let's say that hypothetically this would be going against what I'm trying to say is my the first pin post is to say where you can go get your voucher for to go out of brow County Public Schools to a private school or another school another example would be you know wearing the Broward County Public Schools pin that's your you know you're Pro promoting Broward schools with pride these are some of the examples I don't have any questions when I promote I promote public schools with all the other schools I'm Pro parent Pro school choice for anybody who's bullying and they need to get to wherever safe places okay Miss rert are you done M rbert uh yeah for the moment okay uh Dr holess um madam CH thank you for your input um I had a a similar question but probably worded differently um as we create a resolution establishing standards for boardmy I just want um legal to tell us uh definitively that we can include um the advocating if that's the word of traditional Public Schools specifically would that is there any any legal concern with doing that and so I can know whether or not I can vote on this item in the future when it's revised fully Miss Batista so the answer is is no there isn't any prohibition of saying that school board members um who are elected to the school board of Brower County are going to promote or advocate for the school board of Brower County I don't see any any conflict well specifically traditional Public Schools right I think that's what it's saying right I mean nobody's saying that you're going to go out and and you know bat mouth another school or or put down the you know private schools or Charter Schools or anything of that nature there is just the um positive Act of promoting and advocating for the school board of Brower County I understand and the reason I have that concern because uh prior to this there were some concerns as to how you define public schools and then then Charter Schools this was when we were uh deciding on the the distribution of funds and then uh it was later uh shown that Charter Schools is considered public schools so I just want to make sure that when we put this language in that we're pretty clear on what Broward County school is is it just traditional schools is it charter schools and can we just extract traditional public schools and not include Charter without any legal concerns so there there isn't any uh prohibition from what I where I'm you know thinking or or standing as far as and you're correct I mean the clearly charter schools are also uh Public Schools corre they're a type of Public Schools they're not district schools so um what um Mrs alev is advocating is that um there would be some um sentence or you know a line here where um you know the the school board members are promising to promote advocate for not just public schools in general but Brower County Public Schools okay and not Miami day Public Schools or Palm Beach Public Schools just County public what I heard her said is traditional public schools which is the qualifying word traditional which would exclude Charter correct so I don't have a problem with what board member alhf is saying I just want to make sure it's legally correct so if I vote I am not violating anything right so when um when it's finally drafted and and my office reviews the language line by line we'll make sure that it doesn't have any information there that would potentially be um legally uh problem okay but but if it's just a sentence as you know as Mrs Al has described I don't see any problem in advocating for the school board of BR County Miss Le nardy yes thank you um I just wanted to get some clarification again and I think Miss Batista you read my mind um what is the difference between censor and censure as as it's in the resolution Miss Batista right so the the word um in article 14 is censure which is to denounce or to condemn a particular behavior and to censor is to prohibit um something from being from being spoken or a book or you know something that has material that is offensive or problematic got it thank you um I think article I just wanted to emphasize um article six uh when we're talking about the district's character treat and the importance of honesty I was really glad to see that um I agree with the chair's proposal to add something I think maybe the language could be around um you know school board members will uh or it's you know have a responsibility to promote and support Broward County Public Schools um and and uh not work against them or something you know there's more eloquent language to use but that that's my opinion um I also think it might be important to add an article around um a responsibility to honesty and sharing accurate and truthful information so I know we have something about the district's character traits but I do think sometimes we have issues with um you know sharing incorrect information so I I would like to see as one more member something in there about an obligation to share accurate and truthful information with the public and and also during school board meetings thank you factually based yes Mrs zon thank you um I agree and would like to see both of those things in there one about advocating for Broward County district schools we are elected to be Broward County public school board members um Everyone's entitled to their personal opinion but when you're an elected official it's very hard to cross those lines so I'm going to go back though to article number 14 about um repeatedly failing to adhere because if we make this and pass it we're already going to have a school board member that will not be that will be breaking one of those things that we have on there because they do have um pinned on their Facebook how to get vouchers which takes money away from our district as we continue to discuss that so how do we is there a way to put in here instead of repeatedly failing like to put an actual number or to have some kind of more definite thing that happens because I know Dr Zeman has said this has teeth but it doesn't really have teeth if we're not saying you know what that expectation is you know three times and you're out two times and you're out does the chair address first and say you know you you keep repeating this and if you do if it continues then I'm going to bring it to the board for a resolution on censoring I really think we need to have a stronger discussion and I'm a little concerned that two board members that will have to sign this aren't here to have a discussion on it and give their input um so anyway I'm I'm still a little frustrated about how we would implement this because we can say a lot of things um and want things to happen but we don't all align in what we are in our interpretation of what it means to be a Broward County School Board member I'm maybe we just he Madam chair yes Mr Alon thank you uh good afternoon I was only suggesting that I am on I heard the comment from the vice chair I've actually been more intrigued by listening to the comments of the board so when this does come back that we can app but I am on thank you so much Madam chair thank you Mr zon do you want to clarify your comment yeah I was talking about um the two newly elected school board members that will have to actually sign this because I think it will come back to us in November if I'm not mistaken at the organizational meeting if that is that the intent thank you so um maybe we remove that word repeatedly because it can be one action that that would cause this to then now take place and um it would be up to the person who's bringing this forward Dr Zeman I just want to uh support uh your idea chair about about this if it said I will advocate for successful public education in BR County I will make decisions based on facts and evidence which promote the best interest of the entire School District I will refrain from and then continue with the rest of that I think it gets closer to uh where you might go and if they consider that language um maybe we can make final uh uh edits when it goes along I do want to point out uh that we are very limited to what we can do in terms of punishment to each other there are state laws we are a legislative body we're elected by or appointed uh to this and members of this board cannot be voted off uh they can't be um disciplined in any other way other than censor so the only the only limit we have and by the way this is a resolution this is is just saying hey this is what we resolved to do and we sign it um but I would love that we it would have more teeth but we're Limited in terms of what we can do uh we can counsel by the chair and we can censor and other than that there's nothing written in state law that um we can uh do to change the makeup of this body okay hold on Miss batisa can you speak about a referral to the state ethics commission right so complaint right you you know anyone can file a complaint um related to um violation of Ethics or whatnot but I think what Dr ziman is speaking about which is correct is that you know there is there is really uh very little that board members can do um as a body against each other um you know the the the board members can only be removed by the governor um the you know you can't remove board members you know the body itself cannot remove board members and so um I think that's probably one of the reasons that um some districts have you know the language around the censuring because that comes you know close to um a public reprimand type of um thing that would that would affect uh the rights or you know of the of the other board members there is though the cont positive of all this right if you don't exhibit these things good luck having your colleagues listen to you or you know uh really give you much influence in something that you'd like to get done which requires more than just your action so there is an incentive for people to behave well and to be civil and to be professional U there's just nothing in state law that allows us to do anything other than say boy I wish the voters will do something different next time um and uh uh so I I love this resolution I just think it's important for us to sign something that says we all agree to these standards um um and and are willing to uh hold on to them and I love the amendment that the chair uh was suggesting and I gave a quick paragraph about it but we if we saw a version something like that I think it'd get closer to where we want to go um maam yes thank you I'd like to uh request that also an addition an amendment be made and that would be based on uh our policy rule one5 School Board responsibilities and Authority um number four recognizing that each School Board member has a responsibility to their constituents in the member of the elected area so I'd like that to be included in this resolution it just says number four doesn't say article four so I'd like to make a motion on that we're not next time thank you madam chair so I do appreciate this resolution and I I am certainly in agreement with having some measure to which we we um adhere to um behavior that is conducive to a functional meeting um what I would say though is that I heard Dr Zan talk about um having teeth um I I I guess my question is how sharp is the bite right because I I don't want this to create more dysfunctionality where um every time we think there is uh an nonadherence to one of the items in the resolution that we are correcting that board member and then we become more dysfunctional instead of functional I think this should not be an I got you moment or that kind of a thing and I hope we can function in that way where we're looking at it more as a guide to help uh challenge us to a much better and functional meeting as opposed to um trying to get each other on every little thing so I am hoping that it will work and I'm supporting it but I I'm also hoping it doesn't create more dysfunction instead of Greater function thank you so I think maybe with Dr Zeman's suggestion on nine is to add that the board chair speaks to the board member on the action or whatever it is yeah that article 14 just to just to be clear where we talk about censor that we also you know first step you could be counseled by the board chair and censored which is our statutory right anyway so I I may Batista I I just really have an issue with um you know the chair being placed in a position where potentially she could be um violating the Sunshine by counseling another board member especially if at some point then there will be a censure item brought to the board for vote um so I and and then when does that you know when is the share triggered um what what triggers the share to then um you know take that action you know what kind of like what Mrs six was saying you know what Rises to the level of a discussion okay the six thank you um I would not be in favor of adding that um in article four about your District because really once you're elected you're representing the whole you're representing all students employees in the community so I don't I would not agree with adding that um and I just want to ask so if something were to happen and and I do agree with just taking instead of repeatedly just saying fail to to ADH here so in here should we also in number 14 say like how would this come about does somebody let's say I see something on Facebook and and I want to bring it to the board do I bring it as a BB item do I let the superintendent know that I'd like it in a workshop what how do we move forward and having a discussion on the the behavior and what we as a board would want to do with it I think it would be important to know how that moves forward in here because all this is just saying is formally censured but what what does that look like Miss Pista I'm not sure what that would look like BB item um I mean it could be it could be a BB item um um yes it could be you know a phone call to the superintendent to ask um that person you know to to raise awareness about the policy um or reminder about the policy um the other thing I you know that that needs to be mentioned is that there are also First Amendment rights that board members have um so there is a difference between what you have in your Facebook page as a personal your personal Facebook page versus let's say if it's a Facebook page is associated with you as a board member I think those are two separate things um and um you know maybe there needs to be some um delineation about uh either here in this resolution or somewhere else to say that you know there is only one uh person that can speak for the board and that is the chair uh or when a board member is repeating um facts of things that have been approved by the entire board and that otherwise any other statements made by board members are uh you know personally natured they're just their own personal opinions they're not they do not reflect what the board as a whole stands for I I would just say in the ethics um classes that we take it does tell you that you should not H you should have two separate yeah um social media right one personal or you could put on the top you know this these are my personal opinions they're not but I don't believe that everyone on our board follows those recommendations through the ethics course that we signed that we watched and participated in so you know I don't maybe maybe that's something in here about that we've you know are going to follow the recommendations of the ethics group but it if you don't have two separate ones it's very hard to determine what's personal and what's what's official right so we can't make people make two separate ones but I don't want to just focus on that I mean there's other times when again I'll go back to the one about not not giving the superintendent his um like following his his expertise and stuff so I'll I'll go back to that one which is nine so you know there's just a lot of pieces in here that are already happening so how I just see us doing this resolution and immediately having an issue so I just would rather have a a discussion about it now and know what it looks like or tweak this you know I hope people would read it and and we'll all agree that we will do better as we move forward it's not just one person there's all of us have done something in here that we could be called out on so so uh you know it's not to call one particular person out but if we're doing a resolution and we're taking the time it should be with Fidelity and that's really what my concern is here that we have this but you know as Dr holus said at the end of the day if it if it doesn't have a bite it's just poking the bear and it'll just make us more dysfunctional and I don't think that was the purpose of what this resolution was so I just just think it needs to be clear if something were to if we didn't follow a rule on here that we all agreed to what would we do moving forward that makes sense for everybody and I don't know if that's even possible M hoert I was going to actually say something on the line of Miss Hixon I don't really think we're at the right moment right now to agree to any of this and um quite personally I'll go through another grand jury report I'm sure I'll be fine uh but it's not pretty and I don't really think we need to be um you know poking the bear at this time let's just get through November and get our new board members started and make sure everybody's trained correctly from the very beginning which is a large part of that foundation and um that's where you can get your information from as well and silly plug third Thursday I'm on the panel for fsba and I think it's that Sheridan and you guys are coming and I think M Hixon is also part of it um it's to getting together with the southern um part of the group and um that's where we get to ask the questions Debbie and I will be very careful because we will not be talking on the same thing um and but it's part to make those friendships and to see what their districts have some have some very interesting procedures of place to um to kind of handle things and I know as the board of directors we've censored somebody before a board member from another District in the State of Florida so it kind happened and it does happen and what wound up that being was um they took some of her committees away Miss leard um I just I forgot to to comment on um the recommendation to be for the board member to be canceled by the chair um I I have the same concerns about the sunshine potential Sunshine violations but also um you know in a universe not this one but in a universe many many years from now um when none of us are on this board uh it you know there is a possibility that the chair is the one to to violate this resolution um so you know I I just that's one of my concerns um with with that recommendation um I to miss hixon's question about how this would play out um I would just imagine that one of us would bring a BB item if we felt necessary to to S censure someone um and I do share Dr hess's concerns about I really don't want this to be a situation in which like we are bringing a censuring item like every meeting and we're always in the news for for you know focusing on adult problems like this um so you know I I think it's important that we have standards that we hold ourselves to um and I you know I I agree with everything in this resolution um and I agree that there needs to be like some accountability and and procedure for consequences um but I do hope that we don't weaponize this or or you know future boards don't weaponize this to to cause more distraction from the reason we're really here like the standards that we're trying to hold ourselves to is so that we can you know help this District be functional and provide the best quality education for our students all right any other comments see none we're now going to recess for a closed door right Miss Batista closed door yeah staff we're doing closed door now yes yes yes okay closed door thank you that e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e want get e e okay welcome back we are now in policy 4380 rural development behavioral threat managements can staff give a one minute presentation then we'll go to questions Mr Lozano was next L one minute presentation so again for policy 4380 um the major revisions we wanted to look at for the Medium Level Threats that that did not involve a weapon to take out the daily person's possession check now that we have the added layer of metal detection in our schools um that's not necessarily necessary for those students and the impact of um having staff committed to the number of daily person possession checks is putting a strain so we saw that as an unnecessary step for the medium level so again a school-based team and a district team can always decide to do a person possession check even for a low-level threat we just wanted to take it out as a mandatory requirement and then we had to add the requirements for how we train students and staff at the beginning of the school year so we added that language into the last section of the policy okay thank you we also added for medium and high level of concern um the social worker or referral to social worker to um assist family and meet the needs of families as well as students perfect board member comments excellent Miss rert love it the last thing one more time supporting families and students across the districts for these struggling students yes so it's mandatory for medium and High Level Threats that a social worker referral is made so the family gets support I love that thank you so much and can you just give an example of a medium level threat so an example where we're saying a daily person possession check um might not be necessary as two students maybe get into a physical altercation and when the administrator is meeting with the student a few hours later the student may still be upset and saying I still want to hit them right there's never a mention of a weapon never a mention of um going to get a weapon so in those situations right now we're requiring a daily person possession check for that particular event and that's putting you know that mandatory restriction on that student for 180 days of a daily person possession check but again with the school base team and the district team if one is needed there will be one absolutely put in place we're just not requiring them now for every medium level threat that doesn't involve a weapon right and C1 does say if it does involve a weapon there will be a check absolutely perfect any other questions all right we have public comment I have Anna Garcia Anna yoland Yolanda Stevens just give him a second Yolanda or Anna okay I don't think they're here all right um Dr heram staff has what they need yes Mr laso can you confirm you have everything that you need yes we do thank you okay perfect the last item is our rule development operations and F facilities I'll now turn over to staff for a one minute presentation Miss fam a comment on 4380 the behavioral threat assessment isn't that what we were just doing yeah we just finished that I know I had my hand up you didn't see it oh go ahead okay thank you madam chair um I'm reviewing the package one thing I I I find a little disturbing is that um um the lack of Parental notification on the one uh level one it doesn't even say when you notify it doesn't even say the same day on the level two when you saw it it's it's the same day and then it goes up from there but my suggestion is um these are all minors if they were arrested by the police the police would have to try to contact their parents right away so as my suggestion that we also do the same we try to contact the parent within the first hour on all three levels these are minors the parent has the right to be there they have the right to get them an attorney the minute they find out whatever is going on and what we do is we actually set up um a line where it automatically redials and they has a phone number on there for when that parent picks up and gets that message and gets back to us so therefore we can show that not only did we try but we made ongoing effort to get them and we're not tying up resources or staff in getting a response so it'll be incumbent upon them to call back to us and that way we can track all that information and we'll have that documented but I I do not um I don't think it's right that we isolate a child a minor child from their parent we don't um we don't know what's going on what's occurring and also I would suggest that we actually videotape all our interviews so we can show that there was no intimidation um there there was no um tone or manner or bias towards the students that we have it all documented that we did it right we should have nothing to fear to videotape because we're going to do it the right way so those are my suggestions to to improve the situation and that way there's no questions asked the video speaks for itself thank you Dr Mr loano so there are clear guidelines in the behavioral threat manual that outline all the specific times we have to call parents especially for the parent of the target when it's the parent of the student who made the threat due to Safety in security by Statute we do not have to include the parent immediately when we're assessed a safety issue regarding a student in terms of threat management may I respond yeah I agree that we should be contacting the victim of course immediately but um just because the state the statute doesn't require us to notify the parent immediately I think we should do the right thing and we should get them on notice there's a problem with your child this is what's going on they can either appear by phone or they can come down and sit there with their child but if that child has a nervous breakdown or something happens because the pressure was just tweaked way too high for them and they have an incident then we're going to be on the hook and that's the other reason why I suggest that we videotape it document document document that way we're not questioned we did the right thing and we shouldn't be afraid of videotaping because we're going to do the right thing thank you m Batista can you weigh in on the videotaping idea well first of all um before weighing in on that the statute um and correct me if I'm wrong cuz I'm sure you're more familiar with it than I am but the statute doesn't talk about it does not permit us to call the parent right away it's not it's it's it's soed you are correct right okay so that that's number one as far as the video uh part of it I'm not sure that we the district would have the resources to be able to do that in a an adequate manner that wouldn't necessarily create more problems than not but at the end of the day you know it's an operational decision not a a legal decision okay thank you miss all right moving on we have rural development operations and Facilities one minute presentation please good afternoon Rolando Alvarez executive director Department of Transportation and free services so I'm here to um have a brief conversation over policy 5300 that's the policy that addresses um MTC policy in transportation so um there's a brief uh small recommendation for the board to consider um which is the change of October 1st 230 days starting from the beginning of first day of school okay m rert i support that I support it m pixon I think 30 days is too long um that's 4 weeks into school I my suggestion would be 2 weeks um really kind of the reason that we just wanted to bring it back with registered a ride and all of that we're pretty clear within the first couple of weeks of students you have a bus that has empty seats driving past students who are sometimes not coming to school waiting for that empty seat policy to be open so I think 30 days is is longer than necessary I would like to see the sometime in the third week of school gives us enough time to know pretty confidently who's riding the bus at that point and make sure that we're getting our students who are waiting cuz there's that 1.9 group of students who two they're really close to two miles but they're not two miles that are waiting and not coming to school sometimes because they don't have a way there and they watched the bus drive right past them I did magnet coordinator busing for a long time and this is a huge issue that I spent the first month and a half working on and I I I would make the suggestion that we say um after the second week of school okay Dr Hess I concur with board member hickon Dr Zan I'd like to uh make a suggestion that we actually do it differently um and take a lesson from uh other Transportation organizations by uh thinking about really what's best for the County rather than you know start with our current model and just tweak it uh a different model that says people need to apply 2 weeks before the start of school to get a seat and then fills up after that with people who are within 2 miles but are willing to drive so that on day one uh we have all the seats full uh from the get-go uh what charter schools have taught us and what other large districts have taught us is if you set a deadline for something uh parents will respond and those who don't respond will try and catch up later um but if we really want to provide the greatest service to brard County if we want to encourage people to come back to our schools and show them at our very front door that we care about them we've got to just start to do things differently so my suggestion is we ask uh parents to uh uh turn in their applications either at the end of the school year or at least two weeks before the school year hit a calculate button on all the other students that are within you know a lot of them is hiener 1 and a half to 2 miles away they're not all just 1.9 but they're willing to do that what does that do if puts the most students on the most buses reduces environmental impact and provides the greatest service to brard County and I don't know why we don't start thinking about things like that including by the way if that is the will of the board eventually when this comes back I also don't understand why our app doesn't start on day one that's when people need to know where the bus is is on the first day cuz they're confused they don't even know if they're standing in the right place uh but on day one of the school year uh Here Comes the bus uh isn't working and I don't understand that that's exactly when we need it we pay a lot of money for that uh I think we should really upset the apple cart here and do what's best for Brier Kenny okay Mrs Hixon are you okay with the Zan plan um I guess I would just ask if there's anything in the state statute because I know there's a state statute that directs that that would preclude us from doing that yeah I I'm I agree get them on the bus as soon as possible but I just want okay we could yeah Dr he Mr Alvarez yes so um if I may so there's a couple of things that drives that those 30 days and we have to understand that the first couple of weeks first especially the first week of school and the second week of school a lot of parents drive their kids to school therefore it is difficult to get a true hold and the number of cares that are that's going to be riding the buses that's number one number two in addition we get a large number of late registration register to the bus so on the second week of school the first week of school we continuously processing those late register to put them on the bus while the bus is already on the road and thirdly we also have those kids that simply don't register yet we continue to provide the transport provide the service to school because we don't leave them on the corner so those those two first weeks are really to balance out the Benchmark to really get as much as a true picture of who truly is going to be riding the bus the third week is when we really get all the information gather all that data and then be able to furnish it to the school so then the school can proceed and implemented the MTC policy so those two weeks in addition to the before mentioned we also have those two weeks to allow the the the route to really um stabilize because we we do understand that the first week the first two week of school because of the addition a number of changes that happens to the route they are not they take at least two weeks to stabilize so in a nutshell you want to prevent overcrowding of the bus in the first two weeks that for that legitimately registered for students that registered in previous years that we know need a ride it just come to the bus stops because um parents are following the protocols and registering and then the assistance from administrators and identifying kids that do need a bus um so we don't overcrowd the bus if we start from day one with all the other absolutely correct thank you so that was why my suggestion was by the end of the third week cuz I know you need the first two weeks to do it but I think 30 days is just too long so Dr Mr ever so if I may thank you um through chair if I may that third week the end of the third week is pretty much then that fourth week is when the information goes out to the school so in essence it becomes pretty much four weeks okay M fam yeah thank you um Mr zman I I like your idea however um what I find is that a lot of parents go on vacation in August that month right before school I'm wondering if we could shift that date either um back to when the kids right before they're graduating where we already have the forms going out saying if you're anticipating a need or you're going to need transportation that we can get on that immediately um the other thing is is that we have very very Savvy parents and then we have some very very unsavvy parents and we have to meet all their needs we can't just lean one way or the other um and I I've given this example before where I I had a woman the husband was in a wheelchair and the the woman either didn't drive or the car didn't work but they had no way and their son sat at home for 2 months unnoticed so um we need to do greater Outreach we need to promote this program we need to have it EMB bolded in different places and and and bolded going out and emails I don't even know if all these parents know how to do emails I don't know but I just know I felt really horrible and I I helped this um couple with their with their young son so um if we can educate our our parents and and reach out to them I think we could really do a lot of good because there's no sense I'm missing 2 weeks 4 weeks 2 months not even saying we can't get them to school that we just can't let that happen and that burden is falling on us especially when we have people that can't help themselves thank you Miss Ley um I'm good with the Zan plan um as long as we're you know following the law and all of that thank you okay so Dr heurn if if we go with the Zan plan is that enforcable so if I may if Dr Zeman can repeat his plan just so we have Clarity of what the Zan plan is I know this is new I know this is new and I tell you you know this is a cool thing um because our Mayors and and other people who have to deal with the traffic would really like uh parents not to go too many times and if we put the application to to get a seat on the bus in an app then that the parents that Mrs fam's talking about and other parents who are challenged by it can do a lot of things on an app that are just challenging to get a form and signed and backpack and back to the school you know we continue to do things in the paper based way that if we would just get into the 21st century with some of the things that we're doing it actually overcomes some of those issues that I I'm very sensitive to miss famam I don't I recognize you know the the challenges that families have all the time um but we can actually solve that problem too by amplifying things and just just making it as simple as possible but um I would be interested in in U in this plan it sets a deadline so that parents need to do it two weeks before the start of the school year at that point we know plus we can forecast the people that were on the bus last year who haven't moved and we can even reserve a seat for them but we need to move much faster toward filling up seats to reduce environmental impact to to reduce traffic on the road and to show Broward County parents that we can actually do things the 2024 way rather than doing things the 1970s way and this is like a whole and shift I get that um but it is something that other districts do and we can do it too we're Broward County there's nothing we can't do uh so uh the idea is two weeks before is a deadline to get your bus application in hopefully by an app uh second is on uh day one we've invited other people that are close to that two mile zone so that they can uh apply during that two weeks and get the extra seats um and then we move forward for the people that register late for the people that move to briard County I get that uh but we have to do the best we can to get as many seats on the bus reduce environmental impact uh increase speed to school increase the whole car drop off efficiency um and reduce traffic in brard County it's just the way that we could do it better okay so let me I'm going clar clarify some things first and then I'll try and repeat what I think you just said so we do do the regist registering your ride on an app right now you can go on the BCPS app and also um on on the website and yeah on the cell phone and on the website so that's that's current it's not paper um also for within the two miles we do not get funding um to transport students within two miles hence why to level off the uh the bus ridership first for those who are eligible and then when those seats are open since we're they're empty anyway then that's why they open up the window to let the additional the additional students on so um so let me repeat what I think you just said Dr Z for the plan is to um continue our uh our registration of of of parents wanting their kids to ride the bus but also in addition to that for students that want to take advantage of open seats have them register two weeks before school starts so that we have that information and um we Implement that immediately on day one or are we are we given a couple of weeks to settle and we already have those names day one we can do go ahead Mr abis so if I may so there's two things one open registrations starts from May May there is emails text messages robot calls goes out to every eligible student in Brower County they are reminded to please register as soon as possible that goes on through the summer right up to the first day of school secondly school do start the process of open empty empty seat from the beginning of the school or prior to the beginning of school that that those that process starts with the opening of school so right one the register to ride is available through the cell phone um your computer and on the website so those things have already been in place and actually if we go back just a quick history we that was implemented in 2021 that allow us to really um rightsize the fleet the district removing almost 250 buses off the road in 2021 and we have continuously done so since 2021 through that process so it has shown to be effective in terms of providing the opportunity for every single elgible student to register early to ensure that they assign a seat on buses sounds like we're already doing half of the Zan plan that's great okay so Dr he maybe you could we have to start the impass hearing maybe you could um take the consideration of Miss Hixon said Dr Zeman and and work with staff to come back with a a plan and let the board vote on it at a school board meeting absolutely okay let see Miss hixon's hands up Miss rert thank you it was just a um a marketing kind of idea this year we'll be pushing back um our spring programs inviting people to come back to our schools welcome home let's see what's new in your neighborhood I guess there could be a little blip um for someone to register that way as well um so you're getting you know to you're getting um two times times the stone however you say that sorry um because that way it's uh you're you're actually getting them um ready excited and even if they can't get the bus they're now going to hear all about the great programs that we have going on at Coconut Creek thank you a couple of things one we can we can do this without having to Loop it right because I'd like to be able to vote and implement it cuz as soon as we vote on it we can open up those seats so that no one has to wait until October of this year that's really the reason that we want to do this um so as I remember from discussion of that policy early on it's up to the board to direct us if we need to Loop it through any specific group so if I guess still I would ask us not to have to Loop it I hope everybody can give a th thumbs up to that and that bring it back to us as soon as possible so that we can vote on it and students that are waiting can get on the bus now okay rather cuz the date is October 1st in the policy now we'll bring it back next board meeting perfect the scheduled order of business for this school board Workshop of the school board of Brier County Florida has been completed saying no obligation I now join the meeting e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e good afternoon this public hearing of the school board of brow County Florida is now is is for the purpose of holding an impass hearing and is now called to order please join and the pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all in order for the meeting to operate with an appropriate professional environment at this time we respectively request all cell phones and other electronic devices be either turned off or put into the silence mode please step out of the boardroom if you need to answer your cell phone or make a call as talking on your cell phone during the hearing is not permitted no heckling shouting comments from the audience verbal Outburst or any other disruptive behavior shall be permitted no signs or placers shall be allowed in the boardroom meeting no derogatory comments using the person's proper name shall be permitted persons exiting the board meeting shall do so quietly this afternoon the school board is acting as a quasi judicial body and as such it will not be taking public comment as we prepare to begin our special school board meeting we are reminded that our vision is to educate today's students to succeed in tomorrow's World our purpose today and every day is to achieve this goal in consideration of the board's statutory obligation to take such action as it deems to be in the best in the public interest including the interest of the public employees involved to resolve the disputed impass issues the purpose of the hearing is for the school board of Brower County Florida to consider discuss and render a decision regarding the following the remaining issues at impass including the salary and or pay adjustments for fiscal year 2023 2024 for employees within the FI 4 FY clerical and foby Food Services bargaining units I will now ask general counsel Miss Batista to make an introdu introduction and provide guidelines for today's proceedings Miss Batista thank you Madame chair the parties are here today in accordance with Section 44740 403 subsection 4 of the Florida Statutes to resolve the ongoing dispute between the public employer the district and the FI 4 fi clerical and FY food good service bargaining units section 447 403 subsection 4C requires the school board as the legislative body to conduct a public hearing at which the parties shall be required to explain their positions with respect to the rejected recommendations of the special magistrate briefly the history of this case and how the parties have arrived here is as follows the summer of 2023 negotiations commenced between the district and the three bargaining units as it relates to the 2324 fiscal year December 23 and January 24 the three FY bargaining units declared imp pass on January 11th 2024 special magistrate James mastriani was appointed for the F4 impass on February 3rd 20124 Special magistrate Michael willin was appointed for the FY Food Service in pass and special magistrate Stanley mlad was appointed for the fopi clerical impass three one day hearings were held for each of the three F units on May 23rd 2024 for the F4 impass on July 25th 2024 for the FI food service impass and on August 19th 2024 for the FI clerical impass following the special magistrate the FY clerical holding a hearing on on the issues remaining at impass the parties agreed to wave post hearing briefs and wave a recommendation from the special magistrate and instead elected to present the remaining issues relating to foby clerical directly to the school board for resolution with respect to FY Food Service on August 15 2024 the special magistrate for the FY Food Service impass issued his recommendation for resolution of the impass on August 23rd 2024 the District filed a rejection of a portion of the special Magistrate's recommendation with respect to fi Food Service on August 28 2024 the superintendent provided the school board with his recommendation for resolution of the FY Food Service imp pass with respect to f4 on August 26 2024 the special magistrate for the F4 impass issued his recommendation for resolution of the impass on September 6th the district filed a rejection of a portion of the special magistrates recommendation with respect to fp4 and on September 9 2024 the superintendent provided the school board with his recommendation for resolution of the 44 imp pass on September 3rd 20124 the union provided the school board with its recommendation for rec resolution of each of the three contracts at imp pass within one document now I will outline briefly this afternoon proceedings and how they are unique from a typical school board meeting ultimately the school board is a legislative body as that term is defined in the statute and it is required to treat both sides fairly and to provide both with an opportunity to explain their positions with respect to the rejected recommendations of the special magistrate at this point the school board can only consider the rejected recommendations and resolve those issues again the role of the board as defined by Statute is to take such action as it deems to be in the public interest including the interest of the public employees involved and to resolve all disputed impass issues that means at the end of your deliberations a motion will need to be made for the disputed impass issues to adopt special magistrates recommendation adopt the recommendations from the superintendent or resolve the issue in some other fashion the decision will essentially be binding on the parties but is subject to a ratification vote by the members of the bargaining unit after this decision this afternoon the resolution of the disputed impath issue by the legislative body will be reduced to writing by the parties in an agreement which is then presented to the public EMP employees for ratification it is important to note that the agreement goes to all the employees covered under each of the separate bargaining units for ratification ation and not just those who are members of the Union if ratification succeeds then the agreement will be presented to the school board at a regular school board meeting if there is a failure to ratify the agreement then the school board's actions to settle imp pass will take effect for the remainder of the fiscal year Madame shair Dr Heen are there any changes to the agenda yes chair there's been an additional document added to this item the Union recommendation to resolve the impass H has been added the changes to the agenda proposed by the superintendent are accepted by the chair after being determined that good cause has been established for said changes may have a motion and second determining that the issue to be decided during this hearing is the issues remaining at impass including the salary and or pay adjustments for fiscal year 2023 2024 for employees within the FI 4 fi clerical and fi Food Services is bargaining units so booed move by Zan second by Hixon all in favor of the item in which this yes point of order when will the public be allowed to speak there's no public comment I see that in the beginning of my comments I must have missed it is there a way to override that no is in your policy that the board has adopted it states that when the board sits in a quasi Jud judicial form that you do not need to take public input okay so last time when we did we didn't have to the last time was the public for the PBA I believe and there was no public input as well yes all all in favor of the item in which the school board must render a decision during this hearing let it be known by saying I I those opposed say no okay eyes have it the the representative for the FI bargaining unions may now give an opening statement 15 minutes oh madame chair Vice chair board members superintendent uh I'm Dan Reynolds I'm president of the Federation of public employees and uh as I look around the room I notice I've been at this a long time and and over the the decades we've lost a lot of institutional knowledge uh about these bargaining units and I'd like to go into a little bit of a description now we completely agree as the chair pointed out in her opening that the mission of a school system is to educate the next generation of Youth to make our society as a whole successful but that doesn't occur in a vacuum and these bargaining units that you're ruling on today uh fill that vacuum the fopi 4 includes maintenance Transportation facilities in security uh Food Service obviously they provide nutrition to make sure the kids walk into the classroom uh clear-minded and without hunger in their bellies and rather hunger for education and clerical without clerical the system would fall apart uh obviously there are reports that have to go to Tallahassee to make sure the funding stream stays intact uh you have it professionals everyone today's gotten totally dependent on electronics you got it professionals making sure it all runs smoothly when that teacher stands in that [Music] classroom to provide education to those children students or adults in the ad adult education they need a clean well-lighted place with students that can beete attentive we live in Florida all kinds of issues of uh with the heat and humidity we have mold and leaky roofs and everything else without the maintenance department uh the buildings would start to crumble without the facilities people you'd have daily problems that the places would be a mess and when I say these units are part of that mission of the school board they really care about it uh our transportation people our drivers and bus AIDS they transport tens of thousands of students to and from school every day now I know all of you some point have to drive in South Florida traffic I challenge you to try doing it with a school bus with 40 kids behind you not in front of you and then security uh we're all painfully aware particularly in Broward County of the threats facing our schools today uh the day-to-day violence uh gangs uh personal battles that go on our security pie people make sure the perimeter actually all the employees do but the security people make sure the perimeter is safe and secure as that you can possibly make it on some of these sprawling campuses and sadly I I don't even need to speak about Aaron feice and Chris hickon who unlike the police office ERS outside with bulletproof vests and guns in their hands Chris and Aaron confronted the murderer distracted him long enough for kids behind them to escape the building that's the kind of dedication and both of them were known as Heroes before that day Food Service during covid we still had to educate the kids and they still needed to eat and the food service department did a heroic job of setting up remote feeding sites where parents could drive up with their children and get a meal and what what we all noticed in that process is there were other members of the family in the car and uh did a really masterful job of partnering with feeding South Florida so you would have the the tent here where you can give the the meal provided by Food Service which is by law limited to only the student of the school and then they could drive to the tent next door and pick up a box of food from feeding South Florida for the rest of the family not to mention the day-to-day uh care and cleaning of the the uh dietary surfaces and everything else to make sure the meals that are served to those children are safe and clean and remember we're talking about tens of thousands of students every day that these people work very hard to make sure this all run smoothly same thing I spoke about clerical the the reports that have to be done the sick kid comes to the office uh making sure the it runs making sure that the head count is done in a way that gets the information at Tallahasse that keeps that flow of dollars coming in a in a fashion that we don't have hiccups they are doing this every single single day all day long on behalf of the kids that we need to educate for tomorrow so when you look at this and you contemplate a 2.6% bonus as your offer to these people that are doing all this work at a time of great inflation it's it's coming down but the last few years these people haven't seen much in in years we had one year where we got a 4% raise other than that it was 2 two and then zeros and remember all that's coming off the long years that a lot of you weren't even here of the recession where you know we saw nothing for quite a number of years and this group of employees made concessions to help this District survive that great re recession and then again when Co hit they made concessions putting their lives on the line essentially uh you know our maintenance people our facilities people they all they didn't get to go home and work remotely they had to come in and still maintain the buildings and everything else and we had battles at first just trying to get you you'd have have you know trucks going out with five people in them and no protective gear no gloves no masks no spray and I remember you know 2:00 in the morning phone calls with the superintendent trying to figure out how we were going to get those supplies to the people that they needed but they went out and they did their work and again I'm I'm trying to talk about some of the institutional knowledge that's no longer here we had two years where we were hit by multiple hurricanes every year not to mention the occasional hurricane we still face and these people would leave their own damaged homes with no electricity and their families in them and come in and make sure that these schools got going as quickly as possible not to mention during some of those hurricanes you've got other districts that made the fool hearty choice of privatizing big parts of their maintenance departments when the hurricane hits you can't call Private employees in as essential Personnel so we actually sent maintenance people to other districts to help them get their schools open because they couldn't get a hold of Maintenance people to come in and fix their schools and this is the kind of sacrifice people make on a daytoday basis and 2.6 bonus just doesn't cut it in fact it's a complete outlier as you will see from the other presentations of our general counil and our accountant it it falls far short of what these people need and it's an outlier from comparable districts around around the state Miami Dade Palm Beach Hillsboro pinelis Duvall Orange County they've all managed somehow to come up with a prioritizing these same employees in a way that they're giving base increases not one-time bonuses that go away don't help them with their retirement so our presentation here is to try and convince you that these people need to be a priority you need to dig deep into this budget if those other districts can somehow do it they all have declining enrollment they all have the same ffp formula that the state put out there's very little difference in the in the base student allocation from each of those districts you need to dig down in your hearts and recognize the value of these employees you need to dig down in your budget and monetize that value thank you thank you the representative for management may now give an opening statement 15 minutes good afternoon Fabian Ruiz with the law firm of gray Robinson um I'm going to try to keep this brief I hearing the opening I I just want to make sure I don't think at any point um management has denied that fopi employees are a valuable asset to The District in fact I don't think anyone in this room is is going to deny that um I'm not necessarily sure that that's what we're here to argue today what the value of an employee is uh at least that's not uh the way that I'm going to approach this I think the presentation that you'll hear from me on behalf of management is what are the realities uh of the district what is the economic realities what are the the other realities that the district is facing uh with issues such as declining enrollment um and and vouchers um and and unfortunately that reality has put us in a position where the district has made an offer um and the offer is um a 2.26 nonrecurring could you get close to the microphone is this better perfect um the the offer is a 2.26 non-recurring nonf FRS eligible bonus um I I just want to make sure when we address things you know I'm I'm coming at this from the perspective of this these are the things that came out in terms of evidence during the impass hearings and I'm going to try to present that uh in the best way I know possible um but this is not to this is not an attempt to knock the employees in any way uh and I just want to make sure that's clear um from the outset I am going to get into uh the specifics during uh my presentation about what the comparables are what the economic realities of the district which everyone in this room is is aware of is um and I I don't think we're going to have um any competing information regarding just how uh essential these employees are I think what we are going to have a difference is is you know where does the money come from how do we fund these proposals um and is it an actual reality uh given the the state of the district thank you okay the parties convene and have agreed to the following order of presentation of the evidence and time frame for their presentations the unions may now make their presentation to the board please put 75 minutes on the clock that's 1 hour and 15 minutes you may begin have a we have a PowerPoint presentation if that can be thank you um so my name is Lucia Piva good afternoon um and I am here on behalf of the Federation of public employees but more specifically I am here for the 7,000 employees that this union represents and that President Reynolds discussed exactly what it is they do day in and day out for these schools and for our students and so I'll be brief as it relates to um explaining the the bargaining units and um I will just say here that these employees live in the communities they serve they care about their students they care about their jobs and what we decide here today is really going to have an impact on these students because without these employees our schools would not be able to open they would not be able to function they would not be able to operate so it's very very important that we look at it through this lens but let's talk a little bit about how we got here and I want to explain the Imp past procedure from our perspective and where we are and how we got to where we are each of the three bargaining units has a collective bargaining agreement with this district and each year the parties enter into reopener negotiations to talk about wages and depending on the agreement one two or sometimes even four other articles may be opened this dispute is over the reopener for the 2324 school year the union declared in pass in December of 2023 when it became very very clear that this District was not going to consider funding any base salary increases for these employees no recurring dollars for these employees the parties together selected a neutral special magistrate to help guide them an adjust settlement there was a special magistrate for each one of these bargaining units that had three days of hearings hundreds of transcripts and both parties presented their arguments they had Witnesses briefs and were given the opportunity to really lay out the district's ability to pay and all the factors that need to be considered when discussing the livelihood of these employees the Magistrate recommended after looking at all the facts that this board and and we'll get to what the recommendations are but specifically that this board should give base salary increases and we're going to ask you today to please seriously consider what the magist magistrate recommended in dissolving in resolving these disputes and I'll just say that if you look at the issues that are remaining and what the magistrates recommended in each case it is aligned with what the union is asking you to do in large part here today but before I get there I just want to remind you about what Florida law says about this process because up until now or up until the insulated period began this board went into executive sessions this board received um direction from the district and the bo sorry the board gave direction to the district on the exact proposals that we're asking you to reject today and so many people believe that this is done this is cooked the decision has already been made but your union doesn't believe that your employees don't believe that we think that you're going to abide by what the law requires and what does the law require the school the school board this is directly from the statute Florida statute the school board shall take such action as it deems to be in the public interest including the interest of the public employees involved to resolve all disputed impass issues it is well established that the statute requires a strict duty of fairness and impartiality on legisla bodies when when resolving these disputed issues so you have to look at these issues with an open mind and an open heart and we trust that you're going to do that today there remain five issues for you to resolve five issues that imp pass the first one is Wages the union has proposed an 8% based salary increase retroactive to July 2023 this is for all of the bargaining units involved the basis of the Union's proposal is really just to get these employees back to the buying power that they had just 5 years ago and it's not even close Okay so they're asking for less than what they need to earn the same amount that they earned 5 years ago they're simply not making enough to live in this District they're not they're working two to three jobs we really literally have employees who are living in their cars and against that backdrop this district has proposed a 2.26% bonus a non-recurring non-pensionable bonus these families can't budget with a bonus they cannot apply for a mortgage they cannot even qualify to rent a place here with a bonus and you'll see that both that both magistrates recommended that a base salary increase be given to his employees one of the magistrates recommended a 2.5 % to base the other 4% base but in both cases and you'll see later direct quotes from the magistrates recommendations they found that a bonus would just not cut it the second issue relates to the night shift differential and here the union is asking to for parity it's asking to increase the shift differential to 75 cents an hour for facilities clerical and security employees that is the amount that maintenance employees currently get and it's to be consistent the school district rejected this proposal the magistrate recommended adopting the Union's proposal the third issue relates to our topped out facilities employees and the proposal is to increase the maximum step for all classifications for all facilities class classifications by $5 The Proposal is not to increase their salaries by $5 it's really just to increase the top of the step so that there's enough room for them to absorb a base salary increase this year and in future years if one is negotiated because at the end of the day there's not one employee at the top of this scale that would even get $5 with an 8% increase on average they would maybe get $2 and this proposal doesn't cost the district anything zero zero dollar this year it's just raising the top of the scale by $5 the district rejected this proposal and the magistrate recommended adopting the Union's proposal as well the fourth issue at impass relates to a one-time adjustment to managers base salaries depending on their years of service again this is a onetime adjustment so it's not like in future years as the years of service are added there will be additional adjustments it's taking a snapshot in time how many years of experience do you have today and providing an adjustment accordingly and this proposal the basis of it is to give these Food Service managers the same adjustment that was provided to other employees all other employees in that bargaining unit in the in the 2122 school year the district has rejected this proposal the magistrate recommended that the Union's proposal be adopted the final issue at impass relates to clerical calendars and I'm going to spend a little bit more time on this one because the parties agreed to take this directly to the board and we do not have a Magistrate's recommendation on this issue so I want to make sure that it's that it's thoroughly discussed and understood um and right now so the union proposes eliminating the 187 and 197 calendar and placing all technical support Specialists and technicians on a 248 calendar this is the only bargaining unit that has five different calendars and where a principal at their discretion can move an employee to a shorter calendar and sometimes this has been done for retaliatory reasons other times it's been done because it's an easy way if you will to reduce your school budget but this quick fix has a really really big impact on these employees whose pay is cut when that happens they have no say in it it's just cut and it also has an impact on our students because the workload doesn't just disappear these employees have to do the same exact amount of work and they now just have to do it in less time they now have to accomplish everything that they accomplish in less time and we know that the work doesn't go away because what ends up happening is that principles will ask them please come back and work over the summer but instead of paying them their regular rate of pay they'll give them comp time and a lot of the time they can't use the compal time because they have too much work to do they have too much work to do so they can't use their Cal time they lose it there's restri restrictions placed on the use of it and they aren't able to do it so I mean I want to take a step back and ask you to please consider that we should not be asking anyone to do more work and less time with less pay when already already their salaries are so low that many of these employees are close to Poverty salaries it's it's just not right let's go back to the overarching issue here which is that these employees need and deserve real salary increases and so my question and our question today is whether the school board will fund recurring increases that will allow these employees to support their families and to continue to work for this District let's take a look at the past 5 years what wage increases have these employees received in the past 5 years there is no denying that they're falling further and further and further and further behind in two of the past 5 years these employees have received a zero % base increase zero base salary increase to their base salaries okay if the district's proposal were to be adopted that would be three of the past five years where there has been zero increase to base and now I understand that there have been a the way supplements and bonuses and other things that are not based salary increases but supplements and bonuses don't add to financial stability they put employees in a situation where every year they have to fight to negotiate just to make the same amount that they made the prior year but it sounds like it's more but it's not more money it's not right so in in 2019 201920 they got a referendum supplement 2% and then the recently now in the 23 24 year the supplement was increased by three by three and a half% for a total of 5% but 5 and a half% but that is also supplement it's not added to base for the purposes of calculating future increases is not added to base for the purposes of calculating even this 2.26% bonus that they're being offered and let's talk a little bit more about bonuses and supplements because they really create a lack of stability and a lack of predictability for these employees they can't rely on them for long-term financial goals they can't budget for everyday expenses with bonuses apply for mortgages save for retirement none of that and if you care about employee retention and morale then consider that regular increases in based salaries are a clear signal that your employer cares about you and your financial well-being a bonus does not do that a bonus is a bonus and Reliance on supplements creates uncertainty and it's really not effective for retaining people and how could it be how could it be people cannot afford to live in this District right now an increase in base salary unlike supplements has a compounding effect over time leading to higher annual earnings greater retirement contributions and a stronger Financial Foundation supplements on the other hand are not added to an employees based salary let's see what that's done to these employees over the years this shows the inflation in the past 5 years as compared to the average employee in these bargaining units wage increases over the same time now some employees got less some employees got more particularly in fiscal year 2023 when everybody was brought up to the new minimum wage of $15 an hour but in no case did anyone of course keep up with inflation and in all cases the cost of living significantly significantly outpaced their wages so you'll see that during this time inflation was at almost 30% and in those 5 years these employees received a total of 8% on average to their base salaries so they would need nearly a 20% increase just to maintain the buying power that they had 5 years ago when price inflation outpaces salary growth in this way it amounts to an effective pay cut to these employees to their families in their real lives they are making less today than they did 5 years ago and this is true even if you take into account referendum supplements okay so this graph shows the same thing but here it shows and I and I'll just remind everybody not added to base it shows the referendum supplements and what impact this would have had even with the referendum supplements employees would need over 14% increase just to have the same buying power that they had in 2019 and it Bears repeating because I think over time it's conflated and it's Lost in Translation that these are not added to base for the purpose of calculating your bonuses your percentage increases or anything else and they go away in 2020 in 2027 unless they are renewed by Broward voters and I'm just going to say that the referendum supplement and I think probably everybody in this room can agree they were never meant to replace wage increases they were M meant to supplement them and that is what the voters were promised the referendum supplement that was approved for by the voters and that is paid for by bed residents is a crucial crucial step in the right direction we acknowledge that but it's not permanent it's not added to base and it's not enough to get these employees to afford to live where they work because right now and even under both proposals these employees are not making a living wage they're not making a living wage for a single person with no children to have a living wage in Broward County they need an income of almost $50,000 a year a married person with two children almost $110,000 a year the average income in this bargaining unit is almost is less than $35,000 less than $3 $5,000 and for some employees it's way lower than that so for example Food Service employees on average are making I want to say 20 between 25 and 26,000 on average that is the average cost of a two-bedroom apartment in this District 100% of their salary and when when we talk about a what a living wage is that's defined as what a full-time worker must earn to cover the cost of their family amilies minimum minimum basic needs where they live we're talking transp Transportation food housing we're not talking about savings emergencies anything else anything except the most basic that these employees need to survive they're not making that and this is by the way based on the MIT living wage calculator which is relied upon and cited by employers across the country by policy makers by by government agencies and by researchers alike did you know that most of the employees in these bargaining units their children would be eligible for meal benefits in this District based on federal guidelines they're close to Poverty wages they need base salary increases just to start closing the gap they're going without the most basic needs because their employer has not committed to giving them actual base increases time and time again the district has since day one offered a 2.26% bonus not one recurring dollar for these families I think that none of these bargaining units has been have been to impass and president Reynolds will correct me in over 34 years there's a reason why we're here there's a reason why we're here Qui in the audience I'm going to hand it over to Dina Bellow LaVine she's a 40-year CPA CFE she when she was she started when she was five that's right she has performed independent Audits and prepared annual comprehensive Financial reports for different municipalities she also works for labor organizations and she's going to be talking about the district's ability to pay as well as comparables with other districts in the state yes thank you uh this is the phobe proposal this costing that you see in front of us was prepared by the district I do want to note that this costing that you see in front of you um at this point is probably a little overstated because there are fewer employees at this point um but to maintain a more conservative approach we um this is the the numbers that we are using so the 8% increase to the total of 7381 employees is 24, 622 593 the night shift differential that Lucia had talked about is 9888 46 again the topped out facilities employees is zero cost to the district the food service manager tenure adjustment is 3 88,2 72 and the clerical calendars of eliminating the five calendars of to one is 1,228 274 and again notably the three items that are alongside the the salary increase total approximately $3 million um but again this 27 million is probably a little overstated because there are fewer current employees compared to when the costing was actually done the budgeting for these employees primarily comes from two District funds um the phobe for and clerical employees would come from the general fund and the special Revenue fund would be for the food service so here um because the 2004 and 25 school budget is out there we're we're talking 3.3 billion general fund budget right now um the phobe for and clerical what we're talking about with the $24 million is less than a% of the general fund budget and when we're talking about the special revenue for the Food Service we're talking about a $2.9 million which is 2% of the special Revenue Food Service budget the difference between these parties proposals go far beyond the the numbers which you've heard about if these employees which are over 7,000 individuals are so vital to the district what message is being sent and we've heard about the 2.26 one-time bonus non-pensionable both magistrates themselves have agreed across the board increases not one-time bonuses onetime bonuses don't alleviate their financial struggles we've heard that a lot of the members have two to three jobs some are homeless there are people that we've heard about sleeping in the cars they deserve a real investment in their Futures these employees have weathered years with without sufficient raises they've stayed the course during tough times when conditions became intolerable they've were forced into this impass this group that has consistently given their all often at the personal cost um the 2.26 bonus does not prioritize the phobe employees um this from the executive summary shows that the school board's priorities show the priorities for the students as well as the employees but it's not showing the priority of these phobe employees this um shows the amended budget from the 2324 which was from last week of 2.9 Million which indicates a $232 million increase from the 2324 general fund budget revenues and yes that is part of the referendum but it's not all and so definitely the increase of property values play into that um but in addition to this increase we also have significant vacancies that were budgeted not filled and so that translates to approximately $9 million in savings that the district budgeted did not fill and so while these positions weren't filled the existing employees workload increased and and so these the the work didn't go undone and the stresses of shouldering the extra responsibilities to keep the schools running the students safe fed and healthy were maintained but there was savings that were not spent in addition there was very significant this is up through May 31st I do not have the June numbers but through May 31st the original anticipated number for investment income for food service was 500,000 but what actually was earned for investment income was 6, 88,000 in the general fund what was anticipated original budget was 7,500,000 what actually was received and earned was7 m899 so that additional investment income was 16, 77,000 over what was originally budgeted so again add additional items to consider when we turn to special Revenue separate and apart from the general fund we see that again this last year budgeted for salary increases of $6 million over the prior year but the district offered a one-time bonus of 2.26 for this fund for this unit which totaled $630,000 and then if we look at the prior year 22 to 23 again budgeted 57 million actually spent 51 million so again another 6 million not spent and reverted back to fund balance for the special Revenue if we look at the trend for the last five years that's $18 million that was budgeted not spent and reverted back to to fund balance so the growth in the last 3 years of special Revenue Food Service fund balance 70% increase and then if we compare the Food Service fund balance compared to other neighboring school districts we see Broward County comp compared to Miami day Duval Hillsboro and Palm Beach significantly the fund balance percentage of operating expenses Food Service fund balance significantly different so that's food service now we look at the other districts the other neighboring districts to see how they how they were able to they get Federal similar federal state and local funding they have similar constraints but Miami Dade was able to get a 4% to base with additional pay adjustments Orange County 9% to base with other adjustments Palm Beach 4.5 to 6% to base depending on seniority and years of service plus a bonus how can Broward County only offer the one time time 2.26 onetime bonus it's just hard to believe that we could only afford a one-time bonus it's just wrong when we look at the food service employees in Broward County we've asked for Market studies to be performed but the studies weren't performed we did get spreadsheets we got many spreadsheets showing hundreds of positions offering different titles which made valid comparisons impossible to compare because they were different titles and so you couldn't match the titles of the the positions in one County versus County District to another but we do know we know where our Broward County employees are falling and our minimum is 15 and our maximum is 2110 but we know I'm sorry what these I'm sorry these are the general worker these are the Food Service General workers and we compare this because this is where the majority of the Food Service workers are and we selected this because of the volume of of employees that we have and in most of these cases when we have the 15 to 2110 the maximum and we could compare this to the other counties our general worker which is 958 of the unit our average average rate is $15.18 not not the $21 and there's no one not one at the maximum rate most are near the minimum wage the cooks 11a and 11b a majority at minimum and no one is at the max not to mention I do want to note that a majority of the employees in this unit have been at a minimum and have been working here for several decades and they're still at the minimum if I then move to the clerical workers again this is the general clerk compared to other neighboring District school districts 15 to 2297 clerical employees similar story many near the minimum pay with just one employee one employee near the minimum now if I look at all the phobe employees between 15 and 3790 again a majority are very close to the minimum and the average of this whole unit is 34,9 32 in closing we ask we have to ask ourselves what kind of message are we sending to these hardworking employees the backbone of our schools by offering them only temporary relief in the form of a one-time bonus their dedication is unwavering but their compensation does not reflect the immense value they bring to our district they deserve more than just a fleeting acknowledgment of their struggles they deserve Fair lasting pay increases that honor their commitment and ensure their well-being let's invest the people who keep our schools running for the sake of our students and to ensure that we can retain our employees and give them what they deserve thank you thank you you sto the clock 43 do any of my colleagues have any questions for the union we have I apologize we have um a little bit more left in the presentation oh sorry no it's okay we're going to bring up some of the speakers that spoke to the special magistrates to share with you what they shared with the special magistrates as well okay you may begin is Kelly sheer you may begin hi my name is Kelly Sheffer I'm a cafeteria manager sorry my name is Kelly Sheffer I'm a cafeteria manager for food nutrition and Services I work out out of um Gator Run in Everglades in Weston I'm a doal manager um I've been there for about 12 years with the district in total for 16 um and why I'm up here today is to really speak on behalf of my unit I work with a lot of different people I've worked throughout the district in a lot of different schools as well and I'm just really concerned because without a full belly our kids can't learn and that's what our job is our job is there we're at at our schools at 6:00 in the morning we beat a lot of our maintenance a lot of our sodial staff there and it's really important our job is important but it's a lot of it is unseen and a lot of it is things that people don't even realize the extra added um training that we do on our own time that's District mandated but that we take classes to ensure that we know how to do things safely that the nutrition is being met that the guidelines are being met by the district um we're really feeding in some Schools they're feeding up to four meals a day to children and that's huge when you think about that we're feeding breakfast lunch supper snack to our Aftercare students um but we really need to make sure that we are able to take care of our staff so that they can take care of our kids because we have staff members that are worried about how they're going to put food on their tables when they're putting food in our kids at school they're worrying about how they're going to pay their life bill because they can't afford it our the cost of everything has gone up so crazy here that it's really sad that we're having to get to this level and having to speak in front of you about these items um our a lot of our employees like it was said before are working two to three jobs to try to make ends meet and with the cost of inflation in South Florida I don't really know how we're going to keep our employees our long-term employees with us much longer if we can't resolve this issue um and like it was said before many of them are on government assistance to be able to provide for their families with assistance of Housing and many of our employees have their kids on free and reduced lunch because they meet the requirements because the wages are so low so I really do ask all of you to take this into consideration and listen to what the magistrate said in regards to the base rate of pay because it's truly what we need to be able to support ourselves and our families thank you thank you good afternoon everyone uh board members and Dr heurn I want to start by saying that the comment that you made Dr heurn for the clerical staff given us k ketos for the first day of school for everything running smoothly we appreciate that um I like to address the board members on behalf of the clerical staff we are the backbones of your schools we are the backbones in your district office we are in every knok and cranny that is in the school board we do the job behind the scenes we make sure that the principles when the parents come in we take care of those students the parents everyone when they first come through that office we make sure that the computers in the schools and in the school district and the district offices are running they're functioning the service are up and running and everything is running seamlessly our staff makes sure that when time comes for testing that the students have their equipment to be able to test to make sure that everything that needs to go to the state level the FTE dollars all of this is generated through the CL clerical staff currently we have clerical staff right now the imts the ims's who are working diligently with this new Focus system just to make sure that everything goes through properly so that the FTE dollars are there they're doing all kinds of overtime they're eating at their desk they're doing everything possible to make sure that the the school district functions properly and everything runs efficiently but the issue is for us as staff members in the school board is that the wages is not meeting today's demand we have staff that I've spoken to who are sleeping in their vehicles they're living with parents they're moving back in they cannot feed their children so a one-time bonus does not do what needs to be done to maintain them for a year it's a one-time supplement that goes right away it does nothing for your retirement we're asking and I say it again we're asking for each and every one of you to consider us the faces that's here the ones that are watching to consider us and make sure that you do what is right by us and get give us something that's substantial that we too can feed our families just like you are that we too feel the dollars and the value in what you do you tell us thank you and we appreciate that but turn that into dollars turn that into where it means something to us in our pockets we appreciate everything that you guys do for us but we need you in return to consider us and give us that same sense of appreciation with what you vote on today make sure it's something that when we walk away as staff members we could say the board the school board consider us they took care of us and they made sure that that it's something for us that is not a one-time bonus that goes away remember every one of us here has families every one of us here want to make sure that we take care of our families thank you thank you good good afternoon board members and superintendent my name is jul at Brown Central West Transportation I'm speaking on behalf of all the transportation drivers and attendants we the conductor of this train we start this train every morning our first bus go out at 4:45 we deal with a lot of issues transporting these kids we transport from 55 to 60 kids at one time we're being cursed at objects are being throwed at us parents are at us we take a lot but yet I don't guess you guys see what we take because you're offering us a small amount of money it do not fit the living the way we're live living today a lot of people come to me speak to me what are we going to do about the increase what is this what is that I can't make it we're down 75 drivers right now due to that the pay raids do not meet some of us are working two and three jobs just the meet the the meet ends meet I'm asking that you think about us think about our kids we leave so early in the morning yet don't get to see our kids go off to school but yet we're making sure somebody else kids are get into school so think about what we go to on a daily base and what you're trying to give us the 2% 2.26 excuse me it's not enough for us please think about us and think about what we do every day we open it up and we close it down please think about us and give us a better increase thank you thank you good afternoon everyone afternoon my name is Charles MCL and I um work at Stranahan High School as a facility personnel and a product of the brow County School System you know we're the first ones in most of the time in the last ones out in our facilities sometime when we're in our facility we we ensure and we take the pride of just being there to make sure that these facilities is up and running for our children and our staff and our teachers to come in and uh start their day of work many of times when we're in these facilities there's not uh uh uh something that we can always say that's going to go right every day is a different day and every day takes a different route in our everyday Venture in our school system we ensure that the hva system is up and running you know um we we we sweep and we blow the sidewalks our parking lots we pick up the grounds we ensure that all radio calls are answered throughout the day we we address all the the the throwups or the clog toilets the the overrunning toilets GL uh uh that the kids vandalize just by putting the paper towels and the tissues and the bottles and the cans and the shirts and the underwear as you name it it goes into the toilets so we have to address these things our kids they are children but what they do in these schools a lot of times you're you're not aware of it we're the ones that has to stick our hands and I speak upon for all facility Personnel sight repair we stick our hands over in the urinal and remove that thees we're the one that's plunging and uh walking in Fes when FES is coming up through the floor drain to clean it up for our children our children is the most precious resources that we have and we have to not put a value on our children and not put a value on the people that's upholding this District because the the very ones that is looked down on is the very one that is holding this thing up and we want to ensure as people people with spirits and peoples with a heart that they can uh uh to show their employees these people work for the school district the sixth largest district school district in the nation the six largest we can take our certifications that the school district has designed through Federation and all the other entities we can take our very certificates anywhere in the State of Florida and they hire us just like that because of the training that you have allowed us to receive and it's an honor to be a part of that many many of us bring a change of clothing and shoes to the job because of the work that we do we have to make sure that our children is in a position to enter a clean restroom that we're not tracking fees into our classrooms on our carpets that we're not uh uh uh chemicals is not splashing on us and we're continuing to to wear the same uh soil laundry many of times especially in elementary schools the children run up and hug you and kids is very familiar with facility service workers for some reason they gravitate to the facility service workers and for some reason we know our children a lot of facility service workers and facility personnels is uh mentors uh they look after our children they buy shirts shoes clothing lunch give Foods or whatever they may need is there because of the facility service person we was there when Co was there we was there fighting we was in the trenches misting spraying wiping someone come in and sneeze a cough they call us to the office we go up there we dress up and we go and do our thing we tried to make it safe for you we try to make it safe for our for our kids after the storms wither first one in the trenches to clean up our facilities we leave our families some of us don't have lights some of us is are waving water to get to the job to try to get these facilities up and ready many of our custodians uh is not in a position to continue to live the way that they are living some of these peoples you don't see it but they don't even have decent shoes their shoes is coming apart but they're coming to our facilities your employees coming to your facilities in still trying to maintain a way of living tape painters tape duct tape around their shoes we have people sleeping on your campuses that you may not be aware of it's a shame you have to have a heart we we can't go by what paper dictates but what is right what is your heart saying facilities has been many of our facilities people has been on step range number one and number two for probably the past 10 years our peoples need to be commanded commended for what they do not only by words but by actions many of our facilities come and they borrow money from one facility worker or someone they know until the next pay week and they have to pay it back and they're also in the same position all over again 2.2 Cent does not suffice the need of the facility service persons these people can't feed their families they in the soup line they're they're out there trying to get whatever uh it's necessary for them to uh uh maintain their families and their way of life you have kids or or maybe in the process of having children my children are grown I just adopted a seven-year old I Foster a 5y- old and for them to go to the store and said daddy daddy could you buy me this too embarrassed to say I don't have the money I said well next time a $10 toy how would you feel if it's your child how would you feel these are the things that we're facing our the facility person's livelihood is in your hands your actions today upon the way you feel it lets the whole community of brow County see how and what type of organization that we're working with not saying that you're bad people I'm not implying that business is business we tip our waitress when we go to a restaurant we might not have it but we tip anyway facilities and all the people that's holding up this County deserve an increase in a 2.26 or whatever that is it's not right it doesn't pay rent rent in a in UNF finishing but rent in a neighborhood with gunshots fing all over your head all night $1,500 a cotton of a gallon of orang juice is over $7 I seen it with my own eyes a loaf of bread is $3 to $5 gas is over $3 insurance is off the charts car insurance is almost in impossible to afford many people just driving without it right now because they simply can't afford it we have our workers riding bicycles to work catching the bus because they can't afford to own a car so just consider the worth of the people that you hire you know that that's working up under you that looks up to you for you to make the right decisions just think the value of the individuals that's relying on you to make a decision for the betterment of their livelihood thank you so much for your time with the most respect for you all may God bless you thank you so much thank you any other speakers no other speakers I'd like to go back to our presentation just briefly my clicker is not working so I will just it's okay I'm going to read it to you the neutral magistrates agreed that these employees must receive Bas salary increases and I'm going to quote directly from one of the magistrates magistrate James master who said I find a base increase for 2324 is an approach more consistent with the interest and Welfare of the public in respect to maintaining staff levels attracting new hires and providing a partial offset in the cost of living increase for the non-instructional employees magistrate whan agreed in summary the loss of unit members by buying power due to inflation which non-recurring bonuses do not adequately address Wass in favor of providing across theboard increases to their base pay in addition the district's offer of a non-recurring bonus is out of step with comparable employers who have provided increases to base wages moreover the non-recurring bonus offered by the district even when added to the referendum Amounts is still less than the increase provided by two of the three comparable employers the district has the ability to provide increases greater than the 2.26 nonrecurring bonus that it has offered your employees cannot live on the current salaries they just can't do it the largest districts in this state have provided employees in similar classific ations with base increases for 23 24 ranging from 4% to 9% and other adjustments and bonuses they're funded in largely the same way as this District the reality is that we understand that there are budgetary constraints we understand that there are categoricals but in large part budgeting is about choices it's about the choices that you as this board is going to make there's a lot of daylight between a z% to base and what these employees are asking for it's very hard for these employees to believe that in a $5 billion budget there's not $1 in recurring funds not $1 to give them base salary increases and I'm going to hand it over to president Reynolds for closing remarks thanks to see so you've heard the ability to pay is there your comparable school districts around the state have somehow found the money in the same ffp formula that come up with base increases all of them right now you're in outlier what the hell is wrong with your accountants excuse me we don't talk like that that's your warning I apologize I'm just feeling passionate right now about these people have' been falling behind for years these when I started in this these jobs raised families and bought homes those jobs don't do that anymore how are you going to keep employees holding this scho school system together when they keep falling behind further and further every year so I'm asking you go back sharpen your pencils look at your overall budget figure out how your neighbors were able to come up with base increases and change the superintendent's recommendation to a base increase for these employees the the special magistrates were neutral parties they looked at all the information they looked at the budgets they looked at the comparables and they came up with recommendations reasonable recommendations so please when you start deliberating on this think about these people these dedicated employees that for years have held this place together through storms through recessions through pandemics and through all kinds of stuff that you heard the employees talking about that they have to face on a day-to-day basis and come up with a reasonable increase to the base so these people can start at least moving forward again and not backwards thank you so much thank you are you done yes we'll you'll the rest of our time for potential rebuttal okay stop the clock 1439 okay questions from the board to the union I'll start so I have a question on page five the 2.26% that's equal to 6.1 million is that what you have yes please talk into the microphone yes okay perfect thanks 6.1 million and do you have the numbers for 2.5% so each um and Dena will correct me but each percentage point for the entire bargaining unit is $3 million yes thank you and the special magistrate when they gave the uh 4% to 2.5% base salary increase was that reoccurring was that her recommendation or his yes the recommendation was reoccurring salary increases added to base okay thank you and then on page 29 the the Miami dat County the 4% to base is that reoccurring or non- reoccurring all of the numbers on the chart on page 29 are recurring increases added to base except for when it says plus additional pay adjustments Etc that may be bonuses or or something different but the 4% to Miami Data County the 9% in Orange County and the 4 and A2 to 6% in Palm Beach County are all added to base salary reoccurring recurring okay and then the M Miami day County do you know what the additional pay adjustments that that what is that equal to that amount of money not off the top of my head I'd have to go back and analyze your collective bargaining agreements again okay and then the on P 31 the average hourly rate for the general worker it's $15.18 and I'm assuming that $ 9508 that's how many General workers there are yes okay and do you know how many are at the the pay grade minimum 442 and then the the average excuse me 442 are at 15 mhm 19 are at $16 41 which is the actual maximum $16 4411 okay none none are at $19.69 okay zero okay go and then the cook Baker assistant is how many are at $16.31 72 and then the average the actual maximum is $16.50 6 cents and that's 12 and no one is at $212 and okay what about $16.35 that's the average that's the average for all of them oh it's just $16.31 is the oh I'm sorry that was the average yes okay cook Baker assistant the $15.95 how many 16 okay and then what's the Max two actual $16.20 is the actual Max and then Z what $20.65 no one zero correct no one okay thank you um all right sorry I'm just I just want need to know these numbers on page 32 um the Broward General clerk 2 how many are at the $15 minimum 70 70 and $22.97 one okay okay and quiet in the audience most of them are below $16 I don't have the correct I don't have the complete number of the 261 but most of them are below $16 okay and how many total Brower General clerks are there too 261 okay 20 so so where where is like 190 clerks where are they at below $16 okay may I speak to this just briefly one of the problems is when we don't get enough of a we we you have a minimum and a maximum but there's no way to move across it so the only way we get step movement is if the base increas is enough to pay for the step and across the board we haven't had we were the one year we got 4% we're able to move some people across the so what you have now is people are are languishing at the bottom levels of the minimum to the maximum and in order to hire people in you have to hire them they won't take the job at those levels so you have people that have been here for 20 years you're hiring new people in sitting next to them at least making what they are after 20 years or sometimes more so thank you thank you okay page 33 the F4 all employees what is what does that can you define that that's all of the employees and so that includes maintenance that that includes the entire unit of um 4,000 uh I think it's like around 4,200 employees yeah 4 this includes maintenance Does it include anything else it includes all the Ser um maintenance Transportation Security and security and what security and Facilities facilities okay perfect and so a majority of those are close to the minimum okay so that's my next question the $15 how many employees are at $15 um it was more than 50% are close to the minimum $15 the maintenance I mean so unfortunately because you have such a variety of salaries in those four units you have a huge minimum and Max um how many employees are in total for all fi4 employees it was 4,200 and 4,200 4235 or 42 um I believe 42 25 or something similar to that okay so uh about 2, and change are close to the minimum $50 so it's more than 50% are close to the minimum amount okay and um how much is how much does the average bus driver make $15 an hour I don't think so just they just raed you don't have information we we had seen some information that there was um some increase to the minimum but I don't I don't have the current rate H so 18 is the starting for bus operators and that happened in 23 24 because it was impossible to hire all right drivers okay okay thank you those are all my comments anybody else Dr Zan chair is this um uh I want to make sure we ask questions at the right time there are some statements that uh are made in the management report that seem to be at odds with uh statements a fact um I don't mind if both sides have their own opinions on things I just don't want them to have the same facts would it be better to bring those up now or after management brief after management right now we're just having questions to the union okay no I'm sorry just one more question then chair that's specific to uh um to to fi you were silent um about something that I believe deeply about which is the effect of inflation on people making 15 16 17 $18 an hour it's pretty well known in economics that the effect on them is substantial um because they're already at the point where they can't make substitutions in the things that they buy uh so we had one speaker a gentleman from strand handon I apologize I don't remember your name but um a very effective description of the effect of inflation is if you can't afford car insurance you can't afford the fuel you stop driving the car and now your your cost of transportation to get to work is far greater because you're biking 45 minutes instead of driving five minutes and so that's kind of one of the effects that happen but could you talk a little bit about the effects that you have seen on inflation amongst people at these pay rages in terms of their ability to do anything other than what they're already doing um so because uh other people that hire salaries can substitute away from what they're doing and buy a less expensive car and they can um buy different bundles of goods uh and therefore the net affection inflation rate is a is they pay the same prices but the net effect to them is different because they have a whole lot of other choices as they go down a quality or go down a quantity standard but could you talk a little bit about what you've seen in terms of the net inflation effect on people $15 to $18 an hour absolutely absolutely so you're you're right about that and I think you've heard that the majority of the employees in these bargaining units fall within that category of people and I think the answer to that is that there are no choices left people are not a their choices are give up basic essential needs don't buy that medicine don't have that medical procedure I can't you know take move in with my parents have my parents move in with me those are the choices that people are making it's not this brand or that brand this car or that car it's no car no home they are not able to survive with these wages and so if you go to the slide that determines the livable wage in the district that is illustrative of what that looks like right because if for one person livable wage and again the definition of livable wage is the basic needs Transportation food housing that's it $50,000 these employees on average are making 35,000 many are making less than that and and just to finish my line of logic if you don't mind sure given the number of months and hours the the average fi person Works what does their average what does their hourly average salary have to be or average salary for an individual to earn $50,000 you're asking me to do some math off the top of my head and I don't think that's a good idea well you have someone right next year really good they don't work 12 month uh uh U they don't work 12 month uh a year many of them work 10 some may work more than that but if you if you knew the average number of months they worked you could come up with an estimate of how many dollars per hour they would need to make a living wage sure so I'll it's around $25 an hour to make that'd be great if they worked 52 weeks a year and I appreciate that uh Mr President is a quite a title but uh uh they don't work uh uh 12 months a year I think in general they work less and I'm just curious what the hourly wage needs to be to get to that living wage so the hourly rate would be $25 an hour and most of these employees are closer to $15 an hour but I think more importantly employee calendars are being cut so these employees want to more work more and by the way they do they have second third jobs so you should be able to make a living wage on your job I I don't think anyone you know disputes that thank you chair thank you Mrs that also speaks to our in in the magistrates report about changing the calendars for the clerical MH Mrs Le ardy yeah just one quick question um you had mentioned that you had asked the district for some information to be able to compare um us you know some of these wages to uh other counties um can you clarify what that information was again sure so um I know the union for some time has been asking for Market studies to be conducted in order to determine exact exactly what wages these employees would need not to make a livable wage but to be in similar footing with other districts neighboring districts and larger districts um and of course you know that's important also from a recruitment and retention perspective but obviously um Equity perspective as well um and so what was the response when you asked for the market studies I think that it's just been kicked down the road um all I can say is that so far there has been none and do other districts do Market studies yes Market studies are are you know Common I I'm not familiar with exactly what Market Studies have been conducted by these comparable districts but absolutely that's a thing that government entities do often to get a sense of where their Workforce lies got it thank you those are my questions thank you I was next in the queue so um before I I asked questions I just want to say something I lived with um a security monitor for a very long time he worked for the district for over 20 years and he made $18 an hour and he was the person who ran into the building to save the students so when I say that I understand I understand we would take turns which Bill we weren't paying each month um so I I do understand and I I I I wish we weren't sitting here in this having this conversation so I just want to start with that because um I have lived where you're sitting right now for a long time um I just have a couple of questions and kind of a a statement I guess um when you were doing on it doesn't have a page number but when and where it says in 2022 23 the school board budgeted over $6 million more in Food Service employee salaries than it spent so you did that in a couple of places did you also analyze how much they actually spent in their budget so they did get more money but how much money did they have to pay out cuz I mean it's important right I I know that they they budgeted for more employees and maybe didn't use them but they also had higher higher bills so I just want to point that out yes but I I also looked at the growth in the fund balance so when all was said and done the growth over the three years the fund balance kept on growing okay for special revenue and that was is can we ask a question like to our people why that's true okay so on page I guess it would be 28 even yeah 28 which is the special Revenue if I could ask our um I don't know who can answer it page 26 well it's page 28 no that's on here that has the the comparable school districts right can someone from our district explain why our special Revenue fund balance is so high and what does that money go towards Dr go ahead Mark Mills you can just grab the mic over here at the end of the table good afternoon good afternoon Mark Mills with food nutrition services so we were able to through many um Federal dollarss that were supplementing US during the covid time frame then we also received what we they call a supply chain funding so 10 million for uh fiscal year 2223 and 5 million for 2324 that allowed the fund balance to grow then from there we implemented C and we implemented um the universal free uh breakfast as well as uh lunch pilot program so we are now losing approximately $12 million a year and that comes out of fund balance so that would have been our 24 our 2324 so although the numbers appear to be saying yes there's growth the growth has contributed to the covid time frame due to Federal additional federal dollars to help all school districts food and nutrition services departments um food nutrition special Revenue sit separate from all the other special Revenue funds and it look like some of the data is being combined so that for therefore it makes us look like we're having additional funding other than what is really there hopefully that answers your question sort of um but it so what do we what is the special so you're saying that the the percentage we're getting here isn't just special Revenue percentage it's including your general funding I believe um no we have very little general funding Federal funding we do have there's multiple special revenues there grants and um other funding other than just special Revenue Food Service I believe that they're combining things together in some areas to show a higher dollar amount than what we as an individual special Revenue fund has available our funding is must be put back into the program and it must be put back into improving the program and with that it's about food and it's about um serving the free meals at no cost to the children and that's where we putting our money we are showing a reduction in fund balance because of that and we expect to continue to have that decrease in fund balance by 12 million to 15 million um we no longer have the federal dollars that were contributed during covid and the supply chain so we're on our own this this fiscal year of 2425 and we do expect to see another loss okay and what do we can special Revenue be used for employee salaries yes it can be used for employee salaries anything to do with the fund itself serving meals to Children operating the program um clerical staff all that it's it's the funding is available for salaries and ring benefits yes okay thank you for clarifying that and then I just just because um somewhere in here it it or in the conversation and again I'm just trying to get facts out I not saying how I feel one way or the other but it's been said a number of times that we're funded similarly as Miami dat in Palm Beach and I just we just went over budget so I want to just make sure I say this again because I think it's important for people to understand Broward County gets $877 per student Miami Dade gets 9,474 per student that's $722 more which means they get $4,400 th000 per year than brow County Public Schools Palm Beach County gets $1,742 per student that's 1970 so $1,970 more per student than Broward County that gives them $394 million a year more than Broward County so I just want to put it into perspective we do there is a um a calculation but because because of housing costs and all of that we don't get the same funding as each district so to compare apples to apples I think it's important people know that we start at a a lower fund even though it's a lot of money um than Miami data and Palm Beach so it's been said a number of times that we're kind of on a Level Playing Field and we're not so I just wanted to be sure that I mentioned that again I mention it often just because I think it's important for the public um to know that we don't start with the same amount of money as the districts to the north and south of us um and thank you so much for all of the information and the the presentation and like I said I I do know exactly how people are feeling and I appreciate you coming today to share your stories with us did Miss Leonard did you speak did okay Dr Hess thank you madam chair so I have a few questions and thank you all for coming I certainly appreciate um expressing your concerns and thank you to the team as well uh the union team uh on page page six um where it says night differential night shift differential uh just wanted some clarity on um what measure had you used to come up with the 75 cents per hour uh was that base is that an arbitrary number or was that based on some sort of rational it is for for the purposes of parody with maintenance employees who currently receive a night shift differential of 75 cents an hour I believe facilities employees are at 35 cents an hour and clerical employees are at 25 cents an hour for their night shift differential okay so this would just bring it up to the same level as correct okay all right on uh on page seven um where you have increased the maximum step for all facility facilities classification by $5 again it's the same question how did you come up with that number it is really just so that the problem doesn't just have to be kept being addressed year after year so it allows enough of a cushion so that for so that employees that are topped out can receive base salary increases that are negotiated in incoming years as well not just this year and otherwise we'd be in a situation which each which where each year we'd be asking to push the cap um and I think it's important to note that some of these employees haven't received any base salary increases for decades because they've been topped out I understand that but I'm wondering I understand the increase but how did you come up with the number five I just want to know was that something that just or what was the rational for five just like you gave me the rational for. 75 cents to increase that so it matches how did you come up with five sure so it is a the purpose of it is so so as to not have to keep addressing it year after year it won't it won't come at an additional cost to the district unless salary increases are negotiated as well so it's it's really just changing the number at the top of the salary it's not applying that increase to employees salaries in real time I understand so basically you felt that five was a reasonable amount okay all right um on on page nine um can you reiterate um you mentioned that to eliminate the shorter calendars which is 187 to 197 days to 248 days is that what you had mentioned no I believe that the move to the calendars and I may have to have someone from the bargaining team speak to it if you have additional questions and someone will please tell me if I'm if I'm stating it but it's it's um moving them to 217 days there are certain employees like TCH that are at 248 days and the proposal for for that they have two calendars the proposal for them is to keep them at the 248 okay so the when you mentioned to move up to 217 days um uh are you proposing an increase from where it currently is to 27 days for the clerical there are many more understand sure there are many clerical employees who are already on 27 days and um I we have the numbers of exactly I think that breakdown but the but the proposal is mainly intended towards not having the calendars just cut to lower ones and it does take 2117 days at a minimum to complete the job okay and I have a couple more questions um I know we mentioned that um new bus hires are now paid $18 and um are there current um bus employees that are paid that have been existing for a while paid under 18 currently I'm sorry can you repeat the okay so new hires for buses they are now paid $18 because the wages went up from minimum 15 to 18 do we still have bus employees paid under $18 oh I don't do we bus oh yes we have bus AIDS and attendance correct not bus operators if your question is asked to bus operators then the answer is no okay so the bus operators went up to 18 yeah there are other employees in the transportation group that do earn less than 18 an hour okay so all bus operators who were making less than 18 when when it was changed to 18 they're all making 18 currently correct that's correct okay all right thank you those are all my questions and I just want to make one point of clarification as it relates to the the graphs with the fund balance and and that's not you know that's not conflating anything other than the special Revenue Food Services fund balance is that correct that doesn't include any other fund balance it's only special Revenue Food Service okay thank you any other board member comments to the union Miss rer um Madame chair I can also ask questions to our staff as well uh we're going to get into their presentation next and then we're going to ask their qu them questions um well how about I asked the question and then you tell me if they could answer it or not all right um if all magistrate recommendations were accepted and passed today what would that total amount be including page five six seven and 8 of the PowerPoint yeah that's something7 million P 16 I'm sorry I think does p 16 answer your question miss rert the 27 million is that every single no oh you'd have to modify you have you'd have to modify the 8% increase to reflect uh uh two and a half for all fobi employees and then a 4% for Food Service employees if you were to align completely with the Magistrate's recommendations okay that that does answer my question I would like staff to write that down somewhere so we can actually see that um and I do have other questions but I'll wait till our management team goes I'm just uh you know I just like to throw it out there and have people thinking about it what what I feel like so miss Fam thank you madam chair um first of all I'd like to thank everyone for coming here today it's been exem extremely enlighting extremely and also devastating bless you at the same time because um my my heart just aches and goes out because it really sounds I mean you're really struggling it's not a matter of your inconvenience venience but but you're sinking you're not even able to tread water and I feel your pain um I just had a question I wanted to direct back if I can um I guess to the superintendent my question is we know we have this extra money that we over budgeted for FY is there any way that we can have that money um because it was like found money we didn't expect to get it back and we have it so it's been gifted back to us can we throw that into our pool and use that towards increases and uh re recurrent wages can we take that money and shift it right back to that account so it gives us extra money wait wait wait Miss Batista so um Mrs U Madam share um so this time we're there is the presentation for the the foby and then the presentation for management should take place I think Where Mrs fam is going is more for uh later the discussion after both presentations take place to try and resolve the issue um of the whole entire thing right so it can be addressed later the same thing thank you okay okay sorry guys so management may now have uh be able to make their presentation please put 75 minutes on the clock thank you very much um I have a PowerPoint presentation if we could just put that up and my apologies if some of this is repetitive I'll try to get through it quickly okay so I'm going to go over the the background so the bargaining history of the parties uh and the proposals that were made prior to the impass hearings um the recommendations the the rejection um by the district and then the the recommended resolution to these three impasses so a bit of background um the Federation of public employees there are three bargaining units and it's the fi4 unit that covers approximately 4,200 employees the Food Service Unit that covers approximately 1,200 and the clerical unit that covers approximately 1,00 employees I invite the the unions representatives to correct those numbers but I think that was uh accurate at the time of these hearings um each of these you talk louder sure each of these units each of these units um has its own collective bargaining agreement and the collective bargaining agreements opened up uh on a yearly basis to negotiate wages and certain other articles so in July 2023 the district and the three FY bargaining units reopen their cbas to bargain again wages and other topics uh and each side presented their proposals so with respect to fi 4 the proposals were a an increase to the perfect attendance award from $200 to $400 uh and then a wage proposal that had a number of different facets the the primary proposal of course is the 8% increase to to base for uh bargaining unit employees' salaries and then you have a number of different items uh that we've already discussed the the increase uh the creation of a shift differential um for FY security employees the increase for FY facilities workers on the night shift differential from 25 cents to 75 cents uh the increase of starting pay for campus monitors from 15 to 18 the increase of the top step uh for facilities employees by $5 and an increase um for the annual supplement for security specialist campus monitors and armed safety School armed safe School officers assigned as floaters from $750 to $1,500 a year now an important point during the hearing uh the Union's representative stated that its wage proposals for maintenance workers was actually reduced to 6.37% or it would amount to around 6.37% um of a base increase as opposed to 8% reason being there was what I uh would describe as a loan included in the 2022 2023 collective bargaining agreement where uh that classification of employee was essentially given around $900,000 for that year uh to be paid back from future wage proposals um just one point of clarification when the three unions that cleared impass they did so with respect to several additional articles prior to the impass hearings the the parties were able to resolve and narrow the issues to what's before you here today so what you're going to hear in terms of what's left is is just that it's it's what's left for FY clerical um the Union's proposals were um The Proposal that we discussed the the increase on employees' working calendars from 187 187 and 197 to 207 2117 and 248 days and then for wages again the same 8% wage increase um to base and then a 25 C per hour increase to the afternoon shift differential a $7 increase um to employees attending in service classes from 8 to 15 and an increase for the perfect attendance award again uh from 200 to 300 I'll just note um in terms of you know what articles are before the board today um I would consider article one an economic proposal for the reason that it has a significant economic uh component to it increasing increasing employees's calendars obviously comes at a cost as we've discussed uh for Food Service the Union's proposal was three-fold so they sought to add again the same 8% across the board increase um and then there was new language regarding a a direct 10-year increment adjustment for any managers that have been employed with the food nutrition services department for at least six years and the $2 increase to dual and triple side incentives now we haven't discussed the Dual and triple side incentive because that was the recommendation by the magistrate for food service was that that not be given um and I believe and and Lucia can correct me if I'm wrong but the the union the district rejected it the Union uh did not did not try to challenge that is that correct okay so that's not before the board today just to kind of point it out on the other hand the district's proposal has been the same and this has essentially been the response to all wage related proposals um the for the 2324 school year all bargaining employee all bargaining unit employees who are on active status will receive a one-time non-recurring nonf FRS eligible bonus which is equal to 2.26 of employees as base pay just a point of clarification when negotiations started in July the original offer was 2% I believe that was subsequently increased just slightly um based on you know calculations that were conducted so there was some additional money to be paid out in the bonus that was added and that's kind of been the the offer to all of the uh non-instructional bargaining units so as was discussed we've had U hearings on all of the the separate impasses and by Statute the magistrates their role was limited to conducting the hearing um ensuring that they figured out the areas of dispute determining the facts relating to those disputes and then rendering a decision um their objective was to achieve a prompt peaceful and just settlement of the disputes between the parties and they were required to consider these factors which I'm going to go over today so a comparison of the annual income of employ of employees for the public employment for the public employees in question with the annual income of employment maintained for the same or similar work of employees exhibiting like or similar skills under the same or similar working conditions in the local operating area involved so I think um to to summarize that it is for other employees performing the same or similar jobs in Broward County a comparison of of the annual income of employment of the employees the public employees in question with the annual income of employment of public employees in similar Public Employee governmental bodies of comparable size within the state so it refers to other school districts uh and we would say large school districts because of the size in the state the interest and Welfare of the public a comparison of the peculiarities of employment with regard to other trades and professions and then the availability of funds uh and after doing so the Magistrate has to issue a recommendation and the parties can either accept or reject obviously at this point there have been rejections which is why we're here for for a resolution from the board with respect to the unions arguments and I believe they were the same ones that were repeated today uh the primary arguments uh during the impass hearings were that the wage increases that have been negotiated over the last several years have not been enough for employees to keep up with inflation and the increase in the cost of living in County that the district's proposal is not recurring so it doesn't provide employees with the ability to budget or make long-term financial decisions and the district essentially has enough money there's money in the budget the money can come from one place or another uh but it's there and it should be able to fund the increase that the union is requesting or the unions are requesting and it should be able to do so on an ongoing basis year after year um I think generally speaking point one is it fails to to account for the significant the fact that the the increase in inflation and the cost of living has not necessarily translated to dollars for the district and I I'll get into that um in my presentation uh and generally speaking with respect to number three I'll go into why I think management believes that this is just a fundamental misunderstanding of what the district's financial position is uh and of course we have the district's financial representative here that can speak to that a little bit more with respect to Management's arguments during the impass hearings um the district believed that its proposals were consistent with the party's bargaining history consistent with what was has been offered and accepted by other bargaining units um which the union did not provide a basis to depart from uh it's consistent with the interest and Welfare of the public and it's consistent with the the school board's Financial situations the the economic realities that we've been discussing um I think the numbers are slightly off but but generally the same the the adoption of the Union's proposals for all three bargaining units would cost the district approximately 29 million I believe the what we just heard was that the number is around 27.3 million roughly um but it's you know it's 29 million and that's on on a recurring basis compared with the district's proposal which is 6.1 million uh for all three units and the $6.1 million um financial burden would be placed on just the 2023 2024 school year it would not be an ongoing uh Financial issue um just a few points on remaining consistent the district's proposal is consistent with the proposals made by to other uh non-instructional bargaining units um and that includes the meet and confer groups that that had the 2.26 non-recurring bonus imposed on their on their units um even teachers in the district teachers had a 3.96 recurring um uh pay increase 1.7% of that is attributable entirely to the teacher salary uh increase allowance so there's still a 2.26 increase that was um negotiated with teachers in terms of and I believe uh this is where Dr zema may have had a question in terms of uh the the market data for for the positions that are in question here today with respect to other uh districts uh I believe that the information that was provided in an analysis of the other five large school districts in Florida being miam day Palm Beach orange Hillsboro and Duvall um show that fy's employees is paid is competitive if not higher in certain situations than that of other districts in similar positions uh and and that pay information at least the information that we were able to obtain um was provided during these hearings have those here have some that I can give out if if um the board members want to look at that um Additionally the the pay comparison to employees in other uh similar positions in other school districts doesn't take into account the 55% referendum supplement that Schoolboard employees non-instructional employees in Broward County uh receive which as far as uh we know it's the only district school district in the state that pays its employees any amount uh of referendum funds um it also doesn't take into account that the district is the only large school district in Florida that offers its employees three health plans that are 100% paid for for employees only um and as as far as we were able to discern only Orange County pays for any other um any um health plans for its employees it provides two free health plans but in terms of a comparison with Miami day a comparison with Palm Beach Duvall um as far as we know none of those provide their employees with 100% uh uh free health plans and again going back the the district's proposal in terms of consistency uh was designed to be consistent with the rest of the bargaining units in the the district so with with respect to the proposal being consistent the the district considers itself to be a me to District where it typically negotiates the same increases for all non-instructional units so for the 23 24 school year every non-instructional bargaining unit was offered and many have already accepted and and had their agreements ratified before the board the same onetime non-recurring nonf FRS eligible 2.6 2.26 bonus that was offered to the FI unions uh the same again the same 2.26 non recurring bonus was imposed on the meet and confer groups which are comprised of supervisory employees such as principles um only teachers have received more than the 2.26 onetime bonus but again the 3.96 that was received can be broken up into a 2.2 26 albeit recurring uh pay increase and the 1.7 um increase that was provided for by tsia uh importantly and I think something that that kind of highlights this me too attitude is the proposals that we received from the union there were all 8% across the board increases um to to FY employees' pay uh with different additional supplements for for each unit depending on which employees um they wanted to to kind of narrow in on and deal with now the fact that that the district is a me to District doesn't mean that it fails to address specific needs as they arise so when the the district identifies specific pay issues it tries to address them and I'll just provide a couple of examples uh the school board was the only District that that has gone out and obtained not one but you know there now two referendums supplements that it pays employee supplements out of first one was in 2018 that was a 2% supplement then it went out and obtained the second referendum at a 5.5% that again it pays employe its employees out of non-instructional employees including those in phy um and that supplement the referendum supplement is f FRS eligible which is one of the the points that has been brought up about the 2.26 which is not F FRS eligible so this is uh this is is a way to kind of alleviate that Additionally the the district has provided and and does so pretty consistently specific groups with wage increases um and I believe uh Miss pea brought up the theou and this memorandum excuse me this memorandum of understanding actually came up during the time period the negotiations were ongoing relevant to the 2023 2024 school year which is the the 8% that is that is still being proposed by the Union uh and is before the board now um when the district identified a need uh and identified a a a necessity to to increase base operators base salaries they did so and that resulted in in somewhere between an 88.7% and a 12.1% increase uh in in pay for those for that job classification that happens to be 57% of fi 4's trans Transportation employees and it's 17% of all fi4 employees uh there was also a signon bonus for bus operators that was increased from 500 to 1,000 and at the same time actually the same week uh the district and and and FY Food Service entered into a separate mou where assistant managers pay was increased by $3 and key People's Key persons excuse me pay was increased by a dollar uh and all new employees would receive a hiring bonus of $500 so again these are these are instances where the district recognizes uh a need and goes out and tries to fill that need it's not reflected in the charts that show the the pay increases that that the employees have received because it's not in the collective bargaining agreement at the time that it's negotiated it's not in the collective bargaining agreement now because it hasn't been ratified but it happened during the 2023 2024 school year with respect to to comparables uh Management's position is that the the Union's proposals are simply not supported by the market pay data uh for similar positions in in comparably sized districts um the analysis of the five other large school districts establishes that that fi employees' pay is competitive doesn't mean that it's higher it doesn't mean you know that that they're blowing everyone out it's just really what what the the impass analysis requires which is is it competitive um I think a lot of the information that that we heard especially from Miss Bell LaVine is that you know we're looking at actual Maxes for for Broward and those Maxes may not may not be as high as what the highest point in the ranges um but what we didn't hear is well where's everyone else where is my Miami dat where's Palm Beach County where's Hillsboro and orange and Duvall and and how does that compare I mean it's really it's an analysis of comparison isn't isn't just saying Broward employees aren't paid enough um and and you know I think the information that we provided albeit information relating to starting pay uh demonstrated that at least in terms of starting pay employees are competitive again the the information relating to employees in other large school districts doesn't take into account that F employees receive um an additional 5 a half% pay supplement from The District's 2022 referendum and they'll receive that pay supplement through 2026 2027 now I I I don't necessarily disagree with what Miss pea said that that expires in 27 um but what the what is properly before the board today is 324 and for 2324 I don't think there's any dispute that employees did receive this 5 a half% supplement um again the pay comparison also fails into take into account that the district is the only large school district that covers 100% of the cost of employees as health insurance premiums for employees only I mentioned orange and I believe we received information that orange May pay for two plans for employees but other than that we don't think we we've heard of any other major SCH School District in the state paying for 100% of of employees's cost of health insurance that comes out if we do the math to approximately $113,000 post tax which again is not taken into account when we're um running the the comparables Ju Just one point and and to address a point that Miss Bellis LaVine brought up about the the spreadsheets and and it being very difficult or if not impossible to compare the the positions uh in Broward County with the positions in other districts I think finance and and Labor Relations testified truthfully that they went through a pretty painstaking process of trying to identify every position in in all of the five major school districts um and they did so not just by looking at Job titles but by looking at job descriptions um so you know I think was it a perfect process I don't think anyone's going to argue that it was a perfect process but you know I think that the district tried to do is as much as it could to to get the comparisons when it could the the unions also didn't provide any evidence that the district is losing employees to other school districts or that other school districts um employees are in similar positions are doing um you know clearly doing much better than than the districts uh I believe we did hear some anecdotal testimony that employees were exper ing issues with with retention and that some employees were going to places like Coca-Cola or Dunkin Donuts I think we heard testimony that someone was you know going to McDonald's because they were providing pretty significant uh bonuses just just for the sake of of putting this um out there the factors and and for good reason the factors that the magistrates are supposed to look at and and I think the factors that that the board should look at is a comparison with public Employers in the state public excuse me public employers are obviously in a different position than private employers private employers can pass off costs uh and increases in costs where public employers cannot because they rely on on a tax base and it's really what is coming in from the tax base versus what is going out with respect to food and nutrition services specifically and I I think we've we've already gone into food and nutrition services has its own uh fund balance um it tracks employee turnover and the testimony that we heard during the impass hearing is that employee turnover has not necessarily been related to pay the satisfaction so food and nutrition services actually tracks this they have exit interviews for employees and out of the 170 voluntary departures in leading up to 202 23 um I could be wrong about that so I may need to be corrected but leading up to 2023 uh only three employees cided paid the satisfaction as a as a reason for leaving the district so in terms of historical averages where does that fall the the testimony was that it was about the same and it's been about the same for several years um the food and nutrition services department also tracks vacancy rates and as the as a the date of that impass hearing the food and nutrition Services Department had a 5% vacancy rate which was not only the same as its historical averages but it was the same as neighboring Palm Beach County which um as we've heard has a significant uh much more money per student allocated to that district with respect to the the school board the district's financial position um generally speaking giving the F bargaining units the 8% salary increase that they seek it's okay would be unsustainable um the the fi4 and clerical uh the district the district clearly articulated during each of the impass hearings that the district is suffering monetary losses those relate to loss of student enrollment both physical and voucher enrollments or dollars allocated from vouchers I believe you'll hear from Jeff Whitney and I could kind of profer this but um some of the and this was testimony that came out during the clerical impass hearing but some of the the budgetary uh what would seem to be uh surpluses and in budgets in terms of how they're initially budgeted versus what the end of the year uh looks like can be attributed to um budgets being being inflated based solely on students that are not going to ever sit in a district seat and that's when initial budgets come out every year those numbers are inflated and then eventually they start to dwindle uh that's a reality another aspect of it has to do with um budget it's being intentionally um inflated somewhat just to make sure that there is enough money allocated for certain positions within the district doesn't necessarily mean that the money was ever there uh it just means that the the district is trying to be cautious with where it it budgets and and how it it runs that process and just one point and and I'm only speaking to the 8% salary increase because it's it's kind of you know the the overarching umbrella for all three of the FY units' uh proposals but there are other supplements that they're asking for I you know because I'm not discussing them at length doesn't mean they're they're insignificant I think they're pretty significant sums of money uh and but you know just to make sure I put that out there so under state law the district is required to maintain a minimum fund balance of at least 3% um and if the fund balance drops below that 3% the district has to submit us a financial recovery plan to Florida's Commissioner of Education who then Implement uh an oversight board to essentially run the district uh the district's general fund balance is also important to the district's ability to obtain loans at at a better rate and to ensure that you maintain positive cash flow so this is a chart of the the district's um five-year combined assigned and unassigned general fund balance so this is the number that we generally uh speak about when we're speaking about fund balance and what it's going to show based on this fiveyear now and it also shows Palm a comparison with Palm Beach in Miami dat County uh and what it's going to shows that the general fund balance is not only lower than both neighboring counties as general fund balances but it's also decreased by approximately 50% since 2022 Alone um while Miami Miami Dade County's fund balance hasn't been below 7.4% in The Last 5 Years and Palm Beaches hasn't been below 95% Over The Last 5 Years the district's fund balance was at 3.8% when the first impass hearing took place and I believe is um I I believe it's gen right now it is currently at 3 89% but Mr Whitney can can correct me if I'm wrong um generally speaking I think this is an important point with respect to um what was brought up and what Mr Reynolds mentioned about the magistrates coming to uh making a recommendation and recommending that pay increases be recurring uh and and one of the statements that he made was you know these magistrates had all of the information before them and and I think generally speaking that is accurate one of the pieces of information that I'm not sure that the magistrates took into account is they weren't just deciding in a vacuum for F4 and they weren't just deciding in a vacuum for Food Service they're essentially deciding for the 7,000 employees under the FY umbrella and really the employees outside of here um even if the board were to assume that none of the other bargaining units outside of fopi would want to come back to the table and say I don't want to accept the 2.26 non-recurring bonus or the one that I've already accepted I want to I want to do over um and I want more and I want it to be recurring even if if the board were to put a pin on that and just say you know what I'm deciding the 7,000 FY employees today um I believe the testimony that we've heard is providing FY employees with the the the amounts that the union is requesting would put the fund balance below that 3% and would require the district to uh to go back and and and notify and and shoot off all sorts of bells and whistles for that with respect to the food and nutrition services department specifically it operates on a profits and loss model so it's all a temporary increase in funding and and Mr Mills has already explained this that temporary increase um has gone away and it can't be relied on for recurring expenses so during the pandemic the USDA increased the reimbursement rate for meals that food and nutrition services served and it provided the food and nutrition services department with a supply chain Grant to help offset the sudden increase in prices in food shortages those sources of funding were obviously not permanent and as of July 2024 the USDA has reverted to reimbursing meals at the regular rate um and I I believe the testimony that we heard from Mr Mills was that during the impass hearings was that the food and nutrition services has previously operated in the red um and I'm sure as some of the board members here know the food and nutrition services at one point and this is test Tony for Mr Mills again lost every dime it had uh and couldn't pay employees' salaries and had to pay it back uh slowly over time so during those times uh unlike now employees were were terminated and there weren't any bonuses that were being offered and much less uh recurring pay increases and of course the food nutrition services departments the the primary focus which is feeding students that was hurt as well um a point being I think that despite having suffered numerous issues over the years food and nutrition services was able to to use these covid related funds to put itself in a a pretty decent financial position um and I believe the testimony that we heard at the impass hearing was that its financial position now is solid um but as we heard from Mr Mills today it's reverting back based on some of the the decreases in funding that that they're going to start to see moving forward so with respect to the interest and wealth of the public remaining fiscally responsible is in the Public's best interest um an 8% salary increase would effectively undo the fiscal responsibility the district has worked to achieve uh would Place The District in an even more difficult financial situation I think the Union's proposals disregard the district's financial position and and kind of put aside that the district may have other funding priorities including the the funding of other of other unions um which again is not necessarily considered in that 27 or so million doll um number that's that's been thrown around in connection with the the pay increases that they're seeking with respect to the food and nutrition services department specifically neither Miami day nor Palm Beach County charg their students uh anything for meals so I don't have it in front of me but my understanding was that the the highest uh bar on the the chart that was provided by the union show showed that there was a significant amount of money whereas Miami D and Palm Beach County and some other counties uh didn't have as much money in in their uh food and nutrition services funds well one of the reasons is they're they're paying out for their students meals uh and the district is moving towards that model and Miss Mary Moulder can can kind of describe what it's doing in that regard uh if the question comes up but it's it's trying to transition toward a free meal program which again is just putting it on par with my in Palm Beach County it's not necessarily going above and beyond what those districts are doing so in terms of of the recommendations I think we've we've discussed what the recommendations are but I'll go through them uh quickly the special magistrate for fi 4 recommended that there be a base increase of 2 and a half% includ inclusive of French benefits and costs um and also recommended that there be a night shift differential for facilities employees and that be increased to 75 cents and that security employees also be included in that as I said I don't think that the magistrates were looking at this from a multi-unit perspective I don't think that there's a reason that we went to three impass hearings and obviously the the issues were raised that this is a me to district and other units would want the the highest amount that is paid out um to a unit but I'm not sure if I saw any mention of it either here or in the Food Service um recommendation so with respect to Food Service the magistrate recommended that the district provide a 4% across the board increase to employees's base pay and recommended that the Union's proposal providing 10year increments for Food Service managers um be adopted as we have already discussed the magistrate recommended that the Union's proposal regarding the Dual and triple sign incentives not be adopted for clerical again we've we've discussed it but the part's elected to forego submitting post hearing briefs forego receiving a recommendation from the special magistrate and instead elected to bring the issue directly to you the school board for a decision so generally speaking I don't necessarily want to spend too much time on this but the superintendent uh the district rejected the special magistrates recommendation to provide um any sort of uh base increase to either fobi 4 and with respect to Food Service there were acceptances the acceptances were um just the recommendations that the parties do not adopt the Union's proposal regarding dual and triple side incentives um and the proposal that the parties do not adopt the Union's proposal to increase floater supplement and the perfect tendance award so generally speaking we we're kind of you know starting from from zero and what is on the table is the superintendent's recommendation of a 2.26 non-recurring um nonf FRS eligible bonus those are the issues I won't bore the district with that because we've gone over those in in detail now the the school boards rle in standard the the school board shall forth with conduct the public hearing and and the parties are here to explain their positions obviously uh thereafter the school board shall take such actions as it deems to be in the Public's best interest including the interest of the public employees involved to resolve the disputes so what is the why should the board adopt the superintendent's recommendation as I've gone over the district's proposal is consistent with the proposals made and accepted by other non-instructional bargaining units throughout the district um the district the union excuse me unions uh have not presented evidence that their proposal was supported by market pay data for similar positions at comparably sized school districts and I think this argument respectfully is is a little bit different than you know we provided the district provided information that didn't demonstrate it's it's really I think the the standard here is to provide as much information to allow the district the board to make an informed decision and I understand that the the unions want to say that the district didn't provide them with information but I think at the same token I'm not sure that we received any information from the unions regarding what the other districts are doing in terms of pay uh for Union employees the there is no evidence that the 2.26 bonus adversely affects the public interest in the welfare and instead as I've discussed the the interest is actually furthered by the super attendant's recommendation by ensuring that the district remains financially stable uh both for fi4 and clerical under the general fund balance and food and nutrition services under its its uh fund and the evidence establishes that the school board would be in a much worse financial position if it accepts the Union's proposals so I've just provided a a recommended motion move to adopt the superintendent's recommendation for settling read it off here okay are you done I think I'm done okay 36 point just stop the clock 363 all right board member questions for management this is leonardy madam chair if if I may um I had reserved some time for rebuttal I just wanted to remind the board I still looking for the opportunity to do that do it now or after the questions after the questions y okay after questions um okay okay I think I have two quick questions um so we heard from the union side that uh Market studies were not provided to them but I'm did I I heard differently from management it it's not a market study and I can just kind of show you what it is what was done was uh an analysis or or essentially post every every position in the district every position in the district as it compares to the other similar positions again looking at not just job titles but but um uh the job descriptions job descriptions thank you um and then trying to come up with some sort of analysis of you know what what employees are making in these different districts got it okay but it's not it's not a market set got it thank you for clarifying um my second question do we know why so few of our employees are at the max um you know we so many of them are at you know $15 an hour below $16 an hour why there are several groups that are none of them are at the max do we know why that is I I actually think Mr Reynolds said it correctly we have steps in these collective bargaining agreements but but employees don't necessarily move up through the steps um there isn't a time um there isn't a marriage between a number of years and the steps it's just employees are in steps if employees receive a pay increase they may move up a step based on that pay increase and was that the purpose of adding the I mean I guess this is this was not your proposal but adding the $5 was supposed to make sure that they could get up those steps or am I I don't know that was a Union's proposal I'm I'm assuming that it is there are certain employees that are topped out so presumably they they would want to move up the steps and I do believe that Miss paa said it's a zero cost I have it as a a $500,000 cost I think you know looking at the way that this was done it added $5 to each employee that's topped out at each position for facilities that may not be accurate but I think it's respectfully somewhere between Z and $500,000 um but I'm happy to let her response that Mr um those are my basic questions I think there are some concerns that my colleagues have around the the dis discrepancy in numbers but I'll I'll let them ask those questions thank you Dr Zan thank you chair um there's really uh um I want to make sure that that we get to kind of a shared understanding of the facts because in um in both presentations there's things that um use information that kind of paints a picture um what's I think compelling about the Union's case um is the disproportionate number of people that are at the bare minimum and um you know to me uh that's incredibly compelling as someone who believes deeply in a living wage uh we aren't living up to that um at the same time there's a compelling case about being uh either the only or almost the only District that pays 100% medical uh there is a a very good retirement program for all of these people there is a district that has shared ref referendum dollars with all fopi employees um and then there's a bonus offered this year when you put this together a $15 hour FY employee $113,000 of medical uh retirement of and Jeff you might want to help on this but I think it's roughly because their salar is half of the average salary there retirement contribution would be 5,000 instead of 10 um $1,500 from the referendum every year and again that's a fixed number of times I understand the limitations of referendum bonuses rather than uh salary and this bonus that was offered by bar County Schools would be turns out you know 2.26 of of this particular bare minimum $15 an hour Sal sry $678 that's total compensation of $50,100 this board has to make a decision about where to land on on this and I want to make sure that the facts um are uh incredibly clear I first want to start with asking our staff Jeff if are my numbers right within a few percentage points yes thank you very much so let's go through Dr he please I'm sorry I'm I'm a little pun thank you superintendent appreciate that um and um I don't know uh kind of like an expert in the room to talk about living wage but but there is this very very well-known impact of inflation on people at $15 an hour that is fundamentally different to people that make 25 or 35 or $85 an hour um when we hear about uh inflation two years ago 8 % in one year um that affects people making $15 an hour the full 8% and it trips triggers where they lose their car they lose their house they lose their ability to uh participate in any kind of advanced education that mean a lot of things happen when there's 8% um uh inflation to people making 50 or $100,000 a year which you know the 50 to 70,000 is primarily our teachers you know the effect is real but slightly less for people over $100,000 there's things they can do uh to change their behavior in a way that the net effect on them isn't the full %. so I'm very concerned about us not being able to keep up with people on this uh at this salary level um and I I'm going to talk about that a lot for the next couple years I don't think that a government organization like bar County Public Schools should have any employees below the living wage I just think it's wrong to do that and I can show you a thousand Studies by economists that show that you lift up a whole Community when you raise people to living rage um and it's it's really kind of the right thing to do for the overall Community um but the facts that we have before us today that I think are really meaningful is that that 8% is the full weight when you look at it over the last 5 years we have not kept up I appreciate the argument about other uh bargaining units and I'll put the 800lb gorilla out there we gave our teachers a 4% recurring rise and I I'm not asking that wasn't a question that ended with a period not question make I mean we did and and I'm familiar with what how we could do that and that's fine but then to go to everyone that's not a teacher and say you got 2.2 six as a bonus uh was our best offer I I will continue to work on this living wage issue for all employees BR County Schools forever it's really that important to me for today's uh issue I just wanted to point out that there are uh there are facts that are a little bit in uh disagreement with each other uh I wish that there had been like a single set of facts and we could have just seen it uh and we could have made a decision uh going one way or the other but um I I uh I want to make sure that not just today but forever we think differently about people making $15 an hour those people are are of great concern to our school district and to our community and we have to think about that just one question then chair and I don't know to whom it should be addressed after you but if in fact we set a minimum hourly rage for brard County Employees so Zeman says let's go this year to $17 an hour minimum wage I know how we could get a cost for that that's pretty straightforward but if in fact that's a position that we take could then uh other unions challenge that and say oh you went $2 up so you should go $2 up off per hour or if we say that this is a floor for uh paying an employee of Brower County Schools um would they really be able to uh say hey you've got to come back and talk to us about that as well because they don't have uh employees at that wage level Dr hurn I'm going to ask Mr asaro um and also general counsel if she can um weigh in also so you're saying if you gave every employee that was below that's at 15 anybody that's below 17 up to 17 yes sir then I'm trying to understand your question so so so let me rephrase it just to make it really clear because you've told us um if we offer uh FY all FY employees a 4% across the board race not a supplement not a bonus but a a salary adjustment of 4% other groups that didn't get 4% salary adjustments are allowed to come back and say hey uh me too correct right but what if the offer is about a floor of pay if the floor goes from 15 to 17 just in a hypothetical example could they come back and say hey we want our people to be at 17 as well or would they argue for the $2 extra hour per pay they can come back and argue for the extra $2 there's there's employees in other unions that are that are at $15 an hour um okay so then I think what you're saying is they'd come back and argue about the $15 an hour not about someone making $28 an hour going to 30 right okay thank you very much I appreciate that thanks chair M rubert I was going to make a um a motion but I in we're going to wait uh we still have the uh Union needs to speak and then we can make motions okay that's what I was going to ask you was now the time thank you madam yeah yeah Dr holess thank you madam chair so you know um uh I strongly um uh support uh what Dr Zan just said because um uh September 30th of this year the minimum wage in Florida goes to $13 in two years it goes to $15 wow and to hear that we have over 50% of our employees at $15 it it's just not a good look and in a couple years from now when the minimum wage goes to 15 and that's the minimum wage in the state of Florida having over 50% of our employees here making minimum wage and we're asking so much um I think it's time that we consider as Dr Zeman said some sort of a [Music] baseline uh hourly wage that we are willing to provide and include in our budget um because the amount of commitment that we ask of all of our employees and to provide them with minimum wages it's just it just doesn't sit well and I think as we move forward to the into future budget discussion that we should start with some baseline minimum Dr Zan as you mentioned so I have a few cons uh questions um the meet and confer groups and the non-instructional uh they were 2.26 correct the superintendent Mr [Music] ASO correct meeting confers 2.26 and so far PBA and tsp recently agreed to uh 2.26 okay and is that recurring or non-recurring non-recurring okay and teachers were 3.96 3.96 recurring recurring okay um as far as the the magistrate um recommendation of 4 4% for food service and 2.5% for fi 4 um is there any any um reason for the difference in the m Magistrate's recommendation as far as 4% vers and 2.5% for the two different groups they were you want go ahead Mr R different magistrates there were two different magistrates oh two different magistrates so okay so one had a recommendation of one for Food Service the magistrate believed that the evidence established uh 4 and a half uh 4% excuse me increase was warranted uh recurring and for f 4 the magistrate believed that a 2 and a half 2.5 okay now I understand okay and um as far as the clerical uh calendars is there a reason um that that was not decided on by the magistrate that was for the the clerical impass and the parties elected to foro uh the magistrate issuing a recommendation and decided to just bring it to the board okay so the current night shift differential um I just want to understand that better um facilities workers and um at night or any time of nighttime workers they they don't get a uh a difference in Pay versus daytime uh Miss pea can correct me if I'm wrong I believe they receive a 35 C differential for night work for facilities that's correct okay so we're trying to move this to 75 cents that is correct okay all right and um and also I am awaiting the response that from uh board member Rupert's requ request in the total cost should we um adhere to the magistrate's recommendation we have that cost um correct me if I'm wrong um Mr ASO $1 million 800 11,833 11,833 $142 correct Mr Whitney and I work him out different ways it's about 11.8 million 11.8 okay all right thank you I'm I'm done for the time being okay any other questions okay Union do you like to uh put her time up what was it 14 okay thank you so I want to remind this board that the magistrates were the fact finders all of this evidence was already presented to the magistrates they heard from Witnesses we had the opportunity to provide them with exhibits they have analyzed the situation and come up with recommendations on all of the disputed issues in terms of the discrepancies between the magistrates recommendations I think an added factor that needs to be taken into account is that for Food Services there is a separate source of Revenue the Food Services special revenue is different so there was a different set of facts that that magistrate also looked at both magistrates again found base salary increases are AB absolutely necessary they're necessary for these employees and I'll tell you that in terms of of the meos and the com sorry in terms of the me too let let's do that for a moment yeah it's not really a me to right because obviously there are differences in in different bargaining units and what they may or may not get with different adjustments um as was mentioned teachers of course received a 3.96% recover ing but also I just want to make it clear that there's no as far as no evidence has been presented that there's an agreement or a contract or something that says that if you give these employees anything different than a 2.26% bonus you need to go back and reopen a contract or do it with any anyone else I I just have not seen that and we can't look at everybody together you have to look at the unique circumstances of these employees their comparables what um you know their their struggle so you can't say administrators get a 2.26 bonus so people that are making minimum wage must also get a 2.26 bonus it doesn't make sense to do that and you know in fact to the extent that any employees in this unit received increases already this year beyond the non-base referendum supplement then I urge you to consider it but to say that none of these employees can get a base salary increase where they when they cannot afford to feed their families doesn't make sense and we understand and share in the district's goal to provide free meals to all kids in this District of course but how can we do that when our employees own children cannot eat it it doesn't make sense so yes there are other funding prior PR ities we urge you to make these employees a funding priority because it is about a choice a choice that you have to make today in terms of the comparables we did we did provide evidence about how we compare to other districts the difference is that we carved out those classifications that have the most number of employees so that you can get a real sense of where these employees lie right and so across the board for the for the for the information that we had and were able to identify these employees were at the minimum were at the bottom tied with some other districts when it came to minimum salaries and when it came to the maximum of the range we were at the lowest and no one makes the maximum amount no one's earning that so while we don't know what where in the salary range other districts employees in other districts fall we do know where they fall here and we've presented that evidence they fall towards the minimum so the only possible scenario is if we are towards the minimum in terms of comparables and also towards the minimum of where our employees lie is that we cannot be fairing better than the employees in these other districts and by the way there was no evidence presented as to what their Fringe is right whether theirs is a 20 a 23 or what it is that they spend on employees in addition to the base so I understand the point that the district made right that the union didn't provide there are organizations that provide Market studies and conduct Market studies for you all to consider and the owners is on the board and on the employer to put those together to make sure that are paying their employees fairly I just want to remind you of your duty of neutrality here okay your duty to consider the interest and Welfare of the public including these employees the Union's proposals support employees they support students and they support this community and after years of being left behind these employees are coming to you went to a neutral special magistrate for their recommendation and are coming to you to please please please please do something to change the 2.26% bonus and I know that in this role you're too often asked to make very very difficult decisions I know that you don't take any of those decisions lately so I'll ask you again today to make a neutral decision with an open mind and an open heart for these employees the two magistrates that heard these hearings uh both recommended a base increase with all the information they had in front of them the insurance it's not a zero sum there is no District that makes the employees pay 100% of the insurance it's usually in the 5 to 10% range is what we've seen around the State and we do comparable so it's not like we're paying 13,000 and Miami dat's not paying anything it's usually a cost sharing and even here and I've been on the insurance committee for decades uh over the years every time they come in with a premium increase there's cost Shifting the insurance for the employee is not free they're co-pays they're they're out- of pocket expenses for certain Med medications so even though the premium is being paid and it's not being paid to the employee by the way it's being paid to the uh third- party administrator so if you're making $15 an hour that's $30,000 a year roughly uh if you had to pay $113,000 for insurance you're going to go bare you're going to go uninsured that's what you're going to it do it's impossible so the history here has been that that the district does pick up the premium but there's no District that's making the employees pick up the premium um referendum money bonuses it it's all well and good but when it goes away that $15 an hour employee is still making $15 an hour even if it's 5 years from now uh it doesn't help their their retirement and at some point it goes away anyway so your neighbors have found a way to pay a base salary increase to these same types of employees Palm Beach State I know there's differences in the ffp I I'm not sure where your figures are coming from I follow it very closely I'm in Tallahassee throughout the session and the the education budget is one of the things I follow closely uh but in any case your neighbors are also faced with vouchers and Charter Schools uh and they managed to come up with a percentage increase so we're asking you to consider the same thing today and at the end of the day a budget is a reflection of priorities and values and the current offer of 2.26% one-time bonus uh we don't feel is valuing these vital dedicated and necessary employees so uh thank you I hope in your deliberations you can find a way to come up with uh something more than a one-time bonus thank you you're done you're done management the only thing I have because Miss peoplea brought up are there any other agreements we haven't seen any other agreements that would require the district to go back to the table if uh FY were were to be provided something greater than what others have already accepted I believe there was testimony and and again um Mr azero can correct me if I'm wrong that the the PBA agreement does contain some language that would require the district to go back to the table um so I think that's that's one point and then in terms of you know what the the cost sharing is for insurance premiums in other districts you know I understand that that we're hearing um from Mr Reynolds that it's approximately 5 to 10% I don't know that we've seen any test um evidence on it during the impass hearings um but it's generally uh all I have to say so I don't know if we want to ask Mr azero the question about PBA Dr heurn Mr AO to the chair uh yes that's correct PBA has language when they accepted the 2.26 that it was kind of me too so if another group got anything higher outside of the instructional that we would um come back to the table for 23 24 nothing further thank you Dr holess thank you madam chair so um um I just have a couple of questions for the clerical calendars um uh currently with the with the current calendar in place clerical workers are considered full-time correct with Benefits mrito yes okay all right um I am I am going to resort to the Zan B Baseline pay plan um I would like to if the staff could give us some numbers if we increase um or an approximation if we increase all employees to $17 an hour and then provide a 2.5% to 44 as well as food service um what would that total be Dr urn Mr a I know you probably need some time we're going to need some time yep need a little bit time to calculate that do you have more questions that's it okay Miss leonardy um I had a question about the meu um so if we were to you know deliver or vote on a salary increase and the PBA decided uh or they they claimed me to they wanted to come back to the table would that require us to give them the same or is that up to negotiation could we say no we're not gonna we're not going to do that Dr heurn uh Mr AO or Mr Ruiz yep so correct it's just coming back to the table does not mean they would get the same thing got it thank you m rubert I would like to make a motion are we there yet yep we're there okay um I move that the base salary increase of 2.26 which is exactly this would be reoccurring and not a one time is there a second second move by rert second by Hixon uh I guess we don't take public comment right Miss mtia Board member comment on the motion Miss hion thank you thank you Miss rert I actually had it written down on a sticky um and I I'm going to say out loud I know it's not enough um but we the direction we are going for this year is to to try to get my my hope is to get to 4% for every employee that's what I have had with the discussion with the superintendent um it's what we've directed our CFO to figure out how to find um at least that much money so making it the 2.26 for 2023 comes out of ARP we've put that aside we know we can cover it and we know we're moving in a direction to try to get to 4% so we could say 2.26 and still go back and increase it but I think that um and I don't mind saying I know we're here for you but doing that across the board um because it is the direction that the board is looking to go in the upcoming year it will not be easy I understand that and I can feel people's eyes on my neck at the moment um but it it it is from the day I got here 4% is also not enough but it is should be our minimum Baseline that we're always every year trying to get to at least if not more so um I appreciate again you making this motion I will support it and and I hope that it's more than that when we move forward in the negotiations thank you Dr Zan thank you so much chair um thank you uh for uh the presenter of this motion um I'm going to make a substitute motion um to my understanding uh the unions have gone in and asked for 8% magistrat said 2 and2 and 4% but uh budget tiers have said that that cost us $1.8 million in recurring costs if they were to give what the magistrate asked for uh my motion will be to um raise recurring salaries by a total of $1.8 million um and fill from the bottom up so that's for fopi employees um around $1600 per employee so it's a 5.3% raise uh but it isn't for all all people to get the same percentage raise it's to start with people M making the minimum and build up till we get to a point where we've spent the 11.8 million is there a second second for discussion mooved by Zan second by wholeness Board member commment Miss lardy um I actually had well I guess this question applies to this motion as well um so we are not addressing the rest of the magistrates recommendations right we're only addressing one piece of it that's what the the Motions are addressing correct right so are we going to have to go so say one of these motions passes are we going to have to go back and make motions on all of the recommendations as okay if a board member chooses to okay well I'm I'm seeing people nod so I don't know if it were are we do we not if we were to not go and make motions on all the recommendations is that okay too yes okay thank you yep you reject those other items Miss fam yeah i' I'd like to make a motion that oh wait no no no right now we're on Dr Zan substitute motion okay kind of works with it coincides with it do you want to speak to his motion please yeah Dr z i I'd like to make I don't know if you can call it a companion motion or or um substitute motion but we shift the money that we had free previously Loc Lo at in the fund back over to support paying that increase in raises and and I I would go for that I would definitely support that because that way we know at least we have for the year it's covered thank you that would be my motion okay um so on this substitute motion the $ 11.8 million where is that money come coming from Dr Sean well uh in my mind there's a variety of sources for it you know we just sat through a whole bunch of budget briefs we've also asked the superintendent to find a $100 billion do and so there's going to be some uh ideas coming back to this board about where uh specifically we can find that um but this is uh a motion that is really about living wage and about not paying people $15 an hour that work for us um and so uh I couldn't be specific right now about a line item in category but I'm confident uh with any amount of time uh we could find it out of the savings that come back to the board okay I'd like to just draw the board's attention to page five of the the PowerPoint that was handed out um the 2425 general fund balancing it says on the top now now this is for 2425 but what we're voting on right now is for 2324 so I understand moving forward how where we are with the funding but I guess Dr hn can staff explain because the budget for 2324 is already set and isn't that money spent so if we now add this money up 11.8 million how does that all work cuz it was already spent wasn't it that is um correct chair right now in AR there is approximately $6 million set aside for the 2.26 um onetime bonus and um I'll let uh Mr Whitney elaborate if needed if there is any additional unspent funds in in ARP um but I know there's a set aside for $6 million at at at this time just one sec I'm sorry Jeff Whitney budget director so um as as we stand with ar right now the you know the the grant sunsets on September 30th and so the district will have to have to do some things but the the portion of the district's budget that's in the American Rescue plan is is spoken for in the balancing of of the budget in inclusive of what we're doing with um the 2.26 that was already accounted for um you know there there are some funds that the charter schools have not spent and we don't expect they will spend them all but we don't have any Assurance right now from the state what they will allow us to do with those funds and um I'd be very cautious with that given our history with the state and Charter Schools okay so besides the 2.26 percent is there and I have to ask this question is there any money that is not allocated from ARP I understand the charter goal but besides that is there any other money there no the the the entire balance of ARP is is is included in what was adopted in the balance budget this year okay so we'll get 6.1 million from there Dr Zan so my question is then do or Dr he then does the board if they approve this have to then go back and cut something from ARP that was already funded no so from my understanding what Mr Whitney is saying is that the current 20 2425 budget is balance with some art funds because we used we uh used some of those funds to pay for reoccurring raises for teachers also so uh Mr Whitney I don't if you can elaborate is there a process of cutting and going back to the so we're we're we're at a point now with the American Rescue plan um what was sent to the state as as the final District's Amendment those I mean those categories at this point are effectively locked in without some um without without the state agreeing to something that's beyond what's in the normal Grant um time lines already um so and it's and it's not like if if even if we could right so if we could cut something from ARP um it's it's part of the balance budget so we're effectively cutting something from the balance budget so I mean the best characterization is that you know the superintendent cabinet um the districts departments are are working towards finding additional cost saving measures to meet the the board's directed Goal to to cut some more money so that there's more funding available for employee compensation and and that's where it's going to come from whether we call it ARP or we call it general fund it's it's coming out of those funds in in their totality okay so we have to come up with $5.8 million and my my question is if we approve this can we take that money from the 2425 budget Mr Whitney so to the extent that we're talking about a recurring and rather than just a base we're taking we're taking the recurring portion from the 2425 budget the the the 2324 amount is already factored in to our to our to our budget as it were so we're looking to cut you know to to fund so the value of this for a year is the $1.8 million um it's coming from fund balance for last year and it's coming from the district's budget this year which at this point in time is is either fund balance or cost cutting measures to to fund a recurring so the 5 uh can't remember 57 still need to find right is that is that going to so if we take that from the fund balance from the 23 24 year how does this now affect our fund balance so every percentage of our of of fund balance right now is in the $24.7 million range so um that has a 20% I mean it's not a percentage point we're not going from so our CU we're at what 4. we were at 3.89 when we were in the negotiations through the financials that were available then when we closed the year the final fund balance percentage number was closer to 4.4% and it was 4.37 in the yearend financials so we'd be losing 20% of that value so I think um to summarize it is very difficult to retray um beyond the 2.26% that's the difficulty because that budget year has closed um the current budget year has some AR funds are used to to balance the current Year's budget so that's the difficulty is going beyond the 2.26% that we know is there um and set aside uh for retro payments okay so I'm going to be voting no on this but to my colleagues I do have a very robust motion uh that I think could help us get us there that would be using funding from 2425 Miss Hixon I just have a a question um so I I think the number is not 11.8 based on what we were saying so 2.26 just that well the 11.8 was 2.5% for everyone except for food and nutrition which was 4% and the other items on here is that correct because I think that's what Mrs rert asked for what would be we're on Dr Z motion I know but he came up with the 11.8 number because that's the number they gave us for everything not just the salary increase Sal I'm sorry so that's what I just wanted to ask is this the 2.5 plus the 4% plus the night shift the um the manager and the clerical calendars Dr Mr Ao no that is just the salaries and what and um since clerical we did not receive a magistrate recommendation I just used 4% for the clerical because we didn't receive anything else so it's 4% clerical 4% food 2.5 F4 just that that recommendation 11.8 mil okay because I thought Mrs Rupert's question was what the total of everything was so it's um it was just a little confusing all right thank that's going be harder to figure out Dr Zan thanks chair I just want to make sure I'm clear on the motion uh in my view our books last year have closed and that 2.26 onetime bonus is the amount of money we put in and we closed the books and we've moved on this 11.8 is for the 2425 year to allow everybody uh this year to have a raise from the bottom up and again this is a lot of Economics but it's also a lot of morality which is I can't stand people working for us that make $15 an hour it's no way to live it's no way to fight but it is higher than what uh the magistrate uh asked for in in some uh cases because it's roughly 5.33% for uh the people from the bottom uh moving up so it would lock in the 2.26 non-recurring um but then it would add it would take 11.8 million which is what the magistrate uh ruled the cost of what the magistrate ruled for for all the things he ruled on and it would apply it to the 2425 uh salary from the bottom up until we expend all those funds Miss Batista so your role here today um as a legislative qu legislative role is not to um is to resolve the impass MH and the impass is for the 2324 school year it's not for the 2425 school year that would be negotiations that would have to take place for the upcoming year um so to the extent that the motion um and and I think um the union is um in agreement with me because they're they're not in their heads but um so whatever you are going to come up with here as a board um has to be to resolve the 2024 2324 for impass terrific I understand that um if in the resolution of the 2324 impass so we assign base salary increases that does affect 2425 and every year since if you make it recurring from that point forward it will affect the 2425 terrific so that's that's uh um I was just trying to do it a little bit more graceful way um so I'll just stick with the 11.8 million for the 2324 resolution from the bottom up okay any other questions on Dr Zan Miss Hixon can you explain what that means H how would you do that so um there are 7,400 employees that we're talking about today um it sounds to me like from the numbers that there's a lot of them earning 15 or 15 A2 or maybe $16 an hour but what I would want to do is to fill that bathtub of the lowest paid people of the 7400 until um you get to a number it may be $17 an hour where uh now the lowest minimum paid for all $7,400 is $17 an hour and you would just spend the $ 11.8 million to to fill from the bottom up I'm very concerned about inflation to those people I'm very concerned about them coming to work every day unhealthy uh unsa not fed you know doing the kinds of behaviors that you just can't imagine that people do at $30,000 a year of salary or maybe some people can imagine it but to me um that is a appropriate kind of balancing of the Union's need for greater compensation with the need that we have for productive people coming to work excited to be here every day who also can take care of their minimum standards that have been eroded significantly uh by inflation over the past 5 years so just to to piggyback on that though a lot of people making the lowest amount are the newer employees see I wish I wish that was true but it's not I know but I'm just saying if you were an employee that had been here I'm just trying to balance this out and I hope this is not true but let's say you're here for six years and you're making the $15 an hour and someone new comes in and is making the $15 if you do it the way you're saying you're not looking at the time they were here everybody would get there so I the morality issue we've heard this over and over again you've been here a number of years and someone new coming in is making whether it's 100,000 or 10,000 right we've heard the same issue so I don't know if I I get what you're saying and I don't necessarily disagree with the sentiment of it but I think that people who have been here for a number of years that would get the same increase as someone who came in this year at that rate would not increase their Morality In terms of getting paid so anyway I don't I and I don't know that we have to figure that all out today necessarily but I just wanted to put that out there because it is something we've heard over and over again that it's you have to also remember the people with tenure are not making what they should be and if you do it on the back in more people are newer at that lower level if than than moving up so I just wanted to point that out and I think that's a fair point but that employee that's been here 6 years making 15 is not going to turn down $17 an hour now the fact that they also make the same amount as a newer employee uh that's not perfect but they're also going to get $2 more per hour and and to me all of our $15 an hour people regardless of how long they've worked here cannot live live in Broward County and cannot feed themselves and cannot make basic decisions about hygiene and and just basic well-being of life that's where it becomes a moral issue so it's great to worry about like age groups and tenure groups and all that but but someone with 20 years experience earning $15 an hour is still going to be happier making $17 an hour and is going to be able to move up the ladder in terms of the kind of economic decisions they're going to be able to make for them and their family okay so I personally just think that you're gonna have disgruntled employees people are going to be upset and um yep one minute Miss R yeah let's roll are we ready to vote yeah okay roll call on the sub on the substitute motion Dr Zan 118 million filling from the bottom up roll call on the motion alidev no Austin no fam yes fogan oie no Hixon no holness yes leonardy no rert no Zan yes motion fails 63 okay back to Mrs Rupert's motion 2.26% base salary reoccurring any comments Noe we're good ready to vote no I have a question actually Dr Zan that's I'm ways in my hand 2.26 gives what um uh dollar amount increase uh to the vast majority of these workers that are making $15 an hour Dr heern Mr AO Mr Whitney what percent increase what's a dollar amount of money that someone earning $15 an hour is going to get in a recurring raise at 2.26% well let's see $15 times 1. 0226 that make 1533 I'm sorry $15 $15 33 cents is 2.26% right and I'm just going to go on the record again to say there's no reason why we have an employee coming to work at $15.32 an hour we can do better okay any other comments roll call roll call Mr Allon go ahead I did have a quick question thank you um just to confirm uh the motion that's on the floor have we budgeted for this uh recommendation and the current budget of the board just voted for Dr hurn no we have not but that's going to be this next question based on our last um budget hearing for money that was set aside for all staff 1% um to figure out if that the board's uh plure if that's uh where that funds will come from okay so the board is not set aside money for this so if the motion passes where would this money come from and I think I heard some of the question before so I understand Dr he right now as far as looking at the the budget hearing that we just did the only funds uh available right now would be for that 15.9 or 15.4 that was set aside for 1% for all staff and where's the the 15.9 I'm sorry where is that money currently allocated for what is it for that was the set aside for the 1% overall got it so this so this will now come from from uh one a base salary increase for every employee that's where this money is coming from preliminary yes uh and until my team has the opportunity to get back in our offices to to uh look at other cost savings to see where we can pull this money from but got it okay it will be irresponsible for me to vote on anything today uh not knowing where the funds are coming from uh we're already using onetime funds uh to fund the current budget that we're in so all right thank you so much Miss superintendent thank you madam chair Miss Hixon thank you um but I just want to remind all of us that we gave the superintendent a directive to find $100 million to try to be able to give um or to give a pay raise a recurring pay raise to our all of our employees So based on that he has promised he's going to come back in January with that information so based on that that is is why I I believe that doing the 2.26 recurring um makes sense thank you madam chair and yeah Dr olness thank you I just want to go on record to say as we regardless of how this vote turns out that as we go into the next school year and subsequent school year that we consider increasing the base pay for our bottom employees $15 is just too low and hopefully we can have that in our future discussion I think 17 sounds good in the future and I I just want to go on record to say that we need to uh in the future consider increas in the base pay CU $15 in two years will be minimum wage in Florida that's not what we want to pay our employees is leardi yeah and I I completely agree with you Dr holess um and I I agree with you know the idea that it is immoral to to pay people what um what they cannot live off of um so I'm with you and I I'm committed to doing that work um and we have to do what is within you know our means uh to to do what we can for our employees and we just didn't have the means to do what the the previous motion called for thank you thank you and I want to just make this comment too that to bring a kind of full circle to the conversation today with us having to close schools and right siize our schools that is Paramount because we cannot continue in the same footprint in Brier County Public Schools where we keep losing our students and we're not getting the funding in we want to pay our employees more money but we have to have a smaller footprint so I know we've asked the superintendent to close at least five schools but that might need to be more and I remember previous Workshops the conversation was more and it listen it doesn't feel good I don't want to have to do that but it's important so we can pay our employees more than $15 an hour and give you the respect that you deserve but we have to close schools and I know it's a tough thing for this board to have to do and it's a tough thing for us to have to vote on and it's a tough thing for for our communities but it's paramont for us to be able to move forward and be successful and make we're never going to make everybody happy but we want to we value our employees and we want to pay you as much as we possibly can but we have to reduce our footprint just Dr zon thank you so much um there is one other source of funds to respond to miss Lenard's point that we don't have the money um part of the funds that have been requested by the Union for Food Service employees grant money that we get uh right now we ask um uh nobody to pay for their food at schools in Broward County um so basically we're subsidizing people who are fully capable of paying for their meals because we do that I'm not sure exactly the reasons behind it but what we ask people who have plenty of means to pay for school not to pay if in fact we asked people that could afford to pay for meals to pay for meals how much of that food service budget could be applied to paying Food Service workers instead Dr Mr Whitney I don't know if that's a go ahead Mark it's okay for me to be able to talk I'm sorry Mark what's your full name Mark Mills go ahead Mark Mills so it's Mark again um yes we would be able to fund all like we currently do we fund salaries infringe benefits for all of our employees whether they're in the schools or in the dist district office we would continue to do that and if it necessary because we are feeding everyone free we would take that money out of our fund balance and just decrease our fund balance as we go So eventually we'll have to make a decision like it's been mentioned here there are people capable of paying for their meals we may need to revert back to the way it was filling out applications and qualifying those students and family households that do qualify for free or reduced meals and then those that do not and have the means to pay for that they would then be paying a student price and how much of that um would be recouped per year if we went back to the model where people who could afford it who were in schools that had less than 70% of their children qualifying for free and due lunch because I know if we're over 70% we we've asked in the past not to have anyone pay so there'd be no uh stigma associated with those that can't but what's the magnitude of the money that we could get if we asked people who could afford to pay for meals to pay for their meals so roughly we you earn earned in the past of local sources which would be student um lunches or student breakfast we would recoup probably about $7 million thank you very much and we need 5.7 to pay instead of the 6.1 to pay the full $ 11.8 million so to people that are asking questions about where we could find this money um I would suggest that we ask people who can afford meals to pay for meals I don't know why we ever decided not to do that because there are people who work for us who can't afford to pay meals and I don't feel good about that and I'm never going to feel good about that I'm going to keep talking about it until I'm blew in the face oh so why can't we use the $7 million next year and ask people to pay for the meals that can afford it and pay it to the people that are serving them next year I'll second that okay we're on Mr rber motion anything else Dr Z not today okay Miss Leonardi I'll save us time I I was going to make a point about paying for meals but I'll save us the time of doing okay all right so the vote is on chair yes Mr Alon sorry let me ask one last question I've been good all day um so if I could to the superintendent we have already gone down the exercise of finding 100 million in reductions is that correct yes we went through that exercise um sometime this summer as I recall um and then we didn't okay and the board did not get to 100 million if I recall is that correct correct we did not finish that exercise so I took it upon myself to task uh my team U with realizing those those cost savings that we can bring back to the board um later in the uh this semester in the winter or early spring got it okay I recall we actually went through the exercise the board actually went in a different direction to get to 100 million so okay I just wanted to make sure we actually went through the exercise initially um but you're planning to do it one more time okay got it thank you sir thank you thank you Miss lardy yeah I think it's just important to to remember um the facts of of the initial presentation of the $100 million cuts it was more of a hypothetical worst case scenario the board um did direct the superintendent to go back and bring back some realistic uh cost savings so um I I appreciate that and I look forward to hearing about those cost savings that are going to come to us that are realistic and uh doable thank you okay so the motion on the floor is for the 23 24 school year All foby 4 fobi clerical and foby Food Service bargaining unit employees who are on active status will receive a reoccurring F FRS reoccurring 2.26% of the employees base salary roll call roll call on the Motion Austin no fam no foli no Hixon yes holness no no Leonardi yes rert yes Zeman no uh alad yes it fails 54 okay we're back to the recommended motion is for the 2324 school year All foby 4 foby clerical and FY Food Service bargain unit employees who are on active SS receive a one-time non-recurring nons El bonus equal to 2.26% of the employees based salary roll call is there a second oh is there a second is there a second no second okay I'm lost I just I just see him nodding no but I don't hear him do you have a question I I do have a question I think it's the same question Miss peip has the the at this point the board has to resolve all the issues that didn't pass I'm just not sure if if the motion is to resolve all of the issues you know one motion and and one F swoop or if the the board is going to take on the additional items at another point or um just to just as a point of clarification because ultimately we have to reduce it to writing okay Miss Batista do you want to make a recommendation Miss Hixon I have an I thought we were going to do each item separately so I have a motion on a different item all right go for it okay thank you I would like to make a motion to approve the F the food nutrition services manager tenure adjustment second second move by Hixon second by rert board member comment I mean I guess my just comment is that again if if we're going to imp approve everything and now we telling me we're not even going to approve the 2.26% bonus where is that money coming from the the food and nutrition services has their own budget and when we looked in this item they had $57 million and this is 388,000 so to to me it's a onetime deal it's not over and over again if I'm not mistaken right this was a onetime onetime issue it right it was a one time adjustment it's a one-time adjustment but it's it's a recurring cost okay so is so can we just confirm where the money is coming from Mr Mills can you um confirm if this would come out of the food nutrition budget yes the funding would come from food nutrition um it would be reoccurring from the perspective of once we bump up the manager they're going to get that same amount every year so it's it goes with us as we flow but it would come out of the fund balance and we do I think our fund balance right now is about 53 million um like I said earlier we anticipate losing in 15 million so that'll come down but we there's yes there's ample money there to pay for that okay and is there a a me to consequence Dr aburn Mr Ao no there's not okay any other comments all in favor of the motion to approve the FNS manager tenure adjustment say I I those opposed say no passes M no Al one no Mr olon no fog ho no fogan holy passes next misson that's it you have any other motions well I have a question before I make the motion so topped out facilities employees that $5 the number here is zero but our um the man our lawyer said it would be a million dollars can someone speak to that because if it's Z it seems like a no-brainer easy enough to fix um but if or you said 500,000 so there's a big difference between zero and 500,000 and is that a one-time cost and and if I can just clarify there's a cost out and the cost out um what it did during the cost out is it took everyone on the the top pay scale and then it moved those individuals and it added $5 I don't I don't necessarily think that's accurate so my thought is if we're going to add $5 um if there's going to be a range and that range is increased by $5 and then there is um an increase to base then obviously those individuals that were topped out before are going to increase now I don't think they're going to I think the testimony that we heard is they're not going to increase the the whole $5 so I don't know I think it'll be somewhere between $500 and0 which if if that makes any sense I don't know what the number will be and if I may clarify I I believe that if you were to give an increase to base those employees who are topped out get that as a lumpsum payment so the cost is still there what they don't get is an increase to their base salary so what would be so for the purposes of the 23 24 school year the cost is zero regardless of what you and it's a onetime deal at topping it up at the $5 it it increases it at it increases the room to grow into two salaries by $5 but nobody's going to even with an 8% increase get a $5 increase that's top out at the facilities okay still not sure I understand but um so I would like to make a motion to increase the maximum step for all facilities classifications by $5 second second mooved by Hixon second by rer board comment all in favor of the motion to increase top out employees by $5 Mr Al Madam chair yep go ahead thank you just same question uh have we budgeted for this Z Dr hurn No from my understanding this would cost $0 um correct me if I'm wrong um it will cost $0 we're just expanding the pay scale by $5 but even with a significant increase of eight or even 10% um employees would not reach the top of the that pay scale yet so it will cost so is there is there there is a zero Financial impact correct okay all in favor of topped out facilities employees say I I I those opposed say no chair motion carries Dr Zan thank you so much chair I'd like to move that we give a 4% across the board raise to all F FY Food Service uh employees second move by Seaman second by rert board comment and before people ask I would pay it out of the Food Service fund balance and how much is that uh I'd be coming with a little guess so maybe we can ask our experts M AO and then Mr Mills if you can come to the table because we have question yeah it's 1.2 million okay is there a me too on this Dr urn they are Mr Azo we're looking what's anything that increases salary or wages has me too y for PBA okay and so the specific motion was to increase um FY Food Service correct by 4% right by 4% okay so I I have to ask the question then if we do this here me too what is it because this is uh 4% but what is it going to cost us overall with the me to Dr heurn Mr Aero we vote now can you repeat that I'm sorry one more time how much would this cost overall for all um all Food Service all FY employees all the FY yeah because of the me too and secondary question um Mr Mills um if you can elaborate if you your budget allows for this increase or rein Curren increase yes um if the 4% for 2324 um of course that fund whatever additional salaries that were not paid out that year would roll back into our fund balance for this fiscal year we've budgeted I believe 25% so the remaining that we didn't budget for would then come out of the fund balance Dr heurn Mr 1% increase for all aopi is roughly 3 million so 4% increase would be 12 million for all aopi okay so where is that 12 million coming from that 4 million is just a risk they have to come back here to negotiate there's no guarantee that they're going to get it from the board okay okay any other comments can I get a clarification on the motion no on the me too I I didn't understand what just happened so um I can because you've already given the teachers a guaranteed raise doesn't that Al already kick in the me too for PBA M AO till the agreement with PBA when they accepted the 2.26 bonus we put in there that if any non-instructional Group after this received it we'd come back to the table it's not a guarantee that they get the same thing it's just we come back okay roll call no comments from the audience please roll call roll call on the motion fam can someone repeat it repeat the motion yes 4% increase to base pay for FY Food Services FY Food Services say only roll call on the motion fenoli no Hixon no holness yes leonardy yes rert yes uh Zan yes alidev no Austin no fails four fails okay any other motions okay Miss Batista what do we have left to vote on Madame chair yep can I make a motion yeah please I'd like to make a motion that we uphold the magistrates recommendation for FP uh 4 at 2.5% and also clerical at 2.5% is there a second second second moveed by holess second by Zan forward comment Miss rert question um would that be all of Phi or were there just two groups for clarification the groups that are mentioned here in the impass correct okay thank you okay so is this reoccurring motion reoccurring and how much money is it Mr AO so just fobi 4 and foby clerical or all the units no just what's in the impass here in today so well all all the FI is here there's fi for there's fi clear and F food um the magistrate recommendation is for f uh for all F they they said for fi food it was going to be 4% F so 2.5 for food service and um the other FY groups that's um listed here in the magistrates recommendation so 2.5 across the board correct okay so that' be well all 1% is 3 million so 7 and a half million is that excluding F Food Service food I mean food nutrition that's all ofia is what he was asking so all ofia including oh okay including all so 7.5 million Miss hion um so we have put aside for this year 2.26 so what would be the cost to get to 2.5 that's so we put aside million 6.1 mil2 we put aside about 6.1 million for the 2.26 bonus so that would leave 1.4 for last year and then 7.5 moving forward balance can the 1.4 be covered under Food Services yes yes perfect well they can pay for the 2.5 from FY can be come out of the FY budget all right so um Miss Aero can you you're going to have to give us two numbers what would the 2.5 cost for food and nutrition so we know exactly that amount that food Ser the food nutrition budget can pay for and then what's the the um the rest what would the rest cost you is your can we take like a 5 minute break that's maybe right after this motion so we can look at the numbers that they're actually getting for us we let's just get the numbers first just a five minute break2 two ask the question it's 800,000 okay okay get ready get ready for number everybody so again we are uh eyes are starting to cross FY food would be about 785,000 400 785 400 for fobi food 2 and a half% coming out of their budget FY 4 and FY clerical would be about 6.9 million and together that equals 7.5 million so the bulk of 7.5 is FY 4 and FY clerical i' say it again FY food go ahead FY food is about 785,000 400 uhhuh and then foby 4 and foby clerical would be 6.9 million the 2.2 I'm sorry the 2.5 recurring okay and is there a me too on this yeah with the salary we'd have to bring PBA back to the table and how much is that valued at if they got 25 mhm uh they're a small group they would get but they're Mighty about 38,000 okay 5 minute recess e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e okay welcome back we are on the motion board member comments on the motion so I have one comment we are so based on the motion we're going to be 800,000 short on the Retro and then if the me to required by contract pbaa would be 38,000 um and then so the other possible me to meet and confers not required by contract would come out to 3.9 million so that's not we're not talking about that right now that they're not in it's not in the contract that they're required to get the me too so uh I would add to this motion that so we'd be $838,000 short from the 6.1 million that we have for the 2.26% so I would make add to the motion that we would direct the superintendent to take the $838,000 from fund balance to pay for the 2324 retro payment of the 2.5% second second okay moved by Alf second by rert board comment Miss Hixon uh just a quick question and we may or may not have the answer but I know that there are some funds in ARP so if it turns out that there are funds left in ARB because we won't know until closer to the 30th could we make that direction not if it's possible to take it out of AR do that and if not then the general funds but I'd like to spend all the AR funds because there may be some left over CU that's yeah so that's a that's an interesting point Miss Hixon so is there a threshold like is there a date deadline that I guess the um charter school money then does it just go to our to to Bar County Public Schools how's that work Mr Whitney so at at this time we don't have any specific confirmation from the state that they will allow us to tap into that for the Local District at all um and and we're up against some expenditure deadlines so so um I think we're better off if we stick with the fund balance and and through accounting entries if we're allowed access to any of the Charter School portion of the funds it will effectively um be be something that we can move into our our fund balance rather than dedicating it to ARP I think that this is going to complicate the issue that's however this you know works out I just wanted to make the point if there was money in the art it makes sense to not deplete our general fund so whether it's a reimbursement or however that works I just wanted to put that out there because there is a slight possibility that we could cover this for this year anyway or for the 2023 24 right so so effectively if if the state were to allow us to tap into any of the unused Charter School monies it would be helping the school district's fund balance period okay all right any other board member comments nope is everybody clear on the motion all right ready to vote Madam chair yes so no I'm I'm not clear um so I I heard the uh question and answer back and forth 1 million now almost 4 million potentially later uh pull from the reserve now um and I thought we were just around 15 million to get it up to 5% so we're now going to add to that number on top of us knowing that we still need to find another 100 million is that I just want to make sure I paint the right picture do I understand that correctly no sort of so the FY food is two we're going to be giving them the 2.5% $785,000 foby for foby clerical 6.9 m million we'd be $800 $800,000 short and then the me to pbaa by contract we would be have to pay them 38,000 so it would be $838,000 short and we' be directing the superintendent to take that from the fund balance for the 2324 retro payment of 2.5% could I just ask one final followup is the recommendation coming from the Finance team to pull from general fund at this point and the superintendent Dr or is that your recommendation Madam chair Dr he so board's recommendation any other thank you I'm sorry whose recommendation to cut out Dr heer hello can you ask that question again miss famam is just say your a recommendation this is the board's recommendation Miss fam no the pulling the money you said it's Dr he's recommendation yes we're we can take it out of general fund and re and replenish and the recommendation is coming from Dr heer it's a motion on the floor um by the board Miss Miss fam no she's asking if it was my recommendation I I just have a point of order that I need to know one that this money Madam chair may I asked my question go ahead I need to know if we're going to be at risk as going below a reserve minimum requirement by by doing this deal at this point and who's making this recommendation because I want to be assured that if something goes wrong that I ask the right question because I'm not going to vote for this if this is going to put us in Jeopardy the entire District so I want to make sure that we're covered so who can answer that please M ma no we it won't um bring the fund balance below the necessary amount um for reserves for for the state any other questions I have a question okay go Mr Alon thank you madam chair sorry I thought I heard a totally different answer just a minute ago um I thought I just heard it was not the recommendation from the superintendent and finance team to pull from the general fund and then I think I just subtly heard well actually let me ask the question again Mr superintendent can you clarify is this your recommendation the finance team to pull from the general fund or is this a board recommended item I just want to make sure I'm clear yes there's a motion on the floor and I understand availability of fund that that's what I understand there's a motion on the floor um for to pull the 800 $38,000 from fund balance there's a another question around if we can do it with with uh art reserves that we may potentially have access to we agreed that it's better off to pull it out of fund balance than to uh wait on Art dollars that may not be realized um for our use by the state and replenish uh with cost savings through um this semester if that clarifies um for you Miss D and also miss fam and Miss fam no this does not bring us under the threshold required for um the the state s darney um I just wanted to clarify with the motion um are you automatically including uh doing the the same percentage for PBA or is it just that we are you know we understand that there is a me a process that they'll have to go through but I just wanted to have the money prepared got it okay thank you okay roll call roll call on the motion fogan Oli no Hixon yes holess yes Leonardi yes rert yes Zan yep alidev yes no [Music] fam no I'm nervous about this now passes 63 okay I move to reject the night shift and the clerical calendars second move by Alf second by Zan board member comment all in favor of rejecting say I I those opposed say no no item no passes rert and wholeness it was Leonard oh Leonardi and holess saying no okay Mrs F holy no fog holy no Danny sorry anyone else no Austin no okay roll call yes sorry roll call roll call roll call on the this is to reject roll call to reject Hixon I'm sorry chair U I just want to be clear for our people um dialing in and beaming in um could you repeat uh what a yes vote means a yes vote to my understanding is we're rejecting the change in the calendar and we're rejecting the night shift funding but you're rejecting the uh number five clerical calendars eliminate shorter calendars for clerical employees if you vote Yes you're reject thanks appreciate and this one and if you um vote Yes you're rejecting the night shift differential to increase the shift differential to 75 cents per an hour for for facilities clerical and security employees Madame chair y yes I'm are you willing to put those in two separate motions at this point yeah hold on Miss fam um sure that some dogking I'm sorry I had Miss fam one second we I think she's having okay if it makes it easier for everyone I'll separate it out my first motion will be to reject two night shift differential to increase the shift differential to 75 cents an hour for facilities clerical and security employees that's my first motion there second second moved by second by Zan board comment roll call roll call on the motion to reject Hixon yes Hess no Leonardi no rert no Zan yes alade yes Austin no fam motion fails 63 fogan holy maybe sorry fogan sorry no yes motion fails 36 okay so since so miss batia since that failed so that means we're going to be giving them the night shift differ no no oh we have to make another motion so someone wants to make a motion on there on the no side dress I motion to give a night shift differential of uh 50 cents per hour instead of 75 so second second move by holess second by rert board comment how much money is that $412 Dr heurn Mr [Music] Aero we're looking at it so going from 35 to 75 cents was 900 88,000 but we're going to calculate the other one hold on W 35 50 cents yes is this retro to 23 24 23 24 yeah I don't know where you're getting the money from we don't have the numbers easy to figure this out it'll be less than 988 th000 I can tell you that 700,000 then 2/3 of it there you go 200 700,000 Dr Z do the good job Dr a plus okay what did you say 7 30,000 and you're getting that money Dr H from where cents more um so the question I have is if if that is two questions if that is taken from fund balance are we within the state required balance and secondly wasn't we can always have a fund balance goal in the year 20 425 that would replenish whatever is taken Dr a um so I think when you add what was the amount 700 700,000 so that goes to probably about 1.6 million dollar we're talking about pulling out a fund balance I mean it it's doesn't uh it's not at the point where you know we're at fiscal urgency but this does continue to deplete make and then makes it harder to replenish so I want to caution the board um on continuing to depend on fund balance for anything addition to the 838 th000 that we just did with a 2.5% like withdraw my second I have a question no one sec it's not going from zero to 50 it's going from 35 to 50 that's only 15 cents that's not $700,000 can she it's currently 35 it's going from 35 if there's no objection Miss rer was like to redraw second okay see no objection chair can we be clear though uh just as a point of order uh the magistrate ruled 50 uh 75 cents an hour and I think that's going from 35 to 75 so that was up 40 cents increase and what Dr holus is suggesting was 15 so the total price tag for that's close to $350,000 uh to go up so just to be clear the the cost of moving from 35 to 50 is moving up 15 cents an hour correct uh and the cost is roughly $350,000 and I understand superintendent doesn't want to add any more to fund balance and U I think that that set sets up people's uh vote okay I would just say that I think that this is a great idea but to do for the 2425 budget any other questions everybody know what we're voting on M Hixon Madam chair is there is there a sec on the motion oh actually no there's no second it died good good catch I just wanted to make a point all of this coming out of a budget we've already spent so 20 nothing can come out of the 2324 budget because we're in the 2425 school year budget cycle so there's no money left over from 20 23 24 and when we did the 2.26 it was out of art money which is sitting there so that's so we just have to be cognizant of that moving forward because it's going to all come out of f balance the fund balance that we have right now that we're trying to get to by policy because we pass to 5% and we're going in the wrong direction yeah um thanks for the claric miix um I share the same concern um there is $6.1 million set aside in art for from 23- 24 for 2.2 for6 uh originally for 2.26 2.26 uh uh onetime bonus anything moving forward as far as um money that we're spending on compensation will have to come from fund balance so I have a concern about anything beyond what we've already approved for the $838,000 so I just want to be very very very clear um as the team uh and I are working to increase fund balance to that 5% goal and also working to ensure we have enough money to compensate all of our employees accordingly um as we negotiate during 2425 and Beyond okay so since um we need a motion on the floor since my motion failed I'd like to make a motion go ahead um I'd like to make a motion since I was on the prevailing side to bring back the previous motion oh thanks second brilant second moved by Leonardi second by Hixon board member comment on the motion to reject night shift differential number two and clerical Calendars number five any comments Miss fam I have a question Madam chair yes okay thank you um is this is this fund going to cover all the different categories are we selecting only a certain few to make payment to Dr hurn if you can repeat the question for me Miss fam just make sure I heard it sure is this for all the F employees is this covering the maintenance workers the the clerical workers the Food Service workers or are only certain um categories going to receive payment okay understood uh Mr AO is this covering this this uh motion about night shift or we still on that motion yes okay about night night shift is it covering all FY workers or a specific group facilities clerical and security employees it's it's the facilities the clerical and security employees not Food Service great they don't work at night Ro yeah okay any other comments so the motion on the floor have the Food Services people been paid have we have budgeted any money for the Food Services people today are they receiving anything if we vote Yes they received a 2.5 32 cents hour and my final question is what do we have in our uh General funds after all this money comes out where do we stand financially we secure yes Miss fam um we should be the fund balance is about 4.4% prior to the $838,000 um um Mr Whitney if you correct me from wrong we're still slightly over 4% correct yes we will still be slightly over 4% M Hixon thank you Dr heern hold on Mrs fam um the that was based on what we've already passed so there are two things that we're still looking at so if we were to not reject it and come up with these other two items it would be about $2 million that would have to come out of general fund so if those $2 million also came out of general fund Dr heurn could you tell us where we sit in terms of being at that three yes that that will probably bring bring us under 4% which is getting dangerously close to fiscal um thank urgency okay the motion on the floor is to reject night shift differential to reject the increase the shift differential to 75 cents per an hour for facilities clerical and security employees also the motion on the floor is to reject to eliminate shorter calendars for clerical employees roll call roll call on the motion Leonardi yes rert yes Zan yep alad yes Austin no fam Mrs Fam I'm still nervous no fogan Oli the motion no no Hixon yes motion what was fol in here no he forgot Dr holess oh wholeness oh Hess okay passes 63 okay all right that's it there being no other business to come before this board I will entertain a motion to adjourn so move second moved by Z in second by Hixon is it been moved in second that this meeting be adjourned and all in favor please signify by saying I I we are journ any public comments on to oh my [Music] God e e